57 research outputs found
How Bad is Corruption?:Cross-country Evidence of the Impact of Corruption on Economic Prosperity
Vietnamâs Accession to the WTO: Lessons from Past Trade Agreements
This paper examines Vietnamâs experience with bilateral trade agreements and compares subsequent outcomes with predictions from existing computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. Those model based assessments have greatly underestimated the impact of past agreements. Tariff reform is not the main factor driving economic adjustments, and market imperfections mean there is potential for greater output and trade expansion. The key questions to ask in future research are what critical new institutional reforms WTO accession will bring, and what incentives will be put in place to determine the evolution of investment by sector.trade liberalization; bilateral trade agreements; WTO accession; Vietnam
Religious Orders and Growth through Cultural Change in Pre-Industrial England
We advance the hypothesis that cultural values such as high work ethic and thrift, âthe Protestant ethicâ according to Max Weber, may have been diffused long before the Reformation, thereby importantly affecting the pre-industrial growth record. The source of pre-Reformation Protestant ethic, according to the proposed theory, was the Catholic Order of Cistercians. Using county-level data for England we find empirically that the frequency of Cistercian monasteries influenced county-level comparative development until 1801; that is, long after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The pre-industrial development of England may thus have been propelled by a process of growth through cultural change.Protestant ethic; Malthusian population dynamics; economic development
On the Impact of Digital Technologies on Corruption: Evidence from U.S. States and Across Countries
We hypothesize that the spread of the Internet has reduced corruption, chiefly through two mechanisms. First, the Internet facilitates the dissemination of information about corrupt behavior, which raises the detection risks to shady bureaucrats and politicians. Second, the Internet has reduced the interface between bureaucrats and the public. Using cross-country data and data for the U.S. states, we test this hypothesis. Data spans the period during which the Internet has been in operation. In order to address the potential endogeneity problem, we develop a novel identification strategy for Internet diffusion. Digital equipment is highly sensitive to power disruption: it leads to equipment failure and damage. Even very short disruptions (less than 1/60th of a second) can have such consequences. Accordingly, more frequent power failures will increase the user cost of IT capital; either directly, through depreciation, or indirectly, through the costs of protective devises. Ceteris paribus, we expect that higher IT user costs will lower the speed of Internet diffusion. A natural phenomenon which causes a major part of annual power disruptions globally is lightning activity. Lightning therefore provides exogenous variation in the user cost of IT capital. Based on global satellite data from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), we construct lightning density data for a large cross section of countries and for the U.S. states. We demonstrate that the lightning density variable is a strong instrument for changes in Internet penetration; and we proceed to show that the spread of the Internet has reduced the extent of corruption across the globe and across the U.S. The size of the impact is economically and statistically significant.public corruption; internet; information
Pre-reformation roots of the protestant ethic
We hypothesize that cultural appreciation of hard work and thrift, the Protestant ethic according
to Max Weber, had a pre-Reformation origin. The proximate source of these values was, according to
the proposed theory, the Catholic Order of Cistercians. In support, we ďŹrst document an impact from
the Order on growth within the epicenter of the industrial revolution; English counties that were more
exposed to Cistercian monasteries experienced faster productivity growth from the 13th century onwards.
Consistent with a cultural inďŹuence, this impact is also found after the monasteries were dissolved in the
1530s. Second, we ďŹnd that the values emphasized by Weber are relatively more pervasive in European
regions where Cistercian monasteries were located historically, and that the legacy of the Cistercians can
be detected in present-day employment rates across European sub-regions
Lightning, IT Diffusion and Economic Growth across US States
Empirically, a higher frequency of lightning strikes is associated with slower growth in labor productivity across the 48 contiguous US states after 1990; before 1990 there is no correlation between growth and lightning. Other climate variables (e.g., temperature, rainfall and tornadoes) do not conform to this pattern. A viable explanation is that lightning influences IT diffusion. By causing voltage spikes and dips, a higher frequency of ground strikes leads to damaged digital equipment and thus higher IT user costs. Accordingly, the flash density (strikes per square km per year) should adversely affect the speed of IT diffusion. We find that lightning indeed seems to have slowed IT diffusion, conditional on standard controls. Hence, an increasing macroeconomic sensitivity to lightning may be due to the increasing importance of digital technologies for the growth process.climate; IT diffusion; economic growth
Weber may have been wrong in tracing the hard work ethic to Protestantism
Social scientists have always been concerned about the role of religion for society. In the early twentieth century, there were concerns about the compatibility of Catholicism and liberal democracy; in the post-Cold War period, there were concerns that international relations might be marked by a âClash of Civilizationsâ; and today there are concerns about the compatibility of Islam and âWestern cultureâ. For economists, however, it is the relationship between religion and economic performance that is of prime concern
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