Other

Authoritarian regimes often direct the course of electoral politics in ways that allow them to concentrate and consolidate power. This observation applies well to Pakistan and its three military regimes: Ayub, Zia, and Musharraf. The political reforms enacted by General…

Political selection can be crucial to the quality of governance. Yet our general knowledge of the individual characteristics that determine who becomes a politician remains scant – primarily due to data limitations. Dal Bo and Finan (2018) emphasize how the…

This synthesis paper draws together the salient elements emerging from the RA4 case studies research, and from three thematic synthesis papers written by members of the RA4 Scientific Committee, Jean Marie Baland and Catherine Guirkinger, Dilip Mookherjee, and Christopher Woodruff….

Over the past three decades, state control of media in Muslim countries has eroded rapidly, through the rise of multinational television networks such as Al Jazeera, the spread of radio services such as BBC World Service and Voice of America,…

This paper provides micro evidence for one mechanism behind the dramatically different political responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, namely how an increase in the perceived risk of Covid-19 among individuals stemming from past exposure to similar health crises generates citizen demand for containment measures.

The EDI research programme has generated significant policy impacts, including changes to laws and national policies as a result of close engagement between researchers and government officials. This report by the Centre for Effective Global Action (CEGA) details the impact of our work throughout the globe.

An Institutional Diagnostic of Bangladesh: Introduction Chapter overview: Why an institutional diagnostic? Methodological approach to the Bangladesh institutional diagnostic and the organisation of this volume A brief overview of Bangladesh’s political history The difficult installation of democracy The era of…

Bangladesh Institutional Diagnostic Chapter 11: The Synthesis Chapter overview: Introduction Identifying institutional constraints in Bangladesh’s development A sketch of Bangladesh’s political history Successes and challenges of Bangladesh’s economic development Bangladesh’s institutional performance in global rankings Bangladesh’s institutional performance based on…

The vital importance of institutions for economic development is widely acknowledged in both the theoretical and empirical literature. Yet the precise nature of the relationship between the two is unclear: do ‘good’ institutions produce development, or does development lead to…

Bangladesh Institutional Diagnostic Chapter 3: A cross-country comparative analysis of institutional indicators: Where does Bangladesh stand? Chapter Overview List of tables and figures Introduction Constructing synthetic institutional indices Bangladesh’s position in the global ranking of synthetic institutional indices How does…

Bangladesh Institutional Diagnostic Chapter 2: Bangladesh’s Development: Achievements and Challenges Chapter Overview: List of tables and figures Introduction Sources of growth and possible limitations of the present development regime  Aggregate growth Structural transformation Remittances and foreign direct investment Infrastructure Bangladesh…

Authors: François Bourguignon, Paris School of Economics, and Samuel Wangwe, Economic and Social Research Foundation

Countries where courts are weak, and rights are poorly enforced, tend to be countries with worse economic outcomes (Pande and Udry, 2006; Rodrik, 2000, 2005). To better understand the relationship between the functioning of judicial systems and economic growth, Dal…

Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on aspirations in economics, with a particular focus on socially determined aspirations. The core theory builds on two fundamental principles: (a) aspirations can serve to inspire, but still higher aspirations can lead to frustration…

The design of development policies requires a precise understanding of the informal institutions regulating economic activities. A key – yet understudied – institution in many low- and middle-income countries is the clan. Catherine Guirkinger (University of Namur) discusses the economic…

Tanzania Institutional Diagnostic Chapter 5: Decentralization and development Chapter outline Introduction The theory of central–local government relationships The evolution of local government in Tanzania Local and central governance in Tanzania today: a complex and confusing legal framework Fiscal decentralisation: the…

François Bourguignon and Sam Wangwe provide an introduction to the analysis produced for the Tanzania Institutional Diagnostic. The authors outline three approaches have been developed to identify the institutional factors hindering development or ways of remedying specific factors: historical case studies;…

A presentation by Ernesto Dal Bó and Federico Finan, University of California, Berkeley This presentation was part of the convening event hosted by CEGA at the University of California, Berkeley, in August 2018. Read a summary of the event.  

A presentation by Gianmarco León (with Erika Deserrano and Philipp Kastrau) This presentation was part of the convening event hosted by CEGA at the University of California, Berkeley, in August 2018. Read a summary of the event.

This video provides an overview of the first year of the programme, where 23 path-findings papers were produced by world class academics that identified the research gaps and set the priorities for the remaining four years of EDI.

Where does the evidence stand on institutions, development and growth? This paper explores the empirical evidence on institutions and growth. The empirical evidence on institutions ranges from historical studies to econometric analyses, with different studies making very different theoretical commitments…

Kaivan Munshi (University of Cambridge) explores how labour movements and development are linked, and provides insight into the role of policy around this area. Watch the video below for his overview:

Sam Bowles of the Santa Fe Institute explains how institutions are the rules of the game, that regulate how we interact with each other. “If we don’t understand how institutions work, we can’t possibly understand how economies change,” he says….