Robust institutional change is difficult to achieve.  However, the growth paths of some countries are more likely to be affected by contemporaneous political turmoil than others.  This paper supports this claim using data on GDP growth during periods of extreme political turmoil for 69 countries between 1870 and 2000.  The authors argue that the robustness of a country’s growth path to political uncertainty depends on the degree to which individuals are invested in its current institutions. 

Dambisa Moyo’s new book, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, has received a great deal of attention in the last few months. Moyo’s book is a must-read for any person interested in the question of why some countries are rich while others remain stagnant or poor.

Achieving land tenure reform is by no means an easy or quick process. However, the benefits over the long term can lead to substantial gains for smallholder farmers’ competitiveness.

In his 2005 best-selling book Collapse, Jared Diamond argues that some societies “choose to fail or succeed.”  One of the cases he explores in his book is the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which he calls a modern day Malthusian crisis.  However, the arguments he employs to explain why Rwandan society was unable to peacefully and effectively manage rising population pressures overlook a host of political factors that limited the ability of people to respond to increased competition for land in pre-genocide Rwanda.

Peter Leeson analyzes the legal and economic issues of the current piracy threat that is plaguing international seas.

In this Country Brief, Enterprise Africa! lead researcher Karol Boudreaux and program associate Johan van der Walt focus on three domestic policy issues that they believe are important to expanding opportunities for South Africa’s poor: employment, education, and security. In addition, they also focus on three foreign policy issues that they believe are significant to leveraging South Africa’s unique position in international affairs: regional integration, good governance, and public and cultural diplomacy.

The rise and fall of the Antilles' offshore financial sector provides insight into the current struggle between onshore and offshore governments over the role of offshore financial centers like the Antilles within the global economy.  How offshore financial centers react, and whether they have learned the lessons of the Antilles' experience will play a major role in determining the future of the global offshore financial sector.

The fundamental idea of this paper is that government is not and cannot be the source of successful clustering. While clustering is valuable to the economy, governments do not have access to the knowledge that would enable them to promote the successful development of clusters. We view this epistemic problem bureaucrats face as insurmountable; if anything, it puts a clear limit on the capacity of government to create clusters.