The state and its institutions are crucial for economic development: for better and for worse. This insight informs this important, up-to-date and authoritative survey of new trends in growth economics and the widely divergent economic performance of developing countries - for example, between Latin America and South-east Asia - which seemed to be similarly placed just a generation ago. The decisive role of the political dimension in economic growth seems clear but there are many challenges to be met in getting an analytical handle on the precise determinants and in testing empirically for this. This is the challenge taken up by the international team of contributors.

Autorentext

SILVIO BORNER University of Basel, Switzerland.

MARTIN PALDAM University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Zusammenfassung
This insight informs this important, up-to-date and authoritative survey of new trends in growth economics and the widely divergent economic performance of developing countries - for example, between Latin America and South-east Asia - which seemed to be similarly placed just a generation ago.

Inhalt
The International Economic Association - Acknowledgements - List of Contributors and Participants - Abbreviations and Acronyms - Preface - Introduction; S.Borner - PART 1: THE STATE AND DEVELOPMENT - Institutions as Investments; R.H.Bates - Some Lessons on the Efficiency of Democracy from a Study of Dictatorship; R.Wintrobe - The Economics of Autocracy and Majority Rule: the Invisible Hand and the Use of Force; M.Olson & M.McGuire - Causes of Change in Political-Economic Regimes; P.Bernholz - PART 2: VOLATILITY, UNCERTAINTY, INSTITUTIONAL INSTABILITY AND GROWTH - Macroeconomic Volatility and Economic Development; M.Gavin & R.Hausmann - Political Variables in Growth Regressions; A.Brunetti - Political Stability and Economic Stagnation; P.Keefer & S.Knack - Political Uncertainty, the Formation of New Activities and Growth; J.Aizenman - Does Economic Growth Lead to Political Stability?; M.Paldam - PART 3: RENT SEEKING AND CORRUPTION - Corruption and Rent Seeking; J.M.Mbaku - Corruption and Countervailing Action in Pakistan; M.S.Alam - PART 4: CASE STUDIES: POLICIES, COUNTRIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS - Disinflation and Overvaluation; R.Dornbusch - Government Policy, Saving and Growth in Latin America; V.Corbo - Growth and Political Violence in Northern Ireland, 1920-96; V.Borooah - Donor Conditionality and Policy Reform; T.Killick - Institutional Analysis of Technical Cooperation; D.Kattermann - PART 5: CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM - Developing Democracy in Developing Countries; B.Frey - Ethnic Rent Seeking, Stability and Institutional Reform in Sub-Sahara Africa; M.S.Kimenyi - Healing Sick Institutions ; R.Klitgaard - PART 6: COMMENTS; B.Weder, G.P.Pfeffermann & G.Shepherd