This paper takes an institutional approach to explaining differences in the levels of entrepreneurship and economic growth across U.S. states. The institutional approach to growth argues that political and economic institutions influence the productivity of resource use. We hypothesize that institutions influence economic growth primarily through their effect on entrepreneurship and discovery. ...

Two key measures of U.S. economic growth—the annual rate of change in real output and in productivity—have improved considerably in recent years.1 Between 1996 and 1998, growth in productivity in the largest segment of the economy, the private nonfarm business sector, averaged nearly 2 percent. This growth rate, the strongest sustained pace since 1983-85, appears to signal some fundamental impr...

This paper surveys (1)the reasons for economic reform in China to be introduced in 1978, (2)the major components of economic reform, (3) the characteristics of the reform process, (4) why reform was successful, (5) the shortcomings of China’s economic institutions, (6) the factors contributing to rapid economic growth, and (7) the future prospects of further reform and growth, with important co...

Over the last few decades several countries have looked towards tourism as a means of promoting development and economic growth. Tourism has grown to become the world’s second largest industry, directly accounting for 3.8 percent of global GDP in 2005 according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). Experiences from various countries have shown that tourism can have significant effects...

Article history: Using objective measures Received 4 January 2008 Received in revised form 3 December 2008 Accepted 8 December 2008 Available online 14 December 2008

INTRODUCTION Despite a multitude of opinions and debates on exactly how to achieve this, many, including my colleagues at the Harvard Kennedy School, share an idealism that government can be improved to not only promote economic growth, but to also help ensure that the poor and disadvantaged can participate in increased prosperity. This idea has always motivated my research and teaching, as I u...

It has been shown, for non-Communist developed and developing countries, that earlier development of agriculture, a dense population, and a state-level polity is associated with a higher income and more rapid economic growth in the late 20 Century. We investigate whether this was also the case for countries under Communism and for the same countries in transition to a market economy. Our findin...

Regulating emerging industries is challenging, even controversial at times. Under-regulation can result in safety threats to plant personnel, surrounding communities, and the environment. Over-regulation may hinder innovation, progress, and economic growth. Since one typically has limited understanding of, and experience with, the novel technology in practice, it is difficult to accomplish a pr...

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The question of where rural capital markets are headed is a timely one for several reasons. First, rural capital markets are in the process of integrating into a broad-based national capital market. Second, these rural markets seem likely to continue harboring unfilled gaps, compared to national capital markets. Third, structural changes in the markets can have both positive and negative impact...