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...

U.S. welfare reforms will add one to two million persons to the labor force from 19932005. Because this increase in labor supply is only about one percent of the U.S. labor force, it is unlikely that welfare reform will have sizable effects on overall U.S. wages or unemployment. However, a variety of economic models suggest that welfare reform will significantly reduce the real earnings of some...

This paper investigates how people subdivided in social groups behave in an economy without property rights. Facing a linear production technology groups follow Markovian strategies for consumption and investment. Additionally, they may spend effort in an appropriation contest. For a symmetric society I show that conflict prevents investment and growth. In a society at peace economic growth may...