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...

Pritha Mitra In India, the relationship between government investment and private investment is a controversial issue. Economic theory suggests that government investment, financed by borrowing, reduces the loanable funds available for private investment, driving up interest rates, and reducing the level of private investment. If, as Keynesians argue, the positive impact of increased government...

Ghana is to achieve the goal of becoming a middle income country by 2015. Despite its impressive progress in economic growth and poverty reduction, Ghana—like many other African countries—has had rather limited success in increasing smallholder agricultural production by enhancing productivity and competitiveness. Why? Like other countries, Ghana has to meet three challenges in selecting and im...

There are strong conceptual linkages between agricultural development and nutrition improvements which may be categorized into three main pathways: the development, own-production and market pathways. Evidence on the efficacy of these pathways is mixed with some strong, some negative and some weak impacts. These findings reflect both the importance of agriculture for nutrition and the condition...

Entrepreneurship is largely ignored or treated in a highly simplified way in endogenous growth theory. Still, it is now widely recognized that the supply of entrepreneurial talent is likely to be important for economic growth, innovation and job creation. This study consists of an indepth examination of how the supply of productive entrepreneurship is likely to be affected by the kind of tax an...

On September 27, 2012, the University of Toronto launched the Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development - an appropriate recognition of an extraordinary individual. Fraser was a keen student of the science of human development and, most particularly, of early child development (ECD). He was also a powerful and tireless advocate for translating science into action. His institute must do bot...

The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of marginal intra-industry trade on economic growth. The results indicate that economic growth is a dynamic process. The change of intra-industry has a positive impact on economic growth. This paper confirms relevant theoretical hypothesis as foreign direct investment and globalization promote the economic growth.

The Indices of Social Development combine over 200 variables from 25 sources, providing the most comprehensive database showing the variation of social institutions – understood as the informal norms and behaviors that pattern social interaction – across countries and over time. Based on these sources, progress on five areas, civic activism, clubs and associations, interpersonal safety and trus...

As the central role of innovation in driving economic growth has become more widely recognized, policymakers are becoming aware that they need information on innovative practice to help them design effective policies, and monitor their impact over time. It is generally agreed that the evidence has to be collected systematically and repeatedly, in order to better understand not only the trends o...