This paper addresses the issue of the endogenous choice and persistence of legislative malapportionment and analyzes its economic consequences. Legislative malapportionment denotes a wide discrepancy between the share of legislative seats and the share of population held by electoral districts. We first document that countries with higher lower chamber malapportionment have lower GDP per capita...

Scholars continue to grapple with the question of the relationship between economic development and democratization; prominent recent research has focused on the effects of economic inequality. Boix suggests that democratization is likelier when inequality is low, whereas Acemoglu and Robinson argue that democratization is likelier when inequality is at middling levels. Both assume that democra...

25 DIW Economic Bulletin 11.2014 Aside from current income, the parameter of net worth represents a key resource in the economic activity of households. In addition, net worth has a specific function going far beyond the sheer fact of earning (for example, in the form of interest and dividends). It contributes significantly to stabilizing consumption in periods of income loss, while tangible as...

Though there is wide agreement among political scientists that separation of political and socio-economic statuses is necessary for the functioning of democracy, wide disagreement exists over the extent to which political statuses in tlie United States differ from socio-economic ones. This article focuses on PACs (Political Action Committees) as a new means for status-fusion in the United State...

This paper is a case study of Brazilian industrialists' attitudes towards changes in labor relations during the transition to democracy. It is based on extensive interviews with 155 industrial elites in Brazil during 19871988. It explores why business elites can and will tolerate democracy, even when it does not always act in their specific interests. It focuses on four key variables in the tra...

Distribution of Natural Resources, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development: Growth Dynamics with Two Elites This paper develops a model in which the interaction of entrepreneurial investments and power of the owners of land or other natural resources determines structural change and economic development. A more equal distribution of natural resources promotes structural change and growth thr...

Assessments of undernutrition are typically based on comparisons between anthropometric indicators of children and a reference standard from the US. Due to a number of problems associated with this reference standard, WHO is currently engaged in generating a new international reference standard for child growth based on well-to-do populations in a sample of poor and rich countries. The focus on...

Indonesia seems perpetually condemned to “live in interesting times,” as the famous Chinese curse goes. The past decade has seen the country attract global notoriety as a land of recurrent economic shocks, ethnic confl icts, terrorist bombings, separatist rebellions, and natural catastrophes. Political authorities have appeared too corrupt and inept to respond effectively. Thus, when Susilo Bam...