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WHY DON'T POOR COUNTRIES CATCH UP? A CROSS‐NATIONAL TEST OF AN INSTITUTIONAL EXPLANATION
Author(s) -
KEEFER PHILIP,
KNACK STEPHEN
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.1997.tb02035.x
Subject(s) - expropriation , economics , language change , divergence (linguistics) , developing country , falling (accident) , quality (philosophy) , capital (architecture) , rule of law , development economics , international economics , market economy , economic growth , political science , law , politics , medicine , art , linguistics , philosophy , literature , environmental health , archaeology , epistemology , history
Early neoclassical analyses predicted that poor countries would grow faster than wealthy countries, because of technological advances and diminishing returns to capital in the latter. The reverse has occurred: poor countries are falling back rather than catching up. We suggest here that deficient institutions underlie this divergence. Employing various indicators of institutional quality, including the rule of law, the pervasiveness of corruption, and the risk of expropriation and contract repudiation, we show that the ability of poor countries to catch up is determined in large part by the institutional environment in which economic activity in these countries takes place. (JEL O00, O10)