"Good institutions" are tautological or unsupported
blog.karthiktadepalli.com · 1,483 words · saved by 1 readers
The Nobel-winning theory has no value for development policy
2001 saw the publication of The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson. AJR showed that measures of “institutions” (rules and norms governing economic activity) across countries caused those countries to have different long-run development outcomes. In fact, their estimated effects of institutions negate every other factor: after controlling for institutions, there is no income gap between Africa and the rest of the world, or between tropical and temperate countries. If you took their results at face value, AJR had solved development –…
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