State capacity has become one of the most discussed concepts in development economics
and political economy. In this survey we argue that the study of economic history provides …

With the enormous expansion of scholarship on this subject,“rule of law” has come to mean
different things—ranging from security and order to the operations of courts and the …

All societies must deal with the possibility of violence, and they do so in different ways. This
book integrates the problem of violence into a larger social science and historical …

This paper develops the empirical and theoretical case that differences in economic
institutions are the fundamental cause of differences in economic development. We first …

This book develops a framework for analyzing the creation and consolidation of democracy.
Different social groups prefer different political institutions because of the way they allocate …

From the Industrial Revolution to the age of artificial intelligence, The Technology Trap takes
a swee** look at the history of technological progress and how it has radically shifted the …

Abstract The rise of Western Europe after 1500 is due largely to growth in countries with
access to the Atlantic Ocean and with substantial trade with the New World, Africa, and Asia …

" Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest
barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being …

A large body of scholarship finds a negative relationship between natural resources and
democracy. Extant cross-country regressions, however, assume random effects and are run …

Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-
Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to …