Canonical studies of the origins of state capacity have focused on macro-historical or
structural explanations. I review recent research in historical political economy that …

The effectiveness of foreign aid in stimulating economic development is a topic of intense
debate in the scientific community and among policy analysts. Numerous empirical studies …

Considering the mounting criticisms concerning Chinese aid practices, the present paper
investigates whether Chinese aid projects fuel local-level corruption in Africa. To this end …

We complement the literature on distributive politics by taking a systematic look at regional
favoritism in a large and diverse sample of countries and by employing a broad measure …

" 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 …

From one of the world's best-known development economists—an excoriating attack on the
tragic hubris of the West's efforts to improve the lot of the so-called develo** world." …

This article identifies and addresses key conceptual and measurement issues raised by
measures of state capacity in studies of civil conflict. First, it reviews competing definitions …

We study how natural resources can feed corruption and how this effect depends on the
quality of the democratic institutions. Our game-theoretic model predicts that resource rents …

The notion that foreign aid harms the institutions of recipient governments remains
prevalent. We combine new disaggregated aid data and various metrics of political …

Foreign aid provides a windfall of resources to recipient countries and may result in the
same rent seeking behavior as documented in the “curse of natural resources” literature. In …