IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v47y2011i7p937-958.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Colonisation, Institutions and Development: New Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Antonio Alonso

Abstract

This article analyses current attempts to identify the factors underlying long-term economic growth. The author criticises some of the arguments and historical evidence on which the two main explanations that dominate recent literature are based: the institutional approach and the approach focusing on the importance of geographical factors. Using an approach which is deliberately eclectic, the author considers the role of geography, international trade, human capital and institutional quality in explaining development. A new estimation is carried out through Two Stages Least Squares (TSLS) with instrumental variables. The results of the empirical model confirm the central role of institutions in long-term economic growth. However, certain geographical conditions also seem to have influenced countries' chances of progress. The human capital is a less robust factor in explaining economic growth and trade openness does not seem significant in any estimation. Nevertheless, several questions remain to be answered, suggesting that cross-country estimations need to be complemented with a deeper historical analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Antonio Alonso, 2011. "Colonisation, Institutions and Development: New Evidence," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 937-958.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:47:y:2011:i:7:p:937-958
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2010.527948
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220388.2010.527948
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220388.2010.527948?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglass C. North, 2005. "Introduction to Understanding the Process of Economic Change," Introductory Chapters, in: Understanding the Process of Economic Change, Princeton University Press.
    2. Greif,Avner, 2006. "Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671347.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Du, Brian & Serrano, Alejandro & Vianna, Andre, 2018. "Institutional development and foreign banks in Chile," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 166-178.
    2. Mukherjee Deepraj & Dutta Nabamita, 2013. "Do Political Institutions and Culture Jointly Matter for Financial Development? A Cross-Country Panel Investigation," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 203-232, June.
    3. William Y. N. Suzuki & Marcio P. Laurini & Luciano Nakabashi, 2022. "Spatial heterogeneities, institutions, and income: Evidence for Brazil," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(3), pages 537-571, June.
    4. Vianna, Andre C. & Mollick, Andre V., 2018. "Institutions: Key variable for economic development in Latin America," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 42-58.
    5. Christopher Cunningham & Sel Dibooglu, 2020. "Engines of Growth in China: The Limits of Informal Institutions," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(1), pages 252-275, January.
    6. Redmond, Trumel & Nasir, Muhammad Ali, 2020. "Role of natural resource abundance, international trade and financial development in the economic development of selected countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Masahiko Aoki, 2013. "Institutions as cognitive media between strategic interactions and individual beliefs," Chapters, in: Comparative Institutional Analysis, chapter 17, pages 298-312, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Maseland, Robbert, 2021. "Contingent determinants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    3. Gennady Bilych, 2013. "Democratic Changes and Economic Growth," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(1), pages 461-486, June.
    4. Torsten Heinrich & Henning Schwardt, 2013. "Institutional Inertia and Institutional Change in an Expanding Normal-Form Game," Games, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-28, August.
    5. Lattanzio, Gabriele, 2022. "Beyond religion and culture: The economic consequences of the institutionalization of sharia law," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    6. Alvarez-Diaz, Marcos & Caballero Miguez, Gonzalo, 2008. "The quality of institutions: A genetic programming approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 161-169, January.
    7. Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2008. "Religion, politics, and development: Lessons from the lands of Islam," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-351, November.
    8. Fabien Eloire & Claire Lemercier & Veronica Aoki Santarosa, 2016. "What can we learn about the embeddedness of commercial relationships from the study of powers of attorney?," Working Papers hal-01358364, HAL.
    9. Carl Mildenberger, 2013. "The constitutional political economy of virtual worlds," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 239-264, September.
    10. Frolov, Daniil, 2019. "The manifesto of post-institutionalism: institutional complexity research agenda," MPRA Paper 97662, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Ciarli, Tommaso & Savona, Maria, 2019. "Modelling the Evolution of Economic Structure and Climate Change: A Review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 51-64.
    12. Ansellia Adams & John M. Luiz, 2022. "Incomplete Institutional Change and the Persistence of Racial Inequality: The Contestation of Institutional Misalignment in South Africa," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(4), pages 857-885, June.
    13. Fabien Eloire & Claire Lemercier & Veronica Aoki Santarosa, 2016. "What can we learn about the embeddedness of commercial relationships from the study of powers of attorney?," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01358364, HAL.
    14. Kingston, Christopher, 2008. "Social structure and cultures of corruption," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 90-102, July.
    15. Vyacheslav V. VOLCHIK & Maxim A. KORYTSEV & Elena V. MASLYUKOVA, 2018. "Institutional traps and New Public Management in education and science," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 9(6), pages 17-29, December.
    16. Bluhm, Richard & Szirmai, Adam, 2012. "Institutions and long-run growth performance: An analytic literature review of the institutional determinants of economic growth," MERIT Working Papers 2012-033, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. Lochner Marais & Verna Nel & Kholisa Rani & Deidré van Rooyen & Kentse Sesele & Phia van der Watt & Lyndon du Plessis, 2021. "Economic Transitions in South Africa’s Secondary Cities: Governing Mine Closures," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 381-392.
    18. Willemien Kets & Alvaro Sandroni, 2021. "A Theory of Strategic Uncertainty and Cultural Diversity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(1), pages 287-333.
    19. Bat Batjargal, 2013. "Institutional Polycentrism, Entrepreneurs??? Social Networks, And New Venture Growth," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp1060, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    20. Brousseau, Eric & Raynaud, Emmanuel, 2011. "“Climbing the hierarchical ladders of rules”: A life-cycle theory of institutional evolution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 65-79.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:47:y:2011:i:7:p:937-958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.