Abstract:The latitude gradient in comparative development is a striking fact: as one moves away from the equator, economic activity rises. While this regularity is well known, it is not well understood. In the present paper we take a step towards unpacking this gradient. Perhaps the strongest correlate with (absolute) latitude is the intensity of ultraviolet radiation (UV-R), which epidemiological research has shown to be a cause of a wide range of diseases. We establish that UV-R is strongly and negatively correlated with economic activity, both across and within countries. We propose, and test, a mechanism that links UV-R to current income differences via the impact of disease ecology on the timing of the take-off to sustained growth.
The notion that foreign aid and foreign direct investment (FDI) are complementary sources of capital is conventional among governments and international cooperation agencies. This paper argues that the notion is incomplete. Within the framework of an open economy Solow model we show that the theoretical relationship between foreign aid and FDI is indeterminate. Aid may raise the marginal productivity of capital by …nancing complementary inputs, such as public infrastructure projects and human capital investment. However, aid may also crowd out productive private investments if it comes in the shape of physical capital transfers. We therefore turn to an empirical analysis of the relationship between FDI and disaggregated aid ‡ows. Our results strongly support the hypotheses that aid invested in complementary inputs draws in foreign capital while aid invested in physical capital crowds out FDI. The combined e¤ect of these two types of aid is small but on average positive.
The Internet is often claimed to be a powerful anti-corruption technology. In theory, the Internet raises information levels and thus detection risks. Further, by enabling e-government, it obviates bureaucrats' intermediary role in the provision of public services and increases transparency. To examine the Internet/corruption nexus empirically, we develop a novel identification strategy for Internet diffusion. Power disruptions damage digital equipment, which increases the user cost of IT capital and thus lowers the speed of Internet diffusion. A natural phenomenon causing power disruptions is lightning activity, which makes lightning a viable instrument for Internet diffusion. Using global satellite data and data from ground-based lightning detection censors, we construct lightning density data for a large cross section of countries and for the contiguous U.S. states. Empirically, lightning density is a strong instrument for Internet diffusion. Our IV estimates show that Internet diffusion has reduced the extent of corruption across countries and across U.S. states.
Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. We account for the competition for export markets among the donor countries of foreign aid by analyzing spatial dependence in aid allocation. We employ sector-specific aid data, distinguishing between first and second stage decisions on the selection of recipient countries and the amount of aid allocated to selected recipients. We find that the five largest donors react to aid giving by other donors with whom they compete in terms of exporting goods and services to a specific recipient country at both stages of their allocation of aid for economic infrastructure and productive sectors. By contrast, evidence for export competition driving aid allocation is lacking for more altruistic donors and for aid in social infrastructure. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor mayKeywords: Aid allocation, sector-specific aid, export competition, spatial dependence. Development Assistance Committee (DAC) by introducing spatial lags that link donor countries according to the extent to which a potential aid recipient country is of similar importance to them as a market for their exports. In other words, the more two donors export to a similar set of recipient countries, the more they compete in their exports with each other and, as a consequence, the more their aid allocation is supposed to spatially depend on each other. Importantly, we assess aid allocation by employing sector-specific aid data, as the impact of export competition is expected to matter more for aid projects in economic infrastructure and production sectors than for aid projects in social infrastructure such as education and health. JEL classification: F35In our estimations, we distinguish between donors' decisions on (i) the selection of recipient countries, and (ii) conditional on being selected, on how much aid to allocate to each recipient. Disaggregating between groups of donors and types of aid, we find export driven spatial dependence among the five largest DAC donors at both stages of their allocation of aid for economic infrastructure and production sectors. This stands in contrast to aid for social infrastructure for which there is no such evidence. The group of like-minded and more altruistic donors does not compete in their aid allocation; rather, they seem to specialize in the amount of aid allocated to social infrastructure.The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents reasons for competition among donors based on their interests in the exports market and the type of aid ...
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