In Search of the Holy Grail: Policy Convergence, Experimentation, and Economic Performance

Mukand, Sharun W.; Rodrik, Dani

doi:10.1257/0002828053828707

Cited by 133 publications

(56 citation statements)

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“…Policy-induced constraints on the diffusion of technology are analyzed by Prescott (1994, 2002). Policy experimentation and imitation across neighbors are studied by Mukand and Rodrik (2005). Unlike these contributions, we consider more broadly the barriers to the diffusion of technological and institutional characteristics in the very long run.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Diffusion of Development

Spolaore¹,

Wacziarg²

2006

103

169

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Diffusion of Development

Spolaore¹,

Wacziarg²

2006

103

169

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“…More broadly, analysing the diffusion of a new religious denomination, such as Protestantism after its emergence in the sixteenth century, contributes to the varied literature about spatial patterns of adoption of social phenomena. Economists, political scientists and sociologists have explored these topics in the context of technology adoption (Foster and Rosenzweig, 1995; Conley and Udry, 2010) or, closer to the topic of this article, of the spread of certain types of policies (Besley and Case, 1995; Mukand and Rodrik, 2005; Dobbin et al. , 2007) or of democratic institutions (Huntington, 1991; Markoff, 1996).…”

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confidence: 99%

Adopting a New Religion: The Case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany

Cantoni

2012

The Economic Journal

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Using a rich dataset of territories and cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, this paper investigates the determinants of adoption and diffusion of Protestantism as a state religion. A territory's distance to Wittenberg, the city where Martin Luther taught, is a major determinant of adoption. This finding can be explained through a theory of strategic neighbourhood interactions: in an uncertain legal context, introducing the Reformation was a risky enterprise for territorial lords, and had higher prospects of success if powerful neighbouring states committed to the new faith first. The model is tested in a panel dataset featuring the dates of introduction of the Reformation.Version: 1.0.1

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“…However, many development economists have recently emphasized that it is unlikely that a simple set of policies can trigger development universally, and that appropriate policies differ across countries as they depend on cultural, historical and institutional circumstances (e.g., Lindauer and Pritchett, 2002;Mukand and Rodrik, 2005;Rodrik, 2006Rodrik, , 2007Rodrik, , 2010Rajan 2008). 2 In this paper I take the notion that appropriate policies differ across developing countries as a starting point, and I show that countries that would preform poorly anyway because of their poor economic and institutional pre-conditions tend to follow development paradigms more closely.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I present my argument using a simple two-period political economy model inspired by Mukand and Rodrik (2005), and Bhattacharyya and Hodler (2010). I follow the former in modeling country-specific optimal policies and corruption, and the latter in modeling political competition and institutions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development (paradigm) failures

Hodler

Dreher

2013

Journal of Development Economics

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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. This discussion paper series represents research work-in-progress and is distributed with the intention to foster discussion. The views herein solely represent those of the authors. No research paper in this series implies agreement by the Study Center Gerzensee and the Swiss National Bank, nor does it imply the policy views, nor potential policy of those institutions. Terms of use: Documents in Development (Paradigm) FailuresRoland Hodler * January 10, 2011 AbstractOver time the international development community has advocated various development paradigms, but countries following these paradigms have often performed poorly. I provide an explanation for this poor performance. In my model the political leader of a developing country chooses a policy and whether to implement it in an honest or corrupt manner. These choices affect domestic production and aid inflows. Production is high when productive capacity is high, and when the policy is appropriate in the country-specific circumstances and implemented honestly. Aid inflows are high when the policy is close to the paradigm. In equilibrium countries with low productive capacity and high corruption resulting from weak political institutions follow the paradigm more closely. Hence my model suggests that development paradigms have a tendency to fail because they are primarily followed by countries that would fail anyway.JEL codes: D70, O10, O40

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In Search of the Holy Grail: Policy Convergence, Experimentation, and Economic Performance

Cited by 133 publications

References 13 publications

The Diffusion of Development

The Diffusion of Development

Adopting a New Religion: The Case of Protestantism in 16th Century Germany

Development (paradigm) failures

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