institutions

In Colombia, municipalities subjected to the Spanish encomienda – a colonial system of forced indigenous labour – are wealthier and better governed today, in spite of the extractive institution imposed on them.

New evidence from colonial history is challenging the consensus that extractive institutions always harm long-run development, showing that outcomes depend on whether extraction left behind durable public infrastructure and state capacity.

Inclusive institutions are key to sustaining peace – shaping incentives, deterring violence, and preventing cycles of fragility.

Unlike Western Europe, Russia entrenched serfdom as an extractive institution rooted in frontier defence. To secure its southern border, the state granted land to servicemen who leveraged their strategic role to restrict peasant mobility—hardwiring c...

Authoritarian regimes cultivate misperceptions about the quality of democratic institutions and the value of democracy. How did an intervention, providing accurate information to voters in Türkiye, address these misperceptions and affect demand for d...

National air and water quality benefit from strong financial, judicial, and labour market institutions, through comparative advantage. Improving national institutions attracts clean industries but reshuffles dirty production to other countries.

A growing body of research uses experimental methods to study institutional quality and change, offering important policy implications.

Local elections in Nigeria may improve representation at the local level, contributing to a more peaceful resolution of contests for resources

It is only democracies that perform well on the dimensions that the public cares about – economic growth, control of corruption, peace and political stability and public good provision – that build support for democratic institutions