TY - JOUR
T1 - Tropics, germs, and crops
T2 - How endowments influence economic development
AU - Easterly, William
AU - Levine, Ross
PY - 2003/1
Y1 - 2003/1
N2 - Does economic development depend on geographic endowments like temperate instead of tropical location, the ecological conditions shaping diseases, or an environment good for grains or certain cash crops? Or do these endowments of tropics, germs, and crops affect economic development only through institutions or policies? We test the endowment, institution, and policy views against each other using cross country evidence. We find evidence that tropics, germs, and crops affect development through institutions. We find no evidence that tropics, germs, and crops affect country incomes directly other than through institutions, nor do we find any effect of policies on development once we control for institutions.
AB - Does economic development depend on geographic endowments like temperate instead of tropical location, the ecological conditions shaping diseases, or an environment good for grains or certain cash crops? Or do these endowments of tropics, germs, and crops affect economic development only through institutions or policies? We test the endowment, institution, and policy views against each other using cross country evidence. We find evidence that tropics, germs, and crops affect development through institutions. We find no evidence that tropics, germs, and crops affect country incomes directly other than through institutions, nor do we find any effect of policies on development once we control for institutions.
KW - Economic development
KW - Georgaphy
KW - Institutions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037274117&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0037274117&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0304-3932(02)00200-3
DO - 10.1016/S0304-3932(02)00200-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0037274117
SN - 0304-3932
VL - 50
SP - 3
EP - 39
JO - Journal of Monetary Economics
JF - Journal of Monetary Economics
IS - 1
ER -