Political versus Economic Institutions in the Growth Process
Dr. Maty Konte, UNU-MERIT
After a decade of research on the relationship between institutions and growth, there is no consensus about the exact way in which these two variables interact. In this paper we re-examine the role that institutions play in the growth process using data for developed and developing economies over the period 1975-2005. Our results indicate that the data is best described by an econometric model with two growth regimes. Political institutions are the key determinant of which regime an economy belongs to, while economic institutions have a direct impact on growth rates within each regime. These findings support the hypothesis that political institutions are one of the deep causes of growth, setting the stage in which economic institutions and standard covariates operate.
About the speaker
Maty Konte is a research fellow at UNU-MERIT. She has obtained her PhD degree in economics from the Aix-Marseille School of Economics in France, where she has been awarded the prize of the best PhD in economics defended during the year 2012 in this university. Before joining UNU-MERIT she was a visiting scholar at UNU-WIDER (Helsinki, 2013) and a guest researcher at the department of economics of the university of Washington (Seattle, 2013). She has also occupied research and teaching assistant positions during the period 2009-2013. Maty Konte's research interest is applied economics/econometrics with a particular attention on issues related to growth, development and institutions. Her new research agenda covers inclusive and sustained development, social protection, innovation and gender equality. A sample of her work has been published in peer-reviewed international journals and presented in various international conferences.
Venue: Conference Room
Date: 16 January 2014
Time: 12:30 - 13:30 CEST
