Alumnus and affiliated researcher Dr. Richard Bluhm has won this year’s Prize for Excellence in Applied Development Research from the German Economic Association (VfS). He was awarded first prize in the Young Researcher category for his doctoral thesis on ‘Growth Dynamics and Development. Essays in Applied Econometrics and Political Economy’. “Understanding why some countries are poor and others are rich, and how this gap can be closed, remains the most fundamental problem in development e...
Within higher education, a popular way to cut costs and boost competitiveness is to merge institutions. Over the last few decades, Australia, China, Europe and the USA have all witnessed mergers of higher education institutions (HEIs), mainly to bring economies of scale. Yet the question remains: what is the best size to ensure the highest competitiveness and quality of output? Our new working paper, co-authored by Dr. Nyasha Tirivayi, attempts to answer these questions. Most universities and co...
Can strong institutions prevent abuse of power on the one hand or collapse into anarchy on the other? Can efficient bureaucracies help achieve long-term growth and development goals? Can governance indicators reliably measure — and help prevent — state corruption and conflict? These were among the questions of a one-day workshop hosted on 2 December 2013 by UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. Focusing on ‘Institutions, Governance and Development’, it was part of a long-running pr...
Several new working papers on the relationship between institutions and long-term economic performance are now available. They represent the second phase of a research programme on ‘Institutions and Economic Growth’, executed in a partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD). The first 10 papers were published in 2012. The present set builds on our previous results, extending them in new directions. The new papers focus on issues including state capacities; the links between geography, i...