Institutions as the Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth.pdf

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1、InstitutionsastheFundamentalCauseofLong-RunGrowth∗DaronAcemogluDepartmentofEconomics,MITSimonJohnsonSloanSchoolofManagement,MITJamesRobinsonDepartmentsofPoliticalScienceandEconomics,BerkeleyApril29,2004∗PreparedfortheHandbookofEconomicGrowtheditedbyPhilippeAghionandSteveDurlauf.Wethanktheeditor

2、sfortheirpatienceandLeopoldoFergusson,PabloQuerub´ınandBarryWeingastfortheirhelpfulsuggestions.1AbstractThispaperdevelopstheempiricalandtheoreticalcasethatdifferencesineconomicinstitutionsarethefundamentalcauseofdifferencesineconomicdevelopment.Wefirstdocumenttheempiricalimportanceofinstitutionsby

3、focusingontwo“quasi-naturalex-periments”inhistory,thedivisionofKoreaintotwopartswithverydifferenteconomicinstitutionsandthecolonizationofmuchoftheworldbyEuropeanpowersstartinginthefifteenthcentury.Wethendevelopthebasicoutlineofaframeworkforthinkingaboutwhyeconomicinstitutionsdifferacrosscountries.

4、Economicinstitutionsdeterminetheincentivesofandtheconstraintsoneconomicactors,andshapeeconomicoutcomes.Assuch,theyaresocialdecisions,chosenfortheirconsequences.Becausedifferentgroupsandindividualstypicallybenefitfromdifferenteconomicinstitutions,thereisgenerallyaconflictoverthesesocialchoices,ultim

5、atelyresolvedinfavorofgroupswithgreaterpoliticalpower.Thedistributionofpoliticalpowerinsocietyisinturndeterminedbypoliticalinstitutionsandthedistributionofresources.Politicalinstitutionsallocatedejurepoliticalpower,whilegroupswithgreatereconomicmighttypicallypossessgreaterdefactopoliticalpower.

6、Wethereforeviewtheappropriatetheoreticalframeworkasadynamiconewithpoliticalinstitutionsandthedistributionofresourcesasthestatevariables.Thesevariablesthemselveschangeovertimebecauseprevailingeconomicin-stitutionsaffectthedistributionofresources,andbecausegroupswithdefactopoliticalpowertodaystriv

7、etochangepoliticalinstitutionsinordertoincreasetheirdejurepo-liticalpowerinthefuture.Economicinstitutionsencouragingeconomicgrowthemergewhenpoliticalinstitutionsallocatepowertogroupswithinterestsinbroad-basedprop-ertyrightsenforce