Essays on Development and Political Economics: Institutions and Economic Growth

This book is my MPhil dissertation, which investigates the inter-relationships between institutions and development outcomes, specifically economic growth, economic reforms, FDI and technical efficiency. The fundamental question we are interested in is identifying the development outcomes and channels on which institutional quality directly impacts.
We use Rodrik's (2005)'s taxonomy, to unbundle institutions into economic and political institutions, as well as macroeconomic policies. This largely follows the theoretical basis of earlier literature, arguing that these three aspects are endogenously determined. We then disentangle their individual effects on different development outcomes. Also, as an institution is probably not as persistent as one may have perceived, we explore the dynamic effect of institutions. Causality relationships between institutions and macroeconomic policies and reforms are also examined. Last but not least, other than domestic institutional quality, we also consider the impact of external institutions on development outcomes.
We carry out four studies in Chapters 2 to 5 aiming to provide empirical evidence for these interrelated themes. In the following, we will summarize the major findings in these Chapters and discuss briefly their policy implications. We will also highlight the limitations of our work and suggest some possible extensions for further research.