The wealth of subnations: Geography, institutions, and within-country development

Todd Mitton

Journal of Development Economics, 2016, vol. 118, issue C, 88-111

Abstract: I study determinants of economic development in a new dataset covering 1867 subnational regions from 101 countries, focusing on within-country effects of geography and institutions. Several geographic factors have significant explanatory power for within-country differences in per-capita GDP, including terrain ruggedness, tropical climate, ocean access, temperature range, storm risk, and natural resources such as oil, diamonds, or iron. Institutions have a significant positive effect on income among subnational regions with greater autonomy, suggesting that strong subnational institutions enhance development when not dominated by national institutions.

Keywords: Geography; Institutions; Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:118:y:2016:i:c:p:88-111

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.09.002

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