• Iberoamérica
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.241-265
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• 2010

The main purpose of this study is to reveal the historical origins of Latin American economic underdevelopment, by answering two research questions; 1)'Why is Latin America underdeveloped?' and 2)'How has colonial experience impacted on the economic growth in Latin America?' First, this essay analyzes long-term tendency of growth domestic product(GDP) per capita data. The data verify that current underdevelopment of Latin American economy is the result of economic stagnation during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Latin America suffered political and economic instability before and after the independence from Spain and Portugal. It elucidates that colonial experience affected on the economic growth in Latin America. Second, this essay reviews key independent variables of the relationship between colonial experience and economic growth in Latin America. To do so, the study categorizes extant literature into two groups according to the type of its independent variables: 1)internal factor and 2)external factor. Finally, the essay surveys the role of institutions in Latin American economic growth and development. The survey confirms that the importance of institutions in the study of Latin American economic history. In addition, the essay suggests some tasks for further research in Latin American economic history; 1)the construction of basic economic data, 2)the substantialization of the role and characteristics of institutions, and 3)the expansion of research on institutions which overcomes ideological rigidity of existing institutional approach.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2013

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to identify and assess the contribution of budgetary, monetary and institutional shocks affecting the Tunisian economy over the period 1976-2003. The methodology used is vector autoregressive models and structural recent techniques for the analysis of time series related. The empirical results show a significant relationship between the supply shock and institutions on the one hand, and between institutional shocks and economic activity on the other hand. Research Design, Data and Methodology: As part of this section we will try to identify and assess the contribution of various shocks to macroeconomic variables' fluctuations for the Tunisian economy. The study period is: 1976-2003 and observations are annual. Results: The real business cycle theory argues that fluctuations in aggregate economic activity are the result of the interaction of the only real factors namely agents' preferences, technological opportunities, factor endowments and possibly certain institutional constraints. Conclusions: The lowest contribution to the variability of these rights is the monetary shock. As for "civil liberties", the largest share of their variability is the shock relating to the "political rights" during the first four periods .

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.454-476
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• 2010

In this paper is two-step trade model introduced. It is assumed that countries have 3 basic factors- capital(K), land (Z)and population(N)-as national factor endowments. As the first step, education 'produces' 'educated labor(EL)' which embodies new knowledge or new technology by using the population and capital as inputs. As the second step, manufacturing goods is produced with EL and uneducated labor(UL), and agriculture goods with land and UL. According to this model, the higher the increase rate of capital in a country is, the lower the usage rate of land is, the lower the increase rate of discount is, the country tends to export the manufacturing goods and import the agriculture goods. Trade widens the discrepancy of increase rate of EL in both countries but reduces the gap of increase rate of relative wage of EL as far as the gap of usage rate is not so big. Trade also affect real income rather than nominal income. This model can be extended to explain the migration from rural areas to urban areas when the manufacturing sector and education organization exist in urban area while the agricultural sector exist in rural area.