This paper empirically examines the effect of institutional quality on trade considering the gravity equation model. Taking data for 252 countries covering the period of 19 years from 1996 to 2014, the research has been done with two stage regression analysis. In the first stage, we estimate the effect of gravity factors that either benefit or hinder trade along with OECD membership and Linder’s effect by Poisson-Pseudo-Maximum-Likelihood (PPML) estimator with importer- time, and exporter- time fixed effects. Taking the estimated exporter- time fixed effects from the first stage, we regress it with institutional variables in the second stage by OLS method with country and time fixed effects. Results indicate that institutional quality has a significant and positive impact on bilateral export with mostly 1% and 5% significance level. Interestingly, our study also shows that Linder’s effect is negative only for trade among the OCED countries.

College rankings such as US News & World Report (USNWR) are used as benchmarks for measuring quality in higher education (McManus-Howard, 2002). These ranking systems utilize traditional measures of academic excellence such as academic reputation, student selectivity, and financial resources, to assess institutional quality in higher education, which appear to disadvantage institutions with specialized missions such as historically Black colleges and universities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe indicators of the institutional quality of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as identified by administrators at four different HBCUs. Data were collected from 12 in-depth interviews with administrators at two HBCUs in Tier I and two in Tier II of the 2010 USNWR HBCU rankings. Data were analyzed using an on-going inductive approach to identify patterns across interviews and by tier. Overall, it was found that the participants in this study were largely accepting of the six USNWR indicators for assessing the quality of HBCUs. This finding was unanticipated given that the existing literature strongly suggests a misalignment between the USNWR indicators and the traditional mission of HBCUs. Only one administrator rejected every indicator, choosing to substitute a different set of indicators. Participants sought to modify several of the indicators to make them more consistent with the fundamental characteristics of HBCUs. They also offered additional criteria they felt described the unique qualities of HBCUs, and were currently absent from USNWR. When comparing the responses of administrators in Tier I and Tier II, there were no clear differences in their support for the USNWR indicators. However, administrators in Tier II offered more modifications and additions than administrators in Tier I, suggesting that Tier II administrators were less satisfied with the indicators as they are currently defined, than administrators in Tier I. At the very least, the aforementioned findings tend to raise questions about the ways in which the administrators in this study think about HBCU institutional quality. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed at the end of the study.

Contrary to conventional theory, a growing body of evidence suggests that economies with abundant natural resources perform badly in terms of economic growth relative to their resource poor counterparts—the so-called resource curse hypothesis. However, this general hypothesis is not robust. It clearly fails to account for the differing experiences of resource abundant economies. For instance, the theory, applied generally, offers no explanation as to why economies like Botswana and Norway have exceptional growth while Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have stagnated. Prompted by these experiences, the thesis investigates the circumstances under which the curse is more or less likely to exist. In particular, the thesis finds evidence that the major reason for the diverging experiences is the differences in the quality of institutions across countries. The thesis tests the hypothesis that the effect of resources on growth is conditional on the type and quality of institutions, by further building on Boschini, Pettersson, and Roine’s (2007) and Mehlum, Moene, and Torvik’s (2006b) influential works on the role of institutions in mitigating the resource curse. Advances are made by: (a) using a panel of up to 53 countries with different levels of development, institutional quality and natural resource abundance over the period 1984-2003; (b) applying a two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimation that accounts for biases associated with omitted variables, endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity that potentially affect existing cross-country Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) growth results; (c) supplementing results of the commonly used International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) institutional performance indicators with those of institutional design indicators–that is, highlighting the role of electoral rules and form of government; (d) using an institutional quality measure that is more related to financial institutions than just economic or political institutions; (e) using a resource abundance indicator that focuses on non-renewable resources alone rather than the ones commonly used in the literature that include renewable resources, which are inappropriate. The key hypothesis that natural resource economies are not destined to be cursed if they have good institutions is confirmed by the empirical results of the thesis. Specifically, the results suggest that (a) adopting a democratic regime is better than a non-democratic one, in terms of generating growth from resource abundance (b) the electoral rules that a country adopts matter, i.e. having a democratic proportional rather than a democratic majority regime increases the growth benefits of resource abundance (c) as far as the form of government adopted is concerned, a democratic parliamentary rather than a democratic presidential regime generates more economic growth from its abundant natural resource (d) a well functioning banking sector induces more (resource abundant generated) growth and capital accumulation. Therefore, the lessons for policy makers who struggle to overcome the impediments to economic development that potentially accompany the “curse of resource abundance” are the need to develop and maintain better institutions and adopt improved management strategies of the financial proceeds forthcoming from such abundance.

Contrary to conventional theory, a growing body of evidence suggests that economies with abundant natural resources perform badly in terms of economic growth relative to their resource poor counterparts—the so-called resource curse hypothesis. However, this general hypothesis is not robust. It clearly fails to account for the differing experiences of resource abundant economies. For instance, the theory, applied generally, offers no explanation as to why economies like Botswana and Norway have exceptional growth while Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have stagnated. Prompted by these experiences, the thesis investigates the circumstances under which the curse is more or less likely to exist. In particular, the thesis finds evidence that the major reason for the diverging experiences is the differences in the quality of institutions across countries. The thesis tests the hypothesis that the effect of resources on growth is conditional on the type and quality of institutions, by further building on Boschini, Pettersson, and Roine’s (2007) and Mehlum, Moene, and Torvik’s (2006b) influential works on the role of institutions in mitigating the resource curse. Advances are made by: (a) using a panel of up to 53 countries with different levels of development, institutional quality and natural resource abundance over the period 1984-2003; (b) applying a two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimation that accounts for biases associated with omitted variables, endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity that potentially affect existing cross-country Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) growth results; (c) supplementing results of the commonly used International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) institutional performance indicators with those of institutional design indicators–that is, highlighting the role of electoral rules and form of government; (d) using an institutional quality measure that is more related to financial institutions than just economic or political institutions; (e) using a resource abundance indicator that focuses on non-renewable resources alone rather than the ones commonly used in the literature that include renewable resources, which are inappropriate. The key hypothesis that natural resource economies are not destined to be cursed if they have good institutions is confirmed by the empirical results of the thesis. Specifically, the results suggest that (a) adopting a democratic regime is better than a non-democratic one, in terms of generating growth from resource abundance (b) the electoral rules that a country adopts matter, i.e. having a democratic proportional rather than a democratic majority regime increases the growth benefits of resource abundance (c) as far as the form of government adopted is concerned, a democratic parliamentary rather than a democratic presidential regime generates more economic growth from its abundant natural resource (d) a well functioning banking sector induces more (resource abundant generated) growth and capital accumulation. Therefore, the lessons for policy makers who struggle to overcome the impediments to economic development that potentially accompany the “curse of resource abundance” are the need to develop and maintain better institutions and adopt improved management strategies of the financial proceeds forthcoming from such abundance.

Contrary to conventional theory, a growing body of evidence suggests that economies with abundant natural resources perform badly in terms of economic growth relative to their resource poor counterparts—the so-called resource curse hypothesis. However, this general hypothesis is not robust. It clearly fails to account for the differing experiences of resource abundant economies. For instance, the theory, applied generally, offers no explanation as to why economies like Botswana and Norway have exceptional growth while Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have stagnated. Prompted by these experiences, the thesis investigates the circumstances under which the curse is more or less likely to exist. In particular, the thesis finds evidence that the major reason for the diverging experiences is the differences in the quality of institutions across countries. The thesis tests the hypothesis that the effect of resources on growth is conditional on the type and quality of institutions, by further building on Boschini, Pettersson, and Roine’s (2007) and Mehlum, Moene, and Torvik’s (2006b) influential works on the role of institutions in mitigating the resource curse. Advances are made by: (a) using a panel of up to 53 countries with different levels of development, institutional quality and natural resource abundance over the period 1984-2003; (b) applying a two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimation that accounts for biases associated with omitted variables, endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity that potentially affect existing cross-country Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) growth results; (c) supplementing results of the commonly used International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) institutional performance indicators with those of institutional design indicators–that is, highlighting the role of electoral rules and form of government; (d) using an institutional quality measure that is more related to financial institutions than just economic or political institutions; (e) using a resource abundance indicator that focuses on non-renewable resources alone rather than the ones commonly used in the literature that include renewable resources, which are inappropriate. The key hypothesis that natural resource economies are not destined to be cursed if they have good institutions is confirmed by the empirical results of the thesis. Specifically, the results suggest that (a) adopting a democratic regime is better than a non-democratic one, in terms of generating growth from resource abundance (b) the electoral rules that a country adopts matter, i.e. having a democratic proportional rather than a democratic majority regime increases the growth benefits of resource abundance (c) as far as the form of government adopted is concerned, a democratic parliamentary rather than a democratic presidential regime generates more economic growth from its abundant natural resource (d) a well functioning banking sector induces more (resource abundant generated) growth and capital accumulation. Therefore, the lessons for policy makers who struggle to overcome the impediments to economic development that potentially accompany the “curse of resource abundance” are the need to develop and maintain better institutions and adopt improved management strategies of the financial proceeds forthcoming from such abundance.

[Truncated abstract] The links between the quality of a country’s institutions and its level of economic development is an important, and growing, area of research in economics. Broadly speaking, these institutions define the ‘rules of the game’, or the conditions under which firms and individuals operate within and between markets. The better the quality of these institutional arrangements, the more confidence market participants have to conduct transactions. Although the links between these institutions and economic growth have been empirically tested many times (and shown to be extremely important), several gaps still exist in our understanding of this relationship. Two of the more important issues are (i) what the causal relationship may be between institutions and economic growth, and (ii) what the (undoubtedly complex) transmission mechanisms may be between them . . . Using a variety of alternative variables and samples, the evidence presented here strongly suggests that institutional quality is a major causal determinant of investment and human capital (particularly higher levels of education), as well as having an additional (though weaker) causal effect on growth itself. There is also an indication that there is reverse causality running from economic growth back to institutions. The evidence of a causal relationship between institutional quality and trade remains somewhat mixed, however, there is a strong suggestion that the influence of trade on institutional quality depends heavily on what type of goods are being traded (specifically, primary commodities or manufactured goods).

It is known that ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) performance positively influences the company's financial performance. However, little attention has been paid to macro elements that can moderatethis relationship. Based on the maxim that "institutions matter" and considering that countries with more robust institutions tend to mitigate transaction costs, information asymmetries, and investor uncertainty, this paper aims to demonstrate whether countries' institutional quality positively moderates the relationship between companies' ESG and financial performance over time. Using financial and ESG performance information from Refinitiv database and Countries' Institutional Quality from Worldwide Governance Indicators database, an unbalanced panel was built with a total of 14,699 observations, between the years 2010 and 2020, from 2,912 companies from ten countries (High Institutional Quality -Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Australia, and Germany and Low Institutional Quality - South Africa, Brazil, India, Thailand, and China). Through the use of Linear Regression with Random Effects, using the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) estimator, and a Test of Differentiation of Regression Coefficients, it was found that the Institutional Quality of the countries positively moderates the relationship between the ESG performance and the financial performance of the companies. Upon closer analysis, it was found that institutional quality only positively and significantly moderates the relationship between environmental and social performance with financial performance. In contrast, no significant result was found for moderating the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance.

La région du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique du Nord (MENA) a été le théâtre de réformes institutionnelles et financières ayant pour objectif de promouvoir le développement économique. Alors que les théories traditionnelles se concentrent sur l’accumulation du capital et le progrès technique comme facteurs explicatifs fondamentaux de la croissance économique, les travaux donnant naissance à la « nouvelle économie institutionnelle » ont mis en relief la contribution majeure du développement institutionnel à la croissance économique. L’objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre le rôle de la qualité institutionnelle et de la régulation bancaire dans l’explication du développement financier et de la croissance économique des pays de la région MENA depuis les années 1980. A partir de modélisations économétriques appropriées, la thèse cherche à répondre aux trois grandes questions suivantes : quel rôle jouent la qualité institutionnelle et la régulation bancaire dans l’explication des variations des fonds propres, du risque et de l’efficacité bancaire dans le système bancaire de la région MENA ? Y a-t-il un effet significatif du développement institutionnel sur les développements bancaire et économique ? Dans quelle mesure les différences transnationales en termes de performance économique peuvent-elles être expliquées par des facteurs institutionnels ? Les principaux résultats de la thèse sont que : (i) la qualité institutionnelle a un effet significatif sur les fonds propres, la prise de risque et l’efficacité des banques opérant dans la région du Moyen-Orient et d’Afrique du Nord ; (ii) la régulation bancaire a un effet positif et significatif sur le développement bancaire, et il existe une interdépendance positive et significative entre développement économique et développement bancaire ; (iii) l’effet de la qualité institutionnelle sur les pays qui affichent une faible croissance économique en moyenne est plus fort que l’effet sur les pays à forte croissance économique. / The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has witnessed many institutional and financial reforms meant to stimulate economic development. While traditional theories of economic growth promote capital accumulation and technological progress as fundamental determinants of economic development, studies that gave birth to the “new institutional economics” stress the major contribution of institutional development to economic development. The objective of this dissertation is to understand the role of institutional quality and financial regulation in the process of financial development and economic growth in the MENA region since the 1980s. Based on recent and adequate econometric models, this dissertation answers the following questions: What is the role played by institutional quality and banking regulation in explaining capital, risk and efficiency adjustments in the banking system of the MENA region? Is there a positive and significant effect of institutional quality on banking and economic development? Can inter-country differences in terms of economic performance be explained by institutional factors? significant effect on bank capital, excessive risk taking and efficiency of banks operating in the MENA region; (ii) Banking regulation has a positive and significant effect on banking development, and there is positive and significant interdependence between economic growth and banking development; (iii) the impact of institutional quality is stronger in countries that witnessed a weak growth rate on average compared to fast-growing countries where the institutional effect is not significant.

This study examines the relationship between R&D intensity (R&D/sales) and firm value. Additionally, both the moderating effect of endogenous firm characteristics (i.e. firm size, leverage and the interaction between size and leverage) and institutional quality are considered. By employing a sample of 1,833 firms throughout 49 countries, this study finds evidence supporting a positive association between R&D and firm value in its cross-national sample. Moreover, the results support the positive moderating effect of leverage on the relationship between R&D and firm value, in favour of the disciplining role of debt. Furthermore, a negative moderating effect of firm size is found, suggesting that smaller firms possess a superior ability to appropriate value from their R&D investments. Lastly, the size-leverage interaction reveals that small firms with high leverage reap the greatest firm value from their R&D investments.

Africa is one of the richest continents on the planet in terms of natural resources, but has the highest poverty rate, fastest growing population and includes many of the world ́s most corrupt countries. There is an ongoing discussion if the quality of institutions affects economic growth, and the applicability of economic institutional theory to the African continent. North and Thomas (1973) argues that indicators such as education innovation, capital accumulation, etc. are not causes of growth itself but rather the growth itself. Instead they suggest that economic institutions are the fundamental reason behind economic growth, since they allow new ideas, and firms and stakeholders to exist in the market. Our research question therefore examines if the quality of institutions can explain the rate of economic growth in Africa? In this study we used a panel data analysis based on 12 variables including, GDP per capita growth, Rule of Law, Control of corruption, Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Education, Population, Foreign Direct Investment, Gross Capital Formation as well as initial GDP, between year 2003-2017, to examine the relationship between economic performance and institutional quality in 50 African countries. Our results showed that six out of our six institutional variables had a positive significant effect on economic growth. This supports the theory that institutional quality impacts economic growth.