Chapter 1 addresses the relationship between political institutions and economic development. It first provides an extensive survey of the related theoretical and empirical literature and then investigates empirically how such a relationship evolved over the period 1870-2005. Results show that political institutions are initially irrelevant and tend to become increasingly important with time in explaining cross-country differences in income per capita. Consistent with the modernization view of the literature, results also seem to suggest that the importance of democracy nowadays might be mostly explained by prior improvements in the standards of living and, in particular, in the levels of education. Chapter 2, jointly with Vincenzo Bove, presents a case study analysis of the impact of coups d'etat on defence spending. We use the synthetic control method and compare the evolution of the defence burden for countries affected by coups with the evolution of an artificial control group. We find that successful coups determine a large increase in defence burden, as they directly affect the bargaining power of the military. When no effects or a decrease in the defence burden is found, it is often the consequence of a democratisation process triggered by the coup. Failed coups, instead, produce a smaller, and mostly positive, effect on military burden, possibly a result of coup-proofing strategies. Chapter 3 explores to what extent the receipt of funding during Ph.D. encourages post-degree research career (extensive margins) and influences research productivity after graduation (intensive margins). Results uncover a significant and positive impact of funding .on early research outcomes at both margins and are robust to different model specifications and outcome measures. One possible explanation, as suggested by additional estimates is that funded students invest more in research-oriented activities (i.e. visiting research programs) and spend less time working part-time while studying.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:654478 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Nistico, Roberto |
| Publisher | University of Essex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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