AbstractsPolitical Science

This thesis is comprised of four empirical essays on the economic determinants and consequences of political institutions. It opens with a broad perspective on the link between the state throughout history and the past and current economic performance of nations. The rest of the chapters focus on a particular form of institutional failure - 'endemic corruption' - with illustrations of its harmful impact on key development areas: human capital formation and democracy. More specifically, chapters two and three identify causal links between public sector wages, monitoring and incentives and corruption in education. The final chapter examines the clientelistic structure of electoral politics showing that local politicians in can influence national elections by vote buying and electoral fraud.