Islam, RoumeenMontenegro, Claudio E.2013-09-092013-09-092002-01https://hdl.handle.net/10986/15725In trying to explain institutional quality, different authors have come to conflicting conclusions. In tackling the problem themselves, the authors show three things. First, openness is positively and pretty robustly associated with institutional quality. To minimize selection bias, the authors use data sets with the greatest cross-country coverage, though they also test the significance of the variables for smaller sample sizes. The results confirm that both natural and policy measures of openness are important. Concentration of trade in natural resource exports continues to be associated with poor institutional quality after openness in trade is accounted for. Second, "social" variables, such as income inequality or ethnic diversity, are not associated with institutional quality. The significance of the inequality variable disappears when continent dummy variables are included for Africa and Latin America. Third, features of specific institutions, such as freedom of the press and checks and balances in the political system, are positively associated with overall perceptions of institutional quality. These findings hold strongly across different data sets and samples even after the authors control for the variables commonly used in the literature.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOTRADE LIBERALIZATIONETHNIC FACTORSQUALITYINSTITUTION BUILDINGCROSS-COUNTRY EXPERIENCENATURAL RESOURCESEXPORT CAPACITYINCOME LEVELSINCOME INEQUALITIESFREEDOM OF THE PRESSCHECKS & BALANCES ACCESS TO INFORMATIONACCOUNTABILITYAGGREGATING GOVERNANCE INDICATORSAMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANKAMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEWAVERAGE INCOMEBUREAUCRACYBUREAUCRATIC QUALITYCHANGES IN GOVERNMENTCITIZENSCIVIL LAWCOMMERCIAL CODECOMMON LAWCOMPARATIVE DEVELOPMENTCORRUPTIONCOUNTRY COVERAGECOUNTRY RISK GUIDEDECENTRALIZATIONDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC HISTORIANSECONOMIC HISTORYECONOMIC OUTCOMESECONOMIC PERFORMANCEECONOMIC REFORMECONOMIC RESEARCHEXCHANGE OF IDEASEXPORTSFINANCIAL DEVELOPMENTFORECASTING MODELSFREE PRESSGDPGDP PER CAPITAGINI COEFFICIENTGNPGNP PER CAPITAGOOD INSTITUTIONSGOOD POLICIESGOVERNANCE INDICATORSGOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESSGRAFTGROWTH PERFORMANCEICRGINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME INEQUALITYINEQUALITYINSTITUTION BUILDINGINSTITUTIONAL CONSTRAINTSINSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTINSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTINSTITUTIONAL MEASURESINSTITUTIONAL QUALITYINTERNATIONAL COUNTRY RISK GUIDEINTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTJUDICIAL INDEPENDENCELEGAL ORIGINLEGAL ORIGINSMEASUREMENT ERRORMEASURES PERCEPTIONS OF CORRUPTIONNATURAL RESOURCESOPEN ECONOMIESPOLICY MAKINGPOLICY MEASURESPOLICY OUTCOMESPOLICY RESEARCHPOLITICAL INSTABILITYPOLITICAL INSTITUTIONSPOLITICAL OUTCOMESPOLITICAL SYSTEMPROPERTY RIGHTSPUBLIC GOODSQUALITYQUALITY INSTITUTIONSQUALITY OF GOVERNANCEQUALITY OF INSTITUTIONSREGULATORY BURDENRENT SEEKINGRULE OF LAWRULE OF LAWSELECTION BIASSET OF GOVERNANCE INDICATORSSOCIAL INDICATORSSTATE INSTITUTIONSTECHNOLOGICAL CHANGETRADE POLICYWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-2764