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The USA has been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and a wide spatial variation can be seen in its spread and mortality. This raises the question of why some regions are more resilient to the pandemic than others? We hypothesize that the individualism–collectivism cleavage explains the disparity in COVID-19 cases observed across sub-national units in the USA. Cultural disparity among different groups of people leads to differences in how they perceive health crises and thereby shapes the way they respond to pandemics. A heightened sense of obligation and responsibility increases in-group sociability and interdependence and raises the perceived vulnerability towards disease transmission among collectivistic individuals, and this leads to greater adherence to containment measures and social distancing rules. Our results provide evidence that more individualistic states tend to have more COVID-19 cases across the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes that countries with a cultural orientation toward individualism tend to enjoy a higher level of financial development. Estimates based on cross-country data lend strong support to this hypothesis. Specifically, the results indicate that existing disparity in the level of financial development is significantly correlated with variation in the extent of individualism across countries, where a one standard deviation increase in individualism is associated with 0.631 standard deviations improvement in the level of financial development. The results are robust to a number of considerations. Additional results provide some support to the notion that individualistic culture and legal origin may serve as complements rather than substitutes to each other. (JEL 040, O50, Z10), I. INTRODUCTION It is a widely held view among economists that a deep financial system is beneficial for growth in the long run. A key issue, however, remains unresolved: why [...]

This study investigates how the implementation of modern climate change policies is related to former colonies' length of state history and their legal heritage. We argue that countries with longer statehood experience around the time of colonization were better equipped to implement the legal philosophies transplanted by their colonial powers. Therefore, the implications of receiving British common law versus French civil law should be particularly important in countries with a greater accumulated history of statehood. Using a cross-section of up to 78 former colonies, our results provide support for this hypothesis. In particular, our estimates demonstrate that common law countries have weaker modern climate change policies than civil law countries and the difference is inflated by a longer statehood experience, measured by the length of state history from 1 to 1800 AD. Legal origin has no effect in areas which, by the time of colonization, had no statehood experience. Finally, we report similar results for the pattern of labor market regulations. (JEL K15, K31, K32, 044, Q54, Q58), I. INTRODUCTION Climate change has severe impacts on developing countries, affecting physical systems (rivers, lakes, floods, droughts, coastal erosion, and sea-level effects), biological systems (terrestrial and marine ecosystems), and human [...]

This paper tests Jared Diamond's influential theory that an earlier transition from a hunter-gatherer society to agricultural production induces higher levels of technology adoption. Using a proxy for the geographic [...]

This article examines the influence of quality-adjusted educational attainment on growth and tests whether it facilitates the transfer of technology developed at the frontier for a panel of 60 countries. Using outcomes of pathogen stress as instruments, the results show that quality-adjusted educational attainment and its interaction with distance to the frontier play important roles for growth. (JEL 120, 030, 040), I. INTRODUCTION Although endogenous growth models predict that human capital is one of the most important sources of economic growth, the macrolevel empirical evidence is at best mixed. (1) So [...]

This paper examines the importance of the domestic research and development stock and foreign knowledge spillovers on total factor productivity for six Asian miracle economies over the period from 1955 to 2006. The productivity effects of international knowledge spillovers through the following channels are considered: imports, exports, inward foreign direct investment, patents, geographical proximity, and the general channel. The general channel is a transmission mechanism where knowledge spillovers occur automatically and do not pass through any specific channel. The estimates show that knowledge has been transmitted through all the channels considered but that the import channel and the general channel have probably been the most important ones for the Asian miracle economies. (JEL O10, O30, O40), I. INTRODUCTION Recent developments in endogenous growth theories have led to an increased recognition of the role that domestic knowledge and international knowledge spillovers (IKS) play as the engines of [...]

This paper examines the determinants of private investment in Malaysia, with an emphasis on the postcrisis investment slumps. A static private investment function is derived from the neoclassical framework, with appropriate modifications to account for the structural features observed in the country. To introduce dynamics into the model, we adopt a cost minimization problem, which assumes firms optimize investment levels with respect to a quadratic loss function. The results suggest that the availability of financial resources in the economy has a significant positive impact on private investment. Macroeconomic uncertainty exerts a negative influence on the investment climate in the private sector. Both foreign direct investment and public investment are found to have a complementary effect on private investment. Consistent with the prediction of the neoclassical model, a higher level of aggregate output raises private investment, whereas the user cost of capital has the opposite impact. (JEL 016, 053), I. INTRODUCTION There has been a sharp decline in gross domestic investment in Malaysia following the Asian financial crisis that hit the country in 1997-1998. This decline has emanated predominantly [...]

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the effects of financial sector policies on development of the financial system in Malaysia over the period 1959-2005. The technique of principal component analysis is used to construct a summary measure of interest rate policies in order to account for the joint influence of various interest rate controls imposed on the Malaysian financial system. The results show that economic development, interest rate controls, and capital liquidity requirements positively affect the level of financial development. However, greater trade openness, higher statutory reserve requirements, and the presence of directed credit programs appear to be harmful for development of the Malaysian financial system. The results provide some support to the argument that some form of financial restraints may help promote financial development. (JEL E44, E58, O16, O53), I. INTRODUCTION Since the emergence of the new theories of endogenous economic growth in the past two decades, financial development has been the subject of considerable research interest (e.g., Bencivenga [...]