This dissertation asks why authoritarian regimes are institutionalized in different ways and why they experience different outcomes. I have developed an elite conflict theory of authoritarianism and argue that how the distribution of power is institutionalized within a ruling co…
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In the past decade, Iranian architects have mobilized professional institutions—such as magazines, awards, professional bodies, and workshops—to transform their profession and to extend their exposure beyond Iran's tightly controlled borders. To do so, they established connectio…
In this dissertation I investigate the historical, institutional, and cultural roots of different regional development trajectories in modern Turkey. Historical comparison of two similar cities of 1920's, namely Kutahya and Kayseri, enabled me to solve the Anatolian Tigers Puzzl…
This dissertation introduces a panel data method to estimate country-specific steady state levels of output in an augmented Solow growth model. The use of panel data permits the estimation of a country-specific effect which can explain the surprising result that many developing …
Workers are increasingly cooperating across national borders in campaigns aimed at influencing employers to improve wages, working conditions, and labor rights. To date, however, there are no systematic studies of why some transnational labor alliances succeed while others do no…
Institutions play a pivotal role in the process of economic development. This collection of studies addresses the importance of institutions in the process of wealth creation for low-income households in Brazil, as well as commodity market developments in Ethiopia. In Brazil, la…
This dissertation presents a comprehensive framework to analyze municipal water supply reforms in developing countries by adapting the institutional analysis and development framework (IAD) to this sector. It does so by providing a detailed description of all the meaningful comp…
This research studies the relationship between a bureaucracy and its host culture as a process contingent upon affinity between their symbol structures. Such a perspective allows viewing bureaucracies as institutions embedded in particular cultural contexts. It, further, enables…
I rectify a misconception in the growth literature that inequality is harmful for economic-growth (See Persson and Tabellini (1994)). 1 investigate the quantitative importance of intergenerational cooperation to economic growth, and show that the connection between income inequa…
This dissertation explores new directions in economic theory based on field research in two Igbo villages in Nigeria (Umuluwe—representative of traditional Igbo villages and Obigbo—representative of suburban, more modern, Igbo villages). Results from Ultimatum and Dictator Games…
The purpose of the study was to determine if, how, and to what degree the Niger Community Center and its Inter-organizational Relationships (IORs) elicited community participation in program decision making. The research used the qualitative methodology, specifically interviews,…
Why do states vary in their responses to the multifaceted competitive pressures of globalization? Why, in particular, do some states accept a measure of economic loss in exchange for cultural gain? How much autonomous control do they retain in the cultural domain? This dissertat…
If language regimes are the rules that delineate which languages can be used when and where--thereby institutionalizing the distribution of linguistic powers--what explains a government's language regime choice? Specifically, under what conditions are linguistic powers concentra…
The first chapter proposes an explanation for gender-based differences in health and mortality outcomes observed in India. In India's patrilocal rural society, women do not inherit property and heads of joint families aim to retain assets within the family lineage for future gen…
The recent rediscovery of institutions in the study of international development has drawn considerable attention to macro arrangements, but sparked much less interest in mid-range, sectoral institutions and how they are reshaped under dynamic domestic and nondomestic constraint…
What is the effect of natural disasters on political violence? Despite the widespread speculation about the possibilities for peace that typically occurs after a natural disaster strikes in a conflict zone, relatively little is known about the way disasters impact political mech…
This dissertation investigates the research question: Can an international institution alter state behavior and thereby contribute to the peaceful resolution of a conflict? It focuses on the series of interrelated peacekeeping efforts undertaken to help resolve the Arab-Israeli …
This dissertation comprises five essays on the subject of entrepreneurship and postconflict reconstruction. The first essay serves as the introduction, and outlines the political economy of conflict and postconflict reconstruction, and the potential and requirements for entrepre…
Over the last fifteen years, the number of civil conflicts worldwide has declined and negotiated settlements have increased. The spread of democracy and greater international concern about domestic conflicts have encouraged states to adopt a negotiations-based approach to addres…