TY  - JOUR
AU  - Besley,Timothy J.
AU  - Persson,Torsten
TI  - State Capacity, Conflict and Development
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15088
PY  - 2009
Y2  - June 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15088
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15088.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Timothy J. Besley
Department of Economics
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London  WC2A 2AE  ENGLAND
E-Mail: T.Besley@lse.ac.uk

Torsten Persson
Torsten and Ragnar Soderberg Chair in Economic Sci
Institute for International Economic Studies
Stockholm University
SE-106 91 Stockholm
SWEDEN
Tel: +46 8 163066
Fax: +46 8 6747801
E-Mail: Torsten.Persson@iies.su.se
AB  - We report on an on-going project, which asks a number of questions relevant to the study of state capacity. What are the main economic and political determinants of the state’s capacity to raise revenue and support private markets? How do risks of violent conflict affect the incentives to invest in state building? Does it matter whether conflicts are external or internal to the state? When are large states associated with higher income levels and growth rates than small states? What relations should we expect between resource rents, civil wars and economic development? The paper is organized into three main sections: 1. The origins of state capacity, 2. Sate capacity and the genius of taxation, and 3. State capacity and the strategy of conflict. Each of these begins with a specific motivation. A simple model is formulated to analyze the determinants of state capacity in the first section, and modified to address the new issues that arise in subsequent sections.  The theoretical results are summarized in a number of propositions. We discuss the implications of the theory, comment on its relation to existing literature, and briefly mention some empiric applications.
ER  -