TY  - JOUR
AU  - Easterly,William
AU  - Levine,Ross
TI  - Tropics, Germs, and Crops: How Endowments Influence Economic Development
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9106
PY  - 2002
Y2  - August 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9106
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9106.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
William Easterly
New York University
Department of Economics
19 W. 4th Street, 6th floor
New York NY 10012
Tel: 212/992-8684
Fax: 212/995-4186
E-Mail: william.easterly@nyu.edu

Ross Levine
Haas School of Business
University of California at Berkeley
545 Student Services Building, #1900 (F685)
Berkeley, CA 94720-1900
Tel: 510-643-1419
E-Mail: Ross_levine@haas.berkeley.edu
AB  - Does economic development depend on geographic endowments like temperate instead of tropical location, the ecological conditions shaping diseases, or an environment good for grains or certain cash crops? Or do these endowments of tropics, germs, and crops affect economic development only through institutions or policies?  We test the endowment, institution, and policy views against each other using cross country evidence. We find evidence that tropics, germs, and crops affect development through institutions. We find no evidence that tropics, germs, and crops affect country incomes directly other than through institutions, nor do we find any effect of policies on development once we control for institutions.
ER  -