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A Lifetime of Research on Prosperity and Institutions

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Stephen Haber has spent his career investigating why the world distribution of income so uneven. He is the author of five books on political institutions and economic development, and the editor of six more. His papers have been published in economics, history, political science, and law journals. His latest project focuses on a long-standing puzzle in the social sciences: why are prosperous democracies not randomly distributed across the planet but, rather, are geographically clustered? Haber and his coauthors answer this question by using geospatial tools and machine learning methods, providing new insights on the indirect impact that geography has on development outcomes. Haber holds a Ph.D. in history from UCLA, and has been on the Stanford faculty since 1987, with appointments in Political Science, History, Economics, the Hoover Institution, and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. 

Geography and the Origins of Prosperity

Geography and the
Origins of Prosperity

Haber discusses his upcoming book on geography's impact on global development outcomes.

In The Media
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The Threat to Freedom of Expression at American Universities

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Rain, crops and commerce shaped the economic systems of nations

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Battles Over Patents Can Be Productive

Selected Working Papers

The Political Economy of the Middle Income Trap (with Avidit Acharya & Alexander Lee). August 30, 2024.

The Rise and Fall of the Resource Curse. September 1, 2023.

Transport Corridors (with Roy Elis & Jordan Horrillo). June 5, 2023.

The Ecological Origins of Economic and Political Systems (with Roy Elis & Jordan Horrillo). November. 18, 2021.

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