Research
My general area of interest is economic development and growth. I am particularly interested in the broad question "Why are some countries poor and others rich?" and even more so "Why are most poor countries concentrated in the geographic tropics"? As I continue to investigate these questions, I find myself venturing into non-traditional territory (for an economist) such as issues concerning climate, geography, politics, institutions (especially the legacy of colonialism) and most recently culture.
The challenge is to integrate these areas into an economic framework and to develop a theoretically plausible model that provides a satisfactory answer to those questions. I am currently investigating the empirical relationships between some of these 'external' influences and economic growth.