In other words, the notion of institutional path dependence suggested by Acemoglu and Robinson need not rest on random events (Basuchoudhary et al. 2010). Indeed public choice economists argue that methodological individualism combined with the logic of rational choice can help explain historical ...
rent-seeking behavior (e.g., Alt et al. 1996; Brainard and Verdier 1994; Coate and Morris 1999). Although these theories do not explain why redistribution is made inefficiently, they suggest that redistribution, and hence inefficient redistribution, should be more preva- ...
We suspect that Acemoglu and Robinson might argue that failure due to military conquest reflects the fact that the nation in question has already 5 See for example Kotwal et al [2011]. 5 lost the technological race. However, this is not always true. Carthage is one case in point. A ...