ABSTRACT
The empirical literature on the determinants of economic growth has progressively tested the significance of factors which were expected to contribute to growth in addition to the traditional labour and capital inputs. In this framework valuable contributions have assessed, among others,1 the role of: human capital (Mankiw, Romer and Weil, 1992) (from now on MRW), the government sector (Hall and Jones, 1997), social and political stability (Alesina and Perotti, 1994), corruption (Mauro, 1995), social capital (Knack and Keefer, 1997), financial institutions (Pagano, 1993; King and Levine, 1992) and income inequality (Persson and Tabellini, 1994; Perotti, 1996).
