Stephen Haber's Homepage

Stephen Haber, Professor of Political Science, History, and Economics (by courtesy);
Senior Fellow Hoover Institution

Stephen Haber is the A.A. and Jeanne Welch Milligan Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and director of the Social Science History Program at Stanford University.  He is also the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; senior fellow of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; senior fellow of the Center for International Development; and research economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research.  His research focuses on the relationship between political organization and economic growth. Most of this research has focused on Latin America, particularly Mexico and Brazil.

New Books

Mexico Since 1980 (with Herbert S. Klein, Noel Maurer, and Kevin J. Middlebrook).  A new series examining politics, economics, and social change in important countries and regions over the past two and a half decades.  Cambridge University Press, 2008.  This book addresses two questions that are critical to understanding Mexico's current economic, political, and social challenges.  Why did the opening up of the economy to foreign trade and investment not result in sustained economic growth?  Why has electoral democracy not produced the rule of law?

Political Institutions and Financial Development (with Douglass C. North and Barry R. Weingast).  Stanford University Press, 2008.  Economists have long maintained that a well-developed and  functioning financial system is a vital prerequisite to economic growth.  Countries with robust banking sectors and securities markets are more prosperous than countries that restrict such access to a favored elite.  What is less clear is why some countries develop better financial systems than others.  The essays in this volume employ the insights and techniques of political science, economics, and history to provide a fresh answer to this question. 

Curriculum Vita (a .pdf file)

Courses

Political Science 440B (Political Economy of Development) Syllabus
Political Science 346S (Political Science Authoritarian Government: Ancient and Modern) Syllabus (a .pdf file)
Political Science 248T (Problems of Governance and Economic Development in Mexico: From the Aztecs to NAFTA) Syllabus

Working Papers

Rainfall and Democracy (by Stephen Haber and Victor Menaldo) (a pdf file). Also available is a Powerpoint presentation.

Do Natural Resources Fuel Authoritarianism? A Reappraisal of the Resource Curse (by Stephen Haber and Victor Menaldo) (a .pdf file)

Development Strategy or Endogenous Process? The Industralization of Latin American (by Stephen Haber) (a .pdf file) 

Mexico's Experiments with Bank Privatization and Liberalization, 1991-2003 (by Stephen Haber) (a .pdf file)

When the Law Does Not Matter:  The Rise and Decline of the Mexican Oil Industry  (by Stephen Haber, Noel Maurer, and Armando Razo) (a .pdf file)

Articles & Press

"Afghanistan and the 'Resource Curse'," (a .pdf file), Wall Street Journal (7/2/10)

"Latin America's Quiet Revolution," Wall Street Journal (1/31/09)

"Anatomy of a Coup: Parsing Events in Honduras," Forbes.com (7/3/09)