Do laws shape or simply reflect society's attitudes? This paper provides new evidence on this question by studying the relationship between legal same-sex relationship recognition policies and attitudes towards sexual minorities in Europe. We show that when relationships are recognised by law,...

Do sexual minorities face barriers when accessing jobs with supervisory and managerial authority? And once on the managerial ladder, do they face glass ceilings that block them from higher-level posts? In this paper we find that gay men and lesbians are significantly more likely to have...

During the technological and military competition of the Cold War, the Soviet government created “science cities” – urban centres that hosted a high concentration of research and development facilities. But what has been the long-term effect of these cities? This paper finds that in...

During the technological and military competition of the Cold War, the Soviet government created “science cities” – urban centres that hosted a high concentration of research and development facilities. But what has been the long-term effect of these cities? This paper finds that in...

How does international trade affect the popularity of government and leaders? Using data covering 118 countries and nearly 450,000 individuals, we show that attitudes towards globalisation depend on both individuals' skill levels and the skill intensity of the country's exports and imports. Our...

This paper evaluates the growth performance of more than 200 economies. It identifies instances of relatively strong economic performance after the 2008-09 global financial crisis, and asks if determinants of sustained strong (and weak) performance have changed in recent years. It finds that...

Inequality of opportunity – that is, how a person's potential to succeed in life is determined by the circumstances of their birth – is the result of an economy that has failed to fairly tie incentive to effort and investment. But any limitations on economic activity caused by this failure...

Does political corruption erode civic values and foster dishonest behaviour? This paper tests this hypothesis – using Mexico as an example – by combining data on local government corruption and cheating in school tests. Results show that, following revelations of corruption by local...

Emerging economies have an increasing influence on the global economy and there is general optimism regarding their prospects. However, given a sustained income gap between emerging and advanced economies, there is concern that many emerging economies will never match the advanced economies in...

Regulatory capture of public policy by financial entities, especially via the revolving door between government and financial services, has increasingly become a subject of intense public scrutiny. This paper empirically analyses the relation between public-private career crossovers of high...