We demonstrate that existing differences in financial development between countries can be explained by the cumulative variations in their levels of state experience since 1 AD. This dimension of early historical development has not been considered so far in studies that analyze the determinants...

Models of social preferences (i.e. inequality aversion), assuming society is defined by a hierarchy based on income or wealth, predict that the poor envy the rich. Reference Group Theory predicts that the poor (rich) envy others from the same social group or class. We report results from a game...

The functioning and well-being of any society and organization critically hinges on norms of cooperation that regulate social activities. Empirical evidence on how such norms emerge and in which environments they thrive remain a clear void in the literature. To provide an initial set of...

Young adults aged 19-24 are significantly less likely to have health insurance since most family insurance policies cut off dependents when they turn 19 or finish college. In recent years, several states in the United States have expanded eligibility to allow young adults to remain covered under...

How often do jumps or price discontinuities occur on energy markets? What is the dynamics of the energy market sentiment (based on media coverage of economic fundamentals and other news events) that influence market behavior? How does the market sentiment affect the commodity returns? This study...

This paper takes a critical look at the class of multidimensional poverty measures recently proposed by Alkire and Foster (2007, 2011a). The critique centres on the specific formulation of the dominance axioms, in particular the weak transfer and the weak rearrangement axioms. Stronger versions...

This paper presents three simple models to study how prices, politics and persuasion may each play a role in environmental policymaking. Our conclusions are twofold. First, in the absence of increasing returns, requiring the polluting industry to purchase pollution permits can internalize the...

This study explores the relationship between home ownership and subjective wellbeing in urban China using a nationally representative dataset. Compared with the limited extant literature on this topic for China, we use a more recent dataset, allow for a greater range of ownership forms, consider...

The spectacular growth rates in the Asian miracle economies (AMEs) are often attributed to factor accumulation whilst ignoring the forces that have been responsible for it. Using data for six AMEs over the period from 1953 to 2009, this paper extends the conventional growth accounting exercise...

While economic growth has been cited as one of the main factors behind the reduction in absolute poverty, the persisting problem of poverty in developing countries has raised doubts about the efficacy of economic growth in its reduction. Recent evidence revealed that growth in Asia has been...