In 2005, Portugal introduced a business registration reform - the On the Spot Firm program - with the goal of promoting the establishment of new start-ups and, ultimately, stimulating investment and economic growth. However, the question remains as to whether this policy has successfully...

We provide a new approach for assessing the cost of marginal ecosystem changes and theeffectiveness of green payment schemes. The approach is based on a theoretical and empirical analysis of the bio-economic production interactions between marketed outputs and non-marketed ecosystemservices at...

We provide a new approach for assessing the cost of marginal ecosystem changes and the effectiveness of green payment schemes. The approach is based on a theoretical and empirical analysis of the bio-economic production interactions between marketed outputs and non-marketed ecosystem services at...

The Australian government Caring for our Country (CfoC) program, first announced in 2008, has sought to build on and enhance previous experience with Australian natural resource management policy. This paper critically examines the initial design, planned delivery, and first round of competitive...

In response to the dramatic rise in childhood obesity, particularly among low income individuals, federal nutrition assistance programs have come under scrutiny. However, the vast majority of this research focuses on the direct relationship between these programs and child health, while little...

In an evaluation of a job-training program, the influence of the program on the in-dividual wages is important, because it reflects the program effect on human capital. Esti-mating these effects is complicated because we observe wages only for employed individuals, and employment is itself an...

This paper explores whether wage, employment and tenure outcomes of workers taking up a job subsidized by the German Federal Employment Agency differ by industry. The analysis utilizes administrative data and statistical matching tech-niques; it covers an observation period of 3.5 years. First,...

We report the short-term results from a randomized evaluation of a mobile phone literacy and numeracy program (Project ABC) in Niger, in which adult literacy students learned how to use mobile phones as part of a literacy and numeracy class.  Students in ABC villages showed substantial gains in...

In response to the dramatic rise in childhood obesity, particularly among low income individuals, federal nutrition assistance programs have come under scrutiny. However, the vast majority of this research focuses on the direct relationship between these programs and child health, while little...