The Internet stimulates trade. Using a gravity equation of trade among 56 countries, we find no evidence of an effect of the Internet on total trade flows in 1995 and only weak evidence of an effect in 1996. However, we find an increasing and significant impact from 1997 to 1999. Specifically,...

Many empirical studies have found a positive relationship between openness and growth in per capita GDP in less developed countries, and economists have produced many explanations for this correlation. However, the existing studies are consistent with all of these theories and thus do not...

Este documento de investigación estima las emisiones netas de carbono provenientes del cambio en el uso de tierra en Bolivia durante los periodos 1990 – 2000 y 2000 – 2010 utilizando un modelo de contabilidad de carbono que incluye deforestación, degradación de bosques, regeneración de...

Numerous studies have linked sleep disruption to a variety of poor health outcomes, but social scientists still have a very limited understanding of the overall importance of sleep for health in the general population. Limitations on both the scope and duration of laboratory studies make it...

This analysis examines the costs of everyday residential noise pollution using a series of “happiness regressions.” We control for both the possibility that an unobservable characteristic may cause omitted variable bias, as well as for the possibility of endogeneity bias if “effort” is...

The paper examines the nature of spatial dependence of growth rates across countries. Economic space as well as geographic space is considered as a possible medium through which growth rates may be correlated. The results indicate that the growth rates of developing countries are influenced by...

The existing literature on the sources and nature of productivity growth during the early industrialization stages of U.S. has identified the combination of intellectual property rights (IPRs) with a large middle class and broad participation in markets as explanations for the extraordinary...

The recent growth of soybean cultivation in the Brazilian Amazon has been unprecedented, even as the debate continues over its economic and environmental consequences. Based on contemporary datasets as well as our own field studies, this paper examines the social and economic costs and benefits...