Considers the development of the European economies from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution to argue that the accumulation of physical and human capital played a major role in the escape from the Malthusian trap.

This paper examines the impact of transaction costs on economic welfare and development. We extend the static model of Romer (1994), in which transaction costs reduce welfare by the reducing the equilibrium number of intermediate goods, and estimate the welfare losses in the case of domestic...

There exists a longstanding discussion of the role of the informal economy in the development process of Third World countries, notably in Africa. Much of the controversy was concerned with the question whether the informal sector promotes development or should rather be considered as a barrier...

Knowledge loss is not a remote phenomenon, unique to one knowledge system. Rather we argue that the loss of knowledge is an issue for other knowledge systems as well. Knowledge loss is certainly a concern for anthropologists working on indigenous knowledge, fearful of ‘losing’ indigenous...

Most education around the globe is public. Moreover, investment rates in education as well as schooling attainments differ substantially across countries. We construct a general equilibrium life-cycle model that is consistent with these facts. We provide simple analytical solutions for the...

This paper is part of a large study on the Social Protection in Rural India and China. In this paper, we attempt at a critical appraisal of the historical development and experience of social security initiatives at the all India level. Based on the findings of the review, we visualize a road...

This paper and appendices report an ongoing study of the interrelationships between technology, income distribution and other socio-economic issues in a long term global context. The present paper therefore describes the work in progress on a project to be completed by July 1980. The aim here is...

In contrast to the existing literature, which explains the recurrent cost problem as largely the result of institutional impediments to LDC welfare maximization, this paper analyzes the problem by constructing a series of scenarios in which the less developed country would be led to reduce the...

This article re-examines the relationship between economic growth of the North and that of the South. It considers the implications of this relationship for two major issues within the current North-South debate: basic needs and exhaustible resources. The connections between international trade...

The urban development process intends to enhance urban equipment, infrastructure and services to improve urban conditions and reduce inequalities. While planning activities usually demand a sizeable amount of data to assess these conditions, it is hard to find a straightforward procedure to...