The aim of this paper is to analyze the links between banking integration and economic develop- ment for a sample of OECD countries. We measure banking integration considering state-of-the-art indicators that measure not only how open a banking system is but also its degree of connectedness with...

Recent literature has shown how relevant social capital may be as an important determinant of economic growth. However, the empirical evidence in contexts such as Europe, particularly at the regional level, is still scant, and its likely implications for income convergence are entirely...

The number of contributions that have evaluated the convergence patterns across European regions using a wide variety of approaches is now substantial. However, if we focus on the most recent period (2003–2009), the number of contributions shrinks dramatically, and those considering the role...

This article analyzes the role of different elements of social capital in economic growth for a sample of 85 European regions during the period 1995 - 2008. Much has been said about social capital in the last two decades, but studies for the European regional context are scant, and those...

After two decades of academic debate on the social capital-growth nexus, discussion still remains open. Most of the literature so far, however, has followed the one-size-its-all approach, neglecting that the great disparities across geographical units might have implications in this...

While the beneficial effects of social trust on economic performance have been largely recognized, we analyze whether these effects can be generalized for economies at different stages of economic development. Contrary to previous studies on this issue based on average effects (mostly...

In recent years the European airline industry has undergone critical restructuring. It has evolved from a highly regulated market predominantly operated by national airlines to a dynamic, liberalized industry where airline firms compete freely on prices, routes, and frequencies. Although several...

This paper analyses the relationship between active management and performance in US equity mutual funds over the period 2001-2011 for both gross and net returns. Mutual funds achieve nonzero abnormal performance through strategies that produce differentiated results which are not captured by...

Islamic funds are an upcoming alternative to conventional funds, aided by the increasing prominence of Islamic finance. This paper contributes to the extant literature by comparing the performance of Islamic and conventional funds during crisis and recovery periods. In contrast to most previous...

Over the last few years there have been increasing concerns about the energy mix in many countries. These concerns have been of greater magnitude for countries with a common energy regulation such as European Union (EU) member states. In order to choose a given energy mix, an important aspect to...