This thesis aims to narrow the research gap on informal enterprises, contributing to both the academic and policy debates. It provides empirical evidence related to two key questions: how much potential do informal firms have to contribute to economic growth, and employment creation? And, if...

Violent conflict is common among the poorest countries and clearly one of the most important barriers to growth, destroying physical, human, and social capital, often in the long run. At the same time, it is a development `trap' that is not easy to escape from as poverty has also been found to...

This dissertation contains three essays at the interface of agricultural and development economics. The motivation for this lies in the fact that various studies have shown the agricultural sector to be the main income source for the majority of the global poor and it will hence have to play a...

Political misalignment and greater ideological distance between donor and recipient governments may render foreign aid less effective by adding to transaction costs and eroding trust. In addition, development aid from the West may lead to adverse growth effects in the global South due to the...

Die drei Essays dieser Dissertation verbinden Themen der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung und des Klimawandels. Alle Essays erörtern die allgemeine Frage wie steigende Einkommen und Austauschbeziehungen in Umweltfragen verbunden werden können und konzentrieren sich dabei auf CO2 Emissionen als...

There are arguably few topics in current global economic policy as intensely debated as the impact of different facets of globalization on human development. Given that the concept of globalization reflects a multitude of economic and societal transformations, the scope of these discussions...

(Un-)gleichheit und Gerechtigkeit waren schon immer Kernbestandteil eines jeden politischen Konzeptes, welches das Wohl der Menschen in den Mittelpunkt rückte. Die Idee der Gleichheit ist so alt wie die der Demokratie selbst und neben instrumentellen Gründen, aus denen man (Un-)gleichheit...

This dissertation focuses on the relationship between gender equality and economic development, broadly defined. Since the seminal work of Ester Boserup (1970), gender equality is widely understood as being both an instrument for and a consequence of economic development. The first three...