We study human capital accumulation in an environment of competitive search. Given that unemployed workers can default on their education loans, skilled individuals with a larger debt burden prefer riskier but better paid careers than is socially desirable. A higher level of employment risk in...

The following dissertation is a collection of four stand-alone research papers. The focus of my research is on the interplay of immigration, native human-capital investment and the resulting consequences for the labour market outcome of natives and necessary implications for the immigration...

The education systems of EE/CIS countries have undergone negative changes during the past 16 years. My paper examines these changes, identifies their causes and proposes solutions for improvement. I find that improved educational quality is the key for raising students’ enrolment and...

Die Arbeit stellt eine quantitative Untersuchung der regionalen Spillover-Effekte f?r einen sowohl sachlich als auch regional abgegrenzten Bereich - n?mlich die Gymnasien am Beispiel der Region Augsburg - dar. Dieses Ph?nomen spielt in der ?konomischen Theorie des F?deralismus und der damit...

Small and micro-enterprises play a significant part in most economies. However, in developing countries these enterprises have often been planned and implemented from a poverty alleviation perspective, rather than as entrepreneurial activities and growing businesses (Mead & Liedholm 1998, Toye...

Marriage is an important institution for both individuals and society as a whole. It is a significant event in the life cycle of individuals; for society at large it represents the creation of a new unit of production, consumption, distribution and exchange of goods and services. In most...

The study of demographic trends in sub-Saharan Africa though crucial in the assessment of the impact of population size and growth on the overall socio-economic development in the region, has received the least attention due to lack of reliable data for most of the countries. This paper focuses...

Water is life and its provision is vital not only for purposes of sustaining life but alsofor convenience, health, sanitation and economic well being. The United Nationsestimates that over one billion people living in developing countries lack access tosafe water, with a substantialp roportion...

While the last half century gave rise to over a dozen developing nations whose economic expansion surpassed the growth rates of many industrialized economies, the same fifty years witnessed a majority of aid-dependent Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from economic stagnation and in some cases even...