We assess whether global social welfare has improved in the last decades despite (or because of) the substantial increase in global population. We use for this purpose a relatively unknown but simple and attractive social evaluation approach called critical-level generalized utilitarianism...

Assessments of social welfare do not usually take into account population sizes. This can lead to serious social evaluation flaws, particularly in contexts in which policies can affect demographic growth. We develop in this paper a little-known though ethically attractive approach to correcting...

Public spending on infrastructure plays an important role in promoting economic growth and poverty alleviation. Empirical studies unequivocally show that under-investment in infrastructure limit economic growth. At the same time, numerous other studies have shown that investment in...

This paper investigates how the gold boom t h a t started in 2007 has affected socioeconomic outcomes in Burkina Faso. A simple theoretical model was developed to show the expected impacts, and these were validated by an empirical analysis. Results suggest that areas hosting gold extraction have...

The present study shows that in sub-Saharan Africa, besides some individual characteristics (including gender, age, education, marital status, place of residence and the wealth index), the colonial and socio-economic history of an individual’s living country significantly determines his/her...

We explore the old but highly topical question of the efficient provision of public goods: could the laisser-faire lead to efficiency? Or do we need government to provide these goods? Some authors, Stiglitz (1982), Lindsay and Dougan (2013) among others, discussed some conditions under which the...