The importance of human capital as a key source of value added, innovation and economic growth is widely acknowledged by both economists and policy-makers. Local governments can directly affect individuals’ decision making by subsidising human capital formation. The ability of a regional...

In this paper we study the allocation of time devoted to informal learning and education, i.e. those activities carried out during leisure time and outside formal education courses which boost individuals’ human and social capital. For immigrants the private investment in these activities is...

We develop a unified stochastic frontier model which controls for the local spatial correlation and the global factor dependence as well as parameter heterogeneity, simultaneously. We then propose the regional productivity network analysis to examine the diffusion impacts of the capital...

This paper proposes a definition of equality of educational opportunities. Then, it develops a comprehensive model that allows to test for the existence of equality of opportunity in a given distribution and to rank distributions according to equality of opportunity. Finally, it provides an...

This paper analyses the extent of income inequality and opportunity inequality in 25 European countries. The present work contributes to understanding the origin of standard income inequality, helping to identify potential institutional setups that are associated to opportunity inequality. We...

Estimates of the level of inequality of opportunity have traditionally been interpreted as lower bounds due to the downward bias resulting from the partial observability of circumstances that affect individual outcome. We show that such estimates may also suffer from upward bias as a consequence...

This paper investigates the saving behavior of migrants in the UK across different dimensions, i.e., comparing temporary versus permanent migrants and migrants versus natives. Established theoretical predictions show that migrants save more when they plan to stay in the destination only...

Like all transition economies, South Eastern Europe (SEE) countries stand to gain most from an export-led growth. Unfortunately, though, productive structure in these countries is largely made up of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that, due to their limited size, may face obstacles to gain...