This paper explores the effects of economic integration on intensive and extensive export margins of Nigeria's trade with ECOWAS and other African countries. Multiple indices of economic integration and the margins of exports are computed. Fractional Logit model is used to estimate the intensive...

Convergence in human capital is a key precondition to achieve income convergence in the European Union; however, so far research on this topic has nearly been absent. Our paper contributes to the literature by investigating the human capital convergence dynamics within the EU over the period...

This paper examines the number of licensed private cars in the economy per unit of GDP, or car intensity, as an intrinsic component of car use that may be underlying the observed peak car phenomenon. Using data on 88 countries from 1950 to 2010, I demonstrate that car intensity evolves in a...

As a basic element of the sustainable development of an area, the demographic component plays an essential role, being considered, most of the time, as representing its backbone. The stock of demographic resources, as well as their structure is a starting point in elaborating any alternative for...

We propose and test empirically a theory describing the endogenous formation and persistence of mega-states, using China as an example. We suggest that the relative timing of the emergence of agricultural societies, and their distance from each other, set off a race between their autochthonous...

Place-based attachments are important but often overlooked. Place-based attachments can be beneficial but often harm individuals tied to struggling areas. In this address, I discuss my own education and migration experiences and then more generally discuss sense of belonging as a friction to...

Expanding regional eligibility in the access to grants can have important consequences for the performance of firms. We examine a quasi-natural experiment that consisted of a redrawing of administrative areas intended to increase accessibility to European Union (EU) funds using a rich...

This paper considers a partitioned population and develops a decomposition of the Gini index in two components, which measure the within and the between groups inequality. Differently from the most widespread inequality measure decompositions, having a between component that compares the means...

This study aims at analysing possible synergies between the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Smart Specialisation Strategies for 2021- 2027 of Italian regions. Although Smart Specialisation Strategies are not explicitly mentioned in the Plan, we found that sixteen...