This papers sheds light on the puzzling evidence that even though open source software (OSS) is a public good, it is developed for free by highly qualified, young and motivated individuals, and evolves at a rapid pace. We show that once OSS development is understood as the private provision of a...

Agricultural productivity in 41 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries from 1960 to 1999 is examined by estimating a semi-nonparametric Fourier production frontier. Over the four decades the estimated rate of productivity change was 0.83% per year, although the average rate from 1985-99 was a strong...

Since Barley’s use of Giddens in 1986, structurational approaches have become an important theoretical perspective within the IS research community. This paper introduces an intermediate theory of this stream through three socio-technical archetypes, i.e. stylised socio-technical situations...

This paper carries out an empirical assessment of the relationship between social capital and the quality of economic development in Italy. The analysis draws on a dataset collected by the author including about two hundred variables representing different aspects of economic development and...

As a result of changes in the labour market connected with on-going socio-political transformations, the welfare state is no longer able to fulfil its traditional mandate. The focus of debate has thus shifted to civil society, which aims to involve citizens more strongly in the design and...

Current evidence on the relationships between growth and inequality is predominantly based on cross-country data sets or panel data sets covering a small number of time periods. But these relationships, being fundamentally dynamic in nature, need to be considered over a much longer time horizon....

The goal is to try to give inputs on a global problem: eradicating poverty on a global scale. That is, to find evidence and discuss complex problems regarding cronic poverty, a major source of instability in our world today, and to put forward what could be some possible solutions. The aim of...

This paper demonstrates that the delivery of hardware inputs to Ghana’s basic education system – building classrooms and supplying textbooks – has had a substantial impact on higher enrollments and better learning outcomes. The Bank’s support for school building has been a major factor...

Is industrial production relatively in decline? No, it is not. This note displays the evidence that for the last 40 years, in the 6 largest economies of the world, industrial production has kept pace with total output.

The Business Model Handbook (BMH) for developing countries is a proposition for a tool that has the goal to help Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME) and local entrepreneurs to design business models that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and particularly the Internet in...