This timely and important Handbook takes stock of progress made in our understanding of what sustainable development actually is and how it can be achieved. Twenty years on from the publication of the seminal Brundtland Report, it has become clear that formidable challenges confront policy...

Governments can significantly reduce earthquake mortality by implementing and enforcing quake-proof construction regulation. The authors examine why many governments do not. Contrary to intuition, controlling for the strength and location of actual earthquakes, mortality is lower in countries...

We revisit the old and well-established theory of free-riding in military alliances. Existing empirical evidence infers free-riding from the larger military expenditures per gross domestic product of countries of larger size. Yet, larger countries have broader military and geo-strategic...

We develop an index measuring the three main dimensions of governments' anti-trafficking policies – prosecution, protection and prevention – for up to 180 countries over the 2000-2010 period. Overall, developed countries perform better than the rest of the world; compliance with prosecution...

Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is unlike accession to other international organizations. It is extremely demanding on applicant countries, time consuming and essentially power- rather than rule-based. This article argues that existing WTO members select themselves into the...