This paper provides a broad empirical examination of the major currencies' roles in international capital markets, with a special emphasis on the first year of the euro. A contribution is made as to how to measure these roles, both for international financing as well as for international...

In a majority of the existing research on entrepreneurship start-up, entry “cost”, “time”, and “procedures” were analyzed as the primary barriers against a greater rate of new business start-ups. We examine whether the country differences in the start-up barriers existing in 2003...

Terrestrial protected areas are an important tool for biodiversity conservation. Recent expansion of terrestrial projection areas is such that fifty countries have already reached or exceeded the 17% target to be realized by 2020. This research examines whether countries with low level of...

Marine Protected Areas are central to conservation in oceans and seas and serve as protected areas for fish populations. The rapid growth of Marine Protected Areas has been guided by several leading countries in recent years. This research examines whether countries with low level of protection...

The Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations included a global target for Improved Water Source to reach 88% of global population by 2015. By 2010, the global target was reached. However, there are still millions of people lacking the improved access to drinking water. We propose the...

Two measures of fine particulate matter, PM2.5 exposure and PM2.5 exceedance are used to analyze convergence patterns of 212 and 108 countries during the period of 2000 to 2014. For PM2.5 exposure, sigma index diverges at the annual rate of 1.07%, while gamma index converges at -0.5% rate. For...

Sustainable Development Goals adopted by The United Nations seek to protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species by 2020. Several countries even in the 1990s began expanding species protection to reach the 2020 goal early. This research investigates whether countries with low level...