Throughout most of history, women as a class have possessed relatively few formal rights. The women of ancient Sparta were a striking exception. Although they could not vote, Spartan women reportedly owned 40 percent of Sparta's agricultural land and enjoyed other rights that were equally...

Ökonomen und Politiker gehen heute nicht mehr von einer schnellen Angleichung der wirtschaftlichen Leistungsfähigkeit zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland aus. In der Tat zeigen viele aktuelle Studien, dass regionalökonomische Unterschiede sehr persistent, also kaum veränderbar sind. Dieser...

The notion of the 'Silk Road' that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen invented in the 19th century has lost attraction to scholars in light of large amounts of new evidence and new approaches. The handbook suggests new conceptual and methodological tools for researching ancient...

Piracy in international waters is on the rise again, in particular off the coast of Somalia. While the dynamic game between pirates, ship-owners, insurance firms and the military seems to have reached some kind of equilibrium, piracy risks generating significant negative externalities to third...