This short essay examines the proposition that the transition process to a capitalist economic system in Eastern and Central European nations has introduced greater income inequality than in long-time capitalist nations at similar stages of development. In the empirical analysis I use comparable...

This essay argues that economic systems should be defined in terms of clusters of complementary institutions. To show how such an approach can be carried out, I use a cluster analysis technique and data on forty different economic institutions in OECD nations to isolate four quite different...

This essay argues that economic systems should be defined in terms of clusters of complementary institutions. To show how such an approach can be carried out, I use a cluster analysis technique and data on forty different economic institutions in OECD nations to isolate four quite different...

The new comparative economics has focused on individual institutions, rather than the economic system as a whole. This essay argues that economic systems should be defined in terms of clusters of complementary or covarying institutions. A cluster analysis of OECD countries using data on forty...

This short essay examines the proposition that the transition process to a capitalist economic system in Eastern and Central European nations has introduced greater income inequality than in long-time capitalist nations at similar stages of development. In the empirical analysis I use comparable...

Per capita gambling expenditures differ considerably among industrialized nations. Although such variation cannot be understood by reference to standard economic factors, a large part of these differences can be explained by two cultural variables. These are respectively related to the...

This essay focuses on two questions: How do the current economic systems and institutions of Islamic nations differ from those of other nations at roughly the same stage of economic development? And what is the impact of Islam on the economic and social performance of these nations? Using a...

This essay explores various components of a measure of pretax U.S. family income after adjusting for the size of the family in the U.S. in 1975 and 2000. Using data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, an important stylized fact is revealed: The rising inequality of property incomes,...

Drawing from a commercial database seldom used by economists, this note provides aggregate statistics for four dimensions of the worldwide explosion of industrial mergers: the overall volume, the median and average size of mergers, sectoral composition of mergers, and the countries where these...