European Enlightenment thinkers were right in stressing the political dimension of inequality, rather than referring to "natural differences" as some others did after them in the 19th or 20th centuries. Drawing from recent theoretical and empirical contributions in social sciences and in...

This paper argues against a natural resource curse for human development. We find evidence that changes in human development from 1970 to 2005, proxied by changes in the Human Development Index, are positively and significantly correlated with natural resource abundance. While our results are...

As often argued, a negative perception of immigration, or even emigration, prevails public opinions and governments in most countries. It is argued that caused by economic hardship or political hardship or political unrest in countries of origin, it would threaten well-being and identity in...

Poverty is often regarded as the "root cause" of trafficking, but the linkages between poverty, lack of development and trafficking are complex. For example, there is some evidence to suggest that victims of cross-border trafficking are more likely to originate from middle-income rather than...

Women are increasingly significant as national and international migrants, and it is now evident that the complex relationship between migration and human development operates in genderdifferentiated ways. However, because migration policy has typically been gender-blind, an explicit gender...

This paper examines the process of feminization of South American intra-regional migration, with emphasis in the Southern Cone. It describes recent changes and trends, and addresses some of the most salient issues on the participation and experiences of female migrants. It deals with the social...

Human Development, if not engendered, is endangered. That is the simple but far-reaching message of Human Development Report 1995. The Report analyses the progress made in reducing gender disparities in the past few decades, highlighting the wide and persistent gap between women's expanding...

Transition economies have an initial condition of high human capital relative to GDP per capita. But they will not necessarily realize their latent high growth potential. In the model, at a good equilibrium a large number of children of well-educated parents take advantage of their family...

Many countries in the developing world, those undergoing transition from planned to market systems and even those in the industrialised west, experience periods in which a substantial proportion of the workforce suffer wage arrears. We examine the implications for estimates of wage relativities...

We investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade, as two measures of globalization, on female labor force participation in a sample of 80 developing countries over the last decades. Contrary to the mainstream view in the literature, which is mainly based on country-case...