Time-consuming and costly religious rituals pose a puzzle for economists committed to rational choice theories of human behavior. We propose that religious rituals promote in-group trust and cooperation that help to overcome collective-action problems. We test this hypothesis on communal...

The in-group-out-group bias is among the most well documented and widely observed phenomenon in the social sciences. Despite its role in hiring decisions and job discrimination, negotiations, and conflict and competition between groups, economists have heretofore ignored the in- group-out-group...

The institution of slavery displays a puzzling historical pattern: it is found mostly at intermediate stages of agricultural development, in horticultural societies, and less frequently among hunter-gatherers and societies at more advanced agrarian stages. We explain this rise-and- fall pattern...

The institution of slavery displays a puzzling historical pattern: it is found mostly at intermediate stages of agricultural development, in horticultural societies, and less frequently among hunter-gatherers and societies at more advanced agrarian stages. We explain this rise-and- fall pattern...

THIS PAPER ENUNERATES THE SEQUENTIAL HISTORIC ORIGIN OF OSUMENYI VILLAGE AND ITS CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND ECONOMIC PRACTICES. IN OTHERWORDS, THE PAPER WILL HELP TO CLARIFY SOME OF THE SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGES AND ECONOMIC CHANGES THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE IN OSUMENYI'S HISTORY. THE PAPER RECOMMENDS THE...

This paper analyses the dynamics of wage and income inequality in Slovenia from 1993 to 2002, using two different data sources. The first is obtained by extracting relevant information on wage earners from the personal income tax (PIT) database and the second is obtained using published data on...

The paper demonstrates the effects that the largely ignored, phenomenon of subsistence farming can have on agricultural development in countries in transition. The problem of subsistence consists of the different economic behaviour of subsistence farms compared to commercial ones. The paper...

The paper considers the problem of subsistence and semi-subsistence farming in Central and Easter Europe. The latter is analysed in terms of the institutional characteristics of the transition process. The concepts of institutions and institutional change are clarified and subsistence...