This paper develops a measure of social capital based on economic relationships and analyzes its effects on growth. Investment in social capital is modeled by using the conceptual framework for measuring physical capital services. The measure of social capital depends on expectations of income,...

The inverted-U shaped relationship between environment and economic growth has been well established in the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) literature for several local air pollutants, such as suspended particulate matter. Very few studies, however, tested the EKC relationship for biomass...

The debate of environmental issues and their analysis is of vital interest for economic policies. Institutions are engaged in identifying and estimating the extent of environmental impact of determinants controllable via policy measures. Annual data from the on Carbon Dioxide emission, economic...

Economic growth does not necessarily ensure environmental sustainability for a country. The relationship between the two is far more complicated for developing countries like India, given the dependence of a large section of the population on natural resources. Under this backdrop, the current...

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze one important part of the emerging environmental problems in China--- water pollution. The importance of water for any nation is obvious. In case of China it acquires particular salience because of China’s industrial needs as well as human needs....

Economic growth does not necessarily ensure environmental sustainability for a country. The relationship between the two is far more complicated for developing countries like India, given the dependence of a large section of the population on natural resources for livelihood. Under this...

Do reduced costs of factor mobility mitigate ‘Dutch Disease’ symptoms? The case of federations provides an indication for this. By investigating ‘Resource Curse’ effects in all federations for which complete data is available at the regional level it is observed that within federations...

Natural resource abundance is a blessing for some countries, yet is a curse for others. The degree of fiscal decentralization may account for this divergent outcome. Resources tend to locate in remote, non-agglomerated, and sparsely populated areas; a high degree of fiscal decentralization gives...

Following Max Weber, many theories have hypothesized that Protestantism should have favored economic development. With its religious heterogeneity, the Holy Roman Empire presents an ideal testing ground for this hypothesis. Using population figures of 272 cities in the years 1300–1900, I find...

In this paper , we consider an economic growth model with human capital accumulation , positive externalities and a cultural system of social norms . We show that endogenous rational emergence of this cultural belief may lead to increasing the stock of human capital and hence accelerating...