A review of research evidence suggests that low levels of educationalattainment are crucial in generating and sustaining social exclusion. Testscores at school are the most effective predictor of many adult outcomes.School attendance and soft skills are also important. Reviewing the...

Existing evidence showed that:- local environmental problems are widespread but worse in low-income areas- there is little evidence that wider environmental concerns are less in low-incomecommunities- residents in low-income areas often face different barriers and incentives for action fromthose...

Empirical evidence suggests that the natural-resource curse operates through the behaviorof the political elite, yet there are few models that convincingly illustrate the mechanismat work. I present a model where natural-resource abundance generates power struggles,thereby increasing the...

This paper examines whether and how socio-economic status is associated withchildren’s behavioural development in today’s children. Using a large cohort ofEnglish children born in the early 1990s we find significant social inequalities inseveral dimensions of child behaviour at age 7. We...

What is the origin and essence of fashion? This question has engaged scholars of various disciplines over the past decades, most of whom approach this subject with a Western or European focus. This paper argues instead that Asia was also pivotal in the articulation of the fashion system in...

This paper introduces various sources of consumer heterogeneity in one-sector representative consumer (RC) growth models and develops tools to study the evolution of the distribution of consumptions, assets and incomes.[...]

This paper specifies and estimates a structural dynamic model of consumer demand for newand used durable goods. Its primary contribution is to provide an explicit estimationprocedure for transaction costs, which are crucial to capturing the dynamic nature ofconsumer decisions. In particular,...

[...]This study is the first formal investigation ofconsumer attitudes that compares the forecasting power ofthe University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentimentand the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index.We begin with a background analysis of structural differencesbetween the...

Economic transition lowered happiness on average, but did not affect allequally. This paper uses Hungarian survey data to study the impact ofreligion and economic transition on happiness. Religious involvementcontributes positively to individuals’ self-reported well-being.Controlling for...