Sanitation is at the heart of not only environmental security but also food security and health. Today about 41% of the global population or about 2.6 billion people do not have access to toilets and about 42,000 people die every week due to drinking water polluted with faecal matter. The...

In this paper we present a vision for the course Europe should take in its research and higher education policies in order to fully live up to the expectations of its citizens to provide a safe, comfortable, affluent and sustainable environment in this period of considerable financial restraint...

Many countries are currently exploring their diaspora's potential to contribute to local development processes. These countries face numerous challenges in effectively engaging their diasporas such as a lack of experience and resources. Conflict-affected countries, however, face legacies from...

It is well-known that the extent of credit lent to private agents differs widely between countries. The `financial deepening' of the economy offers opportunities as well as financial risks. This study investigates the extent to which institutional characteristics are re- lated to countries'...

The economic reality of the 1990s in Europe forced the labour markets to become more flexible. Using a consistent comparative dataset for 14 European countries, the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), we explore the evolution and the cross-national differences in earnings mobility across...

The concerns regarding the economic insecurity stemming from earnings instability have been gaining momentum in the contemporary political discourse. If earnings instability is as a proxy for risk, for risk-averse individuals, increasing earnings instability bears substantial welfare costs....

Inequality in earned wages is in our western society on the increase. Social mobility is on the decrease. The contribution of education to equality of opportunity is decreasing, because education adapts more slowly to the increasing complexities of our societies than the home and social...

This paper analyzes periods of economic stagnation in a panel of countries. We test if stagnation episodes are predicted by institutional factors and external/internal shocks, as is implied by recent theoretical contributions, and compare the impacts of these variables with those of traditional...

In this paper, we test the Rodrik et al (2004) framework to explain differences in development levels across countries by using a broader set of definitions for institutions, geography and economic variables. We use a multi-faceted database to measure institutions in an attempt to go beyond the...

UK climate change policy has long been concerned with the transition to a more sustainable energy mix. The degree of competition in electricity markets rises as these markets become more and more liberalized. In order to survive in such an increasingly competitive setting, electricity producers...