The study investigates disparities in social development in 144 countries worldwide. In the paper we aim to investigate cross-country differences in social development level in year 2011, as well as to estimate inequalities on the field. Secondly, we assess relative social development level...

In March 2005, riots erupted in South Korea against Japan for claiming sovereignty over some rocky uninhabited islets (0.23 km2). Five weeks earlier, riots did not erupt in South Korea when North Korea proved that it has nuclear weapons. How can we explain moral outrage in one case, when the...

The penal system has played a central role in the North Korean government’s response to the country’s profound economic and social changes. Two refugee surveys—one conducted in China, one in South Korea—document its changing role. The regime disproportionately targets politically suspect...

What do citizens of highly repressive regimes think about their governments? How do they respond to high levels of repression? This paper addresses these questions by examining the political attitudes of North Korean refugees. Unsurprisingly the evaluations of regime performance are negative,...

Despite North Korea’s turn away from economic reform and the constraints of the second nuclear crisis, the country has in fact become more economically open. But it has emphasized closer economic relations with China and other trading partners that show little interest in political...

On April 13-15, 2000 South and North Korean leaders met in Pyongyang for a meeting of peace ending over fifty years of hostilities. According to this meeting, South and North Korea were believed to be among the economies most directly affected by the world peace process. This had a large effect...

In recent years, BRIC countries have demonstrated high rates of economic growth, rapid increases in GDP per capita and growing capital accumulation, and have been playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. However, as middle-income countries (low-income in the case of India),...

This paper analyses the need, significance and the advantages of ‘reforms in institutional finance for inclusive growth’ in the context of Indian economy and offers some practicable suggestions from the functional perspective. India’s Rural Financial Architecture (RFA) is subject to...

With remittances to the developing countries reaching USD 251 billion in 2007, there has been a recent surge of interest to understand the effective channelization of this flow of remittances for providing a variety of financial services desirable to the poor households in the receiving regions,...

This paper investigates the extent of distortions in Russia's spatial economy that are inherited from the Soviet system. Using Canada as a benchmark for spatial dynamics of economic activity in a market economy, I construct the spatial allocation of population that would result in Russia, given...