Several theoretical and methodological perspectives have been used to understand the trans-formations occurred during the last 20 years in the Costa Rican State. This work aims to de-fine a coherent approach of such transformations in order to understand them and be able to offer possible...

Public infrastructure services have been subject to dramatic regulatory reform since the 1980s in the European Union, particularly privatization, at the national level, and increased liberalization and deregulation, via the Single Market Programme. Despite this ambitious reform programme, there...

This essay concerns the ways in which public services – particularly household services such as communications, energy, water and transportation – have been regulated and deregulated, and analyses what consequences this has for users and citizens. Much of the deregulation of public services...

This article analyses business strategies in the automobile sector to determine the key factors behind production relocation processes in automobile components suppliers. These factors help explain changes in production geography in the sector not only in terms of location advantages but also...

Variations between the diverse pension systems in the member states of the European Union hamper labour market mobility, across country borders but also within the countries of the European Union. From a macroeconomic perspective, and in the light of demographic pressure, this paper argues that...

Though the principle of gender equality is firmly established in the Indian Constitution, translating de jure gender equality and the promise of social, economic and political justice, into de facto reality has been one of India’s major challenges over the years, given a long background of an...

Empowerment of the poor entails three basic inter-linked dimensions – generation of employment (and income), reduction of poverty, and erasing inequality. The perspective has now undergone a basic change from the collective care mechanism of a paternalistic state intervention meted out from...

While research on happiness and capabilities has been growing rapidly, they seldom treated together for useful policy insights. Using a unique self-reported questionnaire about mental well being in the Pakistan Socio-Economic Survey (PSES), we measure Sen’s capabilities (freedom, functionings...

In India, over the years, the progress in women’s nutritional status has been less impressive and remains as a major problem for health policy. The dual burden of nutritional disorder of women in India is posing a serious challenge not only for nutritional policy but also for socio-economic...