This research establishes that the emergence, prevalence, recurrence, and severity of intrastate conflicts in the modern era reflect the long shadow of prehistory. Exploiting variations across national populations, it demonstrates that genetic diversity, as determined predominantly during the...

This research argues that deep-rooted factors, determined tens of thousands of years ago, had a significant effect on the course of economic development from the dawn of human civilization to the contemporary era. It advances and empirically establishes the hypothesis that, in the course of the...

This paper develops a unified model of growth, population, and technological progress that is consistent with long-term historical evidence. The economy endogenously evolves through three phases. In the Malthusian regime, population growth is positively related to the level of income per capita....

Conventional wisdom about the relationship between income distribution and economic development has been subjected to dramatic transformations in the past century. While classical economists advanced the hypothesis that inequality is beneficial for growth, the neoclassical paradigm dismissed the...

A model of optimal allocation of investment across regions is developed. It is shown that the optimality conditions may lead to increasing inequalities at the spatial level. Introducing an element of endogenous innovation dualistic situation emerges. An empirical analysis, using data for the...

This paper investigates the extent of regional cohesion amongst European regions; an issue of emerging importance in the fast growing literature on regional economics. This paper aims toshed some further light on the question of regional cohesion by taking into account the impactof the existing...

This paper offers a new perspective on the issue of urban sustainability. Starting from a positive perspective on city life, it makes a typology of critical roles of the city that are to be considered with a view to urban sustainability. Next, it is argued that a sine qua non for a structured...

Biodiversity has received much attention in environmental research and public policy in recent years. There is a world-wide interest in its relevance for the carrying capacity of rich but fragile ecosystems. Voices suggesting building up proper protection mechanisms for unique and scarce...

In this paper the concept of total economic value of an environmental asset is introduced. The different valuation methods, putting a monetary value on environmental resources as a nonmarket good are also reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on policy-making and the link of contingent...