Mit einem Umsatz von etwa 20 Mrd. € für das Geschäftsjahr 2000/2001 und mehr als 80.000 Mitarbeitern in 56 Ländern der Erde ist die Bertelsmann AG heute das internationalste Medienunternehmen der Welt. Vor allem in den vergangenen 15 Jahren ist das Unternehmen überproportional expandiert....

Using panel data for Peru for the period 1994-2000, we find that when households receive two or more services jointly, the welfare increases of the household, as measured by changes in consumption, are larger than when services are provided separately. Such an increase appears to be more than...

Unlike previous empirical studies that focus on barriers to entry in international trade, we focus on barriers to exit as measured by passport costs for a crosssection of countries. We test four common theories on the determinants of such exit barriers and find that macroeconomic and brain-drain...

This paper studies the link between television and divorce in Brazil by exploiting variation in the timing of availability of the signal of Rede Globo - the network that had a virtual monopoly on telenovelas in the country - across municipal areas. Using three rounds of Census data (1970, 1980...

Theories of economic growth hypothesize that the transition from pre-industrial stagnation to sustained growth is associated with a post-Malthusian phase in which technological progress raises income and spurs population growth while offsetting diminishing returns to labour. Evidence suggests...

This research explores the origins of the variation in the prevalence and nature of political institutions across globe. It advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that variation in the inherent diversity across human societies, as determined in the course of the exodus of Homo...