South Asiahosts the highest number of poor people yet it continues to attach priority to its defence spendings. The present study investigates the relationship between defence spendings, health care expenditures, research, and economic growth of 5 South Asian countries including Bangladesh,...

By studying the interaction between social capital and decentralization, we show that political decentralization can be a source of divergence across heterogeneous regions. In particular, we claim that since the local endowments of social capital display their effect on the economy mainly...

This paper analyzes the fiscal decentralization and equalization transfers in a two-region model of endogenous growth. In our model, two levels of government with different objectives are considered: the local governments maximize the utility of the residents of the region, and the central...

Shareholder democracy has blossomed. The once moribund shareholder franchise is now critical in takeover contests, merger decisions, and board oversight. However, the mechanisms of this vote remain largely undertheorized. In this Article, we use voting rights and social choice theory to develop...

Residential neighborhoods are defined as convex geographical areas containing similar populations and roughly homogenous housing markets. Neighborhoods are relevant largely because confidentiality requires spatial aggregation of data collected at the household level.A hedonic model using...

This report summarises the scientific content and results of the European Science Foundation Exploratory Workshop on 'Economic Geography and European Finance' held at Jesus College, Oxford University, 16-19 September 2004. The objective of the workshop was to further our understanding of the...

Spatial autoregressive hedonic models utilize house prices lagged in space and time to produce local house price indices: e.g., the STAR model might be used this way. This paper complements these models with a semiparametric approach, the Local Regression Model (LRM) designed to use large...

In the past year, local governments have made a foray into the hotly debated arena of immigration law and policy by adopting laws to address illegal immigration in their respective jurisdictions. Courts have struck down many of these laws on the grounds that they are preempted pursuant to a...

Recent experience with disasters and terrorist attacks in the US indicates that state and local governments rely on the federal sector for support after disasters occur. But these same governments are responsible for investing in infrastructure designed to reduce vulnerability to natural and...

This paper argues that making affordable home mortgage loans available to a large cross section of the population will serve both the redistributive and growth-enhancing objectives of poverty reduction policies. The current state of housing and mortgage markets in selected Middle East and North...