We discuss political economy mechanisms which can explain the resource curse,in which an increase in the size of resource rents causes a decrease in the economy’stotal value added. We identify a number of channels through which resource rentswill alter the incentives of a political leader....

Die Zielstellung einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung erfordert die Berücksichtigung verschiedener Besonderheiten bei der Entscheidungsfindung. Eine wesentliche Anforderung ist hierbei die Integration mehrerer Ziele bzw. Entscheidungskriterien. Für die Unterstützung komplexer Entscheidungen stehen...

This paper revises the traditional view of Spain as a predatorycolonial state that extracted revenue from natural resources andpopulations in the Americas while offering little in return. Using 18thcentury Spanish American treasury accounts we show that localelites not only exerted important...

For over a decade, The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, Washington's preeminent think tank, have tracked the march of economic freedom around the world with the influential Index of Economic Freedom. Since 1995, the Index has brought Smith's theories about liberty, prosperity and...

In this paper we question the consensus of using a binary crisisdefinition for empirical crisis models. We believe that the most severeshortcomings of the crisis models today are in the crisis definition rather than the explanatory variables ...

Water is a vital resource for human existence on earth. The importance of this resource to the wellbeingof mankind and the general scarcity of drinking water which is expected to grow requires thepublic to reflect on the best ways to address demand and supply issues. Therefore, the discourse...

The working report looks at the actual situation of the German water market, the only infrastructuremarket the EU has not encouraged to deregulate until now. Especially importantfactors are the environmental relevance of the water market and the importance of water as afood. At the moment,...