The authors have studied the effects of global economic development on individuals and cultures for the last three decades and have concluded that the most strategic and effective way of building a more positive future is through economic localisation. Fundamentally, localisation is about...

Sustainability is usually constructed in terms of environmental preservation or of replicating a certain output level. To challenge the status-quo, we argue that it is a matter of preserving a certain version of social order, which can only be replicated by a trickle-down pattern of conspicuous...

This study undertakes a critical analysis of measures of environmental and sustainable socioeconomic welfare from the perspective of political economy. One of the prime motivations for such an inquiry is that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) provides an inadequate measure of social and ecological...

To help guide development of the Gross National Happiness (GNH), this paper analyzes Western economic systems. Drivers of environmental and social problems will be discussed with the goal of helping Bhutan avoid these pitfalls. The paper then suggests a strategy for developing the GNH as well as...

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Russia experienced a series of economic shocks, resulting in large decreases in output but limited change in employment. Using information contained in a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Russian citizens, this...

Using information contained in a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of Russian citizens, this research analyzes the determinants of unemployment duration during the early stages of economic transition. A competing-risks, discrete-time waiting model, augmented to incorporate...

This paper examines the changes in nutritional behavior of Russian adults over the ten-year transition period, between 1994 and 2004. We present evidence on the impact of individual as well as regional characteristics on changes in fat, protein, alcohol and cigarette consumption, and on...

During the ongoing post-communist economic transitions, the relative well-being of many people is changing rapidly, and governments are not well positioned to accurately measure individual living standards. Under such circumstances, continued price controls over basic consumer goods within the...

This paper examined the male-female differentials in hourly earnings in Russia from 1996 to 2002. The gender wage gap did not alter significantly in the earlier years, a period characterized by economic instability, but as the economy recovered, the differential in earnings increased initially....