We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel data after controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happiness can be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A rise in income causes...

In der Diskussion um die hohe Arbeitslosigkeit geben in der Bundesrepublik die Pessimisten den Ton an. Niedrige Wachstumsraten und ein hohes Rationalisierungstempo, so lautet das Standardargument, würden den Mangel an Arbeitsplätzen weiter vergrößern. Dies muß nicht so sein. Am Beispiel des...

The international empirical evidence on the economics of education reveals one central insight and two puzzles, which are all relevant for the case of the Baltic States. The central insight is that social rates of return to education tend to be higher than the social opportunity costs of...

Die Herausforderung: Steigender Anpassungsdruck durch die Globalisierung der Märkte Die Globalisierung der Märkte wird in Europa vor allem deswegen als schmerzhaft empfunden, weil sie mehr Flexibilität auf den besonders geschützten Arbeitsmärkten erfordert. Unter Druck geraten vor allem...

Globalization improves the prospects for developing countries (DCs) to catch up economically with industrialized countries. But not all DCs will automatically benefit from globalization. Some DCs even face the risk of being delinked from the international division of labor. Differences in DC...

The strikingly different labor market performance of major industrial countries suggests that neither globalization nor skill-biased technological change necessarily result in rising unemployment or declining wages of low-skilled workers. Rather, globalization and technological change cause...

We find a U-shaped relation between happiness and religiosity in cross-country panel data after controlling for income levels. At a given level of income, the same level of happiness can be reached with high and low levels of religiosity, but not with intermediate levels. A rise in income causes...

Some recent empirical studies deny any direct performance effects of measures of geography and conclude that institutions trump all other potential determinants of development. For given effects of institutional quality, our empirical results indicate quantitatively important direct negative...

The empirical relation between happiness and religiosity is considered from the perspective of basic utility theory. An unbalanced cross-country panel data set is used to study whether religiosity can be considered as a substitute in the happiness function, which itself is held to be a proxy for...