This paper draws on a unique data set, hojok (household registers), to estimate numeracy levels in Korea, 1550-1630, and evidence on Japan and China from the early modern period until 1800. We found that a substantial share of East Asians rounded their ages to multiples of five. However, the...

This paper draws on a unique data set, hojok (household registers), to estimate numeracy levels in Korea, 1550-1630, and evidence on Japan and China from the early modern period until 1800. We found that a substantial share of East Asians rounded their ages to multiples of five. However, the...

Foreign aid has evolved considerably over the last five decades in response to a dramatically changing global political and economic context. This paper takes a retrospective look at this process and discusses whether aid has been effective in furthering economic growth and development. The...

We extend the Okada & Samreth (2012, EL) and Asongu (2012, EB) debate on ‘the effect of foreign aid on corruption’ by: not partially negating the former’s methodological underpinning (as in the latter’s approach) with a unifying empirical framework and; broadening the horizon of inquiry...

Prior to the early part of the 19th century, China’s economy had long been superior to that of the West’s. The Chinese’s ability to utilize science and technology had been instrumental in leading their enormous population to economic prosperity and for a while, superiority. During the 18th...

Empirical evidence suggests that poorer countries have larger portions of predation. We formulate a neoclassical growth model in which agents devote time either to produce or predate. When the elasticity of substitution between labor and capital is lower than one, the labor share rises with...

This paper considers the evidence on the comparative extent to which faith-based civil society organizations (FB-CSOs) have benefited from increased funding related to the HIV/AIDS response in Africa. First, we review the literature on whether FB-CSOs have benefited from such funding, and find...

Purpose – The issue of which financial initial conditions are necessary to materialize the benefits of financial globalization remains open to debate in the literature. In this paper, we try to put some empirical structure on the concept of financial threshold conditions in order to give...

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the least integrated economy in the Asia-Pacific region, whose intraregional trade was only 5.6 per cent in 2006. In order to estimate potential trade of the SAARC Member Countries (SMCs), we have estimated “behind the border”...