In this paper we take a fresh look at the magnitude of the trade-off between caring informally for a parent and paid work. We adopt a simultaneous approach with a primary focus on how hours of care are influenced by hours of work rather than the other way round. We also investigate the role that...

This paper asks to what extent life satisfaction among immigrants remains similar to that in their country of origin and to what extent it adapts to that in their country of residence. We employ data from 29,000 immigrants in the European Social Survey to estimate the relative importance of...

This paper explores new data sources on multi-lateral trade in films among EU countries and with the US in offline cinema and in online video-on-demand (VoD) distribution. We observe variations in trade patterns across countries and films and explore how they affect cultural diversity. We find...

In recent years, a number of major terrorist attacks in EU member states has put the fight against homegrown and international terrorism at the top of the agenda of European policy-makers. This paper analyzes the costs of terrorism in the European Union from both a theoretical and empirical...

In pre-industrial Europe the technology of war advanced at an unusually rapid pace. The period's almost incessant warfare ensured a strong demand for improvements in the technology of war. At the same time, rapid economic development created an environment that was conducive to the supply of...

We document that existing gender equality indexes do not take into account gender-specific mandatory peace-time conscriptions. This suggests that gender-specific conscription is not considered to be an important gender issue. If an indicator measuring the gender equality of mandatory...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused Governments to contemplate measures to override patents and other intellectual property rights (IPRs) in order to facilitate production and distribution of vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and medical devices. This paper discusses whether the COVID-19 pandemic...

This paper studies the causes and consequences of political centralization and fragmentation in China and Europe. We argue that a severe and unidirectional threat of external invasion fostered centralization in China while Europe faced a wider variety of smaller external threats and remained...

While there is a rich literature on the benefits of empire in terms of the provision of key public goods—notably security for international trade—the costs have been downplayed. In this paper, we focus on merchant shipping data between Canada and Britain between 1764 and 1860 to measure...