In this paper, we examine the role of the business cycle in divorce. To do so, we use a panel of 30 European countries covering the period from 1991 to 2010. We find a negative effect of the unemployment rate on the divorce rate, pointing to a pro-cyclical evolution of the divorce rate, even...

Following Max Weber, many theories have hypothesized that Protestantism should have favored economic development. With its religious heterogeneity, the Holy Roman Empire presents an ideal testing ground for this hypothesis. Using population figures of 272 cities in the years 1300–1900, I find...

Economic growth and unemployment exhibit an ambiguous relationship – according to empirical studies. This ambiguity can be investigated by observing the role of the underground economy in shaping the productivity of firms. Indeed, unemployment may be absorbed by underground firms, which adopt...

The findings of the existing literature on the relationship between employment protection legislation and the unemployment rate are mixed. This study analyzes the relationship between employment protection legislation measured by the OECD Employment Protection Index and the unemployment rate...

This paper explores the non-linear relationship between financial development and economic growth. It mainly relies on the Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model of Gonzalés et al. (2005) and three metrics of financial development to endogenously assess the impact of financial...

In this book the author analyses three very important aspects of transition: human resources, foreign investments and financial sector. At the beginning there is an analysis of investments in human resources. It starts by definition and types of human resources, and continues with definition of...

The relation of the Greek employment policy to the European one, as it was formulated within EES and the Lisbon strategy, was a particular one. The Greek employment policy fully adopted the form, the structure and the discourse of the EES but it was only marginally influenced by the “way of...

This article analyzes the relationship between growth and income distribution in developing countries. Three important hypotheses are scrutinized: The U-hypothesis, the absolute income hypothesis and the hypothesis of conflict between growth and a more equal income distribution. After a review...

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...

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between Oil revenues, government spending and GDP growth in the kingdom of Bahrain. Oil revenues are the main source of financing government expenditures and imports of products. Increasing oil prices in the recent years have...