Since 1990, 2.1 billion people in the world gained access to improved sanitation. However, 2.4 billion people still do not use a basic toilet. We examine whether the country differences in the sanitation index existing in 1990 has been reduced and if so, how fast. We deploy the convergence...

In a majority of the existing research on entrepreneurship start-up, entry “cost”, “time”, and “procedures” were analyzed as the primary barriers against a greater rate of new business start-ups. We examine whether the country differences in the start-up barriers existing in 2003...

Terrestrial protected areas are an important tool for biodiversity conservation. Recent expansion of terrestrial projection areas is such that fifty countries have already reached or exceeded the 17% target to be realized by 2020. This research examines whether countries with low level of...

Marine Protected Areas are central to conservation in oceans and seas and serve as protected areas for fish populations. The rapid growth of Marine Protected Areas has been guided by several leading countries in recent years. This research examines whether countries with low level of protection...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transition of economic freedom indexes themselves among countries in the world instead of their economic effect. The three central questions of this study are: Do economic freedom sub-indexes converge? Do some sub-indexes of economic freedom display...

The Millennium Development Goals by the United Nations included a global target for Improved Water Source to reach 88% of global population by 2015. By 2010, the global target was reached. However, there are still millions of people lacking the improved access to drinking water. We propose the...

By far, the most popular type of corruption measurements used is Corruption Perception Index published annually since 1995 by Transparency International. We examine whether country differences of the Corruption Perception Index existing in 2003 has narrowed by 2015 and if so, how fast. We deploy...

Under a wide variation of overfished stocks by countries and regions, this research examines whether regions and countries with low overfished ratios are increasing their fishing output to catch-up to regions and countries with higher overfished ratios. For the total group of 131 countries, the...