Cities have a pivotal role to play in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. Smart city solutions can help enable and accelerate the net-zero transition by, among many others, curtailing energy use, accelerating the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, improving resource efficiency,...

While the worldwide spread of smartphones continues, developing countries have become important markets for these devices. Smartphones’ independence of landline networks qualifies them for communication and Internet access in rural areas of developing countries. Drawing upon rural Southeast...

We analyze investment decisions when information is costly, with and without delegation to an agent. We use a rational-inattention model and compare it with a canonical signal-extraction model. We identify three "investment conditions". In "sour" conditions, no information is acquired and no...

Owing to past structural reforms, Costa Rica has enjoyed robust GDP growth and productivity levels are gradually converging towards the OECD average. However, large GDP per capita and productivity gaps persist. In addition, not everyone has benefited from this growth. Inequality has increased...

This survey reviews the existing literature, identifying the contribution of agriculture, schooling, and nutrition to economic growth and development over time and across countries. Particular attention is paid to the roles of improvements in agricultural technology and of the human capital of...

We study the effect of railroad access on urban population growth. Using GIS techniques, we match triennial population data for roughly 1,000 cities in nineteenth-century Prussia to georeferenced maps of the German railroad network. We find positive short- and long-term effects of having a...

Background: This study examines the relationship between insurance market density (IMD) and economic growth. Methods: We employed Granger causality technique in 19 Eurozone countries for the period 1980-2014. We use three different indicators of IMD, namely life insurance density, non-life...

This paper analyzes the implications of advertising for firm dynamics and economic growth through its interaction with R&D investment at the firm level. We develop a model of endogenous growth with firm heterogeneity that incorporates advertising decisions. We calibrate the model to match...

This work looks at emerging growth companies through the perspective of the dynamics leading up to an inflection point, with emphasis on negative results. Milestones in a company's growth, like a prototype product, the first sale of a product, financial sustainability, and capturing a targeted...

Since the mid-1990s value added has grown faster in the Swedish business sector than in most other OECD countries. We investigate the association between information and communications technology (ICT) and research and development (R&D) capital and value added in the Swedish non-farm business...