This volume was prepared by Thomas Steinwachs while he was working at the ifo Center for International Economics. It was completed in September 2018 and accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich (LMU). It is a collection of four self-contained...

Sovereign nations grow faster than non-sovereign ones. When Pakistan ceded economic management to the IMF in the late 1980s, the turn to neo-liberalism led to 14 years of decline in long-run rate of investment and growth from which it hasn't recovered. This cost the economy an estimated $75.6...

In this paper we estimate the income distributional effects of the common agricultural policy (CAP) for farmers and landowners. First, we theoretically analyse the level of farmers' and landowners' gains from coupled and decoupled payments. Second, using a unique farm level panel data set from...

Following the discussion on reurbanization (changing intra-regional migration patterns), our research project treats transport-related consequences of this spatial development in German city regions. The hypothesis is that reurbanization bears potential to spread environmentally friendly ways of...

In assessing drivers of commodity prices and volatility at this stage of the current super-cycle in commodities (year 12 of a projected 25), it is vital to understand that production cost is a fundamental. Moreover, marginal production costs are among the most powerful drivers of commodity...

We study the impact of human capital and the level of education on the pollution-income relationship controlling for income inequality in 17 OECD countries. By applying an innovative approach to country grouping, based on the temporal evolution of income inequality and clustering techniques to...

What are the drivers of growth and convergence in productivity at regional level? Differences in the stock of human capital across regions are hypothesized to be the major cause of differences in the speed by which following regions converge and catch-up with the most advanced ones. In addition,...

This paper contributes to the new literature on the role of personality for regional innovativeness by examining whether this role varies between different types of regions. Building on regionally aggregated levels of individual Big Five personality traits, we find that only extraversion has a...

We estimate the relationship between urban spatial expansion and its socio-economic determinants in Lombardy, the most urbanised region of Italy (and one of the most urbanized of the European Union), at the municipality level. Test results suggest that this relationship varies significantly...

We estimate the relationship between urban spatial expansion and its socio-economic determinants in Lombardy, the most urbanised region of Italy (and one of the most urbanized of the European Union), at the municipality level. Test results suggest that this relationship varies significantly...