This policy brief argues in favor of a new urban model that harnesses the power that cities have to curb global warming. Such a model tackles fundamental management challenges in the energy, building and transport sectors to promote the growth of diverse and compact cities. Such a model is...

This paper surveys recent research on decentralization and natural disasters. The first part discusses results from theoretical models that have been used to study the issues that arise when natural disasters occur in a country with more than one level of government. The next section discusses...

In early February, 2007, Hershey’s Chocolate Company announced its global supply-chain transformation plan that would cut more than 1500 jobs from its plants in Canada and the United States. Smiths Falls, the Chocolate Capital of Canada, is losing its Hershey factory this year together with...

Small world networks have attracted much theoretical attention and are widely thought to enhance creativity. Yet empirical studies of their evolution and evidence of their benefits remain scarce. Using patent co-authorship data, we explore regional small-world structures and investigate the...

I will address eight common claims about bitcoin: 1. Physical bitcoins exist; 2. The founder of bitcoin is a person called Satoshi Nakamoto; 3. Bitcoin is mainly used for criminal activity; 4. A lack of security plagues bitcoin; 5. Mining is a waste of energy; 6. Bitcoin too small today to be an...

Religion is the most paradox, intriguing and social active factor in the world history since the beginning of human society and till the end of it, no matter how evolved or primitive its precepts ever were. For that reason Religion was always a subject for endless study in different perspectives...

We provide a novel test for the impact of wealth-destroying natural disasters on college decisions using Hurricane Harvey (Aug-Sep 2017). First, we compare enrollment and graduation outcomes at Texas public universities and colleges according to their student share from disaster-affected...

Civil unrest is a powerful form of collective human dynamics, which has led to major transitions of societies in modern history. The study of collective human dynamics, including collective aggression, has been the focus of much discussion in the context of modeling and identification of...

Microfinance promises to trim down poverty. To achieve this noble objective microfinance institutions (MFIs) have to become steady profitable because donor constancy is not a given. Thus important question is: what factors drive the financial sustainability of MFIs? Using data on 217 MFIs in 101...

Food is one of the most primal ways to transmit culture and traditions and thus has vital and even cross-generational importance for us. Nevertheless, many of us have gone beyond relating to food as a primal need. So, in this age of abundance, food is either under-appreciated as epitomized by...