This paper mainly examines the economic ideas and models brought forward by the always controversial global financier George Soros. The aim is to first explore whether in fact Soros has developed over time a well- articulated model for development based on a coherent system of beliefs and...

We use recent immigration data from 195 countries and propose an index of population diversity based on people's birthplaces. This new index is then decomposed into a size (share of foreign born) and a variety (diversity of immigrants) component and is available for 1990 and 2000 disaggregated...

Economic development is one of the main aims of economic policy in many countries around the world. By strengthening the process of economic development, we can bring the state on the path of sustainable growth and ensure stability and security in it. The paper analyzes the main indicators of...

Maddison's international panel data show that technically it was the faster growth rate of the US economy that led to its overtaking the UK as economic superpower. We explore the contributing factors. Identifying the land-grant colleges system triggered by the 1862/1890 Morrill Acts (MAs) as a...

The present paper provides an overview of literature on the shift to services. It follows the three dimensions of structural change - final demand, the inter-industry division of labor and inter-industry productivity differences. It first looks at the ?classics?, however (Fisher (1935), Clark...

During the 1950-70s Norway had relatively low GDP per capita compared to the OECD average and even more so compared to Denmark and Sweden. During the 1970s there was a significant catch-up in incomes and from the early 1990s a take-off in relative income. Norway is currently ranked among the...

In this paper, I discuss the reasons for Costa Rica's economic performance over the last quarter of a century. Three complementary sets of policies (investments in human capital, careful stabilization, and an intelligent and aggressive integration into the world economy) explain the successful...

China has been growing at high rates during the previous three decades. The current process of rebalancing from an investment- and manufacturing-led growth model towards a consumption- and service-led model is associated with decreasing growth rates. We show that China's current state of...

Research background: Economic development in sub-Saharan Africa is of para-mount importance, yet it escapes most of the attempts to understand it better in the economic discourse and it remains a sensitive issue in politics, contradicting stake holders on national and international levels. The...