In Latin America and the Caribbean anecdotal evidence from business leaders, the press, and numerous government reports suggest many firms express a serious concern that they face internal employee skills deficiencies that limit performance, a phenomenon that has been labeled as a “skills...

This article traces the evolution of knowledge-based economic development in the Arab World. In pursuing this objective, many countries in the region have made large state-driven human capital investments with the goals of job creation, economic integration, economic diversification,...

The purpose of this paper is to examine, empirically, the dynamics of the soviet urban system in light of the rank-size distribution hypothesis and to extend the analysis initiated by HARRIS on the U.S.S.R. to the Republic of Ukraine. The first part of this paper will present a brief recall of...

This paper discusses why Nicaragua is today one of the poorest countries in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Lack of sustained economic growth is viewed as the main cause of poverty in the country. The effects of political conflicts on the breaks of the long term growth path are...

Brazil is frequently portrayed as exhibiting persistent and structural economic inequality that is rooted in the early colonial experience, and is believed to undermine development in the long run. I construct original measures of agricultural inequality for 1905 in what is today Brazil’s...

The article considers alternative variants of strategy formation: "modernization from above" and an approach based on the interaction of "coalitions of interests". To use the advantages of both approaches, it is suggested that a system of interactive control of growth be designed. It should be...

Innovation policy forms a foundation, and probably the most important one, of economic development in any society, especially in today’s society driven by information and communication technologies (ICT). The Schumpeterian processes of creative destruction need stewardship – creative...

This paper describes the methods used to construct an index to measure the maritime potential of nations. This prototype uses a limited number of variables to measure (a) the locational advantage of having a long coastline in comparison to the landmass (Maritime Potential Index MPI) , (b) the...

I investigate the effects of Vietnam War’s veteran on long run economic development in Vietnam. Using a unique dataset containing the number of war invalids at province levels, I find the number of war invalids from each province to be an important determinant of its current economic...

This paper uses cross-country data from 1984 to 2008 to examine how institution influences the number of deaths caused by natural disasters. The major findings show that the number of deaths resulting from natural disasters is smaller in countries with less public sector corruption, and for OECD...