In Europe differences among countries in the overall change in happiness since the early 1980s have been due chiefly to the generosity of welfare state programs - increasing happiness going with increasing generosity and declining happiness with declining generosity. This is the principal...

This study examines whether social capital is an element that has a significant relationship with Brazilian states’ economic performance in the period of 1996 to 2008. The issue is addressed by the ideas of Bourdieu (1980, 1986), Coleman (1988, 1990) and Putnam et al. (1993), considering that...

The concept of social capital still suffers from its "original sin", the historical process that led it to an excessively broad definition. The aim of this study is to isolate some of the key components – interpersonal relationships – from other concepts that are usually improperly pooled...

In this paper we develop a formal model of economic growth and two types of social capital. Following extant literature, we model social capital as participation in two types of social networks: first, closed networks of family and friends, and, second, open networks that bridge different...

This research is an attempt to assess the impact of trust, helpfulness, and fairness on economic growth in Europe. The first part of the paper highlights the concept of social capital and the related concept of trust, while the second part gives an overview of selected research hitherto...

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the results of regional economic growth estimates at multiple spatial scales using spatial panel data models. The spatial scales examined are minimum comparable areas, micro-regions, meso-regions and states over the period between 1970 and 2000. Alternative...

Core infrastructure, which covers transportation, information and communication (ICT), energy, water and sanitation systems, plays a significant role in economic growth. The development of core infrastructure - one of the European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy (CP) priorities - is heavily funded....

In light of the United Nations' (UN) latest urbanization projections, par- ticularly with respect to India and the People's Republic of China, a good understanding is needed of what drives aggregate urbanization trends. Yet, previous literature has largely neglected the issue in favor of...

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the results of regional economic growth estimates at multiple spatial scales using spatial panel data models. The spatial scales examined are minimum comparable areas, micro-regions, meso-regions and states over the period between 1970 and 2000. Alternative...