Is tolerance important for modernization? What can one say about the relationship and causality between tolerance and modernization? It is assumed that an increase in tolerance, expressed as a tolerant attitude towards homosexuality, gender equality, and a decrease in xenophobia, has a...

The core idea of the paper is to put the social embeddedness of economic phenomena as a key concept in economic sociology at the heart of empirical research. The author stresses the importance of taking into account the temporal dimension of market exchange. It is shown that the continuation of...

It is now well established that highly developed countries tend to score well on measures of social capital and have higher levels of generalized trust. In turn, the willingness to trust has been shown to be correlated with various social and environmental factors (e.g. institutions, culture) on...

Institutions affect investment decisions, including investments in human capital. Hence institutions are relevant for the allocation of talent. Good market-supporting institutions attract talent to productive value-creating activities, whereas poor ones raise the appeal of rent-seeking. We...

The rise of Asian regionalism and Sino-American rivalry are determining trends in the Asia-Pacific region. Asian economic indicators remain stable and growing even during the severe global crisis of 2008 and have become more and more comparable to those of developed countries. The current trend...