This paper proposes a theoretical framework of the factors affecting the gap between the rich and the poor in the European Union, and utilizes a twelve-year panel (2000-2012) of 27 countries to identify the short-term effects of the macroeconomic performance, the level of household income...

Based on the various works on the relevance of the institutional arrangements for a country’s economic performance, this paper studies the role and the determinants of the reform policies for the development paths of the transition countries. Looking at the U.S.S.R breakdown as an extremely...

Despite the considerable interest in the concept of human development, there has been little research on the political determinants of its dimensions. This paper investigates the role played by the type of political systems on the non-income components of human development. In particular it...

The aim of this paper is to assess the importance of economic institutions, measured by an index built from the E.B.R.D. (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) indicators, for the pattern of economic growth. Though it focuses on a particular set of transition economies, it is also...

Understanding the reasons underlying income inequality has generated considerable interest in the last years and various theoretical analyses have been developed to explain international differences in income distribution between groups of countries at different stages of economic development....

For almost two decades, starting from the early ‘90s, Italy experienced the strongest wave of decentralization reforms in its post II World War history. The causes were both economic and political. Yet, in recent years, again economic and political causes seem to call for opposite reforms....

This paper investigates the economic consequences of workplace accidents in the British labour market. For the empirical analysis, I use data on employment and earnings from the British Household Panel Survey and exploit fixed effects estimators to control for time-invariant unobserved...

Analyzing the topological properties of the network of shareholding relationships among the Euro Area banks we evaluate the relevance of a bank in the ?nancial system respect to ownership and control of other banks. We ?nd that the degree distribution of the European banking network displays...