"In These Times magazine has charted a staggering rise in inequality and the fall of the American middle class. Here, in a selection from four decades of articles by investigative reporters and progressive thinkers, is the story of our age. It is a tale of shockingly successful corporate...

In this dissertation I present novel findings that analyze the effects of insurances on the resilience to shocks and household's risk taking behavior. Moreover, the question is raised as to whether there could actually be something good about shocks, as they could trigger processes of social...