Recent studies in psychology and neuroscience find that fictional works exert strong influence on readers and shape their opinions and worldviews. We study the Potterian economy, which we compare to economic models, to assess how Harry Potter books affect economic literacy. We find that some...

Recent development cooperation with Guinea-Bissau, focusing on good governance, statebuilding and conflict prevention, did not contribute to democratization nor to the stabilization of volatile political, military and economic structures. The portrayal of Guinea- Bissau as a failed...

Funktionale Differenzierung gilt nicht nur als das zentrale Alleinstellungsmerkmal moderner Gesellschaften, sondern auch als eines der wenigen Felder wissenschaftlicher Ehre, auf denen die Systemtheorie Gäste empfängt und nicht auswärts spielt. Als gute Gastgeberin spielt die Theorie in Form...

In this paper, we compare the correlation among formal and informal volunteering and self-perceived health across 13 European countries after controlling for socio-economic characteristics, housing features, neighborhood quality, size of municipality, social and cultural participation and...

Few will argue with the claim that shortages are socially harmful. Shortages, by definition, imply a lack of something – not enough stuff to go around. A shortage of food implies hunger; a shortage of electricity implies darkness. But are shortages harmful to everyone equally? And if they are...

The international discussion of Trump's dispute over import tariffs for steel, aluminum and even cars is so far focused on the big global players. However, African countries in particular could suffer too from the planned punitive tariffs, analogous to the famous African proverb, "When elephants...

This paper aims to study corruption as an epidemic phenomenon using the epidemic diffusion model of Kermack and Mc-Kendrick (1927). We seek to determine the dynamics of corruption and its impact on the composition of the population at a given time. We determine a threshold epidemiological...

What role does polyarchy (and thus increased democracy) play in aiding the development of an international financial centre? We find support for decades of theorising that some jurisdictions use autocracy (less polyarchy) to help grow out their financial centres. We look at the growth of these...

In the following article, we estimate the value of Patent Applications-PA in the context of the Environmental, Social and Governance-ESG model at world level. We use data from World Bank for 193 countries in the period 2011-2021. We found that PA is positively associated, among others, to “ CO...

This paper explores the role of mass media in people’s perceptions of charismatic leaders, focusing on the case of Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006. Using survey data collected immediately after Koizumi’s 2005 landslide electoral victory, this study empirically...