Recent research indicates that the democratic peace - the observation that democratic nations rarely fight each other - is spurious: that advanced capitalism accounts for both democracy and the democratic peace (Mousseau 2009). This is not a trivial prospect: if economic conditions explain the...

We examine the relationship between institutions, culture and cyclical fluctuations for a sample of 45 European, Middle Eastern and North African countries. Better governance is associated with shorter and less severe contractions and milder expansions. Certain cultural traits, such as lack of...

Due to population aging, weakening of family-based support, and other factors, old-age income support is becoming an issue of growing importance throughout Asia. This is especially true in East Asia and Southeast Asia where the demographic transition is already well under way. This paper...

The world is experiencing its worst recession in 80 years. What started as US sub-prime financial turmoil has developed into the first global recession since the infamous "Great Depression" of the early 1930s. However gloomy the perspectives for the very short term are, there will be a recovery...

This paper applies the five modified standard criteria generally used in economics for assessing system performances to gauge the contribution of Managed Care to the performance of three health care systems, viz. Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. The maximum contribution of Managed...