The social science literature has done much to document pervasive racial discrimination in Brazil and there is little doubt that a very dark color is a handicap to social advancement. Nevertheless, very few empirical economic studies have attempted to quantify the impact of ethnic discrimination...

In this paper we consider different explanations for why the coefficient associated with human capital is often negative in growth regressions once country-specific effects are controlled for, whereas the coefficient in question is strongly positive in cross-sectional or panel results based on...

When market structure is complete, factor demands by households will be independent of their characteristics, and households will take their production decisions as if they were profit-maximizing firms. This observation constitutes the basis for one of the most popular empirical tests for...

The most popular world university rankings are routinely taken at face value by media and social actors. While these rankings are politically influential, they are sensitive to both the conceptual framework (the set of indicators) and the modelling choices made in their construction (e.g.,...

We use data from the European Community Household Panel to investigate the impact of body weight on wages in nine European countries. When we pool the available data across countries and years, we find that a 10% increase in the average body mass index reduces the real earnings of males and...

This report is meant to document the use of the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) to inform the food security situation in countries of interest for DEVCO. Since the GFSI is a composite indicator, a clear understanding of its modelling choices is needed to insure a well-informed use of the...

This methodological report describes the technical specifications of the EU Loneliness Survey. The survey, conducted in November and December 2022, is the first EU-wide survey measuring loneliness through established multi-items scales. It also entails rich socio-demographic information of the...

Increasing inequalities in multiple dimensions have played a role in fostering a feeling of injustice and triggering social dissatisfaction. While fairness is subjective, the far-reaching impact of perceptions of unfairness necessitates a more thorough examination and thoughtful consideration of...

The last two decades have seen a growing concern about rising inequality. In a recent book (2012), Economics Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz argues that rising income inequality is one of the main factors underlying the economic and financial crisis in the United States. Wilkinson and Pickett...

The last two decades have been marked by a growing concern about rising inequality. In a recent book (2012), Joseph Stiglitz, a former Nobel prize winner in Economics argues that rising income inequality is one of the main factors underlying the economic and financial crisis in the United...