This study explains the emergence of the Sicilian mafia in the XIX century as the product of the interaction between natural resource abundance and weak institutions. We advance the hypothesis that the mafia emerged after the collapse of the Bourbon Kingdom in a context characterized by a severe...

This paper studies how comparative advantage and the political elites' endowments shape long-run performance in an economy with imperfect political institutions. In a capital-scarce economy, an autocrat catering to the needs of landowners favours openness to trade at an early stage of...

The capability approach developed by Sen represents a proposal for the evaluation of individual well-being and social development centered on people and away - but not exclusive - of materiality. In the present article describes the capability approach developed by Sen and examines the...

The aim of this paper is to create an indicator that compares the efficiency of countries in converting economic complexity into human development through the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and econometric validation. The DEA will not only enable comparisons of efficiency across...

The objective of this article is to measure the efficiency of the Latin American and Asian countries in converting economic complexity into quality of life between 2010 and 2014. The method used was Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results showed in 2014, all Asian countries were efficient...

The process of technology diffusion is complex, and one should bear in mind that multiple elements may be claimed as its essential determinants. Insofar, voluminous theoretical and empirical literature has been issued where attempts of identification of the latter has been made. However, we...

It is widely argued that ICTs enable the inclusion of low-skilled and traditionally marginalized groups, such as women, people with disabilities, and workers at the base of the pyramid (BoP), in the labor market. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of female participation in the labor...