We assess how one of the largest public works programmes in the world-Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)-affected violent conflict and civil unrest. Using difference-in-differences methods and linking administrative and geocoded conflict event data, we find that the PSNP did not...

We explore the effect of historical ethnic borders on contemporary conflict in Africa. We document that the intensive and extensive margins of contemporary conflict are higher close to historical ethnic borders. Exploiting variations across artificial regions within an ethnicity's historical...

This essay establishes four propositions. First, the diamond industry has been a positive force for development in southern Africa. Second, jewelry, among the most profitable segments of the industry, is a non-essential luxury, and accordingly, consumer concerns over conflict diamonds pose a...

Better forecasts of decisions in conflict situations, such as occur in business, politics, and war, can help protagonists achieve better outcomes. It is common advice to “stand in the other person’s shoes” when involved in a conflict, a procedure we refer to as “role thinking.” We...

This dissertation introduces "Truly Non-Cooperative Games" – axioms and complimentary negotiation models developed to analyse the human "Struggle for Life" – and presents "The Principle of Relative Insularity", a unified theory of value which unites economics, astrophysics, and biology. In...

This paper presents the evolution of diverse modes of environmental management in Bulgarian agriculture, and assesses their efficiency and likely prospects of development. First, it analyzes the pace of development and the impact(s) on individual behavior of the major modes of environmental...

This paper incorporates the interdisciplinary New Institutional and Transaction Costs Economics and suggests a holistic framework for analysis of management agro-ecosystem services. That new approach for analyses and assessment of management of agro-ecosystem services includes: definition of the...

Restrictions on CO2 emissions, the nuclear phase out announced by some member states, high emissions from coal-fired power plants, and barriers to rapid development of renewable generation are factors that make the European Union (EU) highly dependent on natural gas. With three non-EU countries...