Many of the emerging and transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been building their economies largely on the infrastructure inherited from Communist times. It is widely recognized that much of the infrastructure in both the private and public sectors must be replaced if...

Al2O3-cBN ceramics with different amounts of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) solid lubricant were synthesized under high pressure. The correlation between thermodynamic condition, cBN/hBN addition and mechanical properties of Al2O3-cBN-hBN composites were analyzed. Friction and wear tests were...

The authors first investigate how income and job characteristics affect life satisfaction, then estimate compensating differentials for non-financial job characteristics. To address potential problems with using life satisfaction data as dependent variables, they draw on three Canadian surveys...

Using data from 56 professional sports facilities opened between 1995 and 2008, we find what at first appears to be a substantial neighborhood revitalization effect: the opening of a facility is associated with an increase in mortgage applications to purchase homes located in the neighborhood of...

We examine the housing-market impact of U.S. urban casinos in nearby neighborhoods using data on home-purchase mortgage applications around opening years. Our sample covers 48 new urban casinos opened between 1995 and 2009. We compare changes in the volume of mortgage applications, the average...

This paper provides evidence that the recent housing bust in the United States precipitated a “credit crunch” for small businesses. Using detailed records of individual bank’s lending history, we develop a measure of their exposure to the housing bust. This measure is then used to estimate...

Access to legal gambling has expanded in Canada. Casinos can generate both positive and negative local impacts. We analyze the effect of new urban Canadian casinos on nearby neighborhoods in terms of population growth and composition, and housing market outcomes based on more than 40 urban...

A recent large Canadian survey permits us to compare real-time and on-line social networks as sources of subjective well-being. The sample of 5,000 is drawn randomly from an on-line pool of respondents, a group well placed to have and value on-line friendships. We find three key results. First,...