This paper seeks to answer the question of how the global industry of palm oil is affecting the economies and natural environments of its two main producers – Indonesia and Malaysia. The first section examines the contemporary uses of palm oil in a variety of products and industries. It also...

How can we account for Indonesia’s astonishing development performance between 1965 and 1997—rapid growth, massive reduction in the incidence of poverty, low income-inequality and substantial diversification of the economy—in the face of extremely dirigiste microeconomic policies, even by...

The main achievement of this paper is to introduce a new construction of population data for the territory within the current borders of Turkey. The broad coverage of the reconstruction includes the population in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. I also provide entirely new...

Does culture, and in particular religion, exert an independent causal effect on long-term economic growth, or do culture and religion merely reflect the latter? We explore this issue by studying the case of Protestantism in China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries....

Does culture, and in particular religion, exert an independent causal effect on long-term economic growth, or do culture and religion merely reflect the latter? We explore this issue by studying the case of Protestantism in China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries....

Does culture, and in particular religion, exert an independent causal effect on long-term economic growth, or do culture and religion merely reflect the latter? We explore this issue by studying the case of Protestantism in China during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries....

For over a decade, the economy of Hong Kong has been ranked the freest economy by both the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. and the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada. Rankings of economic freedom tend to make comparisons on the performance of economic freedom among the various world...

The September 11 terrorist attacks ignited global interest in the Middle East. Observers in the region and abroad were quick to highlight the development "deficits" in Middle Eastern countries which have been linked to everything from structural economic imbalances to deficient political...

The Chinese economy has been growing with an average of 10 per cent during the last 25 years. Walking in downtown Shanghai or Beijing, you can find some spots that are so luxurious that they are unrivalled in the world. China does not fit the picture of an average developing country. However,...

In Mongolia with 2.5 million inhabitants, population density is extremely low. It has a sever climate. Three quarters of the countries territory are grasslands, with the remaining area being deserts or mountain areas. This description does not depict Mongolia as a very attractive place, but...