The thesis consists of a summary and three self-contained papers related to political transition and economic growth with parallel study of countries with and without Military Dictatorship (MD) history. <p> Paper [1]: studies the experience of 83 countries in 1950-2004 and addresses the question:...</p>

This paper analyses the survival of four different growth regimes conditional on political regime transitions that occurred during the first or prior year of the economic regime. The results suggest that in countries with no history of military dictatorship (MD), the episodes of fast-growing...

This paper investigates whether and under which conditions democracy renders economic performance more efficient. Efficiency, measured by the ratio of (mean)/ (standard deviation) of output growth, becomes an important indicator of the relative goodness of economic performance when countries...

Photo-fermentative production of hydrogen (H2) by purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides MDC6521 from Armenian mineral springs and its regulation by external reducers and oxidizers have been investigated. Reducers such as dl-dithiothreitol (DTT) and dithionite suppress bacterial growth but...

This paper analyzes the implications of social identity and self-categorization in the context of optimal redistributive income taxation. A two-type model is supplemented by an assumption that individuals select themselves into social categories, in which norms are formed and education effort...