Economists have been reluctant to rely on culture as a possible determinant of economic phenomena. The notion of culture is so broad and the channels through which it can enter the economic discourse so vague that it is difficult to design testable hypotheses. In this paper we show this does...

We model the decision problem of a parent who chooses an occupation and invests in the patience of her children. The two choices complement each other: patient individuals choose occupations with a steep income profile; a steep income profile, in turn, leads to a strong incentive to invest in...

The paper empirically investigates if individuals who supply volunteer work are more satisfied with three domain satisfactions - leisure, friends' relationships and economic situation – than nonvolunteers. Using Istat's (Italian Central Statistical Office) Multiscopo data set for the period...

This paper seeks to identify relationships between human capital and cultural capital, in the context of local labour market productivity. The key constituents of human capital, identified in the literature, are jointly examined in a close-to-reality-model. The main advantage of our model of...

Besides the theoretical approach, the paper also includes an research conducted with students of the Faculty of Jornalism and Communication at the University of Bucarest. The main objective of this research was to determine the extent to which the media fiction (television series for youth)...

This study is encouraged to apply the methodology of economics to investigate the issue of gender selection of the traditional parents in China, which has been widely noted from the perspective of sociology. It is firstly argued that traditional society of China is a good object for economic...

Amartya Sen (1933-) is one of the greatest scholars who studied the relationship between ethics and economics and was held the Nobel Economics Prize thanks to this. At the awarding of the Nobel prize, while talking about his studies, the motive was: “...has been highly instrumental in...

While formal institutions are recognized as having an effect on trust formation, no theoretical or empirical models exist to formalize this relationship. This study introduces a new conceptual framework to explain trust building by individuals and the role that formal rules and laws may play in...

The recent global crisis has forced many countries to a tight fiscal discipline. As a consequence, the cultural sectors in those countries have experienced severe budget cuts. In this context, disparate suggestions for additional sources of revenue available to public institutions have emerged....

Whether the danger invoked is nuclear war or genetically modified foods, far more people in some countries than in others say they are afraid. Using data from six surveys, I show that the levels of reported fear of different dangers correlate strongly across both individuals and countries. I...