Geistige Eigentumsrechte gewinnen in Zuge der Globalisierung eine immer grössere Bedeutung. Neue Produktionstechniken, schnellere Kommunikationswege und nicht zuletzt die rasante Entwicklung der neuen Medien erleichtern zunehmend Imitationen, Kopien und Piraterie. Im Jahre 1995 wurde mit der...

Geistige Eigentumsrechte gewinnen in Zuge der Globalisierung eine immer grössere Bedeutung. Neue Produktionstechniken, schnellere Kommunikationswege und nicht zuletzt die rasante Entwicklung der neuen Medien erleichtern zunehmend Imitationen, Kopien und Piraterie. Im Jahre 1995 wurde mit der...

We study the rent-seeking behaviour of political parties in a proportional representation system, where the final policy choice of the parliament is a weighted average of parties' policy positions, weights being their vote shares. We find that parties' policy preferences and their rent levels...

Unified growth theory predicts that the timing of the fertility transition is a key determinant of contemporary comparative development, as it marks the onset of the take-off to sustained growth. Neoclassical growth theory presupposes a take-off, and explains comparative development by...

Self-employment rates differ widely across industries and across racial and ethnic categories. The former is relatively easy for economists to explain while the latter differences are more difficult. Self-employment is rare in industries for which production is characterized by substantial...

We investigate whether elected members of the United Nations Security Council receive favorable treatment from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), analyzing panel data on the level of conditionality attached to (a maximum of) 314 IMF arrangements with 101 countries over the period of 1992 to...