The purpose of this background paper is i) to synthesize the discussions regarding the concept of human development, so as to inform the 2010 Report’s definition, and ii) drawing on the extensive policy and academic literatures, to propose relationships between the concept of human development...

This paper presents a general view of economic growth and the evolution of education and population in North America, Central America and South America, including a comparison of production per inhabitant in Agriculture, Industry and Services, and foreign trade. The leadership of USA and Canada...

During the second half of the 20th century Asia as a whole experienced a much higher increase in production per inhabitant than Africa, due to several factors which caused improvements in industrial development and moderation in the rates of population growth. We present a comparison, at area...

What is a 'sustainable nation' and how can we identify and rank 'sustainable nations'? Are nations producing and consuming in a sustainable way? Aggregate indicators have been proposed to answer these questions. This paper quantitatively compares three aggregate indicators of sustainability: the...

This paper examines the post-War Summer and Winter Olympic Games in order to determine the economic and political determinants of national participation, of female participation in particular, and of success at the Games (i.e., medal counts). Compared to the Summer Games, Winter participation...

This paper proposes three tasks. It briefly delineates the character of the civilizing mission and the interests it served, especially the colonization of Asia and Africa. In addition, the claims of the civilizing mission and the neoclassical theory of trade are tested empirically by comparing...

A prominent quality of the natural sciences is the integration of formerly separate or distinct branches of investigative learning, and a similar unification is now underway in the human sciences. Socialism and capitalism may also be united, on the same foundation: While the canonical Gossen...

Four years of political trusteeship by the international community over Kosovo have produced insufficient progress on the economic front. The unemployment rate remains close to 60%; no overall vision for economic self-sufficiency exists; privatization has barely begun; and few steps have been...

This paper examines whether it is possible for all countries to simultaneously achieve efficient and sustainable allocations of resources even if they do not cooperate in a world with inter-generational and intra-generational externalities. Using a simple model with two governments - one for the...

Financial stability and instability of countries’ economies are of significant interest to economists and politicians as this affects economic growth and the general wellbeing of the population. But determining on a reliable basis the factors that might indicate imminent financial instability...