A popular methodology of studying spatial income inequality is analysis of beta-convergence (i.e. an inverse relationship between current income per capita and its initial level). Its widespread use is based on a belief that the economic growth theory predicts income convergence among economies (countries or regions within a country), and that beta-convergence suggests decreasing income inequal...

In the current age of trade and financial openness, local economies in developing countries are becoming increasingly exposed to external investments. The objective of the proposed two-sector model with environmental externalities is to provide an insight into the interaction between external investors and local communities with a focus upon the different strategies and income sources available...

This paper explores the issue of efficiency in English higher education using data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis to estimate an output distance function (which incorporates measures of both quantity and quality of teaching and research inputs and outputs) over a thirteen-year period. The study compares the efficiency estimates derived from various estimation methods, and...

Standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is characterized by uniform proportional input reduction or output augmentation in calculating improvement projections. This paper develops a new Euclidean Distance Minimization model in the context of DEA in order to derive a more appropriate efficiency-improving projection model by means of a weighted projection function. The model is extended to the s...

The mutual fund industry has experienced huge growth internationally, becoming one of the primary vehicles through which individuals and most institutions invest in capital markets. Thus, the evaluation of the performance of mutual funds has become a very interesting research topic both for academic researchers for managers of financial, banking and investment institutions. This paper proposes ...

This study examines empirically the impact of income polarization on economic growth in an unbalanced panel of more than 70 countries during the 1960–2005 period. We calculate various polarization indices using existing micro-level datasets, as well as datasets reconstructed from grouped data on income distribution taken from the World Income Inequality Database. The results garnered for our pr...

Missing data is a major problem in empirical development economics, as it may entail efficiency losses as well as biased results. This is an issue within the literature that investigates the effect of foreign aid on welfare. Using multiple imputation techniques, we address these problems and find lower aid effectiveness than previous studies suggest. In addition, imputation allows for compariso...

This paper analyzes the connection between informal insurance institutions in rural Africa and the adoption of new technologies. We model two linked games — a community risk-sharing game and an old-age insurance game — and analyze the multiple equilibria that arise. We provide a numerical example that indicates that informal insurance institutions may put a downward pressure on the adoption of ...

Why Is Child Labor Illegal? We present a theory of the emergence of laws restricting child labor or imposing mandatory education that is consistent with the fact that poor parents tend to oppose such laws. We find that if altruistic parents are unable to commit to educating their children, child-labor laws can increase the welfare of higher-income parents in an ex ante sense. On the basis of an...