A key prediction of standard models of economic growth is that the output-capital ratio is constant along the economy’s balanced growth path. Using data for 16 OECD countries over 135 years we examine whether the output-capital ratio reverts to a constant in the long run using univariate and panel stationarity tests with structural breaks. Univariate unit root tests with one and two breaks in t...

The theme of current year studio Design As Politics made me to think of the planning processes in a wider sense, including not only the social and spatial aspect, but also the political perspective, and how it relates to influencing physical form of the city. I got interested to look into such processes more deeply, from a professional perspective, to analyze the methods, strategies and consequ...

In wealthy economies, the pharmaceutical IP system works tolerably well, especially when supported by generous government grants (such as the US National Institutes of Health) and tax subsidies (such as R&D tax credits and the Orphan Drug tax credit). In wealthy countries, access issues from IP-induced higher prices are ameliorated by government-subsidized insurance and other social mechanisms....

Although we are witnessing an increasing interest in the comparative study of environmental pollution in the social sciences, there is sharp disagreement over how the state of the environment and the changes in recent decades should be assessed. Furthermore, the debate on environmental policy has no conceptual focus on societal development. Therefore, the article presents, on the one hand, an i...

This analysis reflects on the importance of political parties, and the policies they implement when in government, in determining the level of equalities/inequalities in a society, the extent of the welfare state (including the level of health care coverage by the state), the employment/unemployment rate, and the level of population health. The study looks at the impact of the major political t...

Estimations of the shadow economies for 145 countries, including developing, transition and highly developed OECD economies over 1999 to 2005 are presented. The average size of the shadow economy (as a percent of "official" GDP) in 2004/05 in 96 developing countries is 36.7%, in 25 transition countries 38.8% and in 21 OECD countries 14.8%. An increased burden of taxation and social security con...

in recent decades, persian language dialects are also changing along with the language itself. so, recording the social characteristics of these dialects is of great importance. the results of these studies can be used in social and educational policies, language planning and comparative studies of dialectology. the writers of this article study the social characteristics of family and gender e...