This paper uses quantile regression estimation techniques so as to investigate the relationship between resource funds, governance and institutional quality by paying special attention to the distribution of the latter. The estimation results indicate that resource funds are associated with better governance and institutions. The positive correlation is identified for the entire distribution of...

We use a firm production function approach to generate estimates of total factor productivity (TFP) and labor productivity in the manufacturing sector for a group of Latin American countries. We exploit these estimates to study the relative position of countries within this sector and to explore the main correlates of firm productivity. We find that while the exact ranking of average TFP is sen...

The concept of “national competitiveness” is mostly confused with that of development of countries, often reduced to their economic growth only, and with that of competitiveness of enterprises of the latter, too. Its measurement by some composite indexes, particularly by the single “Global Competitiveness Index” in the annual reports of the World Economic Forum is not only biased by the neo-lib...

Oomycetes form a deep lineage of eukaryotic organisms that includes a large number of plant pathogens which threaten natural and managed ecosystems. We undertook a survey to query the community for their ranking of plant-pathogenic oomycete species based on scientific and economic importance. In total, we received 263 votes from 62 scientists in 15 countries for a total of 33 species. The Top 1...

In this study, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were compared when these two methods are used for ranking Decision Making Units (DMU) with multiple inputs and outputs. DEA, a nonstatistical technique, is a methodology using a linear programming model for evaluating and ranking DMU’s performance. PCA, a multivariate statistical method, uses new measures defi...

BACKGROUND: Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is an international public good with potential to orient investments and performance at national level. Identifying research trends and priorities at international level is therefore important. This paper offers a conceptual framework and defines the HPSR portfolio as a set of research projects under implementation. The research portfolio is...

In this study, we present an integrated method of Analytical Hierarchy Process based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FAHP) and Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution based on on interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FTOPSIS). The applicability of the proposed integrated method was performed on a case study of evaluation of life quality for 28 European Union Countries and oth...

By using a choice experiment, this paper focuses on citizens’ preferences for effort-sharing rules of how carbon abatement should be shared among countries. We find that Swedes do not rank the rule favoring their own country highest. Instead, they prefer the rule where all countries are allowed to emit an equal amount per person, a rule that favors Africa at the expense of high emitters such as...

This paper focuses on the problems involved in developing cross-country comparisons of the intergenerational stance of fiscal policy. Of course, these comparisons are nowadays based on the method of generational accounting and in particular most of them rely on comparing the total size of intertemporal public liabilities (IPLs). I first utilize the machinery of generational accounting in order ...

Measuring the output of men and women in science and technology has previously been mostly restricted to case studies or small-scale surveys. Based on an analysis of patent and publication databases, this paper applies a methodology to systematically assign the gender to the names of inventors and authors. The method is applied to 14 countries. The results of this investigation reveal substanti...