This paper examines convergence of real GDP per capita in the selected East Asian countries and this relationship with selected Middle East countries during the period 1950-2009. The reason behind this refers to the fact that East Asia countries (including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and South Korea) have been involved in achieving success arising from regi...

â  â â â  â  abstract â  this paper examines convergence of real gdp per capita in the selected east asian countries and this relationship with selected middle east countries during the period 1950-2009. the reason behind this refers to the fact that east asia countries (including china, hong kong, singapore, malaysia, indonesia, thailand, japan and south korea) have been involved in achieving ...

What leads the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to intervene in one conflict, but remain inactive in another? This paper analyzes all 221 documented conflicts between 1945 and 2011, trying to unveil the characteristics associated with UN intervention. Including geographical aspects, we find that proximity to two the five permanent members of the UNSC has a significant and meaningful effec...

The Kodila-Tedika & Bolito-Losembe (2014, ADR) finding on no evidence of causality flowing from State fragility to classical corruption or extreme corruption could have an important influence on academic and policy debates. Using updated data (1996-2010) from 53 African countries, we provide evidence of a positive (negative) nexus between political stability/no violence and corruption-control (...

UN Interventions: The Role of Geography This paper argues that UN military interventions are geographically biased. For every 1,000 kilometers of distance from the three Western permanent UNSC members (France, UK, US), the probability of a UN military intervention decreases by 4 percent. We are able to rule out several alternative explanations for the distance finding, such as differences by co...

An innovation-diffusion model was developed with agent-based modelling (ABM); the model is used to study technical innovation and its diffusion process in China. The results are as follows: only a small fraction of firms conduct independent product-innovation, and most firms prefer imitation and/or purchases; most of the innovative firms are located in the East; approximately three or four tech...

Regulation, Trust, and Cronyism in Middle Eastern Societies: The Simple Economics of ‘Wasta’ Despite being a fixture of everyday life in the Arab world, wasta, which may be thought of as special influence by members of the same group or tribe, has received little attention from social scientists. Our casual empiricism suggests that wasta is an important determinant of how economic activities ar...