Use Less, Pay More: Can Climate Policy Address the Unfortunate Event for Being Poor?

The paper develops a two-region endogenous growth model with climate change affecting the countries' capital stocks negatively. We compare two different policies aimed at supporting less developed countries: climate mitigation by rich countries, which diminishes the increase in stock pollution and hence capital depreciation, and income transfers in the tradition of development aid. Under a mild set of assumptions we find that active climate policies are more efficient for rich economies and also, remarkably, better for poor countries than additional development aid. The main reason is the difference between the two policies with respect to their effects on economic growth. The results are robust with respect to possible model extensions

SPS Capitalization into Land Value: Generalized Propensity Score Evidence from the EU

This paper estimates the capitalization of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) into land values. The theory suggests that the relationship between the SPS and land rents is non-linear and discontinuous, because the SPS impact on land values depends on many factors, such as policy implementation details, market imperfections and institutional regulations. In empirical analysis we employ a unique firm-level panel data set, and apply the generalized propensity score (GPS) matching approach to estimate the capitalization of the SPS. Our results suggest that around 6 percent of the total SPS get capitalized into land rents. On average in the EU, the non-firming landowners' gains from the SPS are only 3 percent. However, there is a large variation in the capitalization rate for different SPS levels, and between Member States (between 0 and 58 percent)

When Drains and Gains Coincide: Migration and International Football Performance

We analyze the effects of football player migration to foreign leagues on the perfirmance of their home country national teams. We provide a theoretical model predicting a positive effect of migration on international football perfirmance due to superior skills acquired by players choosing to migrate to foreign leagues. We test this prediction using recent cross country data on international football perfirmance. In order to accurately measure the effect of skill acquisitions by migrating players, we construct a weighted migration index that takes into account the quality of the foreign league and the division in which national team players are employed. We find strong and robust support for the prediction that migration of players to foreign leagues improves international football perfirmance of their home countries

Unfulfilled mandate? Exploring the electoral discourse of international development aid in UK Westminster elections 1945-2010

Insufficient research attention has been paid to the way that electoral politics shape public policy on overseas development aid. Accordingly, this study makes an original contribution by examining party politicisation, issue-salience and the policy discourse of international aid in the principal parties’ manifestos in post-war UK state-wide elections. The findings show that over the past five decades a trend of increasing issue-salience has been accompanied by inter-party differences in policy framing, with the parties of the Left attaching greater priority to promoting international equality, articulating aid as an entitlement linked to rights and the elimination of poverty, and employing tropes such as humanitarianism, democracy and good governance. Crucially, comparison of manifesto discourse and subsequent government policy raises questions over parties’ accountability, for, having secured a mandate on specific aid proposals, a key disconnect is seen to operate between the rhetoric of aid and policy delivery