The article studies whether financial sector (in)stability had an effect on reforms in the financial sector in a large cross-country panel from 1990 to 2005. We forward the theory that countries are more likely to liberalize their financial sectors in times of financial stability. We argue that...

We assess the impact of being able to substitute an unlimited but costly energy substitute (like wind, solar) for a non-renewable resource (like oil, coal) in a model of sustainable growth. The prospects for sustainability on the optimal path depend crucially on the costs of this...

We empirically investigate the dynamic interactions between sovereign ratings and the macroeconomic environment. We use a Panel VAR on annual data for European countries from 1986-2010. Our results provide evidence for a significant two-way interaction between the macroeconomic environment and...

We endogenize the discount rate via wealth and provide evidence that wealth affects the discount rate negatively. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for endogenous discounting to lead to the Twin-Peaks of economic growth and show that improvements in technology help avoid them.

We study the relationship between environmental preferences and the environment. Preferences are transmitted intergenerationally and through social interactions, where we assume that agents are more likely to adopt environmental preferences the larger the amount of pollution. In the basic...

This article analyzes the link between climate change and international migration. We use a two-country overlapping generations model with endogenous climate change, in which the production in the North generates climate change which negatively affects the productivity of the South. Our main...

We assess the impact of the existence of a costly energy substitute (like wind, solar) for a non-renewable resource (like oil, coal) on the sustainability of consumption. The prospects for sustainability depend crucially on the costs of this substitute. If one can reduce the costs of the...

We show that the relationship between wealth and economic losses due to natural disasters is strongly linked to disaster risk. We first build an analytical model that demonstrates how countries that face a low hazard of disasters are likely to see first increasing losses and then decreasing ones...

We derive a R&D-based growth model where the rate of technological progress depends, inter alia, on the amount of technological opportunity. Incremental innovations provide direct increases to the knowledge stock but they reduce technological opportunity and thus the potential for further...

We develop an overlapping generations model with environmental quality and endogenous environmental culture. Based upon empirical evidence, preferences over culturally-weighted consumption and envi- ronmental quality are assumed to follow a Leontie function. We fi nd that four diff erent regimes...