Institutional economics

First, while mass armed civil conflicts predominantly occur in weak states, which are states that lack state capacity, it is unclear why not all weak states experience mass armed civil conflict. Second, political stability and highly unequal distribution of resources are opposin…

Religion has an integral role in society and thus an effect on the economy. Previous literature argues that, overall, religion has a positive effect on the economy, though at times it can be negative. The case of Spain is evaluated and confirms this argument. When religion morph…

This thesis has two aims; to explore the economic notions of trust to develop a coherent understanding of trust within economics and to apply this understanding to the operation of money and banking. There has been a recent explosion of work about trust within economics but litt…

This dissertation addresses a fundamental aspect of market behavior: how do buyers and sellers find each other and coordinate the transfer of goods? Standard economic theory assumes that the coordination of exchange between agents is costless and that economic agents are anonymo…

In 19th century Lebanon, Christians were attending newly founded modern schools in large numbers while Muslims were generally content with traditional religious schools. By the end of the century this situation created a discrepancy in the educational level attained, with Christ…

The purpose of this research is to gain a greater understanding of the current threat of al-Qaeda through the lens of economic analysis using the tools of both public choice theory and institutional analysis. Both analytic and game theoretic frameworks are employed to gain an op…