Projects
Culture and Economic Development. KU Leuven
This dissertation contains four chapters on comparative development, political economy, public economics and migration with focus on cultural values. The first chapter investigates the ancient origins of differences of cultural traits across countries; in particular, using a large set of measures of culture it identifies the cultural traits associated with genetic distances. The second chapter explores the direct and barrier effects of ...
Technology, value chains, and development: Evidence from Ethiopia. KU Leuven
The four chapters in this dissertation rely on unique data from a large-scale survey of the different value chain actors in Ethiopia for teff and coffee-arguably the most important crops in Ethiopia. While teff is the most widely grown cereal -accounting for about 24% of total crop area by itself (CSA, 2017/18), coffee is by far the most important single export item - accounting for about 30% of total export over last decade (NBE, ...
The relation between entrepreneurial performance of family firms and the moderating role of family involvement and governance characteristics University of Antwerp
Essays in development economics KU Leuven
This dissertation collects four essays that study how the environment in which people reside shapes their well-being and economic opportunities. Starting from the observation that, in spite of impressive growth accelerations in some resource-rich developing countries, human development indicators are lagging behind, the first two essays investigate how natural resource wealth affects government prioritization of human capital building. The ...
Care organisation, a rethinking expedition in search for sustainability (CORTEXS). University of Antwerp
Organisational conditions and innovation. University of Antwerp
Voodoo Economics KU Leuven
This dissertation collects three essays that aim to contribute to the field of cultural economics. There is growing recognition among economists and policy makers that culture matters for economic development, but in many cases this trend has not resulted in a thorough understanding of the role of culture, or a proper integration of existing knowledge in policy. This is particularly true for the area of food security. The second chapter ...