Research and essays about social, political and economic change
click here to return to main page

Click on the appropriate section for links

Demographics
Globalization
Political
Economics
Society
Technology
General and multi topics


Basic Demographics, part 1. Population


Population Reference Bureau  http://www.prb.org/    Click on the "Population Trends" focus area, and this includes a 10 year review of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) , and reports like World Population Highlights 2004, Transitions in World Population and Population: A Lively Introduction. These reports are in chronological order, so you may have to click through a couple of pages to get to them.   Also from PRB, see Human Population: Fundamentals of Growth and Change. From the home page, click on Educators, then Research Guides, then Human Population.
 
"The sections listed below explore eight elements of population dynamics. Charts and graphs supplement each topic"  They also have a journal, Population Bulletin (click from their home page) with some interesting articles, for example Population Dynamics in Latin America.  Other reports include International Migration: Facing the Challenge Volume 57, No. 1 (March 2002) by Philip Martin and Jonas Widgren, and World Population Futures, Volume 56, No. 3 (September 2001), by Brian O'Neill and Deborah Balk, and "The world population beyond Six Billion" in the 1999 volume.

Also from PRB, Beyond Six Billion. click on Population Bulletin and then 1999

    Also see a review of Beyond Six Billion at   http://www.bmj.com/content/323/7322/1193.1.full   This review is somewhat critical. 
Rand has many puplications on demographics   http://www.rand.org/labor/popmatters/publications.html   at their population matters section, on general world trends and a few specific areas. There are also these specific publications:


The UN has various population reports, including these two:
State of the world population
  http://www.unfpa.org/swp/   from UN population fund.  2007 report is about urbanization, 2008 is about culture, gender and human rights.
.

Secretary-General's Report --- World Demographic Trends   http://www.un-ngls.org/orf/update.htm   "the present report provides an overview of demographic trends worldwide, for major areas and selected countries. It covers population size and growth, urbanization and city growth, population ageing, fertility and contraception, mortality and international migration." This report is from 2004, about half way down the page.


Demographic Research   http://www.demographic-research.org/default.htm   published by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. "Demographic Research publishes demographic research and related material from the full range of disciplines that bear on demography"

Asian Metacentre research papers    http://www.populationasia.org/index.htm      has a lot of papers about various population topics, mainly about pop change in asia, causes and consequences. As of March 2003, click on publications, then on research paper series. These papers are free.


RANDs Population and Aging   http://www.rand.org/pubs/online/population-and-aging.html   has lots of reports like "China and India: The Asian Giants are Heading Down Different Demographic Paths" and "Europe's demography: Are babies back? The recent recovery in EU period fertility due to older childbearing" from 2011.

 

Long-Term Global Demographic Trends: Reshaping the Geopolitical Landscape   listed at   https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/index.html    
 

Global Demographic Change: Economic Impacts and Policy Challenges  http://www.kansascityfed.org/publications/research/escp/escp-2004.cfm  2004 symposium papers sponsored by the  Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. A 2000 symposium was "Global Economic Integration: Opportunities and Challenges"

 

The Demographic Transition    http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/Demotrans/demtran.htm      By Keith Montgomery. Brief overview of world demographic transitions, and some examples.


University of Michigan's Global Change Curriculum   http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/   they used to have some lectures on line, but not now. One old one (not now listed on their website) has a nice outline of global changes in population   http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/human_pop/human_pop.html    


Population  
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Population.html   by Ronald Demos Lee. From the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Overview of past trends but also overview of population and development.


Demography and Health in Eastern Europe and Eurasia   http://www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/demography/    June 2005.  "The E&E region is the only region worldwide experiencing a contraction in population, which stems from both a natural decrease in the population (i.e., crude death rates exceeding crude birth rates) and emigration."  This is a report about that decline.


Jeffrey G. Williamson's papers   http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/williamson/jwilliamworkingpapers   a couple of papers on migration, such as "What Fundamentals Drive World Migration?"


Policy Research Division Working Papers.   http://www.popcouncil.org/publications/wp/wplist.html     includes papers such as "The end of the fertility transition in the developing world" by John Bongaarts, and in Population and Development Review, vol. 28, no. 3 (September 2002).  Describes past and probable fertility trends of developing countries, compared to what happened with developed countries.  Some 2003 papers are John Bongaarts, "Completing the fertility transition in the developing world: The role of educational differences and fertility preferences.",  Cynthia B. Lloyd and Paul C. Hewett, "Primary schooling in sub-Saharan Africa: Recent trends and current challenges."  and  Geoffrey McNicoll, "Population and development: An introductory view."




Basic Demographics, part 2. Mortality
Back to top 

WHO Burden of Disease Statistics at   http://www.who.int/research/en/   including mortality data, cause of death, by region, income level.

WHO also has this report on chronic disease   http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/en/index.html   and media release    http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/media/en/   that says the leading cause of death is chronic disease.


Why is tobacco a public health priority?   http://www.who.int/tobacco/en/   This WHO page says tobacco is the second leading cause of death worldwide.


Reproductive Health Fact Sheet   http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/presskit/factsheets/facts_rh.htm   identifies problems in childbirth as the leading cause of death in developing countries among women of childbearing age.  The overview of the report is here   http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2005/english/ch1/index.htm.


Who Needs Cause-of-Death Data    http://medicine.plosjournals.org/   the journal home page is actually   http://www.plosmedicine.org/home.action   PLoS Med 4(11): e333, Nov 2007. Article by Peter Byass.  The article is   http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0040333  This article says more than one half of all world deaths are undocumented for causes, but we need to know so we can do correct health planning. Talks about a couple of new approaches.


Counting the dead and what they died from: an assessment of the global status of cause of death data.  Colin D. Mathers, Doris Ma Fat, Mie Inoue, Chalapati Rao, & Alan D. Lopez   http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/83/3/en/   Bulletin of the World Health Organization,  Volume 83: 2005.
    Reference for the above paper. Mathers et al conclude "Few countries have good-quality data on mortality that can be used to adequately support policy development and implementation."


UC Atlas of  Global Inequality   http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/cause.php   has this brief cause of death page, showing global cause of death, 2000.



Globalization
Back to top


Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network
   http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/   GaWC was initially set up as a vehicle for organising world city research at Loughborough University. It is in the process of developing and expanding into a teaching resource and a site of interest for those working in advanced city services in both the private and public sectors.
 

Center for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization Working Paper Series:   http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/csgr/    See research and then working papers. Many papers about globalization, some on specific topics, some more general, for example two papers from 2002 are Democratisation in East Asia, and Explaining systemic change: The political economy of post-communist transformations.  Two papers from 1999 are Approaching the Global Polity by Morten Ougaard, and Global Civil Society: Changing the World? by Jan Aart Scholte.
   

Global Transformations   http://www.polity.co.uk/global/   "Polity Global Transformations text-site, devised by David Held and Anthony McGrew.  On  these pages you will find a whole host of information on globalization, including: researching globalization, globalization, interviews, links to sites of related interest,  an executive summary of the key features of globalization."
 

Can There be a Global Society?  http://www.gwu.edu/%7Eccps/etzioni/articles2.html    paper by Amitai Etzioni (#380), very brief review of some issues, e.g., definition of society, will global society require global state. Other papers of interest are there too.
 

Center for global studies   http://www.globalcentres.org/   some interesting on line publications.  Click on publications, then see Altered States: Globalization, Sovereignty, and Governance, listed in publications.  I think it's completely available on line.  This book is at least partly about "explore the dynamics of globalization and discuss what makes today's globalization distinct."
 

Jeffery Williamson's papers on the web    http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/williamson/jwilliamworkingpapers    bunch of globalization papers. "Winners and losers over two centuries of globalization", "Globalization in Latin America before 1940" and more.
 

Does Globalization Affect Growth?    http://www.axel-dreher.de/    by Axel Dreher. This site includes data. According to the abstract, "The paper presents an index of globalization covering its three main dimensions: economic integration, social integration, and political integration. Using panel data for 123 countries in 1970-2000 it is analyzed empirically whether the overall index of globalization as well as sub-indexes constructed to measure the single dimensions affect economic growth. The results show that globalization promotes growth – but not to an extent necessary to reduce poverty on a large scale."
    This site is also listed on our data page.
 

Dialogue on Globalization    http://www.fes.de/globalization/    This "site presents a variety of publications (of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung as well as its partners) ranging from short briefing papers to in-depth-studies. ...  The project "Dialogue on Globalization" is part of the international work of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung - a German non-profit institution committed to the principles of social democracy and with offices, programs, and partners in more than 100 countries." (this is from an email sent to me from one of their participants).
 

The Globalization Web Site   http://www.sociology.emory.edu/globalization/    Theories, organizations, issues, people, etc...


Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)   http://www.iza.org/   One paper is about globalization   "Measuring Globalization"  by Torben Andersen, Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson (July 2003), Discussion Paper No. 817.




Sites about changes in political systems, eg, democracy, communism, conflict
Back to top


The Global Corruption Report
  http://www.transparency.org/publications/gcr    This report  provides an overview of 'the state of corruption' around the globe.  This is from Transparency International (TI).


The Spatial and Temporal Diffusion of Democracy, 1815-1995
   http://www.Colorado.EDU/IBS/GAD/spacetime.html   see especially some of the research, such as:  Democratizing for Peace. This article shows that reversals from democracy back toward autoritarian forms of government in newly emerging democracies is associated with interstate war. Moverments toward democracy are peace enhancing.  The paper The diffusion of democracy, 1946-94, is another paper.  It is also available at Society for Political Methodology working papers site   http://polmeth.wustl.edu/    in working papers, in the 1997 list.
 

Patterns of Diffusion in the Third Wave of Democracy  http://www.nd.edu:80/~mcoppedg/crd/papscrd.htm   by Coppedge and Brinks.  They trace out patterns of diffusion of democracy.  Among other results, they find support for a pattern of diffusion in which countries tend to become more like their immediate geographic neighbors.  Also see his class page as of October 2004 for this chapter, Defining and Measuring Democracy
 

Transforming Post-Communist Political Economies   http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=5852   Published by National Academy Press, 1998.  Joan M. Nelson, Charles Tilly, and Lee Walker, Editors; Task Force on Economies in Transition, National Research Council.  1998.  You can download entire book or chapters.  "This ground-breaking new volume focuses on the interaction between political, social, and economic change in Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States. It includes a wide selection of analytic papers, thought-provoking essays by leading scholars in diverse fields, and an agenda for future research.".
   Read our review here. http://gsociology.icaap.org/transforming.html   (and then click back to return to this page)


Center for the study of democracy
   http://www.democracy.uci.edu/   Their papers are here  http://escholarship.org/uc/csd   A search for democracy returns papers like "Can Western Democracy Models be institutionalized in Africa? Reviewing Contemporary Problems and Prospects" Ezeanyika, Ezeanyika S. Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies 36:2, 2011, and "Democratic Quality in Stable Democracies" Lijphart, Arend, Society (1936-4725) 48:1, 2011
 

University of California International and Area Studies digital collection   http://escholarship.org/uc/gaia  couple of on line books about political change, such as Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation.Yang, Mayfair Mei-hui, 2008
 

Cato Journal, An Interdisciplinary Journal of Public Policy Analysis http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/index.html   see Volume 22 Number 3, Winter 2003 for a couple of papers, such as Abdiweli M. Ali and Hoden Said Isse. "Determinants of Economic Corruption: A Cross-Country Comparison" and John A. Tures, "Economic Freedom and Conflict Reduction: Evidence from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s." See these issues, Volume 25 Number 3, Fall 2005, Volume 24 Number 3, Fall 2004, with some articles about how development happens, institutions and development, and other issues.


Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University    http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/index-e.html    see the Proceedings of International Symposia, some of which are available on line. The 2001 is    http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/sympo/2001summer/2001summer-contents.html    Transformation and Diversification of Rural Societies in Eastern Europe and Russia, and the 1999 is "Russian Regions: Economic Growth and Environment". The 2003 is  "Democracy and Market Economics in Central and Eastern Europe."


Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War   http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html   "Through theoretical analysis, historical case studies, empirical data, and quantitative analyses, this web site shows that ... Freedom is an engine of economic and human development, and scientific and technological advancement. ...  Freedom ameliorates the problem of mass poverty."  and other research about democracy and democide.
   In particular, these two pages summarize his core ideas and research.
    POWER KILLS: Democracy as a Method of Nonviolence   http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE6.HTM  
    Saving Lives, Enriching Life: Freedom as a Right And a Moral Good   
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE15.HTM   


New York Democracy Forum   http://www.fpa.org/topics_info2414/topics_info_show.htm?doc_id=271309   these are video's of talks. Especially has a talk, "Do We Really Know How to Promote Democracy?" by Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Pdf's of the talks are also available.


The Roots of Democracy   http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/6588   By Carles Boix, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. This article is in  Hoover Institutions Policy Review, Feb/March 2006. "Finally, short of the path of economic modernization, democracy can be established only through radical and violent change imposed from abroad. ... To be sustainable, it needs considerable resources, exceptional resoluteness, and, therefore, broad consensus at home. Without generalized support, it ends up in failure."


Heidelberg Institute on International Conflict Research   http://www.hiik.de/index.html   has the Conflict Barometer reports showing conditions and trends in conflict.


Journal of Democracy   http://www.journalofdemocracy.org/    Some articles are on line for free, varies from time to time. 


“State Building and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Forwards, Backwards, or Together?”   Bratton, Michael, and Eric Chang. Also in Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 39, No. 9, 1059-1083 (2006),  http://cps.sagepub.com/content/39/9/1059.abstract   Working paper available here,  https://www.msu.edu/~echang/Research/research.htm  at Dr. Chang's home page. The key idea is "the establishment of a rule of law—as experienced through improvements in personal security and the popular perception that leaders respect the constitution—is critical to building democracy."


Democracy and Human Development      http://www.bu.edu/sthacker/   but I get a tracker pop up when I go to this page.   Past history of democracy improves human development.  This paper is by John Gerring, Rodrigo Alfaro and Strom C. Thacker, all of whom have additional interesting papers on their sites.


Gerardo Munck   http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~munck/home/index.html   has a number of papers about democracy.  See the Research and Publications section. One example is “Democratic Transitions,”


The Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management   http://www.berghof-conflictresearch.org/   especially of interest is their Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation   http://www.berghof-handbook.net/   with many interesting chapters, such as  The Civilisation of Conflict: Constructive Pacifism as a Guiding Notion for Conflict Transformation and Assessing the State-of-the-Art in Conflict Transformation  and many more.

Measuring democracy and related

Measuring Democracy, Evaluating Alternatives. Gerardo Munck and Jay Verkuilen.  http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~munck/research/methods.html   also a lot of other papers.  Another paper is “Monitoring Democracy: Deepening an Emerging Consensus.”

Kaufmann, Daniel, Kraay, Aart and Mastruzzi, Massimo, The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and Analytical Issues (September 2010). World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 5430. Available at SSRN:   http://ssrn.com/abstract=1682130  
 



Research about economics

There is a great deal of research about economic growth.  This page only lists some, focusing on large scale or long term. Also some sites about other aspects of economics.
Back to top


Latest publications from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs   http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/publications/index.html   from   United Nations, including Report on the World Social Situation, the Millennium Development Goals Report, and others.
The 2011 report is  The Global Social Crisis   http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/social/world-social-situation-repor.html  
The 2010 report is "Rethinking Poverty"   http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/social/world-social-situation-2010.shtml 


Macroeconomic Challanges, the decade ahead.   http://www.kansascityfed.org/publications/research/escp/escp-2010.cfm   from the Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City, 2010.  Topics include "Evaluating the Global Economic Recovery", "Inflation Dynamics in the Decade Ahead" and more.


The Munich Personal RePEc Archive   http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/   has a bunch of papers on all sorts of econ topics, a few of which are listed below.


Hasan, Lubna (2006): Myths and Realities of Long-run Development: A Look at Deeper Determinants. Forthcoming in: The Pakistan Development Review 1 46 (2007)    http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/7786/    Looks at deeper determinants: geography and institutions. The paper "concludes in favour of the Institutions hypothesis as the Geography school does not provide a consistent story of long-run development."


Feige, Edgar L. and Urban, Ivica (2007): Measuring Underground (Unobserved, Non-Observed, Unrecorded) Economies in Transition Countries: Can We Trust GDP? Unpublished.   http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/7345/   This paper compiles alternative estimates of underground economies in twenty five transition countries during the transition decade and finds a disturbing lack of convergence between them, calling into question the reliability of GDP figures (which in varying degrees now include non-transparent imputations for the “non-observed economy”) as well as the macro model estimates of the unrecorded economy.


Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth   http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/view/subjects/O.html   this section lists over 4,000 papers.


World Bank's Economic growth research   here    and page on economic data and research   here   
  Also see the world bank site about poverty in the world  here  
  Prospects for the Global Economy  here  some forecasts for 2010, growth will resume in 2010. 
A note about World Bank websites. Their URLs always seem to be incomprehensible very long strings. I'm not going to list them, I'll just link and say "here".

Papers by Branko Milanovic   here   a lot of papers about inequality.


Sources of Growth
   http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/7792/   Audretsch, David.  This link is to the abstract.  "The purpose of this paper is to suggest that a fundamental shift in Europe, along with the other OECD countries, is taking place. This shift is from the managed economy to the entrepreneurial economy." Can get copy of paper here. The paper is from 1997

A lot more papers about many economic topics here   http://repub.eur.nl/   some on growth, like
Ngo, T-W.  Governing Rapid Growth in Asia: State-led Development in Historical Perspective, 10/16/09
Altomonte, C., Pennings, H.P.G. Productivity Growth and the Speed of Convergence of Domestic Firms, 1/1/08 
Krug, B., Hendrischke, H. Framing China: Transformation and Institutional Change, 6/30/06
Chad Jones paper Was an Industrial Revolution Inevitable? Economic Growth Over the Very Long Run   listed on his CV page   http://www.stanford.edu/~chadj/cv.html  another paper is "Beyond GDP? Welfare across Countries and Time".
 

Global Research Project: Explaining Growth  http://www.gdnet.org/   comprehensive research project. Click on 'activities', then on 'global research projects'. Can't read the book here but can read some key points.


Growth, Income Distribution, and Poverty: A Review http://swopec.hhs.se/gunwpe/abs/gunwpe0032.htm    "This paper reviews the recent literature dealing with the relationships between economic growth, income distribution, and poverty. This generally fails to find any systematic pattern of change in income distribution during recent decades. Neither does it find any systematic link from fast growth to increasing inequality."  Paper by Arne Bigsten and Jörgen Levin.


Economic Growth Resources  http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Economics/Growth/   "These pages are designed as a resource for researchers studying economic growth"
 

Center for Social and Demographic Analysis Working Papers.  http://csda.albany.edu/workpapers.asp   see Does Economic Inequality Promote Economic Growth?  A Cross-National Time-Series Analysis  by Lawrence E. Raffalovich, University at Albany, SUNY.  Paper number 2000-6.  


Professor Jeffrey G. Williamson's papers on the web   http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/williamson/jwilliamworkingpapers   see his papers:  HIER Paper #1855: Real Wages and Relative Factor Prices in the Third World Before 1940: What Do they Tell Us about the sources of Growth?. and NBER Paper #9161, Winners and Losers over two centuries of globalization..
 

Social Science Research Network Economic Growth papers   http://www.ssrn.com/link/economic-growth.html   papers about econ growth.  For example,  How Robust Is The Relationship Between Economic Freedom And Economic Growth, JAN-EGBERT STURM and JAKOB DE HAAN.  and Structural Change and Economic Growth, JOHN LAITNER.  The working papers can be downloaded.  For accepted papers, you can only see the abstract.  But authors email addresses are listed.  Specific papers listed on this page are continuously updated.
 

Population and Economic Development  http://econ.duke.edu/Papers/Abstracts00/abstract.00.06.html   working paper by Allen C. Kelley.  This is a systematic review of the major studies about population and economic development.
 

Raising Growth and Investment in Sub-Saharan Africa - What Can be Done?    http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/pdp/2000/pdp04.pdf   The paper is an IMF Policy Discussion Paper, listed here   http://www.imf.org/external/pubind.htm   then search for title.   

Finance & Development   http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2006/06/index.htm   From IMF. A recent issue (March 2006) has articles about 'rethinking growth', and 'Globalization at Work', an article about global employment trends.


Papers on the Strategy of Reforms   http://econ-server.umd.edu/~murrell/   see research / then 'reform strategies'. several papers analyzing the strategy of reform in transition countries" by peter murrell, including Evolution in Economics and in the Economic Reform of the Centrally Planned Economies and others.
   

Romain Wacziarg's research  http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_pages/romain.wacziarg/papersum.html    includes papers such as How Democracy Affects Growth, and The Diffusion of Development. Also includes Review of Easterly's “The Elusive Quest for Growth”.
 

USAID Forum Series on the Role of Institutions in Promoting Economic Growth, Forum Papers,    http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/economic_growth_and_trade/eg/forum_series/index.html     These papers are from US AID. Papers include Comparative Political Economy and its Relevance for Development Policy, and New Institutional Economics and Development.
 

Jamus Jerome Lim's research page  http://www.jamus.name/   especially see a couple of papers, Role of State and East Asia in the New Economy  

  
Determinants Of Economic Growth. Panel Data Approach. By: Edwin Dewan And Shajehan Hussein   http://www.rbf.gov.fj/  see the working papers, it's Working Paper EDWP 2001-04.   from the Reserve Bank of Fiji.


Economic Freedom: The Path to African Prosperity    http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Economic-Freedom-The-Path-to-African-Prosperity    paper by Brett Schaefer.


CREDIT (Centre for Research in Economic Development and International Trade)   http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/credit/index.aspx    see their research page with research such as Urbanization, Urban Concentration and Economic Growth in Developing Countries, Why Do Rates of Convergence Differ? A Meta-Regression Analysis. (About this question: Do poorer countries grow faster than richer ones and, if so, at what rate is the disparity in income between rich and poor countries narrowing over time?), Economic Growth and Income Inequality and Trade Liberalisation and Poverty: The Empirical Evidence.


Economic Freedom and Growth:Decomposing the Effects    http://swopec.hhs.se/gunwpe/abs/gunwpe0033.htm    These papers are from Scandinavian Working papers in economics  http://swopec.hhs.se/  from Gotenborg University, see   http://swopec.hhs.se/gunwpe/


Papers by Angus Deaton   http://www.princeton.edu/~deaton/papers.html   includes "Income, aging, health and wellbeing around the world: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll",  "Global patterns of income and health: facts, interpretations, and policies" and "Measuring Poverty", and others.


The Centre for the Study of Living Standards   http://www.csls.ca/   has this paper  “Measuring the Impact of Research on Well-being: A Survey of Indicators of Well-being”.  This includes a review of international measures of well being.


Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)   http://www.iza.org/   has a great number of working papers of interest.  Some examples are "Economic Satisfaction and Income Rank in Small Neighbourhoods" and "Does Relative Income Matter for the Very Poor? Evidence from Rural Ethiopia"

Site about changes in society
Back to top


World Values Survey  
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/   This site describes world values survey.  "This series is designed to enable a cross national comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe."  The survey included questions about topics such as economy, politics, work, personal finances, confidence in civil and governmental institutions, and a lot of other questions.   Here is a report about happiness in the world   http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111725   says happiness is related to democracy and wealthier countries.

 

Democracy, Economy, and Values: Estimating a Recursive System.  by RJ Franzese, R Inglehart, SD Ehrlich, listed at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~franzese/Publications.html    One of the papers from the World Value Survey, describing some research about Democracy, Economy and Values as a dynamic system.  A lot of this paper seems to be about data, but some results as well.  This is included in my review page.  The paper is listed near the bottom of the page.  Also see material from Macroeconomic Policies of Developed Democracies.
 

Dr. Ed Diener's site   http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~ediener/   look at Guidelines for National Indicators of Subjective Well-Being and Ill-Being (click on "research" and it's listed there. Also look at his faq page   http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~ediener/faq.html  


Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: A Summary Review of the Literature by Pedro Conceição and Romina Bandura, May 2008   http://www.undp.org/developmentstudies/researchpapers.shtml  


The Press Freedom Survey   http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=16    from the freedom house.  Annual survey from 1994.  Also includes reports on changes in freedoms.


"From Oshin  to Beautiful Life : A Study of Japanese Television Dramas in Singapore,"  listed at    http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/jas/staff/benng/publications.html     shows the growth of japanese tv shows in singapore. By Ng Wai Ming. Many other publications available as well.

International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS).   http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/resources/periodicals/diversities/   A recent issue (Feb 2004) was about Multilingualism on the Internet.  Another more recent issue is Democracy and Power-sharing in Multi-National States, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2006.


ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC)   http://www.cresc.ac.uk/    has some papers such as "Social Movements and Social Change" and others.  More to come. The purpose of the centre is to "develop a broad, empirically focused account of cultural change and its economic, social and political implications".


FAO has two reports of interest
SOFA: The State of Food and Agriculture   http://www.fao.org/es/esa/en/pubs_sofa.htm   in 2005 this was "Agricultural trade and poverty: Can trade work for the poor?"

The state of food insecurity in the world    http://www.fao.org/SOF/sofi/index_en.htm    in 2005 this was "Eradicating world hunger - Key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals". In 2006, it was "Eradicating world hunger - taking stock ten years after the World Food Summit"


WORLD DATABASE OF HAPPINESS   http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/   This is "an ongoing register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for meta-analytical studies."  Has a bibliography by subject of research about happiness.  Also links to the journal Journal of Happiness Studies. In January 2010, I could see the articles.  See the journals page of this website.  For Dr. Veenhoven's research see   http://www2.eur.nl/fsw/research/veenhoven/   click on publications


Happiness the World Over   http://www.springerlink.com/content/02881v15644n8734/   article by Rita Simon and Andrew Bennett.  Not free but says happiness is related to many material factors of life.


International Crime Victimization Survey    http://rechten.uvt.nl/icvs/   which has some summary tables and reports.


Technology change
Back to top


Also see our page on Future   http://gsociology.icaap.org/future.html   some of the reports address technological change


Broadband Penetration Over Time: Data Visualisation with Google Motion Chart, Gapminder and Excel  
http://ict4dblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/broadband-penetration-over-time-data-visualisation-with-google-motion-chart-gapminder-and-excel/    interesting visualization of change in broadband.

The Global Technology Revolution 2020, Bio/Nano/Materials/Information Trends, Drivers, Barriers, and Social Implications   http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG475.html   (2006) "In 2020, areas of particular importance for technology trends will include biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology, and information technology."  Which countries will be able to do these innovations, and which won't.


Science and Technology and the Future Development of Societies: International Workshop Proceedings:   http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12185    a bunch of scientists were gathered "to discuss issues concerning the role of science in the development of modern societies."

The Global Course of the Information Revolution: Recurring Themes and Regional Variations, Richard O. Hundley, Robert H. Anderson, Tora K. Bikson, C. Richard Neu, MR-1680-NIC, 2003 (Full Text). Projects the impact of information technology and the "information revolution" on areas across the globe for the next 10 to 15 years.   http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1680.html   


The Information Revolution in Asia, Nina Hachigian and Lily Wu, MR-1719-NIC, 2003  (Full Text). This report discusses the information revolution in Asia and its likely course over the next five to ten years.  http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1719.html   


The Information Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa, Grey Burkhart and Susan Older, MR-1653-NIC, 2003 (Full Text). Explores the future of the information revolution in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.    http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1653.html  


Globalization, Transnational Communication and the Internet    http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/resources/periodicals/diversities/past-issues/vol-6-no-1-2004/   from the  International Journal on Multicultural Societies (IJMS).  Feb 2004.


Computers and Social Change   http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/perrolle/    by Judith Perrolle, social impact of computers, etc.


IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios   http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/index.htm    One main interest in this book is Chapter 3: Scenario Driving Forces,   http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/049.htm   because this has tables on world and regional change in population, GDP growth, energy use, and other data, and reviews of growth.




General reports on change, multi topic
Back to top


Society at a glance  http://www.oecd.org/document/24/0,3343,en_2649_34637_2671576_1_1_1_1,00.html   "How are OECD societies progressing? How effective are their actions in promoting social progress? Society at a Glance provides a basis for addressing these twin questions. It offers a concise overview of quantitative social trends and policies across the OECD. This 2011 edition includes a wide range of information on social issues – such as demography and family characteristics, employment and unemployment, poverty and inequality, social and health care expenditure, and trust and tolerance –as well as a guide to help readers understand the structure of OECD social indicators. "  Includes data for OECD countries.


NOVA World in the Balance   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/   interviews, demonstrations, essays, etc., on changing world topics.


USAID has a whole lot of reports    http://www.usaid.gov/index.html    on a while bunch of topics like those mentioned above. Go to 'our work' or 'locations'. Some other reports are "Democracy and Governance: A Conceptual Framework", "Handbook of Democracy and Governance Program Indicators", and so many more.

Beyond Economic Growth  http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/beyond/beyond.htm    "This book is designed to help readers broaden their knowledge of global issues, gain insight into their country's situation in the global context, and understand the problems of sustainable development."  There are chapters on development, world population growth, economic development, income inequality, poverty, education, health and longevity, urbanization, globalization, foreign aid, and climate change.  Also includes data tables.


global issues   http://www.globalissues.org/    brief summaries of bunches of world change topics, such as poverty, free trade and globalization, human rights, population, global warming, geopolitics, along with links.  Kind of like our social change site.



International Labor Organization    http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm   has free on line books, articles, etc.. Some books include The new offshoring of jobs and global development by Gary Gereffi and Civil Society, Participatory Governance and Decent Work Objectives: The case of South Africa by Konstantinos Papadakis, among others.


Rand's International topics page   http://www.rand.org/topics/international-affairs.html   has such reports as From Insurgency to Stability: Volume II: Insights from Selected Case Studies (September 7, 2011) and China and India: The Asian Giants are Heading Down Different Demographic Paths (August 22, 2011).



Relationship among health, politics, economy, etc

Structure, (governance) and health: an unsolicited response.   Daniel D Reidpath and Pascale Allotey, BMC Int Health Hum Rights. 2006; 6: 12.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1584251/   Governance was found to be significantly correlated with population health, as were GDP per capita, and access to improved water. They were also found to be significantly correlated with each other.

 

Back to top
click here to return to main page
last updated 9/13/2011.
and all links last verified 11/23/2011.


page copyright 2009, renewed 2011
click here to find out about us or to contact us