Arts & Humanities
How virtual reality is helping to rebuild a community devastated by the Fukushima disaster
The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, and the accompanying tsunami that led to the meltdown of Fukushima’s nuclear power plant, was one of the most powerful the world has seen and killed thousands of people. Thousands more were displaced and still don’t know if they will ever return to towns like Namie which they once called home. A new project […]
Political systems and economic growth: The democracy myth
Democracy is often held to be the ideal political system, conferring growth and prosperity on nations’ citizens; however, this paradigm of thought has come under increasing debate. While many studies show a positive correlation between democracy and growth, others have observed neutral or even negative impacts. Dr Thomas Osang of the Southern Methodist University, Texas, and Dr Jeffry Jacob of […]
Solidarity and the study of migrants and refugees
The study of 21st century migrants and refugees is leading academics to challenge historic assumptions about citizenship and nationalism. The increasing number of people taking perilous journeys across land and sea in search of better lives attracts global media coverage. Seen as “illegals” and rejected by some, they are helped by others, for example on transit routes in Europe and […]
Splendid or melancholy isolation
With masterpieces guaranteed to pull in the crowds, museum curators pay close attention to how these works are displayed, whether grouped together or in isolation in a specially conceived room. In her research for the École du Louvre and the University of Neuchâtel, Professor Cecilia Hurley explores the notion of the masterpiece, the utility of museums and how this effects […]
China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative: its strategic, trade, and fiscal implications
The ’Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) aims to create the infrastructure necessary to connect China to Europe, with the ultimate aim of creating a new Free Trade Area between China and Europe. To all intents and purposes, this enormous project intends to recreate for the modern, digital age the Silk Road that once connected China with Europe during the time […]
Institutional investors and information acquisition: Implications for asset prices and informational efficiency
The research of Dr Adrian Buss (INSEAD) and Matthijs Breugem (Collegio Carlo Alberto) explores how the growth of assets under management by institutional investors with relative performance concerns influences the efficiency of financial markets, asset prices and investors’ portfolio returns. The team have developed a theoretical framework which illustrates, among others, that ‘benchmarking’ distorts the informational efficiency of stock prices. […]
‘Remembering the Ladies’: Gender and Comedy in the Age of the American Revolution
At the time of the American Revolution, women, along with African and Native Americans, were excluded from political participation. However, this did not prevent them from contributing outspokenly through other venues of communication. One such venue was the dramatic literary genre, whereby women articulated their political opinions in plays. Ralph J. Poole, a German-American researcher who teaches as Professor of […]
The preference discovery process of creative goods
Creative goods are highly differentiated and require extensive learning. Growth of their consumption relies upon the ability of creators to surprise and seduce consumers into discovering new pleasures and adopting unfamiliar goods: novelty lies at the heart of the problem. Professor Louis Lévy-Garboua, from the Université Pantheon-Sorbonne (Paris 1) and Paris School of Economics, Centre d’économie de la Sorbonne (CES), […]