The aim of this work is to determine the factors affecting development, not only the economic ones, which play a central role in economic literature, but also social. To do so we have used a wide sample of countries and have estimated a panel data for 171 of those that have been members of the United Nations (UN) for a period of 16 years (from 1995 to 2010 inclusive). The results obtained allow us to conclude that fight against poverty, provision of basic infraestructure, and investment in greater democracy, greater stability and less corruption, have, in all cases, a positive effect on human development in these countries.

Why do the majority of African countries fail to take the steps that would lead them towards greater development? The aim of this work is to determine the factors affecting development, not only the economic ones, which play a central role in economic literature, but also social. To do so, we have used a wide sample of countries and have estimated a panel data for 171 countries of those that have been members of the United Nations (UN) for a period of 16 years (from 1995 to 2010 inclusive). Our results lead us to conclude that monetary instability and the colonial past of these countries have had a negative impact on their level of human development. However, improvements in the efficiency of governmental policy and instruments, investment in greater democracy, greater stability and less corruption, have, in all cases, a positive effect on human development in these countries.

The objective of this study has been to undertake an analysis of the economic and institutional determining factors of fiscal pressure in a group of European countries with different levels of economic development, recent history, or level of cooperation and integration among them. We have used a panel of data from 40 countries and a time period of eleven years. Apart from the variables generally used, we have introduced additional ones such as governing party ideology, rate of economic freedom of Euro-area countries, together with another set of institutional variables. Results obtained show that the purely economic model improves when institutional and geopolitical variables are included and, in this way, it is possible to see which countries governed by the left, belonging to the Euro-area or having been members of the Soviet block, and with economic liberty, are more liable to increase fiscal pressure.

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This essay has a double aim. On the one hand, to identify what are the determinants in the inequality in health. On the other hand, to estimate to what extent the inequality indicator used is important. To do this, we use a cross-sectional model for 176 countries. The achieved results allow concluding that the choice of the inequality measurement is a key element in this type of studies. Also, inequality in income distribution, the weight of the rural population and capitalism make inequality in health increase.