Contents Jan-Horst Keppler Barriers to Entry:Abolishing the Barriers to Understanding Joshua C. Hall - Justin M. Ross New Empirical Estimates of Rent Seeking: An Update of Sobel - Garrett [2002] Davide Tondani Complexity of Personal Income Tax Design: an Index of Measurement Daniel Sutter Public Sector Quality Assurance and Building Codes Christopher Duquette - Steven B. Caudill - Franklin G. Mixon, Jr. The Impact of Campaign Spending onWinning Open-Seat Elections to the U.S. House of Representatives William Barnett II - Walter Block Investment and Consumption: A Critique of Rothbard’s Claim that there can be no such thing as Governmental ‘Investment’ Reviews

Since the waves of financial liberalization in the 1980s, emerging market economies have been accessible to foreign investors. Altogether, they contributed up to 43.8% of the global GDP in 2018, and many of them, such as China, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam from 2010 to 2019, are among the fastest-growing economies in the world. Given the high economic growth, the assets issued by companies in emerging markets are viewed as a new set of investment opportunities for global investors and fund managers who seek to improve the risk-adjusted performance of their portfolios. In addition to their risky profile due to the lack of transparency as well as stable and matured institutions, their recent development path faces a number of challenges arising not only from the slow pace of economic reforms but also from their increased integration with the world. Geopolitical risks, the US–China trade wars, and rising policy uncertainty around the world are expected to reduce their growth potential and performance. This Special Issue dedicates special attention to the current dynamics of emerging financial markets, as well as their perspectives of development as a key driver for sustainable firms and economies. Accordingly, the focus is particularly placed on market integration and interdependence, valuations and risk management practices, and the financing means for inclusive growth.

Urban planning is a complex field of knowledge and practice. Through the decades, theoretical debate has formed an eclectic set of possible perspectives, without finding, in our opinion, a coherent paradigmatic framework which can adequately guide the interpretation and action in urban planning. The hypothesis of this book is that the attempts of founding an autonomous planning theory are inadequate if they do not explore two interconnected fields: architecture and public policies.The book critically reviews a selected set of current practices and theoretical founding works of modern and contemporary urban planning by highlighting the continuous search for the epistemic legitimization of a large variety of experiences. The distinctive contribution of this book is a documented critique to the eclecticism and abstraction of the main international trends in current planning theory. The dialogic relationship with the traditions of architecture and public policy is proposed here in order to critically review planning theory and practice. The outcome is the proposal of a paradigmatic framework that, in the authors’ opinion, can adequately guide reflections and actions. A pragmatic and interpretative heritage and the project-orientated approach are the basis of this new spatial planning paradigm.

Gianfranco Poggi (1934-2023) la società contemporanea / Re-thinking the quality of public space (I) Letteria G. Fassari, Martina Löw, Gioia Pompili, Emanuela Spanò, Preface Dominik Bartmanski, Seonju Kim, Martina Löw, Timothy Pape, Jörg Stollmann, Smart New World. Ways of Seeing Spatiotemporal Logics of Social Refiguration in New Songdo City Paolo Do, Letteria G. Fassari, The Quality of Public Space Among Hybrid Nature-Ruins. The Case of Bullicante Lake in Rome Elifcan Karacan, Quality of Space as Experienced: Impacts of Needs and Affordability on Spatial Appropriation of Cross-border Labor Commuters Alina Dambrosio Clementelli, Women’s Safety Between Neo-Liberalization and Re-Writings of Public Spaces Séverine Marguin, Vivien Sommer, Public Spaces as Homophilic Spaces. Belonging and Accessibility in Berlin’s Club Culture Claudia Cantale, Mapping Change. Imagine Antico Corso: What Family Photo Archives Say About the Neighbourhood teoria e ricerca Antonio Russo, Il Mezzogiorno nella trappola dello sviluppo intermedio: un’interpretazione neo-schumpeteriana della mancata convergenza recensioni Alfio Mastropaolo, Fare la guerra con altri mezzi. Sociologia storica del governo democratico, 2023 (Alon Helled) Stefano Tomelleri, Il capro espiatorio. L’uso strategico della violenza, 2023 (Uliano Conti)