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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Wignaraja, Ganeshan (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are under scrutiny for their engagement in production networks following recent emphasis on increasing intra-regional trade, rebalancing, and inclusive growth in Asia. Using a data set covering 5,900 firms in five ASEAN economies at different stages of development, this paper analyses the participation of SMEs in production networks, determinants, and policy implications. It finds that although large firms dominate production network engagement in ASEAN economies, there are signs that SMEs have modestly increased their participation since the late-1990s. This is linked to firm-specific factors (e.g., firm size, foreign ownership, skills, technological capabilities, and access to credit) as well as a supportive business environment. Tackling residual supply-side and policy constraints can further the participation of ASEAN SMEs in production networks. |
| Keywords: | small and medium enterprises; production networks; asean; intra-regional trade |
| JEL: | F10 F23 O14 |
| Date: | 2012–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0361&r=cwa |
| By: | Asad K. Ghalib; Issam Malki; Katsushi S. Imai |
| Abstract: | Abstract This study examines whether household access to microfinance reduces poverty, and if so, to what extent and across which dimensions of wellbeing. The study draws on first-hand observations and empirical data gathered from interviews of 1,132 households across 11 districts in the rural areas of the province of Punjab in Pakistan. It employs a quasi-experimental research design and makes use of data collected by interviewing both borrower (treatment) and non-borrower (control) households. Sample selection biases are controlled by matching propensity scores. Findings reveal that although borrowers seem to fare better than non-borrowers across around 70 percent of the indicators, a majority of these are not statistically significant. This suggests that despite producing some degree of positive impact, microfinance institutions still have to make sustained efforts to bring about real difference to the livelihoods of the poor. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:17312&r=cwa |
| By: | Daniel L. Bond; Daniel Platz; Magnus Magnusson |
| Abstract: | In most developing countries a shortage of long-term, local-currency financing for small-scale infrastructure projects impedes local economic development. Inadequate fiscal transfers, little own source revenue and low creditworthiness make it difficult for local governments to fully fund projects on their own. This paper proposes the use of project finance as a means to attract financing from domestic banks and institutional investors. Donors can play a catalytic role by providing technical assistance to develop projects and credit enhancement to attract commercial financing. |
| Keywords: | infrastructure finance, issuers, investors, financial sector, structured finance |
| JEL: | H54 H41 H81 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:une:wpaper:114&r=cwa |
| By: | Nicola Banks; David Hulme |
| Abstract: | Abstract Since the late 1970s, NGOs have played an increasingly prominent role in the development sector, widely praised for their strengths as innovative and grassroots-driven organisations with the desire and capacity to pursue participatory and people-centred forms of development and to fill gaps left by the failure of states across the developing world in meeting the needs of their poorest citizens. While levels of funding for NGO programmes in service delivery and advocacy work have increased alongside the rising prevalence and prominence of NGOs, concerns regarding their legitimacy have also increased. There are ongoing questions of these comparative advantages, given their growing distance away from low-income people and communities and towards their donors. In addition, given the non-political arena in which they operate, NGOs have had little participation or impact in tackling the more structurally-entrenched causes and manifestations of poverty, such as social and political exclusion, instead effectively depoliticising poverty by treating it as a technical problem that can be ‘solved’. How, therefore, can NGOs ‘return to their roots’ and follow true participatory and experimental paths to empowerment? As this paper explores, increasingly, NGOs are recognised as only one, albeit important, actor in civil society. Success in this sphere will require a shift away from their role as service providers to that of facilitators and supporters of broader civil society organisations through which low-income communities themselves can engage in dialogue and negotiations to enhance their collective assets and capabilities. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:17112&r=cwa |
| By: | Burak Karagöl (Ministry of Development Republic of Turkey); Erkan Erdil (Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of ICT on economic growth in Turkey and other OECD member countries. After discussing the theoretical relationships between ICT usage and economic growth, we test the positive impact of ICT revolution on economic growth econometrically. In the empirical part of the study, we perform panel data analyses by employing data sets that belong to 30 OECD member countries for 1999-2008 period as well as carrying out time series analyses for only Turkey by using data between 1980 and 2009. We find out that ICT usage and production have a positive significant effect on economic growth in OECD case. However, due to some methodological difficulties and insufficiency of critical mass regarding ICT area and complementary physical and social infrastructures in Turkey, we cannot find any significant relationship between ICT and economic growth for Turkish case. |
| Keywords: | ICT, economic growth, Turkey, OECD |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:met:stpswp:1205&r=cwa |
| By: | Nepelski, Daniel; De Prato, Giuditta |
| Abstract: | We analyse the internationalisation of ICT R&D in Asia and compare it with the other world regions. Despite the strong linkages between Japan, the US and the EU, Asia seems to be very attractive as a location for R&D activities. It is also striking how the role of Japan as a partner of other Asian countries decreased mainly in favour of the US. At the aggregate level, there are strong differences in R&D internationalisation across regions. This might indicate that each region follows a different R&D internationalisation path. Alternatively, it might also be a sign of unequal capabilities of "going global". In this respect, the US offers an interesting example of a region which benefit from the process of internationalisation of inventive activity not only through building research collaborations with foreign inventors, but also through successfully capturing innovations developed by foreign researchers. |
| Keywords: | Globalisation; R&D internationalization; R&D location; patent statistics |
| JEL: | O32 D80 |
| Date: | 2011–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39281&r=cwa |
| By: | Juan Botero; Alejandro Ponce; Andrei Shleifer |
| Abstract: | Generally speaking, better educated countries have better governments, an empirical regularity that holds in both dictatorships and democracies. We suggest that a possible reason for this fact is that educated people are more likely to complain about misconduct by government officials, so that, even when each complaint is unlikely to succeed, more frequent complaints encourage better behavior from officials. Newly assembled individual-level survey data from the World Justice Project show that, within countries, better educated people are more likely to report official misconduct. The results are confirmed using other survey data on reporting crime and corruption. Citizen complaints might thus be an operative mechanism that explains the link between education and the quality of government. |
| JEL: | D73 D78 O43 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18119&r=cwa |
| By: | Syed Gohar Abbas (EA3713 - Centre de Recherche Magellan - Université de Lyon - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III); Alain Roger (EA3713 - Centre de Recherche Magellan - Université de Lyon - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon III); Muhammad Ali Asadullah (CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Aix-en-Provence - Université Paul Cézanne - Aix-Marseille III : EA4225) |
| Abstract: | Many studies on stress point out that the role stressors may vary in different environments and lead to stress & burnout. The recent growth in higher education institutions in developing countries has lead to higher competition and organizational change in most of the public and private sector universities (Rajarajeswari 2010) and faculty members increasingly suffer from pressures leading to stress and burnout. Based on Pareek's (2002) Organizational Role Stressors questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson, 1986), this exploratory research investigates the contribution of various role stressors to stress and burnout in a public sector university of Pakistan. A sample of 80 faculty members from a university in Pakistan completed a structured questionnaire. Results show that role ambiguity is one of the organizational role stressors having the biggest impact on two dimensions of stress and one dimension of burnout among the faculty. The other significant organizational role stressors include role stagnation, inter-role distance, self role distance, resource inadequacy, role conflict and role overload. Demographic factors such as gender, marital status and experience had little or no impact on the results. The results confirm the link between stress and some dimensions of burnout, but lack of personal accomplishment among faculty members was not related significantly to any dimension of stress. |
| Keywords: | Change; Stress; Burnout; Organizational Role Stressors; Universities |
| Date: | 2012–06–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00698806&r=cwa |
| By: | Gråsjö, Urban (University West); Karlsson, Charlie (Jönköping International Business School) |
| Abstract: | Nowadays it is well-established fact that urban regions and large ones in particular are crucial for promoting creativity, innovation and subsequent economic growth in the economy. There-fore, it is important to focus policies in Europe on how to improve the existing conditions of urban regions so they can function as engines of economic growth. The purpose of this paper is to discuss policies needed to meet the current urban challenges and to make urban regions in Europe more competitive. A problem with current spatial policies at the EU-level as well as at the national level in most countries is that the policies mainly ignore functional urban re-gions and instead focus on administrative regions. A reason for this is that there is often no political body with authority over the whole functional urban region. In this paper, we present ideas for a new type of spatial policies in Europe focusing on innovation and growth. For in-stance, there is a need to take measures to increase the density of population and companies in functional urban regions and to improve transport infrastructure to increase the geographical extension of functional regions. There is also a need to develop more urban regions into real innovation nodes by developing more elite universities with a proper R&D funding and a ca-pacity to compete with the best universities in the US. Another focus must be on increased investments in higher education as well as policies aiming at increasing the attractiveness of urban regions in terms of housing infrastructure and supply of amenities. |
| Keywords: | Urban regions; Urban policy; Growth; Innovation; Europe |
| JEL: | O18 R11 R58 |
| Date: | 2012–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0277&r=cwa |
| By: | Banerjee, Abhijit (MIT); Hanna, Rema (Harvard University); Mullainathan, Sendhil (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we provide a new framework for analyzing corruption in public bureaucracies. The standard way to model corruption is as an example of moral hazard, which then leads to a focus on better monitoring and stricter penalties with the eradication of corruption as the final goal. We propose an alternative approach which emphasizes why corruption arises in the first place. Corruption is modeled as a consequence of the interaction between the underlying task being performed by bureaucrat, the bureaucrat's private incentives and what the principal can observe and control. This allows us to study not just corruption but also other distortions that arise simultaneously with corruption, such as red-tape and ultimately, the quality and efficiency of the public services provided, and how these outcomes vary depending on the specific features of this task. We then review the growing empirical literature on corruption through this perspective and provide guidance for future empirical research. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp12-023&r=cwa |
| By: | Dincecco, Mark; Prado, Mauricio |
| Abstract: | We exploit differences in casualties sustained in pre-modern wars to estimate the impact of fiscal capacity on economic performance. In the past, states fought different amounts of external conflicts, of various lengths and magnitudes. To raise the revenues to wage wars, states made fiscal innovations, which persisted and helped to shape current fiscal institutions. Economic historians claim that greater fiscal capacity was the key long-run institutional change brought about by historical conflicts. Using casualties sustained in pre-modern wars to instrument for current fiscal institutions, we estimate substantial impacts of fiscal capacity on GDP per worker. The results are robust to a broad range of specifications, controls, and sub-samples. |
| Keywords: | pre-modern wars; fiscal capacity; public services; worker productivity |
| JEL: | H11 O43 N40 |
| Date: | 2012–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39264&r=cwa |
| By: | Lunn, Pete |
| Keywords: | Policy |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:ec8&r=cwa |