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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Richard O. Cunningham |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the challenges that confront the WTO, inspired by the recent appointment of a new Director-General for the organization and various views that have been expressed by knowledgeable observers as to how these challenges should be addressed. The paper focuses in particular on the prescriptions expressed by Ambassador Robert Zoellick, a former United States Trade Representative, regarding what the Director-General should focus on, and lays out an alternative view of the path forward for the WTO and for sustaining multilateral cooperation on trade. |
| Keywords: | WTO, trade negotiations, multilateral trading system, developing countries, trade agreements |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:pp2013/10&r=cwa |
| By: | Dale W. Jorgenson; Khuong Vu |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:72711&r=cwa |
| By: | I. Atiyas; P. Dogan |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:33655&r=cwa |
| By: | Oriana Bandiera; Andrea Prat; Raffaella Sadun |
| Abstract: | CEOs affect the performance of the firms they manage, and family CEOs seem to weaken it. Yet little is known about what top executives actually do, and whether it differs by firm ownership. We study CEOs in the Indian manufacturing sector, where family ownership is widespread and the productivity dispersion across firms is substantial. Time use analysis of 356 CEOs of listed firms yields three sets of findings. First, there is substantial variation in the number of hours CEOs devote to work activities, and longer working hours are associated with higher firm productivity, growth, profitability and CEO pay. Second, family CEOs record 8% fewer working hours relative to professional CEOs. The difference in hours worked is more pronounced in low competition environments and does not seem to be explained by measurement error. Third, difference in diffrences estimates with respect to the cost of effort, due to weather shocks and popular sport events, reveal that the observed difference between family and professional CEOs is consistent with heterogeneous preferences for work versus leisure. Evidence from six other countries reveals similar findings in economies at different stages of development. |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:stieop:49&r=cwa |
| By: | Diaz-Serrano, Luis (Universitat Rovira i Virgili); Pérez, Jessica (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) |
| Abstract: | Using panel data for non-OECD countries covering the period 1970-2012, this paper analyzes the impact of the duration of primary education on school enrollment, drop-outs and completion rates. The empirical results show that for children in elementary school one additional grade of primary education has a negative impact on enrollment rate, while the effect on drop-outs is positive. Analogously, we also observed that an additional grade in primary education reduces the enrollment rate in secondary education. These results are in line with the fertility model approach; that is, in developing and underdeveloped countries parents do not have incentive to send children to school given the high perceived present economic value of children. |
| Keywords: | primary education, school achievement, political institutions, educational reforms |
| JEL: | I21 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7793&r=cwa |
| By: | Şule Akkoyunlu |
| Abstract: | Migration not only contributes to development through financial remittances, but also through flows of knowledge and through the diffusion of social, cultural and political norms and values. In fact, these more intangible contributions are more appreciated during economic and financial crises, as financial remittances become unstable or decrease in those circumstances. This paper, therefore, addresses the effect of migration on women’s empowerment in Turkey. The number of women in parliament in Turkey is chosen as a gauge of women’s empowerment and is explained by the emigration rate, the relative education of women to men, and a measure of democracy. Utilization of data over six decades from 1960 until 2011 gives the possibility that these series can be spuriously correlated. Therefore, the paper addresses the issue of spurious correlation in an analytical way. Spurious correlation is the risk of linking the share of women in parliament, for example, to the emigration rate when in fact there is no association. This study adopts the bounds testing procedure as a method to determine and to avoid spurious correlation. The results of bounds testing gives clear-cut evidence that women’s empowerment, the share of women in parliament in the present context, is related to the emigration rate, the relative education of women and to a measure of democracy. The bounds-testing procedure is replicated for emigration flows by destination country groups such as European and other core OECD countries, Arab countries, and Russia and CIS (Commonwealth Independent States) countries. Again, it is found that the share of women in parliament is related to the country groups with the largest effect in European and core OECD countries. The results are robust for the inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees in the emigration data. These results have important policy implications for sending as well as for destination countries, implications which are discussed in the paper. |
| Keywords: | Emigration, Social Remittances, Women's Empowerment, Women share in parliament, Turkey |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2013/77&r=cwa |
| By: | Suleymanov, Elchin; Nuri Aras, Osman; Huseynov, Ruslan |
| Abstract: | Large energy reserves have been a major contributor to the Azerbaijan economy, and affected the country's exports volume, and have become a main determinant of the country's economic structure. Azerbaijan is a country that has major oil and gas based economy with the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in 2005 and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Gas Pipeline in 2007. First export oil was pumped into Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan in May 2005, and the oil reached Ceyhan in May 2006. On the other hand, first export gas was pumped into Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum in March 2007. The importance of country energy source revenues on Azerbaijan's export volume and the effects on national economy has increased with the completion of these pipelines year after year. Azeri export’s reliance on energy source revenues keeps dominant position in Azerbaijan’s exports despite efforts to diversify Azerbaijan’s economy away from oil. Finally, crude oil made 86 percent and oil products made 6 percent, so oil and oil products made 92 percent of Azerbaijan’s export in 2011. Non-oil products made up only 8 percent of the country’s export last year. Thus, non-oil sector contribution to Azerbaijani export was lower than Georgian export in 2011. This means that increasing of total export volume of Azerbaijan is not sustainable. |
| Keywords: | Energy Resources, Oil, Export, Azerbaijan Economy, National Budget, Inflation. |
| JEL: | D1 D10 D2 O5 |
| Date: | 2013–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50723&r=cwa |
| By: | Michael, Bryane; Gubin, Alexey |
| Abstract: | The principles and findings from internal government audits (aimed at generating recommendations to improve compliance with anti-corruption regulations) can greatly contribute to the wider anti-corruption literature. Internal audit techniques can overcome the weaknesses of the four predominant approaches to evaluating anti-corruption regulatory performance – the systems design approach, the ad-hoc controls studies approach, the descriptive legal analysis approach and the prescriptive manuals and handbooks approach. This paper discusses a compliance audit of anti-corruption regulations in an anti-corruption audit conducted in 2009. The audit findings and recommendations illustrate the ways that models and previous research in the social sciences can be used in the internal audit methodology in order to generate recommendations which provide risk-adjusted, positive net benefits for the government agency. |
| Keywords: | internal audit, corruption, customs, Carpatistan |
| JEL: | H26 H83 M42 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:44693&r=cwa |
| By: | Bahar, Dany; Hausmann, Ricardo; Hidalgo, César A. |
| Abstract: | The literature on knowledge diffusion shows that knowledge decays strongly with distance. In this paper we document that the probability a product is added to a country’s export basket is, on average, 65% larger if a neighboring country is a successful exporter of that same product. For existing products, growth of exports in a country is 1.5 percent higher per annum if it has a neighbor with comparative advantage in these products. While these results could be driven by a common third factor that escapes our controls, they align with our expectations of the localized character of knowledge diffusion. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:97671&r=cwa |
| By: | Antonio Navas (Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | This paper creates a theory of endogenous growth with endogenous institutional change to analyse the impact that trade openness has on economic growth through a change in institutions in pre-industrial societies. An elite (landowners) controlling the political power expropriates another social group (capitalists). This reduces investment in physical capital, the source of endogenous growth. The rival group (capitalists) can take a military action to expel the group in power. I study optimal expropriation, growth and institutional change under two scenarios, autarky and free trade. The simulation results suggest that for a vast majority of cases economies open to trade generally experience higher growth and earlier institutional change. This is the consequence of the fact that the elite reduces the expropriation rate when the economy opens up to trade. In addition, economies specialising in manufacturing products tend to grow more and introduce institutional change earlier. This is consistent with the divergent pattern in growth and institutions that Western European Economies were experiencing during the modern era and the industrial revolution. |
| Keywords: | trade; institutions; growth in the very long run |
| JEL: | F43 O43 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2013018&r=cwa |
| By: | Radoslaw Stefanski (University Laval) |
| Abstract: | Online appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:append:12-45&r=cwa |