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on Development |
| By: | Pádraig Carmody, Trinity College Dublin And Godfrey Hampwaye, University of Zambia |
| Abstract: | Sub-Saharan Africa's economy grew rapidly from 2004 to 2008, largely driven by Asian investment and trade. While much investment has been in primary commodities, Asian-owned manufacturing and other businesses in Africa, despite growing rapidly, have received very little attention. Using survey research, and other primary and secondary data this paper investigates the nature and impacts of Asian businesses in Zambia to interrogate whether their developmental impacts are inclusive or exclusionary. It then moves to assess the likely impact of the current global slowdown and how this will impact on Sino-Zambian economic relations. |
| Date: | 2009–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp297&r=dev |
| By: | Todd Schoellman |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the multi-dimensional human capital endowments of im¬migrants by characterizing their occupational decisions. This approach allows for estimation of physical skill and cognitive ability endowments, which are difficult to measure directly. Estimation implies that immigrants as a whole are abundant in cognitive ability and scarce in experience/training and communication skills. Counterfactual estimates of the wage impacts of immigration are skewed: the largest gain from preventing immigration is 3.2% higher wages, but the largest loss is 0.3% lower wages. Crowding of immigrants into select occupations plays a minor role in explain¬ing these impacts; occupations’ skill attributes explain the bulk. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Migration. |
| JEL: | F22 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–08–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eei:rpaper:eeri_rp_2009_19&r=dev |
| By: | Naomi Hossain |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the efforts of government to interrupt the intergenerational transmission of poverty. It focuses on the practices and effects of the Primary Education Stipend Programme, a conditional cash transfer designed to attract the rural poor into school. It documents how the objects of policy – rural poor children and parents - are ‘seen’ by the state, and the sightings of the state they in turn receive. It also analyses the tools and technologies of the intervention, focusing on its targeting practices. |
| Keywords: | poverty, school, Bangladesh, rural, poor children, education, education stipend, stipend, cash transfer, cash, parents, state, tools, technologies, primay education, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2177&r=dev |
| By: | Subhrendu K Pattanayak |
| Abstract: | This paper is a “rough guide” for evaluation of programs, projects and policies in the environment and development arena. First, a general overview of the what, how, and why of program evaluation, with particular emphasis on the role of control groups, pre and post measurement, and covariate data to define counterfactual scenarios (including formal definition of all terms) are provided. Second, a detailed review with examples of the four main methods for evaluation – randomized experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, and panel-based DID estimators with a description of the pros and cons of each method is given. Finally, the econometric evaluations within the broader context is placed– how can we move beyond estimation of average treatment effects; what do we do under time, resource and data constraints; and when and where should we rely on theory-based evaluations. |
| Keywords: | evaluation, environment, development area, econometric, natural and quasi experiments, resource, data constraints, data, theory, DID estimators, south asia, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2187&r=dev |
| By: | Sharma, Manohar; Zaman, Hassan |
| Abstract: | The paper assesses the costs and household level benefits of migrating overseas from Bangladesh. The authors survey households who have had overseas migrants to assess their characteristics compared to non-migrants. They also compute various types of migration and remittance related transaction costs and discuss the channels by which overseas migration is financed, remittances sent and the constraints faced by the poorest. Using the Propensity Score Matching method, the paper finds that overseas migration conveys substantial benefits to families as measured by household consumption, use of modern agricultural inputs, and level of household savings. The authors also offer some possible policy directions to strengthen the returns from migration as well as reduce some of the costs. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Access to Finance,Remittances,Banks&Banking Reform,Debt Markets |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5018&r=dev |
| By: | Beck, Thorsten; Fuchs, Michael; Uy, Marilou |
| Abstract: | In spite of shallow financial markets, Sub-Saharan Africa will not escape the repercussions of the global financial crisis. The global turmoil threatens the progress Sub-Saharan Africa has made in financial sector deepening and broadening over the recent years and underlines the importance of continuing and deepening the necessary institutional reforms. In this context it is important to define the role of government in expanding financial sectors in a sustainable and market-friendly manner. Foreign banks have brought more benefits than risks for their host economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, but are certainly not a panacea and not a substitute for institutional and policy reform. The profile of foreign banks, however, has changed, with more and more regional banks emerging. This trend toward regional integration is promising as it might allow the small African financial system to reap benefits from scale economies, but it also requires regulatory and supervisory improvements and coordination across the region. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Debt Markets,Access to Finance,,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5020&r=dev |
| By: | Fofack, Hippolyte |
| Abstract: | Over the decades leading to the global financial crisis, the world witnessed a deepening integration of world economies, irrespective of a country’s geographical location on the spherical space. This process of increasing interdependence of world economies, most notably illustrated by the scale of financial flows and movements of goods and services now termed globalization, has been facilitated by research and development and advances in technology, especially in the area of information and communication technology. In spite of its global nature, its expected benefits have not been uniformly distributed, however. This paper shows that the countries and regions that are driving the process of knowledge creation and production of high-tech and manufactured goods, building on frontier technology, are benefiting the most from globalization, increasingly acting as drivers and relegating Sub-Saharan Africa to the end-user status. In this process, the income gap between Sub-Saharan Africa and the globalizers has increased even more. However, the paper also shows that raising the level of technological endowment in Sub-Saharan Africa to that of developed countries could go a long way to bridge Africa's output gaps and improve its export performance in the new globalization landscape of the post-financial crisis era. |
| Keywords: | Debt Markets,Emerging Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Currencies and Exchange Rates, |
| Date: | 2009–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5019&r=dev |
| By: | Okamoto, Ikuko |
| Abstract: | This paper presents issues affecting the movement of rural labour in Myanmar, by examining the background, purpose and earned income of labourers migrating to fishing villages in southern Rakhine. A broad range of socioeconomic classes, from poor to rich, farmers to fishermen, is migrating from broader areas to specific labour-intensive fishing subsectors, such as anchovy fishing. These labourers are a mixed group of people whose motives lie either in supplementing their household income or accumulating capital for further expansion of their economic activities. The concentration of migrating labourers with different objectives in this particular unstable, unskilled employment opportunity suggests an insufficiently developed domestic labour market in rural Myanmar. There is a pressing need to create stable labour-intensive industries to meet this demand. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Labour, Fishery, Migrant labor, Labor market |
| JEL: | J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper206&r=dev |
| By: | Hayakawa, Kazunobu; Hiratsuka, Daisuke; Shiino, Kohei; Sukegawa, Seiya |
| Abstract: | It is noted that utilization of AFTA is low by international standards. In order to clarify the reasons for such low utilization, this paper investigates what kinds of Japanese affiliates in ASEAN are more likely to use FTAs in their exporting, by employing unique affiliate-level data. Our findings are as follow. First, the larger the affiliate is, or the more diversified its procurements’ origins are, the more likely it is to utilize an FTA scheme in its exporting. Second, affiliates exporting actively to developing countries are more likely to use FTAs than those exporting to developed countries. Third, there are clear differences in FTA utilization depending on affiliates’ locations and sectors. These results afford a clue to the reasons for the low FTA utilization in East Asia. |
| Keywords: | FTA, Micro data, ASEAN, International trade, Regional economic cooperation, International economic integration |
| JEL: | F15 F53 O53 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper207&r=dev |
| By: | Marcela Eslava; Marcela Melendez |
| Abstract: | This paper describes private actors’ involvement in Colombia’s policymaking process. While more transparent and formal channels are used to discuss horizontal policies, they are also less effective. The adoption of targeted policies, however, follows a faster track and depends more on political power than on those policies’ potential as engines for productivity growth. Data targeted policies and political characteristics across sector-region units are used to further characterize the different groups’ weight in policymaking, and the effect of the implied unbalance on aggregate productivity. Electoral weight and being represented by business groups and associations are found to be important determinants of the policy benefits received by a sector in a region, especially when activities are located in regions affected by armed conflict. It is also found that the resulting imbalance of policies damages aggregate productivity. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, political economy, interest groups, targeted policies |
| JEL: | O43 O25 P16 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4633&r=dev |
| By: | Viviane Azevedo; Cesar Bouillon |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews evidence on social mobility in Latin America. Several studies have used data sets that collect intergenerational socio economic information. The data, though limited, suggest that social mobility is low in the region, even when compared with low social mobility developed countries like the United States and United Kingdom, with high levels of immobility at the lower and upper tails of the income distribution. While Latin America has improved education mobility in recent decades, which may have translated into higher mobility for younger cohorts, the region still presents, except for Chile, lower education mobility than in developed countries. The paper also reviews studies on the main determinants of the region’s low levels of social mobility, including social exclusion, low access to higher education, and labor market discrimination. |
| Keywords: | Social mobility, Latin America, Inequality, Social Exclusion, Education |
| JEL: | D30 D60 I30 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4634&r=dev |
| By: | Peter Nunnenkamp; Hannes Öhler |
| Abstract: | Previous literature largely ignores the heterogeneity of aid channels used by each single donor country. We estimate Tobit models to assess the relative importance of recipient need, recipient merit and self-interest of donors for various channels of official and private German aid across a large sample of recipient countries in 2005-2007. Our findings strongly underscore the need for a disaggregated analysis of aid allocation. Aid channels differ significantly in the extent to which need and merit are taken into account. Yet, the German case does not reveal unambiguously superior aid channels. Better targeted aid through some channels seems to be conditioned on political support by recipient countries in the UN General Assembly |
| Keywords: | aid allocation, aid channels, donor motives, Germany, Tobit models |
| JEL: | F35 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1536&r=dev |