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on South East Asia |
| By: | Renato Galvão Flôres Junior (EPGE/FGV); Masakazu Watanuki |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:617&r=sea |
| By: | Weili Ding; Steven F. Lehrer |
| Abstract: | Peer effects have figured prominently in debates on school vouchers, desegregation, ability tracking and anti-poverty programs. Compelling evidence of their existence remains scarce for plaguing endogeneity issues such as selection bias and the reflection problem. This paper firmly establishes a link between peer performance and student achievement, using a unique dataset from China. We find strong evidence that peer effects exist and operate in a positive and nonlinear manner; reducing the variation of peer performance increases achievement; and our semi-parametric estimates clarify the tradeoffs facing policymakers in exploiting positive peers effects to increase future achievement. |
| JEL: | I2 Z13 P36 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12305&r=sea |
| By: | Sylvie Démurger (HIEBS, The University of Hong Kong and CNRS (France)); Martin Fournier (GATE, Université Lyon 2 (France))); Li Shi (School of Economics and Business, Beijing Normal University); Wei Zhong (Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Beijing)) |
| Abstract: | The massive downsizing of the state-owned sector and the concomitant impressive growth of the private sector at the end of the 1990s have altered the nature of the Chinese labor market. By bringing in more competition and market mechanisms, they have contributed to increasing labor turnover and competitiveness in market wages. Using two urban household surveys for 1995 and 2002, this paper analyzes the evolution of labor market segmentation in urban China, by applying an extended version of Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition methods. During the 7-year period, the sharp increase in earnings for all workers however shows substantial differences across ownership, economic sectors, and regions. We find strong evidence of a multi-tiered labor market along these three major lines and highlight increasing segmentation within each of the three dimensions, the gap between the privileged segments of the labor market and the most competitive segments widening over time. |
| Keywords: | labor market, earnings differentials, segmentation, China. |
| JEL: | J31 J41 P23 O53 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2006-46&r=sea |
| By: | David Hummels |
| Abstract: | This report focuses on issues for Latin America and the Caribbean from China's expanding presence in the world economy, with a particular interest in questions related to China's size and proximity to markets.The authors begin with a basic overview of facts, including a characterization of trade and trade growth for China and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Next, the following issues are addressed: Relative proximity of China and LAC countries to major markets. Detailed data on shipping costs to address the size of the import wedge, the price of goods at the exporter's departure port telative to the importing destination and the size of the sourcing wedge and its determinants. LAC's proximity to the US market. Overview of literature discussing the importance of country size |
| Keywords: | Trade, Goods transport, Transport costs, China, Latin America |
| JEL: | F13 F16 |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:intalp:100&r=sea |
| By: | Hans Genberg (Executive Director (Research), Hong Kong Monetary Authority) |
| Abstract: | Financial integration in Ease Asia is actively being pursued and will in due course lead to substantial mobility of capital between economies in the region. Plans for monetary cooperation as a prelude to monetary integration and ultimately monetary unification are also proposed. These plans often suggest that central banks should adopt some form of common exchange rate policy in the transition period towards full monetary union. This paper argues that this is a dangerous path in the context of highly integrated financial markets. An alternative approach is proposed where independent central banks coordinate their monetary policies through the adoption of common objectives and by building an appropriate institutional framework. When this coordination process has progressed to the point where interest rate developments are similar across the region, and if in the meantime the required institutional infrastructure has been build, the next step towards monetary unification can be taken among those central banks that so desire. The claim is that this transition path is likely to be robust and will limit the risk of currency crises. |
| Date: | 2006–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:onb:oenbwp:122&r=sea |
| By: | Richard N. Cooper (Paper 1) (Harvard University); Michael Bordo (Paper 2) (Economics Department, Rutgers University and Harvard University); Harold James (Paper 2) (History Department and Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Paper 1: This paper suggests that some time in the not-too-distant future the governments of the industrialized democracies – concretely, the United States, the European Union, and Japan – should consider establishing a common currency for their collective use. A common currency would credibly eliminate exchange rate uncertainty and exchange rate movements among major currencies, both of which are significant sources of disturbance to important economies. One currency would of course entail one monetary policy for the currency area, and a political mechanism to assure accountability. This proposal is not realistic today, but is set as a vision for the second or third decade into the 21st century. Europeans, in creating EMU, have taken a major step in the direction indicated. Their idea could be taken further. Paper 2: In this paper, we look at the major arguments for monetary simplification and unification before explaining why the nineteenth century utopia is an idea whose time has gone, not come. |
| Date: | 2006–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:onb:oenbwp:127&r=sea |
| By: | David Newbery; |
| Abstract: | Modern infrastructure, particularly electricity, is critical to economic development. South Asia, with inefficient and bankrupt state-owned vertically integrated electricity supply industries, encouraged private generation investment to address shortages selling power to largely unreformed state electricity boards, exacerbating financial distress. Reforming the SEBs is an essential first step, followed by privatisation to sustain reform. Reducing losses and increasing plant load factors yield far higher returns than generation investment, where India and Pakistan under-price and exceed predicted levels of electric intensity. Private investors will require assurances that the contracts needed for IPPs are honoured, that legal disputes are efficiently and fairly resolved, subject to fall-back international arbitration, and that their purchasers are credit-worthy. This is easier with cheap gas, which is available to Bangladesh, but scarce in India. Regional energy trade would therefore do much to improve the investment climate, and a South Asia Energy Charter could underwrite increased energy trade. |
| Keywords: | infrastructure, electricity, direct foreign investment, gas, privatisation, regional co-operation, South Asia |
| JEL: | H54 K23 L32 L94 Q48 R58 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0647&r=sea |
| By: | Stephanie Seguino; Caren A. Grown |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews evidence of the gender effects of globalization in developing economies. It then outlines a set of macroeconomic and trade policies to promote gender equity. The evidence suggests that while liberalization has expanded womenÕs access to employment, the long-term goal of transforming gender inequalities remains unmet and appears unattainable without state intervention in markets. This paper sets forth some general principles that can produce greater gender equality, premised on shifting from economies that are profit led and export oriented to those that are wage led and full-employment oriented. The framework is Kaleckian in its focus on the relationship between the gender distribution of income and macroeconomic outcomes. |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_446&r=sea |
| By: | Christopher M. Meissner; Nienke Oomes |
| Abstract: | Conditional on choosing a pegged exchange rate regime, what determines the currency to which countries peg or “anchor” their exchange rate? This paper aims to answer this question using a panel multinomial logit framework, covering more than 100 countries for the period 1980-1998. We find that trade network externalities are a key determinant of anchor currency choice, implying that there are multiple steady states for the distribution of anchor currencies in the international monetary system. Other factors found to be related to anchor currency choice include the symmetry of output co-movement, the currency denomination of debt, and legal or colonial origins. |
| Keywords: | exchange rate regime; anchor; network externalities; optimal currency area; international currency; de facto |
| JEL: | E42 F02 F33 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0643&r=sea |
| By: | Jungho Kim (Vienna Institute of Demography and IZA Bonn); Arnstein Aassve (ISER, University of Essex) |
| Abstract: | While a large body of literature focuses on how fertility affects female labour market participation, there are relatively few studies that examine the effect of fertility on male labour market participation. Even if the burden of child care falls mainly on women, an exogenous increase in fertility is likely to change the optimal allocation of time, therefore, the labour supply decision of both female and male in a household. This paper analyses how an exogenous increase in fertility affects labour market participation of men and women in Indonesia - a country that has seen dramatic changes in the labour market over recent decades. The finding is that women reduce their working hours in response to the higher fecundity in both rural and urban areas in Indonesia. On the other hand, the higher fecundity leads to men’s increasing their working hours only in rural areas. The higher degree of specialization in response to fertility in rural areas is driven mainly by the differences in the cost of childcare rather than the characteristics of occupation or household bargaining power. |
| Keywords: | fertility, labour supply, division of labour, Indonesia |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2162&r=sea |