|
on Transition Economics |
| By: | Gozgor, Giray; Erzurumlu, Yaman O. |
| Abstract: | Following the liberalization of financial markets, Goldstein and Razin (2006) show that there is an information based trade-off between foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment, our paper examines the causality relations between foreign direct investment and volatility of foreign portfolio investment. Utilizing monthly and quarterly data set of Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Turkey, volatility of portfolio investments, which indicated evidence of ARCH effects for all four countries, have been estimated by best fitting GARCH (p,q) models. Further, potential causality has been examined by Granger (1969), Sims (1972) and Toda and Yamamoto (1995) test methods. Results indicated that, for Russia and Turkey foreign direct investment has a significant cause on portfolio investment volatility. However for Czech Republic and Poland, there is no such significant relationship has been found. Finally further investigation of a possible structural break due to EU membership could not provide such evidence for Czech Republic and Poland in related variables. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Portfolio Investment, Eastern Europe, Causality |
| JEL: | F21 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34352&r=tra |
| By: | Lu, Zheng; Flegg, A.Tony; Deng, Xiang |
| Abstract: | This paper elaborates on a method of measuring regional specialization and examines the trend of regional specialization in China, 1987 - 2007. It constructs a simple coefficient incorporating the effect of regional industrial scale, based on location quotients, and then measures the regional specialization of China using official statistical data. The results indicate a remarkable increase in China’s overall regional specialization during this time, as well as obvious regional and industrial differences, i.e., that the regional specialization of eastern coastal China is relatively less than that of the inland. Findings further demonstrate that special-resource-dependent industries are concentrated in regions with resource endowment, whereas industries with strong technical barriers are mainly located in regions with strong research and innovation ability. |
| Keywords: | Regional Specialization; Location Quotients; China |
| JEL: | C69 P25 R12 R11 |
| Date: | 2011–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33867&r=tra |
| By: | Teng, Faxin; Kamenev, Dmitry; Meier, Claudia; Klein, Martin |
| Abstract: | China is widely seen as one of the sources of global macroeconomic imbalances. Its persistent current account surplus and capital exports to the United States are even cited as one of the causes of the global financial crisis. The most common explanation traces China's current acca ount surplus to a mismatch between saving and investment due to inefficiently low domestic demand. We challenge this explanation. Our argument rests on an analogy that we construct between two countries generally thought to be very different: Russia and China. Russia, a raw materials exporting country, has been running current account surpluses similar to China's in relation to GDP. As for most raw materials exporting countries this is considered normal, reflecting efficient reinvestment of wealth from natural resources in financial assets. We show that a similar efficiency argument can be constructed for China, although the nature of wealth that is reinvested in financial assets is different in the two countries. Our analysis implies that China's current account surpluses can be expected to disappear over the long horizon - although the time when this will happen may still be very far away. Moreover, an appreciation of the Chinese currency may not have the desired effect of mitigating the country's current account surplus as a weakening in competitiveness is counterbalanced by a strengthening of investment motives. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:16&r=tra |
| By: | Ji, Yueqing; Zhong, Funing; Yu, Xiaohua |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the linkages between farmers' machinery investment decision and off-farm employment in China. Both the theoretical model and the empirical results based on a survey of 453 households in Anhui Province indicate that agricultural labor input and small-size machinery investment are gross complements rahter tha substitutes when machinery service is available in the market. Consequently, farmers with small machinery are more likely to reduce their off-time employment time. -- |
| Keywords: | Small-size Machinery,Off-Farm employment,Complements,China |
| JEL: | Q12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:5&r=tra |
| By: | Ishizuka, Futaba |
| Abstract: | The change in the ownership structure of enterprises was one of the major features of the Vietnamese economy in the 2000s. Of the three sectors of state, private and FDI, the state sector, which employed the majority of enterprise workers at the beginning of the 2000s, became the smallest by the end of the decade. One of the factors contributing to such phenomenon was SOE restructuring. Earlier SOE restructuring in the early 1990s is said to have resulted in increased economic inequality among provinces. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the impact of the SOE restructuring and related changes in the ownership structure of enterprises on the regional distribution of economic activities in the 2000s. |
| Keywords: | Vietnam, Government enterprises, Industrial management, State owned enterprise, Enterprise |
| JEL: | P31 L32 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper293&r=tra |
| By: | Liu, Dan; Tsegai, Daniel W. |
| Abstract: | The New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) program was implemented in response to âillness-led povertyâ and poor state of healthcare in rural China. Supported by government subsidy, more and more poor rural households are now enrolled in the NCMS. This paper investigates the impact of the NCMS program on improving health care utilization and reducing medical expenditure with a specific focus on the endeavors to unravel the heterogeneous effects of the program for the different regions and income groups. We utilize the China Health and Nutrition Survey data (CHNS) to provide prolific cross section and longitudinal information. A total sample of 6,293 individuals and 2,058 households are included in the analysis. Propensity score matching method and bounding approach are used to infer the causal effect of NCMS and examine the influence of unobservable factors respectively. Major findings indicate that there is a systematic adverse selection in the NCMS program, both in health- and economic-related aspects. Especially in western regions, households with high ratio of migrant workers are less attracted to the NCMS program. The NCMS program improved medical care utilization for the poor and regionally, western regions benefitted more from the program. The NCMS program also induces a moral hazard problem in western regions. |
| Keywords: | rural China, health insurance, impact evaluation, propensity score matching, Health Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:ubzefd:116746&r=tra |
| By: | Kostka, Genia |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the career backgrounds of local government officials in provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) in China and explains appointment processes of Chinese EPB bureaucrats. Using biographical information of provincial EPB heads and drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in 2010 in Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, this paper finds that only one-fourth of current EPB heads were promoted through the bureau ranks within the EPB, while the remaining three-fourths were appointed from positions outside the environment field. Further, nearly all EPB heads' professional backgrounds and associated networks can be clearly categorized as environmental, business, provincial government, or local government oriented. The paper delineates these four types of Chinese EPB leaders and explains why an awareness of the different professional orientations is critical to understanding environmental protection in China. These findings have implications for inferring the unique characteristics of a province's EPB leadership, the implementation capacities of provincial EPBs, and the appointment preferences of provincial leaders. -- |
| Keywords: | agency,environmental protection,policy implementation,networks,China |
| JEL: | P28 Q28 O18 R58 Q48 Q58 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:174&r=tra |
| By: | Prishchepov, Alexander V.; Radeloff, Volker C.; Müller, Daniel; Dubinin, Maxim; Baumann, Matthias |
| Abstract: | Socio-economic and institutional changes may accelerate land-use and land-cover change. Our goal was to explore the determinants of agricultural land abandonment within one agro-climatic and economic region of post-Soviet European Russia during the first decade of transition from a state-command to market-driven economy (between 1990 and 2000). We integrated maps of abandoned agricultural land derived from 30 m resolution Landsat TM/ETM+ images, environmental and socioeconomic variables and estimated logistic regressions. Results showed that post-Soviet agricultural land abandonment was significantly associated with lower average grain yields in the late 1980s, higher distance from the populated places, areas with low population densities, for isolated agricultural areas within the forest matrix and near the forest edges. Hierarchical partitioning showed that average grain yields in the late 1980s contributed the most in explaining the variability of agricultural land abandonment, followed by location characteristics of the land. While the spatial patterns correspond to the classic micro-economic theories of von Thünen and Ricardo, it was largely the macro-scale driving forces that fostered agricultural abandonment. In the light of continuum depopulation process in the studied region of European Russia, we expect continuing agricultural abandonment after the year 2000. -- |
| Keywords: | agricultural land abandonment,institutional change, land use change,spatial analysis,logistic regression,remote sensing,Russia |
| JEL: | Q15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:1&r=tra |
| By: | Yang, Boqiong; Chen, Jianguo |
| Abstract: | From the 1970's, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flowed into host countries. With the development of economy in host countries the environment deteriorated. The overall goal of this paper is to estimate whether the impacts of FDI positive or negative on environment in host countries. To meet this overall goal, it is constructed a simultaneous system with data of 28 provinces in China (1992-2008). This system supposes the pollution indicators to be determined by economic scale, industrial composition and pollution density of a province, in which pollution density is created to estimate the environmental effect of FDI more exactly than traditional technological character. Also the domestic and foreign capital is tried to distinguish to make the pollution source clear. Based on a panel data of 28 provinces (1992-2008) with the three-stage least squares (3sls) estimator, the results of the system show that with the domestic investment, the environmental effect is positive, which means that FDI increases pollution emission. The direct environmental effect of FDI, which does not include domestic investment, is different decided by various pollution indicators. -- |
| Keywords: | FDI,pollution emission, host countries |
| JEL: | F23 F18 O13 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:3&r=tra |
| By: | He, Qichun |
| Abstract: | Following Miguel et al. (2004), we use temperature and hours of sunshine variations as instrumental variables for economic growth in 27 Chinese provinces during 1981--98. Our 2SLS (Two-stage least squares) regression finds that growth has no significant effect on financial deregulation after controlling for predetermined home-bias political variable, population size, and time and province effects. Moreover, the home-bias political variable has a significant effect on financial deregulation, which shows that political and cultural factors are important driving forces in determining the path and logic of Chinese financial deregulation. The results hold up when we use GMM (Generalized method of moments) to deal with heteroskedasticity. The results are also robust in LIML (Limited information maximum likelihood) estimation that deals with weak instruments. |
| Keywords: | Financial Deregulation; Growth; Causality |
| JEL: | O43 C23 |
| Date: | 2011–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34449&r=tra |
| By: | Sheng, Liugang (University of California, Davis); Yang, Dennis Tao (Chinese University of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of policy reforms in the South on the decisions of intrafirm and arm's length production transfers by Northern firms. We show theoretically that relaxing ownership controls and improving contract enforcement can induce multinational companies to expand product varieties to host developing countries, and that a combination of the two reforms has an amplifying effect on product transfers. Consistent with these implications, we find that ownership liberalization and judicial quality played an important role in raising the extensive margin of processing exports in China for the period of 1997-2007. Our findings imply that institutional reforms in developing countries can effectively speed up the product cycle. |
| Keywords: | product cycle, ownership structure, contract environment, export variety, processing trade, China |
| JEL: | D23 F14 L24 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6054&r=tra |
| By: | Gruševaja, Marina |
| Abstract: | Systemic economic transition is a process of determined radical institutional change, a process of building new institutions required by a market economy. Nowadays, the experience of transition countries with the implementation of new institutions could be reviewed as a method of economic development that despite similar singular steps has different effects on the domestic economic performance. The process of institutional change towards a market economy is determined by political will, thus the government plays an important role in carrying out the economic reforms. Among the variety of outcomes and effects the attention is drawn especially to economic growth that diverges significantly in different post-transition countries. The paper attempts to shed light upon the problem on the basis of institutional economics, of economics of innovation and partially of political economy of growth using an evolutionary, process-oriented perspective. In this context the issue central to the promotion of economic growth is the successful implementation of new institutions through governmental activities. The paper shows that under the conditions of bounded rationality and radical uncertainty economic growth is determined, inter alia, by the capacity for governmental learning. Keywords: institutional change, governmental learning, economic growth -- |
| JEL: | B52 D80 O43 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:2&r=tra |
| By: | Petrick, Martin; Wandel, Jürgen; Karsten, Katharina |
| Abstract: | Against the rising global concern of how to achieve sustainable output expansion in food, we document the main outcomes of post-Soviet agricultural recovery and restructuring in the Kazakhstan grain region. Together with an expansion of cropland area and increasing capital input, real agricultural value added has almost doubled within the recent decade. Privatisation legislation has allowed private ownership of land. However, access to state land and capital continues to be strongly regulated, and private lenders even turn away from agriculture. There are now three dominant groups of agricultural producers in the region: large agricultural enterprises and smaller individual farms mostly engaged in grain, and tiny household economies focusing on vegetable and live-stock. While agricultural enterprises have been growing more persistently than individual farms in recent years, average land productivity of both farm types is practically identical and wheat yields are even higher in individual farms. Both vertically and horizontally integrated agroholdings have emerged among the agricultural enterprises and have brought outside investment and management to the region. With stable employment in agriculture, nominal consumption spending of rural households has tripled over the last decade and has risen much faster than the costs of living. While North Kazakhstan looks much like a success story, constrained factor markets are likely to dampen further growth. The Kazakh government should improve the legal conditions for a functioning land rental market, avoid driving commercial lenders out of the market, and make sure that future access to qualified labour in agriculture is warranted. -- |
| Keywords: | agricultural productivity, agricultural transition, farm organisation, Kazakhstan |
| JEL: | O13 P32 Q12 Q15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamodp:137&r=tra |
| By: | Pall, Zsombor; Perekhozhuk, Oleksandr; Teuber, Ramona; Glauben, Thomas |
| Abstract: | Significant changes have taken place on the world wheat market over the last decade. Russia, a former net wheat importer has become a leading exporter with a world market share of 13.8 percent in 2009/2010. Though there are several studies on the pricing behaviour of Canadian and US wheat exporters, there is none on the pricing behaviour of Russian wheat exporters. The present paper tries to fill this lack of research by providing a quantitative analysis of the pricing behaviour of Russian wheat exporters. We employ a pricing-to-market (PTM) model on annual Russian wheat export data, covering the period 2002-2009 and 22 export destinations. Our findings indicate that Russian wheat exporters behave rather competitively and exercise pricing to market behaviour only in five export destinations. -- |
| Keywords: | Russia,wheat export,international trade,pricing to market |
| JEL: | L13 Q17 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:15&r=tra |
| By: | Löhr, Susanne (Ed.); Trappel, René (Ed.) |
| Abstract: | Umweltverschmutzung, Urbanisierung sowie die Versorgung der noch immer wachsenden Bevölkerung sind große Herausforderungen für Chinas Nahrungsmittelpolitik im 21. Jahrhundert. Diese Publikation zeichnet verschiedene Aspekte im Zusammenhang mit Nahrungsmitteln in China nach - von der Produktion über den Konsum bis hin zur Entsorgung. Dabei stehen vor allem Food safety und Food security im Mittelpunkt, aber auch Chinas Rolle auf den weltweiten Nahrungsmittelmärkten. Die Aktivitäten nichtstaatlicher Akteure rund um Nahrungsmittel- und Versorgungssicherheit in China bilden einen weiteren Schwerpunkt der vorliegenden Publikation. -- Pollution, urbanization as well as the continuous growth of the population challenge China's food policy of the 21st century. This publication takes a closer look at different aspects of Food in China - from production to consumption to waste management. The focus lies in particular on food safety and food security but also on China's role in global food markets. Moreover, this publication highlights the activities of non-state actors in the realm of food safety and food security in China. |
| Keywords: | China,food security,food safety,agriculture,environmental pollution,NGOs,civil society,consumer protection,grain self-sufficiency,global food trade,waste management,China,Versorgungssicherheit (Food security),Lebensmittelsicherheit (Food safety),Landwirtschaft,Umweltverschmutzung,NGOs,Zivilgesellschaft,Verbraucherschutz,Selbstversorgung mit Getreide,global Nahrungsmittelhandel,Abfall-Management |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:udedao:892011&r=tra |
| By: | Bojnec, Štefan; Fertő, Imre; Fogarasi, József |
| Abstract: | Agro-food trade between the BRIC countries has increased. Brazil and China contributed to the rapid increase of agro-food trade. The Russian Federation experienced the stagnating and the most volatile agro-food trade over time. The composition of agro-food trade for the BRIC countries varies by the BEC agro-food trade categories and over time. The prevailing in the composition of agro-food trade are BEC122 and BEC111 for Brazil and the Russian Federation, and BEC122 and BEC112 for India and China. Brazil and India have strengthened their market shares in agro-food trade between the BRIC countries, while the Russian Federation has experienced the most severe deterioration. The number and the share of trading partners that have traded every year vary between the BRIC countries and the BEC agro-food trade categories over time. Agro-food trade between the BRIC countries is positively associated with the GDP size and population size in importing countries, but negatively associated with the GDP size and population size in exporting countries as well as with distance. Mixed results are found for border effect, institutional quality and institutional similarity depending on the BEC agro-food trade categories. -- |
| Keywords: | agro-food trade,BRIC countries,adapted gravity model,institutions |
| JEL: | F14 Q17 C23 O57 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:19&r=tra |
| By: | Ding, Ke; Pan, Jiutang |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to argue the significance of platforms on emerging markets through a case study of the Shanzhai cell phone industry in Shenzhen, China. In this industry, value chains are being driven by both the technology platforms and the market platforms. The former include MTK baseband chipset, and so-called Shared PCBA and Shared Mould. The latter include the North Huaqiang Market and the Purchasing and Money Platform. Technology platforms greatly reduced the technological barriers to entry for independent design houses and system integrators, while market platforms markedly improved their poor marketing and purchasing abilities. Due to factors such as social networks, supporting industries, informality and platform governance, strong network effects have been exhibited in the two types of platforms, which have not only fostered numerous start-ups, but have also led to effective exploitation of emerging markets. |
| Keywords: | China, Electronic industries, Telephone, Network, Platform, Network effect, Shanzhai Cell Phone, Emerging markets |
| JEL: | L63 O14 O17 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper302&r=tra |
| By: | Chen, Xi; Zhang, Xiaobo |
| Abstract: | Though social spending facilitates risk-pooling in the impoverished regions, too many resources devoted to social occasions may impose negative externalities and hinder efforts to alleviate poverty for households living close to subsistence. Conducting three waves census-type panel survey in rural western China with well-defined reference groups and detailed information on social occasions, gift exchanges, nutrients intake and health outcomes, we find that the squeeze effect originated from lavish ceremonies is associated with lower height-for-age zscore, higher probability of stunting and underweight in early child development. The lasting impact suggests that 'catch up' is limited. The squeeze is stronger for the fetal period and towards the lower tail of the distribution. Specifically, 39.2%, 33.3% and 64.6% of the sampled households suffer from net squeeze effect on stunting, underweight and lower height-for-age zscore, respectively. The squeeze effect is stronger for 1-3 age cohorts and between 2007 and 2009. We provide suggestive evidence on the intermediate pathways linking social events with poor health outcomes, such as share of food expenditure and basic nutrients intake. Our findings suggest more efficient policy interventions that target the households with pregnant women and of lower social rankings. -- |
| Keywords: | Relative Status,Squeeze Effect,Nutrients Intake,Stunting,Underweight,Gender |
| JEL: | D13 I32 O15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:7&r=tra |
| By: | Antje Kroeger; Kathryn Anderson |
| Abstract: | The Kyrgyz Republic is one of the largest recipients of international remittances in the world; from a Balance of Payments measure of remittances, it ranked tenth in the world in 2008 in the ratio of remittances to GDP, a rapid increase from 30th place in 2004. Remittances can be used to maintain the household's standard of living by providing income to families with unemployed and underemployed adult members. Remittances can also be used to promote investment not only in businesses and communities but also in people. In this paper, we examine the role that remittances have played in the Kyrgyz Republic in promoting investments in children. Based on the capabilities approach to well-being initiated by Sen (2010), we look at the impact of remittances and domestic transfer payments primarily from internal migration on children's education and health. Our outcomes include enrollment in school and preschool, expenditures, stunting and wasting of preschool children, and health habits of older children. We use unique panel data from the Kyrgyz Republic for 2005-2008 and thus control for some of the biases inherent in cross-sectional studies of remittances and family outcomes. We find that overall remittances and domestic transfers have not promoted investments in the human capital of children. Specifically, preschool enrollments were higher in the urban north but secondary school enrollments were lower in other regions in remittance receiving households; expenditures were also negatively affected in the south and the mountain areas. These negative enrollment results were larger for girls than for boys. We also found evidence of stunting and wasting among young children and worse health habits among boys in remittance or transfer receiving households. In the long run, Kyrgyzstan needs human capital development for growth; our results suggest that remittances are not providing the boost needed in human capital to promote development in the future. |
| Keywords: | Children's education and health, remittances, Central Asia |
| JEL: | C23 F22 I21 R23 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1170&r=tra |
| By: | Masaru Ichihashi; Shinji Kaneko (Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation, Hiroshima University) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to analyze the impact of changes in resource prices on intra-region goods supply and on extra-region changes in prices, as well as possible impacts on the demand side, using China and Beijing as examples for analysis. Results of the analysis with Input-Output model and CGE model demonstrate that changes in the price of water supply do not have as significant an impact as is the case with energy goods such as electrical power or oil and mining. Also, another result with International IO model shows that an increase in the price of water resources in China would first induce changes in the prices of some domestic goods (education and research, chemical fertilizers, etc.); the effect on other countries would be relatively large in countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and South Korea, and in the industries of flour milling, heavy electrical equipment, knitting, non-ferrous metals, and apparel. However, all of these impacts would be minimal. |
| Keywords: | water resources; energy price rising effect; International Input-Output; CGE model. |
| JEL: | F18 O13 Q56 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hir:wpaper:1-5&r=tra |
| By: | Yang , Yong-Zhong; Lin, Ming-Hua |
| Abstract: | Based on the angle of institution, this paper takes internal institutions and external institutions as the analysis framework. When study the case of the street lamps supply in Majia Village, the paper finds internal institutions will have an important impact on the multi-protagonists supply mode option of rural public goods. As a result, external institutions has certain mandatory, but if lack of internal institutions support, it can’t be put in practice effectively. On this basis, the paper, at the level of regional economic development, further analyzes the desirability that current multi-protagonists supply public goods. It presents a concept that is ‘dual quasi-public goods’. With reference to multi-dimensional trigger, centrobaric trigger and coordinated trigger, the paper conducts a discussion about the trigger mode of the multi-protagonists supply of the public goods. |
| Keywords: | rural public goods; multi-protagonists supply; internal institutions and external institutions; trigger mode |
| JEL: | B52 H41 |
| Date: | 2011–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34432&r=tra |
| By: | Chen, Xi |
| Abstract: | It has been widely recognized that the poor spends a significant proportion of their income on social spending even at the expense of basic consumption. What are the motives behind the observed lavish social spending among the poor? We attempt to test three competing explanations at the social link level, risk-pooling, peer effect, and status concern, via a uniform framework based on a unique primary dataset. The data set include household information from a three-wave census-type household survey as well as a long-term gift record for all households in three villages in a poor region in rural China. Our dyadic estimations confirm the prevalence of peer influence and the status seeking motive in shaping gift spending and its rapid growth, while risking pooling is not a significant explanatory factor. A 1% increase in peers' gift spending per occasion leads to a 0.13% - 0.34% increase in one's own gift per occasion, depending on whether household fixed effect or pairwise fixed effect dyadic model is estimated. Status seeking for the bottom 25% and the middle 50% groups significantly pushes up gift expenditure. Moreover, large windfall income and marriage market pressure further intensify status competition, escalating gift giving behavior. -- |
| Keywords: | Social Network,Peer Effect,Risk-pooling,Status Seeking,Ceremony |
| JEL: | D63 D85 R20 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamo11:6&r=tra |
| By: | Skribans, Valerijs |
| Abstract: | Development of an economic situation last 20 years has passed in Latvia through various stages. Including - Post-Soviet re-structuring of demand and closing of industrial giants; development of the economy based on transit; development of craft manufacture, small enterprises and branch of services (after joining to EU) and their decline because of transition to the system focused for export of a manpower. In 2009 the following stage of economic development became swept up. Latvia has not sufficed resources for a survival, financing from outside the international community has been requested. Unfortunately, any of the mentioned models is not necessary for the developed countries, therefore it is possible to draw a conclusion that the Latvian economy still is in process of transformation. It is necessary to define possible directions of the further development. In Latvia to estimate economy development, the model of system dynamics which quantitatively analyzes macroeconomic balance is developed. Considering a theme urgency, article purpose - to reflect the developed model. For purpose achievement following problems are put forward: • to reflect model structure, to show its forming blocks; • to prove economic interrelations and assumptions which are accepted in model; • to show model application on an example of separate economic indicators. The model presented in article, has been developed with use of a method of system dynamics. The method is chosen taking into account difficult interaction between macroeconomic processes. It is a unique quantitative method which allows to estimate not only plural causally - investigatory communications, but also their return interaction. Macroeconomic balance is based on feedback in this connection for its analysis, during the long-term period, it is recommended to use a method of system dynamics. |
| Keywords: | sistēmdinamika; nacionālā ekonomika; aprites modelis; patēriņš; uzkarājumi; investīcijas; nodokļi; nodarbinātība |
| JEL: | H50 C68 C00 A10 O40 E30 C50 E17 C02 E00 E50 E40 E20 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34357&r=tra |
| By: | Beleva, Iskra |
| Abstract: | The article studies the crisis’ effects on the development of the labour markets in Europe and in Bulgaria, in particular. It outlines the strong decrease in labour demand and high unemployment in a considerable part of the member-countries as well as the decrease in households’ income and the standard of living dynamics. The increasing pressure on public finances under crisis conditions encounters their restricted opportunities, additionally limited by the strict fiscal consideration carried out. The active labour market policies, carried out manage partially and temporary to compensate for the negative effects of the crisis. All this gives rise to challenges facing the European Strategy 2020 goals and calls for reviewing the managerial and financial mechanisms, triggering for its achievement. |
| Keywords: | Europe 2020 strategy; European labour market; unemployment; active labour market policy; public expenditures |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J23 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34347&r=tra |
| By: | Oka, Natsuko |
| Abstract: | The June 2010 conflict between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in southern Kyrgyzstan once again demonstrated the complexity of the ethnic question in Central Asia. Little is known, however, about the Uzbeks in Kazakhstan, whose settlements are concentrated in the south of the republic, in areas adjacent to Uzbekistan. What problems did the Kazakhstani Uzbeks face after the collapse of the Soviet Union and how did they seek to address these issues? This paper examines the attempts of Uzbek leaders to secure their share of power in their compact settlements and how they were co-opted or marginalized under the Nazarbaev administration. This paper shows that loyalty to the regime, not migration to the ethnic homeland or political mobilization, is an option available, and also preferable, for this ethnic minority in Kazakhstan. |
| Keywords: | Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Minority ethnic group problems, Immigrants' community, Ethnic minority, Mobilization, Co-optation, Uzbeks |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper286&r=tra |