Digital Commons Network^™

Proposed Charlotte To Atlanta High-Speed Passenger Rail Line: An Economic, Infrastructural, And Developmental Analysis In The Upstate Of South Carolina, Ian C. Macurda, Kimberly Whitehead

SC Upstate Research Symposium

This research paper is an in-depth analysis of the high-speed passenger rail line proposed between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA and its impact on the economy, infrastructure, and future development of the Upstate of South Carolina. Currently, passenger rail service between Charlotte and Atlanta is offered on Amtrak at late hours throughout the night on its long-distance passenger rail line The Crescent from New York City, NY to New Orleans, LA. The train is often delayed and is operating at a deficit for Amtrak, like most of their long-distance routes. Traffic on Interstate 85 through the Upstate is another issue …

Whither India’S Development: Toward Being A Super Power Or A Super Civilization?, Pradip Khandwalla

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This commentary was triggered by my reading a lecture delivered by Saurabh Kumar, a former student of mine at Indian Institute of Management, who later served as India’s ambassador in various countries and international bodies. He bemoaned that China had much greater status in global affairs than India. Many others in India hanker for a super power status for India. I find this concern to be somewhat misguided. India should be aiming to be a great civilization, rather than a domineering superpower. The record of all the superpowers till now has been quite spotty in humane terms. My vision for …

Essays On International Trade And Economic Growth, Mateo Hoyos

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I study the relationship between trade and economic growth, with a focus on developing economies. I specifically provide a critical review of the consensus view in trade and growth, according to which a liberal trade regime is generally the best policy stance to promote growth. In the first essay of this dissertation, I provide evidence that the relationship between trade policy and growth may depend on economic structure: tariff reductions are followed by higher levels of GDP per capita for manufacturer countries, but lower levels for nonmanufacturers. Testing for mechanisms, I find the heterogeneity seems to be …

Annual Growth Of 6.5-8% Until 2028: How?, Jesus Felipe

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

THE KEY outcomes of President Bongbong Marcos’ Philippine Development Plan 2023–2028—to increase income per capita, reduce poverty, and create employment—rest on a necessary condition: to attain a 6.5-8% annual growth rate through 2023 to 2028. If achieved, the Philippines would resemble its East Asian neighbors, which attained similarly high growth rates decades ago. This is much needed given the still low wages and per capita income of the country. Yet, this “target” poses several questions.

Three Essays On Macroeconomics And Development, Guilherme Klein Martins

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of essays that relate, in different forms, macroeconomic policies to economic development. Essay 1 provides evidence that austerity shocks have longrun negative effects on GDP. Besides addressing the important gap in the growing fiscal research regarding the short time horizon of the estimations, the paper analyzes two other important assumptions made in the literature regarding the (i) symmetry of episodes of fiscal expansion and contraction and (ii) uniformity of fiscal multipliers for different sizes of shocks. We use narrative fiscal shocks and propensity score reweighting in a local projections setup to account for the potential …

Going The Distance: Examining The Impact Of A Long-Term International Fellowship, Meikah Dado, Jessica R. Spence, Jack Elliot

Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education

AgriCorps, an American organization, created a fellowship program to connect agricultural professionals to school-based agricultural education in developing countries. Previous scholars researched the impacts of international experiences on learners, usually through the lens of short-term study abroad. This study seeks to examine the impact of long-term international fellowship experiences in education and provide recommendations for future like-programs by analyzing the experiences of previous AgriCorps fellows. Fellows lived and taught school-based agricultural education in a community in Ghana or Liberia. Eighteen previous AgriCorps fellows participated in a semi-structured interview through a virtual meeting platform. The interviews were used to collect data …

Evaluating The Degree Of Using Islamic Financing Instruments Based On The Concept Of Indebtedness And Its Developmental Importance (A Case Study Of Palestine Islamic Banks 2013-2019), Azmi Awad

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

This study aimed to shed light on the Islamic financing instruments based on the concept of Indebtedness and indicate the degree of the use of those instruments in the Islamic banks during 2013-2019. This could be achieved by indicating the size and degree of concentration of the use of those instruments and the fairness of their distribution to various economic sectors on the one hand, and explaining the developmental importance of those financing instruments in the economy on the other hand. The researcher used the descriptive analytical approach and the comparative approach. To test the validity of the hypotheses, Pearson …

The Implication Of Corruption On Sustainable Development In Africa: (Using Nigeria As A Case Study), Ezeifekwuaba Tochukwu Benedict

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The scenario of the rise of corruption in Africa particularly in Nigeria is so much a problem. It cuts across the various Private Sectors including different tiers of government. This research paper applied collected secondary data from library materials, government publications, journals, the internet and daily newspapers. The kernel of the research paper is on the facts that corrupt practices among the class of political leadership have led to the undermining of the stability and growth of the country's economy. Also, it is discovered that corruption maximizes the poverty level that triggers criminal exercises in the Nation. The paper suggests …

2nd Annual International Conference Proceedings - Development: Discourses And Critiques, Centre For Business And Economic Research (Cber), School Of Economics And Social Sciences (Sess)

Conference Proceedings

The Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) at School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS) IBA has organized the 2nd Annual conference on 25th-27th March 2022. The theme for this year invites works from a wide range of disciplines to critique, question and reconsider the experiences of transnational, national and sub-national actors with the development process. What does ‘development’ mean for different actors, and how has this narrative shifted over time? How does development define and redefine power relations and what implications does this have for different groups? How have colonial experiences shaped futures and how does one deconstruct …

Impacts Of Profamilia Program Spread On Contraceptive Use And Fertility Rates In Colombia During Its Introduction, Katherine C. Specht

Honors Theses

I examine the effect of the Profamilia program during its beginning years over the 1960s and 1970s as it spread across Colombia. I find that Profamilia effectively delays first birth, intercourse, and age at marriage, and reduces the probability of having had a teen birth. These outcomes were also linked to increased literacy rates, improved educational attainment, and an increase in employment. Birth spacing and contraceptive use increased. These findings support current research that improving access to family planning services is an effective method for decreasing women’s fertility and improving educational and employment opportunities for women. The implication that having …

French Bilateral Aid To Mali: Examining The Donor-Recipient Relationship’S Effect On Development, Hazel R. Carson

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

New Institutional Economics: Political Institutions And Divergent Development In Costa Rica And Honduras, Maynor Alberto Loaisiga Bojorge

Honors Projects

For most of their histories, Costa Rica and Honduras were primarily agricultural societies with little economic diversification. However, around 1990, after the implementation of Washington Consensus reforms, the economies of both nations began to diverge. Costa Rica’s economy rapidly expanded for the following 30 years, while Honduras remained stagnant. Through a New Institutional Economics approach, I argue that institutional differences between Costa Rica and Honduras are responsible for the impressive economic growth Costa Rica has been able to achieve in the past few decades. Specifically, early political developments in Costa Rica have deeply imbedded relatively egalitarian values into the population, …

Capital Nationality And Economic Development, Guilherme Klein Martins

Economics Department Working Paper Series

This paper reviews different literature strands and performs an empirical test to evaluate how capital ownership, particularly its nationality, might affect long-run economic develop- ment. Our results indicate that low and middle-income countries with larger foreign capital stock in 1980 had lower economic growth over the next 39 years. The estimations also indi- cate that these economies developed a less specialized export basket, which became relatively more concentrated in low-tech goods. The results are inverted to high-income economies, for which the effects are positive on GDP growth and export specialization and complexi- fication. The results are in line with the …

Navigating The Pandemic As It Enters Its Second Year, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

Many countries, enabled by the rapid vaccine rollout, experienced some moments of relief from the Covid-19 pandemic as they embarked on their long and winding transition toward normalcy. However, despite the Herculean effort expended, achieving herd immunity remains a distant goal for many due to the emergence of the highly transmissible and lethal Delta variant and the persistence of vaccine hesitancy. As such, the coronavirus continues to upend lives, businesses, and society, and the playbook for survival will still be a work-in-progress

Putting The ‘D’ Into The Oecd – The Dac In The Cold War Years, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter charts the DAC’s Cold War history. During this period the DAC established much of the institutional and intellectual scaffolding of international development cooperation. Moreover, participation in the DAC also orchestrated a quiet revolution in the identities of its members, forging them into an imagined community of donors in which the supply of development assistance came to be seen as a routine function of modern industrialised states. Although the Cold War provided the overarching backdrop, the chapter also teases out some of the other key features of the landscape inhabited by the DAC and how they constrained and enabled …

Violence And Development: The Cost Countries Pay For High Rates Of Homicide, Brittany Lowe

The Cardinal Edge

Violence is one of the largest and most persistent humanitarian crises across the globe. Understanding violence’s role in economic costs and losses is crucial to informing and guiding decision makers. This study uses international panel data to conduct a log-linear regression with time and country fixed effects. It focuses on studying the causal effects of violent crime on GDP at an aggregate, international level. The results find that the homicide rate has a statistically significant, negative effect on GDP per capita. Acts of violence come not just at a humanitarian cost, but also at the cost of economic progress and …

The Banality Of Corporate Evil, Amina Dessouki

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis critiques the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) through tracing the multiple dynamics between a multinational corporation and a development consultancy working on a recycling project in collaboration with the Zabaleen in Mansheyet Nasser, Egypt. The thesis looks at the ways in which actors negotiate their different positions, the harmonies and discordances that unfold through various agendas coming together, the silences produced, and the ways in which structural violence is intensified under the guise of development. The thesis contrasts the detached efforts of corporate workers and development consultants with the lives of the zabaleen, who live in a …

Disease, Development, And Disorder: Examining The Effect Of Health On Subnational Development And Conflict In Sub-Saharan Africa, Dlorah C. Jenkins

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been uneven across and within countries - particularly in Africa, least developed countries, and low-income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened to reverse much of the progress made towards achieving the SDGs, especially SDG 3, which aims to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.

The tendency for disease, underdevelopment, and conflict to occur concomitantly suggests potential causal mechanisms linking them. This study attempts to address two pieces of the puzzle: the causal effect of disease on underdevelopment and the impact of development on conflict risk. Focusing …

Canadian Banks And Imperialism In The English-Speaking Caribbean, Tamanisha J. John

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Canadian banks have been important components of an imperialist system since at least the 19^th century. However, their long and rich history of operating as purely exploitative entities in the English-speaking Caribbean region is often overlooked— leading to many incomplete and conflicting narratives about Canada’s role within the global system. I argue that Canada is an imperial actor that exerts agency in supporting a Canadian banking oligopoly both within Canada and in the English-speaking Caribbean. Insufficient attention is given to these Canadian banks, especially considering the power they have wielded in the Caribbean over the centuries. By analyzing the …

The Logic Of The Land: The Agrarian Roots Of Uneven Development In Brazil, Chris Carlson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation seeks to explain the highly uneven pattern of economic development in Brazil during the 20^th century. Stark development differences between the northern and southern regions of the country have long been a problem of concern to scholars and policymakers and have generated a number of studies over the years. However, none of these have gotten to the root of the problem, and state policy has never adequately addressed the regional disparities. This study puts forth a new theory of uneven development based on the different ways that agricultural production has come to be organized in different parts …

Determinants Of Female Bargaining Power In Northern Mozambican Households, Sara Marilyn Gardner

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Melinda Gates stated, “If you search for poverty, you will find women who don’t have power. If you explore prosperity, you will find women who do have power and use it.” Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, women are expected to perform disproportional amounts of labor but are often ignored in household decision-making regarding social and economic matters. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) states that women in Mozambique are highly disadvantaged, relative to men, due to low levels of education, maternal health risks, restricted economic prospects, and cultural norms. This study aims to better understand the causes of female empowerment in Northern …

The Effects Of Religiosity On Gender-Differentiated Household Decision-Making In Indonesia, Juliann Phillips

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Religion is a dominant influence in household decision-making and is an important factor in understanding intra-household bargaining power, especially within developing countries. It is important to understand the extent to which religious beliefs affect decisions made within the household when designing interventions to improve women’s agency. This paper examines the fourth wave of the Indonesia Family Life Survey using the difference-in-differences method to analyze the impact of Islamic religiosity on the likelihood of allowing women within the household to make certain decisions in eight critical categories. While stereotypical beliefs may negatively correlate women’s bargaining power and high levels of religiosity …

Institutional Stretching: How Moroccan Ngos Illuminate The Nexus Of Climate, Migration, Gender And Development, Shelby Mertens

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The global migration crisis the world has experienced thus far is only the tip of the iceberg. As the earth’s temperature continues to warm and extreme weather conditions worsen, millions of people across the globe will be displaced, and women in particular will face more difficult challenges. What the climate migration literature fails to study is these longer-term impacts beyond sudden onset disasters. Governments and institutions will be forced to respond and adapt to the new reality resulting from the climate crisis. This research provides a case study of Morocco and, by using institutional ethnography, investigates how NGOs working in …

Cost Countries Pay For High Homicide Rates, Brittany Lowe

Grawemeyer Colloquium Papers

This research finds the economic cost, in terms of GDP per capita, to countries for increased violence using typical econometric models, and then makes recommendations to decision makers about funding allocation of violence prevention programs based off its findings.

Youth And Paralysed Digital Economy On Sustainable Economic Development: Conceptual Understanding, A Case Study Of Africa., James Kelimanzila

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The new development of technology and global innovation has changed the world economic view and perspective. This redefine that every country has its own stability and effect on digital economy and technology depending on its investments and readiness of available human resources. Many African country are trying to boost and push up their economic development in order to get in middle economy. However, youth always gets more challenge in adopting and using technology or digital platform hence they found in a paralysed and muted situation. In this competitive era and globalized world, every country needs and want smart people who …

Tattoos In East Asia: Conforming To Individualism, Morgan Macfarlane

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

Although Japan, South Korea, and China share a similar history of tattoo criminality spanning thousands of years, in modern times they all hold different legal policies concerning the practice of tattooing. South Korea has the strictest laws, requiring a medical doctorate to legally tattoo, while Japan has only recently reaffirmed the legality of the practice outside of health professionals. China, on the other hand, has few restrictions on body art. This paper explores this interesting difference via observational fieldwork in the major cities of Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing as well as interviews with local people within and outside the …

Projects Of Economic And Social Development In The Global South: The 20th And 21st-Century Developmental Trends And Their Impacts, Malachi Okechi Chukwu

2020 Symposium Posters

In the 1950’s Western countries promised to promote economic development in the underdeveloped world. However, the Global South remains behind, trapped in abject poverty. Eurocentric literature produced by mainstream scholars of economic growth in the past seven decades has continually promoted Structural Adjustment Programs and Millennium Development Goals designed to improve the Global South. Tragically, each of the West’s prescribed economic models failed at the expense of people of the Global South. The failure of Western promised growth led to an opportunity for China to offer an alternative model. Additionally, the long-term effects of the prescribed models of development have …

The Decline Of American Entrepreneurship: An Analysis Of Causes Of Macro Market Trends And A Changing American Economic System, Owen Flomberg

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Alternative Subsistence Farming Practices In Dangriga, Belize, Alexander Johnson

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Subsistence farming, also referred to as backyard farming, is an important opportunity for families in areas of low economic status. Small scale poultry farming is another practice often used by families in similar situations because of the financial and nutritional benefits provided. By combining the two practices in a process where they each benefit from the other, a sustainable system can be created. The poultry-garden system can provide a source of food for the household and, if run effectively, supplemental income can be generated through the sale of excess poultry, eggs, or vegetation. This project attempted to take the concept …

The Nuances Of Capital Controls In Economic Development: Argentina And Chile, Reagan A. Shane

Global Tides

In this paper, I analyze the ways that capital controls affect growth and economic development in developing countries and emerging market economies and use the historical evidence of Chile and Argentina to demonstrate how countries may experience the effects of capital controls in different proportions. I then review additional academic literature and historical evidence in Chile and Argentina to determine what factors seem to determine the success or failure of capital control strategies. I find two influential factors in the determination of whether implementation of capital controls helps or hurts economic growth and development. The first is whether capital controls …