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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Nexus Between Infrastructure Investment And Economic Growth In The Mexican Urban Areas, Vicente German-Soto, Héctor A. Barajas Bustillos Dec 2014

The Nexus Between Infrastructure Investment And Economic Growth In The Mexican Urban Areas, Vicente German-Soto, Héctor A. Barajas Bustillos

Vicente German-Soto

The relationship between infrastructure investment and economic growth is explored for the main urban areas of Mexico during the period 1985-2008. The methodology consists of a production function estimated by means of panel data techniques that include distributed effects in time. The findings highlight that the economic impact from infrastructure investment is effectively spread through time and cannot only be contemporaneous. This result suggests long-run effects. Moreover, the empirical estimates are according to the urban areas’ economic performance: Where major infrastructure provision exists, higher rates of growth are also taking place. Conclusions highlight that if infrastructure provision is not enough …


Análisis Diferencial-Estructural Aplicado Al Estudio Del Crecimiento Regional En México, Isaac Sánchez-Juárez Nov 2014

Análisis Diferencial-Estructural Aplicado Al Estudio Del Crecimiento Regional En México, Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

El capítulo se dedica a la presentación y aplicación de la técnica de análisis regional conocida como diferencial-estructural básica y con modificación de estructuras (o shift and share por su nombre en inglés), para ello se usan datos regionales de la economía mexicana de 1993 al 2010. El estudio se centra en el crecimiento económico, al ser éste un indicador clave en la interpretación del estado de bienestar de la sociedad. Adicional al análisis diferencial-estructural se utiliza la técnica de cuadrantes para clasificar a las regiones en ganadoras, convergentes, estancadas o declinantes. Otro objetivo consiste en familiarizar a los estudiantes …


Regional Disparities In Rural And Agricultural Development In Undivided Andhra Pradesh, India, A Amarender Reddy Oct 2014

Regional Disparities In Rural And Agricultural Development In Undivided Andhra Pradesh, India, A Amarender Reddy

A Amarender Reddy

India is a federal union comprising of 28 states. The states are further sub-divided into districts. Andhra Pradesh is one of the largest states in India. The state was formed by merging three regions – Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra – in the year 1956. In terms of development indicators measured in the mid-50s, Coastal Andhra was considered more developed, followed by the Rayalaseema region. Now people of the Telangana region are claiming that their relative backwardness was accentuated after merging with the more developed regions. In this context, this paper examines the regional disparities in agriculture in Andhra Pradesh …


Cambio Estructural En Las Fluctuaciones Cíclicas Del Producto Industrial. Las Economías Estatales Mexicanas En Relación A La Nacional, Vicente German-Soto Sep 2014

Cambio Estructural En Las Fluctuaciones Cíclicas Del Producto Industrial. Las Economías Estatales Mexicanas En Relación A La Nacional, Vicente German-Soto

Vicente German-Soto

Se analiza la presencia de cambios estructurales en las fluctuaciones cíclicas relativas del producto industrial estatal y nacional de México durante 1960-2010. Los estados pudieron haber reaccionado de forma diferente a las reformas estructurales emprendidas desde los años ochenta, modificando su ciclo económico con respecto al nacional. La metodología para investigar esta relación es el análisis estocástico de series de tiempo, ya que permite identificar los momentos de variación en media y varianza de una secuencia temporal. Los resultados señalan que es imprescindible tomar en cuenta la posibilidad de cambio estructural cuando se valora la evolución relativa de los ciclos …


Sustainable Local Development. The Revitalization Of The Town Of Adwa (Ethiopia) Through Community-Based Endogenous Projects, Asayehgn Desta Sep 2014

Sustainable Local Development. The Revitalization Of The Town Of Adwa (Ethiopia) Through Community-Based Endogenous Projects, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Over the years, either self-initiated or by funding from development agencies, a number of developing countries have implemented various programs to tackle poverty. This case study was inspired by the One Village One Product (OVOP) movement initiated in the Oita Prefecture region of Japan. Given the positive aspects of the OVOP, the purpose of the study is to transfer some aspects of the OVOP movement in order to revitalize the town of Adwa, Tigrai, Ethiopia. The case study therefore suggests some possible community-based endogenous projects that could revitalize the town of Adwa, Tigrai, Ethiopia. As a result of the initiative …


Tackling Poverty By Ethiopians Or Globalization Wave: A Book Review, Asayehgn Desta Sep 2014

Tackling Poverty By Ethiopians Or Globalization Wave: A Book Review, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

No abstract provided.


Women’S Empowerment And Community-Driven Development: Evidence From The Solomon Islands, Erin M. Steffen Aug 2014

Women’S Empowerment And Community-Driven Development: Evidence From The Solomon Islands, Erin M. Steffen

Erin M Steffen

The study evaluates the impact to-date of a community-driven development (CDD) program on women’s empowerment in the Solomon Islands. Originally launched in 2008, the CDD program is known as the Rural Development Program (RDP). The RDP aims to foster employment and income growth by focusing on participatory development, demand-responsive provisions of government services, and the creation of a supportive economic environment for small-scale rural development. The RDP process mandates female involvement, which manifests predominately in the selection of community infrastructure projects and by participation in a RDP subcommittee known as the Sub-Implementation Committee (SIC). Members of the SIC are in …


México: Crecimiento Económico Regional Y Marco Institucional, Isaac L. Sánchez-Juárez, Rosa M. García Aug 2014

México: Crecimiento Económico Regional Y Marco Institucional, Isaac L. Sánchez-Juárez, Rosa M. García

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

En este capítulo se estudia, de forma preliminar, el papel que juegan las instituciones formales en lo general y tres tipos en particular en el crecimiento económico de México: los derechos de propiedad, la calidad gubernamental y el tipo de sistema político. De acuerdo con la mayor parte de literatura, perteneciente a la economía institucional, existe una relación positiva entre el crecimiento económico y las instituciones. Usando un modelo estándar de crecimiento, se muestra que mejores instituciones ayudan a incrementar el ingreso per cápita, a través de su impulso a la inversión y la productividad. Sobre la base del modelo …


Assessing The Price-Raising Effect Of Non-Tariff Measures In Africa, Olivier Cadot, Julien Gourdon Jul 2014

Assessing The Price-Raising Effect Of Non-Tariff Measures In Africa, Olivier Cadot, Julien Gourdon

Julien Gourdon

In spite of widespread tariff reductions, intra-African borders remain ‘thick’. Regional trade is inhibited by inadequate transportation infrastructure but also by various non-tariff measures (NTMs). This paper combines price data from the World Bank’s International Comparison Project with a new database on NTMs to estimate their effect on consumer prices for selected consumption products. Results based on panel regressions on 1,260 country-product pairs suggest that, after controlling for tariffs, systematic cross-country cost-of-living differences, and product-specific unobservables, sanitary and phytosanitary measures contribute to raise the price of African foodstuffs by 14%. At the product level, rice and other cereals, some types …


The Cost Of Conscience: Quantifying Our Charitable Burden In An Era Of Globalization, Frank A. Pasquale Jul 2014

The Cost Of Conscience: Quantifying Our Charitable Burden In An Era Of Globalization, Frank A. Pasquale

Frank A. Pasquale

Development economists have long debated the proper targets for foreign aid contributions from wealthy countries. Philosophers like Peter Singer and Peter Unger now suggest that these countries' citizens have a parallel moral responsibility to tithe a portion of their income directly for the relief of the suffering of the poorest. These thinkers would prefer a systematic global redistribution of income - some public mechanism for accomplishing worldwide what the tax systems of egalitarian social democratic states accomplish. But they all realize that such global governance is unlikely to come about in any of our lifetimes. So they turn their attention …


Human Rights, Women, And Third World Development, Winston E. Langley Jun 2014

Human Rights, Women, And Third World Development, Winston E. Langley

Winston E. Langley

As part of the effort to inaugurate a new international socio-political order after World War II, international emphasis was given to certain moral and legal entitlements we have come to call human rights. That emphasis initially found its most forceful expression in the Charter of the United Nations, which not only asserts its members' faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, as well as in the equal rights of men and women of all nations, but also recites its members' commitment to employ international machinery for the promotion of the social and economic …


Theorising The ‘Fifth Migration’ In The United States: Understanding Lifestyle Migration From An Integrated Approach, Brian Hoey Jun 2014

Theorising The ‘Fifth Migration’ In The United States: Understanding Lifestyle Migration From An Integrated Approach, Brian Hoey

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

This chapter is an empirically-informed discussion of relevant social theory for examining the phenomenon of lifestyle migration in the United States in both rural and urban settings. Specifically, the chapter explores key explanatory models born of research into so-called non-economic migration occurring since the early twentieth century—models that may be characterized as primarily either production or consumption oriented in their emphasis—as a context for outlining an integrated approach. The author then highlights changes in how some Americans appear to calculate personal and collective quality of life as engendered by an emerging economic order—based on principles of flexibility and contingency—whose affects …


Livestock Development And Poverty In Pakistan: Evidence From The Punjab Province, Sharafat Ali, Najid Ahmad May 2014

Livestock Development And Poverty In Pakistan: Evidence From The Punjab Province, Sharafat Ali, Najid Ahmad

Sharafat Ali

Agriculture sector being an important and fundamental sector of the economy is the way of life for more than half of the Pakistan’s population. Its major sector is livestock sector. Livestock sector is the source of income and a safety against the crop failures or drought. Most of the rural population earns their living from this sector. Aspired from the argument that livestock has great importance in the life of the poor households, the present study is an attempt to analyze the impact of livestock sector development on poverty in Pakistan. The cross sectional data of 34 districts of Punjab …


Testing Conflicting Political Economy Theories: Full-Fledged Versus Partial-Scope Regional Trade Agreements, Xuepeng Liu May 2014

Testing Conflicting Political Economy Theories: Full-Fledged Versus Partial-Scope Regional Trade Agreements, Xuepeng Liu

Xuepeng Liu

We apply a duration analysis to test the conflicting predictions of the median voter model and the lobbying model using panel data on regional trade agreement (RTA) formation. Our results show that the pro-labor prediction of the median voter model is supported by the full-fledged free trade areas and customs unions (FTAs/CUs), while the pro-capital prediction of the lobbying model is supported by the partial-scope preferential trade arrangements among developing countries. This finding holds better for the country pairs with more different capital-labor ratios as a result of the stronger distributional effects of RTAs. The support for the median voter …


The Child Health Implications Of Privatizing Africa's Urban Water Supply, Katrina Kosec Apr 2014

The Child Health Implications Of Privatizing Africa's Urban Water Supply, Katrina Kosec

Katrina Kosec

Can private sector participation (PSP) in the piped water sector improve child health? I use child-level data from 39 African countries during 1986-2010 to show that PSP decreases diarrhea among urban-dwelling, under-five children by 2.6 percentage points, or 16% of its mean prevalence. Children from the poorest households benefit most. PSP is also associated with a 7.8 percentage point increase in school attendance of 7-17 year olds. Importantly, PSP increases usage of piped water by 9.7 percentage points, suggesting a possible causal channel explaining health improvements. To attribute causality, I exploit time-variation in the private water market share controlled by …


Your Friends And Neighbors: Localized Economic Development And Criminal Activity, Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens Mar 2014

Your Friends And Neighbors: Localized Economic Development And Criminal Activity, Matthew Freedman, Emily Owens

Matthew Freedman

We exploit a sudden shock to demand for a subset of low-wage workers generated by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program in San Antonio, Texas to identify the effects of localized economic development on crime. We use a difference-in-difference methodology that takes advantage of variation in BRAC’s impact over time and across neighborhoods. We find that appropriative criminal behavior increases in neighborhoods where a fraction of residents experienced increases in earnings. This effect is driven by residents who were unlikely to be BRAC beneficiaries, implying that criminal opportunities are important in explaining patterns of crime.

Forthcoming in the …


The Evolution Of Poverty And Inequality In Sub-Saharan Africa Over The Period 1980-2010: What Do We (And Can We) Know Given The Data Available?, Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu Mar 2014

The Evolution Of Poverty And Inequality In Sub-Saharan Africa Over The Period 1980-2010: What Do We (And Can We) Know Given The Data Available?, Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu

Rodrigo Garcia-Verdu

No abstract provided.


Towards A New Sensibility For International Economic Development, Lan Cao Mar 2014

Towards A New Sensibility For International Economic Development, Lan Cao

Lan Cao

No abstract provided.


Culture Change, Lan Cao Mar 2014

Culture Change, Lan Cao

Lan Cao

No abstract provided.


Reflections On Market Reform In Post-War, Post-Embargo Vietnam, Lan Cao Mar 2014

Reflections On Market Reform In Post-War, Post-Embargo Vietnam, Lan Cao

Lan Cao

No abstract provided.


Relying On The Private Sector: The Income Distribution And Public Investments In The Poor, Katrina Kosec Feb 2014

Relying On The Private Sector: The Income Distribution And Public Investments In The Poor, Katrina Kosec

Katrina Kosec

What drives governments with similar revenues to provide very different amounts of goods with private sector substitutes? Education is a prime example. I use exogenous shocks to Brazilian municipalities' revenue during 1995-2008 generated by non-linearities in federal transfer laws to demonstrate two things. First, municipalities with higher income inequality or higher median income allocate less of a revenue shock to education and are less likely to expand public school enrollment. They are more likely to invest in public infrastructure that is broadly enjoyed, like parks and roads, or to save the shock. Second, I find no evidence that the quality …


Bajo Crecimiento Económico, Política Industrial Y Regiones En México, Isaac L. Sánchez-Juárez, Rosa M. García Feb 2014

Bajo Crecimiento Económico, Política Industrial Y Regiones En México, Isaac L. Sánchez-Juárez, Rosa M. García

Isaac Sánchez-Juárez

En el siguiente capítulo se supone que el crecimiento del producto depende directamente del desarrollo de la industria, lo que se encuentra influenciado por la política industrial. En línea con lo anterior, se plantea que el estancamiento económico que prevalece en México desde principios de los ochenta se encuentra asociado a fallas de política industrial. Las autoridades no han podido dinamizar el sector industrial, en particular las manufacturas, y de aquí el bajo crecimiento. Finalmente, el objetivo central de este capítulo consiste en proponer una serie de elementos que permitan construir una nueva política industrial con enfoque regional que fomente …


From Economic Dependency And Stagnation To Democratic Developmental State: Essays On The Socio-Political And Economic Perspectrives On Ethiopia, Asayehgn Desta Feb 2014

From Economic Dependency And Stagnation To Democratic Developmental State: Essays On The Socio-Political And Economic Perspectrives On Ethiopia, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

The span of the book entitled From Economic Dependency and Stagnation to Democratic Developmental State: Essays on the Socio-political and Economic Perspectives of Ethiopia provides readers with an understanding of the historical context of Ethiopian history, education, and development. Especially illuminating is the emphasis on the intersections between foreign investment, local customs, and other Ethiopian power structures, such as government.


Foreign Capital Flows And Economic Growth In Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis, Sharafat Ali Jan 2014

Foreign Capital Flows And Economic Growth In Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis, Sharafat Ali

Sharafat Ali

Pakistan economy has received large inflows of foreign capital, in shape of foreign debt, FDI and worker’s remittances, over the years. The present study is focused on the examination of effects of these flows on economic growth in Pakistan. Johansen cointegration technique and Granger causality test has been used for the analysis for the sample period of 1972-2013. The results reveal negative impacts of these flows on economic growth of the economy in long run. Short run analysis confirmed unidirectional causality running from debt service, FDI, inflation and literacy rate to growth. Causality from domestic investment is not concluded but …


Regional Integration And Foreign Investment: The Case Of Asean Countries, Anthony Orji Dec 2013

Regional Integration And Foreign Investment: The Case Of Asean Countries, Anthony Orji

ANTHONY ORJI

ABSTRACT The importance of regional integration in stimulating foreign direct investment cannot be overemphasized. With a special focus on the ASEAN countries, this research paper investigates the role of regional integration in attracting foreign direct investment. We bring a novelty to this paper by dividing foreign direct investment into Inter-and Intra-ASEAN to see if both are determined by the same set of factors. If economic integration drives intra-ASEAN FDI we would expect such FDI to be unrelated to macroeconomic fundamentals in each country, while we would expect Extra-ASEAN FDI to be determined by macroeconomic fundamentals. We employed panel data model …


Can Institutional Deliveries Reduce Newborn Mortality? Evidence From Rwanda, Edward Okeke, A.V. Chari Dec 2013

Can Institutional Deliveries Reduce Newborn Mortality? Evidence From Rwanda, Edward Okeke, A.V. Chari

Edward Okeke

Current global health policies emphasize institutional deliveries as a pathway to achieving reductions in newborn mortality in developing countries. There is however remarkably little evidence regarding a causal relationship between institutional deliveries and newborn mortality. In this paper we take advantage of a shock to institutional deliveries provided by the randomized rollout of a government performance-based financing program in Rwanda, to provide the first estimates of this causal effect. We construct an instrumental variables estimator that combines interrupted time-series and difference-in-differences approaches. We do not find any statistically significant effect of an institutional birth on either 7- or 30-day mortality …


University Community Partnerships, Jonathan G. Cooper, Zeenat Kotval-K, Zenia Kotval, John R. Mullin Dec 2013

University Community Partnerships, Jonathan G. Cooper, Zeenat Kotval-K, Zenia Kotval, John R. Mullin

Jonathan G. Cooper

University-Community Partnerships have been recognized as a valuable contribution to both the academic community and our cities and towns. In the words of Henry Cisneros, former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Design secretary, “The long-term futures of both the city and the university in this country are so intertwined that one cannot—or perhaps will not—survive without the other.” Increasingly, colleges and universities are bringing their time, energy and resources to bear on local problems. They are using their other physical, financial and intellectual capital to facilitate economic development, provide social services, technical assistance and create opportunities for applied research.


La Economía Política De La Desigualdad De Ingreso En Chile, 1850-2009, Javier E. Rodríguez Weber Dec 2013

La Economía Política De La Desigualdad De Ingreso En Chile, 1850-2009, Javier E. Rodríguez Weber

Javier E. Rodríguez Weber

This dissertation studies the relationship between income inequality and the development process, considered as the sum of economic, social and political changes produced over time. It does so using the case of Chile between 1850 and 2009. Its goals are to describe the tendencies in income distribution over time, and also to explain, signalling their causes and some of their consequences. In the empirical area, the main contributions of the dissertation are the estimates of historical series of salaries, wages, and different measures of income distribution –Gini index, Theil, labour share and the income of the top 1%. To make …


Crime And Economic Growth In Developing Countries: Evidence From Pakistan, Arsalan Ahmad, Sharafat Ali, Najid Ahmad Dec 2013

Crime And Economic Growth In Developing Countries: Evidence From Pakistan, Arsalan Ahmad, Sharafat Ali, Najid Ahmad

Sharafat Ali

This study investigates the impact of crime on economic growth of Pakistan by using time series data from 1980 to 2011. Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test is applied to check the stationary of variables. It is hypothesized that increase in crime leads to less economic growth in Pakistan. Autoregressive Distributive lag (ARDL) to cointegration is used to find short and long run relationship between crime and Economic growth. Results reveal that crime has negative and significant impact on economic growth in the long run, whereas in short run the effect of crime on economic growth is negative but insignificant. ECM …


Measuring Progress Towards A ‘Green Energy Economy’: Who Is Really Winning The Race?, L. Mundaca T. Dec 2013

Measuring Progress Towards A ‘Green Energy Economy’: Who Is Really Winning The Race?, L. Mundaca T.

Luis Mundaca

This paper provides the first regional econometric decomposition of CO2 emissions from fuel combustion in eight regions of the world. Using the best publically-available time series data (1971–2011), the analysis examines the key determinants and relationships of the ‘Green Energy Economy’ (GEE) in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Non-OECD Europe and countries from the Former Soviet Union, Oceania, OECD Europe, and OECD North America. The results show that emissions continued to grow across all regions, at rates ranging from 0.1% y-1 to 7% y-1 for the period under analysis. Despite progress in energy intensity (e.g. …