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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Economics Of Corruption In Developing Countries, Ramchandra Akkihal, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Roger Adkins
The Economics Of Corruption In Developing Countries, Ramchandra Akkihal, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Roger Adkins
Harlan M. Smith
Official corruption, unfortunately, is endemic in the developing world. One factor in the spread of this illegal activity has been the propensity of developing-country governments to intervene heavily in their economies, often in the attempt to guide, direct, and control economic activity in order to promote the desired pace and style of economic development. Such regulatory efforts, though now on the wane in much of the developing world, continue to generate opportunities in many countries for bureaucrats in control of scarce resources to allocate them on a non-market basis, to further their own economic, political, and social prospects.
Evaluating The Written Work Of Others: One Way Economics Students Can Learn To Write, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Amy Broughton, Jaime Copley
Evaluating The Written Work Of Others: One Way Economics Students Can Learn To Write, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Amy Broughton, Jaime Copley
Harlan M. Smith
The authors present a series of writing assignments that teaches students how to evaluate and critique the written economic work of others. The foundation text is McCloskey’s (2000) Economical Writing. The students’ dialogues with McCloskey, with each other, and with the authors of the pieces they evaluate sharpen their understanding of, and ability to use, language as an instrument of economic thought. Interviews with former students identify specific benefits from the student perspective of this approach. The authors show how the assignment series can be modified in several ways and how the general approach, as well as the foundation text, …
Introducing Students To The Competing Schools Of Thought In Intermediate Macroeconomics, Harlan M. Smith Ii
Introducing Students To The Competing Schools Of Thought In Intermediate Macroeconomics, Harlan M. Smith Ii
Harlan M. Smith
The article discusses how the intermediate macroeconomics instructor can introduce students to ways of old and new Keynesians and classical theorists addressed the question on why output and employment fluctuate. Keynesian macroeconomics characterizes a school of thought developed around two central prepositions. New Keynesians develop alternative ways of explaining short-run movements in output and employment in the early 1970's. All individuals maximize utility, firm maximizes profits. Recently, new classicals developed an alternative approach in explaining short-run fluctuation in employment and output by redefining the concept of the short run.
Cartels In An "Nth-Best" World: The Wholesale Foodstuff Trade In Ibadan, Nigeria, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Margaret E. Luttrell
Cartels In An "Nth-Best" World: The Wholesale Foodstuff Trade In Ibadan, Nigeria, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Margaret E. Luttrell
Harlan M. Smith
The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the economic functions and associated welfare implications of the cooperative associations that dominate the wholesale trade in two staple foods. Questionnaire responses lead to several conclusions. Individual traders face incomplete markets, imperfect information, and little government-provided institutional and physical infrastructure. The associations are sophisticated "Coase-like" responses to this market environment: they focus on reducing their members' transaction costs, and hence the marginal private costs of trading. Thus it is likely that these associations enhance efficiency. We conclude with a critique of current government policy with respect to this trade.
The Empirical Verification Of Becker's Theory Of Discrimination: What Have We Learned?, Harlan M. Smith Ii
The Empirical Verification Of Becker's Theory Of Discrimination: What Have We Learned?, Harlan M. Smith Ii
Harlan M. Smith
For over 30 years now empirical research on racial discrimination in the workplace has been defined by, and focused on, Becker's insight The literature is now extensive, highly technical, and to some extent fragmented-as groups of analysts have concentrated on different aspects of the problem. This paper is intended to be a "primer" on this work for the nonspecialist who wants to get up to speed on, or possibly begin contributing to, this line of research. In what follows, therefore, I highlight some of the important articles, key methodological advances, and central results that have been obtained to date. More …
A Strategy For Rural Financial Market Reform: Applying The Financial Systems Approach In Ghana, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Abor Yeboah
A Strategy For Rural Financial Market Reform: Applying The Financial Systems Approach In Ghana, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Abor Yeboah
Harlan M. Smith
We construct, using methods advocated in one strand of the Financial Systems Approach literature, a reform-and-renewal program for one of Ghana’s struggling Rural Banks--the Kaaseman Rural Bank. Questionnaire results, local informal financial practices, recent institutional innovations in Ghanaian finance, the experiences of successful “Nontraditional” rural finance institutions in developing countries, and the operating structure of the Rural Bank program indicate that this bank can implement a group-lending scheme that will reduce significantly its transaction costs and those of its customers. We thus demonstrate how the Financial Systems Approach can be employed to promote sustainable rural financial intermediation in a specific …