Economics Commons^™

Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries, Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

We investigate whether a more concentrated regional industrial structure – the dominance of a few large firms in a given industry in a region – limits agglomeration economies and ultimately diminishes the economic performance of firms in that industry, especially small ones. In an application to three industries using establishment-level production functions and a combination of confidential and publicly available data sources, we find a consistently negative and substantial direct productivity effect associated with regional industrial structure concentration and only mixed and relatively weak evidence that agglomeration economies are a mediating factor in that effect.

Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Enviromental Projects: A Plethora Of Biases Understating Net Benefits, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

There are many reasons to suspect that benefit-cost analysis applied to environmental policies will result in policy decisions that will reject those environmental policies. The important question, of course, is whether those rejections are based on proper science. The present paper explores sources of bias in the methods used to evaluate environmental policy in the United States, although most of the arguments translate immediately to decision-making in other countries. There are some “big picture” considerations that have gone unrecognized, and there are numerous more minor, yet cumulatively important, technical details that point to potentially large biases against acceptance on benefit-cost …

Return On Training Investment In Parliaments: The Need For Change In The Pacific Region, Abel A. Kinyondo

Abel Alfred Kinyondo

Despite substantial investment in training in Pacific parliaments, which has continued for more than a decade, parliamentary performance for many countries in the region has barely improved. Indeed, Pacific parliaments are still widely regarded as weak. The inability of training programmes to improve parliamentary performance in several areas of the Pacific led the researcher to query whether training providers are concentrating their resources on the right people. Using a multi-case design that used interviews in five Pacific parliaments—Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu—the author argues that training providers should give priority to parliamentary staff rather than members …

Regional Industrial Structure And Agglomeration Economies: An Analysis Of Productivity In Three Manufacturing Industries., Joshua Drucker, Edward Feser

Joshua Drucker

The Oecd And Phases In The International Political Economy, 1961-2011, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes

Judith Clifton

In 2011, the OECD turned fifty. To provide a broad foundation for further thinking on this organization, we analyse its evolution over half a century from two perspectives: phases in the international political economy and the literature on IPE. By so doing, we uncover two paradoxes. Firstly, we find that the organization’s evolution closely mirrored major phases in the postwar international political economy until recently. However, the OECD’s long-term dependence on theWest has now become an obstacle to its efforts to adapt to the latest phase, characterised by the rise of non-Western powers. Secondly, we show that, during the OECD’s …

El Paso Economic Development System Review & Recommendations, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

This report, commissioned by the City of El Paso, recommends that El Paso city government undertake a substantial reform of its economic development effort and that public and private sector stakeholders in the broader El Paso region mobilize to create an organizational vehicle for the kind of public‐private collaboration that is driving innovative economic development in many other major city‐regions in the United States. The analysis also calls for a stronger integration of physical, land use, and economic development planning activities in the city and region, consistent with a trend in international best practice in local and regional economic development.

Public Policy Instruments In (Re)Building National Innovation Capabilities: Cases Of Nanotechnology Development In China, Russia And Brazil, Evgeny A. Klochikhin

Evgeny A. Klochikhin

In 2001 Goldman Sachs named Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) the most rapidly-growing countries in the world capable of surpassing the United States, Japan and Europe as leading economies by 2050.

Nevertheless, for the last decade we have learned relatively little about the mechanisms of success and failure in these countries. All of them have huge territory and population as well as fast-growing economies that sometimes show two-digit rates of GDP growth per year and surprise the world by their increasing budgets and public spending. In the meantime, most of these countries are believed to be desperately struggling against …

Can Health Insurance Reduce School Absenteeism?, Ryan Yeung

Ryan Yeung

Enacted in 1997, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) represented the largest expansion of U.S. public health care coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid 32 years earlier. Although the program has recently been reauthorized, there remains a considerable lack of thorough and well-designed evaluations of the program. In this study, we use school attendance as a measure of the program’s impact. Utilizing state-level data and the use of fixed-effects regression techniques, we conclude that SCHIP has had a positive and significant effect on state average daily attendance rates, as measured by both SCHIP participation and eligibility rates. …

Regulating And Deregulating The Public Utilities 1830–2010, Judith Clifton Dr.

Judith Clifton

History can provide invaluable insights into important issues of the economic and social regulation of utilities, and offer lessons towards future debates. But the history of utility regulation – which speaks of changing, diverse and complex experiences around the world – was, unfortunately, sidelined or marginalised when economists and policymakers enthusiastically embraced the question of how to reform the utilities from the 1970s. This paper provides an overview of the three, overarching, `waves' of utility regulation from the nineteenth century to the present, documenting how, when and why the ways in which the roles of the state, the market and …

From National Monopoly To Multinational Corporation: How Regulation Shaped The Road Towards Telecommunications Internationalisation, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, Francisco Comín

Judith Clifton

One of the consequences of major regulatory reform of the telecommunications sector from the end of the 1970s – particularly, privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation – was the establishment of a new business environment which permitted former national telecommunications monopolies to expand abroad. From the 1990s, a number of these firms, particularly those based in Europe, joined the rankings of the world's leading multinational corporations. Their internationalisation was uneven, however: while some firms internationalised strongly, others ventured abroad much slower. This article explores how the regulatory framework within which telecommunications incumbents evolved over the long-term shaped their subsequent, uneven, paths to …

Show Me The Money: Budget Advocacy In Indonesia, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In "Show Me the Money: Budget Advocacy in Indonesia," authors from five civil society organizations – IDEA, the Inisiatif Association, Lakpesdam NU, the Centre for Information and Regional Studies (PATTIRO), and the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) – present five case studies on their budget work to fight against corruption and improve the allocation of government resources, and five case studies from smaller organizations based in various local districts in the country.

In addition, check out the related two-page summaries that explore the impact of civil society budget work in Indonesia to improve policies and outcomes in school funding, …

Nanotechnology Policy In Russia: Can An Emerging Technology Push A Country Onto A New Development Trajectory?, Evgeny A. Klochikhin

Evgeny A. Klochikhin

In 2001 Goldman Sachs predicted that a group of emerging markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China – will surpass leading economies by 2050. Nevertheless, we seem to have studied little about the mechanisms of success and failure in these countries in the recent decade. In this paper I focus on one of these giants – Russia – which seems seriously understudied but retains important creative and science and technology potential capable of pushing the country onto a new development trajectory.

Russia sees nanotechnology as one of the major technological platforms that could help it achieve the established growth objectives. …

International Labour Migration: The Missing Link In Globalization, Piyasiri Wickramasekara

PIYASIRI WICKRAMASEKARA

The paper analyzes the linkages between globalization and international mobility of people and labour, and concludes that labour migration is the missing link in globalization. It highlights that recent trends in labour mobility across borders hardly match optimistic rhetoric on migration and development and transnationalism at the international level. This paper briefly reviews recent trends in international mobility, particularly of workers, and reviews evidence and causes of mounting barriers to mobility. It discusses the emerging areas of convergence and divergence on policy and institutional options to optimize migration of labour for the welfare of the global economy.

Collective Choice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

This short nontechnical article reviews the Arrow Impossibility Theorem and its implications for rational democratic decisionmaking. In the 1950s, economist Kenneth J. Arrow proved that no method for producing a unique social choice involving at least three choices and three actors could satisfy four seemingly obvious constraints that are practically constitutive of democratic decisionmaking. Any such method must violate such a constraint and risks leading to disturbingly irrational results such and Condorcet cycling. I explain the theorem in plain, nonmathematical language, and discuss the history, range, and prospects of avoiding what seems like a fundamental theoretical challenge to the possibility …

Innovation Cooperation: Energy Biosciences And Law, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This Article analyzes the development and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies that can address climate change. Climate change poses catastrophic health and security risks on a global scale. Universities, individual innovators, private firms, civil society, governments, and the United Nations can unite in the common goal to address climate change. This Article recommends means by which legal, scientific, engineering, and a host of other public and private actors can bring environmentally sound innovation into widespread use to achieve sustainable development. In particular, universities can facilitate this collaboration by fostering global innovation and diffusion networks.

Effect Of Monetary Incentives On Institutional Deliveries: Evidence From The Janani Suraksha Yojna In India, Ambrish A. Dongre

Ambrish A Dongre

This paper is the fi#12;rst attempt to rigorously evaluate the short term e#11;ffects of the `Janani Suraksha Yojna' (Safe Motherhood Scheme), a nationwide conditional cash transfer program in India, launched in April 2005. Under the scheme, a woman delivering her child in a medical facility is provided monetary rewards.

My diff#11;erence-in-di#11;fference results indicate that in the initial one and a half years of its operation, the scheme did not have any eff#11;ect on the disparity between the targeted and non- targeted states. In fact, the gap widened in this period, albeit marginally. But beginning from 2007, the targeted states have …

Reseña De "Bringing In The Future: Strategies For Farsightedness And Sustainability In Developing Countries" De William Ascher, Javier Martín Reyes

Javier Martín Reyes

Review of Ascher, William "Bringing in the Future: Strategies for Farsightedness and Sustainability in Developing Countries" Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2009, 328 pages.

The Political Economy Of Telecoms And Electricity Internationalization In The Single Market, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, Revuelta Julio

Judith Clifton

As a consequence of liberalization policies in the European Union (EU), a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity transformed themselves into some of the world’s leading Multinationals. The relationship between liberalization and incumbent internationalization, however, is contested. Three political economy arguments on this relationship are tested. The first claims that incumbents most exposed to domestic liberalization would internationalise most. The second asserts that incumbents operating where liberalization was restricted could exploit monopolistic rents to finance internationalisation. The third argument claims that a diversity of paths will be adopted by countries and incumbents vis-à-vis liberalization and internationalization. Using …

Evaluating Eu Policies On Public Services: A Citizens' Approach, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes

Judith Clifton

This article evaluates EU policies on public services – particularly public network services - from the citizens´ point of view. It is first argued that citizens´ perceptions are important because the provision of fundamental services is at stake and because they constitute the infrastructure necessary for social and economic development. Citizens’ “voice” can, therefore, be known, analysed and used in the design of improved policy on public services along with other indicators. Changing EU policy on public services is synthesised and classified into two main phases in section two. Citizen satisfaction with public services as revealed through surveys from 1997 …

Benefit-Cost Analysis Of Environmental Projects: A Plethora Of Systematic Biases, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

There are many reasons to suspect that benefit-cost analysis applied to environmental policies will result in policy decisions that will reject those environmental policies. The important question, of course, is whether those rejections are based on proper science. The present paper explores sources of bias in the methods used to evaluate environmental policy in the United States, although most of the arguments translate immediately to decision-making in other countries. There are some “big picture” considerations that have gone unrecognized, and there are numerous more minor, yet cumulatively important, technical details that point to potentially large biases against acceptance on benefit-cost …

Female Political Leadership And The Prevalence Of Water Borne Diseases: Evidence From A Natural Experiment In India, Ambrish Dongre

Ambrish A Dongre

This paper examines the relationship between prevalence of water borne diseases and gender of the head of the village councils by exploiting a natural experiment in local governance in India. A constitutional amendment in early 1990s ensured that only women could contest the elections and be the head in at least one- third of the village councils selected through an exogenous process. Utilizing a unique sample survey, we show that having a woman as the council head seems to have no effect on the prevalence of water borne diseases. But if we look into the sub-categories of the female council …

Is The European Union Ready For Fdi From Emerging Markets?, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes

Judith Clifton

This chapter asks whether the European Union Member States are ready for inward Foreign Direct Investment from the Emerging Markets. It concludes that European Union Member States have relatively open Foreign Direct Investment regimes in the international context, and yet instances of protectionism have been apparent in the recent period. However, protectionism has occurred both vis-a-vis Foreign Direct Investment from the Global South as well as from within the European Union, particularly in the so-called 'strategic' industries.

Black Tuesday And Graying The Legitimacy Line For Governmental Intervention: When Tomorrow Is Just A Future Yesterday, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Black Tuesday in October 1929 marked a major crisis in American history. As we face current economic woes, it is appropriate to recall not only the event but also reflect on how it altered the legal landscape and the change it precipitated in the acceptance of governmental intervention into the marketplace. Perceived or real crises can cause us to dance between free markets and regulatory power. Much like the events of 1929, current financial concerns have led to new, unprecedented governmental intervention into the private sector. This Article seeks caution, on the basis of history, arguing that fear and crisis …

Intellectual Property Training And Education: A Development Perspective, Jeremy De Beer, Chidi Oguamanam

Jeremy de Beer

No abstract provided.

Clusters And Strategy In Regional Economic Development, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

Many economic development practitioners view cluster theory and analysis as constituting a general approach to strategy making in economic development, which may lead them to prioritize policy and planning interventions that cannot address the actual development challenges in their cities and regions. This paper discusses the distinction between strategy formation and strategic planning, where the latter is the programming of development strategies that are identified through a blend of experience, intuition, and analysis. Cluster theories and analytical tools can provide useful informational inputs into a strategy making effort and they can also be helpful for programming specific interventions (i.e., strategic …

Spanning Policy Silos In Urban Development And Environmental Management: When Global Cities Are Coastal Cities Too, Herman L. Boschken

Herman L. Boschken

No abstract provided.

Women Head Of The Village Councils And Water Borne Diseases, Ambrish A. Dongre

Ambrish A Dongre

This paper examines the relation between prevalence of water- borne diseases and gender of the head of the village councils by exploiting a `natural experiment' in local governance in India. A constitutional amendment in early 1990s ensured that only women could be the head in at least one- third of the village councils selected randomly. Utilizing a unique sample survey, we show that having a woman as the council head seems to have no effect on prevalence of water borne diseases. But if we look into the sub- categories of women council heads, we find that women council heads from …

Women Head Of The Village Councils And Water Borne Diseases, Ambrish A. Dongre

Ambrish A Dongre

This paper examines the relation between prevalence of water- borne diseases and gender of the head of the village councils by exploiting a `natural experiment' in local governance in India. A constitutional amendment in early 1990s ensured that only women could be the head in at least one- third of the village councils selected randomly. Utilizing a unique sample survey, we show that having a woman as the council head seems to have no effect on the prevalence of water borne diseases. But if we look into the sub- categories of the women council heads, we find that the women …

Female Heads Of The Village Councils And Water Borne Diseases, Ambrish A. Dongre

Ambrish A Dongre

This paper examines the relation between prevalence of water- borne diseases and gender of the head of the village councils by exploiting a `natural experiment' in local governance in India. A constitutional amendment in early 1990s ensured that only women could be the head in at least one- third of the village councils selected randomly. Utilizing a unique sample survey, we show that having a woman as the council head seems to have no effect on the prevalence of water borne diseases. But if we look into the sub- categories of the female council heads, we find that the female …

Women Head Of The Village Councils And Water Borne Diseases, Ambrish A. Dongre

Ambrish A Dongre

This paper examines the relation between prevalence of water- borne diseases and gender of the head of the village councils by exploiting a `natural experiment' in local governance in India. A constitutional amendment in early 1990s ensured that only women could be the head in at least one- third of the village councils selected randomly. Utilizing a unique sample survey, we show that having a woman as the council head seems to have no effect on the prevalence of water borne diseases. But if we look into the sub- categories of the women council heads, we find that the women …