Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

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, …

An Inferentially Robust Look At Two Competing Explanations For The Surge In Unauthorized Migration From Central America, Nick Santos

Dissertations

The last 8 years have seen a dramatic increase in the flow of Central American apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol. Explanations for this surge in apprehensions have been split between two leading hypotheses. Most academic scholars, immigrant advocates, progressive media outlets, and human rights organizations identify poverty and violence (the Poverty and Violence Hypothesis) in Central America as the primary triggers responsible. In contrast, while most government officials, conservative think tanks, and the agencies that work in the immigration and border enforcement realm admit poverty and violence may underlie some decisions to migrate, they instead blame lax U.S. immigration …

Understanding The Impact Of Psychological Empowerment, Workplace Motivation, And Social Capital On The Job Performance Of Farmers In Honduras: A Mixed Methods Study, Susan Lale Karimiha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A farmer’s job performance is critical to the production of raw materials such as food, fiber, and fuel and is therefore an important concern for individuals, businesses, and economies across the world. The literature on improving farmers’ job performance has focused more on introducing new technologies, and less on the psychosocial factors that improve job performance. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of psychological empowerment, workplace motivation, and social capital on farmers’ job performance in Honduras.

A mixed methods approach was used to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. For quantitative data, a …

The Impact Of Mnc Involvement On The Lives Of Workers In Developing Economies Of Latin America, Gabriel Moss

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

It is clear that multinational corporations (MNCs) have significant impact in the growth trajectory of developing countries. The nature of this relationship, however, is heavily debated. What is the downstream impact from MNCs on the lives of workers in developing countries? Are countries perversely incentivized to repress and exploit their unskilled labor forces to attract investment? Do multinationals promote better working conditions and raise standards of living for workers? In this essay, I argue that multinationals have the potential to bring massive benefits to the working class in developing countries. If the government of the host country develops strong linkage …

Study On Crime And Investment In Latin America And The Caribbean, Luisa Blanco, Christabel Dadzie, Coline Dony

Luisa Blanco

Investment is a key determinant of economic growth. This relationship underpins the growth diagnostic and constraints analysis methodology used by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and United States Government Partnership for Growth initiative with the purpose of identifying the binding constraints to growth in a given country. Recent growth diagnostics undertaken for El Salvador (2011), Guatemala (2013), and Honduras (2013) find crime and citizen insecurity to be binding constraints to growth and investment in those countries (Acevedo et al. 2011; World Bank, 2012). The approaches taken in these growth diagnostic analyses are based on indirect proxies and shadow prices of …

The Ciudades Modelo Project: Testing The Legality Of Paul Romer’S Charter Cities Concept By Analyzing The Constitutionality Of The Honduran Zones For Employment And Economic Development, Michael R. Miller

Michael R Miller

Over the last several years, the Honduran government has been aggressively advancing a "model cities" project that it argues will provide options for its citizens to escape the extreme violence in their country without migrating to the U.S. The model cities, which are formally called "Zones for Employment and Economic Development" ("ZEDEs"), are purported to be autonomously governed areas that will attract foreign investment and compete for residents by establishing safer communities and better managed institutions governed by the rule of law.

The ZEDEs trace their origin to a concept formulated by development economist Paul Romer, who proposed the idea …

A Study In The Urbanization Effect On The Honduran Pricing Mechanism, Sharik L. Peck Ii

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The effect of the Honduran capital city Tegucigalpa on prices is tested through a series of comparative regressions of the prices of similar goods between the capital and outlying cities and towns. Goods that have many brands or production centers are found to have prices that vary more significantly between locations. The effect of the size of packaging of goods in some significant cases runs counterintuitive to traditional economic reasoning showing no effect or even in certain circumstances obtaining a premium for large packaging not proportional to the contents. The Honduran market also allows for an examination of the effect …

The Impact Of The International Budget Partnership's Open Budget Survey And Its Partner Institution's Advocacy On Budget Transparency In Honduras, Hugo Noe Pino, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

This case study looks at how the preparation and publication of the Open Budget Survey 2010 in Honduras increased awareness of Honduras’ budget transparency problems. The increased attention given to these issues brought together local civil society organizations, the International Budget Partnership, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the government of Honduras to make progress on budget transparency. Also, the IBP’s technical assistance to the government of Honduras played an important role in the recent publication of budget documents, which combined with a strong government will have provided the basis for public finance management reforms. Although the main incentive for the …

Microfinance And Women’S Empowerment In Honduras, Katherine Sugg

Sociology Honors Papers

This thesis examines the possibilities for women’s empowerment through microfinance. It utilizes the results of a survey conducted in 2009 with clients of the microfinance organization FINCA Honduras. The analysis of these survey results yields important conclusions on FINCA Honduras’ ability to empower Honduran women economically, psychologically, and socio-culturally. The original hypothesis of this study stated that FINCA Honduras’ financial services would help the female client to improve her standard of living, her psychological well-being, and her gender relationships in the home. FINCA Honduras has partially succeeded in empowering its female clients in these ways, but currently lacks the specific …

Coping With Dr-Cafta: Assessing The Impact Of The Agreement And Designing Adjustment Programs For Sensitive Agriculture In Honduras, Alvaro Durand-Morat

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Honduras has for almost two decades embraced economic integration as a way to achieve sustained economic growth. The DR-CAFTA agreement signed in 2004 represents another step towards economic openness. The agreement generated a heated debate about the benefits and costs to the Honduran economy. Previous assessments suggest that Honduras will have a marginal aggregate benefit from DR-CAFTA. The findings from this study suggest that the agreement might actually yield a marginal loss vis-à-vis the counterfactual. Previous studies also stress the potential for large losses resulting from the agreement, particularly for some traditional and sensitive agricultural sectors. The findings from this …

Analyzing The Success Of The Usaid-Funded Empleando Futuros And Crime And Violence Prevention Projects In Reducing Emigration From The Northern Triangle To The United States, Sofia M. Munoz

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores the role of USAID-funded projects focused on the root causes of migration in the Northern Triangle as a U.S. immigration prevention strategy. Through analyzing the Empleando Futuros activity in Honduras and the Crime and Violence Prevention Project in El Salvador, I found that the projects followed an overly simplistic approach to migration based off of neoclassical economic theories of migration. When compared to alternate migration theories and empirical evidence from the region, I found that the individualistic and employment-based approaches utilized by these projects do not have the desired effect of majorly decreasing someone’s propensity to migrate …

Contracting Out: A Study Of The Honduran Experience, Melvin Burke, Richard J. Moore, Donald A. Swanson, Gill Chin Lim, Jacob Greenstein, Richard A. Fehnel

School of Economics Faculty Scholarship

This study was conducted by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) at the request of USAID/Honduras under the terms of NASPAA's Technical Cooperative Agreement with USAID. The study examined the experiences of USAID/Honduras and the Government of Honduras with the contracting out of construction activities in three sectors. The purpose of the study was to document empirical evidence regarding the performance of contracting out as a policy measure to increase private sector initiatives in Honduras.

The Rise Of The Banana Industry And Its Influence On Caribbean Countries, John L. Williams

Historical Dissertations & Theses

The phenomenal growth of the banana industry is one of the most outstanding features of commerce during the last half century. Like the banana tree itself, this industry has grown to stupendous size in a relatively short span of time. Why has this business continued to grow and why at the present time is it still expanding? The answer is that the banana has become internationally recognized as a very nourishing food and as populations increase, so must he banana trade increase in order to supply the demand. In order to thoroughly understand the banana industry one must first acquaint …