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Cover And Table Of Contents

Groundings

This is the Cover and Table of Contents for Groundings Vol. 2, Iss. 1

Groundings Volume Two, Issue One

Groundings

This is the full isee of Groundings Vol. 2, Iss. 1.

Timothy Ong [Brunei, Chairman Of Asia Inc Forum], Timothy Ong

Digital Narratives of Asia

Timothy Ong is Chairman of Asia Inc Forum, a regional platform for policy and business dialogue which he set up after the failure of his magazine Asia Inc. Mr Ong talks openly to DNA about the Asia Inc episode and how he learned from those mistakes to build a stronger, better company. He also shares his impressions of leaders he has met through his work at Asia Inc Forum.

The Vietnam Report: National Landscape, Current Challenges And Opportunities For Growth, Institute For Societal Leadership, John W. Ellington

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

Although most of Southeast Asia is home to religions and cultures carrying significant Indic influence, Vietnam alone is the mainland’s only Sinicised culture. Chinese emperors directly ruled northern Vietnam for most of the period spanning 111 BCE to 938 CE. The next eight hundred years saw a series of independent Vietnamese kingdoms administered by Chinese-style mandarins gradually extend control over and supplant the Indic Champa civilisation to the south—even as French incursions began chipping away at Vietnamese territory as early as 1858.

China And India: Globalization With Different Paths, Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Satish K. Kolluri, Pan Zhen

Global Asia Journal

This occasional paper has three essays written by professors from Pace University and Nanjing Normal University that address a host of structural challenges facing China and India in pursuit of sustainable development in the early twenty-first century. Pan Zhen gives a critical overview of China’s economic policies, and finds the top-down development model to be fraught with tensions. Joseph Tse-Hei Lee argues that the ability of China to pursue sustainable growth and social betterment is largely contingent upon many circumstantial factors, especially the negative attributes of globalization and the rise of domestic discontents. Satish K. Kolluri shifts the focus of …

On The Effectiveness Of Housing Purchase Restriction Policy In China: A Difference In Difference Approach, Jerry X. Cao, Bihong Huang, Rose Neng Lai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The Chinese government imposed the purchase restriction policy to rein in the housing bubble in 2010. Using a two-stage difference-in-difference approach and a comprehensive dataset covering the real estate markets across 70 cities, we find that the policy triggered substantial decline in the property price and transaction volume. Cities having higher reliance on real estate sector for fiscal revenue and economic growth experienced greater decline in housing prices following the policy implementation. However, the policy had no measurable effects on the nationwide construction boom, hinting the ineffectiveness of the policy to correct the housing bubble.

The Changing And Unchanged Nature Of Inequality And Seniority In Japan, Ken Yamada, Daiji Kawaguchi

Research Collection School Of Economics

Wage inequality declined in the 1990s, while it increased in the 2000s for full-time male workers in Japan. We find that a decreased return to firm-specific human capital, which has been neglected in previous empirical analyses of inequality, is a key factor preventing a rise in wage inequality during the prolonged period of economic stagnation, known as Japan’s lost decades. We also find that, while changes in returns to general and specific human capital contributed to narrowing wage inequality in the 1990s and widening wage inequality in the 2000s, a significant fraction of the increase in wage inequality in the …

South Africa: Building For The Future, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Africa’s second-largest economy seeks to get back on the road to growth

Indonesia’S Challenges, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Supply side constraints will be key to how South East Asia’s largest country maintains the six percent growth it needs to tackle the poverty rate and grow

The Bandar Seri Begawan Report: National Landscape, Current Challenges And Opportunities For Growth, Institute For Societal Leadership, Lai Cheng Lim

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

Brunei, known as the “Abode of Peace”, is a small state in Southeast Asia located on the north-west coast of the island of Borneo in the Indonesian Archipelago. Its 161 kilometres of coastline faces the South China Sea while it is enclosed on land by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, which divides it in two. Brunei Darussalam comprises four districts, Brunei-Muara (where the capital Bandar Seri Begawan is situated), Tutong, Belait and Temburong.

Arifin Siregar [Indonesia, Minister Of Trade], Arifin Siregar

Digital Narratives of Asia

Former Indonesian Trade Minister Arifin Siregar talks to DNA about his higher education in Holland and Germany, and his services as the Governor of Central Bank in Indonesia, during which handling the Pertamina crisis led to radical economic development. He presents his take on past Presidents Soekarno, Suharto, Habibie, Gus Dur, Megawati and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, including how corruption had occurred.

Economic Development And Female Labor Force Participation In The Middle East And North Africa: A Test Of The U-Shape Hypothesis, Kelsey A. Chapman

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper investigates the relationship between economic development and female labor force participation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Using a panel data set of 20 countries in the region for the period of 1990-2012, I develop an econometric model that tests the U-shape hypothesis. This study builds upon previous literature examining the U-shape hypothesis in time series studies for developing countries, and cross-country studies. The results of this paper suggest that there is a U-shaped relationship between economic growth and female labor force participation rates. The MENA region’s low female labor force participation rates can be explained …

Peaceful Settlement Of Disputes In The South China Sea Through Fisheries Resources Cooperation And Management, Kuan-Hsiung Wang

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

The South China Sea dispute is complicated in terms of its nature, the sovereignty issues of the islands, delimitation issues, resources utilization as well as other matters concerning security (both traditional and non-traditional). In order to solve the dispute, cooperation is one of the main considerations. However, the practice has not been realized.

In order to solve the dispute and promote cooperation in the South China Sea region, the author suggests that conserving and managing fishery resources could be established as a starting point. There are a great number of management means, institutions, and international instruments (such as conventions, treaties …

The “New Normal” In China, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

China's slowing growth and its dual identity of simultaneously being a developing and developed country will test the country’s leadership

The Malaysia Report: National Landscape, Current Challenges And Opportunities For Growth, Institute For Societal Leadership, Natalia R. Rodrigues

Institute of Societal Leadership Research Collection

Malaysia’s story is one of pluralism. Like many nations in Southeast Asia, its borders are not drawn along ethnic lines. Immigration and the influence from colonial European powers were particularly prominent in Malaysia because of its many important ports. Thus, many aspects of the country – its economy, its people – are very different on the coasts than they are in the interior of the country, a distinction which generally mirrors the divide between urban and rural areas as well.

Do Living Wages Alter The Effect Of The Minimum Wage On Income Inequality?, Benjamin S. Litwin

Gettysburg Economic Review

Anker (2006) proposed a new methodology for calculating the living wage in countries around the world. By looking at OECD nations between 2000-2010, we look to see if countries with a national minimum wage higher than this living wage value see a notable difference in the effect of the minimum wage on income inequality. Our results show that countries with the minimum wage higher than the living wage value do see lower inequality, although there is a key value of the minimum wage, at which countries start to see disemployment effects that increase inequality.

Review Of The Economic Policy Research Center (Eprc) Repository Hosted By The Southern African Institute For Policy Research, Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

The EPRC Repository is an online, open access site established in 2014 and hosted by SAIPAR, a new center for policy research and the proprietor of this journal. SAIPAR is quickly establishing its name in the region as dynamic, innovative and not averse to using modern approaches for its outreach to academics and policymakers. The institute brings a new excitement to social research and policy in Africa. Research at SAIPAR is also included in the EPRC. By June 2014, after only six months of existence, the EPRC Repository had accumulated close to 140 quality papers from various institutions in Southern …

Vol. 1, No. 2 Cover

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

No abstract provided.

Vol. 1, No. 2 Masthead

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

No abstract provided.

No. 30: Zimbabwe’S Exodus To Australia, David Lucas, Barbara Edgar

Southern African Migration Programme

This paper focuses on emigration of Zimbabwe-born migrants to Australia, partly because Australia is largely omitted from the important text, Zimbabwe’s Exodus even though it has become an important destination, and partly because the data is better for Australia, and for New Zealand, than for other major destination countries. This profile discusses the characteristics of persons born in Zimbabwe and of Zimbabwean ancestry, by undertaking primary analysis of the 2011 Australian Census using the TableBuilder software of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, together with the settlement reporting facility of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).

Seeing The Whole Elephant: A Comprehensive Framework For Analyzing Resource-For-Infrastructure Contracts As Intended By The Parties, Dunia P. Zongwe

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

The current state of scientific knowledge on resource-for-infrastructure (R4I) contracting is unclear and based on inadequate empirical grounds. As a result, it is not easy to tell a R4I contract apart from other forms of international business transactions, let alone describe it in a comprehensive, accurate and meaningful way. Such state of affairs is concerning given the dramatic transformative impact of R4I contracts. This article sheds light on R4I contracts and proposes a broad framework for analyzing these multibillion-dollar deals. It looks to the contracting parties’ intentions – as expressly set out in the texts of contractual and official documents …

Sovereignty And Democracy In Ethiopia: A Reflection On Gebru Asrat's Book, Asayehgn Desta

Collected Faculty Scholarship

Over the past forty years, we have been hearing and reading a lot about the Tigrai People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which dismantled the inhuman and atrocious Military dictatorship that ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. It was not only highly skilled in military operations but was visionary. The impression that was widely circulated was that when the TPLF came to power it would protect Ethiopia’s sovereignty, adhere to the rules of law and ensure that equity and social justice would prevail , and above all democracy would be the norm of Ethiopian society.

Contrary to these assertions, Gebru Asrat (hereafter …

No. 69: Calibrating Informal Cross-Border Trade In Southern Africa, Sally Peberdy, Jonathan Crush, Daniel Tevara, Eugene Campbell, Inês Raimundo, Maxton Tsoka, Nomsa Zindela, Godfrey Tawodzera, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Chileshe Mulenga, Thuso Green, Ntombi Msibi

Southern African Migration Programme

Informal cross-border trade (ICBT) is a significant feature of regional trade and international mobility in Southern Africa. The exact number of participants and economic importance of this trade is unknown because no official statistics are collected. Despite its obvious presence at every border post throughout the SADC region, ICBT remains largely invisible to policy-makers. Indeed, in government circles it is more often associated with smuggling, tax evasion and illegality than with innovation, enterprise and job creation. On the research side, there is a growing body of case study evidence that ICBT plays a critical role in poverty alleviation, food security …

No. 68: Entrepreneurship And Inclusive Growth In South Africa, Zimbabwe And Mozambique, Jonathan Crush, Caroline Skinner, Abel Chikanda

Southern African Migration Programme

While increasing attention is being paid to the drivers and forms of entrepreneurship in informal economies, much less of this policy and research focus is directed at understanding the links between mobility and informality. This report examines the current state of knowledge about this relationship with particular reference to three countries (Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe) and four cities (Cape Town, Harare, Johannesburg and Maputo), identifying major themes, knowledge gaps, research questions and policy implications. In many African cities, informal enterprises are operated by internal and international migrants. The extent and nature of mobile entrepreneurship and the opportunities and challenges …

No. 70: International Migrants And Refugees In Cape Town’S Informal Economy, Godfrey Tawodzera, Abel Chikanda, Jonathan Crush, Robertson Tengeh

Southern African Migration Programme

This report is the most comprehensive study yet of the contribution of migrant and refugee entrepreneurs to Cape Town’s local economy. The survey of over 500 entrepreneurs engaged in trade, services and manufacturing in different areas of the city dispels some of the more prevalent myths that often attach to the activities of migrants. The vast majority are not “illegal foreigners”, but have a legal right to be in South Africa and to run a business. Most are highly motivated individuals who enter the informal economy to earn revenue to support themselves, their families, and because they have a strong …

The Eu Budget's Impact On Public Opinion, Kai Stern

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Public opinion on the European Union (EU) is significant and therefore a worthwhile topic of consideration. Analyses have identified and ordered the factors that impact public opinion on the EU, as well analyzed the efficacy of EU funds. Yet the confluence of these two lines of inquiry is understudied. Some Member States have surpluses and others deficits relative to the EU budget, which could impact citizens’ perceptions of the EU. To gauge this potential relationship, this article notes deficit and surplus Member States and responses to one Eurobarometer question about trust in the European Commission from 2000-2013. These variables are …

Measuring Happiness To Guide Public Policy Making: A Survey Of Instruments And Policy Initiatives, Laura Musikanski

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

This author examines subjective indicators of well-being as they relate to the happiness movement, a global effort to create a new economic paradigm. The essay focuses on the prominent international institutions that are developing happiness metrics as well as agencies exploring the use of happiness data for crafting supportive public policy. A definition of happiness metrics, based on international institutions, identifies the primary questions that compose perceived happiness and how this data can be used.

Vol. 1, No. 2 Table Of Contents

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

No abstract provided.

Examining Industrial Interdependence Between Japan And South Korea: A Favar Approach, David D. Selover, Takeshi Yagihashi

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the economic relationship between Japan and South Korea by incorporating disaggregated output measures. Using a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model, we conduct several experiments to test the nature of the interdependence, both in the aggregate and by sector. We find that South Korean output shocks affect the Japanese economy in a significant manner, whereas Japanese output shocks have a limited effect on South Korea. By further examining the transmission mechanism of sectoral output shocks and comparing them with the direction of sectoral trade, we find evidence of cross-border production sharing, which explains the asymmetric results seen in …

Decentralization In Violent Conflict Zones: Views From The Periphery, Emmi Bevensee

Capstone Collection

This thesis looks at the question of, “How can nations on the periphery of global capitalism sustainably negotiate with nations in the center of global capitalist power in the process of governance decentralization in violent conflict zones?” Decentralization here describes the process of power transfer of fiscal, political, and administrative duties from higher and more centralized entities to lower and more localized divisions. The process of decentralization is employed to cultivate participatory democratization, minority advocacy, peacebuilding, and development. Because of the nature of these needs decentralization is often accompanied by international intervention that uses the justification of “failed statehood.” This …