Economics Commons^™

Road Congestion Pricing In Singapore: 1975-2003, Sock-Yong Phang, Rex S. Toh

Research Collection School Of Economics

Facing traffic congestion in the Central Business District and enormous demands on scarce land resources by the growing number of motor vehicles, Singapore, a small island city-state the size of Seattle, embarked on a bold decision to reduce road congestion by implementing the famous Area Licensing Scheme in 1975. This was a manual system of tolls for multiple entries into the Restricted Zone. While achieving the intended effect of cutting down on the volume of vehicular traffic in the Restricted Zone, the authors (and others) found that the problem of congestion had merely shifted in time and place. Many changes …

Trade, Capital Accumulation And Structural Unemployment: An Empirical Study Of The Singapore Economy, Hiau Looi Kee, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the factors responsible for the secular decline of Singapore’s unemployment rate over the period 1966-2000 in an environment of low and stable inflation rates. We introduce wage bargaining and unions into a specific-factors, two-sector economy with an export sector and a non-tradable sector to obtain an endogenous natural unemployment rate. Increases in the relative export price and capital stock in the export sector are predicted to reduce structural unemployment. These hypotheses could not be rejected based on structural estimations and co-integration regressions. Empirically, capital accumulation in the export sector explains most of the decline in Singapore’s unemployment …

Why Is China So Competitive? Measuring And Explaining China's Competitiveness, F. Gerard Adams, Byron Gangnes, Yochanan Shachmurove

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper evaluates factors responsible for the competitiveness of China in the world economy and relative to its East Asian rivals. China has been highly successful in capturing world export markets. Chinese competitiveness is not just a matter of an undervalued exchange and extremely low labor costs. It reflects primarily the coincidence of favorable cost conditions with improvements in China’s ability to produce products that meet world market specifications. These improvements are closely related to foreign participation in China’s economy through foreign direct investment and joint venture enterprises.

The Empirical Relationship Between Exchange Rates And Interest Rates In Post-Crisis Asia, Hwee Kwan Chow, Yoonbai Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

In post-crisis Asia, all crisis-hit countries (except Malaysia) announced a shift from exchange rate based monetary policy framework to the explicit adoption of inflation targeting that uses interest rates as the key monetary policy operating instrument. In this study, we examine the empirical relationship between exchange rates and interest rates, and investigate how the dynamics between them have changed following the crisis. This is carried out by constructing a bivariate VAR-GARCH model for each of the four Asian crisis countries, namely Indonesia, Korea, Philippines and Thailand. The findings suggest these countries do not use interest rate policy more actively to …

Methods For Evaluating Employment Programs In Sofia, Bulgaria, Christopher J. O'Leary

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

The Doha Round - 2004 Version, Clayton K. Yeutter

Clayton K. Yeutter, United States Secretary of Agriculture: Papers

Thank you, Sherman Katz. It is a pleasure always to participate in this CSIS Seminar, which is becoming an annual reunion for former USTRs. Trade is always on the front burner of world affairs, but that burner is especially hot at the moment! And it is as hot here in the U.S. as it is anywhere. So let's turn to the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, and see where we stand.

No. 13: The Rise Of African Tourism To South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africans display considerable ambiguity if not outright hostility towards Africans from other countries (Crush 2000). The extent of xenophobia was officially recognized in the Immigration Act of 2002 which gives government a statutory obligation to eliminate the phenomenon in its own ranks and amongst the citizenry. Foreign Africans in South Africa are regularly stereotyped as criminals, job-stealers, consumers of scarce public resources and carriers of disease. There is very little recognition of the positive economic benefits of the presence of other Africans in the country.

Africans come to South Africa for a variety of purposes and this needs to …

The Exploitation Of Women In Mexico's Maquiladoras, Jennifer Gibbs

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Maquiladora factories, created in 1965 as part of Mexico's Border Industrialization Program, have become the backbone of economic progress along the United StateslMexico boundary. These factories, largely owned by foreign investors, have drawn thousands ofwomen from Mexico's interiors to work in the area. As a result, globalization and increased foreign investment have created cultural, environmental, and occupational hardships and hazards for female Mexican laborers despite the monetary gains that have resulted from Mexican and United States government programs.

No. 14: Policing Migration: Immigration Enforcement And Human Rights In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Vincent Williams

Southern African Migration Programme

This paper examines reported incidents of human rights abuses and violence directed towards foreigners where government employees have been the perpetrators. We discuss both direct human rights abuses and incidents of violence (with examples drawn from policing exercises such as “Operation Crackdown” and from the detention of undocumented migrants) and institutional violence (such as migration policy development and other executive actions promoting or at least failing to prevent victimisation of foreigners). In many of the reported incidents, law enforcement officials have been the direct perpetrators of the human rights violations.

The South African government is legally responsible for ensuring adherence …

No. 12: Nepad, The City And The Migrant: Implications For Urban Governance, Caroline Kihato

Southern African Migration Programme

Migration is a growing phenomenon internationally. Between 1960 and 2000 international migrants in Africa increased from 9 million to 16 million. Although Africa has experienced a drop in the number of international migrants over the last two decades, it has more than double the number of migrants than Latin America and the Caribbean, and between a half and a third of the number in Asia. Flows of people from country to country across the continent are increasingly significant. Migration between cities across the continent is becoming a common phenomenon, as households attempt to secure their livelihoods.

In addition to cross-border …

No. 30: Regionalizing Xenophobia? Citizen Attitudes To Immgration And Refugee Policy In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Wade Pendleton

Southern African Migration Programme

The negative attitudes of South Africans towards non-citizens, migrants and refugees have been documented in several recent studies. Xenophobia has been officially recognized as a major problem by the state and steps have been taken by government and the South African Human Rights Commission to “roll back xenophobia.” Since anti-immigrant intolerance is a global phenomenon, should South Africans be singled out in this regard? This paper seeks to contextualize the South African situation by comparing the attitudes of South Africans with citizens from several other countries in the SADC; namely, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

In practical policy terms, …

The Doha Round: Comin' Allve?, Clayton K. Yeutter

Clayton K. Yeutter, United States Secretary of Agriculture: Papers

May I first pay compliments to the leadership of the Asian Development Bank for hosting this seminar. Asia has a huge stake in the success of the WTO generally, and the Doha Round specifically, but not everyone realizes that. So seminars of this _ nature are terribly important in providing focus to the Doha Round, encouragement to the negotiators, and in building public support for this endeavor. Let's hope we can accomplish those objectives here in Osaka.

Receiving The Headian Legacy: International Lawyers, South-To-North Resource Transfers, And The Challenge Of International Development, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Articles & Book Chapters

Written over fifteen years ago by Ivan Leigh Head, a highly distinguished Canadian international lawyer, foreign policy expert, and international development thinker, the words contained in the above quotation point firmly at this great man's analytic incisiveness and hint at the sheer depth of his fairness of mind. For although the net transfer of resources from the much poorer geopolitical "South" to a far richer "North" remains to this day one of the most important obstacles to international development, rarely have the dominant accounts of international development given this phenomenon the pride of place that it surely deserves.

Characteristics Of The Labor Market And Human Resources Management In The Republic Of Kazakhstan, Bolat L. Tibekov, Janet S. Adams, Nancy Prochaska

Faculty Articles

Kazakhstan, an emerging economy moving from a communist centralized command approach to global market participation, shares issues with other republics in the Common Wealth of Independent States. Competitive advantages that bode well for its successful transition include abundant oil reserves, a developing legal system, and a government that appears to have learned from the mistakes of other CIS nations. However, the Republic has serious problems of population decline, poor infrastructure, and workforce habits incompatible with a market economy. This paper focuses on labor market and human resource issues that must be addressed of Kazakhstan to be competitive in the world …

Compatibility Of A Western Systemic Approach For Handling Complex, Pluralist And Coercive Problems In Developing Countries: A Case Study Of Micro Satellite Development In Indonesia, Alexander Sudibyo

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In this era of globalization, there has been much western investment in the eastern world, increasing the number of large projects financed by internal and foreign investments. It was thought a challenging proposition to investigate whether systemic approaches could be used in eastern developing countries that are in transition between Toffler’s first (agricultural focused) and second (industrial centered) waves of economic development.

Exploring Children’S Rights In The World Of Work, Jean N. Scandlyn

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Children of Other Worlds: Exploitation in the Global Market by Jeremy Seabrook. London: Pluto, 2001. 166pp.

Congestion Control And Vehicle Ownership Restriction: The Choice Of An Optimal Quota Policy, Winston T. H. Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

Singapore introduced a vehicle quota system (VQS) in 1990 as part of its overall policy to control urban congestion. While the VQS has reduced the annual growth rate of the vehicle population to about 3 per cent, it has created uncertainty in the cost of vehicle ownership due to the fluctuations in licence prices. This paper discusses three issues relating to the optimal design of a VQS: licence transferability, sub-categorisation, and the choice of an auction format. The analysis shows that licence transferability is not unambiguously desirable, sub-categorisation is highly regressive, and an open auction format results in less aggressive …

Essays On Monetary Policy In Bangladesh, Sayera Younus

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Community Norms And Organizational Practices: The Legitimization Of Wage Arrears In Russia, 1992-1999, John S. Earle, Andrew Spicer, Klara Sabirianova Peter

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

What role do community norms play in the diffusion and persistence of new organizational practices? We explore this question through an examination of the widespread practice of wage arrears, the late and non-payment of wages, in Russia during the 1990s. Existing research on wage arrears most often examines this practice as a means of flexible wage adjustment under difficult economic conditions. We develop an alternative theory that explains wage arrears through their acceptance as a legitimate form of organizational behavior within local communities. Our empirical analysis finds some support for the neoclassical position that wage arrears reflect adjustment to negative …

The Impacts Of Hong Kong's Currency Board Reforms On Its Interbank Market, Yiu Kuen Tse, Paul S. L. Yip

Research Collection School Of Economics

Among the economies with a Currency Board System (CBS), Hong Kong (HK) is probably the one with the largest and most developed financial sector, as well as the highest capital mobility. Hence, studying HK’s CBS is not only crucial to HK, but also important for the understanding of the modern CBS. This paper outlines the major monetary reforms in HK since the late 1980s. The impacts of these reforms and the 1997–1998 Asian Financial Crisis are then examined empirically. We focus on the differentials between the US and HK interbank interest rates. We assume the conditional-mean equation follows an autoregressive …

Micro-Level Estimation Of The Prevalence Of Stunting And Underweight Among Children In Cambodia, Tomoki Fujii, Livia Montana

Research Collection School Of Economics

We are pleased to share this copy of the preliminary report on "Micro-Level Estimation of the Prevalence of Stunting and Underweight Among Children in Cambodia." This study is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Planning, the United Nations World Food Programme and the MEASURE DHS+ project, with in-kind assistance from The World Bank. We also would like to express our acknowledgement to Italian Cooperation and International Fund for Agricultural Development for supporting in publication and distribution.

An Empirical Examination Of Ipo Underpricing In The Chinese A-Share Market, Ting Yu, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

Research in the literature shows that initial public offerings (IPOs) of common stocks are systematically priced at a discount to their subsequent initial trading price. The large underpricing magnitude in the Chinese IPO market has attracted much attention. We consider three hypotheses that may explain the IPO underpricing in China. These are the winner's curse hypothesis, the ex ante uncertainty hypothesis and the signaling hypothesis. Among these hypotheses, the winner's curse hypothesis has not been tested in the Chinese market. Using IPO data for online fixed-price offerings from November 1995 to December 1998, our results show that the winner's curse …

The Role Of United Charities In Fundraising: The Case Of Singapore, Vincent Chua, Chung Ming Wong

Research Collection School Of Economics

Theory suggests that a united charity helps to economize on fundraising costs by reducing competition for donations among member charities. However, donors often cannot control the allocation of their donations, and charities may dislike the monitoring of their activities. This paper examines these and other issues relating to the Community Chest of Singapore. The results, based on analysis of financial positions and fundraising costs of a large number of charities, suggest that the Community Chest does possess important fundraising advantages. Thus charities in financial difficulties or in need of funds for additional programs tend to seek membership. However, organizations that …

Open Versus Sealed-Bid Auctions: Testing For Revenue Equivalence Under Singapore's Vehicle Quota System, Winston T. H. Koh, Roberto S. Mariano, Yiu Kuen Tse

Research Collection School Of Economics

Using data from the auction of vehicle quota licenses in Singapore, we study if revenue equivalence holds when the auction format was switched from a sealed-bid format (May 1990 to June 2001) to an open bidding format since July 2001. Our econometric analysis indicates the change in auction format led to a change in bidding behavior. On average, the quota license premium under the open bidding format is about US$1,000 (about 7.5% of the Category E license price in June 2001) lower, compared to the forecast level that would have prevailed if there had been no change in the auction …

Reflections On Development In Ethiopia, Paul B. Henze

International Conference on African Development Archives

I visited Ethiopia frequently and traveled extensively in all parts of the country during the Derg period. I observed firsthand the deleterious effects of the Derg's attempt to turn the country into a communist "people's republic".[1] Since the fall of the Derg in May 1991, I have made fifteen visits to Ethiopia, usually for periods of several weeks, totaling well over a year of travel in the country in all. During these same years I have also spent time in sixteen other post-communist countries, ranging from Slovenia and Armenia to Mongolia, observing the political, economic and social problems of recovering …

Ethnic Federalism In Ethiopia: Background, Present Conditions And Future Prospects, Alem Habtu

International Conference on African Development Archives

In 1991 Ethiopia established an ethnic federal system that gave full recognition to ethnic autonomy, while maintaining the unity of the state. Its new constitution created a federal system largely consisting of ethnic-based territorial units. The constitution aspires to achieve ethnic autonomy and equality while maintaining the state. The federal system is significant in that its constitution provides for secession of any ethnic unit. It encourages political parties to organize along ethnic lines, and champions an ethnicized federal state with a secession option. As an exception to the general pattern in Africa, it is a worthy case study. The paper …

School Choice And Policy Response: A Comparative Context Between Private And Public Schools In Urban Ethiopia, Berhanu Seboka

International Conference on African Development Archives

Given today’s appetite and search for better quality education in Ethiopia, coupled with meager educational budget available for the sector, little attention has been given to see the comparative advantage of demand side financing in education. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the state-run education system was criticized for being elitist, rigid and irresponsive. Today, more than ever, there is a constant public out cry for access to quality educational services both in urban and rural settings. The starting point for school choice is the availability of private schooling. School choice is believed to increase the efficiency of educational services …

Regional Differences In Hiv Prevalence In The Light Of Prevailing Socio-Economic Conditions: A Preliminary Comparison Of Northeastern And Southern Africa, Lemma Merid

International Conference on African Development Archives

Preliminary investigation shows that HIV prevalence in most of the Northeast African countries is lower than the prevalence in their Southern Africa counterparts. This has led some in the Northeast to think that their situation is much better, and they should not be worrying as much. This however is a mistake. Since prevalence levels adjust through changes in new infections (incidence) and death, there is some indication that the latter may outweigh in the Northeast. The paper argues that given the much better economic and social welfare conditions in the South, the infected are likely to live longer than their …

Education And Economic Performance In Sub Sahara Africa, Paulos Gutema, Mekonnen Bekele

International Conference on African Development Archives

In Sub Sahara Africa, where the process of economic growth is almost enigmatic, schooling is being considered, in most parts of the region, as a factor that may help resolve the mystery. This paper aims at examining the degree of growth effect of schooling in this region. Following the endogenous growth model developed by Lucas (1988) that considers human capital as one factor of production and schooling as means of human capital accumulation, two results of schooling are explicitly stated: accumulation of privately owned and publically owned human capital. By developing a growth estimating equation containing these two types of …

Blending Of Traditional And Modern Technologies Through Science, Berhanu Gizaw

International Conference on African Development Archives

While the developed world benefits from the modern explosion in technology, countries such as Ethiopia are still reliant on the methods of there fore fathers for essential every day tasks like farming, cooling and provision of clean water. These tasks are often physically demanding, very costly in terms of time and energy, and, in many such societies, are often carried out by female members of the family. Additionally, they may cause damage to the local ecology and environment such as the deforestation and soil erosion arising from the use of trees for firewood. Western technologies are of little or no …