Economics Commons^™

No. 21: The Un Convention On The Rights Of Migrant Workers: The Ratification Non-Debate, Vincent Williams, Jonathan Crush, Peggy Nicholson

Southern African Migration Programme

In recognition of the need to explicitly define and uphold the rights of migrants, and in particular migrant workers and their families, the United Nations General Assembly approved the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICMW) on 18 December 1990 (Appendix A).

The significance of the Convention has been identified as follows:

• Migrant workers are viewed as more than labourers or economic entities. They are social entities with families and accordingly have rights, including that of family reunification.
• The Convention recognizes that migrant workers and members of their families, …

Output, The Real Exchange Rate, And The Crises In Turkey, Oya Pinar Ardic

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Openness And Regional Distribution Of Turkish Manufacturing Industries, Fatma Dogruel, A. Suut Dogruel

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Risk Analysis Of The Government Domestic Debt Stock In Turkey: Cost-At-Risk Approach, H. Burcu Gurcihan

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Trade Liberalisation With Trade Induced Technical Change In Morocco And Egypt, David Evans, Michael Gasiorek, Sherman Robinson, Scott Mcdonald

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Determinants And Impact On The Turkish Economy Of Remittances, Nazli Elif Köksal

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

No abstract provided.

Searching For Social Capital In U.S. Microenterprise Development Programs, Nancy C. Jurik, Gray Cavender, Julie Cozogill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper focuses on the claims and efforts of U.S. microenterprise development programs (MDPs) to build social capital among poor and low income entrepreneurs. MDPs offer business training and lending services to individuals operating very small businesses (with five or fewer employees and less than $20,000 in start-up capital). Advocates suggest that MDPs help promote economic development by building social capital defined as networks among small entrepreneurs and between entrepreneurs and their larger community. We begin our paper with a short review of the varied definitions and claims about the role of social capital in promoting civic and economic empowerment. …

A Comparison Of Five Federal Reserve Chairmen: Was Greenspan The Best?, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper examines the performances of the past five Federal Reserve chairmen using optimal control techniques and a macroeconometric model. Each chairman is evaluated in two ways. The first way is comparing the actual performance of the economy under his term relative to what the performance would have been had he behaved optimally. Comparing chairmen only on the basis of the actual performance of the economy is not appropriate because it does not control for different exogenous-variable values and shocks that the Fed has no control over. This comparison is done for a wide range of loss functions. It does …

Competitive Screening And Market Segmentation, Gerald David Jaynes

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We characterize competitive equilibrium in markets (financial etc.) where price taking Bayesian decision makers screen to accept or reject applicants. Unlike signaling models, equilibrium fails to resolve imperfect information. In classical statistics terminology, some qualified applicants are rejected (type I error) and some unqualified applicants are accepted (type II error). We report three new results: i. optimal firm behavior is deduced to be a Bayesian variant of the Neyman-Pearson theorem; ii. competitive equilibrium entails screening if and only if (net of screening costs) the cost of type II errors exceed the cost of type I errors, i.e. contrary to signaling …

A Pro-Poor Framework For Enhancing Micro-Savings In Nigeria., M. C. Ononugbo, C. P. Nwosu

Bullion

Nigerians generally do not seem to have what is usually referred to as “the saving culture”. This assertion may not entirely be true as it based on information from the formal banking system without recourse to the savings activities at the informal sector of the economy. It is a fact that the informal sector of the economy is large with unrecorded transactions. Consequently, this paper attempts to examine the fundamental issues in saving and thereafter design a formal savings habit of the populace, especially the low-income group. The framework is designed to mobilise micro-savings, hitherto kept with thrift collectors and …

Understanding The Pension Reform Act(Pra) 2004, Adesina Balogun

Bullion

Pension schemes exit to provide post-retirement I benefits to employees. Pension scheme was introduced into Nigeria during the Colonial era to provide old age income and security to British citizens working in the country upon retirement. This paper discussed the conceptual framework of Pension Reform Act 2004, the dynamics of Pension Reform Act of 2004, the implications and challenges of Pension Act of 2004 as well as feasible options for future developments. The study concluded that, The roles and functions of PFAs and PFCs are Pivotal to the success of the new defined contributory scheme. It behoves on them therefore, …

Overview Of Exchange Rate Management In Nigeria., Mike I. Obadan

Bullion

The exchange rate is a key macroeconomic variable in the context of general economic policy making, and of economic reform programmes, in particular. It is a very important price which governments take very active interest in. However, two concepts of exchange rate are commonly distinguished: nominal exchange rate and real exchange rate. - The nominal exchange rate (NER) is a monetary concept which measures the relative price of two moneys or currencies, e.g., Naira in relation to the U. S dollar. - But the real exchange rate (RER), as the name implies, is a real concept that measures the relative …

Economics Of Exchange Rate Management, Ayodele Odusola

Bullion

Exchange rate policy plays an important role in national economic development management. If well managed, it could facilitate the achievement of macroeconomic objectives of rapid economic growth, low rate of inflation, high employment generation, buoyant balance of payment condition, and progressive income distribution. Of all economic policies, it is the most suitable policy for ensuring internal and external balances. This paper examine the economics of exchange rate management; the conceptual issues in exchange rate management in view of attaining the macroeconomic objectives for rapid economic growth and development. One of the critical issues in the management of foreign exchange is …

Recent Reforms In The Nigerian Banking Industry: Issues And Challenges., U. Kama

Bullion

The banking industry around the world has witnessed remarkable changes in recent decades, given t h e i n c r e a s i n g w a v e o f globalization, structural and technological changes, and integration of financial markets. As McKinnon and Shaw (1973) observed in their seminar work on the key roles of banks as propel lands of growth and development in developing economies, a feeble banking system is repressive, distortionary and dis-connect the intermediation process thereby precipitating macroeconomic instability. The paper reviews the various reforms in Nigerian banking industry since 1986 particularly the complementary …

Overview Of Currency Management In Nigeria., K. S. Adeyemi

Bullion

This paper seeks to highlight the issues in currency management, identify the challenges of currency management in Nigeria, and situate the currency management reforms of the Central Bank of Nigeria in proper context. The paper is structured into six sections. Following the introduction, the key dimensions of the currency management function is highlighted in section 2. Section 3 reviews the major currency episodes in Nigeria while section 4 examines the shortcomings of the existing currency arrangements. Nigeria's reform effort in currency management is discussed in Section 5 and the paper is concluded in section 6 by observing that: as inflation …

Promoting The Use Of Coins In Nigeria., A O. Ikuseedun

Bullion

The main purpose of currency in any nation is to facilitate transactions and serves as a store of value. Currency is made up of banknotes and coins. While banknotes are expected to be used for relatively large value payments, coins are for low value ones. The paper examines the factors responsible for low usage of coins in Nigeria and suggest possible remedial measures. The paper observes that there had been a general low use of coins for retail transactions in Nigeria. This was reflected in the relative value of coins in circulation as against the value of currency which was …

Generalized Utilitarianism And Harsanyi’S Partial Observer Theorem, Simon Grant, Atsushi Kajii, Ben Polak, Zvi Safra

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We provide an axiomatization of generalized utilitarian social welfare functions in the context of Harsanyi’s impartial observer theorem. To do this, we reformulate Harsanyi’s problem such that lotteries over identity (accidents of birth) and lotteries over outcomes (life chances) are independent. We show how to accommodate (first) Diamond’s critique concerning fairness and (second) Pattanaik’s critique concerning differing attitudes toward risk. In each case, we show what separates them from Harsanyi by showing what extra axioms return us to Harsanyi. Thus we provide two new axiomatizations of Harsanyi’s utilitarianism.

Interpreting The Predictive Uncertainty Of Elections, Ray C. Fair

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper provides an interpretation of the uncertainty that exists at the beginning of the day of an election as to who will win. It is based on the theory that there are a number of possible conditions of nature that can exist on election day, of which one is drawn. Political betting markets like Intrade provide a way of trying to estimate this uncertainty. It is argued that polling standard errors do not provide estimates of this type of uncertainty. They instead estimate sample-size uncertainty, which can be driven close to zero with a large enough sample. This paper …

Mixed Oligopoly Equilibria When Firms’ Objectives Are Endogenous, Philippe De Donder, John E. Roemer

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We study a vertically differentiated market where two firms simultaneously choose the quality and price of the good they sell and where consumers also care for the average quality of the goods supplied. Firms are composed of two factions whose objectives differ: one is maximizing profit while the other maximizes revenues. The equilibrium concept we model, called Firm Unanimity Nash Equilibrium (FUNE), corresponds to Nash equilibria between firms when there is efficient bargaining between the two factions inside both firms. One conceptual advantage of FUNE is that oligopolistic equilibria exist in pure strategies, even though the strategy space (price, quality) …

Kantian Allocations, John E. Roemer

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Several authors in the economics literature have referred to Kantian behavior, informally, as a kind of cooperation. We model this notion precisely, and define two kinds of Kantian allocation. An set of strategies by players is Kantian if, informally, no player would advocate that all players change their strategies in the ‘same kind of way.’ We prove existence and Pareto efficiency of Kantian allocations. The proportional solution in a production economy with a common access technology emerges as a special case. We study whether Kantian behavior can ‘resolve’ the prisoners’ dilemma and the voting paradox. It turns out that Kant’s …

Economic Development As Opportunity Equalization, John E. Roemer

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The justification of using GNP per capita as a measure of economic development is utilitarian ethics plus an assumption that no needs are more urgent than others. Here, we advocate a measure of economic development based on the degree to which the society in question has equalized opportunities for the acquisition of income. In highly developed economies, inequality of opportunity accounts for less than 10% of total inequality, while in developing economies, it accounts for over 30%.

Financial Liberalization And Savings Mobilisation In Nigeria., Emmanuel A. Onwoduokit

Bullion

Financial liberation involves the elimination of credit, controls, deregulation of interest rates, easing of entry into the financial services industry, development of capital markets, increased prudential regulation and supervision, and liberalization of international capital flows. This paper assess the impact of financial sector reforms in Nigeria, especially on the development of the financial sector. Accordingly, the paper dwells on theoretical issues and brief review of literature and presented a brief analysis of financial sector reforms in Nigeria. Attempt is also made to assess the impact of the reforms. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the roles of the indicators that are studied …

Conceptual Issues On Savings In Nigeria., A. J. Adam, A. V. Agba

Bullion

It is often held that capital accumulation is necessary and sufficient condition for growth and capital accumulation is almost synonymous with saving, hence the route to growth is then one of raising savings and smoothing consumption (Deaton, 1991). Savings is one of the key relevant macroeconomic variables in any economy. Its impact on the rate of capital accumulation, productivity and the degree of dependency of a nation on foreign capital and foreign ownership of domestic assets cannot be overemphasised. This paper reviews conceptual issues on savings behaviour in Nigeria. It also provided an analysis of the factors that may have …

The Challenges Of Sustainability Of The Current Exchange Rate Regime In Nigeria., H. T. Sanni

Bullion

The motive behind initiating an exchange rate policy, an integral element of monetary policy, is to preserve the value of the domestic currency, maintain favorable external reserves and ensure the realization of price stability in the domestic economy. The pursuance of these goals is to ensure external balance without compromising the need for internal balance and macroeconomic stability. In the quest for corrective measures to minimize distortions in the foreign exchange market, the monetary authority initiates the current exchange rate reform. the objective of this paper is to discuss the challenges of sustaining the recently introduced exchange rate regime in …

Exchange Rate Stability And Poverty Reduction In Nigeria, Greg Nzekwu

Bullion

The paper discusses the role of macroeconomic policy in achieving social as well as macroeconomic objectives in attaining poverty reduction in Nigeria. Nigeria's economy is growing at an impressive rate compared to the historical. This reflects in part increased investor confidence due t o the improvement in macroeconomic management and positive dividends of the new found economic direction and general political stability. However, the renewed optimism is unlikely to be sustained if appreciable progress is not made to advance growth, general macroeconomic stability and poverty reduction. The reveals that, In order for growth to be poverty reducing, the link between …

Challenges Of Exchange Rate Volatility In Economic Management In Nigeria., Charles N.O Mordi

Bullion

The motive behind initiating an exchange rate policy, an integral element of monetary policy, is to preserve the value of the domestic currency, maintain favorable external reserves and ensure the realization of price stability in the domestic economy. The pursuance of these goals is to ensure external balance without compromising the need for internal balance and macroeconomic stability. It is important that the monetary authority, in its bid to designing an appropriate and sustainable exchange rate policy framework, addresses issues that are fundamental to the introduction of the policy itself. This paper discussed the challenges of exchange rate volatility management …

The Achievement Of Convergence In The Nigeria Foreign Exchange Market, O. O. Akanji

Bullion

The fact that Naira is floating is not a panacea for effective monetary policy management learning from the Argentina experience. Also with volatile capital flows, there are associated over - and undershooting of exchange rates that the economy would encounter. This paper discuss the achievement of convergence in the Nigerian foreign exchange market and monetary policy, the liberalization of the foreign exchange market and the process of foreign exchange convergence. It was observed that there were supply shortage and so the supply side of resource allocation was deployed. It was also observed that the harmony between the money market and …

Effective Reserve Management In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges And Prospects., M. Nda

Bullion

Effective management of foreign exchange reserves is one of the major macroeconomic objectives of countries like Nigeria. This is against the background of rapid rise and accumulated challenges currently facing many emerging economies especially oil producing countries. In Nigeria, the reserves has risen from USD4.99 billion in May 1999 to USD38.07 billion as at July 31, 2006 (see table 1). The paper examines the key issues, challenges and prospects of effective management of external reserves in Nigeria and how the Central Bank of Nigeria has fared in coping with these challenges. The recent accumulation of foreign reserves is not peculiar …

Promoting The Use Of Non-Cash Payment Alternatives In Nigeria., Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede

Bullion

The payments and settlement system represents the plat-form upon which financial resources is exchanged for goods and services. This paper discussed the different alternatives of non-cash payment methods as well as the advantages, modes of payments and challenges. The study concluded that, there is need not only to further the laudable reforms of the Federal Government of Nigeria, but also to ensure that business and non-business financial transactions are accessible and convenient for the average Nigerian. These reforms in the payment system can only fast track the integration of Nigeria into the international financial system with attendant benefits for the …

The Legal Framework For Currency Management In Nigeria., Anthony Olatujoye

Bullion

This paper reviews the adequacy of the existing legal framework for Currency Management in Nigeria. The paper is structured into three parts. Part I is an introduction to the paper. The legal provisions governing currency management in Nigeria and some of the legal challenges for the CBN are highlighted and examined in part II. Part III concludes the paper: that a major legal challenge facing the CBN is the absence of specific provisions of the law criminalizing such acts as tampering, deliberate mutilation, spraying and marching of currency.