Growth and Development Commons^™

Does Gender Inequality Retard Productivity In Nigeria?: A Search For Evidence, P. D. Golit, O. Adesanya

Economic and Financial Review

The paper adopted the bounds test and autoregressive distributed lag approach to evaluate the impact of gender inequality in education on real productivity in Nigeria using quarterly data from 1985 to 2011. Empirical evidence to establish the rejection of the null hypothesis of no cointegration among the variables was provided . The empirical results suggest that gender inequality in education depresses real productivity, with an output elasticity of -0.1 per cent per quarter. Further empirical evidence indicates that higher school enrolment of males enhances real productivity in Nigeria, while the influence of female school enrolment was not affirmative owing to …

Government Size And Economic Growth In Nigeria: A Test Of Wagner's Hypothesis, M. Y. Dogo, U. M. Okpanachi, A. A. Muhammad, C. V. Umolu, K. J. Ajayi

Economic and Financial Review

This paper attempts an empirical validation of Wagner's law in Nigeria using quarterly data for the period 1982 to 2012. The hypothesis that real income does not Granger-cause government expenditure was rejected. Adopting the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) regression techniques, the study found support for the Wagner's hypothesis in Nigeria. The analysis provided empirical evidence to support the existence of a long-run equilibrium relationship between economic activity and government expenditure in Nigeria. Overall, the results corroborated the Goffman's version of the Wagner's law in Nigeria. Thus, government needs to create fiscal space to enable deployment of more resources …

Mountain Monitor - 2nd Quarter 2013, Kenan Fikri, Mark Muro

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Economic recovery progressed steadily across the metropolitan Mountain West in the second quarter of 2013. Many of the region’s major metro areas counted among the strongest economic performers nationally, but output growth slowed over the quarter and the region‘s unemployment recovery looked to be stagnating. Moderate job growth and a fast and accelerating housing recovery buoyed the Mountain West economy in the second quarter.

Valuation Of The Ecosystem Services Provided By Coastal Ecosystems In Shandong, China: Developing A Non- Market Valuation System, Jing Guo

Working Papers

Non-market valuation assesses the contributions of ecosystem services to human well-being by determining the preference of users. That is how much money users are willing to pay for ecosystem improvements or how much they are willing to accept for ecosystem losses. Through exploring these preferences, the natural capital can be accounted for economically and quantitatively. It can not only lead to better understanding of ecosystem benefits, but also make it possible to compare ecosystem services with other conventional goods and services (e.g. real estate) in monetary terms.

Shandong is a coastal province of China, which is located on the eastern …

Building More And Better Jobs: Lessons From The United States, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Agricultural Biotechnology, International Trade, General Equilibrium And Efficiency, Comlanvi Martin Konou

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ongoing debates about the adoption of the agricultural biotechnology in the developing countries and EU have dominated the literature in development economics and biosciences. This dissertation considers some environmental, economic and social consequences of the technology from three perspectives: 1) the impact of the ongoing pest density on the performance of the agricultural biotechnology in India; 2) trade consequences of EU restrictive trade policies towards biotech products; and 3) the adoption decision of the technology in the EU and the developing economies.

Agricultural biotechnology appears to be successful in increasing yield and reducing the use of pesticides. However, most studies …

Essays In Economic Growth And Development, Zhen Zhu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three chapters exploring the Solow Residual of the Solow growth model. Two central components of the Solow Residual have been studied in my doctoral dissertation. The first is the structural transformation, an internal adjustment process that helps the economy attain the optimal points on its Production Possibility Frontier by reallocating resources from the low-productivity sectors to the high-productivity sectors. The second is the technology diffusion, a positive externality process that pushes forward the economy's Production Possibility Frontier if it adopts the newer technology.

The first chapter of my dissertation is devoted to a case study of …

Can State And Local Revenue And Expenditure Enhance Economic Growth? A Cross-State Panel Study Of Fiscal Activity, Christopher Arthur Clarke

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The slow economic recovery since the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession requires state and local governments to continue to make difficult decisions concerning which taxes to raise and which expenditures to decrease in order to maintain a balanced budget. As expenditures usually raise economic growth and taxes generally hinder it, seeking the optimum combination of tax structures and expenditure options is necessary to encourage prosperity in a state. In this paper I study the effects of various expenditures and revenue combinations on growth in state personal income from 1977-2010 for 49 states and the District of Columbia. I find …

On The Merits Of The Resource Curse Theory: Resource Rents And Corruption, David Paul Snyder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the breakup of the colonial empires following World War II, many newly independent states have embarked on a path of seeking political and economic development. Scholars studying this phenomenon soon became aware of an interesting puzzle. Why do the economies that have substantial natural resource endowments at their disposal tend to develop at a slower rate than economies that are less endowed with natural resources? From this question, the resource curse theory was derived. The resource curse theory has three main claims. The first claim is that resource rich economies grow at a slower rate than non-resource rich economies. …

Essays On The Economics Of Child Care And Child Custody, Jennifer Lee Hafer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In my first essay I use data from licensed child care centers in the state of Arkansas to examine the relationship between quality and price charged. To measure quality, I use Arkansas's Better Beginnings Quality Rating and Improvement System, a tier-structured voluntary certification program which can be viewed as a voluntary increase in regulations for licensed child care centers which allows them to send an observable signal of quality to consumers. Using an hedonic pricing estimation with controls for varying geographic markets, results indicate firms with Better Beginnings classification charge higher prices once the highest levels of certification are obtained. …

Serving God Globally: Finding Your Place In International Development (Book Review), Nathanael D. Peach

Faculty Publications - College of Business

No abstract provided.

Fanta Fanafody: Malagasy Traditional Medicine In A Globalized World, Mary Buswell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigates the relationship between traditional medicine and globalization in Madagascar. Information from interactions and interviews with both traditional and allopathic healers is used to study the current healthcare system and provide direction for the establishment of an Integrated Health Care System (IHCS). This study finds that traditional medicine and globalization have a closer and more reciprocal relationship than it would initially appear, and that traditional medicine is very adaptable to change. Because of this, it is proposed that globalization and technology could be tools to bring traditional and allopathic medicine together in an IHCS to resolve the health …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 16, Number 3, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

No abstract provided.

Economic Indices: Managing By The Numbers, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Understanding indices is not just about crunching numbers, but appreciating how it is constructed

Implementing A Green Economy In Least-Developed Countries The Challenges Of Intellectual Property Rights And Technology Transfers Within The Trips Agreement, Spencer Schloss

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The world has come to a stage where technology is the crux of development and growth. Vast technological advances allow for opportunities to produce at rates more efficient than even the most prodigal of scientists could have imagined. As the world simultaneously experiences development and growth, there is an unfortunate environmental tradeoff. The same industries that lead to economic advancement are causing extreme environmental degradation and least developed countries are the ones to bear the burden.

LDCs are dependent upon natural capital as their economic survival base. If the world continues to develop without considering the detrimental impacts on LDCs, …

Study Of Economic Development Of Pakistan Through Stock Market: Causal Relationship Of Stock Prices And Macroeconomic Indicators, Rizwan Raheem Ahmed, Yaseen Ahmed Meenai, Fazal Hussain

Business Review

The purpose of the research is to examine the causal relationship between stock prices and the variables representing the real sector of the economy for example real GDP, and real investment, in Pakistan. In this study, annual data is used (quarter-wise) from December 1980 to June 2007 and the correlation analysis has been applied, to investigate the relationship. For better understanding of the Market’s Behavior, data has been grouped in to Liberalization periods; Preliberalization and Post-Liberalization. The stock market in Pakistan provides an average quarterly return of 2.86%.The average annual growths in real variables are just lower than 1% for …

Mountain Monitor-1st Quarter 2013, Kenan Fikri, Mark Muro

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

Economic recovery gained strength across the major metro areas of the Mountain West in the first quarter of 2013. Multiple metro areas achieved long-awaited full employment recoveries in the first quarter and regional production surpassed pre-recession levels of output for the first time. The region’s strong housing rebound continued to be a boon. Additionally, a special supplement to the Monitor shows that the healthcare sector has been an outsized contributor to recovery throughout the region. Despite progress on multiple fronts, though, many Mountain metro areas remain scarred with high unemployment rates, severely depressed house prices, and daunting jobs deficits.

Blue Growth In The Middle Kingdom: An Analysis Of China’S Ocean Economy, Rui Zhao, Stephen Hynes, Guang Shun He

Working Papers

This paper builds on the work carried out by OEAS in China, which established the framework of ocean economy accounting in China. It also demonstrates how it is possible to compile ocean economy data, from the existing government databases in China. The Chinese ocean economy was divided into two separate parts for the purpose of the analysis presented; the ocean industry and ocean-related industry. Data was collected for 12 major ocean industries. Using a similar methodology to that developed in previous international studies, it was found that the major ocean industries produced US$239.09 billion in value added output in 2010 …

Sustainability In Zambia, Africa: Examining Partnership Of An Agricultural Business And A Non-Profit Organization, Kaitlin Grace O'Leary

Ethnic Studies

The purpose of my study is examining the ways in which agricultural

business is currently supporting and benefitting a non-profit organization.

Through participation of an international agricultural business, Plant Sciences Inc.

(PSI) and a Christian non-profit organization, Lifesong for Orphans, this study

has been a collaborative effort and process, observing agriculture as a means of

sustainability for a non-profit organization. This study has revealed the necessity

of not only updated technology and resources, but has also discovered a continued

necessity of dedicated personnel to the field. A major theme from my

observations was cross-cultural relations, and the ways in which …

Impacts Of The Federal Farm And Ranch Lands Protection Program: An Assessment Based On Interviews With Participating Landowners, J. Dixon Esseks, Brian J. Schilling, Alexander Hahn

Center for Great Plains Studies: Staff and Fellows Publications

Focus of the Study

From mid-February to mid-May 2012, a research team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln surveyed 506 owners whose agricultural land was protected from development through conservation easements that were funded in part by USDA’s Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP). This program “provides matching funds to help purchase development rights to keep productive farm and ranchland in agricultural uses. Working through existing programs, USDA partners with State, tribal, or local governments and non-governmental organizations to acquire conservation easements or other interests in land from landowners, USDA provides up to 50 percent of the fair market easement …

Economic Growth And The Optimal Level Of Entrepreneurship, Catherine Bampoky, Luisa Blanco, Aolong Liu, James Prieger

School of Public Policy Working Papers

What is the “growth penalty” when a country’s entrepreneurship deviates from its optimal level? We use data on entrepreneurship for a panel of developed and developing countries over 2003-2011 to estimate growth equations. We treat the impact of entrepreneurship on real GDP growth as heterogeneous across countries. The methodology accounts for unobserved heterogeneity among countries in the optimal entrepreneurship rate and other factors affecting growth. In less developed countries, there is not enough entrepreneurship, and increases in the entrepreneurship rate have a sizeable positive effect on growth. In high income countries, entrepreneurship appears to be close to the optimum. We …

Structural Change And Real Output Growth In Nigeria: A Cointegration Analysis, P. D. Golit

Economic and Financial Review

The study employed the Johansen (1988) and the Johansen and Juselius (1990) multivariate maximum likelihood method within a Vector Autoregressive framework to explore the impact of structural reforms on the level of real output in Nigeria. We fit the equation separately for two sub-samples, the pre-reform and the market-reform periods, to enable comparisons of the outcomes under alternative policy regimes. We further estimate the model using data that covered the entire sample period to evaluate the total effects and include a dummy variable to capture the impact of the policy shift. The Johansen cointegration test confirms the existence of long-run …

Effect Of Deposit Money Banks' Credit On The Performance Of Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises In Nigeria, G. O. Evbuomwan, V. O. Okoruwa, A. E. Ikpi

Economic and Financial Review

This paper set out to empirically evaluate the effect of deposit money banks' credit on the performance of MSMEs in Nigeria, with the aid of a vector autoregression and error correction mechanism (ECM) technique. Results of the empirical investigation confirmed credit had a positive effect on GDP of MSMEs in Nigeria as the coefficient of CAM (credit to MSMEs) was positive (1.0569) and significant at 1.0 per cent level. It was, therefore, recommended that every effort should be made to improve access to credit by MSMEs, so that they could play their potential roles of employment generation and wealth creation …

Cash-In-Hand, Wives-In-Power: An Exploratory Analysis Of Microfinance In Jordan, Lauren Pugh

Master's Theses

Microfinance is an economic policy complimentary to advancing female empowerment. Empowerment is particularly relevant in patriarchic Islamic contexts in the Middle East, however little research exists. Due to counterfactual creation and inconsistent empowerment measurement, the true impact is debated. This research proposes intra-spousal decision-making outcomes as the appropriate proxy to empowerment and uses a nuanced approach of counterfactual creation by utilizing responses from previous microfinance borrowers. Survey data from a Jordanian MFI is used to examine the endogeneity story and cash-in-hand effects on intra-spousal decision-making outcomes. An instrumental variable estimation technique finds a weak link between microfinance and empowerment.

The Role Of The Ocean Industry In The Chinese National Economy: An Input-Output Analysis, Rui Zhao

Working Papers

The OEAS (Ocean Economy Accounting System) has been established in China for 6 years. However, the economic impact of the ocean economy in China’s national economy has not yet been understood clearly at the national or regional levels. The direct impact of ocean industries in China at national and regional levels has been compiled for the period of 2001-2011, but it is still unclear what the overall economic impacts of ocean industries are in the national economy, and how the ocean industries interact with other industries in the national economy. China is similar to other ocean countries in that, - …

Reinventing The Development Wheel Of The World Trading System (Reviewing Sonia E. Rolland, Development At The World Trade Organization (2012)), Sungjoon Cho

All Faculty Scholarship

In probing how WTO norms may affect developing countries, Sonia Rolland introduces two paradigms in this book: development as an idiosyncrasy and development as a normative co-constituent to trade. The first paradigm concerns development-related exceptions and carve-outs found within WTO rules and agreements that exemplify a contingent provision of special favors to developing countries. Overall, it represents a limited mandate on development in the WTO. In contrast, the second paradigm embodies a normative operationalization of development agenda within the WTO system. It normatively reconstructs WTO rules and institutions in a way where development is a core mandate of the WTO, …

Inflation Targeting And Growth: The Role Of The Tradable Sector, Luis Monroy Gómez Franco

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper provides an analytical explanation to the empirical association between monetary policy conducted according to the inflation targeting (IT) framework and the appreciation of the exchange rate, relating it to the literature on the effects of the exchange rate on growth. A two sector small open economy model is developed in which the behavior of the non tradable inflation and the nominal exchange rate are analyzed. The results indicate that the response to inflation variance under the IT regime causes the appreciation trend. Since this trend is not reversed immediately, increasing returns in the tradable sector affect capital accumulation.

Incentives To Improve Economic Conditions: A Field Experiment In Medellin, Colombia, Lauren Skora

Master's Theses

The motivation for this research is to replicate the Oakland based Family Independence Initiative (FII) and to test the components of this model. The FII program claims its success stems from a bottom-up approach structured around setting life-improving goals, mutual support groups, and small monetary incentives to achieve results. As the popularity of this program continues to gain momentum in the United States, we designed a field experiment to measure the impact of incentives on goal achievement and economic conditions as well as the overall impact of the FII model. We enrolled close to 200 small business owners in four …

Does Child Sponsorship Have A Positive Impact On The Quality Of Life And Social Behavior Of Sponsored Children? Evidence From Indonesia, Mario Carrillo

Master's Theses

Relaxing an internal constraint of an individual at early stages of life is an approach that complements traditional policy interventions aimed to alleviate poverty. The Compassion International child sponsorship program focuses their work on the emotional, social, and spiritual development of sponsored children. This study investigates the impacts of child sponsorship on the quality of life and social behavior of sponsored children using age-eligibility as an instrument for sponsorship, a time preference experiment and a trust game. The study looks specifically at self-esteem, optimism, social trust, educational outcomes, patience and reciprocity of 286 sponsored children and 234 non-sponsored children between …

Medical Metropolis: The Impacts Of The Healthcare Industry On Rochester, Minnesota, Agata J. Miszczyk

Geography Honors Projects

Specialized-function cities are dominated by one or two related industries that comprise the majority of the economic base of the area. Rochester, Minnesota is a prime example of such a city. The case of Rochester challenges much of conventional theory regarding economic diversification and spillovers of different economic systems. This case study presents new ideas regarding these spillovers and the success of specializations, as well as provides an in-depth analysis of the affect the Mayo Clinic - a premier medical facility – has on the local infrastructure and economy. This study illustrates how the healthcare industry has shaped Rochester's urban …