Growth and Development Commons^™

Fiscal Impact Of Privatization In Developing Countries, Alexander H. Sunderland

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the fiscal impact of privatization revenues in 47 developing countries. There are many reasons that privatization is attractive for the central government of developing countries. If substantial, these revenues from the sale of state owned enterprises can present a potential solution to persistent deficits. On the other hand, the privatization revenues could be used to finance an even larger deficit. In this paper, I will discuss previous research on the fiscal impact of privatization revenues, the factors that contribute to persistent fiscal budget deficits and explain how empirical research on the fiscal impact of privatization in the …

Public Dollar Private Owners; Tax Subsidies For New Stadiums In Professional Sports, Grant J. Bunnage

CMC Senior Theses

The growing popularity of North American professional sports over the last twenty years directly coincides with the recent trend of urban communities using tax dollars to publically subsidize professional football, baseball, and basketball stadiums. Communities across North America invest substantial amount of public tax dollars in private facilities in light of a consensus among policy analysts that the economic impact of the new stadium is greatly exaggerated. The economic impact of new stadiums has been extensively researched, the focus  of this paper rather, is to examine the impact publically subsidized facilities built in the last twenty years have on the …

The Impact Of Terrorism On Foreign Direct Investment: Which Sectors Are More Vulnerable?, Shivani Agrawal

CMC Senior Theses

The impact of conflict and violence on foreign direct investment (FDI) is not a topic that has been done justice by the literature, and what few studies exist have contradictory results. This paper studies the impact that transnational terrorism has on FDI inflows by economic sector, in developed countries. Results indicate a statistically significant negative correlation between terrorist events and total FDI inflows. Amongst a list of 12 broad industrial sectors, FDI inflows for manufacturing, trade and repair, and construction were found to have a statistically significant negative correlation with terrorist events.

Women In China, Between Confucius And The Market, Tonia Warnecke, Alain Blanchard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

La Metà Del Cielo Tra Confucio E Mercato, Tonia Warnecke, Alain Blanchard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Electricity Pring On Phev Competitiveness, Shisheng Huang, Bri-Mathias S. Hodge, Farzad Taheripour, Joseph F. Pekny, Gintaras V. Reklaitis, Wallace E. Tyner

PPRI Digital Library

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) will soon start to be introduced into the transportation sector, thereby raising a host of issues related to their use, adoption and effects on the electricity sector. Their introduction has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector, which has led to government policies aimed at easing their introduction. If their wide-spread adoption is set as a target it is imperative to consider the effects of existing policies that may increase or decrease their adoption rate. In this study, we present a micro level electricity demand model that can gauge the effects …

A Cross-Sectional Study Of Infant Mortality Rates Between Countries, Katelyn E. May

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The health status of nations has been and continues to be under debate. Although the variables that comprise such a status have not been solidified, one variable that is closely studied and is thought to have an effect on the idea of health status is infant mortality. A country’s Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is treated as an indicator of its health status as well as socioeconomic status. This research attempts to study the variables which are hypothesized to be significant in relation to IMR, and to find which ones truly have an effect. Data on eight independent variables were collected …

The Political Economy Of Currency Re-Denomination By Countries., Peter Nwaoba

Bullion

In the view of the Bank, redenomination policy for Nigeria was not to translate to revaluation, as market forces were to continue to determine the prices, including interest rates and exchange rates, with the expectation that inflation will be low while exchange rate will appreciate. The objective of this paper is to articulate the reasons and conditions under which countries embark on currency redenomination exercises, and how successful these exercises had been over the years. The paper is descriptive with presentation based on literature reviews. Under the redenomination programme, banknotes were to be issued in denominations of new 50k (old …

Analysis Of Revenue Generation As A Tool For Socio-Economic And Infrastructural Development In Nigeria, Obiechina M.E.

Bullion

The paper analyses the federal government revenue vis-àvis the provision of socio-economic Volume 34, No. 4 October - December 2010 and infrastructural development in Nigeria from 1970 2008, the centerpiece, which is improved productivity and standard of living. To this end, the paper is divided into five sections. Following this introductory section, section two explains the concept of government revenue and infrastructural development as well as theoretical and empirical literature. In section three, we examine the sources and structure of government revenue. Section four focuses on the trend in government revenue and expenditure and the state of some infrastructure in …

Petroleum Industry Linkages And Nigeria's Economic Development, Chinyere U. Nwolisa, Chinyelu N. Ugoji

Bullion

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and potentially its largest economy, has witnessed decades of dictatorship and misrule. Accompanying this misrule are severe economic problems of an unprecedented magnitude. This paper intends to add further clues to the solution for this national developmental puzzle. The remaining part of the paper is arranged thus: Part 2 presents an overview of the Nigerian Petroleum industry while the part 3 looks at the literature of economic development the country appears to be executing. Parl4 discusses the various linkages the Petroleum industry offers visa-vis Nigeria's exploration of their potentials. The penultimate part will offer some …

A Study On The Productivity And Efficiency Effects Of Enterprise Reforms In China, Song Gao

Dissertations

This dissertation studies the progress and impacts of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) reforms in China. The primary interests center on impacts of non-ownershipchange reforms and privatization on Chinese SOEs’ productivity and efficiency. The research comprises of three major sections.

Section one briefly reviews the history of SOEs’ reform in China and examines the changes in some selected performance indicators with help of a comprehensive dataset on 863 Chinese firms from 1995 to 2001. In addition, causes of Chinese SOEs’ privatization and determinants of firms’ inefficiency are also studied.

Section two examines the effects of privatization and non-ownership-change reforms on firms’ productivity …

A Community In Bloom: An Affordable Housing Needs Assessment Of West Bloomington, Margaret L. Anderson, Lloyd Banwart, David F. Becker, Dana Bulba, Jared Dellinger, Mimi Duong, Julie Ornee, Katie Mitchell, Andrew Piotrowski, Hillary Smith, Dustin Stoltz, Mandy Swartzendruber, Niko Valaris, Katie Weber

Community Project Design and Management Reports - Sociology

Purpose of Report

This report was written in response to a request from Habitat for Humanity of McLean County. The report expands upon and updates an affordable homeownership needs assessment for the Bloomington-Normal community – with an emphasis on West Bloomington – that was created in 2004. Because the housing market and economic conditions of the area have changed drastically in the last 6 years, an updated report is necessary.

Data Sources and Methodology

This report uses a combination of primary and, mainly, secondary data sources. Interviews were conducted with representatives of, among others, Bloomington Housing Authority, the Economic Development …

Energy And Economic Growth: A State-Level Analysis, Nathanael D. Peach

Faculty Publications - College of Business

No abstract provided.

Achieving Middle-Income Status By 2030: Is This The Most Appropriate Objective For Zambia?, Venkatesh Seshamani

Zambia Social Science Journal

On the backdrop of three important quotes and based on a wealth of underlying research, this article presents a systematic review of growth and development measurement in general and specifically in relation to Zambia’s prospects of achieving middle income status by 2030. It highlights what it takes to achieve middle income status and what the limitations of such ambitions are. In commenting about Zambia’s prospects, the article presents detailed cross-country comparisons with selected African economies. Attention is paid to aspects of economic (income) growth, human development and true human progress, using a range of international indicators in the analysis. Ultimately …

Culvert Material Cost Comparison, New England Environmental Finance Center

Water

The following tables provide a detailed look at the role that culvert material and culvert diameter play in the overall cost of a culvert replacement project.

Japan’S Ticad: Alternative Global Framework For Africa’S Development?, Bertha Z. Osei-Hwedie, Kwaku Osei-Hwedie

Zambia Social Science Journal

Since 1993, Japan has sought to aid Africa’s development through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). TICAD is a multilateral, donor-recipient framework within which Japan interacts with Africa on a range of development issues. It represents the Post Washington Consensus approach as an alternative donor strategy and development model, with the hope of replicating the East Asian development miracle in Africa. TICAD makes Japan an important source of development assistance to Africa and for facilitation of South-South cooperation. This article discusses TICAD’s principles, objectives and programmes. It focuses on TICAD’s achievements in terms of its impact on African …

Increasing Returns To Marketing In Zambian Maize Markets, Gelson Tembo, Thomas S. Jayne

Zambia Social Science Journal

The article investigates the existence of market externalities due to increasing returns to marketing. Panel data on 198 pairs of maize markets in Zambia and correlated random effects linear and tobit estimators were used to model the relationship between market externalities and producer-to-wholesale marketing margins. This article is one of the first to explicitly account for unobserved local market heterogeneity in a developing country context. The results suggest that Zambian smallholder maize markets are substantially specialized with significant margin-reducing own externality effects and insignificant cross-externality effects. The results also indicate that the unobserved market effects exert a systematic influence on …

Growth And Regional Integration: The Case Of The Southern African Development Community, Chris Mupimpila, Patricia Funjika

Zambia Social Science Journal

The neoclassical growth model is augmented with structural variables to analyse the determinants of economic growth in the Southern African Development Community. The results show that physical capital, exports, infrastructure, and human capital have a positive and significant effect on economic growth. However, inflation and external debt service have a negative but significant impact on economic growth in the region. In addition, the results suggest that the underdevelopment of the financial sector is a source of heterogeneity among member countries. Therefore, to promote growth and deeper integration in the region, it is necessary to address the underlying causes of inflation, …

Are Savings Working For Zambia’S Growth?, Chrispin Mphuka

Zambia Social Science Journal

This article analyses the effect of savings on economic growth in Zambia. Using vector auto regression, the article finds that economic growth ‘Granger’ causes domestic savings. This goes contrary to the neoclassical theory on the relationship between economic growth and savings. However, the article argues that a case of increasing domestic savings mobilization holds on the premise that doing so may influence growth indirectly by attracting partnerships with international capital thereby helping to inject new technology in the economy which is undoubtedly vital for growth. The argument is strengthened further by observing that East Asian countries have grown faster than …

The Housing Market 'Reset' And The Future Of American Housing Policy, Alan Mallach

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

The foreclosure crisis and the collapse in housing prices that have engulfed much of the United States are fundamentally changing the ways in which the American housing market works, challenging many of the assumptions about the role of housing and the housing market that we have held for the past decades. In my lecture, I will discuss how and why those changes are taking place and how they vary across the United States and explore what they mean for American housing policy in the future, and how they are making us reconsider how we think about home ownership, rental housing, …

Mobility And Permanence Of Local Ethics: The Case Of Young Adults Involved In The Banco Palmas Economic Solidarity Movement, Lillian Steponaitis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The global capitalist model produces economic centers and peripheries on many scales. In Fortaleza, Brazil this pattern is evident, with the majority of the wealth and capital concentrated in central neighborhoods. As one travels to the edge of the municipality, one encounters economically and socially marginalized communities. One of these communities, Conjunto Palmeira, has attempted to mollify this exclusion by imagining and exploring new modes of existing and finding economic growth outside of the capitalist model. In 1998, the residents created Banco Palmas, a community bank. Operating under the philosophies of economic solidarity, Banco Palmas offers microcredit loans, circulates a …

Why Mexicans Migrate: A Glimpse At The Causes And Effects Of Rural Mexican Migration In The Community Of Yogana As Well As Current Movements Towards Local Development, Katie Norris

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Migration is a current matter confronting both U.S. and Mexican society. For Americans, the topic signifies an ever-increasing entry of Mexican migrants to U.S. factory and agricultural hotspots. In comparison, for millions of Mexican citizens, migration marks an intricate aspect of daily life with a story embedded not only in the present day but in the histories and futures of individuals, families and communities as well. An on-going cycle of poverty explains the principle motivation behind the growing number of migrating citizens from Mexico. Social and environmental injustices associated with free-trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement …

The Prospects Of Using Athrospira Platensis As A Malnutrition Treatment In Kenya, Kari N. Harris

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this research was to explore the current efforts using spirulina as a malnutrition treatment in Kenya. There are currently five spirulina cultivation sites that growing spirulina, four of which are located in the Nyanza Province. Their production and scope of advocacy efforts are limited. Some of the cultivation sites have a better quality control measures and strategic plan in place for expanding cultivation. Significant efforts need to be made to improve the scope of production and create links with nutrition experts in other non-governmental organizations and at the national level.

Políticas Públicas Para Enfrentar Los Desafíos Proporcionados Por Las Rentas Económicas: El Caso Del Impuesto Específico A La Minería, Andrew Linville

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La economía chilena es fuertemente dependiente en la explotación y exportación de productos primarios y en sectores de recursos naturales, como los sectores minero, forestal, pesquero, y frutícola. El modelo de desarrollo emprendido por Chile en los últimos treinta años, uno de apertura unilateral y bilateral a flujos de bienes y capital, ha dado importancia especial a las políticas impositivas y reguladoras entorno a esos sectores. Sin embargo, la explotación de recursos naturales escasos proporciona un rango de desafíos únicos debido a la existencia de rentas económicas y los efectos de competencia, distribución y desarrollo regional que las acompañan. Mi …

De Sous Le Matelas: La Capacité D’Épargne Des Propriétaires De Petites Entreprises Dans Le Réseau De Microfinance De Unics, Ali Urban

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

L’épargne est une facette intégrante et nécessaire de la microfinance, un outil qui favorise une croissance financière durable des institutions de microfinance et leurs clients. Cette recherche examine les perceptions des Camerounais en ce qui concerne les économies et comment les pratiques des propriétaires des petites entreprises et comment la gestion du budget influence leur capacité d’épargne. Pour ce faire, la recherche a été menée auprès d’un échantillon de clients de Unity Cooperative Society (UNICS), un IMF de la deuxième catégorie basée à Yaoundé, et des propriétaires qui ne sont pas affiliés avec UNICS et qui travaillent au Marché Central. …

Renewable Energy In Rural Amazônia: A Case Study Of Its Advantages And Limitations In Santo Antônio, Amy Plovnick

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Isolated renewable energy projects are a promising alternative to diesel power for providing electricity in rural communities not connected to the conventional electricity transmission grid. However, there have been a limited number of such projects in rural Amazônia, and they often face obstacles that limit their sustainability. The objective of this study is to evaluate the environmental, social and economic impact of isolated renewable energy projects through a case study of a small-scale biomass and solar energy electrification project in the community of Santo Antônio, Pará. It will also evaluate the limitations to implementing and sustaining isolated renewable energy projects …

The Incompatibility Of Dependence And Development: A Critical Analysis Of International Development Efforts In The Nicaraguan Context, Molly Dunton

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Countries in the Global South have been receiving billions of dollars annually in humanitarian and development aid for the past half-century. But they still remain poor, marginalized, and on the periphery in spite of this massive influx of money into the region. Many would argue that this very aid is in fact working to maintain the economic hierarchies responsible for their poverty. Through the lens of Dependency Theory, I analyze this apparent failure of the International Development Industry in the context of Nicaragua. After researching what was working and what wasn’t in Nicaraguan rural development, I was able to categorize …

Justice Sector Reform In Rwanda: A Space Of Contention Or Consensus?, Maria Sebastian

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Justice sector reform is an arena of competition, where international development partners and Rwandan government institutions introduce contending ideas of justice through different development projects. In this ensuing competition of influence, how do international players utilize their roles as development partners to affect the accepted standards within Rwandan courts through established systems of monitoring and evaluation? And moreover, how do individuals in the Rwandan government perceive these partners, projects, and indicators? This study aims to answer these questions through an in-depth literature review, an analysis of development projects in the justice sector, and finally semi-structured interviews with key individuals in …

Rebuilding Distressed Regions: Problem Diagnosis And Tracking, Randall W. Eberts

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Contribution Of Highway Investment To National Economic Growth: Comments On Mamuneas’S Study, Randall W. Eberts

Reports

This paper reviews and summarizes current literature by Theofanis P. Mamuneas (2008) and Mamuneas with M. Ishaq Nadiri (2003) on the returns to highway investments. This paper first provides an overview of the conceptual relationship between highways and output. The next section describes the highway capital stock estimated by Fraumeni and used by Mamuneas. Next, the paper describes the study conducted by Mamuneas and analyzes the results for consistency within the modeling framework and in context with other studies. The paper then briefly summarizes the broad range of estimates from the literature to offer additional context. Finally, the paper offers …