Economic Policy Commons^™

Central Bank Nigeria Annual Report And Statement Of Accounts For The Year Ended 31st December, 2009, Central Bank Of Nigeria

CBN Annual Report

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the Year Ended 31st December, 2009 revealed that the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 6.7% YoY, compared to 6.0% in the previous year. This growth was driven by the non-oil sector, with the non-oil GDP growth rate of 8.3%. Within the non-oil sector, the agricultural sub-sector grew by 6.2%, while the whole-sector and retail sectors recorded growth rates of 11.5 and 10.5 per cent, respectively. The robust output recorded during the previous three years was driven by the government's optimism, which reflected in the oil …

Washington Pension System Review, H. Allan Hunt

Testimonies

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Chains: A Dissection Of The Caribbean's Tourism Mirage, Megan Nellis

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Ict Usage In Microfinance Institutions In Uganda, Joseph Kaumba Ssewanyana

The African Journal of Information Systems

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are always often faced with high operating costs to provide financial services to the poor people and Small and Medium Enterprises. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been found to promote the dual objective of microfinance - sustainability and outreach to the poor people. Using a quantitative survey and descriptive research approach, this paper has established the extent to which ICT has been used in the microfinance institutions in Uganda. Despite the barriers, ICT usage in MFIs has been on the rise; and different applications and technologies have been adopted by some MFIs to control costs, create …

Nurturing America's Growth In The Global Marketplace Through Talent Development: An Interim Report On The Evaluation Of Generations Ii And Iii Of Wired, Nancy Hewat, Kevin Hollenbeck

Reports

This is the first report from the evaluation of Generations II and III of the Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development Initiative. This interim report presents baseline information from all 26 regions. It reflects the status of regional activities as of the summer of 2008, when many regions were in the initial stage of implementation. Thus, the report focuses on the development of partnerships, governance arrangements, and the design of decision-making processes. In early 2006, ETA announced the initial recipients of grants to promote regional collaboration of a wide range of public and private organizations with the goal of transforming …

The Knowledge Problem Of New Paternalism, Mario J. Rizzo, Douglas Glen Whitman

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Should The Economic Crisis Change Our Assessment Of Markets And Government?, Clifford Winston

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Broad Objectives of the Study:
- Base policy debates on empirical counterfactual evidence.
- Begin accumulating evidence and identifying common themes so we don’t have to start from “square one.”
- Provide guidance for policymakers.

A New Kind Of Middle Man: Looking At Fair Trade In Nepal, Julia Wilber

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The discipline of Development studies has gone through an evolution of changes in its relatively short time in existence. It has, among other things, left a legacy of vocabulary that is used to define many international interactions. Ideas of the colonizing first world juxtaposed against the colonized third world have given way to notions of an industrialized West and North comprised of developed nations and a backwards East and South made up of developing countries. Colonialism in the age of Imperialism left power and economic disparities across the world. The trends of colonial empires where the colonizer benefited from the …

Cool Head, Warm Heart: Governance And The Mission Of Microfinance In The Case Of Mc2 Micro-Banks, Cameroon, Claire Ruffing

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The concept of a cool head and a warm heart co-existing is a Buddhist principle which attempts to illustrate compassion and pragmatism as mutually compatible, not mutually exclusive. Without intelligent management, compassion is lost in its ineffectiveness, and without compassion, intelligence is purposeless reason. This equilibrium is exactly the vision of microfinance that drives this paper: an important social and moral idea that is nevertheless affected by the world and environment in which it operates. By examining the governance mechanisms affecting microfinance in Cameroon, namely the Ministry of Finance and the management structure of the firms themselves, an idea emerges …

October Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

The Women's Crusade. By Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The New York Review of Books. August 17, 2009.

State Of The States 2009: Renewable Energy Development And The Role Of Policy, Elizabeth Doris, Joyce Mclaren, Victoria Healey, Stephen Hockett

Publications (E)

As U.S. states increasingly focus on developing renewable energy resources, there is a need to track the progress of development, as well as the policies and support mechanisms being implemented to encourage this development. Beyond tracking, the evaluation of policy measures is necessary to determine their effectiveness, guide future efforts, and efficiently allocate resources. This report addresses each of these needs. It provides a detailed picture of the status of renewable energy development in each of the U.S. states using a variety of metrics and discusses the policies being used to encourage this development. The report then explores the context …

A Few Drops Of Oil Will Not Be Enough, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn provide a rich description of the various kinds of violence, deprivation, depredation and exploitation that women experience on a vast scale in the developing world. They write of sex trafficking, acid attacks, “bride burning,” enslavement, spousal beatings, unequal healthcare (something the USA still struggles with), insufficient food, gendered abortions and infant and maternal mortality. They are right to identify the education of women and girls as part of the solution to the widespread “gendercide.” However, their approach focuses too much on the capacity, indeed the virtue or heroism, of individual women. It does not take …

From Outrage To Action, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Kristof and WuDunn provide a vivid panoramic view of problems faced by women (primarily in the “developing” world), what has been done and what more could be done to help them achieve dignity and autonomy in their lives, and how vindication of their rights could contribute to the broader social development of their societies. In this they provide us with important insights into how human rights might be effectively proclaimed and successfully implemented. In reviewing their considerable contributions, I shall also suggest some limitations on both their analysis and their policy recommendations.

The Future Of The Oecd, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is one of the least written about and least understood of our major global institutions. This new book builds a well-rounded understanding of this crucial, though often neglected, institution, with a range of clearly written chapters that:

• outline its origins and evolution, bringing its story fully up-to-date

• present a clear framework for understanding the OECD

• set the institution within the broader context of global governance

• outline key criticisms and debates

• evaluate its future prospects.

Given the immense challenges facing humanity at the start of the 21st century, the need for the OECD …

Roundtable: Building The Clean-Energy Economy: Part B, Neal Smatresk, Harry Reid, Al Gore, John D. Podesta

National Clean Energy Summit

Moderator: Tim Wirth, Former Colorado Senator, United Nations Foundation

On The Battleground Of Environmental And Competition Policy: The Renewable Electricity Market, Matyas Tamas Meszaros

Dissertations

Renewable energy resources have become increasingly important in the effort to provide energy security and to fight global warming. In the last decade environmental policy has increased the support for renewable electricity. At the same time the electricity sector was often subject to antitrust investigation because of relevant market concentration and market power. This dissertation looks at the renewable electricity market to analyze the effect of environmental policy on competition.

The first chapter provides a short introduction to the regulatory schemes employed in electricity markets. The second chapter analyzes the demand side of the electricity market. The estimations show that …

Us Foreign Trade Zones As The Secret Lover: Is Uncle Sam Faithful To Tariff Elimination?, Richard J. Smith

Social Work Faculty Publications

For centuries the nations and principalities of the world have engaged in trading schemes to boost exports. Conquest, protection of domestic supply through tariffs and eroding domestic currency are all part of the historic policy harem. The United States has a foreign trade zone program. Who knew? FTZs evoke images of women locked inside a dark sweatshop in a jungle making hoodies for football fans. While these "developing" countries have unambiguously embraced FTZs as an export strategy, Uncle Sam has played the unwilling suitor to the concept, making the FTZ a common law revealed preference while engaged with but not …

Are Credit Unions In Ecuador Achieving Economies Of Scale?, Nick A. Marchio

Economics Honors Projects

This study tests the assertion that membership growth in credit unions is constrained by their unique structural features, such as their non-profit mission and member-based ownership. Although these features enhance inclusiveness, existing theory suggest that they work against efficiency when membership grows too diffuse. To address this issue, this study uses a model that takes into account existing theory on constrained-optimization in credit unions and theory on the adverse effects of diffuse ownership. Using data on 36 public credit unions in Ecuador, the empirical analysis finds evidence that credit unions can achieve economies of scale despite their problematic structural features. …

Unaffordable “Affordable” Housing: Challenging The U.S. Department Of Housing And Urban Development Area Median Income, Michael E. Stone

Center for Social Policy Publications

There is no such thing as “affordable” housing. Affordability is not a characteristic of housing: It is a relationship between housing and people. For some people, all housing is affordable, no matter how expensive. For others, no housing is affordable, no matter how cheap.

Ethics, Evidence And International Debt, Julie A. Nelson

Economics Faculty Publication Series

The assumption that contracts are largely impersonal, rational, voluntary agreements drawn up between self-interested individual agents is a convenient fiction, necessary for analysis using conventional economic methods. Papers prepared for a recent conference on ethics and international debt were shaped by just such an assumption. The adequacy of this approach is, however, challenged by evidence about who is affected by international debt, how contracts are actually made and followed, the behavior of actors in financial markets, and the motivations of scholars themselves. This essay uses insights from feminist and relational scholarship from several disciplines to analyze the reasons for this …

The Microeconomic Impacts Of E-Business On The Economy, James Prieger, Daniel Heil

School of Public Policy Working Papers

The adoption of e-business at the microeconomic level of retail, wholesale, and labor market transactions has an enormous impact on the performance of firms and the economic welfare of consumers and workers. This article reviews, in broad outlines, the economics of e-business, focusing on empirical research. The fundamental notion that e-business and adoption of ICT lowers the cost of transferring, storing, and processing in-formation is used to organize the examination. E-business spheres of impact covered include B2C and B2B e-commerce, the labor market, and the productivity of firms. This article covers both the predicted impacts of e-business on the economy …

The Macroeconomic Impacts Of E-Business On The Economy, James Prieger, Daniel Heil

School of Public Policy Working Papers

The growing use of information and communications technology (ICT) by business—e-business—profoundly affects the economy. This article covers some of the macroeconomic impacts of e-business. Evidence from empirical studies examining the impact that greater use of ICT by business has on productivity and national economic growth is presented, along with discussion of how e-business changes the volatility and complicates measurement of growth. E-business can bring down inflation, but also exacerbates some monetary and fiscal policy challenges, and raises new ones. While e-payments and e-money can complicate monetary policy and may alter its goals, little effect has been seen to date. Sales …

Taxing Under The Influence? : Corruption And U.S. State Beer Taxes, Per G. Fredriksson, Stephan Gohmann, Khawaja Mamun

WCBT Faculty Publications

This article examines the effect of state level corruption on state beer taxes in the United States. Our lobby group model predicts that corruption reduces the beer tax, but this effect is conditional on the level of alcohol-related vehicle deaths. Using a panel of state level data from 1982 to 2001, we find that increased corruption is associated with lower state beer tax rates. The magnitude of the effect, however, declines with increases in alcohol-related traffic deaths. Our findings suggest that future empirical work estimating the effect of alcohol taxes on alcohol-related traffic fatalities should treat alcohol taxes as endogenous.

The U.S. Economic Crisis: Another "Lost Decade"?, Paula Chungsathaporn

Honors College Theses

America is experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression originating with problems from mortgage backed securities and seeping into every major sector in the economy. We have witnessed the downfall or government takeover of some of the most powerful companies in the country, contributing to the highest unemployment rate America has seen in decades. During the 1990s, Japan experienced what is commonly referred to as “the lost decade,” a period of prolonged stagnant growth. Many similarities can be drawn between the current U.S. crisis and the Japanese crisis of the late 90s. The macroeconomic conditions that caused the …

The Dilemma Of Government-Sponsored Enterprises: The Case For Reassessing Government Accountability, Jack P. Branum

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of The Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Public Administration by Jack P. Branum on April 19, 2009.

Minnesota Mandates: County Government Fiscal Stress In An Era Of Declining State Support, Selena Krueth

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Minnesota counties are experiencing more than just financial burdens from state mandates these days. Counties and local governments currently are seeking the most effective solution of implementing state mandates; leaving behind the argument of no mandates without funding to "give us mandates that work". In my analysis I combined county budgetary and demographic data, with phone survey data gathered from Minnesota counties. I anticipate results that will show a wide variety in county administrator attitudes towards state mandates and varying local capacity to meet them. Costly state mandates, such as health services, and large county populations have proven significant in …

Life Is Unfair In Latin America, But Does It Matter For Growth?, Luisa Blanco

School of Public Policy Working Papers

I analyze the effect of inequality on economic growth in Latin America, where inequality is measured as the area of family farms as a percentage of the total area of agricultural holdings. Using data from 18 Latin American countries between 1960 and 2004, I find that inequality has a nonlinear effect on economic growth. Overall, for the countries included in this analysis, the share of family farms has a positive significant effect on economic growth. These findings are robust to controlling for several factors, using a different indicator of inequality (land Gini), and addressing for endogeneity.

Economic Impacts Of The Proposed Maine Power Reliability Project, Charles S. Colgan

Economic Impact Analysis

Central Maine Power Company (CMP) proposes to invest in a significant upgrade to much of its high voltage transmission system in central and southern Maine in order to increase reliability in the future and to meet Federal standards for the nation’s electricity grid. The project, known as the Maine Power Reliability Program (MPRP) is expected to cost an estimated $1.5 billion and to be implemented over the four year period from 2009 to 2012.

Large construction projects such as MPRP typically have a different type of impact on the economy than, for example, a new manufacturing plant. Construction and related …

Neoliberal Instrument Choice, David M. Driesen

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This book chapter reviews the influence on economic thought about instrument choice and its influence upon United States climate change policy. It shows that the theory of instrument choice made a positive contribution to the United States policy arsenal by emphasizing the cost effectiveness advantages of emissions trading. But because of an ideological climate uncritically supportive of free markets prevailed during the period of U.S. failure to address climate change, the United States favored overly broad trading programs, both in terms of geography and scope. This posture had a large influence on the Kyoto Protocol, leading the world to adopt …

Toward Sustainable Technology, David M. Driesen

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This paper offers suggestions for climate change policies advancing technological changes necessary for sustainable development. It first explains why relentless pursuit of cost effectiveness through broad environmental benefit trading does not maximize long term technological advancement and explores options for narrowing trading's design. It then explores two alternatives to Kyoto style trading to show how a goal of creating a positive long term economic dynamic