Growth and Development Commons^™

Issues In The Analysis Of Inequality, Michael R. Smith

Population Change and Lifecourse Strategic Knowledge Cluster Discussion Paper Series/ Un Réseau stratégique de connaissances Changements de population et parcours de vie Document de travail

In spite of data and methodological challenges, research has largely reached the conclusion that earnings inequality has risen in Canada, the US and elsewhere, and that the rise has been mainly driven by large increases at the top of the earnings distribution. Researchers offer two competing explanations for causes of the rising inequality: (1) innovations in information and communication technologies, and (2) institutional changes such as the freezing of the minimum wage, decline in unionization, and the spread of performance-related pay increases. Inequality is influenced by changes in population composition, specifically, the size of cohorts entering the labour market, and …

Asset Ownership And The Probability Of Repayment: An Examination Of Microcredit Data From Bangladesh, Roger White, Shamma Adeeb Alam

Economics

Employing data for 34,255 loans made by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) to 12,455 repeat borrowers during the 2002-6 period, this article examines the relationship between borrowers’ asset holdings and microloan repayment. Estimating a series of binomial probit specifications, it finds a positive relationship between land ownership and loan repayment; however, taken collectively, ownership of non-land assets diminishes the likelihood of repayment. Influences of specific assets on repayment probabilities vary across asset types: ownership of land, corrugated tin houses, vans and rickshaws increases the likelihood of repayment, while ownership of sewing machines, televisions, radios and bicycles corresponds with a …

The Potential Of Youth Savings Accounts In Three East African Countries: Kenya, Tanzania, And Uganda, Njeri Kagotho, Proscovia Nabunya, Fred Ssewamala, Vilma Ilic

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores the potential of expanding a youth-focused asset-based intervention program for poor communities heavily affected by HIV and AIDS-currently underway in one East African country, Uganda-into similar communities in the other two East African countries: Kenya and Tanzania. This concept paper is informed by prior work on youth-focused asset-based programs first proposed in the United States of America and now successfully implemented in Uganda (Ssewamala, 2008; Ssewamala, Alicea, Bannon, & Ismayilova, 2008; Ssewamala & Ismayilova, 2008, 2009) and grounded in an asset-based development theoretical framework, which denotes an integrated approach to human, social, and economic capital development (Sherraden, …

Institutional Distance And Entry Mode: How Do Emerging-Market Multinational Companies Overcome Competitive Disadvantages In A Developed Market?, Ru-Shiun Liou

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As latecomers to global business competition, emerging-market multinational companies (EMNCs) utilize cross-border merger and acquisitions to swiftly acquire strategic assets, such as brands and distribution channels, compensating for their competency deficiency. Developed markets with well-established firms and well-developed market-supporting institutions become important destinations for EMNCs' strategic asset-seeking investments. Institutional distance, national differences in the institutional environment, constitutes a major source of competitive disadvantage for foreign firms competing with indigenous firms. Foreign firms need to overcome the challenges of unfamiliarity, relational, and discriminatory hazards to establish legitimacy in the host market. Compared to established multinationals that originate from other advanced markets …

Social Entrepreneurship: The Ideal Business For Humanity And The Economy, Maya D. Horgan

Pomona Senior Theses

This essay argues that social entrepreneurship is the most efficient means to generate lasting social change and permanently reduce poverty. Using the support of scholarly research, interviews with experts in the field, and my own qualitative observations, I conclude that traditional aid models that are economically dependent on outside funding, as well as those that simply provide monetary and product contributions in order to sustain the poor or marginalized communities they serve are inherently structured in a way that prevents them from resolving social ills. Despite the influx of aid organizations over past decades, chronic poverty and other serious social …

Land Management, U.S. Bureau Of, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview and current assessment of the role played by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management in its ownership of federal lands in western states and its efforts to balance economic development of natural resources and conservation of these resources on these lands.

Army Corps Of Engineers, U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has influenced historical and contemporary economic, environmental, and political developments in the American West.

Hydroelectric Power, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview and contemporary analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of federal government support for hydroelectric power in the American West.

Results Of The 2013 Good To Go Commuter Challenge Impact Survey, Mike Mccurdy, Tyler Curtis

Community Project Design and Management Reports - Sociology

This report contains results of an impact study of previous participants of the Good To Go Commuter Challenge in McLean County, IL. The survey was designed to gauge the impact of the 2011 and 2012 Good To Go Commuter Challenges in promoting year-round sustainable commuting among Challenge participants.

221 surveys were completed out of possible 1077 user registrations on the Good To Go online registration tool, a response rate of 20.5%. Results revealed that the Challenge appears to be successful in at least modest travel behavior change by participants.

Overall, 40.4% of respondents increased the frequency in which they chose …

Fair Trade An Analysis Of The Effects On Poverty Alleviation And Empowerment For Women In Developing Countries, Maribel Concepcion Lora

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This thesis approaches the economic development model of Fair Trade with a critical analysis on determining its success in alleviating poverty and empowering women of the developing world. Because international labor regulations are not consistently enforced in all producer countries, the Fair Trade model has established labor standards that ensure above all, a fair wage and safe working conditions for producers participating in the international market. As a recent strategy of economic development, Fair Trade has made great strides to empower poor producers in impoverished countries; however there has been limited analysis focused on its impact for improving the quality …

Initial Public Offerings In The Microfinance Industry: Does A Mission Drift Occur?, Sarah Segill

Honors Projects in Finance

This thesis analyzes whether or not there is a mission drift when microfinance organizations become publicly traded entities. One of the most debated criticisms of microfinance institutions (MFIs) today involves becoming for-profit organizations in attempt to raise more capital. Donor funding is limited for non-profit organizations and does not give an MFI much room to grow to serve a maximal number of people. The entry of for-profit microfinance institutions has a great deal of possibility in terms of generating scale, efficiency and innovation. Yet these for-profit institutions can easily lose track of their social mission to serve the poor and …

Cohesion Policy Of The European Union: Facilitated By Supranational Institutions And Regional Autonomy Or Hindered By National Sovereignty?, Caitlin Daw

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Government Policies On Access To Broadband, James Prieger

School of Public Policy Working Papers

With a new focus for federal universal service programs on broadband and the NTIA BTOP funding for broadband adoption projects, recent years have been “exciting times” for those interested in broadband policy aimed at stimulating adoption. While most of the recent programs are still too new to be evaluated rigorously, lessons from older academic study can inform our expectations and lend guidance toward evaluating program success. In this brief work, I review what we know from the last decade and a half of literature on the impact of regulation on broadband adoption, discuss the (mostly woeful) attempts at evaluating adoption …

Inclusive Business: Using For-Profit Business Models To Address Global Poverty, Samuel James Conner

Senior Honors Theses

Due to the rise of globalization, modernization, and the Internet revolution, awareness of global poverty has expanded, making its eradication a chief goal of the global development community for the twenty-first century. Though corporations are often expected to participate in social and community development initiatives without regard for profits, this paper presents inclusive business as a way for businesses to profitably engage impoverished segments of society. Inclusive businesses seek to expand their consumer bases or strengthen their supply chains by moving into new markets among the poor that have limited access to global markets and remain largely untapped. The research …

Incentives And Improved Economic Conditions: A Field Experiment In Medellin, Colombia, Lauren Skora

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

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 for achieved results. We enrolled close to 200 small business owners in four experimental treatments (group, no-group, incentives, no-incentives) and a fifth external control group. The experimental data shows that incentives have the strongest overall impact in improving the likelihood of goal achievement and economic performance. Furthermore, the interaction of goal setting, groups, …

Inconvenient Truth About Boise Public Transportation, Benjamin Case, Kellen Hill, Lexy Leahy, Morgan Porter, Jesse Sonoda

College of Business and Economics Poster Presentations

The Boise-Nampa metropolitan area is growing rapidly, and its transportation system must expand to account for this growth. However, in order for a public transportation system to be effective, citizens must have both the ability and the incentive to make use of it. Our research will focus on the demand for public transit in the Boise-Nampa metropolitan area. First, we will determine current ridership on the existing public transit system, frequency of use, reasons for using mass transit over other alternative modes of transportation, and what attributes of the system make it an attractive option. Next, we will determine what …

Upham’S Corner Main Street: Developing Ideas For Promoting Arts And Businesses In Upham’S Corner, Werner Kunz, Barbara Lewis, Upham's Corner Main Street

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Dorchester’s Upham’s Corner neighborhood is home to a diverse mix of neighborhood residents, many historical landmarks, and a commercial district. At one point, Upham’s Corner was one of the top five market hubs for New England. It was because of this market history that the Strand Theater was built as a community home, as a community connection, and as a network. UMass Boston’s College of Management undergraduate students have developed ideas for promoting the arts and bringing businesses to the Upham’s Corner neighborhood. Assistant Professor of Marketing, Werner Kunz, coordinated the project with students in his “Services Marketing” class to …

The Effect Of Foreign Direct Investment On Economic Growth And Its Implications, Mark Tolley '13

Honor Scholar Theses

My thesis paper examines whether or not foreign direct investment promotes economic growth in the host country. Looking into a prior study, by Li and Liu (2005), they found that FDI does spur growth; however, there has been contrasting studies that show that FDI has a negative effect on host country’s growth. I argue that, after researching conflicting arguments, foreign direct investment is correlated to positive economic growth. My econometric model takes a panel data set from 82 different countries from 1970-2011. The growth model concludes that FDI does promote positive economic growth. This is significant because it confirms my …

Support For Suburban Growth Management: Lessons From Loudoun County, Virginia, Sidney Turner, Edmund Zolnik, Debasree Das Gupta

Suburban Sustainability

A multilevel approach is adopted to analyze how individual-level and community-level predictors interact to affect support for a specific growth management instrument. The multilevel model specification controls for respondent’s perceptions of local government’s general efficacy in managing growth and local growth rates. Results suggest that support for a specific growth management instrument increases amongst residents who generally support local government efforts to management growth and who live in high-growth communities. The implication is that policymakers who wish to foster support for specific growth instruments ought to target residents who generally support local government’s efforts to manage growth and who live …

Development Narratives: How Rwandans Perceive, Re-Make, And Re-Imagine Themselves Within And Without Government Development Programs, Katy Lindquist

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Rwanda is currently pursuing an ambitious development agenda that already has led to impressive results. The government has created many development programs that are aimed at poverty eradication and urban development in Kigali including housing regulations, cooperatives, and access to loans. However, how are these programs translated into the daily life of Rwandans who operate within the lower economic strata of Kigali? Who get’s to participate in these programs and who doesn’t? Through a month of ethnographic research in markets, umudugudus, and small businesses I gathered different narratives of development in Kigali. What I discovered was small lines of exclusion …