who governs energy the challenges facing global energy governance this article conceptualizes the energy problems facing society from a global governance perspective it argues that a notion of global energy governance taken to mean international collective action efforts undertaken to manage and distribute energy resources and provide energy services offers a meaningful and useful framework for assessing energy related challenges the article begins by exploring the concepts of governance global governance and global energy governance it then examines some of the existing institutions in place to establish and carry out rules and norms governing global energy problems and describes the range of institutional design options available to policymakers it briefly traces the role of a selection of these institutions from inter governmental organizations to summit processes to multilateral development banks to global action networks in responding to energy issues and points out their strengths and weaknesses the article concludes by analyzing how the various approaches to global governance differ in their applicability to addressing the conundrums of global energy problems

methods of pay and earnings a longitudinal analysis using data from the national longitudinal survey of youth 1988 90 the author investigates the relationship between methods of pay including piece rates and bonuses and the level and variance of wages among men piece rate workers earned a premium compared to other workers but the evidence on bonuses is mixed the author finds evidence that female piece rate workers earned more than other female workers once a control variable for the presence of dependents is interacted with the piece rate variable with controls for the wage effects of schooling and experience unobserved worker productivity is found to have accounted for most of the wage variance among both male and female piece rate workers wage variance among workers not having explicit pay for performance schemes in contrast was predominantly due to other factors

trading with conditions the effect of sanitary and phytosanitary measures on the agricultural exports from low income countries market access for agricultural products is increasingly determined by capability to comply with a wide array of regulatory measures from a trade perspective one of the most important aspects of such regulatory measures is their potential distortionary effect as their cost of compliance is often asymmetrical across countries this paper investigates the effect of the european union s sanitary and phytosanitary sps measures on the exports from low income countries this study finds that sps measures result in relatively higher burden for low income countries but that membership in deep trade agreements seems to reduce the difficulties related to compliance with sps measures these results are consistent with the hypothesis that while many middle and high income countries have the internal capacity to comply with sps measures most low income countries do not

targeting energy justice exploring spatial racial ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in urban residential heating energy efficiency abstract fuel poverty the inability of households to afford adequate energy services such as heating is a major energy justice concern increasing residential energy efficiency is a strategic fuel poverty intervention however the absence of easily accessible household energy data impedes effective targeting of energy efficiency programs this paper uses publicly available data bottom up modeling and small area estimation techniques to predict the mean census block group residential heating energy use intensity eui an energy efficiency proxy in kansas city missouri results mapped using geographic information systems gis and statistical analysis show disparities in the relationship between heating eui and spatial racial ethnic and socioeconomic block group characteristics block groups with lower median incomes a greater percentage of households below poverty a greater percentage of racial ethnic minority headed households and a larger percentage of adults with less than a high school education were on average less energy efficient higher euis results also imply that racial segregation which continues to influence urban housing choices exposes black and hispanic households to increased fuel poverty vulnerability lastly the spatial concentration and demographics of vulnerable block groups suggest proactive area and community based targeting of energy efficiency assistance programs may be more effective than existing self referral approaches

sex discrimination in labor markets the role of statistical evidence comment in a recent article in this review kuhn 1987 peter kuhn seeks to assess the relative importance of statistical and other types of evidence in determining women s perceived level of discrimination the author s point of departure is what he characterizes as a surprising relationship he finds a robust but statistically insignificant negative correlation between the conventional measure of salary discrimination statistical evidence in kuhn s terminology facing a female worker and the probability that the worker will report discrimination on a confidential survey in other words workers facing higher levels of measured salary discrimination are less likely to perceive discrimination kuhn explains this finding by hypothesizing the existence of some other evidence 4nonstatistical evidence which in addition to the salary differential leads women to recognize and report sex discrimination in their employment if the quantity of nonstatistical evidence is low according to kuhn women may not report discrimination even if the statistically measured salary differential is large kuhn assumes that the quantity of nonstatistical evidence which is observed by the worker but not the researcher is a function of the worker s observed human capital characteristics finally kuhn evaluates the effect of the nonstatistical evidence using the worker s observed characteristics as a proxy for the unobserved nonstatistical evidence according to kuhn s findings the unobserved variable is a more important determinant of the worker s decision to report discrimination than is the level of statistically measured wage discrimination kuhn uses these results to question the importance of recent supreme court decisions allowing statistical measures of discrimination to be admitted into evidence in civil sex discrimination suits as he concludes that such evidence is not the primary factor influencing workers reporting behavior allowing these measures to be presented in court should not lead to a large increase in litigation in this comment we argue that kuhn s result that workers facing a high level of measured discrimination are less likely to report the discrimination may be explained by incorporating the quality of information employers preferences and the costs of discrimination into the model we derive conditions under which the negative correlation between measured and reported salary discrimination may be seen as the result of a rational balancing by employers of the benefits and costs of discrimination briefly employers are more likely to discriminate when employees have less accurate information and the probability of reporting and hence detection is low we also offer statistical evidence from the academic labor market to illustrate this alternative hypothesis

private agri food standards implications for food policy and the agri food system abstract this paper provides a brief introduction to the evolution and nature of private food safety and quality standards highlighting the resultant impacts on the structure and modus operandi of supply chains for agricultural and food products and the challenges posed for processes of agricultural development it serves as an introduction to a series of papers that provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge regarding private food safety and quality standards in both an industrialised and developing country context in so doing it aims to provide a catalyst for further research on this rapidly evolving field of inquiry

impact assessment methodologies for microfinance theory experience and better practice abstract microfinance programs and institutions are increasingly important in development strategies but knowledge about their impacts is partial and contested this paper reviews the methodological options for the impact assessment ia of microfinance following a discussion of the varying objectives of ia it examines the choice of conceptual frameworks and presents three paradigms of impact assessment the scientific method the humanities tradition and participatory learning and action pla key issues and lessons in the practice of microfinance ias are then explored and it is argued that the central issue in ia design is how to combine different methodological approaches so that a fit is achieved between ia objectives program context and the constraints of ia costs human resources and timing the conclusion argues for a greater focus on internal impact monitoring by microfinance institutions

the response of worker effort to piece rates we measure the elasticity of worker effort with respect to changes in the piece rate using panel data collected from the payroll records of a british columbia tree planting firm our data contain information on daily worker productivity and the piece rate received over a five month period using a structural model to control for the endogeneity of the piece rate we estimate this elasticity to be approximately 2 14 we also calculate a nonstructural lower bound to this elasticity equal to 0 77 structural estimation also allows us to perform policy experiments and to compare firm profits under alternative compensation systems our results suggest that profits would increase by at least 17 percent were the firm to implement the optimal static contract as predicted by principal agent theory this increase in profits would be due to capturing worker rents after the revelation of private information over ability yet only a negligible proportion of these rents could be captured while inducing workers to reveal ability truthfully suggesting that dynamic considerations were important in determining the firm s actual choice of contract

risk aversion and credit constraints in farmers decision making a reinterpretation in 1976 the agricultural development council sponsored a conference on risk uncertainty and agricultural development which has been summarised in a volume edited by james roumasset jean marc boussard and inderjit singh 1979 the volume provides an excellent review of the state of the art at that time however as discussed in the summary chapters of that volume there were few theoretical empirical or policy issues on which clear conclusions could be reached on the basis of knowledge then available in the intervening years progress has been made on a number of issues as a result of both empirical investigations and theoretical advances this paper concentrates on advances which have relevance to the controversy about the relative roles of risk aversion and credit constraints in limiting farmers investment levels especially for purchased inputs such as seeds or fertilizers in particular we review recent experimental studies on the extent of risk aversion among farmer populations in developing

subjective performance measures in optimal incentive contracts objective measures of performance are seldom perfect in response incentive contracts often include important subjective components that mitigate incentive distortions caused by imperfect objective measures this paper explores the combined use of subjective and objective performance measures in respectively implicit and explicit incentive contracts naturally objective and subjective measures often are substitutes sometimes strikingly so we show that if objective measures are sufficiently close to perfect then no implicit contracts are feasible because the firm s fallback position after reneging on an implicit contract is too attractive we also show however that objective and subjective measures can reinforce each other if objective measures become more accurate then in some circumstances the optimal contract puts more weight on subjective measures because the improved objective measures increase the value of the ongoing relationship and so reduce the firm s incentive to renege we also analyze the use of subjective weights on objective performance measures and provide case study evidence consistent with our analyses

food standards are good for middle class farmers we estimate the causal effect of food standards on vietnamese pangasius farmers wellbeing measured by per capita consumption expenditure we estimate both the average effects and the local average treatment effects on poorer and richer farmers by instrumental variable quantile regression our results indicate that large returns can be accrued from food standards but only for the upper middle class farmers i e those between the 50 and 85 quantiles of the expenditure distribution overall our result points to an exclusionary impact of standards for the poorest farmers while the richest do not apply standards because the added gain is too small

microcredit and the poorest of the poor theory and evidence from bolivia abstract we construct a theoretical framework that describes the social worth of a microfinance organization in terms of the depth worth to users cost to users breadth length and scope of its output we then analyze evidence of depth of outreach for five microfinance organizations in bolivia most of the poor households reached by the microfinance organizations were near the poverty line they were the richest of the poor group lenders had more depth of outreach than individual lenders the urban poorest were more likely to be borrowers but rural borrowers were more likely to be among the poorest

incentives for helping on the job theory and evidence recent advances in incentive theory stress the multidimensional nature of agent effort and specifically cases where workers affect one anothers performance through helping efforts this article models helping efforts as determined by the compensation package and task allocation the model is tested with australian evidence on reported helping efforts within work groups the evidence consistently supports the hypothesis that helping efforts are reduced while individual efforts are increased when promotion incentives are strong piece rates and profit sharing appear to have little effect on helping efforts while task variety and helping efforts are positively correlated

sex discrimination in labor markets the role of statistical evidence reply correlations between statistically measured wage discrimination and confidential survey reports of discrimination are used to estimate the relative importance of statistical evidence in determining womens self assessed discrimination levels statistical evidence is found to be considerably less important than other nonstatistical evidence assuming courts weigh statistical versus other evidence as individuals do the effects of making statistical evidence admissible are calculated young well educated women are predicted to be the main beneficiaries of this policy copyright 1987 by american economic association

sex discrimination and women s labor market outcomes the human capital explanation of sex differences in wages is that owing to specialization in household production women intend to work in the labor market more intermittently than men and therefore invest less leading to lower wage growth an alternative feedback hypothesis is that women experience labor market discrimination and respond with career interruptions less investment and lower wage growth this paper explores the relationship between self reported discrimination and subsequent labor market outcomes to test this alternative hypothesis some of the evidence is consistent with the feedback hypothesis working women who report discrimination are more likely subsequently to change employers to have children and to marry however the evidence is not consistent with the two implications of the feedback hypothesis that most directly challenge the human capital explanation of sex differences in wages women who report discrimination do not accumulate less experience nor do they have lower wage growth

china s nuclear export drive trojan horse or marshall plan abstract china s civil nuclear industry expanded strongly from 2008 onwards and nearly half of reactor construction starts worldwide since then are accounted for by the chinese home market increasingly china is turning its attention to the export market using its own designs which it claims emulate the safety standards of the latest designs of the established nuclear reactor vendors its export efforts would be greatly strengthened if it were to win an order from an established user of nuclear power and its best opportunity appears to be the uk where it is at the early stages of negotiating the construction of nuclear reactors the financial collapse of the french nuclear company areva gives it the opportunity to take a stake in the rescued companies giving it access to important fuel cycle technologies and perhaps the large french reactor service market its other export prospects in europe are in romania and turkey there are a number of issues european governments need to examine before committing to allow in chinese nuclear companies these include national security concerns about dependence on china for key infrastructure issues of quality control and regulatory competence and the lack of construction experience with china s modern reactor designs

september 11th and the earnings of muslims in germany the moderating role of education and firm size abstract while available evidence suggests that the events of september 11th negatively influenced the relative earnings of employees with arab background in the us it is not clear that they had similar effects in other countries our study for germany provides evidence that the events also affected the relative earnings of muslims outside the us however the results show that there was no uniform effect on all types of muslims across all types of firms accounting for moderating factors a significantly negative effect can primarily be found for low skilled muslims employed in small and medium sized firms this conforms to theoretical expectations moreover we demonstrate that defining appropriate treatment and control groups is crucial for identifying the effects

racial earnings differentials and performance pay this paper presents an information model in which workers receiving output based pay experience less racial earnings discrimination than those receiving time rates and supervisory evaluations tests using the national longitudinal survey of youth reveal no racial wage differential among male workers paid output based pay while confirming a significant differential among those paid time rates in addition the racial wage differential among those receiving bonus pay usually based on supervisory evaluations tends to be larger than for those not receiving such bonuses while both racial earnings differences and payment methods have generated enormous literatures the two subjects rarely interact this paper argues that the observed racial earnings gap should be narrower among those receiving output based pay such as piece rates and commissions when discriminating in earnings the intensity of racial preferences must be greater when an owner or manager confronts a standardized measure of productivity than when effort is subjectively evaluated and those evaluations are used to set earnings more important use of a standardized measure of productivity makes the practice of discrimination more transparent and this improved information increases the probability of detection the increased probability of detection raises the expected cost of racial discrimination and should be associated with a reduction in its extent our empirical estimates confirm that output based pay is associated with reduced racial earnings discrimination

chinese investments in europe s energy sector risks and opportunities abstract this paper analyses recent trends in chinese investment in the european energy sector these investments have increased in size targeted a wider number of countries and entered multiple energy sectors in particular fossil renewable energies and energy infrastructure we highlight the significant opportunities for as well as the political and economic risks of chinese investments in the european energy sector on the one hand the benefits can be substantial as china s new role as a global investor offers substantial economic benefits and political partnership further benefits might potentially emerge from backward linkages of chinese investments to improve access to china s restricted markets yet our findings also point to growing concerns among policymakers and business managers in europe ranging from worries about unfair competition and economic risks to concerns about national security we conclude with policy recommendations for the european union and its member states

toward a new conception of the environment competitiveness relationship accepting a fixed trade off between environmental regulation and competitiveness unnecessarily raises costs and slows down environmental progress studies finding high environmental compliance costs have traditionally focused on static cost impacts ignoring any offsetting productivity benefits from innovation they typically overestimated compliance costs neglected innovation offsets and disregarded the affected industry s initial competitiveness rather than simply adding to cost properly crafted environmental standards can trigger innovation offsets allowing companies to improve their resource productivity shifting the debate from pollution control to pollution prevention was a step forward it is now necessary to make the next step and focus on resource productivity

subnational climate justice adaptation finance distribution and climate vulnerability summary this article investigates subnational adaptation finance distribution within malawi malawi is highly climate vulnerable and a significant per capita recipient of adaptation finance this empirical study models distribution dynamics through need climate vulnerability and government interest patronage results indicate those areas most in need receive relatively little finance rather donor utility and the ability to absorb capital offer the most persuasive explanations for distribution across the state these findings suggest that the distribution of adaptation funds do not support the larger goal of climate justice

the hinkley point decision an analysis of the policy process in 2006 the british government launched a policy to build nuclear power reactors based on a claim that the power produced would be competitive with fossil fuel and would require no public subsidy a decade later it is not clear how many if any orders will be placed and the claims on costs and subsidies have proved false despite this failure to deliver the policy is still being pursued with undiminished determination the finance model that is now proposed is seen as a model other european countries can follow so the success or otherwise of the british nuclear programme will have implications outside the uk this paper contends that the checks and balances that should weed out misguided policies have failed it argues that the most serious failure is with the civil service and its inability to provide politicians with high quality advice truth to power it concludes that the failure is likely to be due to the unwillingness of politicians to listen to opinions that conflict with their beliefs other weaknesses include the lack of energy expertise in the media the unwillingness of the public to engage in the policy process and the impotence of parliamentary committees

performance related pay and gender wage differences we study the impact of performance related pay prp on gender wage differences using finnish linked employer employee panel data controlling for unobserved person and firm effects we find that bonuses increase women s earnings slightly less than men s but the economic significance of the difference is negligible piece rates and reward rates however tend to increase gender wage differentials thus the nature of a prp plan is important for gauging the impact of prp on gender wage differentials a comparison with ols results shows the importance of controlling for an unobserved person and firm effects

the effect of sustainability standard uncertainty on certification decisions of firms in emerging economies voluntary sustainability standards that establish global rules for firms environmental and or social conduct and allow for verification of firm compliance via third party certification hold the promise to govern firms sustainability conduct in a globalizing world economy however the recent proliferation of competing and overlapping global sustainability standards that have been developed by various stakeholders with different agendas creates uncertainties for firms that likely reduce their propensity to adopt any standard without widespread adoption these standards cannot effectively govern firm conduct and in contrast create barriers for firms access to export markets we suggest that the uncertainties associated with competing standards and the effect of these uncertainties on standard certification decisions are especially large for firms in emerging economies because these firms lack access to information about current and future standards and the resources to obtain certifications to multiple standards we theoretically propose and empirically identify three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty i diversity of customer requirements ii dynamism of customer requirements and iii the unpredictability of the future evolution of standard and propose that each of these sources reduces firms propensity to obtain certification to any standard our empirical results based on certifications to food safety standards by a sample of 97 mexican food exporting firms confirm that three distinct sources of sustainability standard uncertainty exist and that all of them negatively impact certification we discuss ethical implications and offer recommendations for both suppliers as well as standard setting organizations

attributing responsibility for energy justice a case study of the hinkley point nuclear complex since 2006 as part of the transition to low carbon technologies uk energy policy has moved towards incentivising new nuclear power production as a result the uk has developed a now delayed strategy to deliver around 16gw of new nuclear power by 2030 this policy context provides an opportunity to reflect not only on the material infrastructure needed to meet transition targets but also on who is responsible for the energy justice implications of these decisions using data collected from 26 semi structured interviews with ngo and policy representatives this paper presents a case study of energy justice concerns surrounding the hinkley point nuclear complex in somerset focusing particularly on the highly controversial hinkley point c developments the results emphasise the importance of considering not only instances of energy justice or injustice but of attributing responsibility for them a concept that has been largely overlooked in the energy justice literature ngos government and business allocate responsibility differently in nuclear energy decision making we find that perceptions of responsibility are highly dependent upon the level of transparency in decision making this article is part of a virtual special issue entitled exploring the energy justice nexus

performance pay and the white black wage gap we show that the reported tendency for performance pay to be associated with greater wage inequality at the top of the earnings distribution applies only to white workers this results in the white black wage differential among those in performance pay jobs growing over the earnings distribution even as the same differential shrinks over the distribution for those not in performance pay jobs we show that this remains true even when examining suitable counterfactuals that hold observables constant between whites and blacks we explore reasons behind our finding focusing on the interactions between discrimination unmeasured ability and selection

fuel poverty excess winter deaths and energy costs in vermont burdensome for whom energy whether from electricity natural gas heating oil propane kerosene or wood is essential for the well being of many americans yet those who spend more than 10 percent of their income of energy services can be considered fuel poor this study assesses the extent and severity of fuel poverty in vermont it analyzes energy burdens in vermont by household income deciles using data from the census bureau s american community survey approximately 71 000 people suffered from fuel poverty in vermont in 2000 and in 2012 the number rose to 125 000 or one in five vermonters startlingly fuel poverty grew 76 percent during this period excess winter deaths caused potentially by fuel poverty kill more vermonters each year than car crashes the article then provides 12 policy recommendations based on a small sample of elite semi structured research interviews these include suggestions that the vermont legislature better fund investments in weatherization among low income households that community groups and social service agencies scale up the training of energy efficiency coaches that state agencies endorse improvements in housing efficiency and appropriate fuel switching and that utilities and fuel providers offer extra assistance for disconnected households and allow for on bill financing of efficiency improvements

food safety regulation and its implication on chinese vegetable exports growing concerns with the application of highly toxic pesticides and the growing world demands for food direct our attentions to the food safety as well as to the global arrangement of food production in china expansion of its vegetable exports brought the attention of policy planners to the international food safety regulations this paper reported the findings from the investigation about a relationship between trades of food and food safety by focusing on the relationship between chinese vegetable exports and the maximum residue limits of pesticides mrls regulation set by the importing countries and exporting country the revealed trade s behavior showed that impacts of mrls should be seen through two types of information one was the extent of coverage of regulation measured by the number of pesticides placed under the control and the other was the regulated residue levels probably because the achieved vegetable production growth was supported by the extensive use of many kinds of pesticides the expanding of the number of regulated pesticides in importing markets was more likely to act as a barrier to china s vegetable exports compared to the effect of stringency increase of mrls level importing countries gdp reflecting the market potential showed significantly positive effects on chinese vegetable exports while the effects of vegetable production and tariff rate on exports were weakened after years of improvement of productivity and worldwide policy environment our results verified the export promoting effect of stringent regulations in exporting country on its trade these findings strongly suggested that chinese authorities need to move fast to catch up to the growing concerns of international importers both from relevant policy planning and implementing to capture economic growth in the medium long term

salaries and piece rates compensation can take many forms remuneration can come as pecuniary payments as fringes such as health and pension benefits or as a nonpecuniary reward such as plush office furniture that costs the firm less than it benefits the worker a significant literature has examined the trade offs between pecuniary and nonpecuniary compensation the modern work having been pioneered by rosen 1974 more recently another body of literature has examined the selection of method of total compensation ignoring the distinction between pecuniary and nonpecuniary payment this work has focused on risk and incentive factors it has resulted in comparisons of compensation based on absolute output levels to that based on relative performance it has also led to explorations of the relation of compensation to experience over the work life 2 little attention has been paid to what may be among the most important and obvious distinction in methods of compensation namely the choice between a fixed salary for some period of time that is paying on the basis of input and some workers receive compensation that is specified in advance and not directly contingent on performance instead it depends on an input measure such as hours worked for others compensation is directly related to output this essay is an attempt to predict a firm s choice of compensation method piece rates are defined more rigorously among the more important factors discussed are worker heterogeneity incentives sorting considerations monitoring costs and asymmetric information one result is that salary workers tend to be of lower quality and more homogeneous than are their piece rate counterparts numerous additional results are provided helpful comments by victoria lazear and yoram weiss are gratefully acknowledged support was provided by the department of labor and the national science foundation 1 see lazear and rosen 1981 stiglitz 1981 holmstrom 1982 green and stokey 1983 2 see lazear 1979 1981 and harris and holmstrom in press

microenterprise finance is there a conflict between growth and poverty alleviation abstract microenterprise finance has generated enormous enthusiasm among aid donors and nongovernment organizations ngos as an instrument for reducing poverty in a manner that is financially self sustaining although something of a consensus has emerged concerning the principles by which such institutions should be designed however we know little about their impact the paper reports on a research project which estimated the impact of 13 microfinance institutions in seven developing countries on poverty and other target variables and attempted to relate such impact to the institutions design features for each of the institutions studied the impact of lending on the recipient household s income tended to increase at a decreasing rate as the recipient s income and asset position improved a relationship which can easily be explained in terms of the greater preference of the poor for consumption loans their greater vulnerability to asset sales forced by adverse income shocks and their limited range of investment opportunities there are significant outliers to this general pattern in particular very poor people who have been able to achieve significant loan impact but they are the exception rather than the rule and the relationship is significant at the 1 level for all the institutions studied except the malawi mudzi fund this relationship defines in the short term an impact frontier which serves as a tradeoff lenders can either focus their lending on the poorest and accept a relatively low total impact on household income or alternatively focus on the not so poor and achieve higher impact the position and slope of the estimated impact curve vary however with the design of the institution for well designed schemes impact at all levels of income is higher than for ill designed schemes hence for many lender institutions the tradeoff can often be moved by appropriate innovations in institutional design in particular modifications to savings loan collection and incentive arrangements for borrowers and staff

governance and trade in fresh vegetables the impact of uk supermarkets on the african horticulture industry production of fresh vegetables for export has grown rapidly in a number of countries in sub saharan africa over the last decade this trade brings producers and exporters based in africa together with importers and retailers in europe large retailers in europe play a decisive role in structuring the production and processing of fresh vegetables exported from africa the requirements they specify for cost quality delivery product variety innovation food safety and quality systems help top determine what types of producers and processors are able to gain access to the fresh vegetables chain and the activities they must carry out the control over the fresh vegetables trade exercised by uk supermarkets has clear consequences for inclusion and exclusion of producers and exporters of differing types and for the long term prospects for the fresh vegetables industry in the two major exporting countries studied kenya and zimbabwe

is there sex discrimination in the legal profession further evidence on tangible and intangible margins failure to observe differences between men and women with respect to earnings and or promotions does not preclude the possibility that employers discriminate against women on other intangible margins since female lawyers are highly educated generally and specifically with respect to legal remedies to overt sex discrimination it seems unlikely that employers would discriminate against them on tangible margins indeed drawing from the 1984 american bar association survey of career satisfaction dissatisfaction we find no evidence of discrimination against female lawyers in terms of earnings or promotions we do however find evidence of sex discrimination on several intangible margins and in terms of overall job satisfaction

self assessed vs statistical evidence of racial discrimination the case of indigenous australians this paper provides new insights on the labour market discrimination faced by indigenous australians one of the most disadvantaged indigenous populations in developed countries combining two large

the role of private standards for manufactured food exports from developing countries summary the relevance of non tariff barriers for global trade flows has increased in recent decades however the effect of food standards as a particular important non tariff measure on agricultural trade flows remains unclear we contribute to the debate with a unique dataset that contains the number of food processing firms of 87 countries from 2008 to 2013 that are certified with the international featured standard ifs we estimate a gravity model using the one year lag of ifs as well as ifs certification in neighboring countries as an instrument to address potential endogeneity we find that ifs increases c p bilateral exports on average of seven agricultural product categories in both specifications however the effect remains robust only for high and middle income countries and disappears for low income countries hence while ifs increases exports on average low income countries do not benefit in terms of higher export volumes moreover once we separate the dataset by sector the trade enhancing effect remains for bakery dairy and beverage sectors only overall we argue that food standards are not a suitable development tool to integrate low income countries into high value chains per se

black white life cycle earnings differences and the vintage hypothesis a longitudinal analysis a common finding of virtually all previous studies of black white earnings differences is that the earnings of white males appear to rise at a more rapid rate with each additional year of work experience or with age than do the earnings of black workers this finding has been noted by economists since at least the mid 1950 s when morton zeman called

gender piece rates and wages evidence from matched employer employee data why are women disproportionately on piece rates we investigate three possible explanations 1 women are more likely to be on piece rates because they have a shorter expected tenure than men 2 a greater demand for flexibility between work and home attracts women to work place technologies suitable for variable pay based on individual performance 3 women prefer piece rates because they are subject to less wage discrimination when objective performance measures are available the weight of our empirical evidence supports the third hypothesis the unexplained gender wage gap is substantially smaller in the piece rate regime than in the time wage regime copyright 2004 oxford university press

affirmative action as earnings redistribution the targeting of compliance reviews affirmative action may be broadly conceived of as pursuing either the goal of reducing discrimination or that of redistributing jobs and earnings i attempt to infer the ends of affirmative action policy by analyzing the historical record of enforcement optimal enforcement strategies are developed for both the antidiscrimination and the earnings redistribution models and then compared with new data on the actual targeting of affirmative action compliance reviews during the late 1970s i find that establishments with very low proportions of minority or female workers are not significantly more likely to be reviewed but that white collar intensive establishments are more likely to be reviewed this indicates the shortcomings of the antidiscrimination model in explaining the ofccp s behavior and suggests the potential usefulness of the earnings redistribution model

do sanitary phytosanitary and quality related standards affect international trade evidence from chilean fruit exports summary increasing awareness of food safety issues has led to intensive use of sanitary phytosanitary and quality related regulations and standards imposing a burden on exporting countries worldwide this study assesses the impact of such regulations and standards estimating a gravity model for chilean fresh fruit exports that incorporates a stringency perception index that comprises different dimensions of trade requirements our results suggest that an increase in stringency has a negative and substantial effect on exported volumes and the reduction is higher if stringency increases in developed countries results also showed that different dimensions have different effects on trade

resolving society s energy trilemma through the energy justice metric carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase to the detriment of society in many forms one of the difficulties faced is the imbalance between the competing aims of economics politics and the environment which form the trilemma of energy policy this article advances that this energy trilemma can be resolved through energy justice energy justice develops the debate on energy policy to one that highlights cosmopolitanism progresses thinking beyond economics and incorporates a new futuristic perspective to capture these dynamics of energy justice this research developed an energy justice metric ejm that involves the calculation of several metrics 1 a country national ejm 2 an ejm for different energy infrastructure and 3 an ejm which is incorporated into economic models that derive costs for energy infrastructure projects an ejm is modeled for china the european union and the united states and for different energy infrastructure in the united kingdom the ejm is plotted on a ternary phase diagram which is used in the sciences for analyzing the relationship trilemma of three forms of matter the development of an ejm can provide a tool for decision making on energy policy and one that solves the energy trilemma with a just and equitable approach

financial efficiency and social impact of microfinance institutions using self organizing maps summary this paper contributes to the literature by investigating whether the increased focus on financial self sustainability of microfinance institutions has been disadvantageous to the target audience we investigate the association between social efficiency and financial performance using a comprehensive data set that includes 650 microfinance institutions a self organizing map methodology is used to fully capture the existing heterogeneity among institutions the results show that we cannot support the hypothesis that there exists a trade off on the contrary we find evidence of a significant positive relationship between social efficiency and financial performance

male female differences in hourly wages the role of human capital working conditions and housework this study uses a new data set from a 1986 survey of workers to examine simultaneously the wage effects of human capital household responsibilities working conditions and on the job training the analysis suggests that household responsibilities had a negative effect on women s earnings but the unexplained difference between the earnings of men and women is not greatly reduced by inclusion in the explanatory model of information on either housework or working conditions the presence of children appears to have had a positive effect on the wages of both men and women t wenty years of research on gender differences in earnings have failed to explain the entire wage gap as a consequence of measured differences between male and female workers some researchers view the unexplained residual as evidence of discrimination against female workers others take the position that the entire wage gap is potentially explicable by differences in labor supply according to the latter view an unexplained wage gap remains because the data sets in use do not contain adequate information on all productivity related characteristics this view implies that the unexplained wage gap will be reduced by more comprehensive infor

welfare effects of vegetable commercialization evidence from smallholder producers in kenya we investigate whether smallholder horticultural commercialization is able to as often stipulated reduce poverty in developing countries with the help of panel household survey data from kenya we find evidence for a positive association between vegetable commercialization and household welfare even when controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across households interestingly the effect differs depending on which market vegetables are being produced for commercialization through the export market is consistently positively associated with income but not wealth while there is some limited evidence for commercialization through the domestic market channel being positively related to welfare measured by asset holdings and income depending on the specification

the application of contrast explanation to energy policy research uk nuclear energy policy 2002 2012 abstract this paper advances the application of the methodology contrast explanation to energy policy research research in energy policy is complex and often involves inter disciplinary work which traditional economic methodologies fail to capture consequently the more encompassing methodology of contrast explanation is assessed and its use in other social science disciplines explored in brief it is then applied to an energy policy research topic in this case nuclear energy policy research in the uk contrast explanation facilitates research into policy and decision making processes in energy studies and offers an alternative to the traditional economic methods used in energy research further contrast explanation is extended by the addition of contested and uncontested hypotheses analyses this research focuses on the methods employed to deliver the new nuclear programme of the uk government in order to achieve a sustainable nuclear energy policy three issues are of major importance 1 law policy and development 2 public administration and 3 project management further the research identifies that policy in the area remains to be resolved in particular at an institutional and legal level however contrary to the literature in some areas the research identifies a change of course as the uk concentrates on delivering a long term policy for the nuclear energy sector and the overall energy sector

do microfinance institutions benefit from integrating financial and nonfinancial services this article examines the impact of microfinance plus i e coordinated combination of financial and nonfinancial services on the performance of microfinance institutions mfis using a global data set of mfis in 77 countries we find that the provision of nonfinancial services does not harm nor improve mfis financial sustainability and efficiency the results however suggest that the provision of social services is associated with improved loan quality and greater depth of outreach

saving two in a billion quantifying the trade effect of european food safety standards on african exports abstract a growing concern over health risks associated with food products has prompted close examination of sanitary and phytosanitary standards in industrialized countries this paper quantifies the impact of a new harmonized aflatoxin standard set by the eu on food exports from africa we employ a gravity model to estimate the impact of changes in differing levels of protection based on the eu standard in contrast to those suggested by international standards the analysis is based on trade and regulatory survey data for 15 european countries and nine african countries between 1989 and 1998 our results suggest that the implementation of the new aflatoxin standard in the eu will have a negative impact on african exports of cereals dried fruits and nuts to europe the new eu standard which would reduce health risk by approximately 1 4 deaths per billion a year will decrease these african exports by 64 or us 670 million in contrast to regulation set through an international standard

do microfinance institutions accomplish their mission evidence from the relationship between traditional financial sector development and microfinance institutions outreach and performance this article analyses the relationship between outreach and performance of microfinance institutions mfis on the one hand and traditional financial sector development on the other the results indicate that mfis reach more clients and are more profitable in countries where access to the traditional financial system is low this finding is in line with the market failure hypothesis mfis respond to a need that banks do not fulfill and mfis flourish where the formal financial sector fails along the same line the results demonstrate that mfis serve poorer people in countries with well developed financial systems the results suggest that in countries with well developed financial systems the two sectors stand in more direct competition with each other this competition pushes mfis down the market and makes mission drift by mfis less likely

microenterprise lending to female entrepreneurs sacrificing economic growth for poverty alleviation abstract this research compares the performance of female and male entrepreneurs in a microenterprise credit program in guatemala previous research and field practice has suggested that targeting credit at female borrowers allows for greater increases in household welfare but that male entrepreneurs may more aggressively expand enterprises when given access to credit in this paper we develop a model that shows that increases in value of home time during childbearing years for women may substantially account for gender differences in responses to credit access empirical results from guatemalan survey data yield estimations consistent with the predictions from our model

the impact of microfinance in sub saharan africa a systematic review of the evidence microfinance is seen as a key development tool and despite the current deepening crisis within the industry it continues to grow in sub saharan africa we systematically reviewed the evidence of the impacts of micro credit and micro savings on poor people in sub saharan africa we considered impacts on income savings expenditure and the accumulation of assets as well as non financial outcomes including health nutrition food security education child labor women s empowerment housing job creation and social cohesion the available evidence shows that microfinance does harm as well as good to the livelihoods of the poor

food safety regulation an overview of contemporary issues abstract this article discusses a number of issues that are influencing the evolution of food safety regulation in developed and to a lesser extent developing countries whilst not definitive it aims to highlight those factors which are considered crucial to an understanding of contemporary food safety controls in both the public and private spheres these issues include criteria applied to assess the need justification for food safety regulation relationships between public and private food safety control systems alternative forms that public food safety regulation can take strategic responses to food safety regulation and the trade implications of national food safety controls the article serves as an introduction to these issues which are discussed at greater length in the other papers that make up this special issue of food policy

exit voice and vouchers using vouchers to train microentrepreneurs observations from the paraguayan voucher scheme abstract the use of vouchers is increasingly advocated in development practice compared to the vast existing literature on microfinance however research on voucher projects is still scarce this paper examines the training voucher scheme in paraguay by applying the theory of exit and voice to this case and to voucher systems in general a theoretical framework is provided that identifies the advantages and limitations of training voucher schemes it will be shown that voucher systems cannot solve the information problems inherent in markets and that not all microentrepreneurs benefit from voucher schemes in the same way the concepts of voice ex ante and voice ex post as necessary ingredients of voucher schemes are introduced

understanding developing country strategic responses to the enhancement of food safety standards this paper explores the competing concepts of standards as barriers and standards as catalysts in the context of food safety standards in international trade in agricultural and food products through a review of existing evidence of the impact of food safety standards on developing country exports of agricultural and food products and the results of a series of country and product specific case studies it is suggested that food safety standards can act as both a barrier to trade and the basis of competitive positioning for developing countries in international markets this suggests that broad conclusions about the trade effects of food safety standards on developing countries are problematic rather the level and ways in which agricultural and food exports are impacted can be product country standard and even firm specific

fuel poverty as injustice integrating distribution recognition and procedure in the struggle for affordable warmth bringing attention to fuel poverty as a distinct manifestation of social inequality has asserted the place of affordable warmth in the profile of contemporary rights and entitlements as such fuel poverty can be understood as an expression of injustice involving the compromised ability to access energy services and thereby to secure a healthful living environment in this paper we consider how fuel poverty may be aligned to various alternative concepts of social and environmental justice whilst recognising that fuel poverty is fundamentally a complex problem of distributive injustice we argue that other understandings of injustice are also implicated and play important roles in producing and sustaining inequalities in access to affordable warmth addressing fuel poverty has to involve seeking justice in terms of the cultural and political recognition of vulnerable and marginalised social groups and pursuing procedural justice through opening up involvement and influence in decision making processes we make this argument both in theoretical terms and through considering the experience of fuel poverty advocacy and policy development in the uk opportunities for future action may be illuminated through such interconnected justice framings as wider awareness of energy climate and poverty issues emerge

food safety issues and fresh food product exports from ldcs fresh food products have a high income elasticity of demand and few traditional trade barriers in high income markets as such they represent an important opportunity for less developed country ldc exporters fresh food product exports account for half of all food and agricultural exports from ldcs to high income countries but these products may be subject to greater food safety risks and potential trade barriers arising from sanitary regulation this paper reviews the challenges and issues facing ldcs in meeting food safety standards for export these issues include a the importance of fresh food product trade by region and the kinds of issues that arise from those products b the role of farm to table approaches and hazard analysis critical control points haccp in ensuring safety c the role of the public sector in ldcs in facilitating trade d the potential role of the sps agreement in resolving disputes and determining equivalency of standards between high and low income countries

understanding the gender pay gap what s competition got to do with it a number of researchers have argued that men and women have different attitudes toward and behavioral responses to competition that is women are more likely to opt out of jobs in which performance pay is the norm and to under perform in some competitive situations laboratory experiments suggest that these gender differences are rather large to check these hypotheses and findings against differences in the field the authors use performance pay as an indicator of competition in the workplace and compare the gender gap not only in incidence of performance pay but also in earnings and work effort under these contracts they find that although women are less likely than men to work under performance pay contracts the gender gap is small furthermore the effect of performance pay on earnings is modest and does not differ markedly by gender consequently the authors argue the ability of these competition hypotheses to explain the gender pay gap seems very limited