do remittances dampen the effect of natural disasters on output growth volatility in developing countries this article examines whether or not remittance inflows help mitigate the effects of natural disasters on the volatility of the real output per capita growth rate using a large sample of developing countries and mobilizing a dynamic panel data framework it uncovers a diminishing macroeconomic destabilizing consequence of natural disasters as remittance inflows rise it appears that the effect of natural disasters disappears for a remittance ratio above 8 of the gross domestic product gdp however remittances aggravate the destabilizing effects of natural disasters when they exceed 17 of the gdp finally the article shows that current and lagged remittance inflows significantly reduce the number of people killed by natural disasters and the number of people affected respectively

investability the key to competitive regions and cities this article proposes and develops a concept investability that can be used for analysing the competitive position of cities or regions and formulating policy responses it can be defined as conditions that are conducive to a higher level of investment and refers principally to the business environment in which economic agents operate the paper discusses various influences on investment decisions and how they will impinge on different classes of potential investors policy implications are developed and the ways in which the concept might be used in policy making are examined

natural disasters and human capital accumulation the empirical literature on the relationship between natural disaster risk and investment in education is inconclusive model averaging methods in a framework of cross country and panel regressions show an extremely robust negative partial correlation between secondary school enrollment and natural disaster risk this result is driven exclusively by geologic disasters exposure to natural disaster risk is a robust determinant of differences in secondary school enrollment between countries but not necessarily within countries natural disasters human capital education school enrollment bayesian model averaging

remittances and household consumption instability in developing countries this paper analyzes the impact of remittances on household consumption instability in a large panel of developing countries there are four main results first remittances significantly reduce household consumption instability second remittances play an insurance role by dampening the effects of various sources of consumption instability in developing countries natural disasters agricultural shocks discretionary fiscal policy systemic financial and banking crises and exchange rate instability third the stabilizing role played by remittances is stronger in less financially developed countries fourth the overall stabilizing effect of remittances is mitigated when remittances exceed 6 of gdp

classifying local retail property markets on the basis of rental growth rates diversification strategies for the property element of portfolios have traditionally been undertaken on a sectoral regional basis primarily due to data restrictions however the standard regions in the uk are defined for administrative purposes and are likely therefore to be composed of heterogeneous property markets the development of an alternative classification based on local property markets is investigated this is based on annual retail rental growth rates and is developed using cluster analysis a number of issues emerge throughout the various stages of development and tests for temporal stability the local markets group according to broad underlying rental drivers however more tightly defined clusters are unstable over time as a consequence of rental volatility at the local level it is clear that markets do not form groups conforming to the geographical regions that are widely analysed and that traditionally form the basis for diversification

the case for restricting fiscal policy discretion this paper studies the effects of discretionary fiscal policy on output volatility and economic growth using data for 91 countries we isolate three empirical regularities 1 governments that use fiscal policy aggressively induce significant macroeconomic instability 2 the volatility of output caused by discretionary fiscal policy lowers economic growth by more than 0 8 percentage points for every percentage point increase in volatility 3 prudent use of fiscal policy is explained to a large extent by the presence of political constraints and other political and institutional variables the evidence in the paper supports arguments for constraining discretion by imposing institutional restrictions on governments as a way to reduce output volatility and increase the rate of economic growth

are external shocks responsible for the instability of output in low income countries external shocks such as commodity price fluctuations natural disasters and the role of the international economy are often blamed for the poor economic performance of low income countries the author quantifies the impact of these different external shocks using a panel vector autoregression var approach and compares their relative contributions to output volatility in low income countries vis a vis internal factors he finds that external shocks can only explain a small fraction of the output variance of a typical low income country internal factors are the main source of fluctuations from a quantitative perspective the output effect of external shocks is typically small in absolute terms but significant relative to the historic performance of these countries

remittances transaction costs and informality abstract recorded workers remittances to developing countries reached 167 billion in 2005 bringing increasing attention to these flows as a potential tool for development in this paper we explore the determinants of remittances and their associated transaction costs we find that recorded remittances depend positively on the stock of migrants and negatively on transfer costs and exchange rate restrictions in turn transfer costs are lower when financial systems are more developed and exchange rates less volatile the negative impact of transactions costs on remittances suggests that migrants either refrain from sending money home or else remit through informal channels when costs are high we provide evidence from household surveys supportive of a sizeable informal sector

remittances and vulnerability in developing countries this paper examines how international remittances are affected by structural characteristics macroeconomic conditions and adverse shocks in recipient economies we exploit a novel rich panel data set covering bilateral remittances from 103 italian provinces to seventy nine developing countries over the period 2005 2011 we find that remittances are negatively correlated with the business cycle in recipient countries and in particular increase in response to adverse exogenous shocks such as large terms of trade declines this effect is stronger where the migrant communities have a larger share of newly arrived migrants finally we show that recipient country financial development is negatively associated with remittances suggesting that remittances help alleviate credit constraints

a model of spatial patterns across local retail property markets in great britain property markets are commonly modelled either at relatively high levels of aggregation such as regional or national using time series data or panel data or at individual town level this paper d

the impact of natural disasters on remittances to low and middle income countries abstractin this paper we offer novel empirical evidence on the impact of natural disasters on remittance flows towards low and middle income countries we consider a panel of 98 countries over th

does the exchange rate regime matter for real shocks evidence from windstorms and earthquakes abstract does the choice of exchange rate regime affect an economy s adjustment to real shocks exploiting the unpredictability and economic exogeniety of windstorms hurricanes and typhoons and earthquakes this paper assesses the often contrasting answers found in the theoretical literature there is robust evidence that exchange rate flexibility helps an economy better adjust to real shocks and consistent with the channels emphasized in the classic literature on exchange rates and shocks differences in the behavior of the export sector help explain the different reactions between the two regimes

revisiting the threshold effect of remittances on total factor productivity growth in south asia a study of bangladesh and india abstractboth bangladesh and india are among the top recipient of remittances in absolute terms however in relative terms remittances as a per cent of gdp the two countries stand at 6 1 and 2

the macroeconomic consequences of disasters abstract natural disasters have a statistically observable adverse impact on the macro economy in the short run and costlier events lead to more pronounced slowdowns in production yet interestingly developing countries and smaller economies face much larger output declines following a disaster of similar relative magnitude than do developed countries or bigger economies a close study of the determinants of these adverse macroeconomic output costs reveals several interesting patterns countries with a higher literacy rate better institutions higher per capita income higher degree of openness to trade and higher levels of government spending are better able to withstand the initial disaster shock and prevent further spillovers into the macro economy these all suggest an increased ability to mobilize resources for reconstruction financial conditions also seem to be of importance countries with more foreign exchange reserves and higher levels of domestic credit but with less open capital accounts appear more robust and better able to endure natural disasters with less adverse spillover into domestic production

non linear growth effects of financial development does financial integration matter using both macro and industry level data this paper analyses the non linear effects of financial development and international financial integration on economic growth in europe special attention is devoted to modeling threshold effects with respect to the depth of financial markets as a measure of economies absorption capacity results reveal evidence of significant non linear effects with less developed european countries gaining more from financial development in contrast benefits of international financial integration become significant at higher levels of financial development the data show that monetary integration in europe significantly contributed to a higher degree of financial integration entry of new eu members to the european monetary union may thus be the mechanism ensuring a virtuous development circle as the adoption of the euro may allow the development of domestic financial markets and financial integration to go hand in hand

trade openness and volatility abstract this paper examines the mechanisms through which output volatility is related to trade openness using an industry level panel data set of manufacturing production and trade the main results are threefold first sectors more open to international trade are more volatile second trade is accompanied by increased specialization these two forces imply increased aggregate volatility third sectors that are more open to trade are less correlated with the rest of the economy an effect that acts to reduce overall volatility the point estimates indicate that each of the three effects has an appreciable impact on aggregate volatility added together they imply that the relationship between trade openness and overall volatility is positive and economically significant

retail planning and institutional property investment jackson c 2006 retail planning and institutional property investment regional studies 40 555 561 investment in town centre retail property markets is dominated by institutions thus sustaining and enhancing the vitality and viability of town centres which is a key role of local planning authorities is crucial to maintain the attractiveness of the area to investors investor movements into and out of markets can have a significant impact on the market and wider local and regional economic success informed by a series of in depth interviews with key regional planning officials the paper unravels retail planning policy to present key areas of policy that in the current restrictive planning environment are becoming crucial to enhancing market competitiveness further the paper argues that using the perspective of the institutional investor access to measures of comparative policy stance and implementation across authorities would enhance knowledge of market functioning and performance advanci

planning policy and retail property investment in the uk empirical evidence suggests that planning policies significantly impact on investment property market performance in the uk it is less clear however how information about the planning policy environment feeds into investment decision making this paper seeks to explore this issue it reports on interviews with the property investment community and focuses on the decision to invest in the retail sector the paper uses a six stage model of the investment decision making process as a framework for analysing the way in which concerns about policy impact on behaviour the results suggest that an understanding of the policy environment and the development of a relationship with local planning authorities are most important in the post acquisition asset management stage of the investment process the research also reveals variations in access to policy intelligence and that approaches to analysis of the likely effects of planning regimes vary with fund type and strategy

determinants of risk sharing through remittances abstract the sending of remittances is a decentralised decision of migrant workers nevertheless it has macroeconomic implications in providing insurance against domestic output shocks in the recipient economies a phenomenon known in literature as risk sharing income smoothing using a large sample of 86 developing countries for the period 1990 2010 we establish that remittance inflows serve as an important channel through which risk sharing takes place in the developing world the extent of income smoothing via remittances stands at around 5 on average subsequently we explore the underlying factors that explain countries ability to share risk through remittances the diversification of migrants turns out to be the leading explanation for the extent of risk sharing via remittances the more diverse the migration destinations of a country the higher the amount of risk shared in addition the size of remittance flows appears to have a strong and statistically significant impact on enhancing risk sharing we also find suggestive evidence that a higher proportion of remittances originating from farther countries facilitate more risk sharing compared to those originating from neighbouring or regional economies

truncation bias and the ordinal evaiuation of income inequality lorenz dominance analysis is used to examine the effect of top coding on the ordinal evaluation of u s income inequality across time current population survey microdata are adjusted for truncation bias and statistical inference procedures are used to examine biennial changes in unadjusted and adjusted lorenz curves beginning in 1985 the truncation bias has a significant effect on ordinal rankings of income inequality

growth volatility and financial liberalization we examine the effects of both equity market liberalization and capital account openness on real consumption growth variability we show that financial liberalization is mostly associated with lower consumption growth volatility our results are robust surviving controls for business cycle effects economic and financial development the quality of institutions and other variables countries that have more open capital accounts experience a greater reduction in consumption growth volatility after equity market openings we also find that financial liberalizations are associated with declines in the ratio of consumption growth volatility to gdp growth volatility suggesting improved risk sharing our results are weaker for liberalizing emerging markets but we never observe a significant increase in real volatility moreover we demonstrate significant differences in the volatility response depending on the size of the banking and government sectors and certain institutional factors

cross country evidence on the link between volatility and growth this paper presents empirical evidence against the standard dichotomy in macroeconomics that separates growth from the volatility of economic fluctuations in a sample of ninety two countries as well as a sample of oecd countries the authors find that countries with higher volatility have lower growth the addition of standard control variables strengthens the negative relationship the authors also find that government spending induced volatility is negatively associated with growth even after controlling for both time and country fixed effects copyright 1995 by american economic association