bonus culture competitive pay screening and multitasking to analyze the impact of labor market competition on the structure of compensation we embed multitasking and screening within a hotelling framework competition for talent leads to an escalation of performance pay shifting effort away from long term investments risk management and cooperation efficiency losses can exceed those from a single principal who dulls incentives to extract rents as competition intensifies monopsonistic underincentivization of low skill agents first decreases and then gives way to growing overincentivization of high skill ones aggregate welfare is thus hill shaped while inequality tends to rise monotonically bonus caps can help restore balance in incentives but may generate other distortions

on the determinants of direct foreign investment evidence from east and southeast asia abstract a model of derived demand for foreign capital by a multiple product monopolist is estimated for seven asian countries direct foreign investment dfi inflows are estimated to be less elastic with respect to the costs of capital including taxes than to wages and to be more elastic with respect to aggregate demand in export markets than domestic demand the output deterrent effect of higher wages is estimated to outweigh any substitution toward greater capital intensity the estimates also suggest that dfi rises with greater costs within the investors home countries no similar effect occurs with respect to costs in rival host countries and concerns for political stability have overlain economic determinants

does the resource curse hold for growth in genuine income as well summary existing studies analyzing the so called resource curse hypothesis regress growth in gross domestic product gdp on some measure of resource intensity this is problematic as gdp counts natural and other capital depreciation as income deducting depreciation from gdp to arrive at genuine income we test whether the curse still holds true we find supporting evidence but the growth disadvantage of resource intensive economies is slightly weaker in terms of genuine income than gdp we suggest that this provides additional but somewhat weak and limited evidence in support of those who argue that the curse is partly due to unsustainable overconsumption

debt overhang credit rationing and investment abstract this paper evaluates the effect of foreign debt on investment in a heavily indebted country using numerical simulations of a simple rational expectations growth model two particular effects are distinguished first the effect due to debt overhang of past accumulated debts and second the effect of credit rationing or inability to obtain new financing the results from the simulations indicate that credit rationing may be a powerful disincentive to investment this suggests that in order to maximize the impact on productive investment debt reduction plans need to be accompanied by additional foreign lending

trade facilitation and manufactured exports is africa different summary trade facilitation defined as reducing the transaction costs associated with the enforcement regulation and administration of trade policies has been at the forefront of discussions on policy measures for reducing the costs of exporting and importing in developing countries this study uses a new panel dataset for 124 developed and developing countries available for the period 2003 04 to assess the impact of trade facilitation and other trade related institutional constraints on manufacturing export performance with particular reference to africa we estimate a standard gravity model augmented with trade facilitation regulatory quality and infrastructure indicators our results show that trade facilitation reforms could contribute to improve export performance in africa but other reforms including the quality of the regulatory environment and the quality of the basic transport and communications infrastructure are also needed furthermore improvements in on the border and behind the border policies yield a higher return in terms of increasing manufacturing export performance in african countries than in the rest of the world

exporting manufactures human resources natural resources and trade policy whether a country s exports consist mainly of manufactures or mainly of primary products depends fundamentally on the skills of its labour force relative to the extent of its natural resources this proposition derived from a modified version of heckscher ohlin theory is supported by a strong cross country correlation between the manufactured primary export ratio and the skill land ratio cross country variation in trade policies is now only a minor cause of variation in the manufactured primary export ratio

upgrading in global value chains lessons from latin american clusters it has been shown that clustering helps local enterprises in industrial districts overcome growth constraints and compete in distant markets in advanced and less developed countries nevertheless recent contributions have stressed that more attention needs to be paid to external linkages and to the role played by global buyers to foster upgrading at cluster levels in this study we contribute to this debate focusing on the analysis of the relationships existing between clustering global value chains upgrading and sectoral patterns of innovation in latin america we find that sectoral specificities matter and influence the mode and the extent of upgrading in clusters integrated in global value chains

wages and human capital in the u s financial industry 1909 2006 we study the allocation and compensation of human capital in the u s finance industry over the past century across time space and subsectors we find that financial deregulation is associated with skill intensity job complexity and high wages for finance employees all three measures are high before 1935 and after 1980 but not in the interim period workers in the finance industry earn the same education adjusted wages as other workers until 1990 and significantly more afterward by 2006 the premium is 40 on average and 200 for top earners and ceos earnings risk and firm size effects account for some of the premium but the majority does not appear to be sustainable

export led growth and structural change evidence from malaysia many studies have tried to establish the causal link between export expansion and economic growth this contribution is to recognize that structural changes will change the sources of growth and this will affect the export growth relationship a country case study approach is used focusing on malaysia a country with one of the world s highest sustained growth rates and a long history of commodity trade we use var analysis of malaysian quarterly trade and gdp growth from 1965 to 1996 trade data are disaggregated into primary and manufactures exports and causality tests are applied to the entire period as well as two subperiods 150 the 1965 1501980 period when policy emphasis was on import substitution and the 1981 1501996 period when policies favoured export led growth statistical tests confirm export led growth for the full period and for the period to 1980 but tests on the 1981 1501996 period show growth causing exports primary exports had a stronger direct impact on economic growth than manufactu

was latin america too rich to prosper structural and political obstacles to export led industrial growth this essay explores the divergence in economic policy and performance between east asia and latin america it offers a typology of explanations from the political economy literature evidence is presented for an explanation focused upon the relative size of the income sacrifice entailed in the competitive export of simple manufactures in the 1960s latin american countries would have faced massive politically unthinkable currency devaluations had they sought to compete with east asia thus latin american dependency in the post war period has been more complex than often supposed the essay ends with thoughts on export led industrialisation in indebted latin america

the political economy of resource driven growth abstract in recent decades resource poor countries have out performed resource abundant ones a stylised facts model of competitive industrialisation describes the long run development of a resource poor country with a political state that is developmental only minor change is required to adapt the model to trace the development trajectory of a resource abundant country with a similar political state however most resource abundant countries engender a political state that is factional or predatory and distorts the economy in the pursuit of rents a staple trap model describes the development trajectory under these conditions the model predicts a growth collapse from which recovery is protracted especially for small economies that lack a niche trade link with a large economy

a bibliometric review on natural resource accounting during 1995 2014 abstract natural resource accounting plays a critical role in sustainable utilization and conservation of natural resources this paper aims to review research progress on natural resource accounting for the period of 1995 2014 the main research methods for this study include bibliometric analysis and social network analysis covering publications performances characteristics of related journals countries institutions authors and keywords the results show that the total amount of publications on natural resource accounting has increased rapidly since 2001 the most productive journal country institution and author are journal of environmental management usa university of california and dr chen respectively all of them have higher academic influence meanwhile natural resources that attract most attentions are water and energy the six main research methods in this field include mathematic modeling emergy exergy ecological footprint ef life cycle assessment lca and material flow analysis mfa reasons for the prominent performance of key countries and institutions are then discussed and uncovered as well as for six methods finally suggestions on how to further promote the development of this research field are raised

an empirical analysis of a regional dutch disease the case of canada while there has been extensive research on the dutch disease dd very little attention if any has been devoted to the regional mechanisms through which it may manifest itself this is the first empirical attempt to research a regional dd by looking at the local and spatial impacts of resource windfalls across canadian provinces and territories we construct a new panel dataset to examine separately the key dd channels namely the spending effect and the resource movement effect our analysis reveals that the standard dd mechanisms are also relevant at the regional level specifically we find that a resource windfalls are associated with higher inflation and a labour capital shift from to non primary tradable sectors b resource windfalls in neighbouring regions are associated with a capital labour shift from to non primary tradable sectors in the source region c the spatial dd explains 51 20 of the adverse effects of resource windfalls in neighbouring regions on region specific non mineral international exports in the source region and does not significantly affect domestic ones

skills investment and exports from manufacturing firms in africa it has been argued that africa will not be able to export manufactures as it lacks the necessary skills without an ability to export there will only be an incentive to invest in the sector if domestic demand grows rapidly comparative data for four african countries the cameroon ghana kenya and zimbabwe shows that in the early 1990s investment in manufacturing remained very low the micro evidence on manufacturing exports is wholly consistent with the macro in suggesting these are for most african countries negligible an exception is zimbabwe the paper uses a longer time series from ghana to ask how skills have impacted on manufacturing investment and exports in the 1990s two dimensions of skills are defined and measured the first is that observable in the education and experience of the workforce the second is the underlying efficiency with which the firm operates the latter is shown to be a significant determinant of both investment and exports these exports are relatively capital intensive unskilled labour intensive exports remain negligible possible reasons for these outcomes are discussed

new evidence on the export led growth nexus a case study of malaysia this paper revisits the highly debated export led growth hypothesis in a number of different ways using malaysia as a case study first the hypothesis is tested in terms of labour and total factor productivity growth as a potential channel via which exports can affect or be affected by gdp growth considering the impact of imports on gdp and productivity growth serves a similar purpose in addition gdp is trade adjusted to avoid the double counting problem arising from the national income identity second the relationships are examined using the relatively recent toda and yamamoto 1995 causality tests these results have major implications and are necessary to reassess the effectiveness of trade policy as a strategy for economic development 2007 the author journal compilation

kerala s industrial backwardness a case of path dependence in industrialization summary the indian state of kerala presents a paradox of development with its remarkable social achievements and relative industrial backwardness this paper describes kerala s industrial backwardness as due to a path dependent process of industrialization a policy decision in the 1930s marked by a priority for investments in chemical based industries and the identification of hydroelectricity as a potential basis for industrialization continue to have implications for industrial growth in kerala today with the policy decision in the 1930s industrial structure in kerala came to be locked into a pattern that offered very little potential for interindustry interlinkages and industrial growth

the macro impacts of korea s heavy industry drive re evaluated the korean heavy industry hci drive has been criticised for the misallocation of capital and for negative spillover effects on growth inflation the current account and debt however such criticism places too much blame on hci for the late 1970s economic deterioration and gives hci insufficient credit for the subsequent economic rebound korean hci was a catch up exercise which attracted cheap foreign capital to accelerate structural change nevertheless the mid 1970s decision to pursue hci as a big push was flawed since it did result in project bunching that strained implementation capacity despite the safeguards which korea built into its hci strategy

learning to love the dutch disease evidence from the mineral economies abstract recent literature proposes that a booming minerals sector may not only lead to dutch disease effects it may also be a development curse mineral economy case studies have tentatively confirmed this recourse curse thesis this paper examines the long run economic and development performance of a more general grouping of mineral based economies and finds little corroborating evidence

africa s export structure in a comparative perspective cross country econometric analysis informed by heckscher ohlin trade theory suggests that the concentration of africa s exports on unprocessed primary products is caused largely by the region s combination of low levels of education and abundant natural resources in some african countries the share of manufactures in exports could be raised by improving infrastructure and policies for most of africa however the highest priority is to raise the absolute level of exports in all sectors and particularly in sectors based on natural resources following a development path more like that of land abundant america than that of land scarce asia

the resource curse a statistical mirage abstract a surprising feature of resource rich economies is slow growth it is often argued that natural resource production impedes development by creating market or institutional failures this paper establishes an alternative explanation a slow growing resource sector a declining resource sector is disproportionately reflected in resource dependent countries additionally there is little evidence that resource dependence impedes growth in non resource sectors more generally this paper illustrates the importance of considering industry composition in cross country growth regressions

the politics of finance how capital sways african central banks abstractwhile there is a large literature on the politics of central banking its insights are difficult to translate to sub saharan africa this article addresses gaps in this literature by considering how the interests of those who control financial resources sway african central banks case studies of kenya nigeria and uganda demonstrate that variation in the sources of capital on which countries rely to finance investment helps to account for the pattern of variation in central bank policy stances the analysis further develops and probes arguments about power derived from the control of capital in the context of developing countries

extending the concept of the resource curse natural resources and public spending on health this paper extends the concept of the resource curse by studying whether and through which transmission channels natural resource wealth affects social spending even though the availability of vast natural capital reserves has commonly been linked to the neglect of human development most of the literature has continued to focus on economic performance this paper is the first to empirically investigate the link between natural resource wealth and public health expenditures in light of the hypothesis that resource wealth as a source of unearned state income enhances state autonomy and increases volatility which leads to policies that fail to prioritize human development using a large panel dataset of world countries covering the period from 1995 to 2009 we find a robust significant inverse relationship between natural resource dependence and even abundance and public health spending over time the effect remains significant after controlling for state autonomy volatility and other factors these findings have implications for national authorities as well as the extractive industry governments should be made accountable for natural resource wealth and correct taxation could provide additional resources earmarked for health the extractive industry could increase their investments in sustainable corporate social responsibility operations specifically in the health sector

exports of manufactures by developing countries emerging patterns of trade and location developing countries are rapidly increasing their shares of manufactured trade not just in labour intensive products but also in capital and skill intensive ones their shares are rising particularly rapidly in the high technology area however manufactured exports remain highly concentrated in the developing world with a few countries dominating all forms of export within the successful exporting countries there are significant differences in the technology content of exports these trends are difficult to explain with received trade theory even taking human capital into account or with reference to broad economic policies it is useful to bring in learning along with scale economies increasing returns and agglomeration as determinants of comparative advantage these factors imply market failures and so a role for policy in developing genuine comparative advantages this article suggests that emerging trade and location patterns in the developing work are explained by market imperfections and government policies to overcome them

competitive industrial policy and macro performance has south korea outperformed taiwan taiwan adopted a competitive industrial policy before south korea but pursued it more cautiously according to orthodox theory taiwan s less interventionist policy should have increased its initial per capita income lead over south korea in fact the income gap narrowed and income distribution improved relatively in south korea casting doubt on the orthodox criticism of south korean industrial policy but some qualification of the south korean success is in order the south korean gains were achieved at the cost of greater consumption fore gone and greater concentration of economic power than in the case of taiwan moreover the crucial post 1985 taiwanese economic slow down was partly due to economic maturation as well as to tardy financial reform and to the opportunities created by the chinese diaspora for taiwanese firms to invest abroad

resource rents distribution income inequality and poverty in iran abstract our goal is to examine the income inequality and welfare effects of the direct distribution of resource rents and subsequent taxation in iran we use survey based microdata that covers 140 000 individuals which include more than 36 000 iranian urban and rural households in 2009 we examine how direct distribution of oil and gas rents among all citizens and a subsequent direct income tax differ from distributional impacts of targeted policies on income inequality and poverty in iran our analysis shows that the resource dividend policy with a subsequent direct income tax has a significant decreasing effect on the household gini index while targeted policies are more effective in reducing number of households under the poverty line

back to basics in malaysia and thailand the role of resource based exports in their export led growth abstract malaysia and thailand s remarkable economic growth in recent decades has been widely attributed to rapid growth of their labor intensive manufactured exports this paper demonstrates the important role that resource based products especially simply processed goods have played in their export growth while exports have thus followed their dual static comparative advantage in abundant resources and unskilled labor there has been limited movement into higher end exports a dual strategy of supporting forward linkages into higher value added resource based industries while continuing to encourage the development of backward linkages from the non resource based manufactures is suggested

the cost of doing business in africa evidence from enterprise survey data summary data from the world bank enterprise surveys show that indirect costs related to infrastructure and services account for a relatively high share of firms costs in poor african countries and pose a competitive burden on african firms we estimate firm level revenue and value added functions for six industries in 17 developing countries demonstrating that firm performance is sensitive to the cost of indirect inputs as indirect inputs are not usually included in estimations of value added we argue that existing estimates understate the relative performance of african manufacturing firms

macro economic aspects of the effectiveness of foreign aid on the two gap model home goods disequilibrium and real exchange rate misalignment we construct an open economy disequilibrium model to assess the welfare effects of aid in different macroeconomic regimes aid is shown to have different effects in different unemployment regimes because it increases the social costs of wage price rigidities in the classical regime but decreases them in the keynesian unemployment regime a link is made with the two gap model but we highlight the role of real exchange rate misalignment failure to clear the nt goods market

what does japanese trade structure tell us about japanese trade policy some argue foreign access to japanese markets remains tightly controlled and that if japan is to be a member in good standing of the international economic system japan must do more than just adhere to the formal rules of the gatt japan must show by the results of its international economic transactions that foreign access to its market is not tightly controlled as this point of view is increasingly dominating american economic diplomacy with japan it is particularly important that its premise be examined first i examine japan s growth record and trade record to the extent that japan s trade performance is different i explore whether the difference can legitimately be attributed to japanese policies this paper finds that neither the price behavior of japanese firms nor the pattern and volume of what japan imports or exports suggests that japan s trade regime is different some of japan s economic institutions may be distinctive but there is little evidence they produce outcomes which distort the international economic system what remains to be explained is the conviction of so many that japan is more a parasite than a pillar of the international economic system the record of economic research directly and indirectly bearing on this issue does not support such a conclusion at all

resource based industry in boom downswing and liberalization mexico abstract mexico s oil windfall was advantageously later and smaller than that of most oil exporters but it was still absorbed too quickly inflation accelerated the exchange rate appreciated and diversification into competitive non oil tradeables like resource based industry rbi was retarded too much rbi investment was channelled through state enterprises whose performance deteriorated it relied heavily on the protected domestic market which fell short of projections excess capacity and inadequate revenues then made rbi vulnerable as mexico rapidly liberalized its economy in the late 1980s

what explains the rise in ceo pay in germany a panel data analysis for 1977 2009 the compensation of executive board members in germany has become a highly controversial topic since vodafone s hostile takeover of mannesmann in 2000 and it is again in the spotlight since the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2009 based on unique panel data evidence of the 500 largest firms in germany in the period 1977 2009 we test two prominent hypothesis in the literature on executive pay the manager power hypothesis and the efficient pay hypothesis we find support for the manager power hypothesis for germany as executives tend to be rewarded when the sector is doing well rather than the firm they work for we reject however the efficient pay hypothesis as ceo pay and the demand for managers increases in germany in difficult times when the typical firm size shrinks we find further that domestic and global competition for managers has contributed to the rise in executive pay in germany lastly we show that ceos in the banking sector are provided with incentives for performance and that the great recession of 2009 acted as a disciplining devise on ceo pay in germany

savings growth and the resource curse hypothesis an important connection between recent attempts to understand the determinants of economic growth and the measurement of sustainability is the finding of a negative and significant relationship between natural resource abundance and economic growth this is the so called resource curse hypothesis using cross country regressions we offer evidence that the curse may itself be a manifestation of the inability of governments to manage large resource revenues sustainably in particular these results offer another perspective on the resource curse hypothesis the countries where growth has lagged are those where the combination of natural resource macroeconomic and public expenditure policies have led to a low rate of genuine saving net saving adjusted for resource depletion

the macroeconomic effects of direct foreign investment the case of thailand abstract earlier research on the macroeconomic impact of direct foreign investment dfi on the host economy focused particularly on the impact on growth and on the current account of the balance of payments findings were mixed but it was clear that the effects were not always positive and in fact quite often negative the recent upsurge in dfi flows are different from the past in that they are characterized by a strong concentration on export production it is therefore relevant to reassess the channels of macroeconomic impact and their intensity the present paper does this using thailand as an example it concludes that export oriented dfi is likely to have a positive effect on private investment and growth but can have adverse balance of payments consequences

human capital and economic development abstract this paper develops a general equilibrium model of fertility and human capital investment with young adult mortality because young adult mortality is negatively related to average young adult human capital human capital accumulation lowers mortality inducing demographic transition and industrial revolution data confirm that young adult mortality is related negatively to schooling and the rate of return to schooling and positively to fertility the data indicate a negative relationship between tfp growth and schooling accumulation the model fits the data on country populations per capita incomes human capital total fertility rates infant mortality life expectancy and conditional life expectancy

disability adjusted life years a critical review abstract the disability adjusted life year daly has emerged in the international health policy lexicon as a new measure of the burden of disease we argue that the conceptual and technical basis for dalys is flawed and its assumptions and value judgements are open to serious question in particular the implications of age weighting and discounting are found to be unacceptable moreover the proponents of dalys do not distinguish between the exercises of measuring the burden of disease and of allocating resources but the appropriate information sets for the two exercises are quite different allocating resources by aggregate daly minimization is shown to be inequitable

the theorems of international trade with factor mobility abstract this paper addresses the relation between goods trade and international factor mobility in general terms the basic theorems of international trade suitably interpreted are shown to hold in their strong versions if the number of international markets for goods and factors is at least as large as the number of factors the crucial dimensionality issue is hence not the relative number of goods and factors per se but the number of international markets relative to the number of factors only the price version of the heckscher ohlin theorem fails to be essentially preserved by this condition

the dynamic implications of foreign aid and its variability abstract the paper examines the effects of aid and its volatility on consumption investment and the structure of production in the context of an intertemporal two sector general equilibrium model calibrated using data for aid dependent countries in africa a permanent flow of aid mainly finances consumption rather than investment consistent with the historical failure of aid inflows to translate into sustained growth large aid flows are associated with higher real exchange rates and smaller tradable sectors because aid is a substitute for tradable consumption aid volatility results in substantial welfare losses providing a motivation for recent discussions of aid architecture stressing the need for greater predictability of aid these results are also consistent with evidence from cross country regressions of manufactured exports presented later in the paper

external shocks and growth prospects the case of brazil 1973 1989 this is a study of the factors underlying the current account deficits experienced by brazil since the mid 1970s it also explores the country s economic prospects through 1989 with the help of a simple macro simulations model the current account deficit is identically equal to the excess of domestic spending over national income provided that net external financing is available this excess may increase for a number of reasons prominent among them is an expansion of real domestic spending associated with increases either of real consumption expenditures or of real domestic capital formation even if domestic absorption is invariant the external deficit may worsen because of inadequate domestic pricing policies these may make it impossible for local firms to compete with cheaper foreign products thus forcing a contraction of national income and employment a temporary reduction of gnp below its potential value may also be caused by domestic supply shocks of a climatic or other nature however other factors can also cause a deterioration of the current account in this context this study investigates the factors underlying the evolution of the external accounts of brazil since the mid 1970s following an approach suggested in the dell report and elaborated by balassa the reasons for a deterioration of the current account are divided into three groups external shocks burden of accumulated debt and domestic policy actions the first group comprises terms of trade international interest rates and world recession the second includes the accumulated effect of past shocks and domestic policy actions finally the third group encompasses the variables supposedly under the control of local policy makers domestic absorption and the economy s tradability

are ceos really paid like bureaucrats a common view is that there is little correlation between firm performance and ceo pay using a new fifteen year panel data set of ceos in the largest publicly traded u s companies we document a strong relationship between firm performance and ceo compensation this relationship is generated almost entirely by changes in the value of ceo holdings of stock and stock options in addition we show that both the level of ceo compensation and the sensitivity of compensation to firm performance have risen dramatically since 1980 largely because of increases in stock option grants

resource abundance and economic growth in the united states abstract it is a common assumption that regions within the same country converge to approximately the same steady state income levels the so called absolute convergence hypothesis focuses on initial income levels to account for the variability in income growth among regions empirical data seem to support the absolute convergence hypothesis for us states but the data also show that natural resource abundance is a significant negative determinant of growth we find that natural resource abundance decreases investment schooling openness and r d expenditure and increases corruption and we show that these effects can fully explain the negative effect of natural resource abundance on growth

the macroeconomic impact of development aid a critical survey the early literature explained aid s macroeconomic impact in the context of the dual gap model showing a clear link between aid and growth many now believe that the empirical evidence shows there to be no such relationship this paper critically reviews the different theoretical perspectives the dual gap model the savings debate recipient fiscal response and aid as dutch disease and the empirical debates on aid savings and growth the basis for denying a relationship between aid and growth is shown to be weak though more recent areas of research offer promising directions for future work

benchmarking and transparency incentives for the pharmaceutical industry s corporate social responsibility with over 2 billion people lacking medicines for treatable diseases and 14 million people dying annually from infectious disease there is undeniable need for increased access to medicines there has been an increasing trend to benchmark the pharmaceutical industry on their corporate social responsibility csr performance in access to medicines benchmarking creates a competitive inter business environment and acts as incentive for improving csr this article investigates the corporate feedback discourses pharmaceutical companies make in response to criticisms from benchmarking reports it determines whether these responses are part of a healthy process in increasing access to medicines or a barrier to improvement a qualitative analysis on the feedback the industry provided was performed and the responses seen in these statements were grouped by analysing the language used the ideas portrayed and atti tudes of the companies increasing transparency through benchmarking is a powerful tool which reveals the industry s shortfalls to the public affects the decisions of socially responsible investors and is a risk to their financial bottom line this article demonstrates the importance of benchmarking and transparency in creating inter business competition and the translation of these responses to actual access to medicine practices

rates of return on physical and human capital in africa s manufacturing sector in this paper two sets of issues are addressed using panel data from the manufacturing sector of five african countries first how high are the returns to human relative to physical capital second what is the relative importance of technology and endowments of human and physical capital in determining differences in earnings and productivity across the countries evidence from earnings functions shows that the private returns to both experience and education rise with the level of education private returns rise from 3 per cent at the primary level to 10 per cent at the secondary level and 35 per cent for tertiary evidence from the production function gives lower returns on education than from the earnings function rates of return on physical capital exceed 20 per cent and greatly exceed the average return on human capital data is available on the stocks of human and physical capital across the countries productivity and earnings differentials are shown to be large between cameroon and ghana these differences are due almost entirely to differences in physical not human capital endowments this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

exports export composition and growth cointegration and causality evidence for malaysia this paper comprehensively tests the export led growth elg hypothesis for malaysia for the period 1955 90 using cointegration and causality testing based on hsiao s synthesis of the granger test and akaike s minimum final prediction error criterion the results provide support for the elg hypothesis aggregate exports granger cause real gdp and non export gdp this relationship is found to be driven by manufactured exports rather than by traditional exports

corporate responsibilities for access to medicines today there is a growing wave of demands being placed upon the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to improved access to medicines for poor patients in the developing countries 1 this article aims to contribute to the development of a systematic approach and broad consensus about shared benchmarks for good corporate practices in this area a consensus corridor on what constitutes an appropriate portfolio of corporate responsibilities for access to medicines especially under conditions of failing states and market failure 2 is not only in the interest of the world s poor but also of corporations that want to contribute to the solution of one of the most significant social problems of our time

economic transition policies in chinese resource based cities an overview of government efforts resource based cities in china have made momentous contributions to the development of the national economy for decades however with the depletion of natural resources their sustainable development is challenging and transition is important the chinese government has made great efforts to help resource based cities the purpose of this study is to investigate transition policies and their implementation firstly we reviewed previous studies and summarized the essential elements of some successful resource based cities which are useful experiences for chinese resource based cities secondly we studied the development of resource based cities over the past 10 years with a focus on economic development industrial structure government revenue and environmental conditions we found that resource based cities were less developed compared to other cities the main reasons are the after effects of a planned economy an unreasonable tax system planning mistakes and misguided resources exploitation policies thirdly we analyzed several aspects of the policy responses after the introduction of transition policies including designating 69 resource exhausted cities supporting cities with funds and projects formulating transition plans and evaluating transition performance however there are some deficiencies in the process of policy implementation finally some recommendations were provided to improve transition performance and sustainable development for resource based cities

total board remuneration and company performance using a hitherto neglected source of data this paper combines executive emoluments with executive options to construct a broader measure of executive pay than has been possible in earlier british studies the result of including the long term share option component of pay along with the more commonly utilized short term component of emoluments is to reveal executive pay as being significantly more sensitive to company performance than has previously been thought to be the case the paper questions the current policy stance of british institutional investors and of the greenbury committee with respect to executive share options copyright 1996 by royal economic society

globalization and the empowerment of talent globalization has been identified by many experts as a new way firms organize their activities and as the emergence of talent as the new stakeholder in the firm this paper examines the role of trade integration for the changing nature of the corporation international trade leads to a war for talent which makes it more likely that an organizational equilibrium emerges in the integrated world economy in which control is delegated to lower levels of the firms hierarchy empowering human capital furthermore trade integration is shown to lead to waves of outsourcing and to convergence in corporate cultures across countries

an east asian model of economic development japan taiwan and south korea the east asian model of economic development focuses on 5 shared characteristics that seem significant in the contemporary economic development of japan taiwan and korea they are economic characteristics and include 1 high investment ratios 2 small public sectors 3 competitive labor markets 4 export expansion and 5 government intervention in the economy large and efficient investments in human capital and well developed capacities to absorb new technology are 2 other economic features shared by the three one could add overcrowding high man land ratios and scarcity of natural resources though these are handicaps rather than sources of economic strength it is possible however that virtue springs from necessity and that ample arable land or abundant natural resources mainly permit governments to postpone the difficult decisions needed to promote development rather than provide the wherewithal needed to finance development other noneconomic characteristics of the three such as ethnic and linguistic homogeneity relatively compact geography manageable population size and the confucian tradition have not been considered in the model even though they have undoubtedly influenced labor productivity savings behavior and other aspects of economic performance whether the east asian model ought to be followed depends on whether current and foreseeable circumstances are sufficiently like those faced by the three to justify using the same policies that they used applicability of the east asian model should also depend on whether the strategy employed by the three has been responsible for their economic success 2 aspects of the east asian models policy features are noteworthy 1 the policies typically work by influencing rather than replacing private market decisions and 2 the public expects government to intervene to influence economic growth

does africa grow differently abstract this paper extends the analysis of african economic growth in two directions first by challenging the assumption that growth effects of particular explanatory variables are the same in africa as elsewhere and second by measuring indirect contributions to growth of initial conditions as they influence explanatory variables in a basic growth regression robust regression analysis shows that for africa being closed to trade is more costly to growth natural resource abundance is more detrimental to institutional development and several factors that reduce population growth and enhance institutional quality outside africa fail to show such beneficial effects within africa

minerals institutions openness and growth an empirical analysis competing explanations of the resource curse are tested using panel data the data support the existence of a mineral resource curse for developing countries with weak institutions consistent with the hypothesis that owners of mineral resources use weak institutions and openness to trade to stifle the development of human capital to the detriment of growth in other sectors of the economy manufacturing imports substitute for the development of domestic production so openness to trade correlates with lower growth in mineral dependent economies the dutch disease and debt overhang explanations of the resource curse are not supported

industrial policy reform in six large newly industrializing countries the resource curse thesis abstract all six large newly industrializing countries nics in this study favored an autarkic industrial policy aip in the 1950s aip required however the rapid build up of heavy and chemical industry hci which caused foreign exchange shortages if the hci matured slowly this is because the import and subsidy demands of the growing protected hci sector became too burdensome for the competitive primary sector whose rents shrank in relative importance as the economic structure evolved the two least well endowed nics abandoned aip early in favor of a competitive industrial policy cip which relied on labor intensive exports to earn foreign exchange and resulted in rapid economic growth in contrast the resource bonus of the four best endowed nics sustained aip longer but the longer aip lasted the harder it became to reform and the slow maturing hci sector adversely affected economic growth in this way the resource bonus became a curse rather than a blessing

the resource curse what have we learned from two decades of intensive research introduction to the special issue there has been increasing interest in the so called resource curse that is the tendency of resource rich countries to underperform in several development outcomes this has generated a mountain of often contradictory evidence leaving many floundering in the flood of information this special issue compiles eight papers from some of the most prominent contributors to this literature combining original research with critical reflection on the current stock of knowledge the studies collectively emphasise the complexities and conditionalities of the curse its presence intensity is largely context specific depending on the type of resources socio political institutions and linkages with the rest of the economy

economic freedom and productivity growth in resource rich economies summary the focus of this paper is to test whether free market institutions that protect property rights and support freedom of choice and voluntary exchange can change the curse of natural resources into a blessing to examine the above question this paper uses the fraser institute s economic freedom index and its five sub indices namely government size property rights access to sound money freedom to trade and setting proper regulations using data from 99 sample countries over the period 1970 2010 the system gmm estimates suggest that the negative growth effects of resource rents may turn positive in countries with greater economic freedom

globalization and the politics of natural resources much political science scholarship including important work in this journal has explored the implications of natural resource endowments particularly oil and other highly valuable export commodities on political and economic outcomes although the first wave of literature emphasized the negative effects of these resources more recent work emphasizes how domestic institutions can condition the relationship sometimes leading to positive effects in this special issue the authors expand this literature in two important ways first they renew attention on the international dimensions of this relationship exploring how trade migration foreign investment and other global forces influence the effects these resources have on countries second they link the study of the globalization natural resources nexus to broader debates in international and comparative political economy such as how domestic institutions shape the impact of globalization and how economic factors affect the political survival of r

corruption and the political economy of resource based development a comparison of asia and sub saharan africa we model how the supply and demand for bribes affects resource use by an economy and the reinvestment of resource rents in other assets this requires adjusting the world bank s measure adjusted net savings for any rent dissipation due to corruption the impacts of corruption on long run changes and periodic growth in the adjusted net savings rate are estimated across african and asian economies from 1970 to 2003 corruption rather than resource dependency per se affects negatively the ability of african countries to reinvest resource rents in the short term but for asian countries corruption is less important than point resources corruption influences long run growth in adjusted net savings rates in all countries and is also the pathway through which this growth is affected by patterns of resource use trade and abundance

globalization and the decline of the welfare state in less developed countries why have trends in government welfare spending in developing countries diverged from those in developed countries i address this question by investigating the effects of capital and trade flows on government welfare spending in fifty three developing countries using an original measure of labor power in developing countries i test the links between international markets labor s political strength and the welfare state i argue that labor s collective action problems caused by large populations of low skilled and surplus workers offset labor s potential political gains from globalization i show that when the proportion of low skilled workers in a nation is high globalization will lead to a decline in welfare spending most significantly the results suggest that in nations where labor market institutions are not yet well developed government social welfare spending is constrained by international market forces

trade matters in the fight against poverty narratives perceptions and lack of evidence in the case of fish trade in africa two opposing views exist in the literature on the potential role that international fish trade plays in economic development while some claim that fish trade has a pro poor effect others denounce the negative effect of fish export on local populations food security and doubt its contributions to the macro economy in this paper we explore this debate in sub saharan africa our analysis did not find any evidence of direct negative impact of fish trade on food security neither did it find evidence that international fish trade generates positive pro poor outcomes this paper discusses the possible reasons for this apparent lack of development impact and highlights the unsupported assumptions underlying the current discourse about international fish trade we suggest that given lack of evidence for the development benefits of fish trade between africa and developed countries fisheries policy could consider support for regional africa to africa trade that meets the growing african demand for lower value fish means of overcoming barriers to intra african trade in fish are discussed

do public investment and fdi crowd in or crowd out private domestic investment in malaysia motivated by the concern of a persistent decline in total investment in malaysia during the post crisis era this article examines the long run relationship between private domestic investment pdi public investment and foreign direct investment fdi in malaysia using multivariate cointegration techniques the results indicate a fairly robust cointegrated relationship between these variables during the period 1960 to 2003 both public investment and fdi are found to be complementary to rather than competing with pdi

why can mauritius export manufactures and ghana not exports of labour intensive manufactures from sub saharan africa are negligible with the exception of mauritius such exports from ghana are low relative to other sub saharan african countries and relative to what would be predicted by its factor endowment firm level data from the two countries is used to assess the reasons for this poor performance large firms those with more than 100 employees are much more likely to be in the export market than smaller firms it is shown that mauritian firms are four times more efficient than those in ghana while wages are six times higher however for large firms the productivity differential is similar but wages in mauritius are only three times those in ghana large firms in ghana cannot compete with those from mauritius due to their high wages relative to productivity this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

causal relationship between exports and economic growth some empirical evidence in taiwan japan and the us causal relationships between exports and economic growth are tested for taiwan the us and japan the variables are stationarized the method of hsiao 1979 is employed in finding the direction of causation wald and likelihood ratio tests confirm that exports growth in the us and a feedback causal relationship exists in japan only terms of trade causes economic growth in japan

a disaggregated analysis of eu imports the implications for the study of patterns of trade and technology this paper examines trends in the unit prices of manufactured imports into the european union eu in the period 1988 2002 this is undertaken at a high level of disaggregation and it is this decomposition which we believe has important implications both for a range of bodies of economic analysis and for policy the analyses undertaken in this paper confirm that disaggregation matters in helping to identify unit price trends we have also shown that unit price trends vary with the type of economy exporting into europe and the type of product being exported and that these results are robust at high levels of disaggregation

oil and democracy endogenous natural resources and the political resource curse by the end of the twentieth century a scholarly consensus emerged around the idea that oil fuels authoritarianism and slow growth the natural abundance once thought to be a blessing was unconditionally and then later only conditionally a curse for political and economic development we re examine the relationship between oil wealth and political regimes challenging the conventional wisdom that such natural resource rents lead to authoritarian outcomes we contend that most efforts to examine the causal linkages between natural resource abundance and political regime have been complicated by the likelihood that both democracy and oil revenue are endogenous to the industrialization processes itself particularly in its developmentalist form our quantitative results based on an analysis of global data from 1970 to 2006 show that both resource endogeneity and several mechanisms of intraregional regime diffusion are powerful determinants of democratic outcomes qualitative evidence from the history of industrialization in latin america yields support for our proposed causal claim oil wealth is not necessarily a curse and may even be a blessing with respect to democratic development