bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Knowledge and Power: A Critique of an International Relief Operation
Authors: Hendrie Barbara
Published: March 2003

Exploring an alternative way to approach famine relief interventions, this paper draws on the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault and David Keen's recent work on south‐west Sudan. It suggests that different discourses on ‘famine’ can lead to the dominance of certain kinds of institutional practices, and the prioritisation of special kinds of knowledge, at the expense of other modes of understanding and action. Using the case of the relief operation to Tigrayan refugees in eastern Sudan in 1984/5, the paper examines the specific ways in which ‘power’ was elaborated in the midst of the operation, and the manner in which institutional practices — designed to save as many lives as possible — influenced the reaction of international agencies to the spontaneous repatriation of the Tigrayans back to Ethiopia.
Crop Failure in Dalocha, Ethiopia: A Participatory Emergency Response
Authors: Howell Philippa
Published: March 2003

This case study of an NGO’s response to a food crisis due to crop failure focuses on the extent of active community participation at each stage of the project. With the current debate on the relationship between relief and development, and in particular the focus on encouraging more active community participation in relief responses, this study has relevance both in the Ethiopian context and beyond.

In this example the participation process was greatly facilitated by the prior relationship between the international NGO and the communities, and also by the high level of staff input into the project. Where resources or conditions are less favourable, as might be the case in similar responses by local NGOs or government agencies, the paper suggests that the participatory approach can be adapted or partially implemented and still result in a more effective and locally relevant operation.
Through Women’s Eyes: A Gendered Research Agenda for Disaster Social Science
Authors: Enarson Elaine
Published: March 2003

Gender is a central organising principle in social life and hence in disaster‐affected communities, yet gender issues are rarely examined by disaster scholars or practitioners. Building on findings from emerging and industrial nations, three key research directions are identified: How is gendered vulnerability to disaster constructed? How do gender relations shape the practice of disaster planning and response in households and organisations? How are gender relations affected over time by the social experience of disaster? The discussion suggests how analysis of the gendered terrain of disaster both develops disaster theory and fosters more equitable and effective disaster practice.
An Ombudsman for Humanitarian Assistance?
Authors: Mitchell John , Doane Deborah
Published: March 2003

The early phases of a project to design and make operational an ombudsman for humanitarian assistance (HAO) are described in this paper. Beginning with a brief historical overview of the ombudsman concept, it then outlines seven key features of a potential HAO that were identified in the initial feasibility study. The main conclusion from the feasibility study was that, in principle, it is possible to design an HAO by adapting the operational frameworks of existing ombudsman schemes so as to match the needs of the humanitarian sector. Although this seems possible in theory, there still remain some major challenges requiring practical testing in a pilot phase. The most fundamental of these is how to enable the beneficiaries of aid to make their voices heard and register their views on the management of the emergency that is affecting them. Important also, are the issues of ensuring an international jurisdiction and finding sustainable ways of financing the scheme. Finally, the paper alludes to the framework of the pilot itself and how to address the main challenges ahead.
Waiting for Peace: Perspectives from Action‐oriented Research on the Humanitarian Impasse in the Caucasus
Authors: Hansen Greg , Minear Larry
Published: March 2003

Cease‐fires in the Caucasus during the past five years have prevented large‐scale life‐threatening emergencies and created space for peace negotiations. Yet genuine conflict resolution and normalisation have proven elusive, frustrating the return of uprooted populations and constraining reconstruction. This paper reviews a series of seven strategy sessions held in Moscow and the Caucasus in late 1998 to reflect upon the performance of humanitarian agencies and stimulate greater synergies with diplomatic actors. An experiment in promoting discussion of recently conducted independent policy research throughout the north and south Caucasus, the series resulted in a fresh look at the issues in the region and at agency headquarters. The generic nature of the policy challenges gives the experience potential relevance well beyond the region.
Public Nutrition in Emergencies: An Overview of Debates, Dilemmas and Decision‐making
Authors: Young Helen
Published: March 2003

This paper introduces and discusses the main themes and issues arising from the workshop ‘International Public Nutrition in Emergencies: The Potential for Improving Practice’.

Good co‐ordination within the nutrition sector of the international humanitarian response system has led to a range of achievements in recent years. Major constraints to improving programme impact remain, however, including misconceptions about the scope of nutrition among the wider humanitarian system, which tends to give it a narrow focus on malnutrition and feeding people. In contrast to this limited view, the Public Nutrition approach brings a more broad‐based emphasis to assessing and responding to nutritional problems in emergencies, and takes into account the wider social, economic and political causes of malnutrition.

Six case study presentations illustrated the various components of a Public Nutrition approach, including in‐depth assessment, analysis and tailoring programmes accordingly. Additional presentations considered the nature of vulnerability, the concept of Public Nutrition, the responsibilities for addressing nutritional problems and some of the operational tools and frameworks in current use.

Participants agreed on the necessity of raising levels of awareness and understanding among all actors in the humanitarian sphere about the impact of their actions on nutrition. Strategies for achieving this included developing better multi‐sectoral working relationships and also strengthening relationships with donors and key decision‐makers in the humanitarian system. Other related strategies included institutional learning, training and capacity building, particularly in relation to institutions based in developing countries and building upon initiatives such as the Sphere Project, which has successfully brought together the various actors within the humanitarian system in order to improve quality of response.
What Happens to the State in Conflict?: Political Analysis as a Tool for Planning Humanitarian Assistance
Authors: Cliffe Lionel , Luckham Robin
Published: March 2003

It is now part of received wisdom that humanitarian assistance in conflict and post‐conflict situations may be ineffective or even counterproductive in the absence of an informed understanding of the broader political context in which so‐called ‘complex political emergencies’ (CPEs) occur. Though recognising that specific cases have to be understood in their own terms, this article offers a framework for incorporating political analysis in policy design. It is based on a programme of research on a number of countries in Africa and Asia over the last four years. It argues that the starting‐point should be an analysis of crises of authority within contemporary nation‐states which convert conflict (a feature of all political systems) into violent conflict; of how such conflict may in turn generate more problems for, or even destroy, the state; of the deep‐rooted political, institutional and developmental legacies of political violence; and of the difficulties that complicate the restoration of legitimate and effective systems of governance after the ‘termination’ of conflict. It then lists a series of questions which such an analysis would need to ask — less in order to provide a comprehensive check‐list than to uncover underlying political processes and links. It is hoped these may be used not only to understand the political dynamics of emergencies, but also to identify what kinds of policy action should and should not be given priority by practitioners.
Rendering the World Unsafe: ‘Vulnerability’ as Western Discourse
Authors: Bankoff Gregory
Published: March 2003

Disasters seem destined to be major issues of academic enquiry in the new century if for no other reason than that they are inseparably linked to questions of environmental conservation, resource depletion and migration patterns in an increasingly globalised world. Unfortunately, inadequate attention has been directed at considering the historical roots of the discursive framework within which hazard is generally presented, and how that might reflect particular cultural values to do with the way in which certain regions or zones of the world are usually imagined. This paper argues that tropicality, development and vulnerability form part of one and the same essentialising and generalising cultural discourse that denigrates large regions of world as disease‐ridden, poverty‐stricken and disaster‐prone.
Disaster Warning and Evacuation Responses by Private Business Employees
Authors: Drabek Thomas E.
Published: March 2003

When people are advised that their place of employment is threatened with disaster, how do they respond? Interviews with employees (n=406) of 118 businesses affected by one of seven recent disasters provide the first answers to this question. Multivariate analyses document the key variables that best predict variation are: 1) emergent perceptions of risk; 2) time of evacuation from work; 3) time of evacuation from home; 4) multiple evacuations; and 5) tension between work and family commitments. When warned of impending disaster, most employees initially responded with denial. Gradually, however, emergent perceptions of risk intensified especially among those living in communities in which the least amount of disaster planning had occurred or who resided in a mobile home or apartment. Highest levels of work and family tensions during these evacuations were reported by racial minority employees who had children living at home. Policy implications for these and other findings are discussed so as to pin‐point changes business managers should make that will enable them to provide the leadership and compassion expected by employees.
Review of Policies and Guidelines on Infant Feeding in Emergencies: Common Ground and Gaps
Authors: Seal Andrew , Taylor Anna , Gostelow Lola , McGrath Marie
Published: March 2003

Recent crises in regions where exclusive breastfeeding is not the norm have highlighted the importance of effective policies and guidelines on infant feeding in emergencies. In 1993, UNICEF compiled a collection of policy and guideline documents relating to the feeding of infants in emergency situations. In June 2000 Save the Children, UK, UNICEF and the Institute of Child Health undertook a review of those documents, updating the list and identifying the common ground that exists among the different policies. The review also analysed the consistency of the policy framework, and highlighted important areas where guidelines are missing or unclear. This article is an attempt to share more widely the main issues arising from this review.

The key conclusions were that, in general, there is consensus on what constitutes best practice in infant feeding, however, the lack of clarity in the respective responsibilities of key UN agencies (in particular UNICEF, UNHCR and WFP) over issues relating to co‐ordination of activities which affect infant‐feeding interventions constrains the implementation of systems to support best practice. Furthermore, the weak evidence base on effective and appropriate intervention strategies for supporting optimal infant feeding in emergencies means that there is poor understanding of the practical tasks needed to support mothers and minimise infant morbidity and mortality.

We, therefore, have two key recommendations: first that the operational UN agencies, primarily UNICEF, examine the options for improving co‐ordination on a range of activities to uphold best practice of infant feeding in emergencies; second, that urgent attention be given to developing and supporting operational research on the promotion of optimal infant‐feeding interventions.
The Livelihoods Gap: Responding to the Economic Dynamics of Vulnerability in Somalia
Authors: Le Sage Andre , Majid Nisar
Published: March 2003

A ‘livelihoods gap’ has become evident in international aid delivery to Somalia. Existing aid interventions do not address the economic dynamics of vulnerability resulting from Somalia’s long history of predatory development and asset stripping. To prevent poor households’ regular return to sub‐subsistence income levels after a brief period of plenty, this paper argues that aid agencies should reorient and expand existing interventions to assist poor households to capitalise on temporary improvements in environmental and security conditions. As a corollary to emergency relief and efforts to construct state institutions, it is necessary to devise country‐wide interventions that will rebuild household asset bases by protecting savings during times of stress and ensuring that markets benefit poor producers.
Emergency Relief, Crop Diversification and Institution Building: The Case of Sesame in The Gambia
Authors: Aubee Ernest , Hussein Karim
Published: March 2003

This article examines the case of the Catholic Relief Service’s (CRS) sesame support programme in The Gambia which has spanned more than 25 years. It outlines the transformation process from relief to development and the role that the production of an agricultural commodity, sesame, has played as a key building block. Following the drought of the 1980s, concerns to move away from dependence on food aid first led to agronomic trials of imported oilseed, then to the selection and dissemination of improved sesame varieties accompanied by an elaborate and costly support programme. This gradually developed into a long–term development–oriented intervention, paving the way for the development of a national women’s farmers’ organisation. The paper provides a case study of an intervention that has gone beyond the provision of seed to address agronomic research and extension, policy, marketing and institutional issues necessary for successful crop diversification.
Le partenariat public‐OSBL dans les services sociaux. Le cas espagnol
Authors: Chaves Rafael , Sajardo Moreno Antonia
Published: March 2003

The article considers the social services supply in the Spanish area of Valencia. The objective is double. First the authors analyse what describes the partnership between public sector and NPO in this area, by using a systemic conception of the social services sector where three main functions can be identified (financing, production and distribution, and regulation). Secondly they search for theoretical arguments explaining this partnership principle. This second section is mainly based on the NPO approach.
La Configuration Stratégique de l’entreprise mixte: pour la distinction public vs privé au plan organisationnel
Authors: Bédard Michel G. , Tereraho Max N. , Bernier Luc
Published: March 2003

The present document attempts to provide a global understanding of the ways in which the mixed corporation differs from public and private firms. Its main objectives are to: 1) identify how organizational theory specialists distinguish mixed firms from those which are purely public or private; 2) redefine the lines of thought which can serve to classify public, mixed and private firms from an organizational perspective; 3) formulate research proposals related to the functioning and survival of mixed firms operating alongside public and private firms.

This document aims to constitute a synthesis of the ideas and empirical knowledge already acquired about the nature and functioning of mixed firms, in order to identify the means by which this type of firm can become specific and distinct from public and private firms as an object of study. Specifically, our review of the literature is intended to lead to the development of an organizational approach which will distinguish between public, mixed and private enterprises.

We undertake the integration of hybrid, resource dependence, strategic choice, organizational ecology and institutionalism theories in order to develop criteria of distinction between the public, mixed and private categories, as well as between sub‐categories of mixed firms, so as to arrive at a strategic configuration perspective of the organization.

Use of the model is illustrated by examples taken from observation of a number of mixed Western European and Canadian firms. Research proposals on the distinctive character and variety of mixed firms are also outlined in view of future empirical verification.
Inefficiency in the Spanish Cooperative Banking Sector
Authors: Marco Gual M.A. , Moya Clemente I.
Published: March 2003

This paper researches X‐inefficiency and scale economies in Spanish cooperative banking between 1988 and 1996, using the stochastic cost frontier methodology. The Translog cost function, with three outputs and three inputs, is used to measure X‐inefficiencies across time and size. During this period of time there is no important reduction in inefficiency levels, so deregulation and internationalization has little effect on the Spanish cooperative banking market. We can see that large cooperative banks are less inefficient than small ones, indicating that it would be convenient to increase the size of these kinds of banks in order to reduce inefficiencies in this sector. We also find scale economies during this period.
Is Fiscal Progressivity Enhanced by Redistribution in Kind?
Authors: Pettini A.
Published: March 2003

This paper considers the redistributive effects of four mixed fiscal systems in which redistribution in cash is combined with redistribution in kind. A private good is offered by both the public and the private sector, at a non‐zero price in both cases, so that the market is vertically segmented and the quality differences are used to select recipients on the basis of their income. This paper shows how an appropriate selection of recipients can add redistributive power to an already redistributive taxation system, while universal public provision never does. A numerical simulation gives some policy insights.
Impacts de l'ouverture à la concurrence sur la R&D dans le secteur électrique
Authors: Defeuilley C. , Furtado A. T.
Published: March 2003

The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of the opening of the competitive arena in regulated markets on the nature and intensity of innovation. The cases of the electricity sectors in the USA and England & Wales are taken as examples. The present condition and the evolution of R&D programmes and institutions in the American and English electric sectors are analysed. We show that the current regulatory reforms lead to significant cuts in R&D programmes, especially those focusing on new technological fields.
Some Theoretical and Practical Implications of the Attempted Takeover of a Consumer Cooperative Society
Authors: Birchall J.
Published: March 2003

The article begins with some observations about the trend towards demutualization of mutual and co‐operative businesses, and then presents a case study of one, rather dramatic, example: the attempted takeover of Europe’s largest consumer co‐operative, CWS. It draws on original research into the takeover bid to provide a summary of what happened and when, and then asks some important questions about whether consumer co‐operatives are inherently less efficient than PLCs in the retail sector; whether they can make themselves safe from takeover; if they do survive, how they can justify their existence as member‐owned businesses; and whether there are alternative forms such as worker or multi‐stakeholder ownership that can achieve the broad aims of the co‐operative sector more effectively. It concludes that if CWS and similar organizations are to survive they must integrate the two aspects of a co‐operative—the business and the association—and take seriously the opportunities and responsibilities that being a member‐owned organization implies.
Children and War in Sierra Leone: A West African Diary
Authors: Wilson Richard
Published: March 2003

In June 2001, Richard Wilson participated in a technical meeting on children's participation and protection in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Sierra Leone, organized by UNICEF and the Human Rights Forum of Sierra Leone. The Report ‘Children and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Sierra Leone’, will be delivered in late 2001 to the UN Security Council. This is his diary of the drafting process.
Voices from the Black Box: Folk Song, Boy Scouts and the Construction of Folk Nationalist Hegemony in Hungary, 1930–1944
Authors: Hirsch Eric
Published: March 2003

In the late 1930's, Hungarian nationalists initiated a variety of group activities intended to foster a profound sense of personal connection to territories lost to the Hungarian state after World War I. Many involved collecting or performing folk songs, as folk music science was central to the Hungarian nationalist belief in an enduring “folk soul.” The Boy Scout Ethnography Program was a prime example, encouraging children to experience themselves, the territories and their peoples as “deeply Hungarian.” But nationalist ideologues did not “create” experiences of deepened nationality; the scouts actively worked to make sensible a highly contradictory ideology. Thus ideologues and their targets worked together to build nationalist hegemony.
Crime and the City Solution: Crime Fiction, Urban Knowledge, and Radical Geography
Authors: Howell Philip
Published: March 2003

Radical urban geography has recently begun a critique of crime fiction, seeing its ideological shortcomings as politically instructive. This paper argues that this critique is theoretically naive and suggests that a concentration on the epistemological claims of both fiction and urban geography is more fruitful. The paper turns the critique back on radical geography and celebrates the critical possibilities of some forms of crime fiction. Specifically, the police procedurals of British author John Harvey are used to illustrate the genre's ability to articulate alternative epistemologies, ways of knowing the city that track the structure of everyday life and thus offer a critical, realistic, and reflexive approach to the city and itsproblems.
Vagabond Capitalism and the Necessity of Social Reproduction
Authors: Katz Cindi
Published: March 2003

A vagabond, as is well known, moves from place to place without a fixed home. However, vagabondage insinuates a little dissolution—an unsettled, irresponsible, and disreputable life, which indeed can be said of the globalization of capitalist production. This paper reframes the discussion on globalization through a materialist focus on social reproduction. By looking at the material social practices through which people reproduce themselves on a daily and generational basis and through which the social relations and material bases of capitalism are renewed—and the havoc wreaked on them by a putatively placeless capitalism—we can better expose both the costs of globalization and the connections between vastly different sites of production. Focusing on social reproduction allows us to address questions of the making, maintenance, and exploitation of a fluidly differentiated labor force, the productions (and destructions) of nature, and the means to create alternative geographies of opposition to globalized capitalism. I will draw on examples from the “First” and “Third Worlds” to argue that any politics that effectively counters capitalism's global imperative must confront the shifts in social reproduction that have accompanied and enabled it. Looking at the political‐economic, political‐ecological, and cultural aspects of social reproduction, I argue that there has been a rescaling of childhood and suggest a practical response that focuses on specific geographies of social reproduction. Reconnecting these geographies with those of production, both translocally and across geographic scale, begins to redress the losses suffered in the realm of social reproduction as a result of globalized capitalist production.

The paper develops the notion of “topography” as a means of examining the intersecting effects and material consequences of globalized capitalist production. “Topography” offers a political logic that both recognizes the materiality of cultural and social difference and can help mobilize transnational and internationalist solidarities to counter the imperatives of globalization.
Cities and the Geographies of “Actually Existing Neoliberalism”
Authors: Brenner Neil , Theodore Nik
Published: March 2003

This essay elaborates a critical geographical perspective on neoliberalism that emphasizes (a) the path–dependent character of neoliberal reform projects and (b) the strategic role of cities in the contemporary remaking of political–economic space. We begin by presenting the methodological foundations for an approach to the geographies of what we term “actually existing neoliberalism.” In contrast to neoliberal ideology, in which market forces are assumed to operate according to immutable laws no matter where they are “unleashed,” we emphasize the contextual embeddedness of neoliberal restructuring projects insofar as they have been produced within national, regional, and local contexts defined by the legacies of inherited institutional frameworks, policy regimes, regulatory practices, and political struggles. An adequate understanding of actually existing neoliberalism must therefore explore the path–dependent, contextually specific interactions between inherited regulatory landscapes and emergent neoliberal, market–oriented restructuring projects at a broad range of geographical scales. These considerations lead to a conceptualization of contemporary neoliberalization processes as catalysts and expressions of an ongoing creative destruction of political–economic space at multiple geographical scales. While the neoliberal restructuring projects of the last two decades have not established a coherent basis for sustainable capitalist growth, it can be argued that they have nonetheless profoundly reworked the institutional infrastructures upon which Fordist–Keynesian capitalism was grounded. The concept of creative destruction is presented as a useful means for describing the geographically uneven, socially regressive, and politically volatile trajectories of institutional/spatial change that have been crystallizing under these conditions. The essay concludes by discussing the role of urban spaces within the contradictory and chronically unstable geographies of actually existing neoliberalism. Throughout the advanced capitalist world, we suggest, cities have become strategically crucial geographical arenas in which a variety of neoliberal initiatives—along with closely intertwined strategies of crisis displacement and crisis management—have been articulated.
Onomastic, orthographic, dialectal and dialectical borders: The Lisu and Lahu
Authors: Bradley David
Published: March 2003

Two large minority groups of China, Burma and Thailand, the Lisu and the Lahu, have each reinforced their identity through the use of standard dialects and writing systems. They also maintain regular contact despite continuing migration over very large distances. The level of political recognition that they have received differs from country to country, and the names used by majority groups to refer to them also differ, but despite this a transnational unity has been maintained or even enhanced in the last hundred years.
Claiming and naming resources on the border of the state: Akha strategies in China and Thailand
Authors: Sturgeon Janet C.
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the intersection of state policies and local interests in allocating and managing resources in mountainous border areas of China and Thailand. These two states differ markedly in policies and approaches both to forests and to ethnic minorities on the periphery. The first section of the paper traces the history of policies in both countries for forested border areas and for forest‐dependent ethnic minorities. The next section explores the evolution of property rights, land use, and the meaning of resources for one Akha village in China, and one in Thailand, in response to these dramatically different political economies. The final section considers some current outcomes for both the Akha and the local landscape as a result of these differing policy histories, and Akha strategies for claiming and using resources under these two regimes.
The setting: demographic mosaic of the Asia Pacific region — issues defining the future
Authors: Hull Terence H.
Published: March 2003

The Asia Pacific region is demographically extremely diverse, with respect to both the sizes of national populations and the processes that determine population growth. Nevertheless, it is clear that in the 1990s development planning needs primarily to confront the implications not of continued high fertility, but of often rapid fertility decline to as yet uncertain levels. This paper briefly discusses these themes as a scene‐setter for the papers which follow.
The impact of cash cropping on shifting cultivation in Sabah, Malaysia
Authors: Lim Jennifer Nyuk‐Wo , Douglas Ian
Published: March 2003

Pressure from the state government to abandon shifting cultivation and of the market to increase the production of cash crops are causing not simply a reduction in the practice of shifting cultivation in Sabah, Malaysia but marked alterations in the way many remote communities grow hill rice. Many traditional practices have been abandoned including the substitution of cash payments for community labour co‐operation (gotong‐royong), the use of traditional methods to monitor soil fertility such as maintaining fallow periods and the selection of appropriate hill rice varieties. The result has been a reduction in labour input, a shortage of land, continuous production, increased used of weedicides and a general failure to continue sustainable agricultural practices. Despite state incentives to abandon the practice the pressure to maintain real incomes among the rural communities has meant a continuation of the practice of shifting cultivation but under conditions which are now resulting in land degradation, slope instability and soil infertility.
Local geographies of globalisation: rural agglomeration in the Chinese countryside
Authors: Marton Andrew M.
Published: March 2003

China’s rural enterprises were responsible for 48 per cent of the $US 151 billion in exports and absorbed nearly 20 per cent of total foreign direct investment in 1996. Clearly, the significant and increasing role of rural enterprises in China’s integration with the world economy demands attention. The penetration of global capital into the rural enterprise sector and the desire of such enterprises to benefit from expansion into international markets have important implications at the local level. The impact of international, domestic and local forces on institutional and structural reforms is reflected in particular spatial outcomes in rapidly developing non‐urban regions. Local authorities have responded to external forces in ways which do not conform to the conventional expectations. Evidence from the lower Yangtze (Yangzi) delta reveals how the supposedly universalising pressures of globalisation have been mediated and adapted at the local level, particularly in terms of enterprise location and the proliferation of special zones. Expanding on the desakota hypothesis, the notion of rural agglomeration is introduced to capture the paradox of spatial economic transformation as it was linked to local circumstances, and localised responses to external pressures of globalisation.
The geography of the wages: Chinese cities 1989 and 1997
Authors: Wang Fahui
Published: March 2003

Improving national average income and reducing regional income inequality often serve as dual goals of economic development in a country. After over twenty years of economic reforms, China has been fairly successful in achieving the first goal, but failed in the second. This paper uses recent data with a sharper resolution to examine the variation of average wages across Chinese cities 1989–1997. Widening wage inequalities across cities are observed during the period. This research also seeks to explain the variation of wages between cities by factors such as agglomeration (density and city size), location advantages (distances from central cities and from the coastline), educational attainment, industrial structure and administrative hierarchy. Many of the factors are found to be important in explaining wage differences in Western countries but are yet to be tested in China. Some factors such as distance from the coast, industrial structure and administrative hierarchy are considered because of China’s unique social and economic systems.
NGO capacity building and sustainability in the Paciﬁc
Authors: Low Will , Davenport Eileen
Published: March 2003

Abstract: As the work of NGOs broadens and becomes more complex, concerns about their capacity and sustainability will loom much larger and have more signiﬁcant implications for development processes. The main issue addressed in this paper is how NGOs and donors variously view the relationship between capacity building and ﬁnancial and organisational sustainability. To this end we ﬁrstly explore varying deﬁnitions of capacity building, highlighting distinctly Paciﬁc perspectives of the concept and subsequently look at emerging practices used by Paciﬁc NGOs to create sustainable organisations. The role of donor organisations in Paciﬁc NGO capacity building is critiqued. We conclude that despite considerable rhetoric about the need for donors to adopt more co‐ordinated approaches to capacity building, there is limited evidence to suggest that donors are prepared to act together to set up, for example, joint capacity building funds. Donors must accept that the long‐term processes of development and the roles played by Non‐Governmental and Community Based Organisations require a rethinking of the standard funding cycle and the focus on ‘exit strategies’.
Stock Market Development, Liquidity Constraint and Investment: A Case of Korean Jaebol and Non‐Jaebol Manufacturing Firms in the 1980s
Authors: Kong Myungjai
Published: March 2003

The Korean stock market experienced sudden growth in mid‐1986. Since then, Korean firms have begun to rely on the stock market as a reliable source of funds. This paper analyses the change in financing behaviour after the 1986 Korean stock market development. Many researchers argue that in developed countries, the liquidity constraint binds a firm's investment decisions. What then is the effect of liquidity on firms in developing countries?

These issues will be examined by using a Tobin’s Q model of investment. A total of 171 Korean manufacturing firms, both Jaebol and Non‐Jaebol, are investigated for the 1980s. Most empirical studies have not shown an economically large and significant Q effect when cash flow is used in the model. However, empirical results here show that with a strong liquidity effect, Q is large and statistically significant, implying a moderate adjustment cost.
Household Income Determination and Regional Income Differential in Rural China
Authors: Meng Xin , Wu Harry X.
Published: March 2003

Regional income dispersion is a sensitive issue in China in terms of judging the impact of economic reform. Issues at which this study looks closely are what are the determinants of income variation among households in general, and which are the key determinants of income dispersion among different regions. The study uses the data from a sample survey on 1,000 rural households in five Chinese provinces. Household income equations are estimated to assess the determinants of income variations among China's rural households. Blinder’s (1973) decomposition approach is used to determine whether the regional income differential is mostly due to regional endowment differential or to regional premium. Among other interesting findings, the major determinant of regional income dispersion seems to be the degree of regional marketization. Moreover, the rate of return to most factors is significantly different across regions. These findings suggest that further economic reform in less developed regions and the opening up of inter‐regional trade and factor mobility are the most important factors in reducing the regional income differential.
Implications for Savings of Aging in the Asian ‘Tigers’
Authors: Heller Peter S. , Symansky Steven
Published: March 2003

Significant aging is projected for many high‐saving emerging economies of East and Southeast Asia. By 2025, the share of the elderly in their populations will at least double in most of these countries. The share of the young will fall. Aging populations could adversely affect savings rates in these economies, particularly after 2025. For the world, one may observe that initially, the Asian Tigers become increasingly important for world savings, reflecting their high saving and growth rates and the aging of the industrial countries. After 2025, the aging of the Tigers may reinforce the tendency toward a declining world savings rate.
Financial Deregulation and the Bank Lending Channel in Developing Countries: The Case of Indonesia
Authors: Agung Juda
Published: March 2003

The dominant role of commercial banks as a source of finance and the considerable asymmetry of information in financial markets in developing countries have raised an argument that the bank lending channel of monetary transmission mechanism would be very important in such countries. This study addresses the issue by investigating empirically whether there are differential effects of monetary policy on banks' balance sheets, and its implications to the existence of the bank lending channel of monetary policy in Indonesia, especially since the early 1980s when the government adopted a policy of financial deveculation. We find significant differences of balance sheet behaviour across bank classes in response to a change in monetary policy, consistent with the predictions of the bank lending view. We also found that because of access to foreign funds and the existence of bank loan commitment, the monetary policy was unable to constrain loan supply by the large (state) banks, indicating that the bank lending channel operates through smaller (non‐state) banks.
Fiscal Decentralization and Poverty Alleviation in a Transitional Economy: The Case of Viet Nam
Authors: Rao M. Govinda , Bird Richard M. , Litvack Jennie I.
Published: March 2003

Intergovernmental fiscal arrangements may play an important role in ameliorating poverty in many countries. Successful poverty alleviation generally requires both ‘capacity improving’ and ‘safety net’ policies, and both types of policies may, to some extent, be implemented through, or affected by, intergovernmental transfers. From this perspective, we analyse the efficacy of intergovernmental fiscal arrangements in poverty alleviation in a transitional economy, Viet Nam. We argue that both general and specific transfers are needed for this purpose: the former to enable all provinces to provide a given basket of public services at a given tax‐price by offsetting their revenue and cost disabilities and the latter to ensure that minimum levels of those public services provided by lower levels of government are targeted to the poor throughout the country.
Productivity, Growth and Economic Integration in the Southern China Region
Authors: Wu Yanrui
Published: March 2003

Since the late 1970s, the economies of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guangdong and Fujian together have formed one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Rapid growth in trade and investment flows among these economies has led to anincreasingly integrated sub‐regional economic bloc. How has economic integration affected productivity performance among the economies involved? Has regionalintegration led to convergence in growth and efficiency? These are some of the questions that this paper attempts to deal with. Both time‐series and panel‐data models have been employed to examine productivity, technological progress and efficiency in the four economies.
A Comparative Study in the levels of Human Values: People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States
Authors: Echter Tamara , Kim Uichol , Kau Ching‐ven James , Li Hong‐Ceng , Simmons Carolyn , Ward Colleen
Published: March 2003

This study investigates the relative importance of human values at four levels: (a) global, (b) national, (c) family, and (d) individual, among university students from four countries – the United States (137 females, 78 males, one unspecified), the People’s Republic of China (66 females, 170 males, one unspecified), Taiwan (156 females, 101 males), and Singapore (148 females, 119 males). Students rated the importance of passing on the 68 items in the Child Socialization Value Survey to their children or to future generations. Principal Components Analysis was performed on the pooled sample of student responses and revealed a five‐factor solution described by: universalism, family, nationalism, prestige, and autonomy. This study demonstrates that the values endorsed by samples of Chinese across different geopolitical backgrounds are not consistent.
Standardization of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory: The prototype standardization method and its rationale
Authors: Yung Yiu‐Fai , Chan Wai , Cheung Fanny M.‐C. , Leung K. , Law Japhet S. , Zhang J.‐X.
Published: March 2003

Methods and techniques for the standardization of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) are reviewed and discussed. Based on the idea of the UT transformation (Tellegen & Ben‐Porath, 1992), a general method called prototype standardization is applied to the clinical scales as well as the personality scales of the CPAI. The rationale of the prototype standardization method is explained. Some variations of the basic methodology are suggested and applied to the CPAI. It is demonstrated that the prototype standardization of the CPAI yields desirable psychometric properties such as percentile comparability across scales and preservation of the correlation structures of the scales, even for the personality scales of the CPAI that do not have a homogeneous distributional shape. We conclude that prototype standardization is a useful method for standardizing all kinds of personality inventories consisting of a large number of scales.
The Total Factor Productivity Debate: Determinants of Economic Growth in East Asia
Authors: Chen Edward K.Y.
Published: March 2003

This survey article examines the recent studies of technological change or total factor productivity (TFP) as a source of growth in East Asian economies. The major objective of the paper is to show that in the end the importance of technological change in economic growth depends largely on how TFP is defined and measured. The conclusions drawn by Alwyn Young and Paul Krugman are based too much upon the assumption that all technological change is TFP. Section II reviews the conceptual and empirical literature on this subject since the 1950s. Section III surveys the TFP studies of East Asian economies, with particular reference to the recent claims that TFP is generally insignificant. Section IV discusses the prospects for East Asian economic growth and dispels the pessimism of such authors as Young and Krugman.
t‐Latinized Designs
Authors: John J.A. , Williams E.R.
Published: March 2003

A variety trial sometimes requires a resolvable block design in which the replicates are set out next to each other. The long blocks running through the replicates are then of interest. A t‐latinized design is one in which groups of these t long blocks are binary. In this paper examples of such designs are given. It is shown that the algorithm described by John & Whitaker (1993) can be used to construct designs with high average efficiency factors. Upper bounds on these efficiency factors are also derived.
Theory and Methods: Likelihood‐based Estimation of the Regression Model with Scrambled Responses
Authors: Strachan Rodney , King Maxwell , Singh Sarjinder
Published: March 2003

A significant problem in the collection of responses to potentially sensitive questions, such as relating to illegal, immoral or embarrassing activities, is non‐sampling error due to refusal to respond or false responses. Eichhorn & Hayre (1983) suggested the use of scrambled responses to reduce this form of bias. This paper considers a linear regression model in which the dependent variable is unobserved but for which the sum or product with a scrambling random variable of known distribution, is known. The performance of two likelihood‐based estimators is investigated, namely of a Bayesian estimator achieved through a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling scheme, and a classical maximum‐likelihood estimator. These two estimators and an estimator suggested by Singh, Joarder & King (1996) are compared. Monte Carlo results show that the Bayesian estimator out‐performs the classical estimators in all cases, and the relative performance of the Bayesian estimator improves as the responses become more scrambled.
Theory & Methods: Generalized exponential distributions
Authors: Gupta Rameshwar D. , Kundu Debasis
Published: March 2003

The three‐parameter gamma and three‐parameter Weibull distributions are commonly used for analysing any lifetime data or skewed data. Both distributions have several desirable properties, and nice physical interpretations. Because of the scale and shape parameters, both have quite a bit of flexibility for analysing different types of lifetime data. They have increasing as well as decreasing hazard rate depending on the shape parameter. Unfortunately both distributions also have certain drawbacks. This paper considers a three‐parameter distribution which is a particular case of the exponentiated Weibull distribution originally proposed by Mudholkar, Srivastava & Freimer (1995) when the location parameter is not present. The study examines different properties of this model and observes that this family has some interesting features which are quite similar to those of the gamma family and the Weibull family, and certain distinct properties also. It appears this model can be used as an alternative to the gamma model or the Weibull model in many situations. One dataset is provided where the three‐parameter generalized exponential distribution fits better than the three‐parameter Weibull distribution or the three‐parameter gamma distribution.
Theory & Methods: An EM algorithm for estimating negative binomial parameters
Authors: Adamidis Konstantinos
Published: March 2003

An EM algorithm is proposed for computing estimates of parameters of the negative bi‐nomial distribution; the algorithm does not involve further iterations in the M‐step, in contrast with the one given in Schader & Schmid (1985). The approach can be applied to the corresponding problem in the logarithmic series distribution. The convergence of the proposed scheme is investigated by simulation, the observed Fisher information is derivedand numerical examples based on real data are presented.