pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Uncounted or illusory blessings? Competing responses to the Easterlin, Easterbrook and Schwartz paradoxes of well-being

The Easterlin paradox concerns slight or negligible increases in personal satisfaction reported as income rises beyond high middle income levels. Sister paradoxes highlighted by Easterbrook and Schwartz concern the frequent low or negligible impact on personal satisfaction of improvements in various dimensions of life. The paper identifies a range of responses to the paradoxes, shows how these responses reflect a series of different conceptions of the meaning of well-being, and assesses their cogency. It indicates areas where follow-on research is required. Copyrigh
Right to water and access to water

This paper examines the scope for a rights-based perspective on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by focusing on right to water. The paper adapts Hohfeldian framework of elements of a right developed by Wenar. According to this, a right should be interpreted in terms of powers, privileges, claims and immunities. This framework highlights the inter-connections between various aspects of governance and the effectiveness of a right to water. The conjecture whether the poor are more likely to have access to water when there is a right to water is examined with data (from WHO–UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme) pertaining to a small sample of countries where a right to water has been promulgated and some others where such right has not been promulgated. The impact of governance on improving access to water is examined using indicators from Governance Matters V (Kaufman et al., 2006). This analysis suggests that mechanisms of governance may be more important in improving access to water than a formal articulation of a right to water. Some challenges to operationalising a right to water are discussed.
Saving and economic growth in India

This paper studies the relationship between GDP and saving in India.  During the last few years, the saving rate has fallen marginally raising concern that it might adversely affect economic growth.  We take a long run view.  We explore whether there is a long run relationship between GDP and saving.  In doing so, we distinguish between gross domestic saving and gross domestic private saving.  We posit that gross domestic private saving rather than gross domestic saving is  more important in determining GDP.  We find that both gross domestic saving and gross domestic private saving are cointegrated with GDP.  However, causality tests between the growth of gross domestic saving/the growth of private domestic saving and the growth of GDP indicate that the causality does not run in any direction.
Poverty among the Elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper provides evidence on the incidence of poverty among the elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean, based on household survey microdata from 20 countries. The situation of older people is characterized in terms of income, employment, education, health and access to services vis-à-vis the rest of the population. The paper identifies the role played by the current pension systems in Latin America, and assesses the efforts needed to achieve substantial improvements toward the reduction of old-age poverty.
Choosing the Currency Structure of Foreign-currency Debt: a Review of Policy Approaches

Starting from the constraints and incentives that cause countries to issue debt in foreign currency, this paper provides an overview of policy approaches for choosing
the optimal currency structure of sovereign foreign-currency debt. The objective of sovereign debt managers generally includes both risk and cost minimization, while
constraints to foreign-currency debt allocation originate in the parameters of the domestic macroeconomy, the shocks it faces, and the initial conditions. Overall, the main parameters that drive the solutions for optimal currency allocation of foreign-currency debt are the covariances of macrovariables with exchange rates and the variances of different exchange rates. Both the covariances and the exchange rate volatility can be deceptive when a fixed exchange rate regime is maintained, however. To adequately capture the expected covariances in the context of managed
exchange rate regimes, we suggest that sovereign debt managers work with equilibrium instead of actual exchange rates. For the same reason and because the estimates of relative exchange rate variances should be forward looking, we suggest using synchronization indicators in the policy analysis to better capture the underlying drivers of exchange rate volatility across currencies.
The use of microfinance services among economically active disabled people: Evidence from Uganda

Authors version of an article in the journal: Journal of International Development. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jid.1720This study investigates the use of microfinance services among economically active disabled people in Uganda. The findings suggest that disabled people make more use of microfinance services than previously assumed. A total of 89 per cent of the survey's respondents state that they have used at least one type of microfinance service. Informal self-help schemes are more easily accessed than formal institutional schemes, and disabled people access more savings than loans. The multivariate analysis shows that access to microfinance services is positively related to education level. In addition, deaf people generally have less access to microfinance than those in other disability categories
‘Youthscapes’ and escapes in rural Africa : education, mobility and livelihood trajectories for young people in Eastern Cape, South Africa.

This paper draws attention to the significance of mobility in shaping the educational and livelihood trajectories of rural young people in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular reference to a case study in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Young rural people commonly face both economic and political exclusions. As our case study illustrates, in the context of work demands, restricted basic education and poverty, the potential for escape, whether to secondary education or city jobs, is limited and in some respects highly gendered. We draw principally on ethnographic material from interviews with people aged 9–18 years, their parents, teachers and other key informants
Technological Capabilities Asymmetries in Latin American and the Caribbean

This paper analyzes the convergence process in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 1960-2005 period. The evidence is not favorable to clear convergence or divergence trends, but to a slight process of convergence until the 1970s, and then global divergence. In turn, the results suggest the existence of transitory clubs of convergence during the 1960-1974 and 1990-1994 periods. After that, the lower income economies showed convergence to the relative richer countries, but in a context of increasing dispersion of the per capita income. The development accounting and the decomposition of the total factor productivity (TFP) indicate that those results are mainly explained by relative differences in the technological capabilities, and that the existence of structural differences is a key factor to explain the nonconvergence in technological capabilities. The efforts to integrate the economies were not enough to reduce the gap but the divergence in technological capabilities would have been worst without the integration process.
Power and interests in information and communication technologies and development: exogenous and endogenous discourses in contention

This paper illustrates the persistence of an exogenous model of development that underpins many interventions aimed at employing information and communication technologies (ICTs) to meet development goals. The analysis is based on a sample of texts from reports produced by United Nations agencies and the World Bank. The aim is to show how the discourse on ICT interventions invariably is reminiscent of a dominant exogenous model even when alternative models with respect to development are seen to influence policy and practice. It is argued that practice-based, emergence approaches offer an attractive, although insufficient, way forward
Formal Employment, Informal Employment and Income Differentials in Urban China

Oaxaca’s study (1973), along with the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) questionnaire (2004 and 2006 pooling data), is used as the basis for this study in estimating the formal-informal employment hourly income differential, as well as the formal and informal male-female employment hourly income differential in urban China. The results indicate that differences in the characteristics between formal and informal employment account for a much higher percentage of the hourly income differential than do discrimination. In addition, ignoring the sample selection bias, one finds the formal male-female, the informal male-female hourly income differential and the degree of discrimination against informal women’s employment will be overestimated; conversely, the degree of discrimination against formal women’s employment will be underestimated.
The World Bank's World Development Report 2011 on conflict, security and development: a critique through five vignettes

This article considers the World Bank's World Development Report 2011 on Conflict, Security and Development. It offers critical analysis of some of the WDR's underlying premises through five ‘vignettes’ focusing respectively on the report's bibliography, the work of Charles Tilly, the way that gangs are considered in the report, the Urban Pacification Programme in Rio de Janiero, and the report's discussion of job creation. Although the WDR 2011 is unquestionably a welcome contribution to debates about violence and development, it is also in many ways fundamentally flawed, most notably promoting a limited vision of the linkages between conflict, security and development
Self Help Groups and empowerment of women: Self-selection or actual benefits?

Evidence on success of SHGs in empowering females is mixed. In particular, researchers argue that such schemes often attract women who are already active in the public domain (referred to as ‘self-selection’), so that those who are most in need of assistance remain excluded. Simultaneously, the fact that a majority of the SHG members are already empowered leads to exaggerated estimates of the effects of the program (called ‘program effects’). This paper attempts to test the significance of the program effect of SHGs by comparing empowerment levels of newly inducted and older members of SHGs. The paper is based on a survey conducted in six municipalities in West Bengal, India.
Transforming water resources management in South Africa. 'Catchment management agencies' and the ideal of democratic development

This article addresses the dilemma of the democratic development of water resources
management in the context of Post-Apartheid South Africa and unequal access to water. Using a
political sociology of public policy approach as a conceptual framework, this article focuses on the
actual functioning of the catchment management agencies (CMAs). On the basis of case studies’
analysis, it is argued that CMAs are essentially political arenas although the semi-structured interviews
conducted reveal that this political dimension is mainly denied by most of CMAs members
and staff as well as by policy makers. Finally, the risks of professionalising interest representation
within CMAs are evoked.The French Embassy of South
 Africa and the South African Department of Science and Technology as part of the Joint
 South African–French network for research in science and technology—SAFeWater Arise
 project : New Water Governance over Water Resources for Sustainable Rural Development :
 Research on Social, Economic and Institutional Aspects.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1328hb2016Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen
The East-Central European new donors: mapping capacity building and remaining challenges

In the past decade, the East-Central European countries were provided significant external capacity building assistance in order to help their emergence as donors of\ud
foreign aid. This paper aims to map these capacity development programs and identify\ud
where they have helped and what challenges remain for the new donors. The main conclusion is that while capacity building has been instrumental in building\ud
organizational structures, working procedures and training staff, deeper underlying\ud
problems such as low levels of financing, lacking political will, the need for visibility\ud
and low staff numbers continue to hinder the new international development policies
Redefining informality and measuring its determinants: Evidence from the Russian labour market

Although informality impacts countries' economic development, the recent recession may have increased the incidence of informal activities. We take advantage of a rich data set on Russia before and after the economic downturn and demonstrate that the incidence of informal employment varies across the definitions. However, the determinants of informal employment are roughly stable across different measures, apart from firm size. Employing a direct measure of risk attitudes, we also show that risk-averse individuals are less likely to select themselves into informality. Regressions suggest a lower likelihood to be a formal employee post-2008, especially for individuals with little education and immigrants
Why aid is unpredictable: an empirical analysis of the gap between actual and planned aid flows

Aid flows continue to be volatile and unpredictable, even though it is widely accepted that this erodes the effectiveness of foreign aid. We argue that fragmented donor–recipient relationships, notably the large number of minor aid relations that tend to be associated with donors' desire to ‘fly their flag’ around the world, increase aid unpredictability. Our empirical analysis of the determinants of aid unpredictability suggests that aid becomes less predictable with more fragmented donor–recipient relationships. Specifically, the effect of fragmentation on overshooting previous spending plans is statistically significant and substantively important. In contrast, fragmented donor–recipient relationships have no effect on the shortfall of actual aid compared with donors' spending plans
Deregulation and access to medicines:  the Peruvian experience

How does the deregulation of medicine influence access to drugs? This paper provides an economic policy assessment of the effects of medicine deregulation drawing on the Peruvian experience between 1991 and 2006. As in other low-income countries, health insurance development is inadequate, drug expenditure is mostly paid out-of-pocket and approximately one third of the Peruvian population has limited access to ‘essential medicines’. Market deregulation in this context can exert an impact on prices and hence reduce access to medicines. Based on this evidence, we find that product and price deregulation of the medicines market appears to have reduced consumer trust of locally produced medicines, which in turn incentivised a switch to branded and more expensive drugs. The latter resulted in a further decreased access to medicines
Microfinance institutions' mission drift in macroeconomic context

We theoretically discuss the potential macroeconomic influences on MFIs’ depth of outreach and provide empirical evidence, using panel analysis, to investigate determinants of average loan balance per borrower as a percentage of national GNI per capita (ALB), as a proxy indicator for poverty focus or depth of outreach. ALB is found to be positively associated with operational self-sufficiency, a finding that is consistent with the mission drift hypothesis. But it is also positively associated with the shares in GDP of net foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic credit to the private sector (DCPS). This suggests mission drift is associated not only with MFI-specific factors, but also influence by macroeconomic context
South Africa’s emerging black middle class : a harbinger of political change?

While South Africa has seen a significant increase in the post-apartheid period in the size of the Black middle class, the attitudinal consequences of indicators of the middle class, as of 2011, are inconsistent and modest in size. While they are no more likely to hold democratic values than other Black South Africans, they are more likely to want the government to secure 'higher-order' rather than basic survival needs. They are less likely to identify with the governing African National Congress and to turn out to vote. They are also less likely to ‘voice’ their concerns by contacting officials or joining in conventional or unconventional forms of collective action. Yet while intra-racial class differences amongst Black people remain muted, intra-class racial differences amongst South Africa's middle class are still substantial
The Ebola Crisis and post-2015 Development

This article argues that the recent Ebola crisis is the result of structural violence, as interlocking institutions have produced interlaced inequalities, unsustainabilities and insecurities. These have underlain the vulnerabilities in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea through which a disease outbreak became a major health, social and economic crisis and the local fears, distrust, rumours and resistance that magnified it further. Articulating this analysis of Ebola with broader perspectives, the case is made for a reframing of post-2015 development as transformational politics towards equality, sustainability and security, enabling people to realise well-being
Mobile phones and education in sub-Saharan Africa : from youth practice to public policy.

Young people's use of mobile phones is expanding exponentially across Africa. Its transformative potential is exciting, but findings presented in this paper indicate how the downside of mobile phone use in African schools is becoming increasingly apparent. Drawing on mixed-methods field research in 24 sites across Ghana, Malawi and South Africa and associated discussions with educational institutions, public policy makers and network providers, we examine the current state of play and offer suggestions towards a more satisfactory alignment of practice and policy which promotes the more positive aspects of phone use in educational contexts and militates against more damaging ones
Leaving no-one behind? Informal economies, economic inclusion, and Islamic extremism in Nigeria

This article examines how the Post-2015 commitment to economic inclusion affects informal economic actors in developing countries. It highlights the selective dynamics of inclusive market models which generate new processes of exclusion in which the most vulnerable continue to be left behind. The case of Nigeria reveals how inclusive market initiatives reinforce parallel processes of informalization, poverty and Islamic extremism in the north of the country. Fieldwork in northern Nigeria shows that inclusive initiatives are intensifying competitive struggles within the informal economy in which stronger actors are crowding out poorer, less educated and migrant actors, exacerbating disaffection and vulnerability to radicalization
Successful transition to secondary school in Tanzania : what are the barriers?

Transition to secondary school is a problem internationally. Tanzanian students face an additional challenge as the medium of instruction changes from Kiswahili to English. An 18-item questionnaire (N = 383) and focus groups (primary standard 7, secondary forms 1 and 3, and primary and secondary teachers) were used in this study. Most students started secondary school with high expectations. These were qualified by experiences of bullying and punishment. Teachers recognised students losing hope as an explanation for truancy. However, they lacked both the training to teach English and knowledge of alternatives to punishment. Peer mentoring potentially addresses these challenges during transition
Youth livelihoods in the cellphone era : perspectives from urban Africa.

Issues surrounding youth employment and unemployment are central to the next development decade. Understanding how youth use mobile phones as a means of communicating and exchanging information about employment and livelihoods is particularly important given the prominence of mobile phone use in young lives. This paper explores and reflects on youth phone usage in Ghana, Malawi and South Africa, drawing on mixed-methods research with young people aged approximately 9–25 years, in 12 (high density) urban and peri-urban sites. Comparative work across these sites offers evidence of both positive and negative impacts. The final section of the paper considers policy implication
When do developing countries negotiate away their corporate tax base?

Developing countries have concluded thousands of bilateral tax treaties, which restrict their ‘taxing rights’ over international investment. Qualitative case studies of these negotiation outcomes emphasize power politics, knowledge asymmetries and negotiating capability in the eventual distribution of taxing rights between signatories, yet such insights are absent from cross‐country quantitative work. This paper bridges the gap by replicating two quantitative studies, introducing new data on countries' ability to mobilize tax revenue and the outcomes of tax treaty negotiations. It provides statistical support for the insights from qualitative research. The size of a government's revenue base, and its reliance on corporate tax, might affect the salience of the revenue sacrifice in policy makers' minds. These variables influence the likelihood of signing a tax treaty and the particular concessions made. Power asymmetries between signatories lead to more unequal distributions of taxing rights away from developing countries, in contrast to the findings of earlier studies. Developing countries also become better negotiators as they gain experience
Tax revenue mobilization in conflict-affected developing countries.

How does conflict affect tax revenue mobilization? This paper uses a newly updated dataset to explore longitudinal trends of tax revenue mobilization prior to, during and after conflict periods in a selection of conflict‐affected states since 1980. This medium‐N trend analysis provides greater insight into the relationship between tax revenue performance over time and the characteristics of the conflicts in question. Offering detailed snapshots of tax experiences prior to, during and after conflict, this paper provides an empirical counterpoint to theories about the role of taxation in war making and state buildin
Information literacy needs of local staff in cross-cultural development projects

Information literacy is about people’s information practices in their ICT environment. Increasing access to ICTs to bridge the digital divide has implications for the information literacy needs of people in developing communities. The research described in this paper, investigated development workers’ perceptions of information literacy needs amongst local staff participating in community development projects in cross-cultural situations. A phenomenographic approach was used to elicit five hierarchically related, qualitatively different understandings of information literacy needs within the development context.  The results reveal possible directions for those workers involved in bringing ICTs into workplace settings within developing communities