Search

Begin New Search Topic Institutions Publishing Institution Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)

1. Social Institutions and Gender Inequality in Fragile States: Are They Relevant for the Post-MDG Debate?

Author:
Boris Branisa and Carolina Cardona
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
We focus on an issue that appears particularly relevant for fragile states and which has received little attention: social institutions related to gender inequality, defined as societal practices and legal norms that frame gender roles and the distribution of power between men and women in the family, market, and social and political life. We show empirically that fragile states perform worse than other non-fragile developing countries when considering these social institutions. We suggest that a special set of indicators reflecting social institutions related to gender inequality in both fragile states and non-fragile states should be considered in the post-MDG agenda.
Topic:
Development, Inequality, Millennium Development Goals, Fragile States, and Institutions
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. The Bounty of the Sea and Long-Run Development

Author:
Carl-Johan Dalgaard, Anne Sofie B. Knudsen, and Pablo Selaya
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
What is the long run impact on development from di§erences in subsistence strategies during preindustrial times? Whereas this question has been explored from the point of view of agriculture, remarkably little attention has been paid to the complementary strategy of relying on marine resources. As a step towards closing this gap, we construct an index ñìthe Bounty of the Sea index ñwhich captures the potential abundance of exploitable marine Ösh that individual countries have had access to, and proceed to explore its correlation with economic development. Our analysis reveals that a greater Bounty of the Sea stimulated pre-industrial development, and that countries inhabited by people with ancestry in regions with abundant marine resources are richer today. Probing possible underlying reasons, we Önd that populations with ancestry in regions rich in marine resources di§er from societies with a purely agrarian legacy in terms of institutions, cultural values and average personality traits.
Topic:
Culture, Institutions, Economic Development, Fishing, and Personality
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. The Impact of Formal Institutions on Knowledge Economy

Author:
Antonio Rodríguez Andrés, Simplice A. Asongu, and Voxi Amavilah
Publication Date:
07-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
Using Kauffman, Kraay, and Mastruzzi governance indicators, this article analyzes the impact of formal institutions on the knowledge economy- by assessing how the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) through good governance mechanisms affects the knowledge economy. The article also employs the World Bank’s four components of the knowledge economy index characteristic of its knowledge for development (K4D) framework. We estimate panel data models for 22 Middle East & North African and Sub-Sahara African countries over the period 1996-2010. The results show that for this group of countries the enforcement of IPR laws (treaties), although necessary, is not a sufficient condition for a knowledge economy. The results also suggest that other factors are more likely to determine the knowledge economies of these nations. Overall these findings have important implications for both policy and further research.
Topic:
Economics, Institutions, Knowledge Economy, and Panel Data
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Impact of natural disaster on public sector corruption

Author:
Eiji Yamamura
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
This paper uses inter-country panel data obtained during the period 1990–2010 to examine how the occurrence of natural disasters has affected corruption within the public sector. There are a number of new findings from this study. (1) Disaster with the large amount of damage increase corruption not only for developing countries but also for developed countries. (2) The effect of disasters is greater in developed countries than in developing countries. (3) In the developed countries, frequency of occurrence of disaster plays important role on increasing corruption. This suggests that foreseeable disasters increase corruption. In developed countries, people have an incentive to live within disaster-prone areas to seek compensation.
Topic:
Corruption, Development, Natural Disasters, Institutions, Public Sector, and Risk
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. Determinants of Economic Growth in BRIC Countries

Author:
Rajeev K. Goel and Iikka Korhonen
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
We study economic growth in four emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC). Questions addressed are: (a) How do medium term growth determinants differ from short term determinants? (b) What are differences between growth effects of aggregate versus disaggregated exports? And (c) Does lower institutional quality hinder growth? Results show that while BRIC nations have higher growth, there are significant within-group differences. China and Russia mostly showed higher growth, while India sometimes showed positive growth, and Brazil did not outperform the rest. Policy implications are discussed.
Topic:
Corruption, Economic Growth, Institutions, Exports, and BRIC
Political Geography:
Russia, China, India, and Brazil

6. Towards Universalism? The Obstructed Process of Healthcare Reform in Bolivia

Author:
Sebastian Sirén
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
In this article a process-tracing approach is used to explore how different factors have contributed to the development of healthcare policy in Bolivia, in light of the current proposal to introduce a unified public healthcare system. The main findings are that although international relations and state bureaucrats have been crucial to the process of formulating policies, the introduction of comprehensive reform will depend on the ability of groups who currently lack access to the healthcare system to form progressive coalitions promoting universalism, as well as the ability of those who benefit from the current arrangements to maintain the status quo. The ability to introduce comprehensive reforms is thus connected to the ongoing processes of decentralisation and democratisation of political decision-making in Bolivia. Although statecorporative welfare state institutions have been shown to be difficult to transform, low coverage levels in such systems combined with a process of increasing political inclusion of previously marginalised groups poses serious challenges to the status quo as the social aspect of citizenship is brought up on the agenda. In order to achieve universal coverage of the healthcare system, however, basic social rights of all citizens must be institutionalised at the same time as the scope and quality of services must be secured in order to avoid segmentation and to encourage the financial participation of the formal and middle income sectors.
Topic:
Health Care Policy, Social Policy, and Institutions
Political Geography:
South America and Bolivia

7. A note on the U-shaped relationship between political competition and economic freedom

Author:
Antonio Saravia
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
We investigate a recent political theory of institutional change according to which institutions of economic freedom are more likely to be adopted at the extreme cases of strong and weak political competition than at cases in between. We find that such a U-shaped relationship is verified when controlling for other political variables and past economic growth, but disappears when controlling for the initial level of development. In this case, the relationship between political competition and the adoption of institutions of economic freedom appears to be positive and linear as suggested by the political principal-agent paradigm.
Topic:
Politics, Institutions, Competition, and Economic Freedom
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. The Chilean agricultural transformation during the second half of the twentieth century: A story of institutional change

Author:
Antonio Saravia
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Advanced Development Studies (INESAD)
Abstract:
The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a dramatic transformation of the Chilean agricultural sector. From accounting for only five percent of the value of Chile’s total exports in the late 1960s, agricultural exports grew to account for more than 30 percent of this value in the mid 1990s. Using a modified neoclassical growth formulation, we show that the transformation of the Chilean agricultural sector can be associated with institutional changes or modifications to the sector’s basic functioning structure. In particular, our historical review shows that changes in the definition of property rights over land, caused by the Chilean agrarian reform first and the general economic reform later, seem to have greatly caused the changes in the sector’s levels of investment and production.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Institutions, Land Rights, and Property
Political Geography:
South America and Chile