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91. Intergenerational Influences of Wealth in Mexico

Author:
Seymour Spilerman and Florencia Torche
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
Using the 2006 Mexican Social Mobility Survey, this research evaluates the influence of parental wealth on several outcomes of adult children, including educational attainment, consumption level, asset holdings, home ownership, and value of residence. Two mechanisms of parental influence on economic wellbeing are explored: an indirect effect mediated by parental investment in human capital, and the direct transfer of resources. Three main findings emerge from the analysis. First, parental wealth is a strong determinant of educational attainment, net of the standard indicators of advantage regularly used in stratification research, and the influence of wealth is stronger among the most disadvantaged children (those with low cultural capital, and residing in non-urban areas). Second, the mechanism of parental influence on adult children's economic wellbeing differs depending on the outcome: In the case of consumption level, the influence is largely indirect, mediated by parental investment in offspring's human capital, while the opposite is true for children's asset holdings, where a direct transfer of resources predominates. Third, while access to homeownership is only weakly stratified by parent's and children's resources, the value of the acquired home is significantly affected by parental wealth. These patterns of influence are similar to those found in Chile (Spilerman and Torche 2004, Torche and Spilerman 2006) and they highlight the critical impact of parental wealth in less developed countries.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, Political Economy, Poverty, and Third World
Political Geography:
Latin America, Mexico, and United Arab Emirates

92. Toward Economic Sustainability of the Media in Developing Countries

Author:
Marguerite H. Sullivan
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for Democracy aims to strengthen the support, raise the visibility, and improve the effectiveness of media assistance programs by providing information, building networks, conducting research, and highlighting the indispensable role independent media play in the creation and development of sustainable democracies around the world. An important aspect of CIMA's work is to research ways to create an environment that will allow independent and free media to be sustainable and to attract additional U.S. private sector interest in international media development.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Development, and Third World
Political Geography:
United States

93. Der Governance-Raum als Analysefaktor

Author:
Matthias Kötter
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
The paper, composed for the Research Center (SFB) 700 „Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: New Modes of Governance?” shall develop standards for the comparison of governance under different socio-cultural and historical settings. First, the governance concept is narrowed down to empirically determinable factors such as the governance output, the factual actors and their modes of production and coordination. The lack of normativity deriving from this practice shall be overcome by adding the concept of „governance space” to the proposed mapping. The governance space covers all those circumstances that are characteristic for governance in a society at a certain point of time. Thus, the concept of governance gains high potential for comparative governance analysis without having to let go normative standards. The research programme of SFB 700 already tends to this solution when it explicitly analyzes „governance in areas of limited statehood” and not only „under the circumstances of limited statehood“.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, International Cooperation, Third World, and Governance

94. Governance, Normativität und begrenzte Staatlichkeit

Author:
Bernd Ladwig, Tamara Jugov, and Cord Schmelzle
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
This article views “governance” as a special perspective on collective binding decision-making among a plurality of actors. The surplus value of this concept (as debated in the German scientific community) consists in accentuating the contingency of its modes and actors. We argue that “governance” is conceptually normative in a weak sense. Governance is a “thick term” referring to rule-guided distribution of public goods in contrast to public bads. It must guarantee security of expectations regarding basic goods for a defined entirety of addressees. Transferring this concept to areas of limited statehood poses two problems: Firstly, those are-as lack an authority that is ultimately responsible for including all persons concerned in the benefits of governance. Secondly, in divided societies it is contested who is part of the community of addressees. This causes normative problems and dilemmas of collective action.
Topic:
Civil Society, Democratization, Development, Third World, and Governance

95. Transnational Public-Private Partnerships in International Relations

Author:
Marco Schäferhoff, Sabine Campe, and Christopher Kaan
Publication Date:
08-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
Abstract:
Transnational public-private partnerships have become a popular theme in International Relations (IR) research. Such partnerships constitute a hybrid type of governance, in which non-state actors co-govern along with state actors for the provision of public goods, and thereby adopt governance functions that have formerly been the sole authority of sovereign states. Their recent proliferation is an expression of the contemporary reconfiguration of authority in world politics that poses essential questions on the effectiveness and the legitimacy of global governance. Significant issues are at stake concerning whether transnational public-private partnerships can in fact deliver public goods in an effective and legitimate way. This article surveys the literature with regard to three central issues: It addresses the questions why transnational public-private partnerships emerge, under which conditions they are effective, and under which conditions they are legitimate governance instruments. The article demonstrates that, at present, research on transnational public-private partnerships is theoretically under-informed and suffers from poor research designs. As is pointed out in the course of the article, future research on transnational public-private partnerships could benefit from well-known IR theories on international institutions, from compliance theories in particular. Applying these IR theories to partnerships opens up the possibility for the systematic comparative research that is necessary to obtain conclusive knowledge about transnational public-private partnerships.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, International Organization, Third World, and Governance

96. It's One World Out There: The Global Consensus on Selecting the World Bank's Next President

Author:
David Wheeler
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
In May 2007 CGD launched an online survey of the global development community on three issues: the selection process for the next World Bank president; criteria for rating the candidates; and actual ratings for nine candidates who had been named by the international media. Between May 22 and May 31, CGD received nearly 700 responses from people whose characteristics reflect the diversity of the international development community. Survey participants represent 71 nations; all world regions; high-, middle- and low-income countries; a variety of professional affiliations; and all adult age groups. About 30% of respondents are women.
Topic:
Globalization, Political Economy, and Third World

97. Measuring the Capability to Raise Revenue. Process and Output Dimensions and Their Application to the Zambia Revenue Authority

Author:
Christian von Soest
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
The worldwide diffusion of the good governance agenda and new public management has triggered a renewed focus on state capability and, more specifically, on the capability to raise revenue in developing countries. However, the analytical tools for a comprehensive understanding of the capability to raise revenue remain underdeveloped. This article aims at filling this gap and presents a model consisting of the three process dimensions 'information collection and processing', 'merit orientation' and 'administrative accountability'. 'Revenue performance' constitutes the fourth capability dimension which assesses tax administration's output. This model is applied to the case of the Zambia Revenue Authority. The dimensions prove to be valuable not only for assessing the how much but also the how of collecting taxes. Theycan be a useful tool for future comparative analyses of tax administrations' capabilities in developing countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa, Zambia, and Holland

98. The U.S. External Deficit and the Developing Countries

Author:
William R. Cline
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
In the absence of US fiscal adjustment and a further correction of the dollar, the current account deficit is headed to $1.3 trillion by 2010 (8 to 8.5 percent of GDP) and net US foreign liabilities to over $8 trillion (50 percent of GDP). According to CGD/IIE Senior Fellow William R. Cline, the rising trade deficit and associated borrowing from abroad are now financing a decline in personal saving and a rise in the government deficit. This imbalance will increasingly put the US economy—and the developing countries—at risk. This working paper focuses on the impact that the US external deficit and a possible “hard landing” for the US and world economies will have on developing countries. Cline finds that these countries are at risk since they have relied heavily on a continuing expansion of trade surpluses with the United States as a source of demand. Developing countries with high borrowing abroad are also doubly sensitive to a spike in world interest rates—once directly from higher US interest rates, and once indirectly through higher risk spreads—that might be associated with a hard landing. This Working Paper is based on The United States as a Debtor Nation, a book published in 2005 by the Center for Global Development and the Institute for International Economics.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Third World
Political Geography:
United States

99. Governance and Corruption in Public Health Care Systems

Author:
Maureen Lewis
Publication Date:
01-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
What factors affect health care delivery in the developing world? Anecdotal evidence of lives cut tragically short and the loss of productivity due to avoidable diseases is an area of salient concern in global health and international development. This working paper looks at factual evidence to describe the main challenges facing health care delivery in developing countries, including absenteeism, corruption, informal payments, and mismanagement. The author concludes that good governance is important in ensuring effective health care delivery, and that returns to investments in health are low where governance issues are not addressed.
Topic:
Corruption, Government, Health, and Third World

100. Regional Monetary Integration among Developing Countries: New Opportunities for Macroeconomic Stability beyond the Theory of Optimum Currency Areas?

Author:
Laurissa Muhlich and Barbara Fritz
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Optimum Currency Area (OCA) approaches turn to be inadequate in the analysis of the new regional monetary integration schemes that have sprung up among developing and emerging market economies. Instead, in accordance with the concept of 'original sin' (Eichengreen et al.) we argue that regional monetary South-South integration schemes that, unlike North-South arrangements, involve none of the international reserve currencies, have specific monetary constraints and implications which need to be duly considered. A first comparative analysis of three cases of monetary South-South cooperation in South Africa (CMA), East Asia (ASEAN) and Latin America (Mercosur) shows that these can indeed provide macroeconomic stability gains but that this strongly depends on the existence of economic hierarchies within these integration schemes.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Foreign Exchange, and Third World
Political Geography:
East Asia, South Africa, and Latin America