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4131. International Risk-Sharing and the Transmission of Productivity Shocks

Author:
Sylvain Leduc, Giancarlo Corsetti, and Luca Dedola
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
A central puzzle in international finance is that real exchange rates are volatile and, in stark contradiction to efficient risk-sharing, negatively correlated with cross-country consumption ratios. This paper shows that a standard international business cycle model with incomplete asset markets augmented with distribution services can account quantitatively for these properties of real exchange rates. Distribution services, intensive in local inputs, drive a wedge between producer and consumer prices, thus lowering the impact of terms-of-trade changes on optimal agents' decisions. This reduces the price elasticity of tradables separately from assumptions on preferences.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

4132. An Assessment of the Impact of Japanese Foreign Exchange Intervention: 1991-2004

Author:
Alain P. Chaboud and Owen Humpage
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
We analyze the short-term price impact of Japanese foreign exchange intervention operations between 1991 and 2004, using official data from Japan's Ministry of Finance. Over the period as a whole, we find some evidence of a modest "against the wind" effect, but interventions do not have value as a forecast that the exchange rate will move in a direction consistent with the operations. Interventions conducted between 1995 and 2002, which were large and infrequent, met with a much higher degree of success. For the most recent episode of intervention, in 2003 and 2004, despite the record size and frequency of the overall episode, it is difficult to statistically distinguish the pattern of exchange rate movements on intervention days from that of all the days in that particular subperiod, showing little effectiveness. Still, while the evidence of Japanese intervention effectiveness is modest overall, it appears to be stronger than that found using similar techniques for U.S. intervention operations conducted in the 1980s and 1990s.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Japan and Israel

4133. Going the Distance: The U.S. Tsunami Relief Effort

Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, triggered a tsunami—a series of giant waves—that inundated coastal areas of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and Malaysia, as well as Indian Ocean islands and parts of East Africa.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and East Africa

4134. The Sources of Stigma for Means-Tested Government Programs

Author:
Jennifer Stuber and Mark Schlesinger
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Robert Wood Johnson Health Society Scholars Program
Abstract:
Stigma has been shown to discourage participation in means-tested government programs. Prior research cannot explain why this deterrent effect varies in intensity across different individuals and programs. We develop a more comprehensive model of the possible determinants of stigma associated with means-tested programs than has previously been suggested by studies of welfare stigma. We test hypotheses using unique data based on interviews with 1405 respondents in ten states and the District of Columbia. The results suggest that there are two distinct forms of stigma related to participation in means-tested government programs: one related to self-identity, the other to threats of negative treatment. Both forms of stigma are more pronounced for welfare compared to Medicaid. The sources of stigma identified by conventional treatments of welfare stigma (e.g. individual attributions of responsibility for poverty) have significant explanatory power, but neglect other important influences. We find that stigma is exacerbated by poor health and by minority status. Stigma is also fostered by the ways in which means-tested programs are implemented, including negative interactions with case workers, long waiting times and for Medicaid, applications for benefits in alternative enrollment sites such as health centers or hospitals. These findings suggest new points of leverage for addressing the potentially deleterious consequences of stigma.
Topic:
Development, Government, Health, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Colombia

4135. Africa: The Development Challenges of the 21st Century

Author:
Callisto Madavo
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
An Introduction from Africa Program Director Howard Wolpe: The following remarks were delivered by Callisto Madavo, former Vice President for Africa at the World Bank, at a Congressional Staff Forum on Africa Retreat, convened by the Woodrow Wilson International Center March 8-10, 2005. A noted Zimbabwean economist, Callisto Madavo served as World Bank Vice President 1996-2005. Over the course of a distinguished 36-year career at the Bank, which included postings in the Middle East, East Asia and Africa, Madavo witnessed both the successes and failures of poverty reduction strategies in multiple settings. Now, with the world's attention being increasingly drawn to the challenge of poverty reduction in Africa, Madavo offers an important perspective on the context and history of the economic challenges facing the continent.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Africa

4136. Eye on Africa: A Scholar's Tale

Author:
Jesse Ribot
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Ribot is a senior associate at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington and currently a Wilson Center fellow working on a new book on rural democracy in Africa. Several years ago, he was writing a history of forestry in French West Africa, a story of a supposed deforestation crisis from 1880-1920. The colonial government had devised odd policies to fix this nonexistent problem—policies that would not have fixed it had there been a crisis. Furthermore, the policies concentrated access to lucrative resources in the hands of a few elites. "The discourse of 'deforestation crisis' was being used to expropriate the people's resources," Ribot said. "That was the real story."
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Third World
Political Geography:
Africa and Washington

4137. Environmental Change Security Program Report 11

Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Since 1994, the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) has promoted dialogue on the connections among environmental, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. ECSP brings international policymakers, practitioners, and scholars to Washington, D.C., to address the public and fellow experts.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, and Environment
Political Geography:
Washington

4138. Arms Control in an Age of Strategic and Military Revolution

Author:
Carl Conetta
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Project on Defense Alternatives
Abstract:
We have come a long way since autumn 1989 and the few optimistic years that followed. During that dawn of the post-Cold War era, security policy discourse focused briefly on notions of common security and a peace dividend. Since then, these ideas have been displaced by other, more bellicose ones: the clash of civilizations, the war on terrorism, and their constant companion: the Revolution in Military Affairs.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Development
Political Geography:
United States

4139. Controlling Corruption In Post-Conflict Countries

Author:
Emil Bolongaita
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Abstract:
Controlling corruption in post-conflict environments is a critical but largely underestimated challenge. The chances that corruption will distort and demolish the intentions and plans of post-conflict peace agreements or settlements are relatively high. Depending on the severity of the conflict, post-conflict settings are marked by governance environments that are worse than before the onset of conflict. Weak post-conflict institutions are hardly conducive to tackling practices of deception and dishonesty cultivated during the conflict. The dilemma of recurrence of conflict looms large. Indeed, if the postwar record of post-conflict countries is any indication, the description of "post-conflict" does not hold for long, as the parties to peace agreements return to violent confrontation.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Civil Society, and Development

4140. Reviving Peacebuilding Tools Ravished By Terrorism, Unilateralism, and Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Author:
Robert C. Johansen
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Abstract:
Those seeking to perfect and apply the tools of peacebuilding as recommended by Chadwick Alger (1991; 1995; 1996; 1999; 2000; 2002) cannot avoid being alarmed by three recent developments that threaten to wreck already overextended tools. These developments include (1) new threats of mega-terrorism similar to the tragic events of September 11, 2001; (2) U.S. rejection of equitable implementation of international law and cooperative multilateralism by endorsing pre-emptive war and U.S. global military dominance, as expressed in the new National Security Strategy of the United States (Bush, 2002); and (3) the multiple threats posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In the face of these daunting problems, what can exponents of peacebuilding tools do to strengthen international peace?
Topic:
Development, Peace Studies, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
United States