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421. Impacts of Access to ICTs on Employment Status in Botswana

Author:
Masedi K. Tshukudu
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
It is clear that technology has brought about significant changes in the livelihoods of people, creating new forms of employment and advancing the traditional forms of employment for individuals. Many countries continue to invest in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) with the view to tackling some of the economic challenges such as unemployment. Botswana like other African countries has made annual budgetary allocations towards ICT Infrastructure. Despite, the Government’s efforts to invest and improve access to ICT, the country still faces a high unemployment rate, particularly for the youth. This study therefore, investigates the impact that access to ICTs has on the employment of individuals in Botswana. In order to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of ICTs on employment we apply a probit model for binary choice responses to being employed or not being employed, using the data from the 2014 Botswana Household Access and Individual use of Information Communication Technology Survey carried out by the Statistics Botswana. The empirical results provide evidence that access to ICTs collectively has a positive impact on employment in Botswana. However, disaggregating the ICTs forms presents slightly different results, e-skill training and access to the internet in Botswana are not significant in explaining an individual’s employment status, this may be associated with low uptake of internet and ICTs skills by individuals in Botswana. The policy message from this study is that there is a need for aggressive implementation of collective ICT. [In addition, there is need to improve collective ICTs infrastructure to create more employment].
Topic:
Science and Technology, Communications, Infrastructure, and Employment
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

422. The Impact of Infrastructure on Economic Growth in Botswana

Author:
Mpho Raboloko
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
The study determines the impact of infrastructure on economic growth in Botswana. The study employs an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation technique to determine how infrastructure affects economic growth in Botswana. The empirical results show that healthcare infrastructure has a positive and significant impact on economic growth in Botswana in the long run. The results further reveal that electric power consumption has a positive and significant effect in influencing economic growth in the short run. The results imply that in order to achieve higher economic growth, policymakers should consider accelerating improvement of healthcare infrastructure.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Health Care Policy, Economic Growth, and Integration
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

423. Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Korean Strategies for Northeast Asian Cross-Border Energy Connectivity

Author:
Gaye Christoffersen
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
In 2018, research was underway in Northeast Asia on several trilateral and multilateral initiatives for cross-border infrastructure connectivity involving China, Russia, both Koreas, and Japan. Infrastructure included railway lines, cross-border oil and gas pipelines, and power grids. Although most discussions of infrastructure group energy and railroad infrastructure together, energy infrastructure differs from rail transport due to a greater potential for asymmetrical dependence. Reviewing these projects, this chapter analyzes and compares the strategies of the five parties in the region that are exploring new connectivity.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Regional Cooperation, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Russia, Japan, China, Asia, and Korea

424. Geopolitics by Other Means: The Indo-Pacific Reality

Author:
Axel Berkofsky and Sergio Miracola
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
Abstract:
The Asia-Pacific has become the Indo-Pacific region as the US, Japan, Australia and India have decided to join forces and scale-up their political, economic and security cooperation. The message coming from Washington, Tokyo, Canberra and New Delhi is clear: China’s Belt and Road Initiative is no longer the only game in town and Beijing’s policymakers better get ready for fierce competition. Japan’s ongoing and future "quality infrastructure" policies and investments in the Indo-Pacific, in particular, make it very clear that Tokyo wants a (much) bigger slice of the pie of infrastructure investments in the region. China’s territorial expansionism in the South China Sea and its increasing interests and presence in countries in South Asia have done their share to help the four aforesaid countries expand their security and defence ties. Beijing, of course, smells containment in all of this and it probably has a point. Who will have the upper hand in shaping and defining Asian security and providing developing South and Southeast Asia with badly-needed infrastructure: the US and Japan together with its allies or the increasingly assertive and uncompromising China and its Belt and Road Initiative?
Topic:
Infrastructure, Geopolitics, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Strategic Competition
Political Geography:
Indo-Pacific

425. Infrastructure for Growth: How to Finance, Develop, and Protect It

Author:
Carlo Secchi and Stefano Riela
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
Abstract:
This study is an initiative of the ISPI’s Centre on Infrastructure, promoted with the knowledge partnership of McKinsey & Company. It analyses the importance of economic infrastructure and how to finance and develop it. Economic infrastructure is the backbone that, in many cases, crosses the borders of political geo- graphy and defines the space supporting the movement of goods, services, people and their ideas. The eight articles of this study are structured into four main sections: 1) The economic impact of infra- structure, with a focus on the transportation network of the EU; 2) The geopolitical role of infrastructure; 3) The infrastructure gap at the global level and how to ease its financing; 4) The efficient development of infrastructure.
Topic:
Development, Infrastructure, Finance, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
Europe and Global Focus

426. Vulnerability analysis in critical infrastructures: A methodology

Author:
António Ferreira
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:
War Studies University
Abstract:
Vulnerability assessment is a crucial aspect for the development of methodologies to define the levels of protection in critical infrastructures. Throughout this research, we discussed the concept of vulnerability and methodologies and processes for its assessment in critical infrastructures due to a terrorist threat. The research focused on the development of an analysis model, exploring a multi-criteria decision method, in order to limit the risks to the maximum extent possible. Through a qualitative research methodology, in which we applied an analysis model based on the Threat and Infrastructure dimensions and their respective factors, we verified that the vulnerability of a critical infrastructure consists in the probability of the success of an attack, conducted by a threat - properly identifi ed, characterised, analysed and categorised - against an infrastructure with certain characteristics, which value is defi ned by the user and aggressor’s point of view. The construction of an algorithmic model for vulnerability assessment, complemented by tools to support the calculations and records, allows, through a rational, scientific and algebraic process, a qualitative analysis of factors to be transformed into measurable and quantifi able values, whose algebraic operation integrates them into a final result that expresses, as a percentage, the degree of vulnerability of a critical infrastructure facing a terrorist threat.
Topic:
Terrorism, Infrastructure, Methodology, Vulnerability, and Threat Assessment
Political Geography:
Global Focus

427. Coping with the “Nimby Syndrome”: Political issues related to the building of big infrastructures in liberal democracy countries

Author:
Agostino Massa
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:
War Studies University
Abstract:
The location and building of big hazardous infrastructures is a typical feature of the modernization process, in all countries and epochs. Since they are usually useful for a large region but their impact is very localized, the people living around the places where these facilities are active, or where their building is planned, very often organize and perform protest activities against them. Starting from the presentation of recent data about these issues in Italy, considered as a good example of a liberal democracy country, the article is set to discuss their social and political consequences, focusing in particular on the so-called “NIMBY syndrome”, its development and the strategies elaborated by public and private actors to cope with it.
Topic:
Environment, Infrastructure, Democracy, Liberalism, Political Participation, and NIMBY
Political Geography:
Global Focus

428. Editing Biosecurity: Needs and Strategies for Governing Genome Editing

Author:
Gregory Falco, Martin Eling, Virginia Miller, Lawrence A. Gordon, Shaun Shuxun Wang, Joan T. Schmit, Russell Thomas, Mauro Elvedi, Thomas Maillart, Emy Donavan, Simon Dejung, Matthias Weber, Eric Durand, Franklin Nutter, Uzi Scheffer, Gil Arazi, Gilbert Ohana, and Herbert Lin
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University
Abstract:
Cyber risk as a research topic has attracted considerable academic, industry and government attention over the past 15 years. Unfortunately, research progress has been modest and has not been sufficient to answer the “call to action” in many prestigious committee and agency reports. To date, industry and academic research on cyber risk in all its complexity has been piecemeal and uncoordinated – which is typical of emergent, pre-paradigmatic fields. Further complicating matters is the multidisciplinary characteristics of cyber risk. In order to significantly advance the pace of research progress, a group of scholars, industry practitioners and policymakers from around the world present a research agenda for cyber risk and cyber insurance, which accounts for the variety of fields relevant to the problem space. We propose a cyber risk unified concept model that identifies where certain disciplines of study can add value. The concept model can also be used to identify collaboration opportunities across the major research questions. In this agenda, we unpack the major research questions into manageable projects and tactical questions that need to be addressed.
Topic:
Security, Infrastructure, Governance, Cybersecurity, Risk, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

429. From Manifesto Promise to Policy Implementation: Analysis of Government’s Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Program

Author:
Gilfred Asiamah, Awal Swallah, Kojo Asante, and Samuel Baaye
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Ghana Center for Democratic Development
Abstract:
The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) with funding support from the Department for International Development (DFID) under its Strengthening Action Against Corruption (STAAC) program has initiated a project to track the implementation of the government's flagship Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Program (IPEP).
Topic:
Corruption, Government, Poverty, Infrastructure, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

430. Roads and jobs in Ethiopia

Author:
Matteo Fiorini and Marco Sanfilippo
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
We look at how improving roads can affect jobs and structural transformation. We use a novel geocoded dataset covering the universe of Ethiopian roads and match this information with individual data to identify the effects of improvements in road infrastructure on the creation, quality, and sectoral distribution of jobs over the period 1994–2013. We find that, at the district level, higher market potential due to better roads contributes to the creation of new jobs, reduces the share of agricultural workers, and increases that of workers in the services sector but not in manufacturing. The latter experiences a relative increase in the share of informal workers. Finally, investigating the underlying mechanisms, we show that patterns of internal migration and changes in economic opportunities can help to rationalize our findings.
Topic:
Markets, Infrastructure, Transportation, and Roads
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia