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13391. Group Behaviour and Development

Author:
Frances Stewart, Judith Heyer, and Rosemary Thorp
Publication Date:
06-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
A very large amount of activity occurs within groups (that is within families, firms, co-operatives, communities or governments). Yet most economic analysis focuses on market transactions between these agents. The purpose of the study is to analyse within group behaviour. Evidence suggests some groups perform well from the perspective of efficiency, equity and well-being, while others perform poorly. The study aims to identify the main causes for these different outcomes, developing a preliminary analysis of modes of group behaviour, and influences on them.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Emerging Markets

13392. Economic Theories of the Household: A Critical Review

Author:
Päivi Mattila-Wiro
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to review the principal assumptions and aspects of the unitary household model and collective models of household behaviour. Empirical studies are presented to assess whether the theories can offer adequate descriptions of household behaviour and to examine the types of policy implications that can be drawn from these. The paper concludes that the models reviewed lack the analytical tools to provide an understanding of the reality of households. Theories are unrealistic and therefore are of little use in the design of policies or projects which endeavour to help people
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Emerging Markets

13393. Inequality in Income and Access to Education: A Cross-Country Analysis

Author:
Daniele Checchi
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
In the current debate on the relationship between inequality in income distribution and growth one of the possible link works through the access to education. After reviewing this debate, a formal model shows how the imperfection of financial markets makes educational choices dependent on the distribution of family incomes. This leads to two testable predictions in the analysis of aggregate data on school enrolments: a negative (linear) relation with the Gini coefficient on incomes distribution; and a positive dependence on public resources invested in education and/or on skill premium in the labour market. These predictions are then tested on a (unbalanced) panel of 102 countries for the period 1960-90. The main findings of this analysis are that, once we control for the degree of development with the (log of) per capita output, financial constraints seem mainly relevant in limiting the access to secondary education. However, when considering gender differences, there is evidence that female participation in education is more strongly conditioned by family wealth, starting from primary education. On the contrary there is no clear evidence of a relevant impact of invested resources, but at the tertiary level.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Emerging Markets

13394. Liberalization, Globalization, and Income Distribution

Author:
Giovanni Andrea Cornia
Publication Date:
03-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Recent mainstream analyses of changes in income distribution over the post World War II period have concluded that income inequality within countries tends to be stable, that there is no strong association between growth and inequality and that, therefore, poverty is best reduced through growth-oriented, rather than distributive, policies.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, and International Political Economy

13395. Wage Reform, Soft Budget Constraints and Competition

Author:
Jian Sun
Publication Date:
02-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Since the beginning of the Chinese economic reforms in 1978, there has been a series of effort to reform the labour compensation practice in state-owned enterprises to strengthen the link between pay and productivity. Despite the reforms, however, rapid increases in wage rates occurred in state-owned enterprises. Moreover, although state-owned enterprises have much lower productivity gains than non-state enterprises, they pay substantially higher wages and have faster wage growth.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, Industrial Policy, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
China and Asia

13396. The Asian Currency Crisis: Origins, Lessons and Future Outlook

Author:
Abdur Chowdhury
Publication Date:
02-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
What started in the summer of 1997 as a regional economic and financial crisis in East and Southeast Asia had developed into a global financial crisis within the span of a year. This crisis followed the crisis in the European Monetary System in 1992–3 and the Mexican peso crisis in 1994–5. However, unlike the previous two crises, the scale and depth of the Asian crisis surprised everyone. One obvious reason for this is East and Southeast Asia's track record of economic success. Since the 1960s, no other group of countries in the world has produced more rapid economic growth or such a dramatic reduction in poverty. Given so many years of sustained economic performance the obvious question is: how could events in Asia unfold as they did?
Topic:
Economics and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe, Asia, and Southeast Asia

13397. The Weightless Economy in Economic Development

Author:
Danny Quah
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Can the increasing significance of knowledge-products in national income—the growing weightless economy—influence economic development? Those technologies reduce "distance" between consumers and knowledge production. This paper analyzes a model embodying such a reduction. The model shows how demand-side attributes—consumer attitudes on complex goods; training, education, and skills for consumption (rather than production)—can importantly affect patterns of economic growth and development. Evidence from the failed Industrial Revolution in 14th-century China illustrates the empirical relevance of the analysis.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
China

13398. Ideas on Bosnia for the Bush Administration

Author:
Mark Edmond Clark
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
Bosnia has been an international challenge that after five years may appear intractable. However, it too has a handle. In the new Bush Administration, policymakers and analysts must recognize that Bosnia is not a Western state, and that the country's bewildering social, economic, and political structures cannot be understood by viewing them through a Western prism. Only after these are examined and delineated can the new Administration get the business of rebuilding Bosnia underway guided by a policy more suited for its society and more coherent than that of the previous Administration.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, NATO, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Europe and Bosnia

13399. Interview with Mark Edmond Clark

Author:
Sean Costigan and Mark Edmond Clark
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
What are the short-term effects of the bombing campaign? While I was in Belgrade and Pristina in the beginning of March, the officials of the Yugoslav and Serbian Governments, with whom I spoke, made it clear that once the bombing campaign began, they would initiate a full blown counter-terrorist campaign in Kosovo. Efforts of the Yugoslav Army and Ministry of Interior forces would be directed against the KLA and its infrastructure. The campaign would be focused on the area that was part of the KLA's "Strategic Trapezoid" in the center of Kosovo, which the KLA had declared to be their area of strongest influence. They also informed me that they would strike at KLA positions in Albania and possibly Macedonia. This is precisely what those forces have been doing.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, NATO, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Europe

13400. The Chechen Problem: Sources, Developments and Future Prospects

Author:
Alexandru Liono
Publication Date:
12-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The political, economic and social situation in Chechnya is a matter of concern for all the analysts of the current environment in the North Caucasus. Every day brings about new developments in Chechnya, which can hardly be characterised as encouraging. The more recent events, which culminated with the intervention in Chechnya and the siege of Grozny by the Russian Federal troops in November – December 1999, have raised even more questions about the future of the Caucasus.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia and North Caucasus