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352. Sustaining Social Safety Nets: Critical for Economic Recovery
- Author:
- Alejandro Foxley
- Publication Date:
- 03-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The current global financial shock will be followed by a long period of abnormally high unemployment, and by severe pressure to reduce government expenditures, once the fiscal stimulus runs its course. As a consequence, the coverage and quality of basic social services—from unemployment insurance to health care and social security—may suffer. At the same time, the recession is reducing household income, and thus many households that cannot afford privately provided services will face increasing difficulties in accessing underfunded public services. Significant segments of the middle class might slide back into poverty.
- Topic:
- Economics, Human Welfare, Labor Issues, and Financial Crisis
353. Russia's Neglected Energy Reserves
- Author:
- John P. Millhone
- Publication Date:
- 05-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- Russia has the world's largest share of fossil energy resources. During the Soviet era, because this wealth of resources insulated the country from global energy crises, citizens never had to worry about conserving energy, and much was squandered. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the situation has improved in western, urban Russia, but great expanses of this vast country continue their inefficient ways. Indeed, recognizing that minimizing waste helps preserve Russia's resources, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev successfully urged the Duma to pass sweeping new energy-efficiency legislation. But more remains to be done to identify how energy resources are used and wasted, and where efficiency might be improved.
- Topic:
- Economics, Energy Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Russia and Soviet Union
354. Living Standards in an Ageing, Greener, Knowledge Economy: Towards a period of lean cows?
- Author:
- Jørgen Mortensen
- Publication Date:
- 12-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper provides evidence on past growth of productivity, analysing the evolution of labour productivity, capital deepening and multi-factor productivity. Based on a literature review of recent studies, it shows that economic growth is increasingly attributable to the accumulation of intangible capital and that consequently, an increasing share of conventionally measured rise in labour productivity has, in fact, been ploughed back into the economy as intangible capital formation. In addition, it shows that on average for the developed countries examined, the growth of total factor productivity has been the main determinant of the increase in living standards over the 50 years from 1960 to 2010. It also demonstrates a striking slowdown in the growth of both productivity and living standards during this period. Looking ahead, it argues that the period 2010 to 2030 is likely to see a considerable expansion of tangible and intangible capital formation and lower growth of multi-factor productivity. The paper therefore concludes that over the next 20 years the scope for growth in living standards in the developed economies will be very limited, on average around half a percent per annum, with serious consequences for social conditions and a likely aggravation of inequalities.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, Human Welfare, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Europe
355. Diamonds and War: State, Capital, and Labor in British Ruled Palestine
- Author:
- David De Vries
- Publication Date:
- 04-2010
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Berghahn Books
- Abstract:
- The mining of diamonds, their trading mechanisms, their financial institutions, and, not least, their cultural expressions as luxury items have engaged the work of historians, economists, social scientists, and international relations experts. Based on previously unexamined historical documents found in archives in Belgium, England, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, this book is the first in English to tell the story of the formation of one of the world’s main strongholds of diamond production and trade in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The history of the diamond-cutting industry, characterized by a long-standing Jewish presence, is discussed as a social history embedded in the international political economy of its times; the genesis of the industry in Palestine is placed on a broad continuum within the geographic and economic dislocations of Dutch, Belgian, and German diamond-cutting centers. In providing a micro-historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the story of the diamond industry in Mandate Palestine proposes a more nuanced picture of the uncritical approach to the strict boundaries of ethnic-based occupational communities. This book unravels the Middle-eastern pattern of state intervention in the empowerment of private capital and recasts this craft culture’s inseparability from international politics during a period of war and transformation of empire.
- Topic:
- War, Military Strategy, Natural Resources, Labor Issues, State Violence, and Mining
- Political Geography:
- Britain, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, and Palestine
356. Paying the Price for the Economic Crisis
- Author:
- Bethan Emmett
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- New research by Oxfam International uncovers a hidden aspect of the global economic crisis – its impact on women workers in developing countries. Preliminary findings from Oxfam's research with women in global supply chains shows that the crisis is having a devastating impact on their livelihoods, their rights, and their families. Women are often first to be laid off, with employers leaving pay outstanding and evading legal obligations to give notice and pay compensation, and governments turning a blind eye, with devastating knock-on effects. Last year, women's wages were putting food on the table and children through school in millions of families. Now, the lives of women who were already suffering from poor labour conditions have become even more precarious.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Globalization, Political Economy, and Labor Issues
357. What Happened at the G20? Initial Analysis of the London Summit
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- G20 leaders met for the second time in London on 2 April, as the global economic crisis began to crash across the borders of poor countries with ever-greater severity. Oxfam's research shows rising human impacts in the shape of job losses, falling remittances to the families of migrant workers and a particularly severe impact on women workers in global supply chains. Based on the latest forecasts, published on the eve of the summit, Oxfam estimates that the crisis could push 100 million people into poverty in 2009 alone.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Globalization, International Organization, Poverty, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- London
358. Close to Home: UK poverty and the economic downturn
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The major social policy challenge of the current economic recession is how to prevent a precipitous rise in poverty in the UK. In addition to limiting the numbers of people plunged into poverty because of the recession, government must also mitigate the impact on people already living below the poverty line. But, this paper will argue, response s to the recession present an opportunity to make a step-change, ensuring that actions taken also help build a fairer, more sustainable society in which poverty is ended in the long-term.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, Poverty, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Europe
359. To Formalize or Not to Formalize? Comparisons of Microenterprise Data from Southern and East Africa
- Author:
- Vijaya Ramachandran, Manju Kedia Shah, Alan Gelb, and Taye Mengistae
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Why do firms choose to locate in the informal sector? Researchers often argue that the high cost of regulation prevents informal firms from becoming formal and productive. Our results point to a more nuanced story.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Markets, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Africa
360. The Effect of Wage-Payment Reform on Workers' Labor Supply and Welfare
- Author:
- Esther Redmount, Arthur Snow, and Ronald S. Warren Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Department of Economics and Business, Colorado College
- Abstract:
- We analyze the effects of a largely ignored 1885 legislative reform in Massachusetts requiring that firms provide workers the option of receiving weekly wage payments. Using an inter-temporal model of deferred compensation, we derive conditions on elasticities of labor supply that determine the effects of the reform on workers' effective wage and utility. We then examine empirically the effects of the reform, using weekly data on mill workers in Lowell. Given the implications of our theoretical analysis, the empirical findings of positive wage and reform elasticities imply that the switch to weekly payment increased workers' effective wage and well-being.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- United States