Search

Begin New Search Topic Development

2141. Weapons Registration and Stockpile Management Software

Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons
Abstract:
In May 2007 the Weapons Registration and Stockpile Management (WRSM) software application became fully operational in the Macedonian Ministry of Interior. The WRSM software is a complete solution for registration and licensing of all types of civilian weapons and their stockpile management. The software architecture contains two components: a core block containing the main processes and a customizable part to reflect the national legislation. This allows for the deployment of the software in many countries after customizing it to relevant legislation.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Development, Government, and Science and Technology

2142. Divergence and Convergence in Eastern Europe Eurasia: One Transition Path Or Two?

Author:
Robyn Murphy and Ron Sprout
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
This paper attempts to assess the transition “divide” between Eastern Europe and Eurasia by examining and updating trends across the economic, political, and social transition dimensions. Is there evidence that the transition to market-oriented democracies between the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries and Eurasia is diverging along these dimensions? To what extent are the CEE countries taking one transition path and the Eurasian countries an alternative one?
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Markets
Political Geography:
Eurasia and Eastern Europe

2143. Labor Markets in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Author:
Robyn Murphy, Ron Sprout, and Ayo Heinegg
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United States Agency for International Development
Abstract:
This research attempts to look systematically at the available data regarding labor market characteristics of the transition in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. A primary focus is the examination of the data in light of a World Bank working hypothesis that “there are signs of an emerging divide between labor markets in the transition economies of Eastern Europe and those of low-income Eurasian countries.” We find significant labor market gaps and differences between the CEE countries (particularly the Northern Tier CEE) and Eurasia but mixed evidence at best that these gaps are growing. We also find that there remain some key challenges and adverse trends in labor markets even among the Northern Tier CEE countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Markets
Political Geography:
Eurasia and Eastern Europe

2144. India's Future: It's About Jobs

Author:
Geoffrey N. Keim and Beth Anne Wilson
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
Projections of sustained strong growth in India depend importantly on the utilization of the huge increase in India's working-age population projected over the next two decades. To date, however, India's economic growth has been concentrated in high-skill and capital-intensive sectors, and has not generated strong employment growth. In this paper, we highlight the tension between India's performance in output and employment, describe the characteristics of India's demographic dividend, and discuss impediments to India's shift away from agriculture.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Markets
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

2145. The Role of China in Asia: Engine, Conduit, or Steamroller?

Author:
Beth Anne Wilson, Jane T. Haltmaier, Shaghil Ahmed, Brahima Coulibaly, Ross Knippenberg, Sylvain Leduc, and Mario Marazzi
Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
This paper assesses China's role in Asia as an independent engine of growth, as a conduit of demand from the industrial countries, and as a competitor for export markets. We provide both macroeconomic and microeconomic evidence. The macroeconomic analysis focuses on the impact of U.S. and Chinese demand on the output of the Asian economies by estimating growth comovements and VARs. The results suggest an increasing role of China as an independent source of growth. The microeconomic analysis decomposes trade into basic products, parts and components, and finished goods. We find a large role for parts and components trade consistent with China playing an important and increasing role as a conduit. We also estimate some regressions that show that China's increasing presence in export markets has had a negative effect on exports of some products for some other Asian economies, but not for other products, including those of the important electronic high-technology industry.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Asia

2146. A New Direction for Bush Administration Climate Policy

Author:
Samuel Thernstrom and Lee Lane
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
President George W. Bush was widely expected to propose ambitious new initiatives to control greenhouse gas emissions in the State of the Union address on January 23. The week before the speech, his top environmental advisor told a Washington Post columnist that a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system would be “the most elegant” solution to climate change, raising expectations that a proposal along those lines might be forthcoming. In the end, however, the president proposed a remarkably modest (and poorly conceived) initiative to cut gasoline consumption by 20 percent in the next ten years. This was an important lost opportunity for leadership at a crucial juncture.
Topic:
Development, Environment, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
Washington

2147. Glasnost at Twenty

Author:
Leon Aron
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the Russian revolution (1987–91) is a fitting occasion to assess the true scale and the impact of the national spiritual liberation known as glasnost, and to put it into a broader context of the history of ideas and their role in revolutions. Such an examination is doubly useful today, when a steady stream of Kremlin-sponsored propaganda seeks to distort and minimize what glasnost has wrought.
Topic:
Development, Government, and Nationalism
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

2148. Will India Emerge as an Eastern or Western Power?

Author:
Kishore Mahbubani
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Abstract:
Founded in 1992, the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania is the only research institution in the United States dedicated to the study of contemporary India. A national resource, it fills an urgent need for objective knowledge of India's rapidly changing society, politics and economy, and the processes of transformation underway in an ancient civilization emerging as a major power.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
United States, India, East Asia, and Asia

2149. L'invention de l'aide française au développement. Discours, instruments et pratiques d'une dynamique hégémonique

Author:
Julien Meimon
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
In the turbulent international context of the late 1950s, the French 5th Republic and its leaders orchestrated the end of the colonial system, i.e. all of its emblematic institutions: the French “Overseas” ministry and minister, the administrative corps of colonial functionaries and standard recruitment path (the École nationale de la France d'outremer ) disappeared, setting the stage for a new, fairly complex system labeled “ Coopération.” The ministry of the same name was to play a major role up until the end of the 20th century. This new system, which came about as a result of the breakup of the colonial empire, is closely related to the issue of development aid and relies essentially on civil servants having received their training in the colonial institutions and seeking for redeployment. This study analyzes the paradox of a “new policy” embodied by officials infused with a colonial culture, focusing on their reconversion in terms of deeds and discourse. This will point up one of the initial weaknesses of France's African policy and one of the reasons that it has slowly crumble.
Topic:
Development and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, and France

2150. Poverty Reduction and the Poverty Reduction Facility at the IMF: Carving a New Path or Losing its Way?

Author:
Ramesh C. Kumar
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Since 1999, all concessional lending by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must be targeted at poverty reduction. The paper critically examines the design and implementation of the IMF's poverty reduction initiative by focusing on the operations of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). The data relating to the lending activity of the facility, coupled with an econometric explanation of the size of a PRGF arrangement in terms of key macro-economic variables, reveal some surprises. Not only does the lending activity of the new facility not appear to be much different-in frequency, size or total lending-than that under the Structural Adjustment Facility or Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (SAF/ESAF), but the average lending to individual countries over the period 2000-2004 is also inversely related to the human poverty index. At a time when IMF is quickly losing its traditional clientele, such findings raise doubts about the fund's efficacy in administering development finance.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Cooperation, Poverty, and United Nations