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Purpose: Despite 2016 legalization of recreational cannabis cultivation and sale in California with the passage of Proposition 64, many cannabis businesses operate without licenses. Furthermore, federal regulations disincentivize financial institutions from banking and lending to licensed cannabis businesses. The authors explore the impact of legal cannabis business activity on California financial institutions, the barriers to banking faced by cannabis businesses, and the nontraditional sources of financing used by the industry. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a mixed methods approach. The authors utilize call data for banks and credit unions headquartered in California and state cannabis licensing data to estimate the impact of the extensive and intensive margins of licensed cannabis activity on key banking indicators using difference-and-difference and fixed effects regressions. The qualitative data come from interviews with industry stakeholders in northern California's "Emerald Triangle" and add important context. Findings: The quantitative results show economically and statistically significant impacts of licensed cannabis activity on banking indicators, suggesting both direct and spillover effects from cannabis activity to the financial sector. However, cannabis businesses report substantial barriers to accessing basic financial services and credit, leading to nontraditional financing arrangements. Practical implications: The results suggest opportunities for cannabis businesses and financial institutions if regulations are eased and important avenues for further study. Originality/value: The authors contribute to the nascent literature on cannabis economics and the literature on banking regulation and nontraditional finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Zakat during the COVID-19 outbreak has played a vital role and has been significantly discussed in the virtual environment. Such information about zakat in the virtual world creates unstructured data, which contains important information and knowledge. This paper aims to discover knowledge related to zakat administration during the pandemic from the information in a virtual environment. Furthermore, the discussion is contextualised to the socio-economic debates. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative study operated via text mining to discover knowledge of zakat administration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Board of Zakat Republic of Indonesia (BAZNAS RI) is selected for a single case study. This paper samples BAZNAS RI's situation report on COVID-19 from its virtual website. The data consists of 40 digital pages containing 19,812 characters, 3,004 words and 3,003 white spaces. The text mining analytical steps are performed via RStudio. The following R packages, networkD3, igraph, ggraph and ggplot2 are used to run the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for topic modelling. Findings: The machine learning analysis via RStudio results in the 16 topics associated with the 3 primary topics (i.e. Education, Sadaqah and Health Services). The topic modelling discovers knowledge about BAZNAS RI's assistance for COVID-19 relief, which may help the readers understand zakat administration in times of the pandemic from BAZNAS RI's virtual website. This finding may draw the theory of socio-economic zakat, which explains that zakat as a religious obligation plays a critical role in shaping a Muslim community's social and economic processes, notably during the unprecedented times of COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: This study uses data from a single zakat institution. Thus, the generalisation of the finding is limited to the sampled institution. Practical implications: This research is both theoretically and practically important for academics and industry professionals. This paper contributes to the novelty in performing text mining via R in gaining knowledge about the recent zakat administration from a virtual website. The finding of this study (i.e. the topic modelling) is practically essential for zakat stakeholders to understand the contribution of zakat in managing the COVID-19 impacts. Social implications: This work derives a theory of "socio-economic zakat" that explains the importance of a zakat institution in activating zakat for managing socio-economic issues during the pandemic. Thus, paying zakat to an authorised institution may actualise more maslahah (public interest) compared to paying it directly to the asnaf (zakat beneficiaries) without any measurement Originality/value: This study is among the pioneers in gaining knowledge from Indonesia's zakat management during the COVID-19 outbreak via text mining. The authors' way of analysing data from the virtual website using RStudio can advance Islamic economics literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to conceptualize the nexus between the participatory finance and the higher ethical objectives within the Islamic moral economy, also termed as Maqasid al Shari'ah. Design/methodology/approach: Insights from the extant Islamic economics and finance literature are integrated through an interpretative systematic review using the principles from critical interpretative synthesis (CIS). Findings: A coherent framework is synthesized comprising the typology of the Maqasid al Shari'ah, the axioms of participatory finance and their nexus which is formulated by theorizing the common thread of meaning through the axioms of participatory finance and Maqasid al Shari'ah at the interpretative level. This framework postulates that the participatory finance fits well in the ethos and the value system of Islam. Moreover, "social well-being" invariably provides the nexus between the Maqasid al Shari'ah and participatory finance. Originality/value: This study contributes to the Islamic economics and finance literature by integrating the dissenting views from the divergent literature related to the basic philosophy of Shari'ah and participatory finance and provides grounds for policy implications, particularly, for designing the financial products. Moreover, it demonstrates an application of interpretative systematic review in Islamic banking and finance research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyses the impact of institutional proximity, cognitive proximity and geographical proximity (in the form of agglomeration economies) on the firm-level productivity of foreign-owned firms in Ireland. The analysis of agglomeration economies, consisting of internal economies of scale, localization economies, related variety and urbanization economies, has a strong pedigree in regional economics literature. Increasingly, however, alternative explanations of firm-level productivity performance have been explored with institutional and cognitive proximity often identified as other important determinants of performance. This paper presents an analysis of the importance of agglomeration economies (based on geographical proximity) versus institutional and cognitive proximity (which may be a-spatial). Design/methodology/approach: A series of measures capturing regional level agglomeration economies are generated as well as measures of institutional and cognitive proximity. The impact of these effects on foreign-owned firm-level productivity is analysed using data from the Irish Census of Industrial Local Units 2009. The estimation method employed is general method of moments (GMM) which allows for the potential endogeneity of variables within the system of analysis. Findings: The results reveal that institutional proximity has a positive impact on productivity. A possible reason for this result is that local units of the same nationality are sharing knowledge in relation to successfully conducting business in Ireland. However, cognitive proximity is found to be statistically insignificant. Agglomeration economies are also important with urbanization economies and the availability of skilled labour having a positive effect on productivity. Originality/value: The key contributions of this paper are as follows; firstly, the paper provides the first test of the institutional and cognitive proximity hypotheses on productivity while also controlling for a series of internal and external agglomeration economies. Secondly, the analysis considers, firm level, regional level and national level indicators as determinants of firm's productivity. In combining micro and macro level indicators, the paper attempts to answer the call of Van Oort et al. (2012) for such analyses. Thirdly, the paper provides the first detailed examination of the role of 'proximity' on foreign-owned manufacturing firms in the Irish context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper explores the effect of financial support on farmer cooperative development in the Chinese context, aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of public inputs and draw implications for the sustainable development of cooperatives. The variance of the effect in different sectors, i.e. crop, forestry, husbandry, fishery and services, is investigated. Design/methodology/approach: Provincial-level panel data from 2007 to 2017 are used for this study. A linear dynamic panel regression model is estimated using multiple estimation methods, i.e. the generalized method of moments (GMMs), fixed-effect model and ordinary least squares (OLS) are applied. Findings: The empirical analyses indicate that the role of the government is important for the development of farmer cooperatives but limited in some specific aspects. First, the coverage of financial support is positively associated with the growth of cooperative population and membership size, but the strength of financial support, measured by the total amount of financial support divided by local agricultural gross domestic product (GDP), has no statistically significant effects on the development of cooperatives. Second, financial support does not exhibit significant influence on the revenue of cooperatives. Third, the magnitude of the effect of government support on cooperative development is heterogeneous across different sectors. Originality/value: The research study adds to the institutional economics literature on the association between institutional environment and organization development by focusing on a particular and an important type of organization, i.e. farmer cooperatives. It is one of the attempts and a most extensive study to empirically investigate the role of financial support in the development of farmer cooperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The literature of financial economics documents a causal relationship between the level of information asymmetry in the firm and its dividend policy. Nevertheless, this relationship suffers endogeneity problems arising from reverse causality and omitted variable bias. The purpose of this study is to examine how the dividend policy reacts to changes in asymmetric information in an exogenous research setting. Design/methodology/approach: To overcome endogeneity concerns, the authors employ the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the US in 2002 as a source of an exogenous variation in the level of information asymmetry to study the potential effect that this variation might have on the dividend policy. In doing so, we utilize a difference-in-differences research design, in which the treatment group is US publicly traded firms that were exposed to the policy and the control group is publicly traded companies in the UK where SOX was not enacted. Both countries have similar institutional settings and enforcement of laws, which makes them comparable in this research context. Findings: The authors' findings show that, compared to UK companies, US firms increase their dividend payments following a reduction in asymmetric information as a result of the SOX enactment. Originality/value: The study contributes to the literature of financial economics by showing that policy makers can mitigate agency conflicts and protect shareholders by improving the corporate information environment and reducing asymmetric information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of telematics in insurance and its consequences for the insurability of risks. Empirical results on monitoring policyholders or insured objects and its consequences for asymmetric information, as well as claims frequency and severity are discussed. Furthermore, potential future research questions that arise from the use of telematics in risk management and insurance are outlined. Design/methodology/approach: The paper systematically reviews existing studies and then investigates the consequences of telematics using Berliner's insurability criteria. The results are based on 52 academic studies and industry papers published from 2000 to 2019. Findings: The findings emphasize the effects of new information on information asymmetry and risk pooling, the implications of new technologies on loss frequency and severity, legal restrictions and ethical consequences of the use of telematics in the insurance field. Problems with the insurability impede the market development of innovations such as telematics tariffs. Originality/value: Despite its increasing relevance for businesses at present, research on telematics in insurance is limited. Some papers can be found in the IT domain, but relatively little research has been done in the business and economics literature. The authors illustrate where the research stands currently and outline directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The global financial crisis (GFC) undermined the legitimacy of orthodox economic assumptions, which nevertheless continue to frame business school pedagogy. In consequence, there is an opportunity for socio-economic insights to be more fully incorporated into the business school curriculum. This paper reports and reflects on a socio-economic case study that was delivered to MBA students. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the developing literature on behavioural economics (BE) has the potential to enhance students' social economic understanding of key areas of the curriculum. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents an inter-disciplinary socio-economic teaching case that was informed by insights from BE. The teaching case concerned a socio-economic understanding of corruption and white-collar crime. It was also inter-disciplinary to include inputs from business history and criminology. The aim of the teaching case was to develop an appreciation among students that corruption and white-collar crime can be analysed within a social economics lens. Findings: The teaching case example discussed in this paper offered an alternative socio-economic understanding to core areas of the MBA curriculum, enabling students to apply a behavioural economic approach to corruption and more generally to white-collar crime. The findings derived from this case study are that behavioural economics has the potential to enhance the teaching of socio-economics. Practical implications: The GFC presents an opportunity to re-shape the business school curriculum to acknowledge the centrality of socio-economics and consequently to offer an alternative to the dominant ontological assumptions – taken from the economic understanding of rationality – that have previously under-pinned business school pedagogy. Originality/value: The originality of this paper is to apply BE to a socio-economic teaching case studies in core subject areas of the MBA curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the economics literature of publicly subsidized sports stadiums and mega-events. Let it be noted, however, that the author was unable to find any substantial economics literature in terms of how publicly funded stadiums and events affect income and wealth inequality.Design/methodology/approach This paper was designed for coherent legibility with the intention of reviewing economic literature on the effects of publicly funded sports stadiums and events. However, upon investigation it was found that there is a surprising dearth of relevant literature pertaining to the implications of publicly funded stadiums and sports events and their effects on income and wealth inequality.Findings Although the author discovered research performed by non-economists, they were unable to find research wherein economists explicitly investigate the impact of stadium subsidies on income and wealth inequality.Social implications The social implications of publicly funded sports-related constructions and events, though surprisingly under-reported by economists, can be startlingly extensive in terms of sheer numbers. In all, 1.5 million individuals were purportedly displaced in order to make room for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. In total, 250,000 people were likewise forced to move in order to accommodate the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. These numbers warrant further investigation by economists.Originality/value The author was unable to find any literature pertaining to the effects on income or wealth inequality of publicly funded sports stadiums and mega-events. This review would therefore appear to be unique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – In light of recent enthusiasm over African private sector development, the purpose of this paper is to review the business literature on African enterprise development with a view of identifying lacunas in the literature and of developing an analytical framework that may guide future research on this issue. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a review of the extant literature on African enterprise development by juxtaposing the traditional pessimistic view of African business performance with more recent, optimistic accounts. Based on the literature review, lacunas in the literature are identified and an integrative framework for analysing African enterprise development is developed. The framework is used to provide an overview of the received literature on African enterprise development, to identify voids and lacunas and to identify new research agendas. Findings – While a growing number of studies suggest profound improvements in the performance of African enterprises, data limitations, conceptual ambiguities and absence of comprehensive studies still cautions against sweeping generalizations. The paper reviews the literature on factors shaping the performance of African enterprises, observing that while much research is focusing on the role of the African business environments for enterprise development, much less attention has been devoted to the role of firm-specific capabilities, strategies and management. The paper concludes by advocating a contingency approach to research on African enterprise development that emphasizes the interplay between firm-specific factors and the specificities of the African business environment. Originality/value – The paper provides a comprehensive literature review on African enterprise development and presents a novel framework for understanding African enterprise development from a business perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how subtle religious representations affect prosocial behavior. The authors study the impact of religious representations on prosocial behavior in terms of cooperation in a one-shot/three-person public goods game. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used the scrambled sentence task to prime participants with religious words before they were asked to make a one-shot/three-person public goods game decision. Findings – Both in the raw data and when controlling for factors such as age, gender and religious beliefs, the authors found that priming of religious representations increased cooperation in the experiment, that is, increased contributions to the public good. The authors found no significant interaction effects between priming and self-reported measures of religiosity, suggesting that the priming effect was present among both self-reported religious and nonreligious participants. Self-reported measures of religiosity were not correlated with cooperation in this study. Originality/value – The paper adds to the growing body of experimental economics literature that has studied self-reported measures of religiosity alongside behavior in different economic games. This study contributes to the literature by examining the effect of subtle influences of religion on cooperation. Also, in contrast to previous economic literature, the paper examines the direct impact of religion as an independent variable on cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper seeks to contribute to the study of the relationship between savings and investment in a panel of five South Asian countries. Design methodology approach -- A number of unit root tests such as Levin, Lin, and Chu or LLC, Breitung, Im, Pesaran, and Shin or IPS, Fisher-type tests using ADF and Fisher-type tests using PP tests are conducted that confirm the non-stationarity of data. Then the paper applies maximum likelihood-based panel cointegration method to examine the relationship between savings and investment using data on investment and savings for five South Asian developing countries, namely, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka over the period 1973-2007 compiled from the World Development Indicator (WDI) Database 2008 CD-ROM. Findings -- The results obtained suggest that savings and investment are cointegrated, which implies that the Feldstein-Horioka (F-H) puzzle does not hold in this region. It is also found that most of these countries have maintained an international solvency condition. Originality value -- This is another contribution that would enrich the existing literature on the F-H puzzle. The paper includes data that involve the longest sample period. No other study, as of now, has employed the panel cointegration method to study the savings investment relationship in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to establish a historical context for the often maligned capital theory of Henry George within a North American frontier tradition that includes John Rae. Design/methodology/approach - Modern discussions of rapid technological and institutional change provide a framework for detailed re-examination of the capital theories of Rae and George, whose critics were largely constrained by a rigid neoclassical perspective. Findings - Both Rae and George presented capital theories, defined as explanations of the supply of and demand for capital resulting in a determinate capital stock. Both writers stress elements that were not emphasized in neoclassical capital theory, most notably that the capital stock can increase rapidly under certain conditions; increases in knowledge, inventions,, technical and technological changes, and scale are more important than mere accumulation of capital; high rates of return combined with rapid technical obsolescence and physical deterioration provide the opportunity for rapid changes in the form of the capital stock, and; the ephemeral nature, and hence potential mobility, of capital implies that security of property is essential for economic growth. Research limitations/implications - The focus On two writers leads to the question of how widespread their ideas were in nineteenth century North America. Practical implications - The rapidly changing technology and institutions that Rae and George observed place their theories closer to some modern trends in the study of economic development than to the literature of neoclassical capital theory. Originality/value - George's grasp of economic theory deserves greater respect than it has often received in the economics literature when his work is considered in its historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the idea currently rampant in the mainstream economics literature that it is relative rather than real income that is of most importance for individual well-being and that both evidence on expressed happiness and individual ‘choices’ in surveys provide strong evidence for that position. Design/methodology/approach - A reconsideration of the theory, extensive new survey results, and presentation of material relevant for individuals' actual choices. Findings - The idea that other's higher incomes leaves others worse off really is not convincing, the evidence from surveys that people really have preferences for living in societies where their relative income is high at the expense of real income is wrong and that people's actual choices reveal them to be interested in real rather than relative income. Practical implications - Those social commentators who deride the negative externalities generated by individual pursuit of higher incomes and who advocate considerably more progressive taxes have still not provided good evidence to make their case. Originality/value - The originality lies in providing an analysis of extensive surveys of positional preferences that allows for the demonstration that responses depend on survey structure and respondent knowledge levels and in shedding new light and doubts on previous attempts to use surveys to attempt to bolster the case that relative income is of overriding importance for individual welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article illustrates the key findings from the economics literature on education investment, in particular the findings focused on early child investment. The article shows the impact of early investment, particularly evidence from experimental programmes on later life outcomes such as labour market performance and societal position. It demonstrates how investment in children is both an important investment for the child but also an important tool for economic and social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Within the area of economics, the value attached to highly-ranked journal publications, such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy and Quarterly Journal of Economics, in tenure, promotion, and merit pay processes is often several times greater than that of second-tier publications, such as Economic Inquiry and the Southern Economic Journal. As a result one would expect that author(s) will put forth relatively more production "effort" in order to gain acceptance in a top-tier journal. The additional production effort may come in the form of making the manuscript available to a larger number of outside readers, perhaps via seminars and conferences. This study aims to examine whether the economics research production process differs between top- and second-tier journal outlets. Design/methodology/approach - Data are collected from feature articles published in two top-tier and two second-tier economics journals for the period 1995-1999, inclusive. Means difference tests on various "production statistics" across journals are conducted/presented. Findings - Tests presented in this study indicate that the fraction of the "scientific team" whose contributions are recognized in the acknowledgment footnote of research articles appearing in top-tier economics journal outlets is, on average, greater than that of articles appearing in second-tier economics journal outlets. Originality/value - By examining within-discipline aspects of intellectual property rights assignment in economics, our study extends the work of Laband (2002), which examined interdisciplinary differences (i.e. agricultural economics versus economics) in the assignment of intellectual property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To communicate the development and results of strategic human resource management (HRM) research to the audit research community in order to stimulate audit research specific to HRM audits. Design/methodology/approach - Prior research that served as impetus for this paper is discussed. The findings of other studies are presented to make a case for the business impact of strategic human resource management practices. Findings - Studies on the competitive environment of firms, theoretical development in HRM, empirical work on the link between HRM practice and firm performance, and emerging models based on intellectual capital, suggest that there are compelling reasons for internal audit to devote substantial resources to the evaluation of strategic risk in HRM audits. Research limitations/implications - The literature is still developing. The literature presented here is not an exhaustive list and does not include all findings, but rather what we perceive to be the most important findings. Practical implications - Both "high performance work systems" and "strategic fit" should guide internal audit in planning, designing audit programs, and executing strategic audits of human resources consistent with the risk management paradigm. Originality/value - This paper bridges a gap between the human resource management literature and the internal auditing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from a command economy to a market-based economy has been remarkably successful in China. After 15 years of negotiations, China finally joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001. Because of trade and investment liberalization under the WTO, there will be greater competition between Chinese and foreign finns, both inside China and outside China. While there is a great deal of economic literature on China's entry to the WTO, there has been no research on the global marketing impact and implications of China's membership of the WTO. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap. The objective of this study is to examine the general impact of China's entry to the WTO and to assess the global marketing implications of specific trade-related policy issues within the WTO framework for China Eleven specific WTO policy issues are examined and several global marketing propositions offered in terms of the WTO's impact on and implications for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Completing the internal market, the opportunities of the single market, the challenges of 1992; these phrases are common currency in many sectors of the media. The UK Department of Trade and Industry has promoted an 11m campaign to increase awareness of the impact of a single European market (SEM) on the UK business community. Debate is growing over the implications of the SEM for the future economic system of the European Community (EC). The plan to harmonise the VAT and excise duties systems of member countries has brought the issue of the SEM before a wide audience. It has also become clear that the SEM is not something which happens in 1992. Rather that 1992, or more accurately 1 January 1993, is an agreed date by which time it is hoped that the necessary steps will have been taken to remove the barriers preventing an SEM from emerging. Already over 130 of the proposed 279 necessary changes outlined in the White Paper have been agreed by the Council of Ministers. A great deal of activity is being generated in many sectors in "covering" the 1992 move. There have, however, been few serious studies of the economic impact of the SEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates several articles on the economics of British colonialism. Contention regarding the acquisition of colonies as the consequence of the development of capitalism; Political motives behind British colonial expansion; Economic factors in British annexation; Implications of British dependence on its colonies for raw materials and markets; Link between commercial interest and British colonial policy.

The article presents information on several books related to various issues. The book "Going to Law," by John Mcllroy, deals with how to prepare a case for an industrial tribunal, what forms should be completed, how to appeal to a higher court etc. About 20,000 applications are made to industrial tribunals each year and this book should be of value to all concerned. Another book "Employment Contracts," by Ian Smith focuses on contract details. Everybody who works has to have a contract of employment and that contract must contain certain details. Changes in the law mean that the casual standards of a few years ago no longer apply. This book explains the rights and duties of each party. While the book "Union Members," by Gillan Morris deals with treatment of employees. As far as employer and employee are concerned there is a world of difference in the rights, duties and treatment of people who are union members as against those who are not, even in the same workplace.

Though Keynes wrote prodigiously, his position in economics is based on The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936). Significant changes have occurred since then in almost every country's economy, and there have been many developments in economic theory. Have these been as great as to render The General Theory obsolete? Or are there still valuable lessons to be learnt from it? It is argued that what Keynes advocated as economic policy has been ignored in the US during the 1970s and 1980s. The policies he advocated have not been employed. Consequently, the experience of those years does not provide evidence for rejecting his theories. In fact, it is claimed that the US economy performed well when Keynesian policies were adopted, and performed progressively poorly as they were abandoned. The search for alternative macroeconomic theories has been misguided and should be abandoned. Instead, The General Theory should be re-examined and its theoretical framework developed. It is argued that the more fundamental methodological considerations that motivate Shackle are overlooked. Such issues as the way in which economic actors acquire knowledge and the nature of economics as a social science are important to him. A more meaningful way of assessing his views is to consider whether they are in sympathy with Keynes's views in such matters. Shackle's methodological perspective and the way in which this has influenced his interpretation of Keynes is examined, followed by a similar look at aspects of the latter's views on methodology. Finally, the argument is taken a stage further by considering Keynes's views on macroeconomic policy. It is suggested that Keynes saw a more limited role to short-term stabilisation policy than many of his subsequent supporters have. Banks, Central Banks, Economic Theory, Keynesian School, United Kingdom The statements made by the central bankers to the Radcliffe Committee are utilised to show how, frequently, they have tak... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central argument of this article is that institutional capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s must be related simultaneously to the issues of both economic development and of governance. The importance of institutions that are undergirded by democratic values, especially electoral legitimacy and the rule of law, is stressed. Possible strategies for developing and/or strengthening capacity for policy analysis and management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that from this issue of the Journal of Economic Studies, Max Steur of the London School of Economics will be the new editor of the journal. Under Max, the journal is inviting papers on the theme of "Making Poverty History."