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Understanding what stimulates agribusiness firms to lobby the government and what makes the government responsive to lobbying are the two issues that have been discussed extensively in the debates concerning determinants of biotechnology policy. This paper examines the factors influencing agribusiness firms' lobbying and government response using econometric modeling on a new data set of 160 leading agribusiness firms in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries in China. The results show that approximately 10% of agribusiness firms lobbied the government about biotechnology policy and regulations and over half of those that lobbied received a verbal or written acknowledgment from government agencies. Seed and feed companies are more likely to engage in lobbying than chemical companies. Owning GM patents not only has a positive impact on firms' lobbying activities, but firms with these patents are more likely to receive a government response to their lobbying efforts. The experience of selling GM products does not significantly influence lobbying activities or response from the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though voluminous empirical studies examine the linkage between energy consumption (EC) and economic growth, the impact of human capital on EC is scarce. This paper investigates this research issue by using annual data of 73 countries over the period 1990–2014. Furthermore, we classify 73 countries based on income (developed, developing and emerging economies) and regions (Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America). The empirical results indicate that human capital negatively affects EC. This implies that EC can be lowered by improving human capital, which ultimately can help in energy conservation and environmental protection. Policies promoting substitutability between energy inputs and human capital, and structural policies like improving economic efficiency and improving human capital through educational levels can help economies in achieving greater sustainable growth with low EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the economic growth experiences of middle‐income economies over the period 1960–2014 focusing on two groups of countries. The "convergence success" group includes middle‐income economies which have graduated to a high‐income status or have achieved rapid convergence progress. When an economy in the "nonsuccess" group experienced growth deceleration and failed to advance to a high‐income status, we defined such episodes as the "middle‐income trap." We observe no clear pattern that the relative frequency of growth deceleration was higher for upper middle‐income economies, thereby refuting the "middle‐income trap hypothesis." The probit regressions show that "convergence successes" tend to maintain strong human capital, a high working‐age population ratio, effective rule of law, low‐priced investment goods, and high levels of high‐tech exports and patents. Adding to unfavorable demographic, trade, and technological factors, rapid investment expansion, hasty deregulation, and hurried financial opening could cause the "nonsuccesses" to fall into the middle‐income trap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the relationship between the conditions of the entrepreneurial environment and high‐potential entrepreneurship according to the stage of economic development of the country. A structural equation model was designed based on data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor project, which contains information about 62 countries. Our results suggest that economic development and high‐potential entrepreneurship have a greater impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem than entrepreneurial activity in general—with special effects on government programs, R&D transfer, and access to the domestic market. Notably, the level of influence of sustainable economic development and high‐potential entrepreneurship depends on the level of economic development of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical fruits represent one of the most important crops in the world. The continuously growing global market for the main tropical fruits is currently estimated at 84 million tons, of which approximately half is lost or wasted throughout the whole processing chain. Developing novel processes for the conversion of these byproducts into value‐added products could provide a viable way to manage this waste problem, aiming at the same time to create a sustainable economic growth within a bio‐economy perspective. Given the ever‐increasing concern about sustainability, complete valorization through a bio‐refinery approach, that is, zero waste concept, as well as the use of green techniques is therefore of utmost importance. This paper aims to report the status on the valorization of tropical fruit byproducts within a bio‐refinery frame, via the application of traditional methodologies, and with specific attention to the extraction of phenolics and carotenoids as bioactive compounds. The different types of byproducts, and their content of bioactives is reviewed, with a special emphasis on the lesser‐known tropical fruits. Moreover, the bioactivity of the different types of extracts and their possible application as a resource for different sectors (food, pharmaceutical, and environmental sciences) is discussed. Consequently, this review presents the concepts of tropical fruit biorefineries, and the potential applications of the isolated fractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

To analyse the impact of the diversity of talent distribution on the equilibrium growth rate, this paper develops an equilibrium growth model with heterogeneous labor. We show that the growth effect after free trade depends on the diversity effect and the trade effect. In addition, we prove that if talent diversity is great enough then opening trade will stimulate economic growth. In contrast, if talent diversity is small enough then trade openness is detrimental to economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Zealand government approach to regional development and the economy more broadly has oscillated from the 1970s economic growth and investment focus to 1980s neoliberal neglect, followed by the more recent rediscovery of the regions' importance in national economies, all with tenuous outcomes. This paper explores the changing scope of regional development initiatives by successive New Zealand governments over the last 60 years to show a pattern of opportunism and neglect that suggests regional development is more aligned to electoral priorities than regional success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the impact of financial development on economic growth in the Union Économique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA) and non‐UEMOA countries. It also examines the finance‐growth nexus before and after the formation of UEMOA, as well as the indirect effect of economic union on economic growth through the financial sector. The study reveals a significant difference in the finance‐growth nexus between UEMOA and non‐UEMOA countries. Specifically, financial development has a robust positive impact on growth in UEMOA countries, while the impact is tenuous in non‐UEMOA countries. However, we find no remarkable difference in the finance‐growth nexus before and after the formation of UEMOA. We also reveal that economic union has no robust indirect effect on economic growth via the financial sector. The economic implication is that UEMOA could have economic benefits, but financial development is not a channel through which it influences growth. Therefore, it is necessary to reposition the union so that it can enhance the impact of finance on growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the large contribution of rural activities to the Brazilian economy and the vast contribution of these agricultural activities to the emission of pollutant gases, this paper aims to analyze the impact of economic growth on greenhouse gas emissions related to the urban and rural areas of Brazil. Data from 2004 to 2014 were used and the environmental Kuznets curve equation for Brazilian states was estimated via a spatial econometric method for panel data. Thus, two effects have been demonstrated for both urban and rural areas. First, rising economic growth increases short‐term pollutant emissions. Second, in the long run, maintaining the rise in economic growth levels leads to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, the estimation results showed the need to implement pollutant removal policies, especially in the rural areas of Brazilian states. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the dynamic relationships between physical infrastructure, financial development and economic growth in the case of India, using the autoregressive distributed lag and the Toda–Yamamoto causality approach for the period 1980 to 2016. A physical infrastructure index and a financial development index are constructed using the principal component analysis. The empirical results suggest that physical infrastructure has a positive effect on economic growth both in the long run and short run, whereas financial development, although significant, has a weak impact on economic growth. The causality test supports a bidirectional causal relationship between infrastructure development and economic growth, while it finds unidirectional causation running from economic growth to financial development. As India is aiming for higher growth for a sustained period, our results suggest that there is a need for government intervention in expanding the physical infrastructure and this, in turn, could lead to economic growth as well as financial sector development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of economic and development zones (EDZs) on the productivity of incumbent firms in China. To deal with the selection issue, I first take into account potentially different selection mechanisms across two popular types of EDZs—economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) and high‐tech development zones (HTDZs)—by relying on multiple treatment propensity scores matching techniques. Next, I apply the difference‐in‐differences estimator to the matched sample and conduct an event study analysis. The results show that the respective effects of ETDZs and HTDZs on firm productivity are positive, but subject to a nonlinear trend over time. The size of the productivity gains depends critically on the type of EDZ, however. A new HTDZ (ETDZ) leads to an average productivity gain of up to 30.2% (18.4%) for incumbent firms in the 5 years after the zone was created. These findings suggest that the size of productivity spillovers for spatially targeted firms differ quite significantly depending on the strategic development and policy goals of the EDZ: HTDZs that focus on promoting indigenous‐based factors of learning lead to higher productivity spillovers compared with ETDZs that focus on promoting extra‐local linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries benefit from the registration of geographical indications (GIs) in the agricultural and artisan sectors. The extension of GIs to the artisan sector serves as a best practice to Nigeria. Nigeria has many indigenous forms of cultural artworks that are influenced by the environment. Artworks from places like Benin and other regions in Nigeria are location specific. This paper explores generally the utilization of GIs to protect cultural artworks and the monetary and nonmonetary benefits of such works. The trend of registering GIs to protect culture, arts, and traditional knowledge is crucial to the economic growth of Nigeria otherwise it deprives those dependent on the creation of cultural artworks of a means to benefit from their hard work by a process known to them for decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, we examine the two‐way relationship between economic growth and human development in Zambia over the period 1970 to 2015. By applying the cointegration and vector error correction model techniques, our estimates demonstrate, in the first instance, that economic growth and human development are cointegrated. Second, there is no evidence of two‐way causal effect observable between economic growth and human development in the short run. In marked contrast, we find that economic growth has long‐run effect on human development, with no evidence of reverse causality. This shows that the endless fixation on economic growth has manifestly and consistently proven that GDP growth has had sluggish multiplier effect on inclusive development in Zambia. Finally, we draw country‐specific policy recommendations from our empirical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of corruption control and regulation quality on growth across countries over the period 1996 through 2015. After dealing with the possible endogeneity problem through the dynamic panel data models, our findings are suggestive of the positive effects of corruption control. Thus, our analysis tends to support the 'sand the wheels' view at the aggregate level as well as for lower and lower–middle‐income countries. Similar results are also obtained for regulation quality. However, contrary to the theoretical arguments, the joint effect of regulation and corruption does not seem to be significant empirically for countries from any of the income groups. Evidence is also indicative of a positive effect on trade across countries from all income groups. Although our results failed to support the natural resource curse hypothesis, countries with efficient institutions and low level of corruption are not seen to experience any resource curse. Finally, policy implications of these findings are brought out. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to learn about local residents' perceptions in relation to tourism and the presence of tourists who eventually become foreign residents, since tourism development is bound to have consequences of an economic, sociocultural, and environmental nature. This paper has collected quantitative as well as qualitative information to analyze those effects in the case of a tourism destination located on Costa Blanca (Spain). The impact of tourism development is additionally associated with local residents' satisfaction with their municipality. According to the conclusion reached, a connection exists between that satisfaction amongst local residents and the availability of new business opportunities, the development, and maintenance of good relationships between local residents, foreign residents and tourists, and the international atmosphere that arises as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the factors driving manufacturing growth accelerations in a sample of 134 developing countries over the period 1970 to 2014. We first identify growth acceleration episodes of manufacturing value added (MVA) by their year of initiation and according to a country's income classification. We then estimate a probit model to explain what factors predict these MVA growth accelerations. Our results show that human capital and institutions represent contextual factors that favor the growth of manufacturing, together with macroeconomic policies related to investment, and openness to foreign trade and capital. We also find that most of these factors not only foster episodic accelerations of industry, but they contribute as well to a sustained process of industrialization that characterized the process of economic growth of a few successful countries over the period 1970 to 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perceptions of the public entities audited in Latin America (the auditees) about the effectiveness of the performance audits carried out on their institutions by their supreme audit institutions (SAIs; the auditors) to determine to what extent these audits are promoting changes in these public entities. After revising the webs of the SAIs of all Latin American countries, a sample of the entities evaluated with performance audits was selected and a questionnaire (focused on the audit process, the actions taken afterwards, and the follow‐up processes) was sent to them. The results show, as in other Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development settings, different degrees of real implementation of performance audits in this geographical area. The audited entities that perceive performance audits useful and trust in the SAIs' activities are also those that implement more recommendations and sooner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mainstream real business cycle (RBC) model, labor can be viewed as temporary employment since the firm's demand for labor behaves directly in response to stochastic productivity shocks in each period. This paper provides a tractable way of analyzing fluctuations in permanent and temporary employment over the business cycle, as well as the underlying driving forces. This inclusion of heterogeneity helps reconcile the RBC model with the U.S. data given that temporary employees in general only account for a small proportion of total private‐sector employment (about 2%–3%). We draw an explicit division between permanent and temporary employment and resort to this separation to account for stylized facts that characterize a two‐tier labor market. In particular, with regard to the U.S. labor market, our benchmark model can well explain the motivating facts: (1) temporary employment is much more volatile than permanent employment, (2) the share of temporary employment (the ratio of temporary to aggregate employment) exhibits strong pro‐cyclicality, (3) permanent employment lags by two quarters on average, and (4) the correlation between temporary employment and output is stronger than that involving the permanent counterpart. The quantitative analysis suggests that our proposed channels explain the main facts well and the model further provides plausible reasoning for a firm's labor hoarding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the evolution of topics in economics and their geographical specialization by analyzing 13,233 papers from seven top journals between 1985 and 2012 and their forward citations. The share of U.S. publications declines from 75% to 64% with a corresponding increase of the European share from 12% to 24%. We use topic modeling and document the evolution of the discipline over 27 years. We estimate, with a quasi‐structural model, the citation lag distribution for 18 different topics and three large geographical areas. The modal citation lag is about 6.7 years in the entire sample and 4.8 years for citations from the top 100 journals. We quantify (1) the home bias effect in citations, (2) how it fades away over time, (3) the long lasting impact of U.S. publications vis‐à‐vis other geographical areas, and (4) the higher speed of diffusion and faster obsolescence in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the shape of the relationship between household income inequality and economic growth. More precisely we search for the existence of threshold values in this relationship by employing a dynamic panel smooth transition regression model to account for potential endogeneity problems. We find that there do exist threshold values (that are different for different groups of countries): below the threshold, household income inequality is growth enhancing, while above the threshold, inequality has a negative or no effect on economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the dynamic relationship between interest rates, inflation and economic growth using a long dataset for the UK. The approach adopted enables us to identify structural breaks in the dynamic system (vector autoregression (VAR)). We find interest rates respond much more strongly to growth and inflation over recent decades, and forecast error variance decomposition analysis indicates there is increasing interconnectedness between the variables in recent years. Economic policymakers need to carefully monitor the linkages between these variables and be prepared to adjust their monetary policy tools when faced with structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a dynamic framework of economic organization called the option-creating institution (OCI) model. The claim is made that firm, market, and hybrid governance structures emerge from the need for flexibility in an uncertain world. Each governance structure uniquely provides strategic real options that allow capitalist-entrepreneurs, with unique risk preferences, to better organize their economic activities. The real options perspective on economic organization is developed by drawing insights from the exchange and coordination perspectives. It is proposed that this real options perspective matches practicing decision makers' intuition and that an inductive OCI model will offer a prescriptive guide. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how knowledge created by firm experience (learning economies) and scale and scope economies affect performance in firms' development activities. The empirical results suggest that each factor has a significant effect on development performance. Moreover, knowledge that results from greater experience within a particular technological area, when combined with knowledge spillovers from greater scope in other technological areas, significantly improves development performance. The results suggest that experience shapes and facilitates firms' abilities to absorb knowledge spillovers. Our empirical findings thus provide a more nuanced examination of the drivers of performance and have implications for the management of firms' development activities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a new methodology based on industry comovement to examine the role of financial market development in intersectoral allocation. Based on the assumption that there exist common global shocks to growth opportunities, we hypothesize that country pairs should have correlated patterns of sectoral growth if they are able to respond to these shocks. Consistent with financial markets promoting responsiveness to shocks, countries have more highly correlated growth rates across sectors when both countries have well-developed financial markets. This effect is stronger between country pairs at similar levels of economic development, which are more likely to experience similar growth shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a model in which long-term risky assets are illiquid due to adverse selection. The degree of adverse selection and hence the liquidity of these assets is determined endogenously by the amount of trade for reasons other than private information. I find that higher productivity leads to increased liquidity. Moreover, liquidity magnifies the effects of changes in productivity on investment and volume. High productivity implies that investors initiate larger scale risky projects which increases the riskiness of their incomes. Riskier incomes induce more sales of claims to high-quality projects, causing liquidity to increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the relevance of museums in promoting cultural, tourism and economic development in local territories, we investigate the influence of both spatial and non‐spatial interactions on museum attractiveness. In particular, we assess whether non‐spatial collaborations such as partnerships and networking, contribute to enhancing their level of competitiveness and if spatial dependence occurs among neighbouring museums. Additionally, we differentiate the analysis by considering various location typologies, that is, sites located in highly attractive and remote areas. Findings from this study can assist policy‐makers in designing ad hoc strategies to encourage the active role of museums in their local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a simple dynamic asset pricing model, this paper investigates the relationship between the precision of public information about economic growth and stock market returns. After fully characterizing expected returns and conditional volatility, I show that (i) higher precision of signals tends to increase the risk premium, (ii) when signals are imprecise the equity premium is bounded above independently of investors' risk aversion, (iii) return volatility is U-shaped with respect to investors' risk aversion, and (iv) the relationship between conditional expected returns and conditional variance is ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study challenges existing literature which maintains that technology latecomers usually depend on imported technologies to develop emerging high-tech sectors. This paper argues that the domestic institutional environment in facilitating networking might be more important for developing academia-industry ( A- I) networks. The co-evolution of institutions and the knowledge transfer process in the Taiwanese Biopharmaceutical Innovation System ( TBPIS) is a case in point. Far from relying purely on foreign technologies, several important institutional and policy changes, which transform the institutional environment from prohibiting A- I intertwining into encouraging A- I collaborations, have enabled domestic research institutes to influence the acquisition, creation, and diffusion of knowledge in the innovation network. Nonetheless, the country continues to struggle in commercializing domestic scientific research to step into a knowledge-based economy. Therefore, this paper suggests that more productive strategies would be helpful to advance domestic academic research, sustain A- I networks, and strengthen the innovation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Success in the FIFA World Cup provides countries with substantial international visibility. This paper uses this information shock associated with the World Cup to show that visibility has a significant impact on trade flows. In isolating the visibility effect, two identification problems are solved. Match outcomes in the World Cup are subject to significant uncertainty. This uncertainty, when combined with controls for economic development, makes World Cup success exogenous to exports. By contrast, hosting the World Cup is potentially endogenous owing to self-selection issues. The paper exploits FIFA's host selection policy to construct exogenous instruments for hosting. The results show that success in the World Cup raises exports temporarily by around 5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of income inequality in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has attracted world-wide attention, leading to a sizable literature. This paper attempts to provide a nonexhaustive literature review of the PRC's inequality trends and determinants, and suggested government interventions. It discusses profiles of income inequality along three dimensions: interhousehold disparity, regional divides, and urban-rural gaps. This is followed by an exploration of the driving forces behind rising inequality, including the notorious hukou system, policy biases, location or geographic factors, globalization, and education. Finally, the paper summarizes and proposes government interventions for containing or reducing income inequality in the PRC. Important areas for future research are also suggested in the final section of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has witnessed a rapid demographic transition in recent decades, which has driven changes in labour market outcomes as evidenced by labour shortages and increasing wages for unskilled workers. In this paper, the authors survey the literature on population transition, factors influencing fertility and how these have changed, and population policies in China. The fundamental role of demographic transition in labour market changes is also reviewed. In addition, the paper discusses the implications of demographic transition and labour market changes for economic development in China, including ageing, impacts on potential economic growth rates, and challenges to human capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Official Development Assistance ( ODA) in the aftermath of large natural disasters between 1970 and 2008. Using an event-study approach, the paper finds that while the median increase in ODA is 18% compared with pre-disaster flows, the typical surge is small in relation to the size of the affected economies. Moreover, aid surges typically cover only 3% of the total estimated economic damages caused by the disasters. The main determinants of post-disaster aid surges are found to be the intensity of the event itself and the recipient country's characteristics such as the level of development, country size and the stock of foreign reserves. The paper does not find evidence that political considerations or strategic behavior on the part of donors determine the size of post-disaster aid surges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines strategic investment subsidies in an international oligopoly. A general oligopoly model is constructed in which firms compete in two stages and governments commit to investment subsidies prior to firms' actions. The paper considers asymmetry among firms that arises from the nature of goods they produce rather than their cost structures. When firms produce asymmetrically differentiated goods, it is found that a change in the number of foreign competitors may alter the sign of the optimal unilateral investment subsidy. An example of policy reversal is provided in the case of strategic research and development subsidies for a quality-differentiated industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to develop a coherent approach to describe the agri-food and other bio-based accounts in the European Union. The paper presents a case study of Spain based on a Social Accounting Matrix with a highly disaggregated agricultural account for the year 2000. The analysis of multipliers allows identifying backward and forward linkages, key sectors, and employment multipliers of the Spanish agri-food and other bio-based accounts. This analysis helps us to better understand the extended agri-food account's economic linkages. No primary agricultural account emerges as key for the Spanish economy, while the production of (renewable) energy appears the only key sector related to agri-food and other bio-based accounts. Livestock and related bio-based products present the highest backward linkages, that is, they have significant diffusion effects of activity to the whole economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special double issue of the International Social Security Review addresses the question of the essential roles that national social security systems play in contributing to social and economic objectives and does so through the lens of the Dynamic Social Security conceptual framework. In 2007, the International Social Security Association adopted Dynamic Social Security as the strategic concept to guide its actions. The concept aims to positively influence two outcomes: improvements in social security coverage and improvements in social security administration. The set of papers comprising this issue tackle questions relating primarily to the former. On the basis of country examples, the broad aim of this special issue is to take stock of the strategic concept and its 'dimensions' as a framework to guide the sustainable development of social security systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Government's White Paper ' Australia in the Asian Century' is the first large-scale official look in the twenty-first century at economic change in Asia and how it affects Australian opportunities and challenges. This paper comments on the analysis embodied in and the objectives defined by the White Paper, especially as it relates to Australian resources. This paper generally endorses the aspirations of the White Paper and notes that their achievement is going to require efforts and changes beyond those that are currently contemplated. It comments briefly on six things: the development context of twenty-first century Asian growth; growth and structural change in Asia and Australia's terms of trade; macroeconomic management of a resource-intensive Australian economy; restoring productivity growth; excellence in education; and linking Australia to Asian opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent spikes in commodity prices, the growing appetite for primary commodities among emerging economies, growing interest in biofuels and speculations over future returns to land and its products have led to a renewed interest in farmland in the global South. With highly publicized risks and polarized 'win-lose' narratives, so-called 'land grabbing' has become an important focus of transnational governance activity. In juxtaposition to those seeing large-scale land acquisitions as inherently risky or undesirable, some argue for the potential opportunities they engender-provided risks can be mitigated through improved governance. This paper explores this argument through a systematic analysis of the formal features of the multi-sited governance mechanisms in place to guide agricultural investment and govern its social and environmental effects. The intent is not to discount the importance of informal norms and practices or the so-called 'lived experience of governance,' nor the argument that such land acquisitions are inherently flawed irrespective of the 'discipline imposed on them.' Rather, the paper aims to explore the merits of the arguments advanced by the pro-investment camp, and to explore the extent to which the emerging global governance architecture is set up to deliver on the purported benefits of large-scale agricultural investment. Results suggest that serious weaknesses in the substantive scope, reach and/or implementation mechanisms in all of the reviewed governance mechanisms pose a serious risk to the likely effectiveness of the emerging governance architecture in minimizing risks and leveraging benefits. Addressing these weaknesses is an obvious first step for bolstering the credibility of those advocating that governance is the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compliance and enforcement in fisheries are important issues from an economic point of view since management measures are useless without a certain level of enforcement. These conclusions come from the well-established theoretical literature on compliance and enforcement problems within fisheries and a common result is that, it is efficient to set fines as high as possible and monitoring as low as possible, when fines are costless and offenders are risk neutral. However, this result is sensitive to the assumption that fishermen cannot engage in avoidance activities, e.g., activities to reduce the likelihood of being detected when noncomplying. The paper presents a model of fisheries that allows the fishermen to engage in avoidance activities. The conclusions from the model are that, under certain circumstances, fines are costly transfers to society since they not only have a direct positive effect on the level of deterrence, but also an indirect negative effect in the form of increased avoidance activities to reduce the probability of detection. The paper contributes to the literature on avoidance activities by introducing the externality from the illegal behavior as an endogenous effect on other offenders. For an externality, that has an exogenous effect on other actors, Malik shows that fines are only costly transfers for conditional deterrence (when one actor is deterred while another actor is not). For fisheries, we show that fines are also costly transfers under no deterrence (when no agents are deterred). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When establishing relationships with stakeholders, nonprofit organizations must define appropriate target groups to allocate resources purposively. This paper explicates that link by reviewing the literature on nonprofit stakeholder segmentation and by discussing whether stakeholder segmentation is perceived as a prerequisite of successful relationship marketing by nonprofit researchers., We develop two conceptual dimensions of nonprofit stakeholder segmentation: the stakeholders segmented and the segmentation criteria used. A systematic database and journal search yielded 53 papers, categorized according to these two dimensions. The studies are described briefly, and the relevance of the relationship marketing concept is examined and discussed. Several research gaps emerge from this review, leading to propositions for further research., Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the contribution made by the establishment and operation of a local stock exchange to the economic development of Southeast Asian ( SEA) countries. The paper informs investors and policymakers about the current status of SEA stock market development and the associated positive and negative effects of such initiatives. Policymakers have placed a clear focus on SEA stock markets as a primary driver of regional economic growth. However, it is questionable whether SEA is ready for such an ambitious economic initiative, particularly given the reported negative effects of lesser developed stock markets. Despite these negative implications, the benefits appear to outweigh the costs for SEA stock markets. It is perceived that SEA stock markets will drive further economic reform, financial liberalisation, and market integration, promising tremendous benefits for both the region and the international investment community. The paper concludes with questions regarding the efficiency of stock markets in SEA and offers recommendations for further empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a North- South model of heterogeneous firms, the paper investigates the effects of the financial development of the South on the choice of international entry mode (export vs foreign direct investment [ FDI]) of Northern firms. Such development facilitates the entry of local firms and thus intensifies product market competition. As a result, the intensive margins, extensive margins and total sales from export or FDI of Northern firms are all reduced. The paper provides conditions that determine whether export or FDI is affected more significantly. The results generate empirically testable hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Fisher's Identity model is established to study Northern Song China's (960-1126) level of velocity of money using money supply and gross domestic product ( GDP) data. Results of the exercise help rationalize what is called the 'bronze coin' puzzle, which is the massive amount of minted coins seemingly incommensurate with price levels. It is shown that the velocity of money was increasing and comparable to pre-industrial England levels. This paper argues that the driving forces of the short supply of money are greater than usual hoarding by the state treasury and coin outflows to Song's trading partners via smuggling. Since velocity of money is an indicator of economic development in ancient societies, this paper provides a realistic validation of the premise of the Needham puzzle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative research in economics has traditionally been unimportant compared to quantitative work. Yet there has been a small explosion in use of quantitative approaches in the past 10-15 years, including 'mixed-methods' projects which use qualitative and quantitative methods in combination. This paper surveys the growing use of qualitative methods in economics and closely related fields, aiming to provide economists with a useful roadmap through major sets of qualitative methods and how and why they are used. We review the growing body of economic research using qualitative approaches, emphasizing the gains from using qualitative- or mixed-methods over traditional 'closed-ended' approaches. It is argued that, although qualitative methods are often portrayed as less reliable, less accurate, less powerful and/or less credible than quantitative methods, in fact, the two sets of methods have their own strengths, and how much can be learned from one type of method or the other depends on specific issues that arise in studying the topic of interest. The central message of the paper is that well-done qualitative work can provide scientifically valuable and intellectually helpful ways of adding to the stock of economic knowledge, especially when applied to research questions for which they are well suited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, tourism development has raised economics, social and environmental issues, particularly for host communities. This paper provides a wide ranging review of the existing literature aimed at underpinning empirical tourism research with a robust economic framework. So far, tourism research has mostly focused on either quantitative or qualitative approaches that lack a strong economic theoretical setting. Most of the literature on resident's welfare analysis concentrates on their attitudes and perceptions without taking explicitly into account their preferences about policy development based on a cost-benefit assessment. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to draw connections within the current body of research to explain the relationship between residents and tourism activity, as well as consumer theory and economic choice. In this way, it is possible to construct a multidimensional framework that allows one to analyse residents' welfare in a systematic and more comprehensive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the development of research in the domain of service(s) marketing from its birth as an area of academic study in the 1960s/1970s to the current time. It identifies four phases of development. Phases 1-3 relate to the period before 2004, which focuses on the development of service(s) marketing. In Phase 4, a greater focus on the concept of service (singular) - defined as the application of knowledge and skills - has resulted in developments and directions in service research that offer a different perspective through which to view more general marketing. This different perspective has explicit implications also for wider business and management research. The paper summarizes current research in this domain, which coalesces around three broad perspectives, namely, the service-dominant logic of marketing, technology and service, and transformative service research. It concludes by outlining likely trends for service research into the future. Three interrelated directions are suggested: research on service in a changing context; research responding to academic schools of thought; and research responding to consumer trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature suggests two mechanisms through which the start-up of new firms contributes to economic development: the growth of start-ups and competition among incumbent firms induced by the start-ups. While existing studies derive the competition effect indirectly, this paper deploys a direct measure, called market mobility, to approximate the induced competition effect. The empirical results are consistent with the idea that both effects are important in explaining the long-term economic impact of start-ups. First, the most successful start-ups grow to become high-growth firms, and second, the entry of new firms stimulates incumbent firms to perform better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian state of Kerala had attained international acclaim for its consistently higher level of human development comparable with that of many advanced countries even with a much lower per capita income. The present paper focuses on the food security concerns in the state, which produces less than a quarter of its food grain requirements. There has however been a misguided optimism regarding the state's food security status in the recent times owing to the state's better economic performance, the supposed effective functioning of the Public Distribution System and good performance in terms of health outcome indicators. The paper critically analyses each of these factors and reveals the factual position behind the unwarranted optimism. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses multidimensional inequalities in health care distribution for Henan Province in central China. The paper has two objectives: (1) examining the multi-scale health care inequality in Henan from two dimensions, urban-rural and core-periphery and (2) revealing the spatial effects of China's multiple transitions, provincial development strategies, and local economic development on health care distribution. The authors used geographic information systems-based spatial statistical methods to detect the spatial-temporal variation of health care distribution, and applied geographically weighted regression to reveal the effects of multiple transitions on the health care sector. The results illustrate that urban-rural and core-periphery gaps in Henan are still significant even though health care reforms and recent provincial policies have improved the access of rural and peripheral areas to health care. Health care inequality is sensitive to geographical scale and clustering, and spatial patterns of health care are shaped by the interwoven forces at national, provincial, and local scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]