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Urges readers of 'Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography,' to submit research papers on natural resources, economic development and political change in South America. Impact of the adoption of neoliberal economic policies on forest exploitation; Link between rural and urban communities in natural resource use.

Based on the Xingke Tiben, this paper assesses the long‐run economic development of China, by constructing a new estimate of male occupational structure during 1734–1898 by sector, sub‐sector pattern, and region. After assessing the source's biases, using this new empirical basis, this paper demonstrates that the national male occupational structure was nearly identical in 1761–70, 1821–30, and 1881–90, suggesting a long‐lasting structural stasis of the national economy, allowing for fluctuations between benchmark dates. Within agriculture, substantial regional differences in labour organisation are revealed. Three distinct models are found: the Northern Regions model features a high usage of wage labour, the Yangtze Valley model presents a high level of tenancy development, and the Southern Regions model displays the highest share of landowners. All three models saw increasing use of wage labour in 1761–1890 and shrinking landownership in 1821–90. At the regional level, the long‐run estimate for Lower Yangtze suggests that the region as a whole stagnated throughout the entire period, but the overall structural stasis hides dynamic, contrasting long‐run economic change between the region's core and peripheral areas. Comparative analysis with England further suggests that the timing of the Great Divergence between China and England took place before 1734, even in the context of the regional difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the benefit of using a gross domestic product (GDP)-linked sovereign paper or sukuk in stabilizing economic growth of developing Islamic countries through risk sharing macro instruments from Islamic finance. Topics discussed are impact of debt servicing on real GDP per capita for lower income countries, and the Sharpe ratio for all the countries based on investor analysis of returns in a risk-adjusted framework.

Estimating the contribution of enslaved workers to output and growth in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century is a crucial building block to better understand the contours of nineteenth‐century US economic history, and more generally, the connection between slavery and capitalism. Existing estimates only present a partial picture and are potentially problematic. In this paper, we use data on enslaved person valuations to calculate the contribution made by enslaved workers to regional and national gross national product (GNP) in 1839 and 1859 and to the growth in per capita output in the 20 years before the Civil War. We find that in the United States, enslaved workers were responsible for somewhere between 12.49 per cent and 18.0 per cent of the increase in output per capita between 1839 and 1859. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the behaviour of G7 economies and decomposes their GDP into trend and cycle components using the Kalman filter. The general model of the paper encompasses a number of alternative specifications about trend growth, therefore accommodating diverse views on growth. The business cycle characteristics of G7 economies are then discussed, compared and deliberated in this framework. The empirical results overwhelmingly favor a mean-reverting stochastic process for the growth rate, the general and unrestricted specification of the paper, across G7 countries, though the restrictions are statistically rejected in less than half of the cases. Further reflection on the properties of cycles makes the specifications and the results of this study more reasonable in capturing the characteristics of GDP series, and contributes to solving the controversies in model specifications in some previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a large and growing literature on the relation between economic growth and poverty reduction. The evidence points to a negative correlation between growth and poverty. However, many studies also find that growth does not mechanically reduce poverty, arguing that in many cases rapid economic growth has not necessarily been pro-poor. This paper uses the concept of 'exit time from poverty' to assess the potential of economic growth to reduce poverty in Benin; thus accelerating the progress of the country toward the achievement of the sustainable development goal of eliminating poverty by 2030. It uses nationally representative household data covering the period 2009-2011 and analyses the impacts of various growth scenarios on poverty. The results show that, with a growth rate in income per capita of 4.2% per year, it will take between 7 and 10 years for the average poor household to escape from poverty. The paper also finds that stronger economic growth leads to shorter average time to exit from poverty. However, there is a lot of heterogeneity in the exit time from poverty, with various households' characteristics such as households' size and human capital being important determinants. Taken together, the results suggest that policies to accelerate poverty reduction should emphasize the development of human capital and ensure that growth is inclusive and pro-poor. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last year, a central issue in regional economic growth debate has been represented by the empirical analysis of Verdoorn's law related to the long-term dynamic relationship between the rate of growth in output and the productivity growth due to increasing returns. Several papers have tested Verdoorn's law on European countries as well as many other world economies. Recently, attempts have been made to provide foundations for a spatial version of the original law specification. The main contributions were dedicated to the inclusion of spatial dependence in the economic model. Surprisingly, in the literature on Verdoom's law the analysis of the spatial heterogeneity is not often considered. The aim of this paper is the regional analysis of the spatial dependence and heterogeneity in Verdoorn's law, identifying spatial regimes that can be interpreted as clusters of productivity growth in European regions at NUTS 2 level. To pursue this objective, an optimization algorithm for the identification of groups is used. This constitutes a modified version of Simulated Annealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The export-led growth hypothesis is tested using monthly time series data for Shanghai (one of the major exporting provinces in China) using the Granger no-causality procedure developed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) in a vector autoregresion (VAR) model. This paper builds on the existing literature in three distinct ways. This is the first study of the export-led growth hypothesis which employs a regional dataset (Shanghai). Second, the paper follows Riezman et al . (1996) in controlling for the growth of imports to avoid a spurious causality result; and finally, the use of the methodology by Toda and Yamamoto is expected to improve the standard F -statistics in the causality test process. The research finds one-way Granger causality running from GDP to exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of the recent papers that try to identify empirical regularities in the relationship between properties of the political decision-making process and economic growth of countries. The literature has been broadly divided into five categories, roughly according to the historical development. Firstly, studies working with measures of democracy, secondly, studies measuring government stability, thirdly, papers that concentrate on aspects of political violence, fourthly, papers that work with measures of policy volatility and finally a small number of very recent papers that develop subjective political measures.

This paper explores the rise of voluntourism in Fiji, a country reliant on tourism but which is a relatively new market for voluntourism. It draws from research examining the role of voluntourism in development through a case study of the experiences and discourse of voluntourists, a host community, and the staff of a commercial voluntourism organisation in Fiji. While voluntourism is the focus of significant and necessary critique, this research showed that narrow conceptions of what the outcomes of voluntourism should be – usually articulated as development or global citizenship – do not adequately account for the complex web of relationships and impacts that result from the voluntourism encounter. Instead, in this research a more complex picture emerged of the encounters facilitated by the voluntourism experience; the multiple relationships formed between volunteers and hosts; and the learning that took place, particularly within home stays. In this paper these encounters are explored using a wide‐angled view of development, drawing on Hart's (2001; Progress in Human Geography, 25, 649–658) conception of d/Development, to explore the relationship between development and global citizenship and how these are shaped by, and interact with, historical and contemporary global processes; from colonialism to commercialised volunteering. As such, this paper argues for a more nuanced and reflective approach to voluntourism and voluntourists, one which does not overlook the critiques, but which acknowledges the ways in which voluntourism encounters are shaping broader development trajectories within the contexts in which they occur; and for more attention to be paid to the way in which the discourses of global citizenship and development are co‐articulated and expressed in voluntourism practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new type of growth rate, called the “poverty equivalent growth rate” (PEGR), which takes into account both the growth rate in mean income and how the benefits of growth are distributed between the poor and the non-poor. The proposed measure satisfies a basic requirement that the proportional reduction in poverty is a monotonically increasing function of the PEGR. Thus, maximizing the PEGR implies a maximum reduction in poverty. The paper demonstrates that the magnitude of PEGR determines the pattern of growth: whether growth is pro-poor in relative or absolute sense or is “poverty reducing” pro-poor. The pattern of growth has been analyzed for Brazil using the National Household Survey (PNAD) covering the period 1995–2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper re-examines the issue of duration dependence in the Australian classical and growth business cycles in light of the somewhat surprising results obtained recently by Cashin and Ouliaris (2004). In so doing the authors use the multinomial logit regime switching modelling approach of Layton and Smith (2003). The paper also represents an extension of the earlier work on the issue undertaken by Bodman (1998); the key extensions being that the issue is framed within an explicit established business cycle chronology, a leading index is also included within the analysis, and the growth cycle, in addition to the classical cycle, is considered. Strong evidence of duration dependence is found for periods of recession within the classical cycle and for both phases of the growth cycle. Moderate evidence of duration dependency is also found for periods of classical cycle expansion. However, the evidence in this regard is significantly reduced once movements in the leading index are included in the analysis with its movements exhibiting strong power in predicting the termination of classical business cycle expansions. For growth cycles, duration dependence symmetry is found across both phases of the cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the link between foreign direct investment (FDI), democracy and economic growth on a panel of eight Southern African countries for 1980-2014 using the system generalized method-of-moment (GMM) estimator. We find that FDI has a direct positive effect on economic growth and that strong democratic institutions are a significant driver of economic growth in the sample countries. The impact of FDI on economic growth is dependent on the level of democracy in the host countries. This implies that countries with strong democratic institutions are better able to absorb the positive spillovers from FDI. In policy terms, Southern African countries should sustain the institutional reform policy agenda already in place in order to benefit more from the significant inflows of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence from household surveying in December 2005 in Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, indicates that a wide network of international migrant remitters are ameliorating the economic crisis in Zimbabwe by sending monetary and in-kind transfers to over 50 per cent of urban households. The research combines quantitative measurement of scale and scope, with demographic and qualitative narrative to build a holistic picture of the typography of receiving and non-receiving households. A complex set of interrelated variables helps to explain why some households do and others do not receive income and goods from people who are away, and the economic and social extent of their subsequent benefit from them. Moreover, the mixed methods approach is designed to capture inter-household and likely macroeconomic effects of how households receive their goods and money; and of how they subsequently exchange (if applicable), store and spend it. Evidence emerges of a largely informal, international social welfare system, but one which is not without adverse inter-household effects for some. These include suffering exclusion from markets suffering from inflationary pressures, not least as a result of other people's remittances. This paper explores the role of remittances, within this internationalised informal welfare system which we can map from our household survey, in reframing vulnerability and marginalization differentially among and between our subject households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business history plays a crucial role in the understanding of the history and socioeconomic development of Malaysia. This paper analyses that role through an assessment of the most relevant colonial, post-colonial, and contemporary literature. Malaysian business history adopts a multidisciplinary approach, which has the potential to propel the discipline to address potentially sensitive political issues in Malaysia, though in the past business history's assimilation into other disciplines has discouraged, with notable exceptions, its potential to explore sensitive topics. In conclusion, the paper outlines the challenges faced by Malaysian business history academics and argues for extending the discipline's boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the long‐term relationship between regional inequality and economic development. Our data set includes information on national and regional per capita GDP for four countries: France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, compiled on a decadal basis for the period 1860–2010. Using parametric and semiparametric regressions, our results confirm the rise and fall of regional inequalities over time although in recent decades they are on the rise again. Finally, we identify structural change as being a significant transmission mechanism of the inverted‐U relationship. The arrival of technological shocks, beginning during the onset of industrialization, and the transition from agrarian to industrial economies, would explain this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper we aim to introduce a statistical dating and detection of turning points giving them a first economic interpretation. The main advantage of the proposed approach is represented by the fact that classical and growth cycles are jointly considered both in the dating and in the detecting stage. A key result of this choice is a better description of different economic phases as well as a more accurate investigation of the economic cyclical behaviour. The proposed approach considerably improves the relevance of information delivered to users in comparison with a standard analysis based only on classical or growth cycle components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas initially physical capital and later, knowledge capital were viewed as crucial for growth, more recently a very different factor, entrepreneurship capital, has emerged as a driving force of economic growth. In this paper, we define a region's capacity to create new firms start-ups as the region's entrepreneurship capital. We then investigate the local embeddedness of this variable and which variables have an impact on this variable. Using data for Germany, we find that knowledge-based entrepreneurship capital is driven by local levels of knowledge creation and the acceptance of new ideas, indicating that local knowledge flows play an important role. Low-tech entrepreneurship capital is rather increased by regional unemployment and driven by direct incentives such as subsidies. All three measures are locally clustered, indicating that indeed, entrepreneurship capital is a phenomenon that is driven by local culture, and is therefore locally bounded. Mientras que inicialmente el capital físico, y posteriormente el capital conocimiento, fue considerado crucial para el crecimiento, más recientemente un factor muy diferente, el capital empresarial de espíritu emprendedor ( entrepreneurship capital), ha surgido como una fuerza impulsora de crecimiento económico. En este artículo, definimos como capital empresarial emprendedor la capacidad de una región para originar la puesta en marcha de nuevas empresas. A continuación investigamos el arraigo local de esta variable y las variables que tienen un impacto sobre esta variable. Usando datos de Alemania, hallamos que el capital empresarial emprendedor basado en el conocimiento está motivado por niveles locales de creación de conocimiento y la aceptación de nuevas ideas, indicando que los flujos de conocimiento local juegan un papel importante. El capital empresarial emprendedor basado en bajas tecnologías aumenta con el desempleo regional y está motivado por incentivos directos como subsidios. Las tres variables están agrupadas localmente ( locally clustered), indicando que sin duda el capital empresarial emprendedor es un fenómeno motivado por la cultura local, y por tanto atribuible a una localidad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, considering the economic effects of liberalisation in the telecommunications sector on the Turkish economy, makes use of the empirical studies on the linkages between regulatory regimes and telecommunications prices. Since Turkey is trying to liberalise the telecommunications sector by following the EU approach to liberalisation, the paper considers briefly the regulatory regimes in the telecommunications sectors of the EU and Turkey, determines the ad valorem equivalent of barriers to the telecommunications services sector in Turkey, and derives estimates of the welfare effects of adopting the EU rules and regulations in the Turkish telecommunications sector. It shows that there is tremendous scope for Turkey to benefit from adopting and implementing the legislative, regulatory and institutional framework of the EU telecommunications sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that, for dynamic optimizing economies with different types of natural resource, environmental, and human-made capital stocks, a necessary and sufficient condition for permanently sustaining an optimal utility/consumption level is the stationarity of the current-value Hamiltonian. For economies whose development is not exogenously and directly affected by time (i.e., time-autonomous economies), this stationarity condition generalizes Dixit et al.’s (1980 ) “zero-net-aggregate-investment” rule of sustain-ability, which in turn generalizes Solow-Hartwick’s sustainability rule. For non-autonomous economies, the stationarity condition is not generally fulfilled, and the current-value Hamiltonian under ( over) estimates the true welfare level by an amount equal to the discounted value of the net “ pure time effect.” For the non-autonomous case of a time-dependent utility discount rate, a general condition on the discount rate function (of which the hyperbolic discount rate function is a special case) upholds the results obtained for autonomous cases. The paper concludes with a discussion of policies that promote both optimality and sustainability objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small Island Developing States generally adopt diversification as their primary development strategy, often with little success. Nevertheless, there is no empirical study specifically focusing on the pattern of diversification of these countries in relation to their development. The objective of this paper was to study the export diversification pattern by the intensive (a more equally spread export basket) and extensive (an increase in new export lines) product margin of 21 Caribbean countries in relation to their level of development using panel data. The results show that despite their limited ability to diversify, Caribbean countries, as has been found for other parts of the world, first diversify and subsequently respecialise though at a substantially lower level of income than other countries and that the intensive margin plays a greater role in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the role of stock markets in developing economies with a focus on the Asian-Pacific region. The region's markets generally do not play a major role in resource allocation. The stock exchanges of the region are primarily secondary markets facilitating portfolio construction by domestic and international investors. The paper concentrates on secondary market activity and the controls regulators use to contain excessive speculation and price volatility. It also covers the role of stock markets in the recent financial crisis in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's labor supply in Sri Lanka has increased steadily since the early 1990s following economic reforms, but remains well below the level predicted by national income, a feature shared by a number of Asian and Latin American countries that have undergone similar reforms and economic growth. To understand the microeconomic determinants of women's work in Sri Lanka's growing economy, this paper estimates a binary‐choice model of married women's labor supply using household survey data spanning a 23‐year period. Decomposition and cohort analysis reveal that women have been drawn into the workforce through falling fertility rates, rising tertiary education, and declining income effects among younger generations, but other factors have undermined this positive trend. Educational attainment reduces married women's labor supply except at the tertiary level, consistent with social stigmas associated with married women in non‐white‐collar employment. The strict sectoral segregation of married women by education level supports this hypothesis. In addition, growth has been concentrated in low‐skilled sectors with self‐employment more prevalent, reducing employment prospects of educated women and prompting their labor force withdrawal. This suggests it is the structure of economic development, rather than speed, that matters for women's labor force activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all economically disadvantaged—"less developed" or "lagging"—regions are the same. They are, however, often bundled together for the purposes of innovation policy design and implementation. This paper attempts to determine whether such bundling is warranted by conducting a regional level investigation for Canada, the United States, on the one hand, and Europe, on the other, to (a) identify the structural and socioeconomic factors that drive patenting in the less developed regions of North America and Europe, respectively; and (b) explore how these factors differ between the two contexts. The empirical analysis, estimated using a mixed‐model approach, reveals that, while there are similarities between the drivers of innovation in North America's and Europe's lagging regions, a number of important differences between the two continents prevail. The analysis also indicates that the territorial processes of innovation in North America's and Europe's less developed regions are more similar to those of their more developed counterparts than to one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed drivers of foreign direct investments (FDI) to West Africa using a panel dataset from 1970 to 2010. OLS and GMM techniques are used for the estimations. The main results indicate that there is a U-shaped relationship between economic development and FDI inflows to West Africa. In summary: (i) The quadratic element of real per capita GDP, domestic investment, trade openness, first year lag of FDI, natural resources (oil and metals) endowment and exports, and monetary integration have positive and significant effect on FDI inflows to West Africa; and (ii) there is a negative relationship between FDI inflows to the sub-region and loan component of ODA, economic growth, level of economic development (real GDP per capita), life expectancy, and domestic credit to the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC) is one of the poorest countries in the world. The construction sector will play an essential part to bring the country on the path of economic growth, and competition within the sector is crucial to achieve this goal. In this paper, we analyse the effect of competition in public works tenders in the DRC, using a unique and newly assembled database on public works contracts. We find that the number of participating bidders significantly reduces contract prices, confirming our prior hypothesis that competitive pressure can enhance the overall performance of the sector. Further, we account for the possibility of heteregenous tender participants, finding that the competition effect can vary with the degree of bidders' heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2008, the state of Qatar articulated a national vision to transform its hydrocarbon-based economy to a knowledge based economy ( KBE) by the year 2030. A KBE derives its value from intangible assets (knowledge) where production, distribution, and utilization of such assets are the main drivers for economic growth and wealth generation. Knowledge assets are created through various intra and inter organization processes. University- Industry- Government ( UIG) collaborations are major contributors to knowledge assets at organizational and national levels. UIG partnership is a fairly new concept and a complex process that has not been formally implemented, supported, or monitored in the state of Qatar. To explore the UIG partnership, and to assess the effectiveness of knowledge creation and exchange, a single case study method was used to capture and reveal perspectives of participants involved in the partnership. Based on perspectives from 31 participants from (a) Qatar University, (b) Oil and Gas industry organizations and (c) government and semi government institutions in the state of Qatar, organizations are indeed taking initial steps to stimulate and deepen university-industry partnerships. This paper identifies challenges in cultivating the knowledge created and transferred from UIG partnerships and recommends key solutions to the challenges organizations are faced with in efforts to institutionalize the knowledge that is produced from collaborations with academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses contested issues in development related to Indigenous knowledge, and conventional development practice and theory. Drawing on findings from field research, this paper argues that although development aims at improving the quality of life of people concerned, the understanding of such improved life quality is different between local people and development experts. Experts emphasise economic growth as measured by per capita income, which is sometimes inadequate in explaining local people's understanding of development. The findings of the study lay bare the underlying values of local farmers in northern Malawi that contribute to improving quality of life and living standards. Indigenous knowledge developed by farmers shows that progress is understood in terms of adequate food, fresh, tasty value-laden food available for consumption and utilising more than one part of the crops grown, and not just adequate income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Policy makers and academics frequently emphasize a positive link between city size and economic growth. The empirical literature on the relationship, however, is scarce and uses rough indicators for the size of a country's cities, while ignoring factors that are increasingly considered to shape this relationship. In this paper, we employ a panel of 113 countries between 1980 and 2010 to explore whether 1) there are certain city sizes that are growth enhancing and 2) how additional factors highlighted in the literature impact the city size/growth relationship. The results suggest a nonlinear relationship which is dependent on the country's size. In contrast to the prevailing view that large cities are growth‐inducing, for a majority of countries relatively small cities of up to 3 million inhabitants are more conducive to economic growth. A large share of the urban population in cities of more than 10 million inhabitants is only growth promoting in countries with an urban population of 28.5 million and more. In addition, the relationship is highly context‐dependent: a high share of industries that benefit from agglomeration economies, a well‐developed urban infrastructure, and an adequate level of governance effectiveness allow countries to take advantage of agglomeration benefits from larger cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Public sector activities are often neglected in the economic approaches used to analyze the driving forces behind urban growth. The institutional status of a regional capital is a crucial aspect of public sector activities. This paper reports on a quasi‐natural experiment on county towns in East Germany. Since 1990, East German cities have demonstrated remarkable differences in population development. During this same period, many towns have lost their status as a county seat due to several administrative reforms. Using a difference‐in‐differences approach, we compare the annual population development of former county capitals to population change in towns that have successfully held on to their capital status throughout the observed period. The estimations show that losing county capital status has a statistically significant negative effect on annual changes in population. This effect continues to increase over time after the respective reforms have been implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of the adoption of inflation targeting ( IT) on the dynamics of city-level inflation in Korea using both aggregate and sector-level data. When looking at aggregate regional inflation, we find that the mean, volatility and persistence fell in all cities in the wake of the monetary policy regime change, consistent with other evidence in the literature. Delving more deeply into the disaggregate data reveals additional insights however. For most of the changes we observe in the dynamics of regional inflation, we find that the aggregate effects are being driven primarily by sectors that fall into the 'Services' category. We posit that the impact of better anchored inflationary expectations is primarily on the less-traded services sectors of the economy, where the domestic monetary policy framework has a relatively larger influence. When it comes to the increased co-movement observed across regions under an IT regime, however, it is the 'Commodities' sectors rather than 'Services' that are responsible, probably because services inflation becomes relatively more influenced by local factors once it has stabilized within the target range. Therefore, adoption of IT may not necessarily increase all measures of regional synchronization even when the goal of better-anchored inflationary expectations is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the relationship between donor agencies and government during the development of Lao basic education policy in the post-Cold War period, 1991-2000. We argue that Laos had only recently been 're- born' from colonial regimes, and was thus unable to resist or mediate donor policy agendas and donors who acted on behalf of economically developed nations. The nature of the power relationship between donor and government is explored through an analysis of policy developed at that time as well as the perceptions of aid conditionalities, as recalled by government officials and those working in the aid sector at that time. These perceptions were gathered through interviews conducted by one of the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thailand's economy before 1940 was marked by remarkably low long-term real economic growth, unusually high levels of the population living in rural areas, and limited industrialisation and urbanisation. This paper examines reasons for the lack of diversification, looking in particular at industrial development. We emphasise Thailand's role in the world economy, sources of labour supply, and the concentration of industry in the capital Bangkok. The impact of the world depression of the 1930s on the Thai economy was only moderate, which obviated the need for state policies that might have prompted significant economic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The observation that some immigrants choose not to integrate into the host society has caused political controversies across European states. This paper hypothesizes that immigrants can exploit social networks of different scales in order to substitute for costly integration. Using a novel dataset of Turkish households in Berlin, which was specifically collected for this analysis, we investigate the determinants of integration as well as the impact of integration and networks on households' economic success. We find evidence that integration promotes income even after accounting for potential endogeneity bias. Using endogenous switching regression model, we test whether local ethnic networks can be successfully used to generate household income. In line with the view that there is a trade-off between integration and the establishment of ethnic contacts, we find that local ethnic and familial networks increase the income of unintegrated migrants, while transnational networks decrease it. Moreover, education is more income improving for integrated than non-integrated immigrants and remaining closely integrated within their own ethnic group is more economically advantageous for poorer households. These results provide evidence that integration is the rational strategy for better-off immigrants while it may be too costly for poorer immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cliometrics reconnected economic history and economics in the 1960s. The deeper foundations of cliometrics research lie in the longer standing traditions of quantitative history and the contemporaneous growth of the social sciences and computing. Early cliometrics research reinterpreted economic history through the lens of neo-classical economics. Over the past half century cliometrics has matured and now utilizes a broad array of theoretical perspectives and statistical methods to help understand the past. The papers introduced here illustrate the achievements of several key areas of cliometrics research and show how new theoretical perspectives, innovative data construction and sophisticated econometric methods are the hallmarks of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the main causes of bilateral trade flows in OECD countries. The specific features of the study include the explicit introduction of R&D and FDI as the two important explanatory variables, conduct of unit root tests in the panel data framework and careful consideration of endogeneity. The main findings are that the levels and similarities of market size, domestic R&D stock and inward FDI stock are positively related to bilateral trade, while the distance, measured by both geographical distance and relative factor endowment, between trade partner countries has a negative impact. These findings lend support to new trade, FDI and new growth theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial ventures have a significant impact on new job creation and economic growth, but existing evidence indicates that most entrepreneurial ventures fail. This paper reports key insights from VENSURV, a new database that tracks the success and failure of ventures founded since 1998. Based on an analysis of 539 new ventures founded during the years 1991–2001, the following conclusions are reached. First, consistent with prior research, less than half of the 539 ventures survived more than two years. Second, economic downturns lead to higher failure rates for new ventures. Third, new venture success is highly correlated with first-product success. Fourth, first-product success is enhanced when those products are introduced into markets with emerging market needs but with established industry standards. Finally, first-product and venture performance are significantly higher for products based on ideas that came from the founders. In addition, the most successful first products are based on ideas that reflect both technology development and an analysis of customer needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the impact of source country characteristics on the inflow of FDI into Saudi Arabia using a gravity-type model including economic, distance and socio-political variables. A unique database listing all new investments involving foreign ownership is used to construct a panel of 33 countries in the period 1980–2005. To account for many country–year observations with zero FDI, the negative binomial regression, the Tobit regression and the Heckman selection procedure are used. The conclusions drawn from the analysis employing panel-based techniques differ from the results obtained from pooled regression models. Also, the determinants of FDI differ depending on whether foreign investment is measured in terms of investment expenditure or the number of individual foreign projects. The Heckman selection results reveal that there are a large number of factors affecting the decision to invest in Saudi Arabia, compared with relatively few determinants of the actual size of investment. Traditional size and distance characteristics hold to a great extent but the relationship between FDI and bilateral trade is unclear and there is some evidence that the countries that export to Saudi Arabia do not invest there. In terms of scope for possible spillovers, there is mixed evidence on whether the investment comes from more technologically advanced economies but volume-wise important investments originate from countries characterised by high income per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic policy liberalization is a key to higher overall growth, reforms are often not implemented due to a fierce opposition from politically powerful prospective losers from reforms. In this respect, it is frequently claimed that economic crises can help overcome resistance to policy liberalization. Furthermore, political authorities not constrained by democratic checks and balances are supposed to be more decisive and are thus expected to carry out market-friendly policy change in times of crises more easily. Rules of democratic participation and checks and balances may however also be good for policy reform, as they can serve as an institutional mechanism for peaceful conflict resolution. The paper investigates empirically the interaction between economic growth performance and political institutions in producing free-market reform. We explore whether political regime types shape systematically government policy responses to good or bad growth performance, employing panel econometric techniques and using recently updated data for economic reform and political institutions. Contrary to conventional wisdom we find that a bad growth performance is conducive to reforms in democracies, but not in autocracies. Democracies not only carry out more liberal economic policies in general, but they are also more responsive to economic growth crises. Democratic rule seems to be favorable for policy liberalization, but a very good growth performance weakens liberalization incentives considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the industrialisation experience in Sri Lanka following the outward-oriented policy reforms initiated in 1977. The reforms helped transform a primary product exporting economy into one in which manufactures dominate exports. The improved performance of the economy is seen in significant terms of trade gains, improvement in output growth, and employment generation, with a notable shift in labour absorption in favour of workers belonging to low-income families. Were it not for the civil strife and inconsistent macroeconomic policies that existed during much of the post-liberalisation period, the economy would have performed even better than it did. The experience over the past two decades makes a strong case for a firm commitment to an export-led growth strategy while guarding against possible policy backsliding emanating from the newfound enthusiasm for state activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the reallocations of resources across manufacturing industries on aggregate manufacturing TFP growth in Singapore for the period 1965–2002. This is done by decomposing aggregate TFP growth into its sources, TFP growth arising from within individual industries and from the reallocations of capital and labour. The results show that TFP growth was negative before 1985 but improved remarkably to positive figures after 1985. Resource reallocations are found to account for a large portion of this improvement in aggregate TFP growth. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dominant objective within the public policies of all SE Asian countries has been the achievement of economic growth. The issue of sustainability has serious implications for this policy objective. Pursuit of economic growth is concerned solely with the present, whilst sustainability is concerned with ensuring the current generation meets its present needs without threatening future generations' ability to do likewise. National accounts, such as gross domestic product, can measure healthy economies, but they can not measure sustainability. This paper, however, sets out a conceptual approach that describes the misalignment of national accounting measures with sustainability objectives and provides empirical evidence of how this misalignment can be partially overcome. An empirical approach is developed whereby certain adjustments to national accounts, based on normative social choice theory, are introduced to indicate how a partial measure of sustainability can be determined using national accounting aggregates as a base. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal conflicts at the local and national levels in several South Pacific countries have revealed the fragility of national unity and the difficulties nations face in governing and managing their own economic development. In Papua New Guinea, the focus of this paper, an uncertain economic future for many rural and urban communities, and rising inequalities in income opportunities and access to resources, have coincided with greater intolerance of migrants at sites of high in-migration by customary landowners and provincial and local authorities. This paper draws on fieldwork undertaken in the major oil palm growing regions of Papua New Guinea where migrants from densely populated regions of the country have settled on state land alienated from customary landowners. We examine how struggles over land, resource control and development are polarising migrant and landowner identities resulting in increasing tensions and episodic communal violence. A settler identity is emerging based on a narrative of nation building and national development, while an ethno-regional identity amongst customary landowners is undermining the citizen rights of migrants and challenging the role and authority of the state in land matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different comparative advantages may affect the pattern of regional specialization in many ways. In this paper, by employing panel data covering 20 main industrial sectors in 29 Chinese provinces over the period of 1988–2001, and applying the generalized method of moment techniques, the determinants of regional specialization in China are investigated, paying particular attention to the role of dynamic comparative advantages. It is found that changing comparative advantages arising from technical efficiency improvement, scale economies enhancement, and growing economic openness contribute positively and significantly to China's regional specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to measure markup and returns to scale for eight Australian manufacturing industries, for the period 1971-72 to 1984-85, and to explore the relationship between markup, the business cycle and openness to the international economy in this period. A Hall type model is used for this purpose, where allowance is made for non-stochastic time variation in the contribution of technical change to output growth and intermediate materials are included in the production function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The paper aims to establish a theory of relation-based governance to explain both the “East Asian miracle” and the Asian crisis. The author first defines “relation” and “relation-based governance” in terms of information and enforcement, and then analyzes the nature and dynamics of relation-based governance, comparing its benefits and costs with that of “rule-based governance” in terms of observability/verifiability, commitment, and transaction costs. The theory is applied to examine a particular relation-based governance system—the Japanese model—to explain both the East Asian miracle and the Asian crisis. The framework provides foundations for studies of East Asian catching-up and economic development in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper analyzes the productivity growth of the Spanish regions between 1965 and 1995, decomposing productivity gains into technological progress and efficiency change by means of Malmquist indices. Once estimates of efficiency are obtained, the aim of this paper is to analyze the effects of human and public capital on growth in terms of their impact on Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Public capital is believed to increase the productivity of the private factors of production whereas human capital is thought to contribute to the production process as an additional input and to have a dynamic influence on growth through its impact on technological innovation (shifts in the production frontier) and technological diffusion (movements toward the frontier), which are the components of this TFP measure. Considering inefficiencies will then allow the effects of these variables on TFP growth to be estimated via technological progress and efficiency gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY. In southern England, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of archaeologically visible farmsteads and field systems. This paper explores and critiques the widespread idea that these changes are the direct result of a need to intensify agricultural production. Such discussions have implicitly drawn on evolutionist images of economic maximization and environmental exploitation that do not sit easily with our knowledge of other aspects of Bronze Age society. In this paper, I shall consider economic change as a consequence rather than the cause of wider changes to the social fabric at this time. A review of the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement evidence provides insights into how society became transformed over the period and begins to hint at some of the reasons why subsistence practices changed so visibly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, cities have been increasingly adopting a written plan to guide economic development processes. This is in sharp contrast to past practices which were haphazard and unsystematic. So far, there has been no comprehensive overview of the policies, strategies and focus of these written documents. Focusing on the Province of Ontario, Canada, we undertook a systematic content analysis of the most recent documents for each city. Specific codes were developed for the analysis of the documents. While the majority of cities in Ontario were identified as having codified a formal economic development plan (a plan was identified in 41 of 51 cities), there was considerable variability in how the plans were developed (such as through the use of private consultants) and presented, with noticeable differences in the information given about the community, complexity of analysis conducted and the details on the economic development policies that are being pursued. Despite the range of document formats, there was notable uniformity in the content of the policy directives that were presented. In terms of economic development focus, traditional manufacturing is essentially ignored in favour of attracting advanced manufacturing and knowledge-based industries. Additionally, due to the extensive reliance on private external consultants, the plans have a homogenous nature, where contemporary ideas such as diversification, place branding and marketing, downtown redevelopment, focus on creative and knowledge industries, and tourism are constantly regurgitated. Conspicuously missing among the strategies were regional collaborations and cluster development. Although the adoption of a written plan represents an important milestone in local economic development policymaking, a number of key limitations were identified within the current documents, and the paper offers direction for a more effective future policy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the property market in Spain within a regional framework, according to the boundaries of the Spanish Autonomous Communities. Our analysis is based on the central hypothesis that there is an oversupply of housing in Spain, although there are some regional differences within this phenomenon. We first examine the stage known as the 'property boom', and we then produce an analysis that aims to simplify the housing market in Spain. After combining numerous variables and applying multivariate statistical techniques, we have obtained a classification with the following three categories: dried-up markets, saturated markets and less distressed markets. Our analyses confirm the fact that there are disparate realities throughout Spain, and even contrasting realities between the Autonomous Communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]