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This paper examines the nexus between tourism, financial development and economic growth in 31 African countries using the Dumitrescu–Hurlin Granger non‐causality test that accounts for heterogeneity and cross‐sectional dependence. It also employs the Granger causality test in the frequency domain that distinguishes between temporary and permanent causality for the country‐specific analysis. It shows a cointegration relationship between tourism, financial development and economic growth. It reveals a joint long‐run causality from tourism and financial development to economic growth, and a joint short‐run and long‐run causality from tourism and economic growth to financial development, albeit the joint causality from financial development and economic growth to tourism is tenuous. The individual causality shows a bidirectional causality between tourism and economic growth, between financial development and economic growth, and between tourism and financial development. The country‐specific analysis reveals that tourism is a significant predictor of financial development and economic growth at high frequency rather than at low frequency in most countries. Therefore, African countries should prioritize the policies and programs that can facilitate the development of the tourism and financial sectors in their quest to accelerate economic growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies entrepreneurship ecosystem development in a context little discussed in the extant literature to date: Oman. Specifically, it focuses on business incubation (BI) initiatives as a policy tool for developing the local, regional, and national systems of supporting entrepreneurship and SME growth. Although BI's are a popular policy measure for ecosystem development, spreading globally from their original conception in the United States around 60 years ago, their universal effectiveness is questioned. We analyse the tenability of BI as an economic development strategy by entrepreneurship ecosystems as a conceptual framework to help us understand the multitudinous cultural, institutional, and governance structures required for success. Specifically, we consider these ecosystem dynamics and their influence on the incubation of SMEs in the novel context of an oil-rich yet transitioning economy such as Oman. Conducting interviews with 22 key informants within a range of ecosystem actors (policy-makers, incubator managers, academics, and entrepreneurs) we find that existing capabilities within the Omani BI programme are not yet fully fit for purpose, highlighting the need to establish developmental priorities for the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem, bottom-up. Finally, we reflect on the wider cultural and institutional constraints highlighted, and suggest potentially fruitful avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural resource dependence, although commonly invoked in natural resource sociology, has often been ambiguously defined. Communities are frequently described as dependent on natural resource development, but limited attention has been paid to what that means. In the literature, resource dependence is often treated as over‐specialization in, or over‐reliance upon, the natural resource sectors. However, the logic of over‐specialization conceptually grounds dependence in poor economic outcomes. Thus, a one‐dimensional typology of dependence based on a threshold of the share of development in the natural resource sector—as commonly used—does not fully capture the concept and risks tautology. In this paper, I address this ambiguity by formally defining natural resource dependence as over‐specialization in the natural resource sectors. I then present an ideal typology, known as the Natural Resource Community Typology, and a corresponding classification scheme for rural communities in the United States. The typology integrates both extractive and non‐extractive natural resource activity and has two dimensions—the level of development and the level of economic prosperity—and six mutually exclusive categories—extractive specialized, extractive dependent, non‐extractive specialized, non‐extractive dependent, hybrid specialized, and hybrid dependent. I classify counties from 2000 to 2015 and find that while extractive dependence decreased over the study period, non‐extractive dependence increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares the economic progress of two countries, South Africa and China, in relation to the Lewis model. These economies are chosen because they have interesting similarities and also interesting differences. At the start of economic reform in China and with the advent of democracy in South Africa, both countries had surplus labour: they were at the first, labour‐surplus, stage of the Lewis model. It is shown that, since then, South Africa has continued to experience surplus labour: the unemployment rate has risen. By contrast, China's labour market is shown to have tightened, and there is evidence that China has entered the second, labour‐scarce, stage of the Lewis model. The difference lies in their growth rates. There are sections explaining why the South African economy has grown slowly and why the Chinese economy has grown rapidly, in relation to the growth of their labour forces. The Lewis model provides an enlightening framework for explaining how widely the fruits of economic development can be shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of new firms is an important determinant of regional economic development and agglomeration is a key factor affecting the formation and scale of operations of new firms. The present paper is among the first to explore the relationship between agglomeration economies (using localization and urbanization economies) and new firms' formation and scale of operations in a developing country. We make use of rich firm‐level data and find that agglomeration has a significant impact on the formation of new firms and their scale of operation in Punjab, Pakistan. Our findings also reveal that localization at all scales (small, medium and large) has a positive correlation with the arrival of new firms, while medium‐scale and large‐scale localization is positively correlated with the scale of operation of new firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, economic growth, agricultural land used and exports in Germany. We use time-series data between 1970 and 2012 and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) methodology to test for cointegration in the long run. Results show that there is a quadratic long run relationship between N2O emissions and economic growth, confirming the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for Germany. Agricultural land area affects N2O emissions positively, whereas exports affect emissions negatively. The turning point is $27,880, which is within the sample and implies that Germany is in the decreasing part of the curve of environmental degradation. The paper shows that, contrary to testing the EKC in less developed countries, mitigation of N2O emissions does not negatively affect growth in Germany. As such, it is feasible to undertake any conservative policy in order to reduce emissions without major consequences on economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Europe's growth problem. Recovery from the recent global financial crisis and 'great recession' has been slower than after previous recessions in most advanced countries and areas, especially Europe. But the European growth problem is structural in character and it started much earlier. This paper analyses the structural causes of the European growth problem, evaluates the policies that Europe adopted to overcome it, and concludes that even with the appropriate policies, the prospects for accelerating growth in Europe will be difficult, especially in the context of Brexit and the slowdown of world growth in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation policy has emerged as a new field of economic policy during the last few decades. This paper explores the rationales for national innovation policies, as laid out in the existing literature on the subject, and considers what the lessons and challenges for theory and practice in this area are. Innovation policy attempts to influence innovation activity, often with the purpose of increasing economic growth. But it can also have more specific aims such as preventing unwarranted climate change, improving national health, and so on. The increasing attention given to innovation policy at the national level from the 1990s onwards went hand in hand with the development of a new, systemic understanding of innovation, which in a better way than before accounted for the 'stylised facts' of innovation activity as identified by empirical work. The system approach, as the paper shows, came to have a significant influence on the subsequent policy discourse. Drawing on recent advances in innovation-systems theory, a synthetic framework for the analysis of innovation policy is developed and used to highlight issues of particular relevance for the conduct of innovation policy and future scholarly work in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which economic development decreases a country's risk of experiencing climate-related disasters as well as the societal impacts of those events. The paper proceeds from the underlying assumption that disasters are not inherently natural, but arise from the intersection of naturally-occurring hazards within fragile environments. It uses data from the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT), representing country-year-level observations over the period 1980-2007. The study finds that low-income countries are significantly more at risk of climate-related disasters, even after controlling for exposure to climate hazards and other factors that may confound disaster reporting. Following the occurrence of a disaster, higher income generally diminishes a country's social vulnerability to such happenings, resulting in lower levels of mortality and morbidity. This implies that continued economic development may be a powerful tool for lessening social vulnerability to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses various approaches: capital asset pricing, mean-variance, global minimum-variance, Bayes-Stein, Bayesian and multi-prior to develop foreign equity bias measures for Australia’s international equity holdings in 41 countries, over the period 2001 to 2012. Bayesian models allow for various degrees of mis-trust in the ICAPM model. Multi-Prior restricts the expected return for each asset to lie within specified confidence interval around its estimated value. Mean-Variance computes optimal weights by sample estimates of mean and covariance matrix of sample return. Bayes-Stein shrinks each asset’s historical mean return toward the return of the minimum variance portfolio and improves precision associated with estimating the expected return of each asset. The plausible sources of foreign equity bias are trade, GDP per capita, real GDP growth rate, exchange rate volatility, tax credit, stock market development, familiarity and institution variables. The paper finds that economic cost of the observed foreign bias is low. The paper analyses correlation effect on the foreign bias and finds that economic loss decreases with an increase in correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid technological development over the last three decades has enabled different sectors of the economy to be seamlessly integrated. This has had an important spill-over impact on the wealth of countries across the globe. In this paper we examine the inter-linkages between the banking sector and the insurance industry on the economic growth of the G-20 countries between 1980 and 2014. Using the vector auto-regression model and the Granger causality test, the study shows that in the long run, developments in the banking sector and insurance industry have had a significant impact on the economic growth of the G-20 countries. In the short term, the inter-relationships between the three factors prove to be more complex in that they differ by countries in different stages of development. Based on the empirical findings, this paper discusses the policies and strategies policy makers and banks and insurance companies should have in place in order to create sustained economic growth in an increasingly inter-connected world. [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 climate change arena comprises a diverse set of interacting actors from international, national and local levels. The multilevel architecture has implications for low-carbon technology deployment in developing countries, an issue salient to both development and climate objectives. The paper examines this theme through two inter-related questions: how do (or don't) low-carbon technologies get deployed in India's built environment, and what implications can be drawn from the Indian case for effective low-carbon technology development and transfer for developing countries? By examining the multilevel linkages in India's buildings sector, the paper shows how the interactions between governance levels can both support and hinder technology deployment, ultimately leading to inadequate outcomes. The potential of these linkages is hobbled by aspects of the national context (federated energy governance and developing-country capacity limitations), yet can also be enabled by other features (the climate policy context, which may motivate international actors to fill domestic capacity lacunae). Reflecting on the India case, the paper makes recommendations for improved low-carbon technology deployment in developing countries: (1) technology development and transfer collaboration on a 'need-driven' approach, (2) development of the specific types of capacity required across the entire innovation chain and (3) domestic strengthening of the coordination and agendas across and between governance levels. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy is a case study in lowest-low fertility. Its internal heterogeneity is substantial and changing over time. The paper has two main aims. First, it aims at investigating whether the theoretical framework offered by the diffusionist perspective to fertility transition could still be relevant in explaining fertility changes in contemporary advanced societies. Second, the paper aims at investigating if and how the associations between fertility and a series of indicators of secularisation, female occupation, contribution of fertility of immigrants, and economic development change across space and over time. We make use of geographically weighted regressions and spatial panel regressions to model explicitly spatial dependence in fertility among Italian provinces over the period between 1999 and 2010. Results show that spatial dependence in provincial fertility persists even after controlling for standard correlates of fertility, consistently with a diffusionist perspective. Further, the local association between fertility and its correlates is not homogeneous across provinces. The strength and in some cases also the direction of such associations vary spatially, suggesting that the determinants of low fertility change across space. Finally, the associations between fertility and its correlates change over time. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than five decades, the federal, state, and local governments have subsidized mass transit systems through sales, gasoline, and property taxes with an expectation that it would improve mobility to low-income citizens, reduce carbon footprints and traffic congestion, and facilitate regional economic growth. However, in times of financial crisis and chronic government budget deficits, the inefficient use of a mass transit system can increase public outcry over the wasteful spending of government funds and taxpayers' monies. To find ways to utilize mass transit systems more efficiently across the United States, this paper aimed to identify the benchmark transit practices that every mass transit system can emulate and then continuously improve its performance. To achieve these goals, this paper analyzed the multiple years of past performances of 262 mass transit agencies in the United States using data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index and then provided practical guidelines for enhancing mass transit efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between commodity dependence and human development measured by the human development index (HDI). Commodity dependence negatively affects human development through several channels, including the negative secular terms of trade affecting commodity-dependent developing countries (CDDCs), slow economic growth, high macroeconomic instability, and political instability. The paper finds that although the effect of commodity dependence on human development is negative, on average, this relationship is complex. It changes with the level of dependence as well as the type of commodity a country depends on. This negative effect is strongest in countries where commodities account for more than 60 percent of total merchandise exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an integrated overview of the literature linking institutions, financial development, and economic growth. From the large body of research on institutional development, the paper first selects those contributions that make it possible to study the role of institutional arrangements in ameliorating/worsening the information frictions and transaction costs that characterize the development of financial markets. The paper then investigates the theoretical mechanisms by which these specific frictions affect economic growth and presents the stock of empirical evidence quantifying the impact of institutions on growth through financial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional growth rate measures (such as month-on-month, year-on-year growth rates and 6-month smoothed annualized rate adopted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Economic Cycle Research Institute) are popular and can be easily obtained by computing the growth rate for monthly data based on a fixed comparison benchmark, although they do not make good use of the information underlying the economic series. By focusing on the monthly data, this paper proposes the k-month kernel-weighted annualized rate ( k-MKAR), which includes most existing growth rate measures as special cases. The proposed k-MKAR measure involves the selection of smoothing parameters that are associated with the accuracy and timeliness for detecting the change in business turning points. That is, the comparison base is flexible and is likely to vary for different series under consideration. A data-driven procedure depending upon the stepwise multiple reality check test for choosing the smoothing parameters is also suggested in this paper. The simple numerical evaluation and Monte Carlo experiment are conducted to confirm that our measures (in particular the two-parameter k-MKAR) improve the timeliness subject to a certain degree of accuracy. The business cycle signals issued by the Council for Economic Planning and Development over the period from 1998 to 2009 in Taiwan are taken as an example to illustrate the empirical application of our method. The empirical results show that the k-MKAR-based score lights are more capable of reflecting turning points earlier than the conventional year-on-year measure without sacrificing accuracy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of financial innovations on the stability of money velocity. The paper contributes to the existing literature in three ways; first, we develop a simple analytical framework for money velocity taking into account the effect of financial innovations. Second, we test the model on Ugandan time series data using the ARDL bounds testing approach. Third, we check for the stability of the long-run money velocity function. Results show significant negative and positive effects of financial innovations on the money velocity in the short and long run, respectively. In addition, the long-run money velocity equation is stable despite the financial innovations that have evolved over time. Furthermore, other macroeconomic determinants of money velocity, including real income, the 91-day treasury bill rates, inflation expectations and the exchange rate exhibited a significant and positive long-run relationship with money velocity except for real income. These results suggest that financial innovations have not altered the long-run stability of money velocity in Uganda. Thus, given the importance of financial innovations in enhancing the access to financial services, we recommend that more technological advances and diversification of financial products should be enhanced so as to improve financial sector development and overall economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Informality' is a term used to describe the collection of firms, workers and activities that operate outside the legal and regulatory systems. It is widespread in the majority of developing countries - in a typical developing economy, the informal sector produces about 35 per cent of GDP and employs 70 per cent of the labour force. This paper studies informality in the context of economic development by presenting a model and projections that link informality, regulations, migration and economic growth. This analytical framework highlights the trade-offs between formality and informality, the relationship between the different types of informality, and the connection between them and the forces of labour, capital and productivity growth. The paper models the behaviour of the informal sector based on the following fundamental asymmetry: formal firms confront higher labour costs, while informal firms face higher capital costs and lower productivity. Using mandated minimum wages as the policy-induced distortion, the model first studies the static allocation of formal and informal capital and labour in a modern economy. Second, it opens the possibility of labour migration from a rudimentary economy with ample supply of labour (e.g. rural areas or less advanced neighbouring countries). Third, the model analyses the dynamic behaviour of the formal and informal sectors, considering how they affect and are affected by economic growth and labour migration. Then, the paper presents projections for the size of labour informality, in the modern and rudimentary economies, in the next two decades for a large group of countries representing all regions of the world. The projections are based on the calibration and simulation of the model and serve to discuss its usefulness and limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the location decisions and geographical expansion of microfinance institutions (MFIs) across Peru. To this end, econometric analyses are performed on a self-constructed dataset that covers MFI presence and expansion in the 1832 districts of Peru, and this for 39 MFIs and 13 commercial banks over the period 2001-2008. The paper shows that Peruvian MFIs have expanded considerably during the last decade. MFIs especially increase access in districts with higher levels of development and therefore seem to follow principally a commercial logic. Districts with banks have also a higher probability of an MFI opening. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal is the main energy in China, which has already played and will continue to play an important role in the national economy. Coal geology, as a practical science, has an access to gradual development with the growth and prosperity of China. From the meaning of the coalfield geology, this paper introduces the research progress and status of coalfield geology, including the research on coal basin, stratigraphy of coal-bearing stratigraphie sequences, coal-forming process, structural geology of coalfields, and exploration and development status of coal resources. The paper specially focuses on coal-forming process, including coal formation in terrestrial facies and transgressive / regression events, and introduces new technology which has been applied to research progress in structural geology of coalfield. This paper puts forward a new comprehensive exploration system for coal exploration and reviews regional coal geological exploration results in recent years, such as coal-poor regions of seven provinces in southern China and the coal resources area in northwest China, which will be an important coal-producing area in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of human capital and political development in determining the magnitude of the effects of foreign direct investment ( FDI) on growth for a panel of 61 transition and developing countries for the period 1989 to 2013. A baseline growth model incorporating these variables is tested and then extended to include FDI interaction effects with human capital (measured using secondary school enrollment data) and political development (based on Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index scores). These growth interaction effects between FDI and human capital vary according to regime type. Political development in conjunction with FDI appears to suppress the effects of FDI on growth in authoritarian countries while enhancing them in hybrid democracies. For more democratic countries, domestic investment is a more important driver of growth. The effects of FDI on growth in the ten transition economies included in the sample data set are found to be insignificant. Although this result might seem to differ from a priori expectations, it is in line with the findings of most earlier studies that cover the period up to 2004. The paper also provides no strong evidence that a critical threshold of human capital is required to generate beneficial spillover growth effects from inflows of FDI. The paper provides new and more detailed insights into the effects of FDI on growth with particular respect to human capital and political regime covering a large number of transition and developing countries based on an up-to-date data set covering a 25-year period to 2013. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the driving forces behind structural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa, and to further access the role of structural reforms in accounting for cross-country differences in transformation. Evidence from this paper reveals that country specific fundamentals, institutions and policy reforms as well as governance and fiscal reforms are the key drivers of transformation in the region. A set of policy strategies is proposed to engender sustained transformation and development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the emergence of a New Washington Consensus associated with leading philanthropies of the new millennium. This emergent development paradigm by no means represents a historic break with the market rationalities of neoliberalism, nor does it represent a radical departure from older models of early 20th century philanthropy. Rather, it is new in its global ambition to foster resilient market subjects for a globalized world; and new in its employment of micro-market transformations to compensate for macro-market failures. Focusing on reforms pioneered by the new philanthropic partnerships in education and global health, the paper indicates how the targets of intervention are identified as communities that have been failed by both governments and markets. The resulting interventions are commonly justified in terms of 'return on investment'. But the problems they target keep returning because the underlying causes of failure are left unaddressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If regional development agencies assume the cluster concept to be an adequate framework to promote regional growth and competitiveness, it is necessary to identify industrial clusters in a comprehensive manner. Previous studies used a diversity of methods to identify the predominant concentrations of economic activity in one industrial sector in a region. This paper is based on a multidimensional approach developed by Titze et al. With the help of the combination of concentration measures and input-output methods they were able to identify horizontal and vertical dimensions of industrial clusters. This paper aims to refine this approach by using a superior measure of spatial concentration and by integrating information about spatial interdependence of industrial cluster structures to contribute to a more adequate framework for industrial cluster identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the facts on existing and future prospects of regional trade integration in South Asia in the backdrop of multilateral trade agreements. The study applies trade intensity index of four largest South Asian countries (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) to estimates the short‐ and long‐run trade co‐integration in autoregressive multilateral framework. The results highlights that long‐run trade complementarities are found between the trade of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while short‐run trade complementarities exist between India and Bangladesh, and between India and Sri Lanka. Pakistan and Bangladesh are found close trade competitors in South Asia in short run. The findings are important for policy implication which highlights how to bridge the untapped regional trade integration in South Asia. If trade barriers are overcome, the greater degree of trade openness can play vital role in achieving balanced regional economic development. India being the largest economy can play key role in striving the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) process for pursuing its objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the rapid urbanization and economic development, the Yangtze River Middle‐Reach urban agglomeration (YRMR) has suffered from increasingly serious environmental problems. Characterizing the long‐term dynamics of aerosol optical depth (AOD) in YRMR is of important significance for scientific control of aerosol pollutants over this region. Previously, numerous researches have analysed the temporal and spatial characteristics of AOD in different regions through statistical values of AOD time series or using trend analysis methods based on linear regression models. It is challenging to approximate nonlinear trends and identify change points of AOD time series. This paper proposed a new methodology for investigating the dynamics of AOD over the YRMR region on a monthly basis by using the Terra MODIS Collection 6.1 Level 2 aerosol products (MOD04_L2) during 2001–2017. A three‐dimensional spatio‐temporal interpolation method was used to generate gap‐filled monthly AOD maps, and then a generic Bayesian time series decomposition algorithm was applied to analyse the trends and change points of monthly AOD time series. The results showed that the areas with high AOD values were mainly located in the core cities and the connecting belts. Strong positive AOD anomalies had been observed during 2006–2011, whereas the positive anomalies were typically intermingled with negative anomalies and it indicated that the evolution patterns of AOD for different regions were different and influenced by fluctuations. Trend analysis of the monthly mean AOD values indicated that AOD in YRMR increased first, then fluctuated, and finally decreased. Although it was difficult to separate the increasing and fluctuating periods from each other due to the fluctuation, the decreasing trend after 2011 was significant, and a significant drop of AOD had been observed since 2014. Long‐term AOD variations were closely related to national policies, and the results could provide useful references for regional environmental assessment and decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with the present migrant crisis and the dismal record of Europe in protecting vulnerable refugees' and migrants' rights, what could be the view of the moral philosopher? The contrast between the principles enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the reality of present policies is shocking, but more scrutiny will show that it is the result of a larger trend towards an understanding of freedom mostly in economic terms, at a time when economists such as Amartya Sen have revised their approach to economic growth and prosperity, noting the central role played by a much richer conception of freedom. The paper will scrutinize these inconsistencies and the conception of the person from which they derive and will provide an alternative and more coherent moral vision that could strengthen the legitimacy of the European Charter, at a time of growing dissatisfaction and so‐called democratic deficit. Such a vision could help reconnect the Charter with a conception of the human person as in need not solely of passive legal protection, but also of active promotion of her self‐respect and capabilities, and of her aspiration to a valuable life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of institutions on regional financial development using a panel data model of 11 East Asian countries during 1996-2017. It divides the institutional factors into six economic factors and six legalpolitical factors. The analysis demonstrates that the legalpolitical institutional factors have a stronger impact on financial development than the economic institutional factors in East Asia. Improvement in institutional quality such as fiscal freedom, business freedom, control of corruption, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and rule of law can promote financial development. Improvements of these institutional factors facilitate the ability of enterprises to allocate resources and improve the strength of business operations, thereby reducing transaction costs and making the financial operating environment fairer and more efficient. With the improvement of institutional factors, financial development will have more opportunities to develop better. Institutional impacts are more pronounced in the financial development in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar than in the other countries such as China, Japan, Korea and Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how catch‐up industrial policies in China affect economic development in a two‐sector neoclassical growth model. To fulfil their aspirations of catching up with the output of the capital‐intensive sector of developed countries, Chinese political leaders adopted industrial policies that subsidise this target sector at the expense of other sectors from 1952 until the economic reform in 1978. The static effect of this industrial policy distorts the allocation of resources across sectors and lowers the aggregate TFP. The dynamic effect discourages the accumulation of capital. We show that although the output of the capital‐intensive sector boosts initially, it will be lower than its first‐best counterpart in the long run if catch‐up aspirations are too strong. Our theoretical predictions are consistent with the experience of the Chinese economy from 1952 to 1978. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the International Energy Agency (IEA) was established out of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) in 1974, Australia was not among its founding members. Indeed, it was opposed to its formation and even contemplated voting in the OECD to block its establishment. A single negative vote under the "mutual agreement" rule would have done so. This paper, based on archival research, explores the reasons for this course of action and shows that the decision was linked to the resource nationalism at the time of Minister Rex Connor and his fear that supporting it might jeopardise his attempts to raise non‐equity finance in the Middle East. This article shows that this previously unanalysed decision was connected to what became known as the "Loans Affair" that brought about Connor's demise and contributed to the downfall of the Whitlam Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Okun's Law using a spatial panel approach on NUTS 3 data for Great Britain over the period 1985-2011. The basic specification used as a starting point for the spatial analysis is the relationship between real output growth and unemployment rate changes. This is extended to incorporate spatial lags, to test for the presence of commuting effects, and to accommodate spatial residuals dependence. We estimate various spatial panel models, controlling for heterogeneity across areas, and find consistent evidence of a significant Okun's coefficient. Results also show that spillover effects from labour mobility and interregional linkages matter and have important implications for the validity of the empirical law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice 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.)

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice 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.)

Win—win outcomes between biodiversity conservation and local economic development are now a goal of many governments and conservation organizations but can be difficult to achieve. Where they occur, reductions in poverty from protected areas are often thought to be driven by economic gains from tourism that are sufficient to outweigh losses due to restrictions on land‐use or resource extraction. However, evidence about this channel is scarce. In this paper, we explore the potential compensatory effect of tourism by comparing poverty alleviation outcomes for cultural heritage sites in Mexico across two decades from 1990 to 2010. These sites are similar to protected areas in terms of attracting tourists, but they do not impose substantial restrictions on local land or resource use, allowing us to isolate tourism as a possible channel for economic development. Overall, we find mixed evidence that proximity to cultural heritage sites is associated with poverty reduction. During the first study period (1990–2000), localities close to cultural heritage sites saw reduced poverty of 0.034 standard deviations for each additional site. However, during the second period (2000–2010), localities close to heritage sites saw less poverty reduction than the comparison group (−0.014 standard deviations for each additional site). In both periods, poverty alleviation effects were not consistently correlated with the total number of visitors, but were larger further from cities, where baseline poverty was higher, and in the Yucatán Peninsula. This heterogeneity indicates that variability in the ability of local communities to capture benefits from tourism depends on a particular combination of institutional and geographic factors—as was the case in the Yucatan peninsula, where cultural heritage sites had consistent poverty alleviation effects over two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the link between the emigration of entrepreneurs and the emergence of economic development traps, which has not received much attention in the existing literature. We develop a theoretical model, where the economy is divided into a traditional and a modern sector. Entrepreneurs establish firms in the modern sector to produce varieties of differentiated goods. Positive spillover effects exist in the modern sector. We show that the emigration of entrepreneurs can cause economic development traps, where the productivity of the modern sector remains low, and more importantly, the economy is stuck in the traditional structure. In the typical case, the development traps exhibit strong history dependence. Under certain conditions, regardless of the initial endowment of entrepreneurs, economic development traps are unavoidable. By examining the effect of government policy intervention to correct the market failure arising from spillover effects, our study also provides a theoretical foundation for government policies used by some developed countries to attract foreign entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of private investment are correlated with higher economic growth and development across countries, but questions remain whether this relationship is sustainable given the high levels of exchange rate uncertainty in developing economies albeit other macroeconomic instabilities. This paper examines empirically the impact of real exchange rate uncertainty on private investment in Ghana. We, thus, apply the accelerator theory to investigate the contributing effect of real exchange rate uncertainty on the movement of private investment from the economic standpoint of an import‐dependent economy such as Ghana. The study employs annual time series data from 1980 to 2016. Moreover, we adopt the autoregressive distributed lag model of cointegration where we find evidence of a long‐run positive relationship between positive private investment and real exchange rate uncertainty as well as trade openness. The short‐run evidence provides a confirmation of the impact of inflation, trade, and real exchange rate uncertainty on private investment. Specifically, our results show that there is a positive pass‐through effect from real exchange rate uncertainty to private investment decision in resource allocation. Shocks from lending rate and terms of trade were found to exhibit negative effects on private investment in the short and long run. As a matter of policy, it is imperative for policymakers in developing economies to consider the effect of exchange rate and terms of trade associated with bilateral trade and investment‐related agreements to minimize the effects of contemporaneous shocks from uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia is facing serious environmental challenges including urban air pollution and the effects of global climate change. As a major source of greenhouse gases, what happens in Asia will play a crucial role in determining the extent to which the world warms over coming decades. This paper reviews key environmental challenges faced by the region and the growing opportunities for a transition to a cleaner economy powered by zero‐emission energy sources. Economic mechanisms – including emissions pricing, reverse auctions, and renewable portfolio standards with green certificate schemes – have the potential to underpin a much greener development model for the Asian Century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes an intersectional feminist analysis and methodological approach to debates about commoning and social enterprise. Through a narrative description of feminist social enterprise projects based on action research with the Kinning Park Complex, a social centre with a radical history in Glasgow's South Side, I demonstrate how contemporary community economic development models can entrench intersectional exclusion. Specifically, I show how market‐oriented social enterprise models reproduce precarious work, hinder cooperative ethics, and promote depoliticised notions of difference. However, I also investigate the ways that community organisers and activists at KPC are re‐working these neoliberal models to carve out spaces for feminist commoning. Through these acts, women‐identifying and non‐binary activists, artists, and community organisers grapple with the classed, raced, and gendered politics of community organising and foster solidarities across difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the conversion of the global power economy and energy structure, access to a large amount of renewable energy has led to a decrease in power system inertia. The slight abnormal disturbance in the distribution network may have a significant impact on social and economic development. Aim at enhancing power stability and system resiliency; this study focuses on the detection and location of multiple abnormal sources in the distribution network. Most traditional methods use models relying on precise line parameters, subject to poor adaptability to the distribution network with a large number of nodes, and rapidly changing topology. Therefore, this study proposes a novel random matrix model, driven by monitoring data from phasor measurement units distributed on the overhead transmission lines. In this model, linear shrinkage (LS) theory, and Marchenko–Pastur law are combined for noise reduction to ensure the dynamic character and anti-noise ability. Moreover, data dimensions and sample points may be at the same level in an extensive scale network. The LS and standard condition number rule (SCN) are used for estimating the number of abnormal sources. Finally, the effectiveness of this paper's model is verified in PSCAD. The results indicate that the method has specific dynamic performance and anti-noise ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional technology characters (TCs) are studied in this paper to find whether innovation in Chinese cities leads to technology converging, or technology divergence, in both the intra‐city and inter‐city scales, with which regional economic development strength may be better explained. Based on a literature review on the subject, a two‐dimensional research framework and relevant technical lens are designed to clarify TC in cities composed of parameters on Technology Strength (TS) versus Technology Angle (TA). By applying Principle Component Analysis, a technical lens is made possible based on extracted parameters on three integrated technology dimensions for measuring TSs and TAs over 117 Chinese sample cities with invention patent data covering 21 technology field between 2005/2006 and 2015/2016. Technology convergence versus divergence are examined for 28/24 sample cities beyond average score, and the research findings indicate that technology divergence in Chinese cities can be confirmed at the inter‐city level, even partially at the intra‐city level. This finding holds for most sample cities with fairly large and modest TSs, while intra‐city technology converging is significant, especially for larger sized TS samples, however they also differ on different dimensions. This may imply that urban economic development in China is technical based and differentiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prominent studies of the Qing dynasty's military evolution in the field of comparative military history, which is heavily dependent on the binary conception of "West–China," have failed to present the early military heritage of the dynasty. Unlike previous studies, this paper aims to find a new voice for the early Qing military inheritance, as a reflection of past West–China comparative studies that have continued to discriminate between Western and Chinese military merits and demerits and to ignore the early Qing military approach. By presenting the economic and military interconnections between the Manchu (the Jianzhou Jurchens, the Jianzhou confederation, and Nurhaci), Ming, and Chosŏn, this article reveals that early economic and military development through border trade, tributary trade, and predatory behaviors enabled the Manchus to establish the Later Jin and Qing states. Understanding early Manchu military history helps us put forward an important but less studied military heritage of Qing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myanmar began a multifaceted economic reform process in 2011, soon after its political opening. The reform process is far from complete, and its impacts remain questionable. The paper examines progress to date and assesses opportunities and challenges for further reforms. Given the extensive list of development challenges remaining and the limited resources, careful prioritising of reforms is essential. Understanding of its strengths and weaknesses will help identify and sequence reforms and investments so as to maximise the growth dividends. This paper briefly reviews Myanmar's history and its legacy, examines the economy and some of the main policy reforms undertaken since 2011, assesses development potential and weaknesses, and outlines medium and long-term growth strategies based on the country's specific context and international experiences and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the aid allocation behaviours of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors and their response to the emergence of China in the aid landscape. Our analysis presents evidences of donors' competition in Africa. We investigate whether African countries with the Chinese influence expanding receive favourable aid modalities from G7 donors over the period 2000-2011. We find a robust positive relationship between the level of aid and the number of China projects a country receives and the level of bilateral aid from G7 donors, even after accounting for standard economic and political factors. Results indicate that DAC donors use bilateral aid to tackle the increasing influence of China in Africa, by delivering more aid to countries with natural resources or strategic political interest. The paper also assesses empirically whether strategic interests and economic competition between DAC donors and China have influenced the composition of aid flows received by African countries. Our empirical strategy is sharpened by the use of a spatial-X model and a difference-in-difference estimation that leverages a 'natural' experiment in DAC aid flows in the aftermath of the financial crisis, with China increasing his sphere of influence in Africa. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eighty per cent of the world's population professes religious belief. Such beliefs provide precepts on how individuals should conduct their private lives and (often) how society should be organized. Given there are 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and 1.3 billion Muslims, understanding the religious approach to social life based on sacred texts and social teachings of Christianity and Islam has a strong relevance to those interested in implementing international economic development policies. This paper argues that religion can thus play a positive role in development and specifically support development economic policies at the international level. The purpose of this paper is not to present a fully formed development economic policy, but rather to identify teachings of the world's two largest religions - such as preferencing the poor, minimizing inequality and having the economy serve wider realms of society - that directly speak to how sustainable economic development is understood within these faith traditions and how these teachings could scaffold and support and international policy frameworks aimed to achieve sustainable economic development. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent papers have focused attention on the potential for expansionary austerity (i.e. that cutting budget deficits may increase growth in the short run). In this paper we investigate the impact of fiscal consolidation on trade using bilateral trade data. The use of bilateral trade data allows us to demonstrate three novel empirical results. First, while fiscal consolidation is associated with an increase in own-country exports, it is also correlated to an equal extent with a decrease in foreign-country exports (i.e. imports); indeed, simultaneous austerity has no statistically significant impact on bilateral trade. Second, the positive effect of austerity on exports disappears when trading partners share a common currency. Third, the increase in exports as a result of austerity is associated entirely with an increase in the range of goods exported (the extensive margin), at the expense of trade volume among existing trade relationships (the intensive margin). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our 2011 survey of the literature in the Journal of Economic Surveys on the effect of government size on economic growth in wealthy countries we find a relatively consistent pattern: An increase in government size by 10 percentage points is associated with a 0.5-1 percentage point lower annual growth rate. This conclusion is questioned by Colombier. In this rejoinder we present a rebuttal of Colombier's argument based on a detailed scrutiny of his own statistical evidence and regression results. Furthermore, we note that several new papers that have appeared since our original paper was published give support to our main conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diaspora strategies were explained against the backdrop of neoliberal reforms, within which context governments in sending countries sought to mobilise skilled migrants for homeland development projects. Despite sporadic evidence that non-governmental organisations take increasingly meaningful parts in diaspora strategy-formation processes, little attention has thus far been paid to their specific roles. This paper attends to the salient contribution of non-governmental organisations to Israel's diaspora strategy. Focusing on two recent state-assisted return programs, it argues that a greater involvement of private and civic organisations should be seen as part of broader political-economic shifts, most notably economic neoliberalisation. Since the late 1980s, organisations have partnered with the state to create a tri-sectoral 'web of repatriation', which is effectively responsible for the creation and implementation of return programmes. Through a critical analysis of the discourse within, and practices deployed by, this new web, the paper illustrates the changing politics of return in Israel. Specifically, it shows how partners have advanced a greater professional segmentation of (potential) returnees, prioritised those best suited for the needs of a small number of 'economic growth engines', and institutionalised merit-based compensation schemes. Despite their different positions and situated knowledge, both state and non-state bodies have been using similar trajectories, calling for greater privatisation, harsher selectivity, and differential rewards in Israel's diaspora strategy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influences of Malaysia's Federation Land Development Authority (FELDA) scheme in fostering inclusive rural development. Based on the model of holistic inclusive development, the paper investigates the performance of FELDA from four perspectives: social development, industrialisation, modernisation and basic needs. The main findings of the study indicate that, to a large extent, the scheme has successfully stimulated both the social and economic development of the community. Nonetheless, establishing a strong trust, social cohesion and rapport between the public authorities and community remain the main challenges in determining the success of this state-led agenda. Moreover, keeping traditional values in the modern system will be the key principle for the sustainability of the programme if plans are made to adopt the scheme in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]