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Since the inception of development economics in the post-World War II period, most of its proponents have prescribed the adoption of western institutions as the path for prosperity; the unequivocal solution for poverty, illiteracy, hunger, inequality, and violence in the world. In the second article, Furtado ([[11]] [11]) discusses the impossibility for underdeveloped countries to emulate the pattern of development of countries in the core of the market system. Fabio H. Terra, Fernando Ferrari Filho, and Pedro Cezar Fonseca ([28]) show that, for John Maynard Keynes ([14]), development did not unfold naturally from the evolution of market institutions but had to rather be actively and collectively pursued. Keynes's faith on State bureaucracy and technocracy prompted him to propose an I Agenda i , where the State would lead socialization of investment and the euthanasia of the rentier in favor of the establishment of full employment (Keynes [15], chapter 24). [Extracted from the article]

Contradicting the rest of the world's promptness to discredit communism as an alternative and Francis Fukuyama's (1992) teleological account of 'the end of history,' Nepal witnessed a Maoist revolution between 1996 and 2006. Such a 'deviation' from what Fukuyama and others have viewed as the path of development raises questions about the linear progression of history and its implicit dualism of market vs. government. As several Original Institutional Economists have discussed, analytical dichotomies lead to a simplistic understanding of transformation that disregards the multilayered nature of society and, thus, concludes that history unfolds linearly to arrive at a predetermined and homogeneous end. This paper analyzes the social transformation of Nepal that preceded the Maoist revolution, through the lens of Feminist Institutionalism, utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to understand the complexity of the impacts of liberalism-protectionism political changes on Nepali institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking as its point of departure the 1960s formalism-substantivism debate in social science methodology, this article argues that what is distinctive about the new development of formalism in economics since then is mainly the prevalence of using "complete models"—tractable, manipulable, and fully specified mathematical objects—to construct and express theories. The objective of complete models is not to establish general laws, but to formulate auxiliary devices of cognition to facilitate the explanation of targeted aspects of the empirical world; not to create idealistic or ideological discourses, but to derive implications with empirically delimited utility—this in order to make inferences that cannot be achieved via purely qualitative methods. This methodological trend is to some extent a substantivization of formalist economics. Exploring its nature can help clarify the unique cognitive value of contemporary formalism and answer the question of why substantivism is still an irreplaceable approach to social scientific studies, even in an age dominated by formalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a form of reflection on the Chinese development model. In the ongoing discussion on this subject, the view seems to prevail that the source of the country's economic success is the use of evidence-based policy, understood as "scientific development," that is, basing economic policy on the most recent findings of development economics. The conclusion of this article is quite the opposite. It turns out that the foundations of the Chinese development paradigm are assumptions that are very similar to the principles around which Edmund Burke's concept of modern conservatism is built. A specific core of this concept is aversion and skepticism toward scientific theories, combined with the postulate of the gradual nature of all economic and social changes. Ultimately, however, it turns out that modern conservatism alone is also not sufficient in explaining the Chinese development success. The second pillar is the relevant set of development goals and their proper sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: There is an ongoing debate in development economics about whether resources aiming to improve household welfare should be allocated to general development programmes, such as providing education, or to specific income enhancing programmes, such as promoting certain commodities or practices. Purpose: This article contributes to this debate by analysing income levels and income diversification strategies of households that were engaged in growing organic coffee in the hills of Nepal. Engaging in organic coffee production is hypothesized to be an important income enhancing activity for asset‐poor subsistence farmers. Approach and Methods: We conducted a structured household survey of 441 coffee growers from Gulmi and Lalitpur districts in Nepal with a focus on the sources of income. The household income diversification was measured using the mean of the household share of each type of income and the share of a given source of income over a given group of households. We modelled the determinants of household income using Ordinary Least Squares and Tobit regressions. Findings: We found that most households derive a higher proportion of income from off‐farm sources. The main finding is that education increases household off‐farm income by improving access to domestic and international labour markets, and this reduces dependence on farming. Low‐income households have a higher proportion of income from farming. Across all households, non‐certified coffee production is financially more attractive to farmers than organic production. Policy Implications: Our findings suggest that investing in general development, especially education, is more effective than a scheme to promote cash crops as it allows asset‐poor subsistence farmers to engage in regional and international labour markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses meta-regressions of 1000 cases published over the period 1997–2018 suggest that the direction of the relationship between land area and agricultural performance strongly depends on the performance indicator selected. Topics include smallholder farming has crucial for producing food and sustaining millions of livelihoods in developing countries; and the relationship between land size and output per area has widely discussed in the literature.

This is a fascinating book that explores, through contemporary sources, late 18th- and early 19th-century inland waterways in Europe (mainly the Hapsburg Empire canals) and charts the influences of local economics, technical education and craftsmanship on their construction. Technology, Economics and Canal Development; An Early Technical Book and What It Reveals: by Mike Clarke, 2021, 240 pp., 249 illus., £25 (pb), ISBN 9780901461711 (available from RCHS, www.rchs.co.uk) Mike Clarke is a veteran canal historian and researcher, well known for his work on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. [Extracted from the article]

During the past years, urban floods/ waterlogging disaster is becoming a big challenge due to the joint impact of global climate change and rapid urbanization, which is becoming an important factor affecting urban public security in China, and seriously restricting the sustainable and healthy development of economics and society. The study on the disaster mechanism and risk assessment of urban flood/waterlogging disaster under the changing environment is the important basis to improve urban flood/ waterlogging control and disaster reduction system, and enhance the urban flood control and waterlogging reduction capacity. In this study, the influence mechanism of climate change and urbanization on urban flood/waterlogging disaster was investigated, and the driving factors and disaster mechanism of urban flood/waterlogging disaster were analyzed systematically. The methods of risk assessment and risk zoning on urban flood/waterlogging disaster were also reviewed, and the sponge city demonstration area in Jinan City was selected as a case study to analyze and compare risk zoning of urban flood/w aterlogging disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the state of the U. S. economy since the first quarter of 2020 after an unprecedented mix of demand and supply due to Covid-19 pandemic. It is noted that the economy contracted by 5 and 31.7 percent respectively in the first and second quarters of 2020, and consumer spending decreased in in March 2020 except in groceries.

The present essay aimed to analyze the possible relationship between economic growth and inequality in the Integration Region of the Lower Amazon (RIBA), in the period from 2000 to 2010. Through the investigation of the hypothesis (s) of the Kuznets and, based on the construction of an econometric model with data in a short panel, the following indicators were used as proxies for inequality and economic growth: the Gini index (dependent variable) and per capita income (independent variable), the latter being used in a linear, cubic and quadratic form, in order to test the possible results of the curves in the shape of inverted U and N, in order to contribute to the discussion in the field of development economics in the region. The results of the model pointed to evidence of the Kuznets curve inverted U hypothesis present in the first stage of economic progress in the region, and economic growth acting as a momentary peacemaker with income inequality in RIBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we critically and constructively examine the methodology of evidence-based development economics, which deploys randomized field experiments (RFEs) as its main tool. We describe the context in which this movement started, and illustrate in detail how RFEs are designed and implemented in practice, drawing on a series of experiments by Pascaline Dupas and her colleagues on the use of bednets, saving and governance in Kenya. We show that this line of experiments have evolved to address the limitation of obtaining policy-relevant insights from RFEs alone, characterized as their lack of external validity in the literature. After examining the two prominent responses by leading figures of evidence-based development economics, namely machine learning and structured speculation, we propose an alternative methodological strategy that incorporates two sub-fields, namely experimental economics and behavioral economics, to complement RFEs in investigating the data-generating process underlying the treatment effects of RFEs. This strategy highlights promising methodological developments in RFEs neither captured by the two proposals nor recognized by methodologists, and also guides how to combine different sub-fields of economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Arthur Denzau and Douglass North's paper "Shared Mental Models: Ideologies and Institutions" seeks to explain differences in economic performance across time and space recognizing that under conditions of uncertainty actors base their decisions "in part upon [...] myths, dogmas, ideologies, and 'half‐baked' theories." The model Denzau and North develop is firmly rooted in the orthodoxy of economics but emphasizes the significance of shared ideologies and ideas in driving economic change. In this paper, we discuss how the legacy of Denzau and North (1994) should be applied to current and future economic inquiries and, in particular, how it might inform work in development economics, behavioral economics, and in the study of the effects of social norms on economic outcomes. We argue that a perspective that emphasizes the role of the economic actor as entrepreneur in the context of shared mental models and institutions can improve economic analysis in those areas of research, which currently focus on the economist as exogenous policy expert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer were awarded the 2019 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their pioneering of randomized control trials (RCTs) to find reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty. This article unpacks the laureates' theoretical and methodological approach to development economics in order to evaluate to what extent their approach signifies a break from broader trends in the field. In particular, it investigates the role RCTs have played in both generating knowledge about development interventions and in shaping development policy debates more broadly. Finally, the article argues that despite their rebellious and radical façade, the randomista enterprise has led to a more exclusive development economics, while at the same time failing to improve our ability to fight poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents an overview of the evolution of regional economic studies in Peru. After a brief introduction, the document presents a summary of the different conceptions of space in Regional Economics through time. In addition, the document shows the origins of Regional Economics, as well as the factors that explain the interest in the development of regional studies in the Latin American context. This document also explains the importance of the geographical space of Peru for regional research. Indeed, the country is the perfect setting because Peru has a wide geographic diversity (ecosystems, microclimates) throughout its territory, it has implemented a variety of public policies to propose economic growth measures, and it has many social issues to propose territorial policies (migration, crime, health, employment, among others). Despite these characteristics, regional research in Peru is relatively less than in other Latin American countries. Finally, the document offers the contributions and criticisms of the regional studies in the Peruvian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many years before Adam Smith, numerous theologians associated with the School of Salamanca, such as Domingo de Soto, Juan de Lugo, Juan de Mariana, Luís Saravia de la Calle, Martin de Azpilcueta, Luis de Molina, Leonard Lessius, Thomas Cajetan, and Francisco Garcia had made great strides in the development of economics. Specifically, these theologians, otherwise known as the "Scholastics," analyzed and argued against price and wage controls by explaining that the only "just" prices and wages are those that are set by the market, examined and pushed back against prohibitions on usury, understood the concept of time preference, and helped develop monetary theory in multiple ways. They also demonstrated that all of this was consistent with the Catholic religion. This paper analyzes the ways in which these early theologians contributed to the development of economics and reconciled it with their Catholicism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular forest-preservation programs offer certification or payment schemes to discourage deforestation by farmers. Governments deny certain farm-program benefits on the entire farm if a farmer destroys a protected forest (conservation compliance). Effects of crop price support would vary greatly for each of the 4 options, depending on whether they reduce deforestation, how much they reduce deforestation, or in the case of the decoupling farm support option, on how much it reduces farm-program-driven input use (Bhaskar & Beghin [3]). Decoupling, or substantially reducing fertilizer subsidies by targeting poor farmers, will bring worldwide forest preservation, farm income, economic efficiency gains, and reductions in ecological damage and greenhouse gas release caused by program-driven, excessive fertilizer use (Galloway et al. [10]). [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines how economic ideas have been shaped throughout history and the influence of these on the formulation of economic policy. We collect both quantitative and qualitative data from economists who are originally from the Middle East and North Africa region or working on the region. We find that economists and their ideas are more likely to be influenced by multiple schools of thought than adhere to one school. This multiplicity spills over into the type of solutions proposed to economic problems and thus policy implications. One of the main recommendations of this study is that there is a need for the development of economics and economists to recognize the impact of political and social issues that are not easy to grasp through modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenging conflictual Realist and optimistic liberal-internationalist arguments about full-scale integration of China into the US-led order, this article uses Gramsci's concept of hegemony and Kautsky's concept of ultra-imperialism to explore US hegemony's influence in transforming China and to characterize the relationship. Original archival research shows that China's elites were gradually integrated into the US-led order from 1978, with a special role played by elite knowledge networks built by the Ford Foundation, particularly in Chinese economic policy reform, diffusion of free market thinking, and the development and teaching of Economics as a technocratic, policy-oriented academic discipline. Ford funded Sino-American elite knowledge networks closely connected with Chinese globalizing elites, with and through which liberal tendencies penetrated China, adapted to local conditions. We argue that these networks played significant yet neglected roles in managing change in China, and Sino-US relations during a time of global power transitions. This is inexplicable in either Realist or Liberal-internationalist terms, but provides the substance of what might be a 'new type of great power relationship', perhaps explicable in Kautskyian 'ultraimperialist' terms. Though conflict and turbulence remain in the relationship due to changing economic conditions and global strategies, this need not result in inter-hegemonic military conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to present the New Developmentalism school and its production about productive sophistication. The technical methodological procedures prioritized by the research, in this way, were bibliographical and documentary. The methodology is predominantly descriptive, so the research aimed at structuring and defining a theoretical model, mapping it. The article is divided into two sections. The first section presents the main precepts of New Developmentalism; the second section focuses on the production of the school about productive sophistication. In conclusion, the research sought to contextualize and to explain the described studies, exposing some hypotheses and questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2019 Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to three scholars on the grounds that their pioneering use of randomized control trials (RCTs) was innovative methodologically and contributed to development policy and the emergence of a new development economics. Using a critical feminist lens, this article challenges that conclusion by interrogating the storytelling practices deployed by "randomista" economists through a critical reading of a widely cited essay by Esther Duflo, one of the 2019 Nobel recipients, on the relationship between women's empowerment and economic development. The paper argues that the limitations of randomista economics have given rise to a particular way of thinking characterized by piecemeal analysis, ad hoc resort to theory, indifference to history and context, and methodological fundamentalism. It concludes that the randomista argument that broad-based economic development alone – without focused attention to women's rights – will lead to gender equality has not been borne out by recent data. HIGHLIGHTS Despite claims of impartiality, Duflo's interpretations of evidence and the language she uses indicate that the randomista method and narrative is not objective or impartial. The randomistas' treatment of preferences as random and idiosyncratic ignores what feminists have long espoused: that the formation of preferences derives from entrenched social constructions. The randomistas' claims to methodological superiority result in a discounting or dismissal of findings from nonexperimental studies in favor of experimental studies that report the same findings. Duflo's main argument discussed in this paper is that while gender equality is desirable in its own right, it is better achieved through gender-neutral policies because gender-affirmative policies "distort" the allocative process and lead to efficiency costs. Yet, these so-called distortions stem from historical structures that have curtailed women's productive potential and protected male privilege. In other words, patriarchal discrimination introduces structural costs that are unlikely to be visible when the focus is on individual economic actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's economy needs individuals who can understand and interpret the developments in the market and make rational decisions. Therefore, it is of great importance to provide economic education for all segments of the society. The aim of this study is to determine the level of economic literacy of the students in Selcuk University Vocational School of Social Sciences. With a questionnaire, students' ability to comprehend the knowledge and concepts in economic courses and to follow and interpret the developments in economics which is defined as economic literacy were investigated. Within the scope of the research, a face-to-face questionnaire was applied to 218 students (126 girls and 96 boys) in Vocational School of Social Sciences between October 12, 2019 and December 2019. The data were analyzed using SPSS 22 statistical program, frequency distributions of answers, demographic characteristics of the participants were examined, reliability tests and correlation analyzes were performed. As a result of the research; The average level of economic literacy of students was found to be 70.98. It was found out that the students benefit from the courses related to the economics they read, so that economic education has a positive effect on the level of economic literacy. Other results are discussed in the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wage work, it is said, is disappearing in the "new" age of capital, to rising alarm across the world. Rather than the means by which humans transform nature to their purposes everywhere, Postone insisted, labor is a "form of mediation" peculiar to capitalism.[25] Plainly put, the latter is a I historical i formation in which wage work is "the primary constituter of the social world."[26] Marx's own critique of proletarian toil, added Postone, aimed I not i at its melioration, but at its total overcoming. Here everyday economic life necessitated a labile mix of subsistence and petty commodity production, "putting out" and occasional contract work, migrant employment, and "penny capitalism" in the informal sector - often implicating creative credit management and the "phatic labor" that "produces communicative channels" from which value could be garnered.[60] These were, and are, social ecologies in which material deficit imposes on individuals and families, especially women, an onus for diversified survival strategies - which perforce often include, in addition to informal enterprise, taking the lowest-paid, most insecure sweatshop jobs available. Wage labor remains at the ontological core of capitalism: of species being under its political theology; of its conception of time and value; of the unstable ratio of creation and destruction on which its expansion and financialization depends - even, Moishe Postone insisted, as wage work appears anachronistic, terminally endangered, at its historical "end", giving way to ever more abstract forms of wealth accumulation I sans i persons. [Extracted from the article]

It has recently been suggested that the economic departure of the United States after the Civil War marked a 'Second Great Divergence'. Compared to the 'First', the rise of Britain during the Industrial Revolution, this Second Great Divergence is curiously little understood: because the United States remains the template for modernization narratives, its trajectory is more easily accepted as preordained than interrogated as an unlikely historical outcome. But why should development have been problematic everywhere but the United States? This Viewpoint argues that a robust explanation for the United States's rise is lacking: it can neither be found in an economic history literature focused on factor endowments nor in internalist Americanist historiography, which often reproduces overdetermined accounts of modernization inspired by Max Weber. The most promising avenue of inquiry, we argue, lies in asking how American political institutions configured what should properly be called an American developmental state. Such a perspective opens up a broad comparative research agenda that provincializes the United States from the perspective of development experiences elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the authors are revealing the features of the transition to a new type of farming. The possibilities of modern agriculture, use of smart technologies for agriculture, development of highly intelligent agriculture, features of the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture, use of the Internet, namely FoodNet, active use of GIS technologies, improvement of logistics systems, and banking services for farmers and agriculture producers are being examined on the ground of digital technology. The conclusion is being made concerning the need for the active development of the digital agriculture system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural development in Bulgaria is an important issue for decent live in the country. Direct and indirect impact on rural Bulgaria is observed from the implementation of different policies. The main aim of the study is to trace the changes in some of the main economic activities which are contributing to the development of the municipalities. The following approach will be used to achieve this goal: 1) Literature review of relevant theories concerning economics of rural development. On this stage factors concerning the rural economy growth will be explained; 2) According to the findings on theoretical level will be performed analysis in dynamics of indicators related to municipality development. As well we will analyze the change in the enterprises' number and sectors where they operate in order to outline the perspectives and importance for rural areas of each sector. For reaching this purpose will be prepared an analyses of the investment of the enterprises in Tangible fixed assets. Bulgaria as a member of EU is a receiver of RDP funding which as well reflect on business development in rural areas. Some relationships between RDP and economical sectors in rural Bulgaria are outlined in the paper. 3) According to the results of the analysis general conclusions will be outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, the value theory was based on an objectivist approach, where the value of the goods arises through the involvement of private means of production, with a special role of work or a subjectivist approach, where value is a subjective phenomenon and depends on marginal utility of the economic entity. The neoclassical revolution replaced the vague value theory with price theory, the economic reality and consumer expectations led to a situation in which lowering the price of goods at the expense of the environment became a commonly accepted mode of operation. For a long time, the value theory in economics was not an area of reflection, both in the sense of economic and moral value. It was assumed that the subjective character of the value phenomenon makes the analysis of value elusive for the tools of economics. At the same time, environmental goods were considered to be so-called free, occurring in unlimited quantities. These assumptions have contributed to the development of an economics theory that is the antithesis of the economics of sustainable development, excessively exploiting the environment and, indirectly, society as well. The assumptions of sustainable development redefine the space for interpretation of the value theory and imply a change in the approach to an environmental element that cannot be understood in the sense of a free good and which imposes an objective understanding of values that can be preserved or lost in the production process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the history and methodology of laboratory experiments in economics have been extensively studied by philosophers, those of field experiments have not attracted much attention until recently. What is the historical context in which field experiments have been advocated? And what are the methodological rationales for conducting experiments in the field as opposed to in the lab? This article addresses these questions by combining historical and methodological perspectives. In terms of history, we show that the movement toward field experiments in economics has two distinct roots. One is the general orientation of medical and social sciences to evidence-based policy evaluation, which gave rise to randomized field experiments in economics (e.g., behavioral public policy, poverty alleviation policy). The other is an awareness of several methodological limitations of lab experiments in economics, which required practitioners to get out of the lab and into the field. In these senses, the movement is a consequence of influences from both outside and inside economics: the general evidence-based trend in policy science and an internal methodological development of experimental economics. In terms of methodology, we show that these two roots resulted in two somewhat different notions of "external validity" as methodological rationales of field experiment. Finally, we suggest that analysis of experiments as exhibits highlights a methodological strategy in which both strands complement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the concept of uncertainty in economics is elaborated, the uncertainty measures created after the 2008/2009 global financial crisis are evaluated and the effects of uncertainty on economy are discussed. The concept of uncertainty gained economic content with Cantillon, but with the development of the traditional economics under the assumption of perfect knowledge, the concept of uncertainty was largely ignored. In 1921 Knight and Keynes described uncertainty as an immeasurable concept in their respective studies of “Risk, Uncertainty and Profit” and “Treatise on Probability”. However, interest in the concept of uncertainty has diminished since 1950s, with the increasing use of mathematical models in economics. During the 2008/2009 global financial crisis, uncertainty emerged in various aspects and interest in the concept has increased. In many post-crisis studies, different uncertainty measures have been formed and the effects of uncertainty on the economy have been examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main determinants of agricultural employment are related to households' access to private assets and the influence of inherited social–economic stratification and power relationships. However, despite the recommendations of rural studies which have shown the importance of multilevel approaches to rural poverty, very few studies have explored quantitatively the effects of common-pool resources and household livelihood capitals on agricultural employment. Understanding the influence of access to both common-pool resources and private assets on rural livelihoods can enrich our understanding of the drivers of rural poverty in agrarian societies, which is central to achieving sustainable development pathways. Based on a participatory assessment conducted in rural communities in India, this paper differentiates two levels of livelihood capitals (household capitals and community capitals) and quantifies them using national census data and remotely sensed satellite sensor data. We characterise the effects of these two levels of livelihood capitals on precarious agricultural employment by using multilevel logistic regression. Our study brings a new perspective on livelihood studies and rural economics by demonstrating that common-pool resources and private assets do not have the same effect on agricultural livelihoods. It identifies that a lack of access to human, financial and social capitals at the household level increases the levels of precarious agricultural employment, such as daily-wage agricultural labour. Households located in communities with greater access to collective natural capital are less likely to be agricultural labourers. The statistical models also show that proximity to rural centres and access to financial infrastructures increase the likelihood of being a landless agricultural labourer. These findings suggest that investment in rural infrastructure might increase livelihood vulnerability, if not accompanied by an improvement in the provisioning of complementary rural services, such as access to rural finance, and by the implementation of agricultural tenancy laws to protect smallholders' productive assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called growth incidence curve (GIC) is a popular way to evaluate the distributional pattern of economic growth and pro-poorness of growth in development economics. The log-transformation of the the GIC is related to the sum of empirical quantile processes which allows for constructions of simultaneous confidence bands for the GIC. However, standard constructions of these bands tend to be too wide at the extreme points 0 and 1 because the estimator of the quantile function can be very volatile at the extreme points. In order to construct simultaneous confidence bands which are narrower at the ends, we consider the convergence of quantile processes with weight functions. In particular, we investigate the asymptotic convergence under specific weighted sup-norm metrics and compare different kinds of qualified weight functions. This implies simultaneous confidence bands that are narrower at the boundaries 0 and 1. We show in simulations that these bands have a more regular shape. Finally, we evaluate real data from Uganda with the improved confidence bands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: Total factor productivity (TFP) determines how efficiently and intensely the available inputs are used and combined in production process. Improvement of TFP performance requires identification of its determinants, thus enabling policy actions to focus on them. Since the ability to create and absorb innovation is considered as a crucial factor of economic development, the investigation of the impact of the level of regional innovative performance on TFP distribution across EU regions is an important research problem. Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, we attempt to develop a theoretical framework for the analysis of the impact of innovation on TFP. Secondly, we assess TFP levels for regions in the EU and investigate whether innovations account for the observed regional disparities in TFP. Methods: The research sample consists of 202 European Union (EU) regions at NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 level from 22 countries. The regional data on GDP, employment and gross fixed capital formation come from the Eurostat. The source of data on the level of innovativeness of European regions is the Regional Innovation Scoreboard. To calculate TFP, we use the multiplicativelycomplete Färe-Primont index. In turn, to examine the impact of innovation on TFP, we employ the spatially-lagged X model. Findings & Value added: Our findings show a high degree of dispersion in TFP across EU regions. We find a positive impact of regional innovation performance on TFP. Although theoretical papers on economic development and regional economics suggest that improvements in TFP are key to regional economic performance, and that innovations are crucial to gain such productivity effects, there is a dearth of empirical studies on the link between innovation and TFP at the regional level. Therefore, our paper attempts to fill this gap by providing the evidence of positive effect of innovation externalities on TFP in European regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1960, moving from a series of senior positions in government to the Australian National University, the Australian economist J. G. Crawford took a leading role in shaping official policies of international aid and assistance within the Australian bureaucracy, in association with national and international non-governmental agencies, and in raising awareness of underdevelopment among community-based groups within Australia. Contributing to the consolidation of development economics in Australia, he also navigated between an awareness that "in underdeveloped areas the choices are almost always difficult and often cruel" and a pragmatic approach to issues of hunger, overpopulation, social instability, political conflict and the technical interventions of the "green revolution". This article works out from Crawford's role to assess the institutional, social and cultural networks that supported aspects of Australian engagement with underdevelopment and aid through this period, and through this examination, it accounts for some of the distinctive features of Australian Cold War internationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is few significant attempt to integrate environmental regulation, government financial support, and corporate technological innovation in a methodological framework. Employing the data of the industrial enterprises with an annual turnover of over 20 million yuan from 30 Chinese provinces or municipalities between 2008 and 2016, this paper applies the fixed effect regression model to reveal the relationships between environmental regulation, government financial support, and corporate technological innovation simultaneously. Results show that: (1) there exists a U-shaped relation between environmental regulation intensity and technological innovation of enterprises which declines first and then climbs up, and China is still at the stage of inhibition before the “inflection point”. (2) government financial support does not significantly work on technological innovation directly, but environmental regulation drives this effect to be achieved; when the value of lnER is higher than 3.69, government financial support can significantly facilitate corporate technological innovation. (3) the comparison between regional samples reveals that heterogeneity exists in the influence of environmental regulation intensity and government financial support on corporate technological innovation. The threshold value of enabling effects of environmental regulation in eastern region is higher than that of the central and western region. These results remain consistent after we experiment several robustness checks. Theory and policy implications of our work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are a broad challenge for decision-makers. NCDs account for seven out of every 10 deaths globally, with 42 percent occurring prematurely in individuals under age 70. Despite their heavy toll, NCDs are underfunded, with only around two percent of global funding dedicated to the disease set. Country governments are responsible for funding targeted actions to reduce the NCD burden, but among other priorities, many have yet to invest in the health-system interventions and policy measures that can reduce the burden. This article examines “investment cases” as a potential mechanism for catalyzing attention to—and funding for—NCDs. In Jamaica, using the UN inter-agency OneHealth Tool, we conducted an economic analysis to estimate the return-on-investment from scaling up strategic clinical interventions, and from implementing or intensifying policy measures that target NCD risk factors. In addition, we conducted an institutional and context (ICA) analysis, interviewing stakeholders across sectors to take stock of promising policy pathways (e.g., areas of general consensus, political appetite and opportunity) as well as challenges to implementation. The economic analysis found that scaling up clinical interventions that target CVD, diabetes, and mental health disorders, and policy measures that target tobacco and alcohol use, would save over 6,600 lives between 2017–2032, and avert JMD 81.3 billion (USD 640 million) in direct and indirect economic costs that result from mortality and morbidity linked to NCDs. The ICA uncovered government economic growth targets and social priorities that would be aided by increased attention to NCDs, and it linked these targets and priorities to the economic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the problem of environmental pollution caused by fossil fuel combustion, and its association with rapid urbanization, China is grappling with the question of how to reduce carbon emissions through more efficient energy consumption while simultaneously advancing its economic development. We applied a directional distance function to estimate the carbon emission performance of 30 provinces in China during the period 2000–2016. We selected an index system to assess urbanization processes in these provinces and conducted a spatial analysis to investigate the relationship between urbanization and carbon emission performance. We obtained the following results. First, the carbon emission performance of the eastern region, valued at 0.853, was relatively higher than the corresponding values of 0.810, 0.804, and 0.843 in the central, western, and northeastern regions, respectively. However, during this period, disparities among provinces increased. Second, the average urbanization value for each province showed an upward trend during the study period, and urbanization assumed a “striped” spatial agglomeration pattern. A third finding was that carbon emission performance and urbanization demonstrated a relationship of positive spatial dependence. The average value of their coordinated coupling indicated an upward trend, with an annual increase of 0.85%. Last, we found that efforts to reduce carbon emissions that are solely based on carbon emission performance do not yield reliable results. Accordingly, measurements of urbanization values can enable more detailed differentiation. In conclusion, reasonable measures should be implemented to improve carbon emission performance and urbanization that are in alignment with the actual situation within a given region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With green development becoming a global movement, environmental tax has been adopted by many governments to promote green development. This study analyzes the impact of environmental tax on green development by using a four-dimension dynamical system. The establishment of the system is based on the complex and dynamic interactions among economic development, pollution emissions, resources consumption, and environmental tax, where roles of environmental tax are reflected by the linear parameters. A theoretic analysis shows the complexity of the behavior of the system. Mainly, the existence of chaos is inferred by Lyapunov exponent spectrum and bifurcation diagram, then verified by the presence of a chaotic attractor. An empirical study of the green development dynamical system in China demonstrates the particular evolution paths of economic growth, pollution intensity, and resource intensity under different environmental tax parameters. Results indicate a robust beneficial role of environmental tax on green development. Furthermore, when an environmental tax is imposed, a firm government control, an active consumer awareness, an advanced technology level can stimulate economic growth, decrease pollution intensity, and control the resource intensity. But the government control has a stronger effect. This study provides a viable and promising approach to analyze the role of imposing an environmental tax on green development and may have potential application in other areas and countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing severe pressure on its water resources and water environments. Calculating the industrial water efficiency of each province is an important index for the central government to evaluate local governments. In the traditional water resources evaluation index, the industrial water use efficiency and pollutant discharge are evaluated separately. In this paper, we collected industrial input data, output data and pollutant discharge data with a four-stage data envelopment analysis to calculate China's industrial water use efficiency with and without considering pollutant discharge, and then analyzed the factors influencing the industrial water use efficiency. The results show that the eastern coastal provinces of China have the highest water use efficiency and are less affected by pollutant discharge than other provinces. The industrial water use efficiency of the central and western provinces is lower than that of the other provinces, and the industrial water use efficiency in the central provinces is greatly affected by pollutant discharge. Factor endowment, economic development level, scientific and technological progress, industrial structure, proportion of foreign investment, water consumption per 10000 yuan of value-added by industry, industrial sewage treatment capacity and educational investment have a significant influence on the industrial water use efficiency of China. We suggest that the government strengthen the construction of sewage plants and other related infrastructure in central provinces when conducting the industrial transfer of heavy polluting enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the recent development in capabilities of smart mobile devices, their growing penetration rate among students, and the positive impacts of mobile apps on students’ motivation and performance, it is possible to take advantage of these devices to design an app for learning Economics. The aim of this project is to develop the Economics mobile app for secondary school students in Malaysia which can offer ubiquitous self-learning among students. The design is based on information processing model that emphasizes cognitive processes in learning. This paper discusses the development of the app which is named EconsF4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal economy is emerging as a new normal. It is distinctively pervasive both in the Global South and the North. Of late, scholarship in development economics has captured its knowledge component. Yet, the focus of innovation studies is exclusively on the exchange value, scalability and large-scale commercialization of innovations thereby overlooking informal sector innovations. This paper, through an extensive review of the literature on the subject, attempts to find out the other non-economic and methodological explanations, which have led to the marginalization of informal sector innovations. This paper attempts to deconstruct the political, philosophical and methodological reasons that have contributed to the undervaluation of informal and alternative knowledge systems. Further, to explore the gaps and suggest new ways of studying the subject afresh, a critical review of the existing methodologies is also undertaken. This paper identifies that the dominant research methodologies and the 'universal' but restricted narratives about innovations have greatly contributed towards the exclusion of alternative knowledge forms including informal sector innovations in the mainstream development discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Downscaled climate projections need to be linked to downscaled projections of population and economic growth to fully develop implications for land, natural resources, and ecosystems for future scenarios. We develop an empirical spatiotemporal approach for jointly projecting population and income at the county scale in the United States that is consistent with neoclassical economic growth theory and overlapping labor markets and that accounts for labor migration and spatial spillovers. Downscaled projections generated for the five Shared Socioeconomic Pathways used to support global scenario analysis generally show growth focused around relatively few centers especially in the southeast and western regions, with some areas in the Midwest and northeast experiencing population declines. Results are consistent with economic growth theory and with historical trends in population change and convergence of per capita personal income across US counties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To develop and validate an interactive nomogram to predict healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) in the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: A multicenter retrospective study was conducted to review 2017 data from six hospitals in Guizhou Province, China. A total of 1,782 ICU inpatients were divided into either a training set (n = 1,189) or a validation set (n = 593). The patients’ demographic characteristics, basic clinical features from the previous admission, and their need for bacterial culture during the current admission were extracted from electronic medical records of the hospitals to predict HCAI. Univariate and multivariable analyses were used to identify independent risk factors of HCAI in the training set. The multivariable model’s performance was evaluated in both the training set and the validation set, and an interactive nomogram was constructed according to multivariable regression model. Moreover, the interactive nomogram was used to predict the possibility of a patient developing an HCAI based on their prior admission data. Finally, the clinical usefulness of the interactive nomogram was estimated by decision analysis using the entire dataset. Results: The nomogram model included factor development (local economic development levels), length of stay (LOS; days of hospital stay), fever (days of persistent fever), diabetes (history of diabetes), cancer (history of cancer) and culture (the need for bacterial culture). The model showed good calibration and discrimination in the training set [area under the curve (AUC), 0.871; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.848–0.894] and in the validation set (AUC, 0.862; 95% CI, 0.829–0.895). The decision curve demonstrated the clinical usefulness of our interactive nomogram. Conclusions: The developed interactive nomogram is a simple and practical instrument for quantifying the individual risk of HCAI and promptly identifying high-risk patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income and hours worked are insufficient to measure job quality yet these domains dominate literature aimed at understanding its relationship with wellbeing. More so, literature considering job quality in any manner has an overwhelming tendency to look at advanced economies, despite "decent work" being a key policy aim of many agencies and organisations working in emerging countries. This article tests the validity of the concept of job quality as a determinant of welfare in the developing world by generating four six-component indices using bespoke and unique data collected in Kyrgyzstan. Cross-sectional analysis of the performance of these indices against ones comprising only income and hours worked show no relationship between job quality and wellbeing in the latter case but a strong and positive relationship in the former. Jointly, this shows both the importance of more suitably measuring job quality in all contexts and the importance of policy objectives that aim to stimulate better, as well as more, jobs in the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a core-periphery distinction to characterize contemporary economics, economic methodology, and also today's world economy. First, it applies the distinction to the organization of contemporary economics through an examination of the problem of explaining economics' relations to and boundaries with other disciplines. Second, it argues that economics' core-periphery organization is replicated in a similar organization of the use and practice of contemporary economic methodology in economics. Third, it draws on the use of the core-periphery thinking in economics itself regarding the uneven development of the world economy to provide possible foundations for economics and economic 408 • Revista de Economia Política 39 (3), 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/0101-35172019-3004 Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, vol. 39, n° 3 (156), pp. 408-426, July-September/2019 * Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. E-mail: john.davis@marquette.edu, orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8285-5085; Submitted: 25/October/2018; Approved: 7/January/2019. I am grateful to Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Sheila Dow, Zohreh Emami, Wade Hands, Bob McMaster, Jamie Morgan, and Robert Went for comments on a previous version of this paper. The paper was presented to the Portuguese Association for Political Economy October 23, 2014 and to the Amsterdam Research Group in History and Philosophy of Economics October 25, 2018. John Davis is also professor at the University of Amsterdam. Revista de Economia Política 39 (3), 2019 • pp. 408-426 409 methodology being organized in core-periphery terms. Fourth, the paper briefly discusses three potential countervailing forces operating on the development of contemporary economics that might work against its core-periphery organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary development of transport systems is characterized by an ecological, technical, social and economic contradictions. An acceptable global solution can be obtained by matching relevant criteria. This paper provides a synthesis of economic and organizational peculiarities on sustainable development to transport internationally, it reviews recent trends in this respect and applies international trends to Ukraine. Authors concluded that environmental pollution effects connected with transport system's development providing additional costs in different spheres of society that gives the opportunity to assert on necessity of integration the research outcomes on green mobility in applied activity. This article summarizes the implemented transport project examples and analyzed their role in realizing sustainable development principles. The authors proved that all creating programs and projects in transport should be based on such interconnected principles: transport planning and localization of production and consumption; transition to more environmentally efficient transport; improving the technology and fuel. In addition it was suggested to include the transport greening principles in criteria's of economic efficiency in transport. The strategies to reorient the Ukrainian transport industry towards resource-saving approaches are formulated. Substantiated that applying energy-efficient approaches in transport will result in socioecological and economic benefits, including ecological, social, public health, transport and urban components. The authors analyzed advantages and disadvantages of different kind of modern transport vehicles in the context of sustainable development principles realization that allows understanding which economic sectors and entrepreneurs should be involved in the process of transport greening creating the basis for public, private and foreign investment attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In several low- and middle-income countries rich in non-fuel mineral resources, mining makes significant contributions to national economic development as measured by the revised Mining Contribution Index (MCI-Wr). Ten countries among the 20 countries where mining contributes most (highest MCI-Wr score) have moved up one or two steps in the World Bank's country classification between 1996 and 2016. In particular, African countries have benefitted. Socio-economic development indicators also show signs of progress for African mineral-rich countries. This paper provides an update and expansion of an earlier study within the framework of the United Nations University (UNU) World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) initiative Extractives for Development. Based on the detailed data available for the sector, such as production, export, prices, mineral rents, exploration expenditure and government revenues, an analysis is carried out of the current situation for 2016, and trends in mining's contribution to economic development for the years 1996–2016. The contribution of minerals and mining to GDP and exports reached a maximum at the peak of the mining boom in 2011. Naturally, the figures for mining's contribution had declined for most countries by 2016, but importantly the levels were still considerably higher than in 1996. The results of this survey contradict the widespread view that mineral resources create a dependency that might not be conducive to economic and social development. In addition, this paper presents an attempt to use already available socio-economic indicators for African mineral-rich countries to measure socio-economic developments. One preliminary conclusion of this survey is that mining countries perform better than oil-producing countries and non-mineral countries in Africa as measured by these indices of human development and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disciplinary integration of biology and economy is taking new forms in the postgenomic era, transforming long-standing exchanges between human biology and economics. In this article, we first describe how an emerging area of research in development and health economics has embraced, stabilized, and expanded the emerging field of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). We map the global expansion of this literature particularly in the Global South. Via an analysis of shifting models of health in human capital, we argue that as economists draw on DOHaD theories, their increasing focus on marginalized groups in postcolonial settings produces a darker model of health deficit. Based on notions of accumulated shocks, this model questions the generalizable expansion of the economization of life and speaks to a wider and more sombre range of figures. Health models in economics reflect the double nature of biological and developmental plasticity caught between agency and passivity, change, and near-permanency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new (artificial intelligence) method to estimate the impact of aid flows at a disaggregate level (per indicator per country) • A nuanced picture of aid effectiveness across 146 countries during 2000–2013 • A multidimensional account for the impact of aid flows through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across 70 + development indicators • A novel approach that takes into account the complex networks of interdependencies between development dimensions • A unique application using big data on aid flows • A new impact metric that accounts for the non-linear dynamics of development indicators • A theoretical backbone based on well-known aid-effectiveness drivers such as government expenditure, fungibility, ineffective public governance, incentive misalignments, and multi-level causal chains • Consistency with results from prior studies and validation through quantitative and qualitative evidence What is the impact of international aid? We answer this question by linking disaggregated aid-flows data to a large set of indicators classified into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since such linkage is not perfect (due to the nature of the data), we deploy an artificial intelligence model of the causal process through which changes in aid flows contribute to the dynamics of individual indicators. The model accounts for salient features of real-world development such as multidimensionality, complex interconnections between indicators, heterogeneous aid-to-expenditure ratios, rationally-bounded bureaucracies, fungibility, and the temporal structure of contemporary aid flows across development dimensions. The model does not require cross-country pooled data, so we calibrate its parameters for each of the 146 aid-recipient countries in our sample, preserving important contextual information of each nation. By producing counterfactual simulations where aid is removed, we obtain nuanced estimates of the impact of international assistance during the first decade of the 21st century, at the level of each country, SDG, and indicator. We validate our results using a sector-specific study with similar–but more aggregate–findings. Such a large and detailed picture of the multidimensional impact of aid has not been documented before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]