Search results for "Development economics"
showing 10 items of 243 documents
Returns to Education in the Baltic Countries
2003
Labour Force Survey (2000) data are used to estimate returns to education in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Results are compared with evidence from other countries. We also discuss gender, ethnic, and urban-rural gaps in payoff to education.
Exploring the Relationship Between Business Elite Networks and Income Inequality in Latin American Countries
2018
Although the cohesion of business elites has been associated with income concentration, few studies have in-depth investigated the role of business elite networks in macro-social issues such as economic inequality. This research explores the relationship between business elite networks and income inequality in several Latin American countries. To do so, this paper 1) examine business elite networks applying a network analysis of interlocking directorates, and 2) establishes the link and complementarities between the level of cohesion of business elite networks and income inequality. Results show that where business elite formed cohesive networks and economy was export-oriented, social prote…
Technological and knowledge diffusion link: An international perspective 1870–2019
2021
Abstract Technology diffusion is a necessary but not sufficient condition for knowledge diffusion. Technological waves' impact on education differs across educational levels. We use data for 104 countries on technology diffusion and education from 1870 to 2019. We find six technology waves from 1870 to 2019 had a substantial and statistically significant educational attainment impact using fixed panel data modeling. The impact differs across time and regions, with the most noticeable impact in Advanced economies and Eastern Europe. Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, and North Africa are catching up with lagging Sub-Saharan Africa. The transportation revoluti…
The Impact of Fiscal Consolidation on Human Development
2017
We find that fiscal austerity is associated with a reduction of human development standards, with the negative effect being particularly severe in the case of spending-driven consolidation episodes. Fiscal adjustments are especially damaging for human development in developing countries (namely, African and Latin American countries). Additionally, the empirical evidence shows that (i) government stability is a crucial institutional determinant of human development, and (ii) while investment in physical capital can boost human development, government consumption and inflation are detrimental to it. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mainstreaming gender in the EU-accession process: the case of the Baltic Republics
2005
Since the early 1990s, the Baltic states have gone through processes of economic transition and liberalization. Although various reports give an overview of gendered impacts of these economic reforms, they fail to elaborate on the more complex relations between gender, citizenship, and social exclusion. This article explores these relations in more detail. The first decade of reforms in the Baltic states resulted in a lack of economic prospects, in particular for women from minority groups and women working in low-pay sectors. This made them increasingly vulnerable to trafficking for sexual purposes: migration to Western Europe was an attractive alternative for those without work, whether …
National fiscal consolidations and regional inequality in Europe
2016
Using annual data for 13 European countries over the period 1980-2008, we assess the impact of national fiscal consolidations on the income inequality of European regions. Regional dispersion increases in the outcome of consolidation episodes, particularly, when packages are more severe and implemented through spending cuts rather than tax rises. From a policy perspective, these findings suggest that fiscal consolidations driven by reductions in government spending can exacerbate regional disparities and may ultimately counteract the European policy efforts to promote territorial cohesion. Our results are robust to alternative inequality measures, the occurrence of crisis episodes and the e…
Down and out in Italian towns: Measuring the impact of economic downturns on crime
2016
The paper investigates the effect of local economic conditions on crime. The study focuses on Italy’s local labor markets and analyzes the response of crime to the severe slump of 2007-2011. It shows that the downturn led to a significant increase in economic-related offenses that do not require particular criminal skills or tools (namely, thefts).
Credit market failures and policy
2009
In a simple model of the credit market, based on Stiglitz-Weiss (1981), equilibria are computed and optimal policies to correct market failures are characterized. Some widely applied policies, notably interest-rate subsidies and investment subsidies, are compared to theoretical optimum, and an alternative optimal policy is described which we argue is more robust to model misspecification. An insight on the trade-off between credit policy and infrastructural investment is also offered. A discussion of some aspects of regional policy in Italy's Mezzogiorno is finally presented as an application of the analysis.
Is Food Self-Sufficiency Conducive to Long-Term Growth? An Assessment of Malthus (1803) on the International Corn Trade.
2017
In this article, we have reconstructed Malthus’s views on growth and international corn trade in the second edition of his An Essay on the Principle of Population (1803) and shown their theoretical consistency with Malthus’s food self-sufficiency policy proposal advanced in Grounds of an Opinion on the Policy of Restricting the Importation of Foreign Corn ([1815] 1986b), the protectionist pamphlet that elicited Ricardo’s vehement reaction in “Essay on Profits.” Malthus’s (1803) main thesis was that the contemporary British unbalanced growth pattern was not viable. In order to avoid premature stagnation, he thought that Great Britain should both follow a pattern of balanced growth and pursue…
Supply and Use of Human Capital in the Spanish Regions
2009
Besides enrichment at personal level entailed by the increase in the cognitive and intellectual levels of the person associated with education, a large number of studies have verified the greater the human capital of a person, the greater is his employability, his participation in the labour market, his functional and geographical mobility and, thereby, his productivity. This results in higher wages and less likelihood of unemployment for individuals with more schooling. From the social point of view, the accumulation of resources associated to higher educational attainment levels permits societies to make sustained progress towards higher levels of welfare. It makes possible to adapt to gl…