Developed Economies (developed + economy)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Schumpeterian Growth Theory and the Dynamics of Income Inequality

ECONOMETRICA, Issue 3 2002
Philippe Aghion
In this lecture, it is argued that Schumpeterian Growth Theory, in which growth is driven by a sequence of quality-improving innovations, can shed light on two important puzzles raised by the recent evolution of wage inequality in developed economies. The first puzzle concerns wage inequality between educational groups, which has substantially risen in the US and the UK during the past two decades following a sharp increase in the supply of educated labor. The second puzzle concerns wage inequality within educational groups, which accounts for a large fraction of the observed increase in wage inequality, although in contrast to between-group wage inequality it has mainly affected the temporary component of income. [source]


The relative sophistication of Chinese exports

ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 53 2008
Peter K. Schott
SUMMARY Chinese exports China's exports have grown dramatically over the last three decades in large part due to its rapid penetration of new product markets. To help address the implications of this growth for developed economies, this paper gauges the relative sophistication of Chinese exports along two dimensions. First, I measure China's export overlap with developed countries by comparing the set of products China exports to the United States with the bundle of products exported by the OECD. Second, I compare Chinese and other countries' exports within product markets in terms of the price they receive in the US market. While China's export overlap with the OECD is much greater than one would predict given its low wages, the prices that US consumers are willing to pay for China's exports are substantially lower than the prices they are willing to pay for OECD exports. This fact, as well as the increase in the ,OECD premium' over time, suggests that competition between China and the world's most developed economies may be less direct than their product-mix overlap implies. It may also reflect efforts by developed-country firms to compete with China by dropping their least sophisticated offerings and moving up the quality ladder. , Peter K. Schott [source]


Entrepreneurship in Russia and China: The Impact of Formal Institutional Voids

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 3 2010
Sheila M. Puffer
Transition economies are often characterized by underdeveloped formal institutions, often resulting in an unstable environment and creating a void usually filled by informal ones. Entrepreneurs in transition environments thus face more uncertainty and risk than those in more developed economies. This article examines the relationship of institutions and entrepreneurship in Russia and China in the context of institutional theory by analyzing private property as a formal institution, as well as trust and blat/guanxi as informal institutions. This article thus contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship and institutional theory by focusing on these topics in transition economies, and by emphasizing how their relationship differs from that in developed economies. We conclude that full convergence toward entrepreneurs' reliance on formal institutions may not readily occur in countries like Russia and China due to the embeddedness of informal institutions. Instead, such countries and their entrepreneurs may develop unique balances between informal and formal institutions that better fit their circumstances. Implications for the theory and practice of entrepreneurship in such environments are also offered. [source]


Insecurity, Conflict and the New Global Disorder

IDS BULLETIN, Issue 2 2001
Susan Willett
Summaries The current neoliberal preoccupation with the benefits of globalisation, which have been hailed as the great panacea for all the world's economic problems, has done little for the 1.3 billion people whose economic circumstances have stagnated or deteriorated in poverty over the last ten years. The neoliberal idea that somehow the benefits of global economic growth will ,trickle down' to the world's poor, has been challenged by the stark reality of the experience in the world's poorest societies. Deep polarisation of wealth that has become a structural feature of the global economy has been identified as one of the major threats to future peace and security in the coming millennium. Conflict theorists have for some time been at pains to point out that the unequal distribution of wealth and the failure to meet basic human needs constitute a source of structural violence that lies at the heart of the many conflicts. Endemic poverty is a basic factor that undermines human security. It not only leaves basic needs unmet, but creates the conditions for conflict and violence, as groups compete for access to scarce and often diminishing resources. Facing extremes of economic deprivation and threats to basic human security (life, food, shelter, income), the widespread resort to arms within a growing number of least developed economies can be understood as a Darwinian bid for survival. [source]


THE ECONOMICS OF THE UNCOVERED INTEREST PARITY CONDITION FOR EMERGING MARKETS

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 1 2009
C. Emre Alper
Abstract Financial account liberalizations since the second half of the 1980s paved the way for the burgeoning literature that investigates foreign exchange market efficiency in emerging markets (EMs) via testing for the uncovered interest parity (UIP) condition. This paper is the first to provide a broad and critical survey on this recent literature. Specifically, we attempt to answer the following questions. First, are the EMs different from the developed economies in the context of the UIP condition? Second, to what extent can these differences contribute to the debate on the UIP literature? Third, what are the empirical challenges specific to the EMs in testing for the UIP condition? [source]


Migration and welfare: a very simple model

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2007
Roberto Cellini
Abstract The paper presents a very simple model of migration, relying on three widely accepted points: first, labour productivity and wages in a country depend on the present average human capital; second, agents maximise their utility, so that migration decisions depend on the wage gap across economies; third, the larger the personal human capital, the higher the propensity is to migrate (ceteris paribus). The model shows that migration through its external effects always lowers the welfare in the sending country, while the effects on the receiving country can be positive or negative. As a consequence, selfish developed economies could desire a larger migration than the optimal level for a benevolent World Planner. This calls for international coordination concerning the regulation of migration flows. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Leasing in Russia: A Case Study

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING, Issue 2 2006
Sergey V. Pakhtusov
As Russia goes through the process of converting from a command to a market economy, many old business processes and standards had to be terminated and new methods implemented. Leasing is an example of a technique long in use in more developed economies that has been transplanted to Russia, with changes made to reflect the particular circumstances there. This paper examines the current state of leasing in Russia by concentrating on the experiences of one leasing company: Volgopromleasing. Interest rates and inflation rates that fluctuate widely and are sometimes extremely high, as well as a legislative environment that may be expected to change are some of the challenges faced by the firm. However, compensating opportunities exist: many Russian firms desperately need to update their equipment, the government is strongly interested in promoting rapid economic growth, and the legislation currently in effect favors leasing over other methods of acquiring fixed assets. Although leasing has the potential to assist Russian firms in modernizing and growing, and, therefore, to help the Russian economy in its effort to rapidly move to a new market economy, this can only occur in conjunction with other economic initiatives that also provide for growth and stabilization. [source]


Strategy Research in Emerging Economies: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom*

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 1 2005
Mike Wright
ABSTRACT This review and introduction to the Special Issue on ,Strategy Research in Emerging Economies' considers the nature of theoretical contributions thus far on strategy in emerging economies. We classify the research through four strategic options: (1) firms from developed economies entering emerging economies; (2) domestic firms competing within emerging economies; (3) firms from emerging economies entering other emerging economies; and (4) firms from emerging economies entering developed economies. Among the four perspectives examined (institutional theory, transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, and agency theory), the most dominant seems to be institutional theory. Most existing studies that make a contribution blend institutional theory with one of the other three perspectives, including seven out of the eight papers included in this Special Issue. We suggest a future research agenda based around the four strategies and four theoretical perspectives. Given the relative emphasis of research so far on the first and second strategic options, we believe that there is growing scope for research that addresses the third and fourth. [source]


Prudential Regulation and the "Credit Crunch": Evidence from Japan

JOURNAL OF MONEY, CREDIT AND BANKING, Issue 2-3 2007
WAKO WATANABE
credit crunch; capital crunch; prudential regulation; instrumental variable The underlying causes of sharp declines in bank lending during recessions in large developed economies, as exemplified by the U.S. in the early 1990s and Japan in the late 1990s, are still being debated due to the lack of any convincing identification strategy of the supply side capital,lending relationship from lending demand. Using within bank share of real estate lending in the late 1980s as an instrumental variable for bank capital, we find that Japanese banks cut back on their lending in response to a large loss of bank capital in fiscal year 1997. [source]


SUSTAINING LOCAL WATERSHED INITIATIVES: LESSONS FROM LANDCARE AND WATERSHED COUNCILS,

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 5 2002
Allan Curtis
ABSTRACT: In the last decade, watershed groups (WG) established through government initiatives have become an important part of the natural resource management landscape in developed economies. In this paper, the authors reflect upon their research and experience with Landcare in Victoria, and to a lesser extent with Watershed Councils in Oregon, to identify the principles that appear fundamental to sustaining effective WG. In the first instance, these groups must be established at a local scale using social as well as biophysical boundaries. It is also critical that WG are embedded within a supportive institutional framework that identifies realistic roles for private landowners, local organizations such as WG, and regional planning bodies. Without broad stakeholder representation, the perceived benefits of participation are quickly forfeited. It is simply unrealistic to expect an effective network of WG to be sustained without substantial investment by government to provide for program management, group coordination, and cost sharing for on-ground work. There must also be the commitment and skills within a program to establish processes that build trust and competency amongst citizens and agencies. These principles should also provide a foundation for the critical evaluation of WG programs. [source]


CEO Duality and Firm Performance during China's Institutional Transitions

MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2007
Mike W. Peng
abstract Does CEO duality , the practice of one person serving both as a firm's CEO and board chair , contribute to or inhibit firm performance? Agency theory suggests that CEO duality is bad for performance because it compromises the monitoring and control of the CEO. Stewardship theory, in contrast, argues that CEO duality may be good for performance due to the unity of command it presents. The empirical evidence, largely from developed economies, is largely inconclusive. This article joins the debate by extending empirical work to the largely unexplored context of institutional transitions. Our findings, based on an archival database covering 403 publicly listed firms and 1,202 company-years in China, offer stronger support for stewardship theory and relatively little support for agency theory. Finally, we also call for a contingency perspective to specify the nature of conditions such as resource scarcity and environmental dynamism under which CEO duality may be especially valuable. [source]


Resource abundance vs. resource dependence in cross-country growth regressions

OPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 2 2010
Annika Kropf
Having analysed the macroeconomic performance of large oil exporters, I found that, in many cases, rents from natural resources have been successfully used to enhance economic growth. Nevertheless, adherents of the ,resource curse' seem to have found ample evidence suggesting that resource-abundant countries grow slower than resource-poor countries. A review of empirical research on the ,resource curse' reveals that the variables used were usually proxies for resource dependence. These variables introduce a bias, making less developed economies per se more resource ,abundant' than developed economies. As a consequence, a new variable, not containing any information on a country's stage of development, was introduced. Comparing the variables on resource dependence and resource abundance in a model by Sachs and Warner, resource abundance was not significant. In a new model, resource abundance was even positively correlated with growth. [source]


EMPIRICS OF CHINA'S OUTWARD DIRECT INVESTMENT

PACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2009
Yin-Wong Cheung
It is found that China's investments in developed and developing countries are driven by different sets of factors. Subject to the differences between developed and developing countries, there is evidence that: (i) both market-seeking and resource-seeking motives drive China's ODI; (ii) Chinese exports to developing countries induce China's ODI; (iii) China's international reserves promote its ODI; and (iv) Chinese capital tends to agglomerate among developed economies but diversify among developing economies. Similar results are obtained using alternative ODI data. We do not find substantial evidence that China invests in African and oil-producing countries mainly for their natural resources. [source]


TRUE WORLD INCOME DISTRIBUTION, 1988 AND 1993: FIRST CALCULATION BASED ON HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS ALONE

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 476 2002
Branko Milanovic
The paper derives world income or expenditure distribution of individuals for 1988 and 1993. It is the first paper to calculate world distribution for individuals based entirely on household surveys from 91 countries, and adjusted for differences in purchasing power parity between countries. Measured by the Gini index, inequality increased from 63 in 1988 to 66 in 1993. The increase was driven more by differences in mean incomes between countries than by inequalities within countries. The most important contributors were rising urban-rural differences in China, and slow growth of rural incomes in South Asia compared to several large developed economies. [source]


Front and Back Covers, Volume 22, Number 1.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 1 2006
February 200
Front and back cover caption, volume 22 issue 1 Front cover 'Strasbourg: 15th night of rioting. A French riot police officer gestures to direct the fire fighters to a torched car after vandalism in the eastern French city of Strasbourg early Wednesday 9 November 2005. Police forces have been deployed in the city as authorities expect a 13th night of disturbances all around France. Schiltigheim, France, 10/11/2005.' This photo illustrates Didier Fassin's editorial on the riots in the French banlieues. Although the immediate cause of the riots must be ascribed, at least in part, to the ill-advised reactions of the French police and government, the Prime Minister proceeded to proclaim a state of emergency, using a 1955 law passed during the war in Algeria. These events call for serious examination not only of what France stands for, especially in terms of racial discrimination, but also of why anthropologists should have felt so uncomfortable about analysing these events, just as they did with the controversy over the veil. The political foundations of the discipline in France posit a knowledge of remote societies rather than of others close to home, and aspire to theoretical universalism combined with an element of colour-blindness which ignores local social realities. Back cover Saving Children. In the back cover photo, a little girl holds a dummy pistol in Bella Camp, near Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia, in November 2002. In this issue Jason Hart considers the ways in which children are commonly represented. Particularly in conditions seen as especially adverse, children's lives have overwhelmingly been viewed through the prism of humanitarianism. Accounts of children living amidst conflict, social upheaval and extreme poverty produced by humanitarian organizations are commonly framed by contrast to Romantic ideals of childhood. The disparity thereby demonstrated has fuelled popular imagination in the developed economies of the world - useful not only in eliciting support for humanitarian action but also, under the current world order, in discrediting certain societies and ultimately in justifying military intervention. Hart argues that anthropology has a valuable role to play in enhancing understanding of the lives of children globally. Key to this is locating children within social, economic and political processes that extend beyond the local to the national and international. Taking the issue of 'child soldiers' as an example, Hart argues for the importance of including a focus upon the ways in which such phenomena as the global arms trade and the foreign and economic policies of Western governments contribute to the circumstances in which children come to engage as combatants. Furthermore, the dangers of such engagement need to be placed in the context of the diverse array of risks encountered by children in impoverished and marginal settings. We urgently need a child-centred ethnography attentive to the interaction between the global and the local in the everyday lives of the young so that we may interrogate more closely the moral authority of those who justify their actions in terms of 'saving children'. [source]


United by a Common Language?

ANTIPODE, Issue 1 2008
India to Call Centre Offshoring, Trade Union Responses in the UK
Abstract:, The offshoring of business processes from the global North to low-cost countries of the global South has grown spectacularly in the current decade. Self-evidently, transnational relocation presents considerable challenges for organised labour since it suggests both a ,race to the bottom' in respect of pay, conditions and workers' rights and wholesale redundancies in the developed economies. This paper examines the specific case of the migration of call centres from the UK to India and trade union responses in both geographies. Informed by theoretical developments, insights and evidence from diverse disciplines and literatures, the authors concur particularly with Herod's conviction that union strategies to counter TNCs should not be counterposed between ,organising globally' and ,organising locally'and that ,organising at both scales simultaneously may best serve their goals'. Following reflection upon the nature of the call centre and consideration of important contradictions in the offshoring process, we present evidence of UK union responses ranging from the nationalistic, even xenophobic, to the internationalsist, and conclude that membership mobilisation on a principled basis has been key to the limited successes unions have achieved. The paper also evaluates developments in India and the emergence of an embryonic organisation UNITES which is attempting to organise its call centre and business process outsourcing (BPO) workforce. We conclude by considering the gap between the potential and the reality of effective internationally co-ordinated union activity. [source]


INSTITUTIONS, BANKING DEVELOPMENT, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 4 2009
M. Sami NABI
O16; O17; O41 Does the institutional environment affect the causal relationship between banking development and economic growth? In the theoretical section of this paper, we develop an endogenous growth model where the institutional environment is captured through two indicators: judicial system efficiency and easiness of informal trade. We show that an improvement in the institutional environment has two effects. First, it intensifies the causality direction from banking to economic growth through a reduction in defaulting loans. Second, it reduces the interest rate spread. In the empirical section of the paper, we find bidirectional causality when analyzing 22 Middle Eastern and North African countries over the period 1984,2004. The first causality, which runs from banking development to economic growth, is more intense in countries with more developed institutional environment. The second causality runs from economic growth to banking and indicates that a more developed economy has a more developed banking system. [source]