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Poor Governance (poor + governance)
Selected AbstractsEarnings Management and Corporate Governance in Asia's Emerging MarketsCORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 5 2007Chung-Hua Shen This paper studies the impacts of corporate governance on earnings management. We use firm-level governance data, taken from Credit Lyonnais Security Asia (CLSA), of nine Asian countries, in addition to the country-level governance data used in past studies. Our conclusion is as follows. First, firms with good corporate governance tend to conduct less earnings management. Second, there is a size effect for earnings smoothing, that is, large size firms are prone to conduct earnings smoothing, but good corporate governance can mitigate the effect on average. Third, there is a turning point for leverage effect, i.e. when the governance index is large, leverage effect exists, otherwise reverse leverage effect exists. It shows that a highly leveraged firm with poor governance is prone to be scrutinised closely and thus finds it harder to fool the market by manipulating earnings. Fourth, firms with higher growth (lower earnings yield) are prone to engage in earnings smoothing and earnings aggressiveness, but good corporate governance can mitigate the effect. Finally, firms in stronger anti-director rights countries tend to exhibit stronger earnings smoothing. This counter-intuitive result is different from Leuz et al. (2003). [source] NAVIGATING REFORMS: LESSONS FROM INDIAECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2009Arun Shourie In the 2008 Wincott Lecture, the author argues that huge obstacles stand in the way of desperately needed economic reforms in India. Liberalisation initiatives have been undermined by poor governance, ineffective institutions and powerful vested interests. Unless these problems are addressed, high rates of economic growth are unlikely to be sustained in the long term. [source] COMMENT ON NAVIGATING REFORMS: LESSONS FROM INDIA, THE 2008 WINCOTT LECTURE, GIVEN BY ARUN SHOURIEECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2009Razeen Sally Economic growth in India has been impressive in recent years. However, development has largely by-passed agriculture and labour-intensive industry, the sectors with the most potential to drive up living standards in the long term. Despite welcome recent efforts at reform, large parts of the Indian economy continue to be hindered by poor governance and over-regulation. [source] ,People Is All That Is Left to Privatize': Water Supply Privatization, Globalization and Social Justice in Belize City, BelizeINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009DAANISH MUSTAFA Abstract This article presents the findings of an extensive survey on public and policy level perceptions of the failed water supply and sanitation system privatization in Belize City. Drawing upon the burgeoning critical geographical literature on the commodification and privatization of water, we formulate a conceptual framework for analyzing the ethnographic data on perceptions and experience of privatization by Belize City water users. The experience of water supply privatization was largely negative. Residents complained bitterly about an increase in water tariffs and excessive disconnection rates by the privatized Belize Water Supply Limited (BWSL). Many policy makers also accused BWSL of front-loading profits and not making strategic investments in infrastructure. But the symbolic significance of water privatization for the residents of a small Caribbean country like Belize exceeded its practical implications. We argue that the major themes to emerge from the ethnographic data collected for the study can be synthesized into three ,popular privatization narratives' (PPNs). The first was based on the perception that poor governance led to privatization; the second on a preference for national- over global-scale politics, so that objections to privatization were based on nationalism; the third on angst about losing control to the systemic compulsions of neoliberal globalization. Overall the privatization process not only had important (largely negative) material consequences for Belizeans but, given their historical and cultural geography, profound discursive and symbolic consequences for their sense of identity in a condition of neoliberal globalization. Résumé Cet article présente les résultats d'une vaste enquête sur les impressions, de la population et des acteurs des politiques publiques, concernant l'échec de la privatisation du réseau d'approvisionnement en eau et d'assainissement de Belize City. Utilisant les publications géographiques critiques qui se multiplient sur la marchandisation et la privatisation de l'eau, un cadre conceptuel est formulé pour analyser les données ethnographiques sur les impressions et l'expérience de la privatisation émanant des usagers de l'eau de Belize City. L'expérience de cette privatisation a été en grande partie négative. Les habitants se plaignent amèrement de l'augmentation des tarifs et de taux de coupures excessifs par la société privée Belize Water Supply Limited (BWSL). De nombreux décideurs politiques ont également accusé BWSL de prélever les bénéfices sans effectuer d'investissements stratégiques d'infrastructure. Toutefois, la place symbolique de la privatisation de l'eau pour les habitants d'un petit pays de la mer des Antilles comme Belize dépasse les incidences pratiques. Les principaux thèmes dessinés par les données ethnographiques collectées peuvent se résumer en trois ,récits populaires de la privatization'. Le premier repose sur l'impression que la faiblesse de la gouvernance a conduit à la privatisation; le deuxième sur une préférence pour une politique à l'échelon national plutôt que mondial, de sorte que les objections à la privatisation étaient liées au nationalisme; le troisième sur l'angoisse de perdre la maîtrise des pressions systémiques exercées par la mondialisation néolibérale. En général, le processus de privatisation a eu des conséquences matérielles importantes (en grande partie négatives) pour les Béliziens mais aussi, étant donnée la géographie historique et culturelle nationale, de profondes implications discursives et symboliques sur leur sens de l'identité dans un contexte de mondialisation néolibérale. [source] Best Practice in Temporary Labour Migration for Development: A Perspective from Asia and the PacificINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 5 2009Graeme Hugo The dominant mode of international migration in Asia and the Pacific is temporary contract migration of low-skilled workers. The potential for such migration to deliver significant development dividends to origin communities is substantial because of its large scale and the fact that most migrant workers return to their home community. However, there are a number of barriers that are intervening to dampen these potential positive effects, such as high transaction costs, high costs of sending remittances, and the fact that some areas of origin lack the infrastructure and potential for productive investment. Moreover, destination countries have been very welcoming of high skill temporary migrants but highly restrictive in their attitudes toward their low skill counterparts. This paper discusses the lessons of best practice in temporary labour migration programmes in the region, which can help to overcome these obstacles reducing the positive development impacts of migration. It assesses, in turn, best practice separately for each stage of the labour migration process -- recruitment and selection, and pre-departure preparation -- at the destination and on return. In conclusion, a number of the barriers which impinge on Asian Pacific countries' ability to introduce and sustain best practice are discussed. These include the need for capacity building, lack of cooperation between origin and destination countries, lack of data, poor governance of labour migration a failure among governments to recognise the significance of migration and the need for more "development friendly" migration policies in destinations. [source] Financial Globalization, Governance, and the Evolution of the Home BiasJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 2 2009BONG-CHAN KHO ABSTRACT We merge portfolio theories of home bias with corporate finance theories of insider ownership to create the optimal corporate ownership theory of the home bias. The theory has two components: (1) foreign portfolio investors exhibit a large home bias against countries with poor governance because their investment is limited by high optimal ownership by insiders (the "direct effect" of poor governance) and domestic monitoring shareholders (the "indirect effect") in response to the governance and (2) foreign direct investors from "good governance" countries have a comparative advantage as insider monitors in "poor governance" countries, so that the relative importance of foreign direct investment is negatively related to the quality of governance. Using both country-level data on U.S. investors' foreign investment allocations and Korean firm-level data, we find empirical evidence supporting our optimal corporate ownership theory of the home bias. [source] The Millennium Development Goals: the pledge of world leaders to end poverty will not be met with business as usual,JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2004Sakiko Fukuda-Parr This article reviews the prospects for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It argues that these goals will not be achieved by the target date of 2015 unless new action is taken by both rich and poor countries. It shows that current trends sharply contrast countries on their way to meeting the goals and those in a poverty trap. Crisis proportions have been reached in deterioration of life expectancy and falling incomes, but also in a wide range of other indicators in countries such as Zambia as well as Nepal. The origins of this crisis are not just poor governance or poor macroeconomic policies, but rather the difficulties of competing in global markets. A priority for these countries is to invest in basic education and health, infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing. Rich countries have fallen seriously behind in living up to their promises to increase aid, debt relief and access to their markets for exports from developing countries,with the welcome but still inadequate increase in aid to reach the 0.7 per cent GDP target, with the collapse of trade talks at Cancun, slow implementation of HIPC, and slow progress in implementation of TRIPS provision for access to technology. Business as usual will not be enough to meet the goals and new action is urgently needed to achieve the goals. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Turning the tide: Enabling sustainable development for Africa's mobile pastoralistsNATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 3 2008Jonathan Davies Abstract Sustainable development for Africa's mobile pastoralists is slowly becoming a reality. Success depends to a large extent on understanding the dynamics of drylands environments, accepting the logic of customary mobile livestock keeping, and enabling effective governance. Appropriate investment in pastoralism requires a clear understanding of the values that are attached to it and innovative approaches to marketing of the goods and services that emanate from the system. To make development truly sustainable it is imperative that the environmental services of pastoralism are recognised, rewarded and promoted. Constraints to sustainable pastoral development include low and misdirected public and private investment, weak security of resource rights, low human capital, weak pastoral voice and poor governance. Successful and sustainable development is observed in pastoral regions where customary governance has been legitimized, resource rights secured and economic development of the pastoral sector, as opposed to transformation of livestock keeping, has prevailed. This article presents state-of-the-art knowledge on sustainable pastoralism, gathered through the GEF/UNDP/IUCN World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP), with data and case studies taken from three recently published WISP reports: "Global Economic Review of Pastoralism", "Pastoralism as Conservation in the Horn of Africa", and "Policy Impacts on Pastoral Environments". [source] Investments in agricultural water management for poverty reduction in Africa: Case studies of Limpopo, Nile, and Volta river basinsNATURAL RESOURCES FORUM, Issue 3 2008Munir A. Hanjra Abstract Much of Sub-Saharan Africa is burdened with water scarcity and poverty. Continentally, less than four percent of Africa's renewable water resources are withdrawn for agriculture and other uses. Investments in agricultural water management can contribute in several ways to achieving the Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and ensuring environmental sustainability. Increased yield and cropping area and shifts to higher valued crops could help boost the income of rural households, generate more employment, and lower consumer food prices. These investments can also stabilize output, income and employment, and have favourable impacts on education, nutrition and health, and social equity. Investments in agricultural water management can cut poverty by uplifting the entitlements and transforming the opportunity structure for the poor. The overall role of investments in agricultural water management in eradicating hunger and poverty is analyzed. This paper contributes to the present debate and efforts to identify strategies and interventions that can effectively contribute to poverty reduction in Africa. It provides an overview of population growth, malnutrition, income distribution and poverty for countries in three case study river basins , Limpopo, Nile, and Volta. With discussions on the contribution of agriculture to national income and employment generation, the paper explores the linkages among water resources investments, agricultural growth, employment, and poverty alleviation. It examines the potential for expansion in irrigation for vertical and horizontal growth in agricultural productivity, via gains in yield and cropping area to boost the agricultural output. Factors constraining such potential, in terms of scarcity and degradation of land and water resources, and poor governance and weak institutions, are also outlined. The paper argues that increased investments in land and water resources and related rural infrastructure are a key pathway to enhance agricultural productivity and to catalyze agricultural and economic growth for effective poverty alleviation. [source] ,Pockets' of effective agencies in weak governance states: Where are they likely and why does it matter?PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2010David K. Leonard Abstract It is well established that even in countries that have poor governance and weak public sectors, exceptional well-functioning government and government-supported agencies do exist. What has not been established is where and why these ,pockets of effectiveness' are able to emerge. Some attribute their existence to exceptional leadership and good management. Others, while not doubting the importance of these internal factors, believe that these ,pockets' are generated by their place in the country's political economy. The literature on this subject is dominated by case studies and the consequence is that a very large number of hypotheses have been generated about what the political processes at work might be. This article inventories the array of available hypotheses and condenses them into five sets of meta-hypotheses. It also discusses how social scientists and practitioners ought to think about something whose occurrence is idiosyncratic. The future of development administration will be enhanced by more informed choice of strategic opportunities,avoiding both political determinism and a naïve faith that all is equally possible to those who will it. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||