Home  About us  Contact
 

Cross-country Data (cross-country + data)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting60%
Humanities and Social Sciences40%

Selected Abstracts

ICT and agricultural productivity: evidence from cross-country data

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2006
Monchi Lio
Agricultural productivity; ICT adoption; Digital divide Abstract This article carries out agricultural production function estimations, based on data for the period 1995,2000 on 81 countries, to present empirical evidence on the relationship between the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) and agricultural productivity. It is found that new ICT has a significantly positive impact on agricultural productivity. The evidence suggests that the adoption of modern industrial inputs in agricultural production relies on the information and communication infrastructure. However, the empirical evidence from this study also suggests that new ICT could be a factor for the divergence between countries in terms of overall agricultural productivity. Not only do we find that the ICT adoption levels of the richer countries are much higher than those of the poorer countries, but also that returns from ICT in agricultural production of the richer countries are about two times higher than those of the poorer countries. A plausible explanation for the poorer countries' relatively low productivity elasticity of ICT is the lack of important complementary factors, such as a substantial base of human capital. [source]

Labour standards, democracy and wages: some cross-country evidence

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2005
Thomas I. Palley
The international community is divided over labour standards. Opponents claim that standards are protectionist. Proponents say they benefit developing economies by improving governance and income distribution. This paper presents evidence supporting the case for labour standards. Using cross-country data from the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, it shows that labour standards are associated with improved governance and reduced corruption. Labour standards also improve income distribution and raise wages. The results qualify Rodrik's (1999) findings about democracy and wages. Labour standards rather than democracy cause higher wages, but democracy may still matter indirectly by promoting labour standards. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

DO FOREIGN CURRENCY DEPOSITS PROMOTE OR DETER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY DEVELOPMENT IN LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES?

THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 3 2008
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CROSS-COUNTRY DATA
G21; F36 Foreign currency deposits (FCD) are prevalent in many low-income developing countries, but their impact on bank lending has rarely been examined. An examination of cross-country data indicates that a higher proportion of FCD in total deposits is associated with more private credit only in inflationary circumstances. FCD can lead to a decline in private credit below a certain threshold level of inflation. Given that FCD exhibit persistence, deregulating them in low-income countries could cause more harm than good to financial intermediary development in the long term. [source]

HUMAN CAPITAL INEQUALITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: SOME NEW EVIDENCE

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 478 2002
Amparo Castelló
This paper provides new measures of human capital inequality for a broad panel of countries. Taking attainment levels from Barro and Lee (2001), we compute Gini coefficients and the distribution of education by quintiles for 108 countries over five-year intervals from 1960 to 2000. Using this new cross-country data on human capital inequality two main conclusions are obtained. First, most countries in the world have tended to reduce the inequality in human capital distribution. Second, human capital inequality measures provide more robust results than income inequality measures in the estimation of standard growth and investment equations. [source]

Trusting the Stock Market

THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE, Issue 6 2008
LUIGI GUISO
ABSTRACT We study the effect that a general lack of trust can have on stock market participation. In deciding whether to buy stocks, investors factor in the risk of being cheated. The perception of this risk is a function of the objective characteristics of the stocks and the subjective characteristics of the investor. Less trusting individuals are less likely to buy stock and, conditional on buying stock, they will buy less. In Dutch and Italian micro data, as well as in cross-country data, we find evidence consistent with lack of trust being an important factor in explaining the limited participation puzzle. [source]