Sector

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting

Kinds of Sector

  • aged care sector
  • agri-food sector
  • agricultural sector
  • atlantic sector
  • automotive sector
  • bank sector
  • banking sector
  • business sector
  • care sector
  • certain sector
  • charity sector
  • commercial sector
  • community sector
  • competitive sector
  • construction sector
  • corporate sector
  • dairy sector
  • diamond sector
  • different sector
  • distribution sector
  • domestic sector
  • downstream sector
  • eastern sector
  • economic sector
  • education sector
  • electricity sector
  • employment sector
  • energy sector
  • export sector
  • farm sector
  • financial sector
  • financial services sector
  • fisheries sector
  • food processing sector
  • food sector
  • for-profit sector
  • formal sector
  • goods sector
  • government sector
  • health care sector
  • health sector
  • healthcare sector
  • high-tech sector
  • higher education sector
  • independent sector
  • industrial sector
  • industry sector
  • informal sector
  • largest sector
  • lateral sector
  • livestock sector
  • manufacturing sector
  • many sector
  • market sector
  • non-profit sector
  • nonprofit sector
  • not-for-profit sector
  • oil sector
  • one sector
  • other sector
  • pharmaceutical sector
  • policy sector
  • primary sector
  • private sector
  • processing sector
  • production sector
  • profit sector
  • public sector
  • research sector
  • retail sector
  • same sector
  • security sector
  • service sector
  • services sector
  • social sector
  • specific sector
  • state sector
  • technology sector
  • telecommunication sector
  • third sector
  • tourism sector
  • traditional sector
  • transport sector
  • transportation sector
  • uk manufacturing sector
  • university sector
  • us manufacturing sector
  • various sector
  • voluntary sector
  • water sector

  • Terms modified by Sector

  • sector accounting
  • sector activity
  • sector actor
  • sector company
  • sector development
  • sector employee
  • sector employer
  • sector employment
  • sector growth
  • sector institution
  • sector investment
  • sector literature
  • sector management
  • sector managers
  • sector organisation
  • sector organization
  • sector participation
  • sector performance
  • sector perspective
  • sector provider
  • sector restructuring
  • sector services
  • sector worker

  • Selected Abstracts


    BRITISH SOCIAL HOUSING AND THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR

    ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2008
    Robert Whelan
    Housing for the poor was a thriving part of the voluntary sector in the nineteenth century, providing thousands of homes through hundreds of societies without subsidy. It was undermined by state action which has effectively driven other providers from the field. [source]


    GOVERNING BY NETWORK: THE NEW SHAPE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR by Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers

    ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2006
    Keith Boyfield
    No abstract is available for this article. [source]


    THE NON-TRADED SECTOR, LOBBYING, AND THE CHOICE BETWEEN THE CUSTOMS UNION AND THE COMMON MARKET

    ECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 3 2008
    CYRILLE SCHWELLNUS
    This paper models immigration policy as the outcome of political competition between interest groups representing individuals employed in different sectors. In standard positive theory, restrictive immigration policy results from a low-skilled median voter voting against predominantly low-skilled immigration. In the present paper, in contrast, once trade policies are liberalized, restrictive immigration policy results from anti-immigration lobbying by interest groups representing the non-traded sectors. It is shown that this is in line with empirical regularities from recent episodes of restrictive immigration legislation in the European Union. It is further shown that if governments negotiate bilaterally over trade and migration policy regimes, the equilibrium regime depends (i) on the sequencing of the international negotiation process and (ii) on the set of available trade and migration policy regimes. In particular, the most comprehensive and most welfare-beneficial type of liberalization may be rejected only because a less comprehensive type of liberalization is available. [source]


    A THEORY OF THE INFORMAL SECTOR

    ECONOMICS & POLITICS, Issue 1 2008
    YOSHIAKI AZUMA
    In many countries, especially poor countries, a heavy burden of taxes, fees, bureaucratic hassles, and bribes drives many producers into an informal sector. This paper shows that we can attribute the existence of a large informal sector to the fact that, because productive endowments contain important unobservable components, the state cannot adjust the amounts that it extracts from producers in the formal sector finely according to each producer's endowment. Given this fact, we find that if the endowment of well-endowed producers is sufficiently large relative to poorly endowed producers, or if their number is relatively large, or if the quality of public services is sufficiently low, then the state extracts a large enough amount from producers in the formal sector that poorly endowed producers choose to work in the informal sector. This result obtains both for a proprietary state, which maximizes its own net revenue, and for a hypothetical benevolent state, which would maximize total net output. But, we also find that there exist combinations of the distribution of endowments and the quality of public services such that the policies of a proprietary state, but not the policies of a hypothetical benevolent state, would cause poorly endowed producers to work in the informal sector. [source]


    MIND YOUR ACCRUALS: PERCEIVED USEFULNESS OF FINANCIAL INFORMATION IN THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR UNDER DIFFERENT ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS

    FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2010
    Ralph Kober
    This study examines the usefulness of three accounting systems (cash, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accrual, and Government Finance Statistics (GFS) accrual) for public sector decision-making. From a survey of internal users, external users, and preparers in Australia, we find that GAAP accrual information is perceived to be relatively more useful and understandable than the other two systems for most decisions examined. The relatively higher ratings for GAAP accrual information differ from earlier studies and may reflect an experience or familiarity effect whereby perceptions of usefulness are enhanced because respondents have become more used to the system. This effect might also explain the lower ratings for GFS accrual. [source]


    MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING CHANGE AND NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A REASSESSMENT OF AMBITIONS AND RESULTS , AN INSTITUTIONALIST APPROACH TO ACCOUNTING CHANGE IN THE DUTCH PUBLIC SECTOR

    FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2008
    Henk J. Ter Bogt
    Dutch municipalities and provinces, denoted here as local government, have seen a succession of changes in their management accounting systems and have also introduced other changes related to New Public Management (NPM) in the last twenty years. This paper examines accounting changes, such as the introduction of accrual accounting, output and outcome budgets and performance measurement, from an institutionalist point of view. The paper presents experiences of 23 politicians and professional managers with the various changes over a period of fifteen to twenty years. The interviewees, just like various researchers in the field of NPM, were critical of the accounting changes and their effects. However, several of them also made clear that, seen over the long run, the changes did have some effects that they liked and seem to be in line with the ,ideals' presented in NPM literature. The paper suggests that an institutionalist perspective is helpful for studying change processes in organizations and for observing factors and developments that might not be noticed when a more functional and short-term perspective is adopted. [source]


    AUDIT FEE DETERMINANTS IN THE UK UNIVERSITY SECTOR

    FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007
    Howard Mellett
    First page of article [source]


    ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND THE ADOPTION OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING PRACTICES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A SINGAPORE STUDY

    FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007
    Yew Ming Chia
    First page of article [source]


    LABOUR MARKET ACTIVITY OF FOREIGN SPOUSES IN TAIWAN: EMPLOYMENT STATUS AND CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT SECTOR

    PACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 4 2010
    Hwei-Lin Chuang
    The present study examines the employment status and choice of employment sector of female foreign spouses from Southeast Asia and Mainland China in Taiwan. The conceptual framework is based on the family labour supply model, human and social capital theory, and immigrant assimilation theory. Our findings indicate that in regard to employment status, family background variables, including the presence of small children and husbands' characteristics, play a more significant role in determining the employment probability for these foreign spouses than do human capital variables. In particular, for spouses from Southeast Asia, each additional child is correlated with a decrease in working probability of 11.3%, whereas college education has an insignificant effect on their employment probability. Employment assimilation for these marriage immigrants may be confirmed by the finding that the employment probability of foreign spouses rises rapidly with the number of years that have elapsed since migration. As for the choice of employment sector, a strong linkage between the employment sector of the foreign spouses and their husbands' employment sector is found in this study. [source]


    THE REAL EXCHANGE RATE AND THE BALASSA,SAMUELSON EFFECT: THE ROLE OF THE DISTRIBUTION SECTOR

    PACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2005
    Ronald MacDonald
    The main result is that an increase in the productivity and product market competition of the distribution sector with respect to foreign countries leads to an appreciation of the real exchange rate, similar to what a relative increase in the domestic productivity of tradables does. This contrasts with the result that one would expect by considering the distribution sector as belonging to the non-tradable sector. One explanation may lie in the use of the services from the distribution sector in the tradable sector. [source]


    STRATEGY, STRUCTURE AND PROCESS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A TEST OF THE MILES AND SNOW MODEL

    PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 4 2009
    RHYS ANDREWS
    We present a comprehensive empirical application of the Miles and Snow (1978) model of organizational strategy, structure and process to the public sector. We refine the model by distinguishing between strategy formulation and implementation, and applying it to 90 public service organizations. Although the empirical evidence shows that organizational strategies fit the Miles and Snow categories of prospector, defender and reactor, the relationship between these strategies and organizational structures (for example, centralization) and processes (for example, planning) is less consistent with their model. Conclusions are drawn for public management theory and practice. [source]


    LIBERALIZATION AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR: THE PRE-EMINENT ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS IN THE ,SALE' OF HIGHER EDUCATION ABROAD

    PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2009
    ANNELIESE DODDS
    Much recent scholarship concerning liberalization has emphasized the role of regulatees, rather than governments, in promoting liberalization. This article examines such scholarship in the light of an important development in the British and French public sectors,the creation of new agencies (the Education Counselling Service and EduFrance) to ,sell' British and French higher education to potential international students. The new agencies attempted to induce two things: competition amongst higher education institutions for the recruitment of international students from developed and emerging economy countries, and the commodification of these students. This article shows that, contrary to existing theories of liberalization, governments were pre-eminent in pushing forward this liberalization, while higher education institutions attempted to hold it back. [source]


    PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM IN DUTCH HIGHER EDUCATION: THE ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE UNIVERSITY

    PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 1 2007
    HARRY F DE BOER
    During the past few decades traditional state-centred governing arrangements have been critiqued and replaced by alternative modes of governance. Higher education is one of the public sectors where such shifts in governance have been seen. As a consequence of the reshuffling of authority and responsibilities across the different levels in Dutch higher education, universities as organizations have become important foci of attention in the system's coordination. The main question addressed in this article is to what extent we can speak of an organizational transformation of Dutch universities. Based on conceptual ideas from researchers such as Greenwood and Hinings (1996), Ferlie et al. (1996), and Brunsson and Sahlin-Andersson (2000), we use a framework that focuses attention on the concepts of the construction of identity, hierarchy and rationality to systematically analyse the various aspects of transformations of professional organizations. [source]


    PRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY IN THE IVORIAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY USING A DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS APPROACH

    THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 4 2005
    KARINE CHAPELLE
    The African industrial structure is characterized by firm-size heterogeneity with the coexistence of small, if not micro, enterprises in the informal sector and large formal organizations operating with modern technology. In this paper, using the Data Envelopment Analysis production frontier methodology, we investigate the technical efficiency of Ivorian manufacturing firms in four sectors of economic activity: textiles and garments, metal products, food processing, and wood and furniture. Efficiency scores are adjusted to take into account the impact of the external operating environment. These scores are then broken down into three elements: the purely managerial effect, the impact of the scale of production, and a technological effect capturing the potential gain that could result from the adoption of modern technology by small informal organizations. Not only formal activities prove to be more efficient in scaling their production but also, they greatly benefit from their modem technology. [source]


    EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY CHANGE IN THE ENGLISH HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR FROM 1996/97 TO 2004/5*

    THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 6 2008
    JILL JOHNES
    In this study we use a distance function approach to derive Malmquist productivity indexes for 112 English higher education institutions (HEIs) over the period 1996/97 to 2004/5. The analysis shows that HEIs have experienced an annual average increase in productivity of 1 per cent. Further investigation reveals that HEIs have enjoyed an annual average increase in technology of 6 per cent combined with a decrease in technical efficiency of 5 per cent. Rapid changes in the higher education sector appear to have had a positive effect on the technology of production but this has been achieved at the cost of lower technical efficiency. [source]


    PUTTING THE CIVIL SOCIETY SECTOR ON THE ECONOMIC MAP OF THE WORLD

    ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2010
    Lester M. Salamon
    ABSTRACT,:,The past twenty-five years have witnessed a spectacular expansion of philanthropy, volunteering, and civil society organizations throughout the world. Indeed, we seem to be in the midst of a ,global associational revolution,' a worldwide upsurge of organized private voluntary activity. Despite the promise that this development holds, however, the nonprofit or civil society sector remains the invisible subcontinent on the social landscape of most countries, poorly understood by policymakers and the public at large, often encumbered by legal limitations, and inadequately utilized as a mechanism for addressing public problems. One reason for this is the lack of basic information on its scope, structure, financing, and contributions in most parts of the world. This lack of information is due in part to the fact that significant components of the nonprofit sector fall within the non-observed, or informal, economy, and in part to the way even the observed parts of this sector have historically been treated in the prevailing System of National Accounts (SNA). This paper provides an overview of a series of steps that have been taken over the past 20 years by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University in cooperation with colleagues around the world and, more recently, with officials in the United Nations Statistics Division and the International Labour Organization to remedy this situation, culminating in the issuance and initial implementation of a new United Nations Handbook on Nonprofit Institutions in the System of National Accounts and the forthcoming publication of a new International Labour Organization Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work. Taken together, these efforts point the way toward putting the civil society sector on the economic map of the world for the first time in a systematically comparative way. [source]


    TRUST, INEQUALITY AND THE SIZE OF THE CO-OPERATIVE SECTOR: CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE

    ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009
    Derek C. Jones
    ABSTRACT:,We provide the first empirical evidence on the determinants of differences in the size of the cooperative sector around the world. Our key data have been recently released by the ICA and are integrated with other standard sources, such as data from the World Values surveys. In our empirical work we concentrate on the links between inequality and trust and cooperative incidence and undertake selectivity correction estimates as well as a series of robustness checks. Consistent with theory we find strong support for the proposition that trust plays a causal role in accounting for differences in co-operative incidence. Also consistent with theory, we find support (albeit much weaker) for the role of inequality. Further support for our findings flows from our estimates for conventional, listed firms, where we do not find that trust and inequality play similar roles in accounting for the variation in the incidence of large listed firms across countries. [source]


    ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR

    ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2009
    Pierre Pestieau
    ABSTRACT,:,One is used to hearing harsh statements about inefficient public services. It is not surprising to see public sector performance questioned. What is surprising is that what is meant by performance, and how it is measured, does not seem to matter much to either the critics or the advocates of the public sector. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a definition, and a way to measure the performance of the public sector or rather of its main components. Our approach is explicitly rooted in the principles of welfare and production economics. We will proceed in four stages. First of all we present what we call the ,performance approach' to the public sector. This concept rests on the principal-agent relation that links a principal, i.e., the State, and an agent, i.e., the person in charge of the public sector unit, and on the definition of performance as the extent to which the agent fulfils the objectives assigned by the principal. The performance is then measured by using the notion of productive efficiency and the ,best practice' frontier technique. In the second stage we move to the issue of measuring the performance of some canonical components of the public sector (education, health care and railways transport), assuming that there is no constraint as to data availability. The idea is to disentangle the usual confusion between conceptual and data problems. In the third stage, we move to real world data problems. The question is then given the available data, whether it makes sense to assess and measure the performance of such public sector activities. The final stage is devoted to explaining performance or rather lack thereof. This exercise has clear implications for public policy. Finally we argue that when the scope is not components but the entirety of the public sector, one should restrict the performance analysis to outcomes and not relate them to inputs. [source]


    THE PUBLIC SECTOR AND THE SOCIAL ECONOMY IN THE ANNALS (1975,2007): TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM1

    ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3-4 2008
    Fabienne Fecher
    First page of article [source]


    INTERNAL REGULATION BY MIXED ENTERPRISES: THE CASE OF THE ITALIAN WATER SECTOR

    ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2007
    Alessandro MARRA
    ABSTRACT,:,This paper aims at proposing an economic analysis of mixed enterprises in local utilities. We suggest that the public service concession to mixed enterprises could embody a noteworthy substitute to the traditional public provision and the concession to totally private enterprises. The starting point of the entire analysis is that ownership allows the (public) owner to gather more information about the actual management of the firm, according to property rights theory. Following it, we conclude that under certain conditions mixed enterprises could significantly reduce asymmetric information between regulators and regulated firms by implementing a sort of ,internal' regulation. With more information, the public authority can stimulate the private operator to be more efficient and can monitor it more effectively with respect to the fulfilment of contractual obligations. Moreover, concerning the latter function, the board of directors of these enterprises can be the suitable place where public and private representatives can meet to solve all disputes arising from incomplete contracts. [source]


    RELATIONAL GOODS, MONITORING AND NON-PECUNIARY COMPENSATIONS IN THE NONPROFIT SECTOR: THE CASE OF THE ITALIAN SOCIAL SERVICES

    ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2007
    Michele Mosca
    ABSTRACT,:,This paper investigates the nonprofit wage gap suggesting a theoretical framework where, like inAkerlof (1984), effort correlates not only with wages, but also with non-monetary compensations. These take the form of relational goods by-produced in the delivery of particular services. By paying higher non-pecuniary compensations, the nonprofit sector attracts intrinsically similarly skilled, but more motivated workers, able to provide in fact a similar (or potentially higher) level of effort than their counterparts in the forprofit sector. On an empirical ground, the paper provides a number of econometric tests that confirm the main predictions of the model in Italy's case. It adds to the available empirical literature by introducing in the analysis direct measures of non-pecuniary compensations and job satisfaction. [source]


    VS-CONTROL WITH TIME-VARYING SLIDING SECTOR , DESIGN AND APPLICATION TO PENDULUM ,

    ASIAN JOURNAL OF CONTROL, Issue 3 2004
    Satoshi Suzuki
    ABSTRACT In general, a Variable Structure (VS) system is designed with a sliding mode. Recently a sliding sector, designed by an algebraic Riccati equation, has been proposed to replace the sliding mode for chattering-free VS controllers. In this paper we extend the design algorithm for the sliding sector to a time-varying sliding sector. The time-varying sliding sector is defined by functions dependent on both state and time, hence time-varying uncertainty can be considered. The VS controller is designed to stabilize an uncertain system, quadratically. The design procedure for real systems is introduced via an implementation to the control of "Furuta pendulum". To enhance the stability it is necessary to compensate the time-varying nonlinear static friction of the actuator adequately, hence this problem is a good example to demonstrate the performance of the proposed VS control method. In the experiment, it will be shown that the VS control with the time-varying sliding sector is superior to an orthodox chattering-free VS control. [source]


    COLONIALISM AND LONG-RUN GROWTH IN AUSTRALIA: AN EXAMINATION OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN VICTORIA'S WATER SECTOR DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

    AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
    Edwyna Harris
    colonialism; democracy; economic growth; institutional efficiency; water rights Institutional change in water rights in the nineteenth century Australian colony of Victoria raised institutional efficiency, which contributed to long-run economic growth. High-quality human capital and the extension of voting rights (franchise) were crucial for efficient institutional change in the water sector. Quality human capital (literacy) appeared to increase the rural population's awareness of the economic impact of the existing structure of water rights that may have constrained growth in the agricultural sector and reduced investment incentives. Extension of the franchise allowed the rural population to exert political pressure for enactment of change in water rights, which resulted in efficiency-enhancing policies and efficient institutions. The findings show these two factors were more important than Victoria's British colonial heritage in determining whether growth-enhancing institutional change took place. [source]


    IS CORPORATE R&D INVESTMENT IN HIGH-TECH SECTORS MORE EFFECTIVE?

    CONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 3 2010
    RAQUEL ORTEGA-ARGILÉS
    This paper discusses the link between R&D and productivity across the European industrial and service sectors. The empirical analysis is based on both the European sectoral OECD data and on a unique micro-longitudinal database consisting of 532 top European R&D investors. The main conclusions are as follows. First, the R&D stock has a significant positive impact on labor productivity; this general result is largely consistent with previous literature in terms of the sign, the significance, and the magnitude of the estimated coefficients. More interestingly, both at sectoral and firm levels the R&D coefficient increases monotonically (both in significance and magnitude) when we move from the low-tech to the medium- and high-tech sectors. This outcome means that corporate R&D investment is more effective in the high-tech sectors and this may need to be taken into account when designing policy instruments (subsidies, fiscal incentives, etc.) in support of private R&D. However, R&D investment is not the sole source of productivity gains; technological change embodied in gross investment is of comparable importance on aggregate and is the main determinant of productivity increase in the low-tech sectors. Hence, an economic policy aiming to increase productivity in the low-tech sectors should support overall capital formation. [source]


    TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER: PARTNER SELECTION AND CONTRACT DESIGN WITH FOREIGN FIRMS IN THE INDIAN BIOTECHNOLOGY SECTORS

    THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 1 2001
    Shyama V. RAMANI
    First page of article [source]


    THE PATTERN AND EVOLUTION OF GEOGRAPHICAL WAGE DIFFERENTIALS IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS IN GREAT BRITAIN,

    THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 4 2007
    DAVID BELL
    Government policy on the nature of wage bargaining in the public sector can have important implications for the provision of public services. Using the New Earnings Survey, the Labour Force Survey and the British Household Panel Survey, we examine the size and evolution of public,private sector wage differentials across geographical areas within the UK and over time. Public sector bargaining structures have led to historically high wage premia, although these premia are declining over time. In high-cost low-amenity areas, such as the south-east of England, the public sector underpays relative to the private sector, therefore creating problems in recruitment to and provision of public services. Public sector labour markets are around 40 per cent as responsive to area differences in amenities and costs as are private sector labour markets. Differences in the degree of spatial variation between sectors are likely to remain, leading to persistent problems for the delivery of public services in some parts of the UK. Reform of public sector pay structures is likely to be costly, and so other non-pay policies need to be considered to increase the attractiveness of public sector jobs. [source]


    Ethnic Inequalities in the Public Sector: A Comparative Analysis

    DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2006
    Yusuf Bangura
    This article uses empirical data to discuss the links between ethnicity, inequality and governance in a framework that divides countries according to their levels of ethnic polarization. It makes three main arguments. First, types of diversity, not the existence of diversity per se, explain potentials for conflict or cohesion in multiethnic societies. Ethnic cleavages are configured differently in different social structures and are less conflictual in some countries than in others. Second, relative balance has been achieved in the public sectors of countries that are highly fragmented or those with ethnicity-sensitive policies, but not in those with ethnicity-blind policies. Third, the article is critical of institutional approaches to conflict management that underplay background conditions in shaping choices. Consociational arrangements may not be relevant in unipolar ethnic settings or fragmented multiethnic societies, where governments may be ethnically inclusive under democratic conditions. They seem unavoidable in ethnic settings with two or three main groups or in settings with strong ethnic/regional clusters. [source]


    Women in the Urban Informal Sector: Perpetuation of Meagre Earnings

    DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2005
    Arup Mitra
    The argument of exploitation of women workers in the labour market notwithstanding, this article examines whether women in India are unable to participate fully in the labour market because they are required to combine their household activities with income yielding jobs. They are constrained to work in the neighbourhood of their residence (the location of the residence having been decided upon by male family members), and can access jobs only through informal contacts (which usually means they end up in jobs similar to those of the contact persons), both of which reduce their bargaining power considerably. The tendency for specialized activities to be concentrated in different geographic locations of a city further restricts the possibility of women workers being engaged in diverse jobs and thus aggravates the situation of an excess supply of labour in a particular activity. Constrained choice, limited contacts of women and physical segmentation of the labour market perpetuate forces that entrap women workers in a low-income situation with worse outcomes than those of their male counterparts. Consequently with greater intensity of work they still continue to receive low wages, while residual participation in the labour market restricts the possibilities of skill formation and upward mobility. All of these factors offer a substantive basis for policy recommendations. [source]


    The Rapid Rise of Supermarkets in Central and Eastern Europe: Implications for the Agrifood Sector and Rural Development

    DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2004
    Liesbeth Dries
    During the 1990s transition period in Central and Eastern Europe, the retail sector was privatised and some domestic-capital supermarket chains gradually emerged. Massive inflows of foreign direct investment followed and competitive domestic investments drove a rapid take-off of large-format modern retail sector development from a tiny ,luxury' niche of around 5% of food retail in the mid-1990s to 40,50% by 2003 in ,firstwave' and 20,40% in ,second-wave' countries. In ,third-wave' countries like Russia, it is still only 10% but growing very fast. In most countries there is rapid multi-nationalisation and consolidation of the supermarket sector, with profound changes in procurement systems affecting the conditions facing farmers, and creating important opportunities and challenges. [source]


    Intersectoral Labor Mobility and the Growth of the Service Sector

    ECONOMETRICA, Issue 1 2006
    Donghoon Lee
    One of the most striking changes in the U.S. economy over the past 50 years has been the growth in the service sector. Between 1950 and 2000, service-sector employment grew from 57 to 75 percent of total employment. However, over this time, the real hourly wage in the service sector grew only slightly faster than in the goods sector. In this paper, we assess whether or not the essential constancy of the relative wage implies that individuals face small costs of switching sectors, and we quantify the relative importance of labor supply and demand factors in the growth of the service sector. We specify and estimate a two-sector labor market equilibrium model that allows us to address these empirical issues in a unified framework. Our estimates imply that there are large mobility costs: output in both sectors would have been double their current levels if these mobility costs had been zero. In addition, we find that demand-side factors, that is, technological change and movements in product and capital prices, were responsible for the growth of the service sector. [source]