Development as liberation: Policy lessons from case studies

Four case studies are summarized in which oppressed people have successfully assumed control over their own destinies and development strategies. Lessons from experience are drawn, at the national and macro-economic level, from Guinea-Bissau where the popular liberation movement has grown into the national government without losing close contact with its constituency; from the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka which has started as a modest development organization of poor people, based on indigenous social and cultural values, and which has grown into a popular movement of 1 million people (of 14 million total population) in some 2000 villages; from the SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association) in Ahmedabad, India, where oppressed street vendors, artisans, junksmiths and garment-makers have founded their own bank (which now has 1000 shareholders and 10,000 depositors) to circumvent usurious lending practices and to gain access to capital at their own terms; and from a Quechua community in central Bolivia where handicrafts producers' cooperatives have successfully maintained self-reliance and cultural identity through conscious choice of appropriate technology at their own terms. Lessons on development as a form of liberation are drawn from the social praxis of each of these examples.     

Informal Child Support Contributions in Black Female-Headed Families

Key reforms to child support enforcement have aimed at increasing formal child support awards, levels and receipts. However, the role of child support contributions outside the formal child support system has been largely ignored. This study draws critical attention to these informal child support contributions, with chief focus on informal child support receipts of Black mothers. The study finds that Black mothers are significantly more likely to receive informal cash and in-kind child support contributions relative to other mothers, especially when non-resident fathers are also Black.     

What should economists know about the current Chinese hukou system?

This article explains the current hukou system in China and provides the most recent evidence on the impact of the hukou system on the Chinese labor market and economy. By a comprehensive literature survey, this paper shows that the hukou system plays in two major roles in current China. First, workers with different hukou face different costs of living in cities and have different access to government-provided public services and welfare programs in the urban areas. Migrants with rural and non-local hukou working in the Chinese big cities have no or little access to welfare programs provided by local city governments. Second, there exists labor market discrimination against rural hukou holders in cities, especially in the urban high-wage sector such as state-owned enterprises. The current hukou system has a negative impact on rural-to-urban migration in China as well as on economic efficiency and equality by reducing the expected benefits associated with migration.     

Still Slipping: African-American Women in the Economy and in Society

This article focuses on the progress and regress of African-American women since the publication in 1986 of the author’s Slipping through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women. Gaps between African-American women and other groups (including African-American men and white women) are still reported in education, employment, income, health services, and incarceration. Some experts believe that racial equality has been achieved in the U.S., and affirmative action has slowed. However, the evidence demonstrates that disparity still exists, especially for African-American women at the bottom of income distribution. Their economic status lags behind white women’s. For example, according to the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, the average net worth of a single, middle-aged white woman is $42,600; the average net worth of a single, middle-aged Black woman is $5. This disparity affects not just the women but their children and their educational opportunities.     

杨凌生态示范区的物质流和物质减量分析

运用MFA方法，分析了杨凌区2002—2007年间的物质输入与输出量，物质输入与输出的效率和强度，并在此基础上分析了杨凌区的物质减量化趋势。研究结果表明：（1）杨凌区的直接物质投入量（DMI）和区域过程排放量（DP0）总体呈上升趋势；（2）杨凌区的物质输入与输出效率总体上在提高，且以2004年的上升幅度最为显著，与此同时，当地的物质输入与输出强度总体上却在加大；（3）在减量效应和反弹效应的综合作用下，杨凌区的环境压力随着经济的增长而增加，背离了可持续发展的目标。     

African American Women Voters: Review Article

This article reviews a book written by Lisa Nikol Nealy entitled: African American Women Voters: Racializing Religiosity, Political Consciousness and Progressive Political Action in U.S. Presidential Elections from 1964 Through 2008 (2009). I extracted the following themes from the book: (1) the importance and influence of the Black church or religious organizations and their leaders on the level of political participation of African Americans, especially Black women in the United States; (2) that Black and White gentile European Americans are experiencing two racial religiosities, which is reflected in the voting booth during national elections; (3) that relative to their Black male counterparts and members of other racial groups, Black women have made enormous contributions to U.S. politics especially in voting trends from the 1960s to present; and (4) there continues to be a serious division between Black and White American females, a division which is rooted in religious and racial histories of the two groups.     

NEA Presidential Address: The role of race-conscious policies in addressing past and present discrimination

The impact of the current recession on the labor market situation of African-Americans highlights their longer-run plight. While there have been signs of improvement, especially during the 1960s, black per capita earnings have fallen despite improvements in their relative wages and occupational standing. Public debate over the recent Civil Rights Bill, the nomination of Justice Clarence Thomas, and the Supreme Court’s Croson decision, has raised again the issue of using race-conscious policies to address past and present discrimination. This article reports on a study of Birmingham, Alabama as a case study. It suggests that a combination of race-neutral and race-conscious approaches may be needed to address the problems blacks continue to face in the United States economy. This article was adapted from the Presidential Address to the National Economic Association, Allied Social Sciences Associations Meetings, January 3, 1992, New Orleans, LA.     

Measurement of relative welfare poverty and its impact on happiness in China: Evidence from CGSS

Individual or household income has been the conventional yardstick of poverty. Presently, non-income factors are universally accepted as measures of poverty. Attention on the multiple dimensions of poverty and their policy implications has been growing in the past 20 years. However, few studies have analyzed relative multidimensional poverty, especially in China. Moreover, the relationship between relative welfare poverty and happiness has been rarely studied, particularly given that the decline of poverty seemed not bringing a significant increase in happiness in China. This research gap is noteworthy because enhancing the subjective well-being of the people is crucial to a nation's sustainable economic development. On the basis of the micro-level data from China General Social Survey, this study puts forward a welfare approach to analyzing the relative multidimensional poverty and then determines the link between relative welfare poverty and individual happiness. Our results show that 1) relative welfare poverty has not declined significantly and 2) there is a significantly happiness-reducing effect of relative welfare poverty.     

Implications of the effective revaluation of reserve asset gold: The case for a gold account for development

International agreement was reached in the early 1970s that the future creation of international reserves would be largely via SDR allocations, to be distributed to individual countries in proportion to their quotas in the IMF. In this manner, the international monetary system would play a ‘neutral’ role in the creation and distribution of international reserves. It has become increasingly apparent in recent years, however, that the international monetary system has been far from neutral in its distribution of international liquidity. The de facto revaluation of reserve asset gold has led to a massive creation of international reserves — nearly $500 billion by the end of 1979 — which has served to benefit almost exclusively the major gold-holding countries, all among the wealthiest of the industrialized nations.Unlike the major gold-holding countries, which throughout the Bretton Woods era converted two-thirds of their foreign exchange holdings into gold, the large majority of developing countries acted on the basis of the United States pledge that the dollar was ‘as good as gold’. As a result, the quantitative analysis presented in this paper shows that developing countries have foregone reserve holdings in excess of $100 billion. To partially redress the inequitable distribution of international reserves which has arisen from the de facto revaluation of reserve asset gold — and at the same time to promote a significant transfer of resources to developing countries — this paper proposes the establishment of a ‘Gold Account for Development’ based on official gold holdings, outlines the various forms which such an account might take, and discusses the political acceptability of the proposals.     

Explaining Foreign Holdings of Asia's Debt Securities: The Feldstein–Horioka Paradox Revisited*

In this paper, we find that home bias is still present in all economies and regions, especially in the case of short‐term debt securities, but that there are substantial variations among economies and regions in the strength of home bias, with the eurozone economies, the USA and developing Asia showing relatively weak home bias and advanced Asia, especially Japan, showing relatively strong home bias. We then examine trends over time in foreign holdings of debt securities and find that capital has been flowing from the USA and the eurozone economies to both advanced Asia (especially Japan) and developing Asia, and that foreign holdings of debt securities have been increasing in advanced as well as developing Asia but for different reasons. The main reason in the case of advanced Asia (especially Japan) appears to be higher risk‐adjusted returns, whereas the main reason in the case of developing Asia appears to be the growth of debt securities markets combined with relatively weak home bias and (in the case of short‐term securities) lower exchange rate volatility. Finally, we find that since the global financial crisis, foreign holdings of debt securities have declined (i.e. that home bias has strengthened) in all economies and regions except developing Asia, where they have increased (except for a temporary decline in 2008) but where their share is still much lower than the optimal share warranted by the capital asset pricing market model.     

中国风电产业在国际市场崛起的挑战分析

2010年,以金凤科技、华锐风电为代表的中国风电企业在赢得了快速增长之后展现出加快国际化步伐的态势。尽管现在走出去的中国风电企业仍是少数,但国际化进程已不可避免。本文着重总结了中国风电企业在国际化过程中会面临的挑战,并以美对华301调查为案例,分析了其给中国风电产业带来的风险和影响,从中获得启示,以加快我国新能源产业国际化的步伐。     

Immigrant Struggles in New Orleans Post-Katrina

Race relations in New Orleans have often been narrowed to Black and white, especially pre-Katrina. According to the 2000 census, the city was about 67% African American, 27% white, 2% Asian, and 3% “Hispanic.” In a city with a deep history of racial tensions between Black and white, other people of color—and especially recent immigrants—often went unmentioned in discussions of city demographics. The city’s world famous culture—whether in the traditions of Mardi Gras Indians and secondline parades, or in music like jazz and bounce—is also famously rooted in specifically African cultures. Even in media coverage of the city post-Katrina, the story of immigrant experiences has remained mostly invisible. When these stories have been told, they have often fit into the old stereotypes of “model minorities” (as in the case of the Vietnamese recovery) or of low-wage workers stealing jobs (as in the case of news reports on the city’s new Latino population). However, the stories of these other New Orleanians offer an important lens through which to view the overall struggle over the city’s recovery. And the work of grassroots activists from these communities, who strived to not only work for justice for their friends and neighbors, but also to build broad multi-racial alliances, provides an inspiring example for people in other cities who are waging similar fights.     

Children’s Work in Nigeria: Exploring the Implications of Gender, Urban–Rural Residence, and Household Socioeconomic Status

Child labor in developing countries continues to be a topic of policy and academic concern, particularly in Africa where there are more working children than in any other region. Scholarly attention has been drawn in part to gender, place of residence, and socioeconomic status as factors that shape the type of work that children perform and whether it impacts educational attainment. I explore these issues in the context of Nigeria through analysis of data from the 2004 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey EdData Survey. A series of logistic regression models of child labor confirm the existence of gender and, especially, socioeconomic disparities in children??s work. The data also indicate that girls and rural children face a double risk of working if they belong to poor households. A policy implication is that poverty alleviation programs??such as Mexico??s Oportunidades program (the erstwhile PROGRESA)??may help to reduce those forms of child labor that interfere with schooling. That this program has been found to more beneficial for girls suggests it may be particularly appropriate for Nigeria where gender disparities persist.     

Peasant labour for urban industry: Temporary contract labour,urban-rural balance and class relations in a Chinese county

Urban-rural relations in China have a dual character: while a higher level of urban-rural economic balance than most other countries has been achieved, a sharp structural cleavage between workers and peasants has been maintained, based mainly on strict household registrations. Peasants are prevented from migrating to towns and gaining employment there, except under specially approved contracts arranged to resolve local shortages of industrial labour. Contract labour has complex and important effects on rural and urban industrial development. It also embodies the duality of urban-rural relations in China: at the same time as it redistributes wage funds from urban to rural areas, it reinforces the class cleavage between workers and peasants (including contract workers). It also opens up a complex web of inequalities and cleavages among those peasants with contract work and those without. Contract workers have been placed in a contradictory class position which has been a flashpoint of political conflict. The relationships of contract labour to urban industrial and rural development, urbanization, urban-rural balance and structural cleavage, class structure and political conflict are examined through a study of Shulu County, an ordinary rural area with agrowing industrial centre in which over half of the industrial labour force is comprised of peasant contract workers.     

Foreign direct investment and growth in East Asia: lessons for Indonesia

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been important in the growth and global integration of developing economies. Both Northeast and Southeast Asia, especially the latter, have been part of this development, with increasing inflows of FDI and greater foreign participation in local economies. However, Indonesia has been an outlier within the region. Inflows of FDI have been lower to Indonesia than to other countries, especially in manufacturing, and they have been lower than could be expected from Indonesia's size, population and other country characteristics. We show that the inflows that have occurred have benefited Indonesia, and use the East Asian experience to identify measures that are likely to increase these flows. A relatively poor business environment, inefficient government institutions, low levels of education and poor infrastructure all seem to be important explanations for the low inflows of FDI to Indonesia.     

Fertility Change in Asia and Africa

There have been profound changes in fertility rates in Asia and Africa in the past two to three decades. The availability of new data allows a closer examination of fertility trends and underlying causes than has hitherto been possible. This collection brings together evidence on fertility decline in India, China, and a number of African countries. The papers examine the role of different explanatory factors in lowering fertility, including female education, declines in child mortality, urbanization, and the spread of mass media and “modern” consumer culture. The relative importance of female education as an explanatory factor vis-à-vis other factors is examined, with specific reference to India. The papers also explore the impact of the decline in birth rates for ageing and social security reform as well as health policy.     

Marginalising women in politics: Recent trends in KwaZulu-Natal

This paper examines trends in the political marginalisation of women in KwaZulu-Natal between 1994 and 2004. South Africa's political representation of women has been increasing significantly since 1994. KwaZulu-Natal has just over 25% female representation in provincial governance, an enviable percentage compared to world figures. This paper examines the quality of that representation to discover how effectively this 25% has addressed the concerns of the region's women, especially rural African women, and what sociocultural notions have hampered their political participation and thus escalated their socioeconomic marginalisation. Looking at primary and secondary data from interviews with women in rural KwaZulu-Natal and in public decision-making structures, and with female and male political science students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the paper finds that politics is still masculinised, and poverty by implication remains feminised.     

Urbanisation and urban management in KwaZulu Natal

Urbanisation and population movements in KwaZulu Natal from 1980 to 1991 and their implications for urban management are examined. People moved out of Natal rural areas and most small towns and into urban and rural KwaZulu areas. The most rapid growth has been in the Durban Functional Region, especially its KwaZulu districts. There has been movement into KwaZulu rural areas, both around urban centres and in outlying areas. A number of the larger towns have experienced population in‐migration even where employment and growth in output have been static or have declined. These trends raise questions about the explanatory value of urban transition models and suggest rather more complex patterns of movement.     

Cities and Megalopolises: The Problem of Definitions and Sustainable Development Indicators

The persistent lack of a generally accepted scientific definition of city seriously hinders the implementation of sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations as universal strategic guidelines for world progress until 2030, including the sustainable development of cities and settlements. In connection with this, actual problems of defining city and megacity (megalopolis) have been analyzed. A system of integrated indicators of sustainable urban development with regard to the global level has been considered. Particular attention has been paid to the new task for Russia of adapting these indicators to domestic specific natural and socioeconomic conditions, with consideration of the long-term prospects.