Disentangling the relation between wealth and contraceptive use in India: a multilevel probit regression approach

This paper discusses the poverty-wealth impact on contraceptive use both at individual and community levels. A multilevel probit regression framework was set up to explain the use of contraceptive methods. We use data from the Indian 2005–06 National Family Health Survey (NFHS). It contains data on both the socio-demographic and health characteristics of Indian women, as well as an assembled measure of household wealth: the wealth index. The individual-level model confirms the association between contraceptive use and wealth. When controlling the community level, i.e. where the women live, the multilevel regression results show it has a significant effect on contraceptive use, explaining 19  % of the total variance. Finally, decomposing the wealth index at individual and community levels (average community wealth; individual centered wealth values), the effect of the community poverty-wealth level is significant and positive. To sum up, this framework of nested models reveals the significant effect of the community’s poverty-wealth dimension on each woman’s decision about contraception and suggests that the longstanding urban-rural differential in the contraceptive prevalence is mainly poverty-wealth driven.     

Revisiting capital account convertibility in the aftermath of the currency crises

While there are a number of theoretical arguments in favour of capital account convertibility, or free cross-border capital mobility, in the real world cross-border trade in financial assets can in fact reduce welfare due to the effects of domestic distortions. The following paper examines the causes of the Asian financial crises of the late 1990s in this light and presents some of the lessons that would be instructive for a more effective implementation of capital account convertibility.     

High-Tech Innovation,Growth and Trade Dynamics in Australia

In this paper the macro-economic interactions between high-tech innovation (telecommunications), growth and trade are analysed at the macroeconomic level. Cointegration and innovation accounting based on vector autoregression techniques have been used to estimate empirically the trade and growth dynamics in the Australian context. The paper reviews the high-tech innovation induced policy regime shifts such as the deregulation of telecommunications and the liberalisation of trade and also quantifies trade and growth dynamics.     

Two-party Bargaining Processes Based on Subjective Expectations: A Model and a Simulation Study

Group Decision and Negotiation - This work presents a model for a two-party bargaining process in which multiple offers are exchanged as the negotiation goes on, under a risk of breakdown. Typical...     

From the Editor

This article empirically verifies the export-led growth hypothesis for Bangladesh and examines whether manufacturing exports have become a new engine of the export-led growth in Bangladesh, replacing the total exports-engine, as claimed by the so called de novo hypothesis. The empirical assessment based on the vector error correction modeling (VECM) that uses quarterly data over the period 1974–1999 suggests that both total exports and manufacturing exports have had positive and statistically significant impacts both in the long run and the short run. But an encompassing test in conjunction with the various non-nested tests suggests that total exports, as opposed to manufacturing exports in isolation, is the dominant engine of the export-led growth. This refutes the claim that manufacturing exports has become the sole determinant of the export-led growth in Bangladesh.     

Evaluation Methods for Non‐Experimental Data

This paper presents a review of non‐experimental methods for the evaluation of social programmes. We consider matching and selection methods and analyse each for cross‐section, repeated cross‐section and longitudinal data. The methods are assessed drawing on evidence from labour market programmes in the UK and in the US.     

Institutions, education, and development: The role of entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are instrumental for structural transformation. They create and organize new firms and hire workers with a minimum level of human capital. Entrepreneurs encourage workers to invest in their own education in order to move into the modern production sector. Better institutions lead to less income diversion, which creates a greater supply of entrepreneurs, a larger demand for human capital, and faster structural transformation. Education policy alone is not as effective, although it, too, raises the number of entrepreneurs. Simulations and evidence from Brazilian states support the theory.     

New Multicollinearity Indicators in Linear Regression Models

Correlation is an important statistical issue for the Ordinary Least Squares estimates and for data‐reduction techniques, such as the Factor and the Principal Components analyses. In this paper we propose new indicators for the multicollinearity problem in the multiple linear regression model.     

Consumer-based brand equity and brand performance

The relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance was investigated across 15 product categories in Brazil and the UK. Brand equity was conceptualized as related to the level of social benefit offered by each brand and was measured with a simple questionnaire that asked consumers to rate brands with respect to their familiarity and quality levels. These measures were then related to brand market share and revenue. Results showed that the relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance varies across product categories, indicating that products differ with respect to their level of brandability and suggesting ways to measure it.