Developing Decentralized Capacity for Development Policy Analysis: Lessons for Agricultural Development from Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring in Malawi*

Abstract: Lack of sufficient analytical capacity in most of the developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa has been suggested frequently as a major factor determining the appropriateness of development policy interventions. This paper documents an approach implemented in Malawi for the past three years to develop decentralized capacity to analyze development policies and programs. A conceptual framework for identifying the areas of capacity strengthening in development policy analysis is developed. Generalizable lessons from Malawi's experience in decentralized capacity strengthening arc presented. Various issues that relate to enhancing the efficiency of capacity building programmes in sub-Saharan African are addressed. It is argued that continuous dialogue between development researchers and policy decisionmakers and between the trainers in academic institutions and donor agencies is fundamental for achieving the goals of improved capacity for development policy analysis. Résumé: On avance souvent que l'absence de capacité d'analyse suffisante dans la plupart des pays en développcment d'Afrique subsaharienne constitue l'un des facteurs qui conditionne l'opportunité des interventions en matière de politique de développement. Ce document présente unc approche mise en ocuvre au Malawi au cours des trois dernières années en vuc de développer la capacité décentralisée à analyser les politiques et programmes de développement. Il met au point un cadre conceptuel pour l'identification des domaines nécessitant un appui institutionnel au niveau de 1'analysc des politiques de développement. Des leçons susceptibles d'être généralisées sont tirées de l'expérience du Malawi en matière de renforcement de la capacité décentralisée. Diverses questions ayant trait à l'amélioration de l'efficacité des programmes de renforcement des capacités en Afrique subsaharienne sont abordées. Il est avancé que le dialogue permanent entre chercheurs s'intéressant au développcment et décideurs, et entre formateurs des institutions académiques et organismes d'aide est essentielle pour atteindrc l'objectif d'amélioration de la capacité d'analyse des politiques de développement.     

A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Transnational Public Goods (TPGs) to Upgrade Environmental Quality

In recent years, there has been an increase in awareness of trans-boundary pollution that places environmental assets at risk both globally and regionally. Globally, manmade pollutants have degraded the stratospheric ozone shield, the oceans, the atmosphere and the biodiversity of the planet. Regionally, these pollutants have harmed aquifers, rivers, lakes, soils and forests. Harmful effects of acid rains, greenhouse gasses, and thin ozone shield are not concentrated within political boundaries of a country, thus jeopardizing the well-being of people in other countries. These trans-boundary pollution problems—termed as Transnational Public Goods (TPGs)—often share two common features: strategic interactions among nations and public good properties. This paper applies the theory of voluntary provisions of TPGs to the behavior of nations to curb chloro-fluoro-carbon emissions that, in large part, preceded the ratification and institution of the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer.

     

Development policies in the presence of unemployment and non-traded intermediate goods

The role of non-traded intermediate goods has not been satisfactorily studied in the context of a developing economy with involuntary unemployment. In this paper we examine this phenomenon within the framework of a Harris-Todaro-type migration model. We show that the presence of the intermediate good creates a strong linkage between the rural and urban regions. Under certain reasonable assumptions on factor intensities, this linkage causes an increase in the price of the urban good to benefit the intermediate good as well, and an expansion in the urban output to drive an expansion in the production of the intermediate good. Finally, wage subsidies to urban firms increase the unemployment rate, despite the ameliorating effect of the inter-sectoral linkage.We would like to thank M. Ali Khan, Bela Balassa, Will Carrington, and the members of the J. H. U. Trade and Development and Summer Seminars for advice and comments. We would also like to thank two anonymous referees for pointing out several errors in an earlier draft. Any remaining errors are, of course, ours.     

Green supplier selection: a new genetic/immune strategy with industrial application

With the onset of the ‘climate change movement’, organisations are striving to include environmental criteria into the supplier selection process. This article hybridises a Green Data Envelopment Analysis (GDEA)-based approach with a new Genetic/Immune Strategy for Data Envelopment Analysis (GIS-DEA). A GIS-DEA approach provides a different view to solving multi-criteria decision making problems using data envelopment analysis (DEA) by considering DEA as a multi-objective optimisation problem with efficiency as one objective and proximity of solution to decision makers’ preferences as the other objective. The hybrid approach called GIS-GDEA is applied here to a well-known automobile spare parts manufacturer in India and the results presented. User validation developed based on specific set of criteria suggests that the supplier selection process with GIS-GDEA is more practical than other approaches in a current industrial scenario with multiple decision makers.     

Barriers to internationalization: A study of small and medium enterprises in India

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the growth of the economy. Many SMEs have set up activities beyond their home markets, and their role is more important in contributing to future growth. They are confronted with international competition and forced to compete in international markets. In this study, authors have categorized obstacles to firm internalization as internal and external barriers. The three dimensions of external barriers include governmental and economic political/legal barriers, procedural, and currency barriers, and task and socio-cultural barriers. The internal barriers considered for the purpose of the study were informational barrier, managerial barriers, financial barriers, and marketing barriers. Authors have used adapted scale from previous researches in these domains. Database accumulated the SMEs that were involved in manufacturing activities in the state of Rajasthan, India. The measurement model is a confirmatory factor analysis. The measures used within this study were within the acceptable levels supporting the reliability of the constructs. The analysis of the data revealed that there was moderate correlation between the external and internal factors. Within the external factors, procedural and currency barriers showed the highest obstacle for SMEs in their pursuit for internationalization followed by task and socio-cultural factors. Results specified that the entrepreneurs were not able to handle and manage foreign exchange fluctuations due to their lack of knowledge in this field.     

The day-of-the-week effect in conditional correlation

The day-of-the-week effect in the first and second moments of the return distribution is a well researched area. However, not many studies have attempted to identify this effect in the comovement or correlation of the markets. This paper models the day-of-the-week effect in the returns and the conditional correlation for some Asia-Pacific equity markets. The paper finds a Monday, Wednesday and Friday effects in the returns for some of the markets. The effect is totally absent in the returns for Australia, Japan and Korea. For the fifteen conditional correlation series estimated, a predominant Tuesday effect is detected for five series. Three series exhibit a Monday effect. A Thursday effect is detected between the Singapore market and the markets of Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand. The paper finds no consistent day-of-the-week effect in the returns and the correlations for this region. JEL Classification G15 · G14     

GAAP goodwill and debt contracting efficiency: evidence from net-worth covenants

We study the role of goodwill in promoting contracting efficiency and the effect of SFAS 141 and 142 on this role. We provide three main results. First, when a lending agreement contains some type of minimum net-worth covenant, the probability of a tangible net-worth covenant is decreasing in the borrower’s goodwill. Second, the use of tangible net-worth covenants has increased since the promulgation of SFAS 141 and 142. Finally, covenant slack is not significantly related to the use of tangible net-worth covenants relative to net-worth covenants. These results suggest that contracting parties realize efficiency gains by permitting borrowers’ actions to be restricted by the value of GAAP goodwill. However, recent changes in GAAP have reduced the contracting usefulness of goodwill.

Malaysian Trade Policy and the 2001 WTO Trade Policy Review

The purpose of this paper is two–fold; to examine developments in trade and investment policy regimes in Malaysia following the on–set of the financial crisis, using the Trade Policy Review Malaysia: 2001 of the WTO as a reference point; and to evaluate the Review in terms of the objectives of the WTO Trade Policy Review Mechanism as set out in the Marrakesh Agreement. It is found that, by and large Malaysia has managed to come out of the crisis without compromising on its long–standing commitment to maintaining a relatively open trade and investment policy regime by the regional standards. However, there are some disturbing post–crisis developments, which deserve scrutiny in a future Review. These include increase in the degree of dispersion of tariff rates because of high tariff peaks relating to a few product lines, increased reliance on non–automatic import licensing to regulate imports of a significant number of products which directly compete with domestic production by public sector enterprises, and unexplained delays in meeting commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)