Institutional quality and the effectiveness of aid for trade

Trade policy barriers and high transaction costs hinder developing countries from taking the full advantages of the global trading system. In order to help developing countries overcome the problem, the World Trade Organization (WTO) launched the Aid for Trade (AFT) initiatives in its Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong in 2005. We examine the effects of AFT inflows on bilateral trade costs facing 133 developing countries while accounting for differences in their location on the contours of various measures of institutional quality. Our results from the estimation of a mixed effects (random-intercept and random-coefficient) model indicate that institutional quality significantly affects the extent to which AFT reduces bilateral trade costs. An important policy implication of our findings is that an economically robust and sustainable reduction in bilateral trade costs facing developing countries requires the presence of both promulgated and effectively functioning institutions such as regulatory power and the rule of law.     

R & D expenditures and import competition: Some evidence for the U.S.

Zusammenfassung F & E-Ausgaben und Importkonkurrenz. Einige Befunde für die USA. - Die Verfasser untersuchen den Einflu? der Importkonkurrenz auf die F & E-Aktivit?ten der amerikanischen Industrie. Die theoretische Diskussion deutet daraufhin, da? eine verst?rkte Importkonkurrenz die F & E-Ausgaben nur in hochtechnologischen Industriezweigen erh?ht, w?hrend Industrien mit geringerer Technologie wahrscheinlich als Antwort andere Strategien w?hlen. Der empirische Befund für die Jahre 1972-87 scheint diese Annahme zu best?tigen.

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Résumé Des dépenses pour la R & D et la concurrence de l’importation: Quelques preuves pour les Etats Unis. - Dans cette étude les auteurs examinent l’effet de la concurrence de l’importation sur l’activité de R & D dans l’industrie américaine. La discussion théorique propose qu’une intensification de la concurrence de l’importation augmenterait les dépenses pour la R & D seulement dans les industries d’une technologie supérieure tandis que les industries d’une technologie inférieure probablement choisiraient une réaction différente. Les preuves empiriques pour les années 1972 à 1987 semblent confirmer cette proposition.

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Resurnen Gasto en I & D e importaciones competitivas: alguna evidencia para los EE UU. - En este trabajo se investiga el impacto de importaciones competitivas sobre la actividad de I & D en la industria de los EE UU. La discusión teórica sugiere que un aumento de la competencia por parte de las importaciones podria elevar el gasto en I & D de las industrias de tecnología avanzada, mientras que en las industrias de menor nivel tecnológico la respuesta podría ser diferente. La evidencia empírica para los a?os 1972–1987 parece confirmar esta propositión.

     

Are bilateral and multilateral aid‐for‐trade complementary?

Using the first comprehensive estimates of ad valorem tariff equivalent bilateral trade costs spanning the time period 2002–10, we examine whether the aid‐for‐trade (AFT) inflows reduce bilateral trade costs facing aid recipients. If so, we ask whether the trade costs reduction effects of AFT from bilateral and multilateral sources are complementary. By showing the extent to which the observed trade cost reduction effects of AFT from bilateral (multilateral) sources correlate with the magnitudes of AFT disbursements from multilateral (bilateral) sources, we present plausible explanation for the cross‐country variations in the extent to which AFT promotes trade flows. Our findings have, thus, important policy implications for shaping future discourses on the coordination of disbursements for enhancing the effectiveness of AFT.     

Inflation,money, interest rate,exchange rate,and casuality: the case of Egypt,Morocco, and Tunisia

This study provides further evidence of the inflationary efects of the rates of growth of money supply, gross domestic product, efective exchange rate, and imported inflation for Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia using quarterly data from 1964 to 1990. In addition, it examines the Granger causality between inflation and money supply as well as between inflation and the real exchange rate in the countries under consideration. Most of the results are consistent with extant theory and empirical evidence.     

An estimation of the aggregate educational production function for public schools in Louisiana

Data at the school district level were used to estimate the relationship between basic skills test scores and various school district, family and community educational inputs. The inputs examined in the regression analysis included expenditures per student, student-teacher ratio, years of teacher’s experience, along with other school-related and socioeconomic variables. Expenditures per student are significantly related to basic skills test results in a quadratic manner. Variables measuring family and community structure are shown to be significant to test performance. These results are important for policy-makers who are responsible for the allocation of funds in the education process. A greater reliance on economic incentives is suggested as an alternative to the present system.     

Public assistance and job search behavior of the rural poor-evidence from the mississippi delta

This study explores whether prolonged welfare experience reduces the job search commitment of the unemployed. More specifically, an attempt is made to determine whether participation in a government assistance program induces the unemployed to prolong their job search activities, either through reduced search effort or by asking a higher reservation (acceptance) wage. The data were obtained from a semistructured interview with 120 food stamp recipients participating in a pilot workfare project in Coahoma County, Mississippi. The interview questionnaire was designed to elicit the degree to which there was a relationship between welfare use and commitment to job search activities. The most important finding of the study was that in at least one economically depressed community, extended participation in a public assistance program did not appear to have a significant impact on the job search behavior of the unemployed. However, as important as this finding is, the small size of the sample and the uniqueness of the county (77 percent black) limit the applicability of the results to other rural communities across the nation. Therefore, there is a need to replicate and expand the study, utilizing a much larger sample representing a cross section of the counties in Mississippi and elsewhere in the United States.     

Trends in Agricultural Production Efficiency and their Implications for Food Security in Sub‐Saharan African Countries

The main objective of this paper is to estimate the agricultural sector production efficiency using data envelopment analysis based on a cross‐section of 49 African countries over the 1995–2012 period in order to analyze the determinants of annual efficiency scores to assess the impact of agricultural efficiency on food security. We find that agriculture aid, agricultural sector infrastructure, sanitation, and good governance serve the main drivers of agriculture efficiency and its growth. Our findings also suggest that a large portion of Africa's agricultural sector growth can be attributed to technical progress as opposed to efficiency changes.     

Remittances and economic growth in Africa, Asia, and Latin American-Caribbean countries: a panel unit root and panel cointegration analysis

This study estimates the macroeconomic impact of remittances and some control variables such as openness of the economy, capital/labor ratio, and economic freedom on the economic growth of African, Asian, and Latin American-Caribbean countries using newly developed panel unit-root tests, cointegration tests, and Panel Fully Modified OLS (PFMOLS). We use annual panel data from 1985–2007for 64 countries consisting of 29 from Africa, 14 from Asia, and 21 from Latin America and the Caribbean region, respectively. We find that remittances, openness of the economy, and capital labor ratio have positive and significant effect on economic growth for all regions as a group and in each of the three in study. While the economic freedom index also has a positive and significant effect on growth in Africa and Latin America, however, its effect on the economic growth of Asia is mixed.     

Estimating a health production function for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

The paper estimates a health production function for Sub-Saharan Africa based on the Grossman (1972 Grossman M 1972 The Demand for Health: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation, NBER New York ) theoretical model that treats social, economic, and environmental factors as inputs of the production system. In estimating this function, socioeconomic and environmental factors such as income per capita, illiteracy rate, food availability, ratio of health expenditure to GDP, urbanization rate, and carbon dioxide emission per worker are specified as determinants of health status. The parameters of the function are estimated by one-way and two-way fixed and random effects model of panel data analyses. The results of the two-way random effect model suggest that an increase in income per capita, a decrease in illiteracy rate, and an increase in food availability are strongly associated with an improvement in life expectancy at birth. Overall, the results imply that a health policy which may focus on the provision of health services, family planning programs, and emergency aids to the exclusion of other socioeconomic and environmental aspects may do little to improve the current health status of the region.