Bones for Sale: 'Development', environment and food security in East Africa

Maasai pastoralism has been characterized historically by highly developed herd and rangeland management techniques and social and cultural institutions at the intra- and inter-community levels that have provided security against shocks such as drought, crop failure and epidemic disease. Key to pastoral production was that herd management and milk production were the domain of the individual domestic units--the household or the homestead--while rights to pasture and water resources were communal so as to guarantee access to both dry and wet season grazing. It is this combination of individual and communal resources and inter- and intra-community relations that enabled pastoralism to thrive for millennia. It will be argued that the failure of colonial and neocolonial 'development' policies to recognize these key features of Maasai pastoralism has been at the root of both the crisis of land degradation and the undermining of Maasai and East African food security.     

Political freedom and the response to economic incentives: labor migration in Africa, 1972-1987

This study examines the thesis that political institutions and the freedoms and civil rights generated by these institutions affect migration decisions. The hypothesis is based on one stated by Adam Smith in 1776, that economic conditions that reflect greater political freedoms and civil liberties harbor higher levels of resource mobility in response to economic incentives. Pooled cross-sectional and time-series analysis is based on data from the World Bank for 32 African countries during 1972-87. Findings support the hypothesis that migration rate is more affected by the expected returns ratio to labor in countries where civil liberties are greater than in nations with fewer civil liberties. The implication, from the inclusion of institutional factors in the model, is that civil liberties have an indirect impact on the rate of labor migration out of agriculture in Africa. The impact is a mix of economic incentives and civil liberties. In the political rights model, the most free countries had the largest migration elasticity. The findings on political rights impacts support findings by Friedman and McMillan that civil liberties are a more important determinant of economic growth than political rights. Further testing for measurement error confirmed that the data were flawed, but not so greatly that the basic findings were overturned. The migration out of African agriculture was found to be sensitive to the effect of price signals, which were conditioned by the degree of political rights and civil liberties. Policy makers are urged to consider both changes in pricing and institutions.     

Family,religion and economic performance: A critique of cultural determinism

Arguing that some attitudes that may constitute an obstacle to the development process are culturally funded, cultural determinism pleads that underdevelopment is essentially generated endogenously, in other words, that people in developing countries, with their beliefs and their attitudes, are the more liable for the poverty in which they live. The simplicity of these arguments has seduced a large number of scholars but what seems to be a cultural brake on economic development could be explained otherwise. This critique of cultural determinism's arguments attempts to supply an alternative version of the interaction of culture and development, from which power, class, domination and the international division of labour will not be excised. In order to simplify this study only two of the cultural features most often referred to will be brought into focus: religion and family and patterns of kinship.     

Democracy, size of bureaucracy, and economic growth: evidence from Russian regions

This article considers the impact of sub-national political systems on economic growth by applying the case of Russian regions from 2000 to 2004. It investigates two dimensions of the sub-national systems. First, it studies the influence of democracy on economic performance, providing evidence of a non-linear relationship between democracy and economic growth. Regions with high levels of democracy, as well as strong autocracies, perform better than hybrid regimes. Second, this article considers the influence of the size of the bureaucracy on economic outcomes and confirms the ??grabbing hand?? view on bureaucracy rather than the Weberian idea. Increasing the size of the bureaucracy is associated with a decline in economic performance. In addition, this article analyzes the potential interaction between these two characteristics of sub-national politics as factors of economic growth, but does not establish any robust results.     

Narrativity and identity in the representation of the economic agent

We critically survey explicit discussions of the narrativity of economic agents by economists. Narrativity broadly refers to the way humans construct and use stories, notably to define their personal identity. We borrow from debates outside of economics to provide the critical dimension of our survey. Most contributions on the narrativity of economic agents do not discuss one another. To establish communication, we suggest a structure of oppositions that characterize these contributions taken as a whole. These oppositions are notably characterized by three tensions: in terms of methodological attitudes (‘scientism’ vs. ‘humanism’), of underlying theories of personal identity postulating the existence of a unique sense of self or not (‘diachronicity’ vs. ‘episodicity’) and of the normative implications of narrativity (‘welfare-increasing’ vs. ‘welfare-decreasing’). The main goal is to clarify the structure of opposite positions within a more or less explicit debate about the identity of individuals in economics.     

Kriging methodology for regional economic analysis: Estimating the housing price in Albacete

Because of the socioeconomic importance of the housing subsector in the local, regional, and national economy and its implications for housing policy, this paper attempts to analyze the spatial behavior of the free housing price in the city of Albacete. To achieve this aim, the authors have used the models and estimators imported from geology called kriging. To do this, it is necessary to know the spatial dependence structure of the process, which is shown in the variogram.     

Abatement of agricultural pollution and economic incentives: The case of intensive livestock farming in France

Amongst possible economic incentives to encourage reduced nitrate contamination of water, this paper emphasizes a nitrogen tax as a possible solution. This finding is based on models estimated from panel data for 100 intensive livestock farms. For each farm a threshold is established (nitrogen units which can be spread per hectare without damage) above which there is an excess of nitrogen. The 100 farms can consequently be classified into two subsamples. The demand for nitrogen is derived for each sub-sample using the dual approach. Both categories are pooled together and a tobit model is estimated. This is used to derive total nitogen demand if all farms were under the threshold. A mineral nitrogen tax would lead to a reduced nitrate concentration in water supplies, because of a more efficient use of organic nitrogen together with a reduction in the use of mineral nitrogen in crop production.     

Strategic human resource management for university-industry collaborations in Korea: financial incentives for academic faculty and employment security of industry liaison offices

In an attempt to understand why some universities achieve better outcomes from university-industry collaborations, this study adopts the perspective of strategic human resource management that emphasises the congruence between the university strategic orientation and the human resource practices. Based on a large-scale survey of universities in Korea, this study suggests that the human resource management practices of providing incentive compensation to academic faculty, and the employment security and size of human resources in the industry liaison offices significantly contribute to the university-industry collaboration performance, such as the number of registered patents, licensing revenue of intellectual property, and the integrated collaboration revenue.     

Infrastructures, incentives, and institutions: Fostering distributed knowledge bases for the learning society

While much attention has been devoted to information and communication technologies, a more fundamental change at the start of the new millennium is the increasing importance of innovation for economic prosperity and the emergence of a learning society. The analysis in this paper shows that innovation should be understood as a broad social and economic activity: it should transcend any specific technology, even if revolutionary, and should be tied to attitudes and behaviors oriented towards the exploitation of change by adding value.We build on the idea of inclusive learning, which entails a process of shared prosperity across the globe following local specific conditions, and argue that it is crucial to understand the features of knowledge-induced growth in rich countries, as well as the challenges and opportunities for late-industrialized and less-developed countries. To achieve these objectives, we emphasize the relative importance of infrastructures and incentives, but considering the increasingly important role of institutions towards the development of social capital. This is because learning societies will increasingly rely on “distributed knowledge bases” as a systematically coherent set of knowledge maintained across an economically and/or socially integrated set of agents and institutions.This broad concept has motivated the work behind the present paper, which builds on material presented at the 5th International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation (ICTPI), which was held in Delft, The Netherlands, in June of 2001. Under the broad designation of “critical infrastructures,” the Conference brought together a range of experts to discuss technology, policy and management in a context much influenced by the dynamics of the process of knowledge accumulation, which drives learning societies. Thus, this special issue includes a set of extended contributions to the Delft conference, and the aim of this introductory paper is to set the stage for these contributions, with an original contribution on possible views on the role critical infrastructures play to foster innovation in the learning society.     

深化经贸合作 促进区域共同繁荣

随着经济全球化、区域集团化趋势的加强,特别是东亚地区经济的快速发展,中国、日本、韩国三者间如何进一步加强经济合作、加快东亚区域经济一体化步伐,已经成为一个热点问题。互利互惠优势互补1.中日韩合作是东亚(10+3)合作的重要组成部分。中日韩三国地理位置接近,具有相近的文化传统,交往历史悠久而频繁,三国各自双边合作规模巨大,而且相互依赖性和互补性逐步增强。2003年,三国间经济合作进一步发展,中日、中韩双边贸易均创历史新高,中日双边贸易继2002年突破1000亿美元大关后,达到1335.76亿美元,中韩双边贸易达到632.31亿美元,比2002年增…     

Comprehensive evaluation of regional ecological security for land use: a case study of Yanchi County, Ningxia Province

As an abstract study conception, most researches of ecological security generally are macro-scale theoretical study with a regional, national or global perspective. Micro-scale research mainly concentrates on ecological risk, ecosystem health and ecosystem safety. In order to assess regional ecological security and to accomplish the transition from micro-scale to macro-scale research, a Driving-Function-State-Output-Respond model framework （DFSOR model） is put forward in this paper according to the analyses on regional population, society, economy resources, environment and ecological risks＇. In empirical research an index system is set out to evaluate ecological security of land use. The DFSOR model comprises five group of indicators： （1） driving indicators, which include social population pressure and economic pressure; （2）function indicators, which include human function, hydrodynamic function, wind function and gravity.function; （3） state indicators, which include soil resources, water resources and land use/land cover; （4） output indicators, which include production output and ecological risk output; （5） response indicators, which are composed of all sorts of policies and measures for improving production of ecosystem. The method and procedure for ecological security evaluation is put forward based on DFSOR model as well. In the case study, Yanchi, the ecotone between agriculture and animal husbandry, is chosen for the study. An index system is built to evaluate ecological security based on the evaluation of regional ecological risks which including sandification, water erosion, soil salinization, soil pollution and shortage of water. The comprehensive evaluation result shows the regional ecological security index of land use in the research area increase obviously. But it is still in the state of low-graded danger.     

Effect of trade openness on regional economic growth in China: revisiting the discussion

Increasing openness contributes to economic growth in developing countries, but the endogeneity problem impedes drawing this conclusion. This paper uses the constructed trade share to circumvent the effects of endogeneity according to a method proposed by Frankel and Romer. The results demonstrate that increasing openness has a positive impact on provinces’ GDP and GDP per capita. In addition, an increase in lagged openness is beneficial for present economic growth, and even openness gained many years ago, which is measured by the number of treaty ports, makes a difference in present economic growth.     

经济特区--我国对俄投资合作的新空间

2005年7月俄普京总统正式签署俄罗斯联邦《经济特区法》,并责成政府有关部门组建了专门的行政机构--俄联邦经济特区管理署.《经济特区法》颁布之后4个月共收到了70多份申请,经过遴选委员会的层层筛选,最终在2005年底,俄罗斯政府公布了首批获准建设的6个经济特区名单:利佩茨克州特区、鞑靼斯坦叶拉布加市特区、泽廖诺格勒特区、杜布纳特区、圣彼得堡市特区、托木斯克市特区.     

Analysis of prices in tradable emission markets: an empirical study of the regional clean air incentives market in Los Angeles

The Regional Clean Air Incentives Market is an emissions trading programme, which is expected to help in reducing oxides of nitrogen and sulphur from stationary sources in the Los Angeles area. This paper uses econometric techniques to determine the factors that can explain the development of the price of emission permits. By controlling for various characteristics of the trades, the regression results allow one to isolate the impact of each factor and conduct a detailed analysis of the implications of this factor on price. The results show that the price of permits is affected by institutional factors such as the trading rules and regulations governing the permit programme. The permits are priced higher in the coastal zone, higher for trades recorded in 1997 as compared to 1994 or 1995 and are affected by the trader category. Brokers are involved in well over half of the trades and have acquired a substantial inventory of permits. Facilities buying from brokers pay higher prices than if they buy from another facility. The price of trades beyond 2003 is higher than for current trades, which could be indicative of expectations of high growth rates in the Los Angeles region or due to expectation of more stringent regulations in the future.     

Between European integration and regional autonomy: the case of Italy from an economic perspective

Italy has experienced a double political phenomenon over the last few decades: a transfer of powers to a supranational entity (the EU) and a move towards regional autonomy. This paper aims to evaluate how policy competences are attributed to and exercised by the European, national and regional institutions. It develops a set of quantitative indicators analysing the legislative production of the EU, the Italian parliament and the Italian regions in various policy areas. The main findings indicate a certain substitutability between European and national legislation and that different levels of government share competences in a larger number of sectors than suggested by the economic theory.

Identification and decomposition of regional economic disparity for the west coast of Taiwan Strait of China

Regional economic disparity is a hot issue in the development of society and economy. As the conjunct of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta and the frontier to Taiwan, the west coast of the Taiwan Strait （WCS） is of great social and political significance. The paper defines the connotation of the WCS, decomposed the regional economic disparity by using weighted coefficient of variation and Theil coefficient, and explores the industrial and regional source of the regional economic disparity of the WCS. The analysis results show that： （1） the WCS has important political, economic and military position, so it＇s better to regard it to be comprehensive region, not just refer to Fujian Province; （2）from the industrial decomposition of weighted variation coefficient, the influence o.f the primary industry was tiny; conversely, the development inequity of the secondary and the tertiary, indusoy was the main source of regional economic disparity. Their contribution has had the converse trend and the secondary contribution has gone beyond the tertiary since 2003; （3）from the regional decomposition of Theil coefficient, the regional economic disparity mainly came from inter-area inequity of 4 areas. Moreover, the inner economic disparity mainly drove by Fujian, suggesting that the urban development inequity in Fujian Province was comparatively outstanding.     

‘Us’ and ‘Them’: the origin of identity,and its economic implications

Abstract We investigate the origins of identity and the innate proclivity to draw a distinction between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. We propose an evolutionary explanation: we argue that identity arises because it facilitates survival. In an evolutionary setting we endogenize preferences and demonstrate that the evolutionarily stable preferences fashioned by natural selection would distinguish between insiders and outsiders. We then work out the implications of such preferences in two contemporary scenarios, one entailing rent‐seeking behaviour and the other involving public good provision. Our results are in conformity with empirical evidence.     

The economic rate of return of infrastructures and regional policy in the European Union

This paper examines the results of cost–benefit analysis (CBA) of 200 major investment projects co-financed in 1988–93 by the European Commission. The project database we have built is probably one of the few existing sets of comparable micro-data on the expected rates of return of public infrastructure and on the quality of CBA leading to its calculation. The database reveals a striking dispersion of expected rates of return around the average. Part of the large sample variance is probably a consequence more of inconsistencies in the actual implementation of CBA than of structural differences among the European Union's more economically backward regions. We offer a measurement of the quality of CBA and compare EU ex-ante data with World Bank ex-post data.