Agricultural development and the distribution of water resources in Kgatleng District,Botswana

During Botswana's four decades of high levels of growth the agricultural sector has lagged behind, with smallholder productivity being especially poor. This paper applies an equity perspective: its main claim is that one important explanation for the current lack of agricultural development is the unequal distribution of agricultural resources. It takes into account both the national institutional structure, which promotes widespread inequality, and the distribution of boreholes and water resources on the communal grazing range in Kgatleng District. It argues that ever since the first administrative effort to develop water resources in the 1920s the country's official policy and legislation has directly or indirectly favoured the large-scale farmers over the smallholders and, further, that customary property rights principles have supported the process that has led to today's institutional inequality.     

Can integrated infrastructure investment plans contribute to more effective public spending? The case of Mozambique

All countries, especially developing countries with limited financial resources, face difficult decisions in prioritising public funds for investment projects in the face of multiple demands in order to achieve strategic public goals. Effective investment often requires coordination between different institutions and the management of political pressure to divert investment in support of private interests. It also requires the identification of appropriate sources of funds for different purposes. The preparation of an integrated infrastructure investment plan (IIIP) that uses structured approaches to review investment proposals has been suggested, and adopted in some cases, as an instrument to address these challenges and bridge the gap between national planning and sectoral budgeting. This article considers the experience of Mozambique in deploying an IIIP as well as some recent events and concludes that the instrument may be helpful as part of a system of investment planning and allocation but that it has significant limitations.     

The impact of state legislation on the organisation of trade unions: The case of the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) in Botswana

Labour legislation is the unique device governments use to lay down standards and conventions in the workplace and to control industrial relations. Using focused interviews with unionists, government officials, employers and other relevant parties, this field study investigated the way in which labour legislation in Botswana affects the organisation of the country's federation of unions. The findings indicate that the BFTU's organisation is affected by the Trade Union and Employers Organisation Act. In particular, the restric‐ tions in this Act separate policy and administration in the BFTU and this has had negative implications for the union's effectiveness. The fact that its policymaking body is part‐time negatively affects coordination, communication and cooperation processes in the BFTU. According to the Act, public sector workers are not technically employees and therefore cannot belong to unions. This gives the impression that the state is not particularly convinced about the benefits of unionisation. This may create a difficult environment in which the BFTU and other unions must operate.     

The case for gender mainstreaming Botswana's privatisation process

Botswana embarked on privatisation in 2000 but the programme is yet to be implemented. The objectives of privatisation are to promote citizen economic empowerment and to benefit all. Admittedly, these are well-intended objectives. However, we pose a question: ‘How are these objectives going to be achieved?’ To answer this question, this paper audits the Privatisation Policy of Botswana and Privatisation Master Plan to assess the extent to which they are gender inclusive, and concludes that they are gender blind and do not address the gender dimensions of privatisation. The paper also reviews secondary data such as poverty maps and concludes that women suffer socio-economic disenfranchisement and would not equally benefit from privatisation. In addition, women would disproportionately suffer its adverse effects. For privatisation to produce fair outcomes, there is a need to make it gender inclusive. Making it gender inclusive would ensure the participation and empowerment of socio-economic minorities such as women.     

The contribution of non-formal social protection to social development in Botswana

This article documents the non-formal system of social protection in Botswana, identifies opportunities for synergies between the non-formal and formal systems, and considers the challenges of integrating the two. Non-formal initiatives depend on traditional forms of social protection such as self-help, self-organisation, membership of a social group and cultural norms of community solidarity, reciprocity and obligations; whereas the formal social protection system is undergirded by statutes and laws, institutionalised in policy and legislation, publicly funded and delivered within national norms and eligibility criteria. The article argues that integrating the two could produce a complementary and responsive system of social protection that takes account of indigenous and other non-formal systems of support and enhances the delivery of social protection services, and that other countries in the region might derive lessons from Botswana's experience.     

Estimating household willingness to pay for water services in a rural economy: The case of Kanye in southern Botswana

This study uses the contingent valuation approach to examine the relationship between selected socio-economic characteristics of households and their willingness to pay for private water connection. An iterative bidding method was used to obtain survey data from 135 households randomly selected from Kanye in southern Botswana and the ordinary least-square regression technique was used to estimate the effects of selected exogenous variables on willingness to pay. The results show that household income, level of education and employment status of the head of the household and level of consumers' awareness are the principal factors influencing willingness. This suggests that any government policy that increases these factors will increase households' willingness. In addition, because consumers' income is associated with their willingness to pay, it is suggested that policies on connection and user fees recognise income inequalities when determining the amount that households should pay.     

重庆市私募股权基金发展战略研究

文章通过对国内外私募股权基金投资新热点、新趋势的研究,结合目前重庆市自身发展特点、环境条件,研究制定了重庆市私募股权基金发展战略,旨在促进重庆市私募股权基金的快速发展,进而促进重庆市产业结构调整升级。     

Agriculture and the migration of labour to a capital city: The case of Gaborone,Botswana

This study examines some aspects of rural urban migration in Botswana, focusing in particular on Gaborone, the capital. Models are specified that relate age grouping, sectoral income differential, government employment and time to male and female migration. Econometric models were based on published data. The study indicates that there is a positive relationship between migration and central government employment, expressed as a proportion of total formal employment. The differential between agricultural and average non‐agricultural income, especially for male migrants, is also positively related to migration. The results show that with time, male and female migration to Gaborone is likely to increase. Male migration is positively related to arable crop cultivation, whereas female migration has an adverse effect on it. Neither has any significant influence on harvested crop area in Botswana     

The development status of women in South Africa: Patterns and progress in the provinces

The development status of women in South Africa declined between 1996 and 2001. This study examined whether the decline was pervasive throughout the nine provinces, and whether any development patterns were apparent among the provinces. The findings revealed that women had lost ground across the board, both in absolute terms and relative to men. They also showed that certain ranking patterns prevailed among the nine provinces and, notably, that women in provinces with pre-existing poor development statuses may also be predisposed to a poor development status relative to men. This double burden may translate into a perpetuation of poverty for women who find themselves in these provinces.     

国家规划体系的演进历程与融合对策

完善国家规划体系是推动国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要举措之一。在国家规划体系构建过程中,发展规划和空间规划经历了从融合、分异、冲突走向融合的过程。在国家规划体制改革的大背景下,规划体系的再次融合依然存在专项规划在规划体系分类中不一致、发展规划和国土空间规划衔接难度大、差异协调难、规划实施协同性不高等问题。下一步,要进一步明确专项规划的地位,加强规划编制的衔接,协调各类规划差异,统筹推进规划实施。     

India's missing girls: biology, customs, and economic development

We review the evidence on the sex ratio among children belowthe age of six. International evidence shows that the sex ratioat birth is slightly biased towards boys, but boys suffer greatermortality, a pattern consistent with Darwinian evolution. Witheconomic development, the male bias in the child sex ratio increases.South and East India show levels and trends in the child sexratio that are consistent with this evidence. However, unbalancedsex ratios in the northern and western states since the firstcensuses indicate discrimination against girls. Technologicaldevelopments permitting sex-selective abortions have seriouslyaggravated the imbalances in these states. Economic modellingof parental choice regarding a child's gender suggests thatgender imbalances may be consistent with individual maximizationand marriage-market equilibrium. Nevertheless, these choiceshave adverse welfare consequences, which will be aggravatedby the decline in population growth and consequent relaxationof the ‘marriage squeeze’.     

On competitive equitable paths under exhaustible resource constraints: The case of a growing population

The paper examines the nature of competitive paths in an exhaustible resource model, which allows for a growing population. For competitive paths that are equitable in the sense that the per capita consumption level is constant over time, the implicit investment rule is derived. This is seen to be a generalization of Hartwick's rule, obtained in the case of a stationary population. It is also shown that the existence of a competitive equitable path implies that a population can experience at most quasi-arithmetic growth.     

双城构架导向下公路改城市道路的规划策略——以准格尔旗薛大路为例

以双城构架模式下公路改城市道路的规划思路梳理为切入点,以"整体谋划、双城互促、全面融合"为原则,提出基于中小型经济生态圈视角和典型道路功能带视角的公路改城市道路的规划策略,并以准格尔旗薛大路为例,对提出的规划策略进行实例印证.结果表明:改造后的城市道路弥补了原有公路的不足,促进了城市组团间的有效联系;道路横断面改造和道路景观改造成果提升了原有道路的景观性和经济性,为发展道路景观经济带奠定基础.     

Determinants of Indonesian rural secondary school enrolment: gender,neighbourhood and school characteristics

In recent years the school enrolment rates of children aged 13–15 and 16–18 years have increased sharply in Indonesia, not only in urban but also in rural areas. Using various data sets spanning the years from 1993 to 2007, this paper investigates changes in factors associated with the enrolment of secondary school aged children in rural areas. It sheds light on the roles of gender and of neighbourhood and school characteristics, which have rarely been examined in the Indonesian context. The study finds that the disappearance of a gender gap in secondary enrolments between 1993 and 2007 contributed significantly to the rise in the overall enrolment rate. The findings also show that children living in wealthier communities and communities with a high proportion of enrolled children are more likely to attend school. Finally, various school characteristics are shown not to be strongly or consistently correlated with school enrolment.     

Capital markets and legal development: The China case

Recent research establishes a significant positive correlation between law and finance (and hence economic growth), restarting a debate on the “law matters” thesis. However, which way the causality goes is still not clear. The purpose of this paper is to use the ongoing reform experience of China, especially its capital market experience, to examine the direction of causality. First, we show that China's recent experience is largely consistent with Coffee's [Yale Law Journal 111 (2001, October)] “crash-then-law” interpretation of this correlation. Indeed, it is the large and clearly defined constituency of investors that has been a key driving force behind much of the recent legal progress. The rights and economic interests of this constituency have fundamentally challenged the traditional emphasis of the Chinese legal culture on administrative and criminal sanctions, but not on civil litigation law. Second, we compare the different contributions to legal change made by the stock market and the consumer product markets. We argue that capital markets are perhaps the most conducive to the formation of a politically powerful constituency and hence more aggressive legal change, because of (1) the higher degree of commonality among interested parties and (2) immediately measurable and tangible damages. These two characteristics not only allow investors to identify with each other more easily, but also create an ideal basis for more debate in the media, which in turn promotes the development of a legal culture.     

Development and gender: Longitudinal entrepreneurial gender effects of the inner-city Johannesburg street-trading context

An empirical investigation was undertaken into entrepreneurial gender effects within the inner-city street-trading context of Johannesburg, a large South African city. A cross-sectional non-parametric quantitative research design was applied in each of three consecutive years, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and a longitudinal investigation was enabled. Differences in earnings, rental stand operation, and the effects of specific and general human capital by gender were tested using non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis methods. Further testing of the non-parametric associations of each factor by gender was undertaken using non-parametric Spearman rho and Kendall tau measures. Male traders are found to earn more. However, a return on specific and general human capital is found for female traders. Security threats in this context might have a disproportionate effect on female street traders, and most specifically on female street traders of foreign origin.     

The Effect of Information Systems on Honesty in Managerial Reporting: A Behavioral Perspective*

This study examines the behavioral impact of an information system, and how that impact varies with the information system's precision, in an internal reporting environment. We propose that a manager's reporting decisions are affected by his or her trade‐off of the benefits of appearing honest against the benefits of misrepresentation. The information system affects the manager's trade‐off by improving the owner's ability to make an inference regarding the manager's level of honesty. Thus, to the extent that the manager perceives benefits to appearing honest, the presence of an information system can increase managerial honesty. As the information system becomes more precise, however, the manager must forgo greater benefits of misrepresentation in order to achieve the same appearance of honesty. For managers under a precise system, this will shift the trade‐off decision toward the benefits of misrepresentation and away from the benefits of appearing honest. Notably, in our experiment, the only benefit of appearing honest is an intrinsically motivated desire for social approval. We find that, although the existence of an information system increases managerial honesty, honesty is lower under a precise than under a coarse information system. We also compare profit earned by the owners in our experiment, which relies on a behavioral role of an information system, with the maximum profit theoretically possible given a contractual use of the information system. This comparison suggests that, unless the available information system is sufficiently precise, the owner will obtain greater profits by not contracting on its output, even if that output is fully contractible.     

技术创新视角下股权再融资对企业高质量发展的影响

随着中国经济由高速增长阶段转向高质量发展阶段,越来越多的实体企业采用股权再融资作为外部融资渠道,其经济后果备受关注。基于企业技术创新视角,以2011—2021年中国A股主板上市公司为研究样本,实证检验股权再融资对企业高质量发展的影响及其作用机制。研究发现,股权再融资行为促进了企业高质量发展,机制检验后发现,企业技术创新在股权再融资和企业高质量发展之间发挥了中介作用。     

销售促进对品牌权益的影响

销售促进除了能刺激销售迅速增长外,对品牌权益还具有长期影响,但这种影响并不像一些研究者所认为的仅仅是损害品牌权益。其实,销售促进的外延很宽泛,各种销售促进工具及其具体操作方式对品牌权益各要素的影响方向和程度相差很大。所以,企业在策划和实施销售促进活动时,只要选择合适的工具,设计合理的操作方式,完全可发挥其对品牌权益的促进作用,同时规避其不良影响。