CHILD LABOUR: A REVIEW OF RECENT THEORY AND EVIDENCE WITH POLICY IMPLICATIONS

In recent years, a growing number of authors have turned their attention to the question of why children work. The purpose of this paper is to review some of the more recent theoretical and empirical research into the topic of child labour, and to illustrate the fact that no one factor on its own can account for the phenomenon of child labour. Therefore, policies aimed at eradicating child labour will need to address the broad range of underlying factors that contribute to the incidence of child labour, such as poverty, market imperfections and access to education.     

REAL‐TIME DATA AND FISCAL POLICY ANALYSIS: A SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

This paper surveys the empirical research on fiscal policy analysis based on real‐time data. This literature can be broadly divided into four groups that focus on: (1) the statistical properties of revisions in fiscal data; (2) the political and institutional determinants of projection errors by governments; (3) the reaction of fiscal policies to the business cycle and (4) the use of real‐time fiscal data in structural vector autoregression (VAR) models. It emerges that, first, fiscal revisions are large and initial releases are biased estimates of final values. Secondly, strong fiscal rules and institutions lead to more accurate releases of fiscal data and smaller deviations of fiscal outcomes from government plans. Thirdly, the cyclical stance of fiscal policies is estimated to be more ‘counter‐cyclical’ when real‐time data are used instead of ex post data. Fourthly, real‐time data can be useful for the identification of fiscal shocks. Finally, it is shown that existing real‐time fiscal data sets cover only a limited number of countries and variables. For example, real‐time data for developing countries are generally unavailable. In addition, real‐time data on European countries are often missing, especially with respect to government revenues and expenditures. Therefore, more work is needed in this field.     

A REVIEW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY REPORT,PUNCHING OUR WEIGHT: THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN PUBLIC POLICY MAKING1

The report argues that policy‐makers fail to make effective use of the high quality research of UK academics in the humanities and social sciences. Yet greater co‐operation between the government and academia could undermine the independence of the latter by increasing the role of the state in the funding and direction of university research.     

Editorial

Abstract

In this editorial we summarize and comment on papers published in issue 7.1. This is a themed issue, with four of the papers being originally presented at the 9th International Workshop in Spatial Statistics and Econometrics held at the University of Orléans, France. This was organized by Cem Ertur, who was chair of the Scientific Committee, and who has co-edited the current issue and taken the lead in writing about the papers from the Orléans workshop. The first paper, which was not an Orléans paper, is ‘Business Cycles Association in a Small Monetary Union: The Case of Switzerland’ by Alexandra Ferreira-Lopes &; Tiago Sequeira. From Orléans we have ‘QML Estimation of Spatial Dynamic Panel Data Models with Time Varying Spatial Weights Matrices’ by Lung-Fei Lee &; Jihai Yu; ‘Improving the J Test in the SARAR Model by Likelihood-Based Estimation’ by Peter Burridge; ‘The Mundlak Approach in the Spatial Durbin Panel Data Model’ by Nicolas Debarsy; and ‘Spatial Interactions in Hedonic Pricing Models: The Urban Housing Market of Aveiro, Portugal’ by Arnab Bhattacharjee, Eduardo Castro &; João Marques.

RÉSUMÉ Dans la présente communication, nous résumons les communications publiées dans l’édition 7.1, et nous présentons des commentaires sur ces dernières. Il s'agit d'une édition à thème, quatre des communications ayant été présentées initialement au 9^ème atelier international de statistiques et d’économétrie spatiales, à l'université d'Orléans, en France. Cette édition a été organisée par Cem Ertur, qui était président du Comité scientifique, a coédité l’édition actuelle, et a pris le pas dans les communications sur les communications émanant de l'atelier d'Orléans. La première communication, qui n’était pas une communication d'Orléans, est « Association de Cycles commerciaux dans une Union monétaire restreinte: le cas de la Suisse », par Alexandra Ferreira-Lopes &; Tiago Sequeira. D'Orléans, nous avons reçu « Estimation QML de modèles de données de groupe dynamique spatial, avec matrices de poids spatiaux temporalisées », par Lung-Fei Lee &; Jihai Yu; « Optimisation du test « J » dans le modèle SARAR par estimation basée sur les probabilité », par Peter Burridge; « L'approche de Mundlak dans le modèle spatial de données de panel de Durbin », par Nicolas Debarsy; et « Interactions spatiales dans les modèles hédoniques des prix: le marché de l'immobilier urbain d'Aveiro, au Portugal », par Arnab Bhattacharjee, Eduardo Castro &; João Marques.

EXTRACTO En este trabajo resumimos y hacemos comentarios sobre trabajos publicados en la edición 7.1. Esta edición tiene un tema, y cuatro de sus estudios se presentaron originalmente en el Noveno Taller Internacional de Estadísticas Espaciales y Econometría celebrado en la Universidad de Orleans, Francia. Éste fue organizado por Cem Ertur, que presidió el Comité Científico, coeditó la edición actual y adoptó la posición líder en escribir sobre los estudios derivados del taller de trabajo de Orleans. El primer trabajo, que no fue uno de los estudios de Orleans, es la ‘Asociación de Ciclos de Negocios en una Unión Monetaria Pequeña: el Caso de Suiza’ de Alexandra Ferreira-Lopes &; Tiago Sequeira. Los estudios procedentes de Orleans son: ‘Estimación QML de modelos de datos de panel dinámicos espaciales con matrices de pesos espaciales que varían con el tiempo’ de Lung-Fei Lee &; Jihai Yu; ‘Mejora de la prueba J en el modelo SARAR por estimación basada en probabilidad’ de Peter Burridge; ‘El planteamiento Mundlak en el modelo espacial de datos de panel Durbin’ de Nicolas Debarsy; e, ‘Interacciones espaciales en modelos hedónicos de fijación de precios: el mercado de la vivienda urbana de Aveiro, Portugal’ de Arnab Bhattacharjee, Eduardo Castro &; João Marques.