Race and social organization: An economic perspective

Conclusion Improvements in the economic, political, and social status of Blacks are joint effects. Improvement in one is unlikely without concommitant improvements in the others; this is a multiedge sword.Success in any of the areas is correlated with improvement in the others—synergism. On the other hand, failure to realize the interdependencies makes success or improvement in any of the areas unlikely.     

Barriers to employment: Entry and re-entry possibilities of unemployed job seekers in The Netherlands

Summary In this paper, the barriers to re-employment for unemployed job seekers are studied by means of duration models. The determinants included in the duration models are derived from an economic model of the different stages in the job search process. The empirical analysis of unemployment duration is based on both a reduced form and a structural approach. The reduced form model used is a proportional hazard model with a flexible base-line hazard. In the estimation procedure, special attention is paid to the problems of unobserved heterogeneity and attrition bias. The estimation results show that age and non-labour income have a significantly negative impact on the reemployment probability of unemployed job seekers. In addition, the hazard rate appears to be negative-duration-dependent. In the structural model, the rate at which unemployed job seekers find a job is decomposed into the application rate and the probability of receiving an actual job offer if an application is made. We find that the low probability of becoming (re-)employed is mainly caused by the low probability of receiving an actual offer. Furthermore, differences in the application intensity of unemployed job seekers can be explained by various personal characteristics, regional labour market conditions, elapsed duration of unemployment and search methods, whereas the outcome of the selection process is mainly influenced by the qualifications of unemployed job seekers.The authors wish to thank Jan van Ours and two anonymous referees for valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Education, training, and economic growth

Ashton, D. and Green, F. 1996: EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, £18.95 paper, £55.00 cased.

Booth, A. and Snower, J. (eds) 1996: ACQUIRING SKILLS: MARKET FAILURES, THEIR SYMPTOMS AND POLICY RESPONSES. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, £15.95 paper, £45.00 cased.

Deakin, B. 1996: THE YOUTH LABOUR MARKET IN BRITAIN: THE ROLE OF INTERVENTION. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, £35.00 cased.

Godfrey, M. (ed) 1997: SKILL DEVELOPMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, £59.95 cased.

Shackleton, J. with Clarke, L, Lange, T. and Walsh, S. 1995: TRAINING FOR EMPLOYMENT IN WESTERN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, £55.00 cased.     

Of markets,might and mullahs: a case for equity,pluralism and tolerance in development

This paper tries to confront the ‘puzzlement’ of the development profession regarding the ‘best’ alternative strategies aimed at increasing employment, reducing poverty and promoting equity at the same time as fostering economic growth — and the ‘advocacy’ role that should or should not be played by that profession. The author argues that the issue lies in achieving a workable ‘meaning’ of development and then moving on to the moral ‘questions’ of value judgments and to the specific ‘problems’ that can be dealt with by science and social science. He suggests that a possible meaning of development is ‘to create more options for more people’ — ‘to achieve that the greatest number of people have the greatest number of options.’ He discusses the need for improving ‘life chances’ and considers the development policies which may or may not assist in this process. He tries to tie together conceptually the ideas of power and social change, consensus and conflict. Also in this context, the roles of participation, organization and mobilization are explored, especially their impact on different political systems. The analysis concludes with a plea for social, cultural and political pluralism — and thus, a commitment to tolerance. The author argues that these goals should be addressed by the development community without the hesitation sometimes attached to ‘protection of expertise’.     

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’.     

Rural development in Hertzog,Eastern Cape: Successful local economic development?

The government's recently released rural development strategy identifies the important role which local economic development can play in the rural areas of South Africa. This article examines the key features of local economic development and the degree to which recent initiatives in the rural village of Hertzog conform with the basic principles of local economic development. The recent establishment of an agriculture cooperative and smallholder farming on irrigated one‐hectare plots forms the basis of the initiative. Community structures, strategies and achievements are outlined and assessed.     

Minority firms, racism and economic development

Despite the prominence of minority firms within inner-city areas across the country, relatively little is known of their makeup, problems and relations with external agencies. Drawing on a study of 50 Asian employers and key players in local support bodies in the typical inner-city area of Wolverhampton, this paper assesses the market and managerial structure of minority firms, and their links with support agencies. It is argued that racism is a significant constraint on the development of such firms; and that current support from external agencies is lacking. A more focused and higher profile role for a dedicated “Asian Business Unit” is suggested as a strategy for the development of minority enterprise.     

What’s wrong with the theory of racial inequality: Toward a more effective theory of racial inequality in economic life

Explaining or resolving the apparent incompatibility between tradi-tional economic theory and the persistence of racial inequality or dis-crimination in economic life has been the most significant motivation for conventional studies of race and economics. The conventional theory that resulted from this interest, however, has been of limited utility in advancing understanding of racial inequality in economic life. This essay discusses an alternative to the conventional theory that is intended to facilitate a better understanding of racial inequality. It is also designed to provide a more effective tool for the evaluation and design of policy. The alternative model takes the existence of racially distinct groups and initial racial difference in the ownership of resources as given and exogenous. It is specified in a manner that allows the evolution of racial inequality over time to be explained. The structure of the model responds to challenges posed by Robert S. Browne to develop viable economic theories useful in the study of the interaction of race and economics.     

The vintage schooling hypothesis and racial differences in earnings and on-the-job training: A longitudinal analysis

Why do younger black males earn more relative to whites than do older black males? The literature offers two competing explanations. Smith and Welch suggest this pattern is evidence that employers are rewarding the improved skills of more recently, better-educated blacks. Lazear, and Duncan and Hoffman suggest that the pattern is the result of employer discrimination that prevents blacks from entering occupations that offer on-the-job training (OJT) and wage growth with experience. The competing views are tested by using the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Young Men to compare black and white earnings and regression estimates in two periods. Regression results for 1968 and 1978 indicate that, as the NLS cohort aged, only white males had an age-earnings profile exhibiting the positive effect of OJT. Over the period, education coefficients decreased for both groups with the reduction greatest in black coefficients. This suggests that the earnings effect of education is not as stable for blacks as it is for whites over the life cycle. Black-white earnings ratios were approximately the same in both periods. The results reported here support the explanations offered by Lazear and by Duncan and Hoffman, implying that policies focusing on eliminating racial differences in educational quality may be insufficient in improving the relative position of blacks over the life cycle.     

厦门市2000年经济运行情况及2001年经济发展研究

一、2000年厦门市经济运行情况2000年,厦门市受国家宏观经济形势好转的影响,经济稳步增长,效益明显提高.尤其出口大幅增加,对经济增长起了显著的拉动作用.预计全年全市GDP可达490亿元,比上年增长14.7%;全年全市财政收入可达91.5亿元,比上年增长38.1%.但是,总体看,经济发展中的不平衡问题、制约经济增长的结构性、体制性深层次问题尚未根本解决,经济运行的微观基础还不稳固.     

Flexible exchange rates,inflation and economic development

Different economies have different propensities to generate inflationary pressures, and different capacity to absorb the strains occasioned by price and wage increases. Because of economic and institutional features of less developed countries, expansionary policies may have to be undertaken in a ‘typical” developing country, more often and to a greater extent than in a ‘typical’ developed country. Even a mild rate of inflation will be damaging under a fixed-exchange-rate system, if domestic prices increase at a faster pace than prices abroad. Chronic balance-of-payments difficulties are confronted by inflationary countries that are attached to a fixed-exchange-rate system. Rather than sporadic, substantial devaluations, periodical mini-devaluations may be advisable in developing countries with a relatively high propensity to inflate.     

判例法、组织试验与经济发展中的制度创新

美国制度经济学家康芒斯将“稀缺性”原则作为制度经济学的基础，将“交易”作为经济研究的基本单位。他认为，“稀缺性”不仅产生冲突，而且产生因为相互依存而建立秩序的集体行动，在一个因“稀缺性”和私有财产制而产生冲突的世界里，集体行动的主要作用是解决冲突和维持秩序，所谓秩序，即是集体行动的运行规则，     

Water,energy and sustainable economic development in South Africa

The interaction between macroeconomics and sustainable development is important to all countries. This relationship is of particular concern to developing countries where the economic and natural resource bases are often more closely intertwined than in industrialised nations. A research programme for investigating these issues in South Africa was initiated by the Macroeconomics Programme Office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (Washington, DC, USA), funded with a grant from GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit). It was carried out by a number of local research teams under the guidance of a broad steering committee and under the management of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. For the purposes of a manageable research project, two areas were selected where the South African economy and environment strongly interact - water and energy - together with a number of important economic sectors that use water and energy as key inputs in their production processes. The research examined macroeconomic and environmental interactions in these complexes of sectors, with particular emphasis on the effects of changing pricing and regulatory regimes for water and energy. This article presents and discusses first the analytical framework, followed by the results in each sector, and closes with some general policy conclusions with regard to the macroeconomy and the environment.     

李克强：推动绿色发展促进世界经济健康复苏和可持续发展

国务院副总理李克强在5月8日绿色经济与应对气候变化国际合作会议开幕式上的讲话中指出,当前,绿色经济在全世界方兴未艾,但如何将这种新的发展模式与应对气候变化国际合作结合起来,还有很多问题需要深入探讨。