Solution or isolation: Is boarding school a good solution for left-behind children in rural China?

In recent decades, rural China has experienced a rapid increase in boarding school enrollment rates and in the population of left-behind children (LBC) (i.e., rural children whose parents migrate to urban areas for work). LBC tend to be worse off in numerous dimensions. At 61 million, China has the world's largest population of LBC. As it provides a different residential environment, boarding school can potentially exacerbate or mitigate the negative effects of parental migration. Using nationally representative data on Chinese families, we estimate the impact of parental migration and boarding school on child outcomes in cognition and physical and mental health. We find that while boarding school has no effect on LBC physical and mental health, it substantially improves performance on achievement tests for both LBC and non-LBC. Policies aimed at improving boarding school conditions in China, may improve not only cognitive outcomes, but also child physical and mental well-being.     

The Kreuger Crash of 1932 in memory of a financial genius,or was he a simple swindler?

Abstract

This paper discusses recent Swedish research on an event now celebrating its fiftieth anniversary — the Kreuger Crash.¹ It is divided into three parts. The first briefly introduces the ‘Kreuger problem’ and the scholarly work done on it during the 1970s. The second outlines the rise of the Kreuger empire, which is divided into three quite distinct periods: 1) the initial building industry stage (1908–13), 2) the match industry stage (1913–24), and 3) the period of furious growth (1924–30), when finance was the main concern of the parent company, Kreuger & Toll. Lastly the paper attempts to answer the question in its sub-title, in the process summarising the principal conclusions reached by research on the Kreuger problem during the last few years.     

Efficiency and Distribution :The Case of Tractors in Sawah Land Preparation in West Java,Indonesia∗

This paper uses farm management and socioeconomic data collected in the Small Farm Mechanization Prolect conducted by the International Rice Research Institute. Lo? Banos, the Philippines, during 1979 and 1980 to analye costs and benefits of tractor use in West Java. The main conclusion is that tractor land preparation is the optimum technique at market prices It is also optimum at efficiency prices provrded that tractor land preparation increaser yield and each tractor is used to its full capacity. If tractors do not increase yield. manual land preparation is the optimum technique at efficiency pnces When the analysis is conducted using distnbutional weights. animal land preparation is. in general. the optimum technique.

     

Self-employment of Chinese rural labor force: Subsistence or opportunity?—An empirical study based on nationally representative micro-survey data

Self-employment is an essential form of non-agricultural employment, and its nature has been rarely identified in recent studies. From the perspectives of the human capital, social capital, and family assets of rural laborers, this study focuses on determining self-employment by using the nationally representative data on the rural labor force in China. Through the static comparative analysis between three groups of laborers in self-employment, wage employment, farming, and the dynamic comparative analysis of laborers entering into and exiting from self-employment, the study shows that self-employment of rural laborers in China is almost opportunity-driven or moving toward opportunistic self-employment. Human capital, social capital, and family assets promote rural laborers shifting from wage employment to self-employment and stimulate the establishment of high-value enterprises. The study suggests that local governments should increase the investments in rural education and vocational skills training and strengthen the availability of rural credit to lay a good foundation for self-employment activities in rural areas.     

The role of small enterprises in the household and national economy in Kenya: A significant contribution or a last resort?

Based on a nationwide survey, this article addresses the contribution of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to employment, national income, and household income in Kenya. One-third of all working persons are employed in MSEs and the sector contributes 13% to national income. Despite their large contribution as a whole, returns to individual MSEs vary tremendously. Among those MSEs that represent the sole source of income for the household, 72% make less than the absolute poverty line in urban areas and none of the MSEs in rural areas make above the absolute poverty line. Comparing hourly MSE returns to average earnings in the private sector, the majority make below the average earnings while a minority make significantly higher earnings.     

The problem of defining ‘community’: Challenges for the land reform programme in rural South Africa

This article argues that the use of the term ‘community’ in South Africa's land reform programme has both positive and negative effects on the beneficiaries. Effects are positive when they help focus policy on the needs of poor people, but negative when they force conflicting groups together in a manner which results in the rights of a weaker group being trampled on by the actions of a more powerful group. The article briefly reviews different ways of looking at the concept ‘community’, and then analyses in detail a case from the Wild Coast, where a Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) has raised questions about who should benefit from land reform and economic development. It is concluded that a detailed understanding of local reality, even if it takes time to develop, should be seen as essential to both land restitution and the rights enquiry processes which government policy proposes to employ for resolving conflicting and overlapping claims to tenure rights     

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: new paradigm or old wine in a new bottle?

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is currently negotiating with its six trading partners to form a new trade agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The RCEP intends to harmonise rules and regulations across multiple overlapping free trade agreements in the region, and thereby attract new members. However, it faces several challenges. The mention of a flexibility principle and the ‘ASEAN Way’ of decision‐making has led many to believe that the RCEP will be yet another low‐quality regional trade agreement. However, the RCEP presents all ASEAN members with the opportunity to take a role in setting the agenda for a region‐wide agreement. Hence, despite its challenges, ASEAN must make the effort to reach an attractive RCEP vis‐à‐vis other competing regional agreements. Accordingly, this paper describes what the RCEP is intended to be, how it emerged, and the issues that might affect the agreement's final quality, in order to evaluate if it will establish a new paradigm or a repackaged version of ASEAN's existing trade agreements.     

The impact of foreign direct investment in China on employment adjustments in Taiwan: Evidence from matched employer–employee data

Using a unique matched employer–employee dataset on Taiwanese manufacturing, we examine the impact of foreign direct investment in China on domestic employment adjustments controlling for firm and worker heterogeneity as well as for potential endogeneity of firms’ expansion in China. Our findings suggest that workers employed at firms with higher levels of investment in China are more likely to leave the firm, compared with workers at firms with zero or lower levels of investment in China. We provide evidence that foreign expansion in China decreases worker employment security at parent companies, particularly for low-skilled workers. Employment adjustments through employer-to-employer transitions are found to be highly associated with wage losses, with the strongest wage effects for low-skilled workers who shift employment between industries. Moreover, we find no evidence that FDI in China contributes to skill upgrading at parent companies.     

Job satisfaction and relative income in economic transition: Status or signal?: The case of urban China

We use two datasets for urban China to examine whether an increase in reference group income lowers or increases job satisfaction. The former is consistent with a status effect — an increase in the income of others lowers my satisfaction because I feel jealous. The latter is consistent with a signal effect — an increase in the income of others might make me jealous, but it also provides an information signal about my future prospects. When we use a single item indicator of job satisfaction we find no support for a status or signal effect; however, when we use a psychometrically valid instrument to measure job satisfaction, we find some support for the existence of a status effect. We consider the components of job satisfaction through which the status effect operates. We find that the status effect operates through satisfaction with co-workers, operating procedures, pay and supervision.     

The paradox of developing agricultural mechanization services in China: Supporting or kicking out smallholder farmers?

Developing agricultural mechanization services (AMS) is commonly regarded as an important step in the modernization of smallholder farmers in China. However, given the increase in the opportunity costs of agriculture and the high cost of AMS, further study is needed to determine the relationship between AMS and smallholder farmers' exit from agricultural production. In this paper, data from the China Family Panel Survey collected in 2017 and 2019 are used to investigate this issue. Our findings show that the development of AMS reduces the probability that smallholder farmers exit from agricultural production though land abandonment, but increases the probability through land renting-out. Further analysis shows that with the emergence of large farm operators and the increase in land size rented by large farm operators, the development of AMS induces smallholder farmers' exit from agricultural production through both land abandonment and land renting-out. We also find that AMS can increase the market demand for land transfers and the marketization of land rentals, and as land markets develop, AMS induce smallholder farmers' exit through the abandonment of fragmented and distant land plots.     

The Services Sector as a Driver of Change: Indonesia’s Experience in the ASEAN Context

By various performance indicators, the Indonesian services sector ranks below those of its main ASEAN neighbours. This is concerning for Indonesia, given the the increased attention worldwide on the services sector as a likely source of growth, the contribution of the services sector to the competitiveness of other sectors, and the opportunities available for capturing the gains from innovation and change in services. There is scope, we argue, to increase the number of formal jobs in the sector and to dispel its reputation as the employer of last resort. We find that a restrictive policy regime contributes to the sector’s poor performance, leading to an argument for reform. We discuss a potential strategy for such reform, focusing on four factors: increasing transparency and policy information; capturing the opportunities from international commitments; and exploring the potential of, one, new technology, and, two, urbanisation.     

Efficiency or equity? The effect of an exogenous agricultural commercial shock: Evidence from Manchuria in the 1930s

The adoption of high-value cash crops (HVCs) is considered an efficient way to improve farmers' productivity and welfare, although the systematic empirical evidence is limited. By exploiting an exogenous commercial shock for soybeans and microlevel rural survey data from Manchuria of China in the 1930s, where factor markets were relatively well functioning, this study investigates the influence of HVC cultivation on farmers' agricultural performance, welfare, and inequality both theoretically and empirically. We find that (i) larger farms devote a larger proportion of land to HVCs and that (ii) farmers who cultivate a larger proportion of HVCs have higher agricultural productivity, profit, net income, and expenditure. Furthermore, the adoption of HVCs lowers profit, income, and expenditure inequality by enhancing income from wages relative to land rents, which benefits households with less land.     

The importance of deep integration in preferential trade agreements: the case of a successfully implemented Ukraine–Turkey free trade agreement

Review of World Economics - We construct a 45-sector model of Ukraine with Turkey and seven other regions to estimate the impacts on Ukraine of effectively implementing the deep Free Trade...     

Role of professionalism in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Does a public health or medical background help?

In response to the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there have been substantial variations in policy response and performance for disease control and prevention within and across nations. It remains unclear to what extent these variations may be explained by bureaucrats' professionalism, as measured by their educational background or work experience in public health or medicine. To investigate the effects of officials' professionalism on their response to and performance in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, we collect information from the résumés of government and Party officials in 294 Chinese cities, and integrate this information with other data sources, including weather conditions, city characteristics, COVID-19-related policy measures, and health outcomes. We show that, on average, cities whose top officials had public health or medical backgrounds (PHMBGs) had a significantly lower infection rate than cities whose top officials lacked such backgrounds. We test the mechanisms of these effects and find that cities whose officials had a PHMBG implemented community closure more rapidly than those lacked such backgrounds. Our findings highlight the importance of professionalism in combating the pandemic.     

Roles of rural non-farm employment (RNFE) in India: Why RNFE,the conveyor of a shock like COVID 19 is also the key to recovery?

We assess the role of Rural Non-Farm Employment (RNFE) in livelihoods and in likely impacts of shocks like COVID 19. In India’s agri-food system, the preponderance of small farmers with low endowments of human and financial capital implies that, RNFE has been the principal source of poverty reduction. Yet, RNFE is also the most adversely affected by shocks like COVID 19 and the measures adopted to prevent disease spread. To assess the roles of RNFE and possible effects of shocks, we uniquely utilize the recent rounds of nationally representative Periodic Labor Force Surveys (PLFS). To assess the “potential impact” of COVID 19 on workers, by using the large dataset, we match similar workers in different states of employment (SOE) where SOE may partly reflect the situation post shock. Job loss, reduction in work hours, movement across types of employment, casualization within RNFE is possible due to shocks to RNFE. We estimate that SOE in RNFE have significant association with poverty and income. With the data on COVID lockdown periods, we then validate the results to pair with the prospectively assessed impacts. Notwithstanding the effect of shocks, RNFE has the unique potential in recovery, being the prime rural income generator and risk mitigator apart from being characterized by comparatively high growth in female employment and in socially disadvantaged groups in India.     

For a fistful of pesetas? The political economy of the army in a nonconsolidated democracy: the Second Spanish Republic and Civil War (1931–9)

This article focuses on the importance of military factionalism in a nonconsolidated democracy: the Spanish Republic (1931–9). It builds a new micro-dataset for over 11,000 officers during the Spanish Civil War (1936–9) to study how professional and economic interests created divisions within the military and influenced officers’ allegiances during the war. Results confirm that distributional conflicts influenced officers’ decisions in Republican-controlled territories: officers who gained from military reforms in the years before the civil war and those with more rapid promotions in the months predating the war were more likely to remain loyal to the government. This article also explores the behavioural determinants of officers’ propensity to rebel and finds that hierarchy mattered, as senior officers influenced subordinates’ choices of side.     

The Political Economy of Middle‐Income Traps: Is South Africa in a Long‐Run Growth Trap? The Path to “Bounded Populism”

The current literature on middle‐income traps has been dominated by economists who have relied on economic explanations mainly around stages of development and the structural transformation of economies. But there is an equally vigorous literature from political science which speaks to the political economy of transitions. We look at the dynamics of how economic modernisation triggers structural changes with winners and losers and how this is reflected in the polarisation of the political sphere amongst middle‐income countries. This paper asks the question of whether South Africa is an archetypical example of a country stuck in a trap and how this has affected the policy choices that it has made. South Africa needs to move up the value chain with a viable value proposition, and this requires a very different policy set and human capital plan.