Developing a microfinance model to break the cycle of poverty

Multigenerational poverty is common in developing countries. Illiteracy, poor health, and unemployment compound a person’s ability to break the cycle of poverty. In this article, we break down the process of designing, testing, and implementing a microfinance model to help end multigenerational poverty in an impoverished refugee village in Uganda. We describe key decisions in developing the model and assess its effectiveness as an instrument in achieving this service objective. We believe our grassroots primary research can benefit many NGOs that might be contemplating lending programs in developing nations, as well as other collegiate institutions interested in implementing sustainable programs that allow students the opportunity to work on global issues in developing nations.     

反倾销的跨国实证分析——基于宏观经济因素对反倾销立案影响的理解

本文基于15个国家1995－2004年反倾销的统计数据,通过模型分析以及实证研究,表明宏观经济因素对反倾销立案存在显著影响。文章依据GDP增长率、失业率、汇率及经常项目差额等相关数据,指出这些变量与反倾销立案数量显著相关,强调失业率的影响比GDP增长率更加显著。在发展中国家中,汇率对反倾销立案数量影响的显著性较低,而经常项目差额对反倾销立案数量影响的显著性较高。本文的分析在一定程度上给政府制定反倾销政策提供了相关参考价值。     

Environmental Education and Poverty Reduction in Africa

The African environment poses formidable problems for sustainable socioeconomic development. Among these are unpredictable and increasing incidence of droughts, aridity, and desertification; decline in agricultural and natural resources productivity; water shortages for plants, animals, and humans; vector- and water-borne diseases; HIV/AIDS pandemic; unemployment; poverty; and crime. The paper highlights the socioeconomic development impediments within the continent that elevate poverty level. It analyses the extent and variation in poverty in Africa and identifies Environmental Education (EE) as one of the means of solving poverty problem in the continent through mass mobilization, enlightenment programs and introduction of EE at all levels of learning (formal and non-formal educational programs).     

Notes for Contributors

One aspect of globalisation is the convergence of income, media and technology, which in turn is expected to lead to homogeneous consumer behaviour. This convergence thesis is increasingly questioned. With converging national wealth there still is substantial variation of consumer behaviour across nations, which is not disappearing. Variation is found in all aspects of consumer behaviour: in consumption of packaged goods, in usage and ownership of durable goods, and in media behaviour. With disappearing differences of GNP per capita, culture is a powerful explaining variable. This paper provides evidence of divergence of consumer behaviour rather than convergence, it describes the influence of culture, how cultural variables can explain variance of consumption, and presents the consequences for international brand management and for global advertising.     

Growth,income distribution and unemployment in a two-sector economy

We build a two-sector general equilibrium growth model with capital-intensive consumption goods and a labour-intensive investment goods sector to investigate the coexistence of growth and unemployment. The model uses heterogeneity in saving behaviour, introduces an effective demand problem, has full employment of capital with input non-substitutability and shows that the aggregate labour employment is determined by available capital along with commodity market equilibrium. The long-run growth may not be balanced, and under biased growth, the level of unemployment may monotonically increase or decrease over time, or may first increase (decrease) and then decrease (increase). Such possible unemployment paths help us tightly define “jobless growth”.     

Linking Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth

In the 1980s stagflation and high unemployment caused a renewed interest in supply side economics and in factors determining economic growth. Simultaneously, the 1980s and 1990s have seen a reevaluation of the role of small firms and a renewed attention for entrepreneurship. The goal of this survey is to synthesize disparate strands of literature to link entrepreneurship to economic growth. This will be done by investigating the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth using elements of various fields: historical views on entrepreneurship, macro-economic growth theory, industrial economics (Porter's competitive advantage of nations), evolutionary economics, history of economic growth (rise and fall of nations) and the management literature on large corporate organizations. Understanding the role of entrepreneurship in the process of economic growth requires the decomposition of the concept of entrepreneurship. A first part of our synthesis is to contribute to the understanding of the dimensions involved, while paying attention to the level of analysis (individual, firm and aggregate level). A second part is to gain insight in the causal links between these entrepreneurial dimensions and economic growth. A third part is to make suggestions for future empirical research into the relationship between (dimensions of) entrepreneurship and economic growth.     

Wer ist von Altersarmut bedroht?

Which groups have particularly low pension entitlements and are therefore most at risk of poverty in old age? Participation in the labour force for some individuals may be interrupted for a variety of reasons, including education, unemployment, raising children or caring for relatives, all of which result in low pensions. Those who are most at risk of poverty in old age are individuals with low earnings, frequent or long periods of unemployment, and single, unemployed mothers. In other words, those impoverished while young are most likely to remain impoverished into old age. Poverty among the elderly should therefore be addressed with the same instruments with which poverty is being fought in earlier stages of life, rather than through changes in the statutory pension insurance system.     

Protection of the environment,international division of labour and the developing countries

Environmental problems are encountered today all over the world, but they raise by their causes and nature two clearly distinguishable sets of problems in the economies of developing and developed countries. While those facing the industrialized nations result in the main from the industrial growth process, the typical environmental problems of the developing countries stem essentially from factors inherent in the low level of economic development—poverty, disease and inadequacy of basic supplies.     

Corruption and Development: New Initiatives in Economic Openness and Strengthened Rule of Law

Corruption is a major problem in many of the world’s developing economies today. World Bank studies put bribery at over $1 trillion per year accounting for up to 12 of the GDP of nations like Nigeria, Kenya and Venezuela. Though largely ignored for many years, interest in world wide corruption has been rekindled by recent corporate scandals in the US and Europe. Corruption in the developing nations is said to result from a number of factors. Mass poverty has been cited as a facilitating condition for corruption just as an inability to manage a sudden upsurge in mineral revenues has been credited with breeding corruption and adventurous government procurement among public officials in countries like Nigeria and Venezuela. Virtually all developing nations that have serious corruption problems also have very limited economic freedom and a very weak enforcement of the rule of law. In such nations, corruption represents a regressive taxation that bears hard on the poor. It has a dampening effect on development and it could result in the production of inferior goods as companies find ways to accommodate under-the-table payments. Finally, corruption is a dangerous threat to the legitimacy of the governments of some of the developing nations themselves. It is suggested that new urgent initiatives are needed to deal with the dangers posed by corruption in the developing economies. They include making the economies of these nations more open by the withdrawal of the government from the productive sector and by the abolition of unnecessarily stringent restrictions on business conduct. The rule of law needs to be strengthened in these nations and those countries like Nigeria and Venezuela should ignore scruples over sovereignty and seek foreign assistance in the management of their oil wealth. Finally, multinationals should be made to disclose all the payments they make in developing nations to such organizations like International Chamber of Commerce or Transparency International where they can be reviewed by anyone interested.     

社区邻里效应对个人贫困的影响有多大

社区邻里效应是造成个体长期贫困以及贫困集聚的主要原因之一,研究中国的社区邻里效应现象有助于解决中国的贫困集聚问题。本文基于中国健康与营养调查(CHNS)1989—2015年的数据,检验了社区邻里效应的存在性,计算了社区邻里效应对个体贫困概率的影响大小,探究了社区邻里效应对个体贫困的长期影响以及对个体贫困时长的影响,最后还计算了社区邻里效应能够解释个体贫困、学历水平以及收入水平差异的百分比。结果发现:中国存在显著的社区邻里效应,同时社区邻里效应具有非线性特征;良好的社区邻里环境使得个体贫困概率显著降低、学历水平和收入水平显著提高,女性和城市个体的贫困状态更易受到社区邻里效应的影响,不可观测因素在一定程度上增强了社区邻里效应对个体贫困、学历和收入的作用;社区邻里效应对个体贫困的影响具有长期特征,对个人贫困时长的影响也十分显著;个体贫困状态差异的1/4、个体学历水平和收入水平差异的1/5可归因于社区邻里效应。因此,扶贫过程中应当关注社区邻里效应。     

A SCHUMPETERIAN GROWTH MODEL WITH EQUILIBRIUM UNEMPLOYMENT

We introduce efficiency‐wage unemployment in a model of growth with endogenous technical change. Our research aim is twofold. First, we try to provide an analytically tractable model of growth with efficiency‐wage unemployment that can be viewed as alternative to the standard models of growth and search unemployment. Second, we try to analyze the steady‐state effects of some labor market policies on unemployment and growth. We find that a positive relationship between growth and unemployment exists and that the effectiveness of any labor market policy aimed at improving the performance of the labor market crucially depends on how individuals discount future income.     

Trade,Technology and Human Capital: Stylised Facts and Quantitative Evidence

Stylised evidence on trade, total factor productivity (TFP) and skill intensity of the labour force is presented. Features emerging as salient are: growing trade in technology‐intensive products from the industrialised nations to the relatively laggard nations leads to embodied technology diffusion; the technology‐intensive sectors have larger shares of skilled workers; countries experiencing TFP growth usually have higher levels of educational attainment; also, the skilled labour payment share for a sector is positively associated with that sector’s regional trade share. These facts together help explain why endowment of more skilled labour facilitates absorption of technology ferried via trade.     

东北老工业基地总量性失业分析

在东北老工业基地改造的过程中,失业是需要迫切解决的问题.东北老工业基地的失业以总量性失业为主.从总量性失业的供求分析,人口生产的无计划性是决定劳动力供给规模的首要因素,农业剩余劳动力的转移导致了劳动力供给的持续性增加,产业结构不合理阻碍了劳动力需求的扩张,所有制结构调整迟缓限制了劳动力需求的增长.东北老工业基地失业的治理,应控制劳动力供给的增长,扩大劳动力需求,大力发展第三产业,增强科技进步对就业的扩张效应.     

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America in the 1990s

Summary

FDI in Latin America has witnessed a resurgence in the 1990s after the debt crisis and capital drought of the 1980s. This inflow results both from more market-friendly policies in the recipient countries and lower returns and growth in developed nations. The latter factor has also attracted many short-term, portfolio instruments to the continent which can be highly damaging to local economies when not properly regulated. Privatization has been among the more important country-specific variables attracting direct investors to the region. Despite the positive effects of FDI, Latin American countries are still beset with problems such as unequal distribution of income and poverty that direct investment is unlikely to ameliorate.     

Sectoral shifts Impact on Hong Kong workers

This paper documents the accelerating rate of economic transformation in Hong Kong during the 1980s and its impact on the labour market. Earnings in expanding sectors have risen faster than earnings in declining sectors. The magnitude of the effect, however, is small and variable. Sectoral shifts have also had negligible effects on aggregate unemployment and unemployment in declining sectors. It is found that the degree of earnings inequality has increased contemporaneously with the rising rate of economic transformation. The earnings of less well-educated workers have fallen relative to other workers. The earnings of elderly workers, however, have not fallen relative to other workers. The reallocation of labour from low-wage sectors to high-wage sectors has resulted in a substantial growth in earnings for most workers involved.     

The responses of U.S. multinational corporations to increased competition for international markets

Abstract

Extending the original Taylor rule and applying the VAR model, the author finds that the federal funds rate (FFR) responds positively to a shock to the output gap, the inflation gap, the long-term interest rate, or the lagged FFR, and it reacts negatively to a shock to the unemployment rate gap or the exchange rate. The response of FFR to stock prices is insignificant at the 5% level. The long-term rate can explain up to 41.3% or 46.1% of the variation in FFR, depending on the model considered. The exchange rate can explain up to 8.5% or 12.3% of the variance, depending on the model considered. The output gap can explain up to 26.6% of FFR variance. The unemployment rate gap can explain up to 26.8% of the variation in FFR. Because FFR responds to a shock to the output gap and the unemployment rate gap in a similar manner, both may be considered in conducting monetary policy. The more explanatory power of the long-term interest rate than the inflation gap may suggest that both need to be taken into consideration in the Taylor rule.     

Indian ocean rim trade bloc: Prospects and problems

This article advances the view that regional integration among ten nations along the Indian Ocean rim will have positive economic and political consequences for all the members. Emergence of this geographically large area with one-fourth of the human population will be good for financial markets and the global economy as well. Planned regional arrangements will offer major benefits to outsiders, for example, Gulf countries, by stimulating growth and enhancing market forces. Traditional enmity between India and Pakistan, however, and the economic and political adjustments that South Africa is undergoing after the first free election may prevent cooperation in the region, not to mention the fact that the area has deep economic problems with mass poverty and low per capita incomes. Problems aside, there are hopeful signs, both economic and political, that encourage the Indian Ocean rim nations to seriously consider establishing a regional trade bloc. For example, a substantial middle class is emerging in the area. Industrialization is slowly progressing, challenging the dominance of the agricultural sector. India, however, will have to take the initiative in the matter. The size of her economy and her pre-eminence as a regional political force equip India to play the key role in the establishment of a regional agreement in the area.     

Problems of urban development planning

In developing countries the urbanisation process poses one of the most serious problems, for it creates unemployment, utmost poverty and aggravates the general situation. In this article the case of indonesia is discussed and possible strategies for a future improvement of such a situation are pointed out.     

GROWTH,UNEMPLOYMENT AND ENDOGENOUS TECHNICAL PROGRESS: A HICKSIAN RESOLUTION OF HARROD'S KNIFE‐EDGE

This paper presents a neo‐Kaleckian growth model with unemployment, endogenous technical progress, and a steady‐state requirement of balanced labor demand and supply growth. There are two key innovations: first, a Marx–Hicks unemployment rate–profit rate channel affecting labor‐saving technical progress; second, a Keynesian unemployment rate channel affecting saving and investment. Changes in the unemployment rate change the profit rate, rebalancing effective labor supply and employment growth. This provides a Hicksian resolution of Harrod's knife‐edge. The Keynesian unemployment rate channel strengthens the growth benefits of a lower unemployment rate, potentially obviating any growth–unemployment trade‐off.     

Absolute and Relative Restriction and Consumer Behavior: Implications for Understanding Global Consumption

Our premise is that researchers have much to gain from an understanding of the global marketplace experiences of impoverished consumers. We argue that influences of absolute and relative restriction, across peoples and societies, are particularly critical. Therefore, this research makes progress by evaluating consumer data from diverse cultures and nations using hierarchical linear models, revealing ways restriction through poverty and consumption impacts well‐being. We find that understanding both absolute and relative poverty is necessary for a more complete picture. Specifically, interactions show that absolute restriction moderates relationships between relative restriction and consumption and well‐being by muting or exacerbating the effects.