DESIRABILITY AND SEQUENCE OF LIBERALIZATION AND STRUCTURAL REFORM POLICIES IN A MODEL WITH INFORMAL SECTOR

The paper develops a three-sector general equilibrium model with informal sector and examines the welfare effects of liberalization and structural reform in the presence of labor and capital market distortions. It attempts to determine a credible sequence of reforms that may be the most welfare-enhancing, since implementation of reforms in all the markets at a single stage may be neither feasible nor optimal. Foreign capital is welfare-improving only in the presence of labor market distortion, while welfare deteriorates if the capital market is distorted. While tariff and capital market reforms may be welfare-enhancing in the absence of labor market distortion, labor market reform may intensify the formal-informal wage gap and have a worsening effect on welfare in the presence of tariff distortion and capital market imperfection. One of the plausible sequences of reforms may be to initially undertake tariff reform followed by capital and labor market reforms, respectively.     

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SECTORS IN CHINA AND INDIA

This paper discusses the estimation of a social accounting matrix that distinguishes between formal and informal activities for China and India for 2000 and 1998–99 respectively. Wage shares for formal/informal employment in China and net domestic product shares for organized/unorganized sectors in India are used as weights to calculate the size of the two sectors. The proposed methodology is a first step towards an integrated approach to account for the dualism of many economies in the developing world. The results can serve as data input for any policy-driven CGE model for developing countries.     

THE RELATIVE PERFORMANCE OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL SECTORS IN INDIA

We evaluate the relative performance of formal and informal sectors in India by looking into their productivity difference. Recognizing the intersectoral linkages in the economy, the competitive general equilibrium prices are computed; these signal the productivities. Our model synthesizes frontier analysis with the general equilibrium approach to generate shadow prices. The formal activities are found to be more productive than the informal. However, the informal services sector is as efficient as the formal one. There would be an overall productivity gain of 22% to the economy if factors were allocated to productive activities. The shadow prices from the model indicate that the formal capital and informal capital are scarce factors, while it has been the opposite for formal (regular) and informal (casual) labour. Formal labour is more productive than its informal counterpart; formal capital and informal capital are equally productive.     

BANKING SECTOR POLICIES AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN NEPAL

ABSTRACT This paper examines the interactions between banking sector policies, financial development and economic growth in Nepal employing recently developed time series techniques. Policies such as interest rate controls, directed credit programmes, reserve and liquidity requirements are identified and measured. A summary measure of repressive policies is constructed by the method of principal components. This measure is found to have a statistically significant influence deepening, independently of the real interest rate. We argue that our findings are consistent with the hypothesis of market failure. Exogeneity tests suggest that financial deepening and economic growth are jointly determined. Thus, policies which affect financial deepening may also have an influence on economic growth.     

NETWORKS,INNOVATION AND REGULATION

The design and operation of Britain's energy networks have not changed significantly in 50 years. Energy networks will have a central role to play in decarbonising the economy. Unprecedented levels of technical and commercial innovation are likely to be necessary. The existing incentive‐based approach to regulating the monopoly networks has been a success in lowering prices whilst delivering investment and improved reliability. But it will need to change to encourage and reward these levels of innovation. This paper sets out some of the regulators' thinking on the changes required.     

FROM EXOGENOUS TO ENDOGENOUS ECONOMIC NETWORKS: INTERNET APPLICATIONS

Abstract.  Economic agents' behaviour is affected by their position in a network, either exogenous or endogenous, in which they interact with a sub-set of neighbours only. The network's links, which may be generated by vertical and/or horizontal relations, or by more complex morphologies, may explain the transition between dynamic equilibria and the instability of economic aggregates. Moreover, networks shape strategic interaction among agents by determining their strategies; the problem of access and interconnection, particularly relevant in the Internet, is perhaps the best example. A two-way feedback between strategies and network structures arises instead when links are endogenous: those features are clearly shown in the mechanism underlying the formation of peering links and R & D networks.     

EFA AND PRIVATE EDUCATION: SOME REGIONAL EXPERIENCES AND FINDINGS

Many developing and transitional countries do not have sufficient resources or capacities to meet the Education for All goals. Given that private education is a growing reality around the world, partnerships between governments and private providers may support attempts to meet the goals of EFA. This article uses recent empirical research from a variety of regions to examine the appropriate roles of the government and the private sector in the provision of primary, basic and secondary levels of instruction.     

HAYEK, 'THE INTELLECTUALS AND SOCIALISM', AND WEIGHTED SCALE-FREE NETWORKS

In 1949, Hayek attributed the dominant position of planning in the West to the role of intellectuals, by which he meant 'professional second-hand dealers in ideas' such as journalists and commentators. Later in the twentieth century, we saw a similar phenomenon: particular social ideas, although frequently falsified empirically, have come to dominate through the efforts of intellectuals. This paper addresses how a small minority can set so decisively the terms of the debate. Hayek conjectured that this was the case, but did not specify the mechanism by which this can occur. Recent advances in network theory about how ideas can either spread across, or disappear in, a social network of individuals can explain this phenomenon. The implication of Hayek's insight, validated by modern network theory, is that think tanks should seek to influence 'professional second-hand dealers in ideas' rather than adopt the naïve democratic principle of trying to persuade individual voters.     

BANKING SECTOR PERFORMANCE,PROFITABILITY, AND EFFICIENCY: A CITATION-BASED SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

This study presents a citation-based systematic literature review on banking sector performance, particularly in terms of profitability, productivity, and efficiency. Specifically, the study aims to identify the leading sources of knowledge in terms of the most influential journals, authors, and papers. The paper presents a content analysis of the 100 most cited papers. In total, 1996 peer-review papers were found relevant in the Scopus database by using a comprehensive list of keywords. The results show that the Journal of Banking & Finance appears to be the leading journal in terms of publication count and citations. Based on total citations, Allen Berger is the most prolific author. The most cited paper is “Problem loans and cost efficiency in commercial banks” by Allan Berger and Robert DeYoung. The content analysis of the top 100 papers identifies five essential themes: determinants of efficiency, methodology, ownership, financial crises, and scale economies. In terms of estimation approaches, 74% of papers employed frontier analysis, which includes 34% parametric and 40% nonparametric methods, and remaining 26% have used financial ratio analysis. Additionally, stochastic frontier and data envelopment analysis are widely used in parametric and nonparametric methods, respectively. An intermediate approach is extensively adopted for the specification of inputs and outputs.     

PUBLIC SERVICES MANAGEMENT: ACTIVITIES, INITIATIVES AND LIMITS TO LEARNING

Private sector-style management initiatives to ensure UK public services managers’ learning from private sector management practice are examined, and their rationale questioned. The lack of a coherent, systematic and agreed view of what constitutes ‘management’ and ‘managerial work’ in the private sector is discussed. It is argued that there are reasons for believing that the particular character and organizational contexts of public services will require different managerial behaviours. The manner in which experimental managerial initiatives in some public services have shifted into mandatory innovations is examined. Such innovations can be incompatible with the values of those managing in the public service, who frequently fail to recognize the advantages of late innovation, incrementalism and circumspection. In public services particularly, many managerial activities are the province of ‘non managerial’ staff. Though frequently not considered, the values of these de facto managers may be central to the progress of such innovations. It is further argued that risk-taking as applied in a business context is inappropriate to the degree that public services managers must be concerned with the common weal, equity and accountability. The article concludes with a detailed research agenda to support the need to recognize public services management as a rich and varied area of managerial behaviour in its own right. Its character and variation warrants further investigation as a basis for formulating more appropriate management concepts against which to measure public services managers’ behaviour and performance.     

INTERNAL MIGRATION IN TURKEY, 1965–1985: TEST OF CONFLICTING FINDINGS IN THE LITERATURE

The purpose of this paper is to bring new insights to some of the conflicting findings in the migration literature about developing countries by using detailed analyses of Turkish migration data. The possible reasons behind inconsistencies in the findings are explained in terms of spatial and temporal characteristics of the data, and by national macro factors (mainly the level of urbanization and the characteristics of the urban systems). Tested were rural out-migration and push factors; changes in the size of rural-to-urban and urban-to-rural return migration; the effect of distance; and the share and effect of rural-to-urban migration in the urban growth and in the unbalanced population distribution in developing countries.     

MANAGEMENT, MASCULINITY AND MANIPULATION: FROM PATERNALISM TO CORPORATE STRATEGY IN FINANCIAL SERVICES IN BRITAIN*

This article is concerned to demonstrate that paternalism and strategic management as forms, styles or ‘techniques’of managing people and organizations, are both constitutive of and embedded in what we term a ‘discourse of masculinism’. Within the context of the UK financial services industry, we examine how this discourse reflects and reproduces management practices, and reconstitutes individuals in accordance with masculinist priorities. This has the effect of privileging men vis-a-vis women, serves to rank some men above others, and maintains as dominant certain forms and practices of masculinity. We identify two of these as ‘paternalistic masculinity’and ‘competitive masculinity’respectively, regarding them as concrete manifestations of the interplay between historically shifting forms of management and masculinities in operation.