Women's Work Choices in Kenya: The Role of Social Institutions and Household Gender Attitudes

This study considers the factors that influence women's work behavior in Kenya. In particular, it examines whether gender attitudes and certain types of social institution influence the probability of employment or type of employment for women. Using data from the Demographic and Health Survey of 2008–9, it finds that religion and ethnicity are significant determinants of women's employment in Kenya. While personal experience of female genital mutilation is insignificant, spousal age and education differences, as well as marital status (which reflect attitudes both in women's natal and marital families), are significant determinants of women's employment choices.     

Gender Bias in Education in West Bengal

This paper attempts to capture gender bias at two different levels of education, namely, below class-10 and above class-10 using NSSO 64th round education expenditure data on West Bengal. The analysis for the below class-10 level involves an intra household framework and Heckman’s two step model. Further, for this section the analysis is split up into classes 1–8 and classes 9–10 in view of the Right to Education act (2005). For above class-10 level, gender bias has been captured through a multinomial logit model for selection of subjects across households.

     

高等教育与社会资本:性别视角下的审视

使用中国人民大学中国调查与数据中心"中国教育长期追踪调查"数据,分析大学生求职就业中所呈现出的性别差异,社会资本对大学生求职的影响及作用机制的性别差异。女大学生社会资本存量、尤其是自致性社会资本存量并不低于男大学生,她们对于社会资本的利用程度也并不弱于男大学生,但社会资本对男女两性就业的影响体现出明显差异。相较于女性,社会资本对男性就业发挥更大作用。刻板化的性别意识会阻碍社会资本对女大学生就业的促进作用,从而难以缩小大学生就业的性别差异。     

Gender Development, Institutions, and Level of Economic Development

Gender inequality and the lack of gender development are major problems in developing countries. Neoclassical economics has generally argued that economic development will greatly enhance gender development. However, more recent work has emphasized the role of institutions. In this paper, a distinction is made between malleable institutions and those that change only over long periods of time. Empirical estimations of the impacts of economic development, malleable institutions, and hard-to-change institutions on gender development are carried out. The results indicate that both economic development and reform of malleable institutions are important determinants of relative gender performance. However, non-malleable institutions and cultural practices limit the impact that reform and economic development can have on relative gender performance.     

Gender Bias, Credit Constraints and Time Allocation in Rural India

This paper examines the impact of a child's gender on the time allocation of rural Indian households for the five-year period subsequent to its birth. A theoretical model generates predictions for the effect of the birth of a boy relative to a girl (i.e., the gender shock) on household behaviour when the household is liquidity constrained and when it is not. The results from the empirical analysis are consistent with the case in which poorer households are liquidity constrained and less poor households are not. The interpretation of the finding that women in both groups of households work less subsequent to the birth of a boy relative to a girl differs in these two cases.     

Social Innovation,Gender, and Technology: Bridging the Resource Gap

Some of the most important resources are intangible, such as knowledge and access to networks. In the developing world, technology can facilitate these resources and address basic human needs in a variety of ways: from provision of farmer training and cloud-controlled clean water systems to health information and mobile money services. Some of these services expand access to resources in ways that particularly benefit women. In environments where women are disadvantaged socially and economically, information and communications technologies (ICT) can enable women to access valuable information, consider a broader range of business opportunities, access wider markets, partake in educational programs, and share experiences with and gain mentorship from other women. However, there are large gender gaps in the access to technology, particularly in rural areas. To begin, I briefly discuss the role of technology in development, and consider the extent and significance of technology gender gaps. Next, I review key barriers to reducing these gaps, and discuss the concept of social innovation as it applies to technology interventions. Examples from five social innovations in India — a country with large technology gender gaps — illustrate the range of possibilities for innovative access to and use of ICT for diverse target groups. I conclude with some suggestions for further improvement in this area.     

Uncertainty,Rationality and the Study of Social Institutions

The insight that both ontological and epistemological perspectives are intertwined is certainly correct, but at the same time insufficient to differentiate mainstream from heterodox approaches to economic institutions. As this paper argues, it is important whether one starts from ontological or epistemological considerations first. The paper suggests that the difference can be described in terms of function versus rules and demonstrates that an intersubjective ontology for institutions requires also an intersubjective epistemology. Otherwise, ontological precepts contradict the epistemological ones with important repercussions for understanding knowledge, rationality and institutions.     

Why Young Boys Stumble: Early Tracking,Age and Gender Bias in the German School System

Abstract. After primary school, German pupils are given a secondary school track recommendation. This recommendation and the actual track choice are strongly associated with later life outcomes. Using data from the German PISA 2000 extension study, we analyze the effect of relative age on track recommendations and actual choice. Younger pupils and boys are less likely to be recommended to and enrolled in the academic track (Gymnasium), the most attractive track in terms of later life outcomes. Flexible enrollment and grade retention partly offset these effects. We find no convincing evidence that postponing the recommendation by lengthening primary school by 2 years reduces the age or gender bias.     

把未成年人教育摆在全社会的优先位置

未成年人教育关系到全社会的可持续发展。《中共中央、国务院关于进一步加强和改进未成年人思想道德建设的若干意见》指出：要“从树立和落实科学发展观,坚持以人为本,执政为民的高度,充分认识加强和改进未成年人思想道德建设的重要性和紧迫性”。胡锦涛总书记强调,加强未成年人思想道德建设要“遵循未成年人思想道德建设规律,以人为本”。     

社会创业导向、跨界搜索与社会企业绩效：市场环境的调节作用

作为社会企业重要战略选择,社会创业导向能够促进跨界搜索以获取灵感和动力,从而推动社会企业双元绩效提升。因此,基于组织搜索理论,遵循“态度—行为—结果”研究范式,将市场环境引入社会企业创业导向、跨界搜索与社会企业双元绩效关系模型,基于问卷数据验证社会创业导向对社会企业双元绩效的作用机制及外部影响。结果表明：①社会创业导向对社会企业经济和社会绩效具有积极影响;②跨界搜索在社会创业导向与社会企业经济和社会绩效间起部分中介作用;③市场环境作为关键外部环境因素,正向调节社会创业导向与跨界搜索的关系以及跨界搜索与社会企业经济绩效的关系,负向调节跨界搜索与社会企业社会绩效的关系。因此,整个模型能够回答社会创业导向如何推动社会企业双元绩效增长问题。此外,市场环境的技术动态性和需求不确定性促使市场逻辑在社会企业跨界搜索行为中占据主导地位,因而社会企业需要高度重视自身使命和价值共创,促进经济效益和社会价值实现。     

The Editorial Boards of Italian Economics Journals: Women,Gender, and Social Networking

In Italy, women's advancement in economics has been curtailed by the structure of editorial boards of Italian economics journals. In this paper, we examine the presence of men and women economists on the editorial boards of thirty-six Italian economics journals published since 1970 and analyze the gender distribution across different kinds of boards, roles, and fields. Because boards are hierarchically ordered, women work mostly in the lower positions, and the increase in women's participation has led only to more "editorial secretaries." Since men and women tend to have different scientific interests and men's standards of academic value prevail, women economists cannot build publication records as strong as those of their male colleagues, which, in turn, affects women's hiring, promotion, and wages, as well as the shape of the discipline.     

水资源管理的外部性及其校正策略研究

水资源管理的外部性效应有三种校正策略：法律校正策略、市场校正策略、政府校正策略。在法律校正策略的基础上，应该将市场策略和政府策略相结合。只有将多种手段有机结合，协调互补，才能在水资源管理中发挥最大的效用，兼顾到经济目标、社会目标和生态目标。     

Resource Curse: New Evidence on the Role of Institutions

This paper attempts to provide a probable answer to a longstanding resource curse puzzle; i.e., why resource-rich nations grow at a slower rate compared with less fortunate ones. Using an innovative threshold estimation technique, the empirical results reveal that there is a threshold effect in the natural resources–economic growth relationship. We find that the impact of natural resources is meaningful to economic growth only after a certain threshold point of institutional quality has been attained. The results also shed light on the fact that the nations that have low institutional quality depend heavily on natural resources while countries with high quality institutions are relatively less dependent on natural resources to generate growth.     

Religion and Economic Development in History: Institutions and the Role of Religious Networks

I argue that the role of religion on economic performance is mainly through the networks of small religious groups. These groups form social networks that enable individuals to conduct non-formal contract enforcement mechanisms. I analyze the effects of religions on societies, focusing mainly on the institutional aspects that affect the capabilities of creating social capital via networks which enhance cooperation and decrease transaction costs. Since the interaction between institutions and organizations is expected to shape the institutional evolution and economic performance of an economy, religions that have a communal form of organization rather than a vertical (hierarchical) structure, thus allowing many different denominational sub-communities within a society, can be more beneficiary for development and growth. Such institutions may not only provide allocative and production efficiency, but also adaptive efficiency that is a key to long-run growth. However, these effects may turn negative depending on these institutions’ role in causing group hostility and exclusion.     

The Fundamental Character of Socioeconomic Exploitation: Human Nature,Technology, Social Institutions,and Ideology

Abstract:

Although the concept of socioeconomic exploitation often appears in heterodox economics, its use varies considerably and it is seldom given a well-developed conceptual foundation. The project of this article is to propose a foundation by drawing upon our species’ history to uncover exploitation’s causes and dynamics. Socioeconomic exploitation exists where political or economic power is used by some to gain advantage at others’ expense. Its root force is found in human biology, the fact that as a socially-reproducing species, humans compete for mates, and exploitation of others can generate a competitive advantage. Social institutions direct and channel this competitiveness. Accordingly, during 97–98 percent of our species’ existence, competitiveness was not expressed by accumulating material wealth and political power, but by being good warriors and foragers, being cooperative, and being generous. Socioeconomic exploitation accompanied the rise of civilization and the state, when metal-based weaponry enabled a few to gain control over society and ownership and control over the means of production, subjugating all others and appropriating their surplus. Although violence stood behind this exploitation, ideology served as the principal political tool for its maintenance. It is the force of ideology that clarifies why, even with free speech, free press, free assembly, and the franchise, exploitation continues to exist.     

First-Year Study Success in Economics and Econometrics: The Role of Gender,Motivation, and Math Skills

In this study, the authors investigate the relationships among gender, math skills, motivation, and study success in economics and econometrics. They find that female students have stronger intrinsic motivation, yet lower study confidence than their male counterparts. They also find weak evidence for a gender gap over the entire first-year curriculum of economics or econometrics. In terms of size and significance, their estimates of gender effects rank below the effects of preparatory education and motivation.     

Worker Personality: Another Skill Bias beyond Education in the Digital Age

We present empirical evidence suggesting that technological progress in the digital age will be biased not only with respect to skills acquired through education but additionally with respect to non‐cognitive skills (personality). We measure the direction of technological change by estimated future digitalization probabilities of occupations, and non‐cognitive skills by the Big Five personality traits from four German worker surveys. Even though we control for education and work experience, we find that workers who are more open to experience, emotionally more stable and less agreeable will tend to be less susceptible to digitalization. We also find that future technological progress may not continue to hollow out the middle class as much as it did in the recent past. These results suggest that education and labor market policies should put more emphasis on children's and workers’ personalities to strengthen their labor market resilience in the digital age.