How ready-to-use therapeutic food shapes a new technological regime to treat child malnutrition

Since the turn of the 21st century ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) has emerged as the preferred solution to treat acute malnutrition without complications. RUTF is a more appropriate technology than formerly prevalent powdered milk solutions because it enables outpatient care, simpler treatment protocols and production in the field. In this paper we analyze the forces driving the diffusion of RUTF as an innovation to treat child malnutrition and discuss the main features characterizing the new technological regime that results from its wide adoption. We combine the theoretical discussion and the review of secondary sources with insights from field research in Ethiopia, encompassing personal interviews with relevant parties and direct observation of how RUTF works in practice. This technology assessment exercise enables us to suggest some opportunities for policy intervention.     

Regulating the banking industry in transition economies: Exploring interactions between capital and reserve requirements

This paper examines the ‘prudential' role of reserve requirements in transition economies using a general-equilibrium banking model. The analysis stresses the role that reserve requirements may play in enforcing an adequate level of bank capitalization in a context in which it is difficult to assess the true value of bank assets. The paper also explores the interactions that exist between capital and reserve requirements and the effect of these regulations on the financial structure of banks and on the level of credit and interest rates.     

School completion in urban Latin America: the voices of young people from an informal settlement

Despite progress in improving secondary school completion in Latin America, a high proportion of young people from urban marginalised neighbourhoods continue to drop out. On the basis of in-depth interviews with young people in an informal settlement of the City of Buenos Aires, the paper aims to broaden the understanding of the processes that lead to school dropout in these neighbourhoods. It does so by examining what young people value being and doing, and how they interpret the value of secondary school in their own lives and contexts. The results point to the critical importance of the family in young peoples’ processes of reasoning and decision-making, the complex interaction between capabilities, and the benefits of schools that provide social and emotional support to students and families. The paper argues that listening to the voices of young people can give significant insights for the design of policies to close the gap in education outcomes in segregated urban contexts.     

Polychoric versus Pearson correlations in exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of ordinal variables

Given that the use of Likert scales is increasingly common in the field of social research it is necessary to determine which methodology is the most suitable for analysing the data obtained; although, given the categorization of these scales, the results should be treated as ordinal data it is often the case that they are analysed using techniques designed for cardinal measures. One of the most widely used techniques for studying the construct validity of data is factor analysis, whether exploratory or confirmatory, and this method uses correlation matrices (generally Pearson) to obtain factor solutions. In this context, and by means of simulation studies, we aim to illustrate the advantages of using polychoric rather than Pearson correlations, taking into account that the latter require quantitative variables measured in intervals, and that the relationship between these variables has to be monotonic. The results show that the solutions obtained using polychoric correlations provide a more accurate reproduction of the measurement model used to generate the data.     

Promotion dynamics the Peter Principle: Incumbents vs. external hires

The “Peter Principle” (Peter and Hull, 1969; Fairburn and Malcomson, 2001; Lazear, 2004) suggests that individuals are “promoted to their level of incompetence”. A corollary of the “Peter Principle” prediction is that external hires should have an advantage when competing with incumbents for a higher position. Using five years of personnel records from a single large U.S. corporation, this paper contributes to the literature on internal labor markets and intra-firm job mobility by testing this prediction for career advancement. Results support the idea of differences in promotion dynamics among incumbents and external hires, since past career advancement within the firm result in a lower probability of subsequent promotion, even after controlling for workers' heterogeneity and tenure on the current job. The advantage for external hires does not hold once other job changes (lateral transfers, task reorganizations) are considered, highlighting that promotions are a very different job placement mechanism than transfers. Overall, the evidence points out towards declining performance following promotion, as opposed to alternative competing hypothesis of probation placement or “handicapping” external candidates.     

Would You Choose Your Preferred Option? Comparing Choice and Recoded Ranking Experiments

Previous research has shown that results from a choice experiment are statistically different from those obtained from a ranking experiment that is recoded and treated as a choice experiment using only the first rank. By avoiding some of the shortcomings of previous comparisons, we obtain the opposite results using data from the valuation of a cork oak reforestation program in the south of Spain. Structural models and welfare estimations are statistically indistinguishable irrespective of the use of parametric or bootstrapping tests. Further, we employ follow-up questions and subsample analysis to test whether divergences appear when potential effects are isolated.     

Determinants of cross-border M&As in Latin America

This article analyzes the determinants of cross-border M&As in the Latin American region during the period 1998-2004. Using a unique dataset of 868 Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) events, the study focuses attention on the effect of macroeconomic and investor protection conditions in the countries where the companies reside over the likelihood of these companies participating in a cross-border M&A transaction. The study considers the effect of company-specific variables in the likelihood of going cross-border. Univariate analysis and logistic regressions strongly support the idea that better economic and business-friendly conditions in the countries where the target operates, increase the likelihood of cross-border merger. Results show that not only is the business environment in the target country important but also in the bidder country. Lower levels of property rights protection in the acquirer country negatively affect the likelihood of a cross-border deal. Finally, the likelihood of a cross-border merger increases when the target faces higher cost of funding than the acquirer's.     

Liberalisation,Exports and Growth in Mexico 1978‐94: A structural analysis

In this paper, the results of an exports led growth strategy accompanied by a trade liberalisation policy, implemented in Mexico, are analysed for three periods 1978-82, 1983-87 and 1988-94. The input-output analysis is utilised, to determine the effects of manufacturing exports on gross output, to measure the degree of the global integration of the economy and, in particular, to measure the integration of the leading exporting manufacturing industries to domestic industries. The effects of liberalisation on increasing imports and the displacement of domestic production by imports, in manufacturing, are also measured and analysed. The general results of this analysis allowed us to conclude that the positive effect of increasing manufacturing exports on expanding production is limited and offset by the increasing manufacturing imports displacing domestic production. The increasing imports are mainly inputs demanded by growing exports.     

Macroeconomic stability and the optimal degree of capital mobility

This paper examines the relationship between capital mobility and the short-term stability of employment and of prices. It looks at the optimal degree of capital mobility to stabilize income. The sources of instability considered are fluctuations of domestic expenditure or absorption, net exports and international interest rate. In this latter case, loans at fixed nominal interest rates and floating rates are analyzed. Fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes are studied.