Why conditional aid does not work and what can be done about it?

This paper studies a simple reform that introduces ex post incentives for the donor to reward good policies—contrary to existing practices. Instead of committing aid to each recipient ex ante and making aid conditional on reform, the donor centralizes the disbursement decision by committing aid to a group of countries. The actual amount disbursed to each individual country would depend on its relative performance. This explicit linkage of the allocation and disbursement decisions has two important advantages as compared to present practices. First, it raises the opportunity cost of disbursing aid ex post, thereby giving the donor stronger incentives to reward good policies. Second, competition among recipients allows the donor to make inferences about common shocks, which otherwise conceal the recipient's choice of action. This enables the donor to give aid more efficiently.     

The Missing Link: China's Contracted Engineering Projects in Africa

This paper examines the driving forces of China's contracted engineering projects in Africa. Using data on contracted engineering projects in 52 African countries over the period 1991–2010, three groups of hypotheses are tested: (1) economic motives; (2) political ties between China and Africa; and (3) host country characteristics. We find that countries get more projects if they have large market potential and are political allies of China. Our results also suggest that Forums on China–Africa Cooperation promote projects in Africa. In contrast, host country characteristics are hardly related to the amount of engineering projects received.     

Like it or not? How the economic and institutional environment shapes individual attitudes towards multinational enterprises

This paper analyses the determinants of people's attitudes towards foreign direct investment (FDI) using a survey‐based data set that covers a wide range of rich and poor countries. We find that both individual socioeconomic characteristics and macroeconomic and institutional factors shape agents’ attitudes towards multinational firms. Moreover, we find that the influence of an individual's characteristics—such as education and the status as an entrepreneur—on her/his perspective on multinationals depends on the respective country's per‐capita income. Our results confirm the conjecture that relative individual attitudes towards multinationals reflect distributional interests as suggested by economic theory.     

Risk capital,private credit,and innovative production

Abstract Although ideas production plays a critical role for growth, there has been only a modicum of research on the role played by financial forces in fostering new inventions. Drawing on Schumpeterian growth theory, this paper tests the roles of risk capital and private credit in stimulating knowledge production. Using panel data for 77 countries over the period 1965–2009, we find that countries with more developed financial systems are more innovative. A stronger patent protection framework, on the other hand, curbs innovative production.     

Physiological constraints and the transition to growth: implications for comparative development

It is a well known fact that economic development and distance to the equator are positively correlated variables in the world today. It is perhaps less well known that as recently as 1500 C.E. it was the other way around. The present paper provides a theory of why the ‘latitude gradient’ changed sign in the course of the last half millennium. In particular, we develop a dynamic model of economic and physiological development in which households decide upon the number and nutrition of their offspring. In this setting we demonstrate that relatively high metabolic costs of fertility, which may have emerged due to positive selection towards greater cold tolerance in locations away from the equator, would work to stifle economic development during pre-industrial times, yet allow for an early onset of sustained growth. As a result, the theory suggests a reversal of fortune whereby economic activity gradually shifts away from the equator in the process of long-term economic development. Our empirical results give supporting evidence for our hypothesis.

     

The Power of Scientometrics and the Development of Economics

Citation metrics and its related indices and rankings have become increasingly important in the evaluation of research. Such indices are part of a more general tendency aiming for the simplification of complex and interconnected phenomena through quantification. The purpose of our contribution is to analyze the impact of such quantitative indices on the further development of science, with a special emphasis on economics. In this case, we observe a multitude of interesting effects on both the level of individual scientists and the global development of the discipline.     

How Does a Product Gain the Status of a Necessity? An Analysis of Necessitation Narratives

The consumer perception of how products gain the status of necessities is characterized by complexity, laden with idiosyncratic consumer experiences, and driven by personally relevant historical developments. This study pushes the theoretical boundaries of understanding consumer necessities by reaching beyond the classification of products into traditional dichotomies such as necessity–luxury and need–want. It focuses on how consumers experience and recount emotion‐laden events in their lives whereby certain products move to being perceived as necessities over time. An analysis of narratives reveals that product necessitation encompasses five stages: familiarization, transformation in the form of redemption or contamination, memorialization, (re)integration and reconstruction, and solidification. Comprehending necessitation experiences is of great interest to marketers in creating effective marketing strategies as well as to public policymakers in ensuring that their citizens have access to life necessities.     

Who is an expat-preneur? Toward a better understanding of a key talent sector supporting international entrepreneurship

The conceptualization of immigrant entrepreneurs has recently expanded to consider some of them as a sub-type of self-initiated expatriates that move across national borders to engage in entrepreneurial activities and opportunities. Known as “expat-preneurs,” and in spite of their growing numbers, this segment of the immigrant entrepreneur population has received far less attention than other types of immigrants in the international and diaspora entrepreneurship literature, and even less attention in the self-initiated expatriate field of study. In this article, we seek to address the gap in empirical studies about expat-preneurs as an important, albeit under-researched, segment of the immigrant entrepreneur and self-initiated expatriate diaspora. While we acknowledge that there may be controversy as to how our entrepreneurship lens is accepted in the international entrepreneurship domain, we see particular value in engaging with the ongoing and emerging discussion within JIEN about what international entrepreneurship can be. To advance the study of expat-preneurs from a theoretical standpoint, we demonstrate empirically that aggregating various kinds of self-initiated expatriates without first ensuring that they are demographically comparable (i.e., that there can be different types) can potentially contribute to poor construct clarity and validity about this field of research in general. More importantly, it can diminish the important role of expat-preneurs in particular within the international entrepreneurship domain, for example, by ignoring that their motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activity differs from the majority of necessity-based diaspora entrepreneurs. To illustrate our point, we surveyed self-initiated expatriates in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore and compared personal characteristics. We found differences regarding their age, position, time in current job in the host location, time as an expatriate, and time in the host location overall to suggest that not all self-initiated expatriates are the same. While we found no intergroup differences for educational level, gender, or marital status, clear distinctions emerged showing that expat-preneurs are different from company-employed self-initiated expatriates. We discuss theoretical implications arising from these findings.     

Boundary conditions of the effect of customer coproduction: the case of service failure

Research on the relationship between customer coproduction and satisfaction has produced mixed results even after accounting for the role of attribution. This paper extends prior research on boundary conditions and examines the role of customer participation readiness (PR) during encounters that end with service failure. Based on congruence and zone-of-tolerance theories, the two empirical studies suggest that (a) increasing levels of coproduction combined with increasing levels of PR escalates dissatisfaction and weakens attitudinal loyalty; (b) psychological reactance and expectancy disconfirmation mediate these relationships; (c) increasing levels of coproduction combined with increasing levels of external attribution reduce dissatisfaction and mitigate the adverse effect on attitudinal loyalty; and (d) PR interacts with customer coproduction to influence how customers make attributions. Future research should consider the role of PR in service failures. Where feasible, managers should gather and utilise individual-level PR data in order to predict customer attributions and dissatisfaction.