META‐ANALYSIS OF ECONOMICS RESEARCH REPORTING GUIDELINES

Meta‐regression analysis (MRA) can provide objective and comprehensive summaries of economics research. Their use has grown rapidly over the last few decades. To improve transparency and to raise the quality of MRA, the meta‐analysis of economics research‐network (MAER‐Net) has created the below reporting guidelines. Future meta‐analyses in economics will be expected to follow these guidelines or give valid reasons why a meta‐analysis must deviate from them.     

Constraints to biofuel feedstock production expansion in Zambia

ABSTRACT

World biofuel production has been increasing to improve energy security and mitigate global warming. Southern Africa’s bioenergy demand could increase with South Africa’s planned fuel blending mandates, triggering increased demand for feedstocks and agricultural land. Ensuring sustained production will require a full understanding of the constraints to production expansion, considering the tradeoffs that may be generated in rural areas, as has been observed for large-scale land acquisitions. We analyse the social and biophysical constraints to biofuel production expansion in Zambia. Previously social constraints have received limited attention even though they may prove more problematic. Results indicate that Zambia is at least moderately suitable for bioenergy investments with biophysically suitable areas largely coinciding with the socially suitable areas. However, existing gaps in compensatory procedures may inhibit large-scale projects’ access to development finance if not aligned with internationally acceptable practices, and generate negative outcomes if safeguards are not in place.     

A Cautionary Note on Estimating the Standard Error of the Gini Index of Inequality: Comment

We observe that care must be taken when using a regression‐based approach to construct a standard error for the Gini coefficient.     

Outside Looking In: Resisting Colonial Discourses of Aboriginality

Using postcolonial theory, this article examines the ways in which the staff and members of the board of directors of Outside Looking In (OLI), a youth development through arts- and leisure-based program for Aboriginal youth in Canada, respond to discourses about Aboriginality. Based on interviews with OLI staff and board members, field notes, and the review of archival documents, we argue that OLI staff and board members encounter three dominant discourses: hip-hop is not an Aboriginal activity, Aboriginal youth should learn through mainstream forms of education, and Aboriginal peoples are inherently flawed. We show, however, how OLI exemplifies Bhabha's (1994) notion of hybrid third spaces because it reflects Aboriginal youth's contemporary cultural interests in hip-hop, it integrates kinesthetic education into Eurocentric learning regimes, and its participants return the colonial gaze at OLI's annual performance. OLI exemplifies how leisure activities can be used to challenge colonial discourses of Aboriginality in Canada.     

Is life more risky in the open? Household risk-coping and the opening of China's labor markets

This paper uses a unique panel of data from rural China to analyze the impact of expanding connections to off-farm labor markets on the income and consumption of farm households. With stronger village ties to both migrant and local off-farm labor markets, households in previously autarkic village communities experience reduced exposure to shocks affecting agricultural production. The analyses presented in this paper control for the persistent effect of past shocks influencing income and consumption, household attrition potentially correlated with shocks, and endogeneity of household demographic composition, land holdings and village network connections to migrant and local labor markets.     

Chronic and transient poverty: Measurement and estimation, with evidence from China

The paper contributes to the measurement of poverty and vulnerability in three ways. First, it proposes a new approach to separating poverty into chronic and transient components. Second, it provides corrections for the statistical biases introduced when using a small number of periods to estimate the importance of vulnerability and transient poverty. Third, it applies these tools to the measurement of chronic and transient poverty in China using a rich panel data set that extends over 17 years. Alternative measurement techniques are found to yield significantly different estimates of the relative importance of chronic and transient poverty. The precision of the estimates is also considerably enhanced by simple statistical corrections.