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.     

Terms of trade and the exchange rates of New Zealand and Australia

Effects of the terms of trade on the bilateral exchange rate of New Zealand and Australia and of each of these countries with the USA are evaluated. There is strong evidence of cointegration of the exchange rates and a ration of the respective national price levels when the relative terms of trade of the countries are included in dynamic models. While evidence that the long-run equilibrium relationships satisfy purchasing power parity is mixed, relative improvement of a country's terms of trade results in real appreciation of its currency in all cases. The terms of trade are also found to be exogenous for the parameters of the long-run New Zealand–Australia exchange-rate equilibrium.     

Opportunities for women and Islam: variations upon variations

Religion has long been thought to be an important institution influencing economic development. More recently, it has also been argued that religion influences economic and social opportunities for women, specifically, that Islam limits women's opportunities. A revisionist view has countered with the argument that once one accounts for oil rents and/or fertility, then much of the negative effect disappears. In addition, it has been argued that the impact of Islam varies greatly from region to region. The empirical results from this article indicate that indeed once an account is taken of the impact of fertility, much, but not all, of the negative impact of Islam on relative female performance disappears. In addition, the impact of Islam on relative female performance does vary greatly from region to region. Finally, the inclusion of a variable measuring oil rents does not seem to substantially influence the results.     

Gender Bias in Education: the Role of Inter-household Externality, Dowry and other Social Institutions

We analyze gender bias in school enrollment by developing a two‐period model where women become part of extended families of their in‐laws. Each family decides how many sons and daughters are sent to school and thus become skilled. Gender bias occurs due to failure of the families to internalize inter‐household externalities. “Groom‐specific” dowry worsens the situation. Under “bride‐specific” dowry, bias exists if and only if the skill premium in the labor market is bigger than that in the marriage market. A specific discriminatory “food‐for‐education” policy is shown to reduce bias, but increase total enrollment.     

FACTOR ACCUMULATION OR TFP? A REASSESSMENT OF GROWTH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Abstract.  This paper reassesses economic growth in five South-East Asian countries utilizing a non-parametric productivity index and parametric techniques to trace the ultimate source/s of growth. Our results show that there is no single explanation for the growth performance of the countries in our sample. The results, particularly with reference to the role of embodied technology are comforting in terms of policy implications for countries such as Singapore, where, given the capital output ratios, there are lower returns to future capital accumulation. The possibility of capital being embodied through technological change makes future prospects much brighter for such a country.     

Female Autonomy and Health Care in Developing Countries

Decisions within the household determine the allocation of resources. Theory suggests that the more autonomous women are within the household, the greater influence they will have in that allocation. This paper utilizes several measures of a woman's autonomy within the household. It is hypothesized that the greater the woman's autonomy, the more likely she will be to visit a doctor, rather than other traditional sources of healing/care, when ill. This hypothesis is tested using data drawn from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India. The results lend support to the importance of autonomy for a woman in increasing her likelihood of visiting a medical doctor when ill. Additionally, the results show that socio‐economic differences go a long way in explaining differences in healthcare choices for the sick.     

Agricultural productivity,the real effective exchange rate,and structural change: Some evidence from Africa

Agriculture is thought to play a number of roles in the early development process. All of these roles involve fostering non‐agricultural development, in particular manufacturing. It is argued in this paper that agriculture plays a role that has hitherto been ignored. Specifically, if agricultural labor productivity increases faster than manufacturing labor productivity, the real effective exchange rate will depreciate. This depreciation of real effective exchange rate occurs because in very poor countries agriculture makes up the dominant share of both GDP and employment. The depreciation also makes it easier for a country to expand the production of tradables relative to nontradables, with manufacturing being the main tradable. This proposition, which as agricultural labor productivity increases relative to manufacturing labor productivity the real effective exchange rate depreciates, is tested using data drawn from 10 sub‐Saharan African countries.     

I'll have what she's having: Gauging the impact of product placements on viewers

Product placement in TV shows is becoming increasingly common, yet little is known about its effectiveness nor even how to define and measure such effectiveness. This research examined the effectiveness of product placement with the use of two different types of measures: explicit measures that tap memory directly (with the use of a recognition and recall task), and an implicit measure that measures the effect of exposure on product choice indirectly. It was hypothesized that the ability of product placement to enhance memory and choice may be mediated by distinct mechanisms. The results showed an overall enhancement in product recall, recognition, and choice due to placement. Further, although products central to the plot were remembered and recalled more than products placed more subtly, no reliable effect of centrality of placement was observed on the choice measure. This dissociation also occurred with modality of placement—where seen‐only products most influenced choice but were least recalled. The present data conform to theories of memory, which predict that performance on explicit memory task can be dissociated or uncorrelated with performance on implicit performance or choice. This finding has significant implications for how product placements are designed and how their efficacy evaluated. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mother's autonomy: impact on the quality of children's healthcare in India

Given the poor condition of children's health in developing countries, this article seeks to examine two hypotheses concerning healthcare for children. First, does mother's autonomy influence the quality of child healthcare and, second, which is related to the first, whether mother's autonomy reduces the apparent gender bias in child healthcare. Using household survey data from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India the article finds that for the most part as the mother's autonomy (measured several different ways) increases, the quality of care for children improves. The results also indicate that gender bias exists in the provision of quality healthcare for children. Male children generally receive better quality care. However, for several measures of female autonomy, an increase in such autonomy reduces the bias. The results of this analysis have important policy implications and provide additional insight into the state of affairs of children's health in rural India.     

Some preliminary evidence of the impact of the 2008–2009 financial crisis on women

Beginning in late 2007 and into 2008, a financial crisis originating in the United States spread throughout the world. This article seeks to present preliminary evidence of the impact of this crisis on female labour force participation and the proportion of females working in nonagricultural sectors. A panel data set involving 171 countries is utilized, and the results indicate that the financial crisis led to increases in female labour force participation as well as the proportion of females working in the nonagricultural sector. There are differences in impact for countries of various income levels (low, middle and high). In addition, female political power has also led to increases in the economic participation of females.