Continuity with change: A review of Zimbabwe's public sector urban low‐income housing production system

This article reviews Zimbabwe's public sector urban low‐income housing production system, in over one hundred years of urbanisation marked by changes in governments, political economies, ideologies and urban systems. By examining important features in organisation, construction, costing, finance and allocation, the study reveals that in essence. Zimbabwe's public sector housing production system has not changed significantly since the early years of urbanisation. The consistency and resilience of the more important features, both in the colonial and post‐colonial eras, overshadow what changes there have been.     

The quest for affordable urban housing: A study of approaches and results in Harare,Zimbabwe

Approaches aimed at achieving housing affordability have long emphasised the housing unit. Conventional wisdom prescribes that affordability will be enhanced if the unit cost of a house is reduced. Classic solutions include the reduction of standards, use of indigenous technologies and materials, adopting self-help modes of delivery and addressing market imperfections. This study shows that while it is not unwise to reduce the cost of housing, there is a limit to this approach. Unit costs cannot be reduced indefinitely and non-cost-reducing strategies are therefore called for. The approaches hinge on improving the economic status of low-income groups by implementing measures that reduce household expenditure and/or boost their incomes.     

Helpful governments

Using data on firm perceptions of how helpful the government is for doing business, we find strong evidence for the theory of legal origins: common law fares better than civil law. Advantages of using firm perceptions are discussed in detail.     

New technology and training: Missed opportunities

This article identifies the avenues used by UK firms to acquire the work skills needed to operate the new technologies. Having found that retraining is the most popular avenue, the author turns to issues such as who identified the retraining needs, how they were met and with what degree of success. In the process, disturbing tendencies are discovered.     

A possible solution to tropical troubles? : Debt-for-nature swaps

Two major problems spurred the development of debt-for-nature swaps —the high rate of destruction of tropical forests and the heavy debts accumulated by these countries. Debt-for-nature agreements are part of a new wave of thinking about the links between the environment and debt. With funds procured through conservation organizations, debt-for-nature swaps and funds have been arranged in several developing countries. This article examines myriad proposals to reduce the debt burden, identifies the link between debt, development and the environment, and clarifies the conceptual framework of the debt-for-nature swaps approach. Debt-for-nature swaps are analysed in terms of sovereignty, socioeconomic impacts and policy implications. It is concluded that the debt-for-nature swaps approach is not intended to provide debt relief on any significant scale nor resolve the debt crisis. Their nominal impact on the debt situation does not imply failure: they improve the management of natural resources. It is a strategy in which a number of goals converge for different groups in developing as well as developed countries.     

Export diversification trends: Some comparisons for Latin America

The present paper is an attempt to establish some stylized facts about the process of export diversification and structural change in exports for six key Latin American economies: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. There has been a long-run trend toward export diversification in the region which has persisted through both inward- and outward-looking policy experiments, and over a variety of macroeconomic conditions. Structural change in exports accelerated during the debt crisis episode of the early 1980s, and more rapid structural change may be associated with policy reform. Our results suggest that important sources of economic risk in Latin America may be declining in the long run, and that economic risk is less sensitive to political risk than is often assumed. 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Returns,Volatilities, and Correlations Across Mature,Regional, and Frontier Markets: Evidence from South Asia

We investigate returns, volatilities, and correlations across mature, dominant regional, and frontier equity markets. Standard & Poor's 500 is chosen as a mature equity market; India is chosen as a dominant regional market; and Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are chosen as frontier markets. Our empirical tests show that the frontier markets remain fundamentally decoupled from the mature markets during normal market periods. During turbulent times, the contagion effects from the mature to the frontier markets become more pronounced. The results suggest that the dominant regional market plays a key role in disseminating shocks across the frontier markets during normal periods; during the turbulent recent financial crisis period, a similar contagion is not observed.     

Democratic institutions and regulatory reforms

We use a sample of 144 countries over the period 2003–2013 to investigate the link between democratic institutions and regulatory reforms. Democracy may be conducive to reform, as politicians embrace growth-enhancing reforms to win elections. On the other hand, authoritarian regimes may not worry as much about public opinion and could undertake reforms that are painful in the short run but bring long-term benefits. We test these alternative hypotheses, using data on regulatory reforms from the World Bank’s Doing Business database. The results provide mixed support for the hypothesis that democracy is good for regulatory reforms. We also show that regulatory reforms are more likely just after parliamentary elections in poor and middle-income countries.     

Impact of debt structure on production efficiency and financial performance of Broadacre farms in Western Australia

Farming activities are often financed using debt, yet empirical studies investigating the relationship between farm debt structure and performance are still rare. Using a 10 year unbalanced panel of Broadacre farms in Western Australia, we relate the impact of long‐term debt, short‐term debt and tax liability on farm performance measured by input‐oriented technical efficiency and return on assets. We find farm technical efficiency is positively related to short‐term debt, tax liability and capital investment, but negatively related to off‐farm income generating activities. Long‐term debt has no effect on production efficiency and return on assets. These results are robust to both parametric and nonparametric methods of estimation.     

Corporate social responsibility and employee attitudes: The moderating role of employee age

This study examines the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee engagement and job satisfaction. Using 322 responses from employees of selected companies in Ghana, and employing hierarchical regression analysis, the study examines the direct impact of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices on employee satisfaction and engagement in organisations. The study further explores the moderating role of employee age on the relationship between CSR and employee engagement and satisfaction. The results provide evidence that economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices influence higher employee engagement and satisfaction levels at work. However, the study finds no evidence of employee age moderating the association between each of the four CSR dimensions and employee job attitudes (engagement and satisfaction). These findings are insightful and provide a response to calls for research on these issues. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that ethical CSR practices strongly influence employees' satisfaction and engagement levels; legal and discretionary CSR activities also have an influence, though to a lesser extent; and the economic dimension of CSR activities has the least impact. The managerial, practical and further research implications of these findings are discussed.