Food security and structural adjustment: Empirical evidence on the food price dilemma in Southern Africa

This article considers effects of price on food security and the food equation in the developing areas of South Africa. Firstly, the food (or hunger) equation is examined in more detail. Secondly, thefood price dilemma is analysed using empirical data obtained elsewhere in sub‐Saharan Africa. Thirdly, the situation in the developing areas of South Africa is examined. Empirical evidence in sub‐Saharan and Southern Africa accentuates the skewness and concentration in the market participation profile of rural households with respect to especially staples. Supply response to higher prices in these areas is also limited. These findings place the food price dilemma on centre stage in Southern Africa.     

Training as an instrument to combat poverty and unemployment: A national and international perspective

Unless the South African Government of the day has adopted and is committed to a policy and comprehensive strategy to alleviate poverty, one is bound to conclude that any discussions on the role that training can play in the alleviation of poverty and unemployment would be mostly of an ad hoc nature. Such a policy and strategy should include specific targeted employment and training strategies and should furthermore relate to measurable human development performance indicators on health, life expectancy, education, training, unemployment, human deprivation, income disparities, etc. State interventions in support of training to help alleviate and prevent poverty and unemployment will under such circumstances hopefully be more purposefully targeted to where it will matter most and will also inspire researchers to come up with appropriate answers to ensure maximum benefits to society and the individual.     

The Role of Incentives in the Public Sector: Issues and Evidence

Using incentive pay to improve public-sector efficiency is animportant component of the UK government's public-service modernizationagenda. In this paper, we review the important issues in performancepay in the public sector, and summarize the evidence on itseffects. We consider how optimal incentives for public-sectorworkers may differ from those in the private sector and, ifthey do, what types of incentives are more appropriate for thepublic sector. We investigate the reasons for the infrequentuse of explicit incentives in the public sector. We summarizeevidence of particular relevance to the public sector, on issuessuch as the impact on output of incentive pay schemes, gamingand dysfunctional behaviour, multiple principals, intrinsicmotivation, and teamwork. Finally, we comment on the designof new policies being introduced in the UK public sector inthe light of the theoretical arguments and the evidence.     

EXTENSIONS TO THE MULTIPLIER DECOMPOSITION APPROACH IN A SAM FRAMEWORK: AN APPLICATION TO VIETNAM

The aim of this paper is to provide an extension of a technique recently introduced by Pyatt and Round (2006) to decompose each element of the ‘global multiplier matrix’ in ‘microscopic detail’ in order to capture the linkages between each household groups’ income and the exogenously injected income of other accounts. The methodology we propose allows dividing the impact of exogenous injections into four different effects: direct-direct effect (D-D); direct-indirect effect (D-I); indirect-direct effect (I-D) and indirect-indirect effect (I-I). Results using the 2000 Vietnamese SAM show that the highest direct effects on the income of household groups are related to exogenous injections into the agricultural sector, while the highest indirect effects result from investing in other agriculture-related sectors such as, for example, food processing. Policy interventions focusing on the agricultural sector and on rural households will thus have the greatest effect on reducing the level of income inequality.     

Rectifying an unconstitutional dispensation? A consideration of proposed reforms relating to no income no asset debtors in South Africa

The South African natural person debt relief system remains heavily procreditor and consequently excludes many deserving debtors from any form of relief. This is despite the fact that such marginalisation amounts to unjustifiable, unfair discrimination on the basis of debtors' financial status. The main aim of this article is to establish whether proposed reforms, and specifically the debt intervention procedure, will rectify the current unconstitutional dispensation and particularly the unreasonable unfair discrimination against “no income no asset” (NINA) debtors, who undoubtedly constitutes the largest part of relegated debtors. The article may benefit developing countries seeking to introduce debt relief measures curtailed to the needs of their ever‐escalating NINA debtors.     

Examining the Decision Process of Students' Cheating Behavior: An Empirical Study

This research examines the association between attitudes on cheating and cognitive moral development. In this research, we use Rest's (1979a) Defining Issues Test, the Attitudes on Honesty Scale (Authors) and Academic Integrity Index (Authors); the last two are adaptations of the DIT. A total of 220 students from three universities participated in the study (66 psychology majors and 154 business majors). The data indicate that 66.4 percent of the students reported that they cheated in high school, college, or both high school and college. Psychology majors scored higher than business majors on both the Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1979a) and the Attitudes on Honesty Scale (AHS, Authors). Using factor analysis, we found significant associations between students' ratings of the importance considerations present in the three cheating scenarios and their estimates of whether cheating would occur (i.e., the Academic Integrity Index). Finally, using logistic regression, we found that the scores on the Attitudes on Honesty Scale and Academic Integrity Index associate with the self-reported cheating behavior of college students.