DISPARITIES IN THE BENEFITS FROM DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN NIGERIA: A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

There is data evidence that welfare has improved post–democratic reform in Nigeria. However, the distribution or concentration of the benefits in subgroups of the population is unknown. In this paper, the question of differential welfare impacts across and within gender following democratic reform in Nigeria is explored. Two related hypotheses are investigated. First, there is no disparity in the income and returns-to-education benefits of democratic reform across genders in Nigeria. Second, there are no within-gender disparities in the impact of democratic reform on income and returns to education in Nigeria. From the results, both hypotheses are rejected. Though men and women both benefitted from democratic reforms, economically significant within- and between-gender differences exist.     

The Blocking Lemma for a many-to-one matching model

The Blocking Lemma identifies a particular blocking pair for each non-stable and individually rational matching that is preferred by some agents of one side of the market to their optimal stable matching. Its interest lies in the fact that it has been an instrumental result to prove key results on matching. For instance, the fact that in the college admissions problem the workers-optimal stable mechanism is group strategy-proof for the workers and the strong stability theorem in the marriage model follow directly from the Blocking Lemma. However, it is known that the Blocking Lemma and its consequences do not hold in the general many-to-one matching model in which firms have substitutable preference relations. We show that the Blocking Lemma holds for the many-to-one matching model in which firms’ preference relations are, in addition to substitutable, quota q-separable. We also show that the Blocking Lemma holds on a subset of substitutable preference profiles if and only if the workers-optimal stable mechanism is group strategy-proof for the workers on this subset of profiles.     

Policy,planning and program development: Case study—adolescent pregnancy

The role of the Federal Government in stimulating local/regional/state action to pursue clearly identified problems is examined, with case study focused on the problem of adolescent pregnancy. Critical analysis is undertaken of the legislative framework within which health policy and programming is formulated and implemented and the directions and limitations inherent in increased volunteerism in the public sector.     

Identification of the effects of dynamic treatments by sequential conditional independence assumptions

This paper approaches the dynamic analysis of the effects of training programs for the unemployed in West Germany, or in general the effects of sequences of interventions, from a potential outcome perspective. The identifying power of different assumptions concerning the connection between the dynamic selection process and the outcomes of different sequences is discussed. When participation in the particular sequence of programs is decided period by period depending on its success so far, many parameters of interest are no longer identified. Nevertheless, some interesting dynamic forms of the average treatment effect are identified by a sequential randomization assumption. Based on this approach, we present some new results on the effectiveness of West-German training programs.     

Currency-related risk and risk premium in the world's currency market

The foreign exchange market has become a major arena for investment activity for both corporate and individual investors. Intensive and widespread international investment activity makes the empirical estimation of exchange risk a very topical subject. In this connection, the classic controversy between Hicks and Telser assumes new relevance. In this paper, exchange risk is estimated in the context of the systematic-risk framework. The estimation is performed for three major floating currencies: the English pound, the Swiss franc, and the Deutsche mark, over a four-year period. The results suggest that although the total risk (measured by the variance) is high, the systematic risk is close to zero. This result provides an explanation for the apparent inconsistency between the Hicks-Keynes hypothesis which indicates the existence of a positive risk premium in the forward exchange market and the empirical evidence of a zero risk premium.     

Thermodynamic implications for natural resource extraction and technical change in U.S. copper mining

Motivated by the lack of integrated approaches that do justice to both the thermodynamic and economic aspects of natural resource use and the lack of empirical studies combining the two disciplines, this paper provides an integrated framework for the valuation of technologies, substitution and technical change. The paper determines empirically the relationships between thermodynamic states of materials and the use of high-quality energy sources for the case of copper mining in the United States. The empirical analysis provides the basis for a nonlinear dynamic simulation of optimal resource extraction and endogenous technical change in the light of changing resource quality. The study assesses the potential for future improvements in U.S. copper mining.     

Fighting Heroes, Repair–workers or Collaborators? Strategies of NPOs and Their Consequences

This paper wants to contribute to two questions: Firstly, it analyses why NPOs are gaining importance today. It argues that many NPOs possess a particular integrative potential because of their specific position in society. Secondly, the question of the way in which NPOs excert influence is raised. It is argued, that the form of influence of those NPOs that are oriented towards social change are distinguished according to a typology of cooperation, confrontation, and limitation of damage.