Unemployment-inflation trade-offs in EEC-countries

Zusammenfassung ?Trade-off? zwischen Arbeitslosigkeit und Inflation in den EWG-L?ndern. — Der Hauptzweck der vorliegenden Abhandlung ist die Absch?tzung und Analyse der ?Trade-off?-Beziehung zwischen Inflation und Arbeitslosigkeit in den EWG-L?ndern (Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien, den Niederlanden und Belgien, Luxemburg wurde weggelassen). Diese ?Trade-offs? werden aus einem Zwei-Gleichungs-Modell abgeleitet, das Lohn- und Preis?nderungen erkl?rt. Das wichtigste empirische Ergebnis dieser Untersuchung besteht darin, daΒ die EWG-L?nder in bezug auf die Beziehung zwischen Inflation und Arbeitslosigkeit in zwei Kategorien zerfallen. In Deutschland und Frankreich scheinen andere Faktoren als Arbeitslosigkeit (wie Einfuhrpreise und Arbeitsproduktivit?t) den inflatorischen ProzeΒ bcherrscht zu haben. In den anderen drei L?ndern war jedoch die Arbeitslosigkeit die wichtigste Determinante für die Inflationsrate.

---

Résumé ?Trade-off? entre le ch?mage et l’inflation dans les pays de la C.E.E. — Le principal but de cette étude est d’estimer et d’analyser la ?trade-off?-relation entre le ch?mage et l’inflation dans les pays de la C.E.E. (Allemagne, France, Italie, Pays-Bas, Belgique, Luxembourg fut omis). Ces relations sont dérivées d’un modèle à deux équations qui explique les variations des salaires et des prix. Le résultat le plus important de cette étude empirique est, en ce qui concerne la relation entre l’inflation et le ch?mage, que les pays de la C.E.E. forment deux groupes bien différents. En Allemagne et France, des facteurs d’autres que le ch?mage (comme les prix à l’importation et la productivité du travail) semblent avoir dominé le processus inflationniste. Dans les trois autres pays, cependant, le ch?mage était le facteur le plus important pour l’explication du taux d’inflation.

---

Resumen Relaciones de ?trade-off? entre desempleo e inflación en los países de la Comunidad Económica Europea (CEE). — El principal objetivo de este trabajo es estimar y analizar la relación de ?trade-off? entre inflación y desempleo en los paises de la CEE (República Federal de Alemania, Francia, Italia, Holanda, Bélgica; Luxemburgo fue excluido). Estos ?trade-offs? se derivan de un modelo de dos ecuaciones que explica los cambios en los salarios y en los precios. El resultado empírico más importante de este estudio es, que con respecto a la relación entre inflación y desempleo, los países de la CEE caen dentro de dos categorías distintas. En la República Federal de Alemania y Francia se observa que factores distintos al desempleo (como precios de las importaciones y productividad laboral) parecen haber dominado el proceso de inflación. En los otros tres países, sin embargo, el desempleo ha sido la principal determinante de la tasa de inflación.

---

Riassunto ?Trade-off? tra disoccupazione e inflazione nei Paesi della CEE. — Lo scopo principale del presente articolo è la valutazione ed analisi della relazione ?trade-off? tra inflazione e disoccupazione nei Paesi della CEE (Germania, Francia, Italia, Paesi Bassi e Belgio, il Lussemburgo è stato tralasciato). Questi ?trade-off? sono derivati da un modello a due equazioni che spiega mutamenti di salario e di prezzi. Il più importante risultato empirico di questa ricerca consiste nel fatto che i Paesi della CEE in rapporto alla relazione tra inflazione e disoccupazione si dividono in due catégorie. In Germania ed in Francia fattori diversi dalla disoccupazione (come prezzi all’importazione e produttività di lavoro) sembrano dominare il processo inflazionistico. Negli altri tre Paesi, invece, la disoccupazione è stata la determinante più importante per il tasso d’inflazione.

     

Rural poverty in Mexico: assets and livelihood strategies among the Mayas of Yucatán

Understanding poverty and sustainability needs livelihood studies that acknowledge heterogeneity at the community and household level. This is particularly true for Latin America where inequality and ethnicity are important aspects of poverty and sustainability. This paper is a detailed examination of the natural resources, socio-economic assets and livelihood strategies of two Mayan communities of the Mexican State of Yucatán. There were three fundamental objectives: to elucidate the people's perceptions of poverty, to analyse their resource use and livelihood strategies, and to suggest ways in which access to markets can reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development. Using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the dominance of certain successful strategies are made clear. First, milpa—the traditional system of maize production—is a way of life for the Mayas. Secure access to maize-producing land is a valuable asset, partly because it also attracts government subsidies. Second, ownership of small livestock is also part of Mayan life. Ownership of other assets such as beehives gives access to (relatively) lucrative product markets. Third, active agribusiness marketing also requires assets: ownership of transport services; finance to assemble and sell products such as forest fruits, honey and maize; business skills and an ability to create commercial linkages to traders. Appropriate interventions for different wealth groups are suggested to enhance sustainable development of the communities.     

Urbanization with and without industrialization

We document a strong positive relationship between natural resource exports and urbanization in a sample of 116 developing nations over the period 1960–2010. In countries that are heavily dependent on resource exports, urbanization appears to be concentrated in “consumption cities” where the economies consist primarily of non-tradable services. These contrast with “production cities” that are more dependent on manufacturing in countries that have industrialized. Consumption cities in resource exporters also appear to perform worse along several measures of welfare. We offer a simple model of structural change that can explain the observed patterns of urbanization and the associated differences in city types. We note that although the development literature often assumes that urbanization is synonymous with industrialization, patterns differ markedly across developing countries. We discuss several possible implications for policy.     

Exciting,boring, and nonexistent skylines: Vertical building gaps in global perspective

Despite the widespread prevalence and economic importance of tall buildings, little is known about how their patterns vary across space and time. We aim to quantify differences across major world regions over time (1950–2020). To do so, we exploit novel data on the location, height (above 55 m), and year of construction of nearly all tall buildings in the world. We propose a new methodology to estimate the extent to which some world regions build up more than others given similar economic and geographic conditions, city size distributions, and other features. Our analyses reveal that many skylines may visually appear more prominent than they really are once one includes all tall buildings and core controls, which alters how regions are ranked in terms of tall building stocks. Using results by city size, centrality, height of buildings, and building function, we classify world regions into different groups, finding that tall building stocks are likely driven by boring skylines of residential high-rises, and to a lesser extent exciting skylines of skyscrapers and office towers. Finally, land-use regulations and preferences, not historical preservation nor dispersed ownership, may account for most observed differences.     

Information and communication technology adoption and unemployment in West Africa Monetary Zone

This study examined the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on unemployment among the countries in West Africa Monetary Zones (WAMZ) for the period 2005–2020. The study engaged the data sourced from World Bank Development Indicators (WDI), International labour organisation (ILO) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The study estimated the fixed and random effect models and pooled mean group estimators. The results indicate a negative and significant effect of ICT adoption on unemployment among countries of WAMZ. On the other hand, the magnitude of the effects differs, depending on the indicator of ICT being examined.