114 research outputs found
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Social Security, Endogenous Fertility and the Optimal Family Size
Full text linkIn this paper we analyzed a model of endogenous fertility in presence of financial market assets and social security pensions. Given the children externality and in the absence of corrective policy, the fertility rate chosen in market economy is too low. Indeed, in his optimal choice of family size, the representative household does not take into account of this children externality which leads to a sub optimal demography. We have shown that an optimal demographic allocation exists and can be implemented through a subvention taxation policy if it is availabl
Can Sustainable Poverty Reduction be Achieved with Little or no Economic Growth? The Case of Jamaica
Full text linkAfter little change in poverty between 1997 and 2002, Jamaica�s poverty headcount halved between 2003 and 2007 despite slow GDP growth. This paper analyzes the factors contributing to the observed reduction in poverty using household and labor force surveys. It sets out by providing a sectoral, demographic, and spatial picture of the evolution of poverty and finds that poverty reduction has been broad based, benefitting both rural and urban areas. Nearly three quarters of the poverty reduction is attributed to growth in average household consumption, which outpaced GDP growth, and one quarter to narrowing inequality. Around half of the reduction of inequality is attributed to falling returns to education and a narrowing of sectoral wage differences
Innovation and Growth: Considerations for Public Policy
Full text linkThis paper uses panel regression techniques to assess the policy determinants of private sector innovative activity � proxied by R&D expenditure and the number of new patents � across 19 OECD countries. The relationship between innovation indicators and multifactor productivity (MFP) growth is also examined with a particular focus on the role of public policies in influencing the returns to new knowledge. The results establish an empirical link between R&D and patenting, as well as between these measures of innovation intensity and MFP growth. Innovation specific policies such as R&D tax incentives, direct government support and patent rights are found to be successful in encouraging the innovative activities associated with higher productivity growth. However, direct empirical evidence of the positive effects of these policies on productivity is less forthcoming. A pervasive theme from the analysis is the importance of coupling policies aimed at encouraging innovation or technological adoption with well designed framework policies that allow knowledge spillovers to proliferate. In particular, the settings of framework policies relating to product market regulation, openness to trade and debtor protection in bankruptcy provisions are found to be important for the diffusion of new technologies
Labour Relations Quality and Productivity: an Empirical Analysis on French Firms
Full text linkWe empirically characterise how good labour relations can alleviate the negative impact on productivity of regulatory constraints or workforce opposition. The estimates are based on a unique survey of French manufacturing firms collected by the Banque de France over the period 1991-2008. Our main results may be summarised as follows:i) �workforce or union opposition� interacted with �regulatory constraints� has a negative significant impact on total factor productivity (TFP). When this interaction is not taken into account, a deteriorated labour climate, through workforce or union opposition, weighs directly on TFP. But when this interaction is taken into account, this negative impact relies solely on the combination of regulatory constraints and labour opposition: workers or unions can successfully oppose management�s decisions and weigh on TFP when they can use or threaten to use appropriate regulation; otherwise, their opposition may be harmless;ii) �regulatory constraints� interacted with �branch or firm agreement� has a positive significant impact on TFP. These agreements, which can only be obtained if labour relations are supportive, would be used by firms to offset the negative impact of regulatory constraints. This favourable impact can be obtained through two channels: first, informally, a good labour climate can lead to a flexible implementation of regulation; second, formally, the French labour code incorporates provisions that allow firm or branch agreements to adapt or even alleviate the constraints of regulation. These results emphasise that the implementation of regulatory constraints and their impact on productivity crucially hinges on the quality of labour climate.
Does IDA Engage in Defensive Lending?
Full text linkMultilateral development banks are sometimes thought to engage in "defensive lending" -- the practice of extending new loans purely in order to ensure that existing loans are repaid.� We empirically examine this hypothesis using data on lending extended by and repayments to the International Development Association (IDA), which is the largest multilateral provider of concessional development loans to low-income countries.� We argue that key institutional features of IDA both (i) potentially create incentives for defensive lending and also (ii) enable particularly sharp tests of the defensive lending hypothesis.� We find that there is a surprisingly robust partial correlation between disbursements on new IDA loans and repayments on existing loans.� However, a closer look at the evidence suggests that defensive lending is unlikely to be a major explanation for this relationship
Contracting Institutions and Development
Full text linkThe quality of contracting institutions has been thought to be of second-order importance next to the impact that good property rights institutions can have on long-run growth. Using a large range of proxies for each type of institution, we find a robust negative link between the quality of contracting institutions and long-run growth when we condition on property rights and a number of additional macroeconomic variables. Although the result remains something of a puzzle, we present evidence which suggests that only when property rights institutions are good do contracting institutions appear also to be good for development. Good contracting institutions can reduce long-run growth when property rights are not secured, presumably because the gains from the (costly) contracting institutions cannot be realised. This suggests that contracting institutions can benefit growth, and that the sequence of institutional change can matter
Regulating Networks in the New Economy
Full text linkThe regulation of network industries has undergone profound transformation in the past twenty years. The regulated industry is no longer the same, being exposed to new competitive dynamics having revolutionized their industrial framework, technology and interactions with users. There also have been fundamental changes in what regulation is feasible. In an �information society� a model devised in the 19th century to set prices for monopoly infrastructures such as bridges, roads and railways no longer captures the essential: the interactive dynamics created by technologies, uses, and markets
Understanding R&D Policy: Efficiency or Politics?
Full text linkThis paper searches for the determinants of government-funded R&D. The goal is to disentangle whether the efficiency considerations overwhelmingly emphasized by the theoretical literature are indeed the main driving force behind public R&D expenditures. Another goal of the paper is to assess whether other types of innovation policy such as the degree of patent protection can have an impact on private R&D. I find that there are important differences between rich and poor nations at this respect. In particular, R&D-specific efficiency factors are not significant to explain public R&D in rich nations, whereas related variables such as the access to private credit are important in less developed economies; in rich countries, public innovation effort can be better explained by the political economy variables that determine the size of governments. Private R&D, on the other hand, depends in high income economies on R&D policies not related to direct public innovation effort, but is highly determined by this variable in developing countries. Results suggest that more research on political economy theories of innovation is essential to understand R&D investment
Editorial Note
Full text linkI am pleased to inform that the Winter issue 2012 of the Review of Economics end Institutions is the first valuable contribution of the renewed team of Managing Editors. Since October 2011 Paolo Polinori (University of Perugia) and Andrea Presbitero (Universit� Politecnica delle Marche) have joined Francesco Venturini (University of Perugia) and will serve as new Managing Editors for the incoming years. With the 2011 Fall issue Cristiano Perugini has completed his office and has left the managing board. I wish to warmly thank Cristiano for his contribution to the launch of the Journal and for the work done in the first five issues
The Impact of Journal Weighting Scheme Characteristics on Research Output Measurement in Economics: The New Zealand Case
Full text linkAbstract:� In this study we test for the �power� or aggressiveness of various journal weighting schemes, especially those based on the recursive adjustment methodology first developed by Liebowitz and Palmer.� Using data generated by New Zealand�s academic economists, we provide quantitative measures of the differences between recursive adjustment-based schemes and selected alternatives.� We then compare the performance of economics departments under each of our journal weighting schemes and, for comparison purposes, one based on direct citation counts.�� We find departmental rankings based on selected recursive adjustment schemes to be relatively stable, but these rankings differed substantially from those generated by our alternative schemes.� This suggests that departmental hiring practices and research strategies must be sensitive to the type of funding scheme employed.�� In particular, research on domestic and regional issues is likely to be unattractive to researchers if a high-powered journal weighting scheme is adopted as the �official� standard since regional journals, the natural outlet for such work, are frequently zero-weighted by such schemes