46 research outputs found
Addressing the education puzzle : the distribution of education and economic reform
Get PDFNo country has achieved sustained economic development without substantially investing in human capital. Previous studies have shown the handsome returns to various forms of basic education, research, training, learning-by-doing, and capacity-building. But education by itself does not guarantee successful development, as history has shown in the former Soviet bloc, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the Indian states of Kerala and West Bengal. The question is, when and how does education bring high payoffs? Although theory has suggested a strong causal link between education and growth, the empirical evidence has not been unanimous and conclusive. The authors examine two explanatory factors. First, who gets educated matters a good deal, but the distribution of education is complex and not much has been written about it. They construct an asset allocation model that elucidates the importance of the distribution of education to economic development. Second, how education affects growth is greatly affected by the economic policy environment. Policies determine what people can do with their education. Reform of trade, investment, and labor policies can increase the returns from education. Using panel data from 12 Asian and Latin American countries for 1970-94, they investigate the relationship between education, policy reform, and economic growth. Their empirical results are promising. First, the distribution of education matters. Unequal distribution of education tends to have a negative impact on per capita income in most countries. Moreover, controlling for human capital distribution and the use of appropriate functional form specifications consistent with the asset allocation model makes a difference for the effect of average schooling on per capita income. Controlling for education distribution leads to positive and significant effects of average schooling on per capita income, while failure to do so leads to insignificant, even negative effects, of average education. Second, the policy environment matters a great deal. Our results indicate that economic policies that suppress market forces tend to dramatically reduce the impact of human capital on economic growth. Investment in human capital can have little impact on growth unless people can use education in competitive and open markets. The larger and more competitive these markets are, the greater are the prospects for using education and skills.Curriculum&Instruction,Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Teaching and Learning,Curriculum&Instruction,Economic Theory&Research,Gender and Education
Decentralization and empowerment for rural development /
No full textThis volume, which combines the experience of local governance in different countries, a qualitative study of local governance in action in one region of India, and a unique forty-year national panel study of rural India, provides a sober assessment of both the remarkable achievements of India's experiment with the Panchayati Raj and the ways in which this experiment has fallen short of its promise. It is essential reading not only for those looking for ways to make rural governance work better but also for academic social scientists looking for fresh ideas about how to model and analyze the process of rural governance.Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 30 Nov 2022).This volume, which combines the experience of local governance in different countries, a qualitative study of local governance in action in one region of India, and a unique forty-year national panel study of rural India, provides a sober assessment of both the remarkable achievements of India's experiment with the Panchayati Raj and the ways in which this experiment has fallen short of its promise. It is essential reading not only for those looking for ways to make rural governance work better but also for academic social scientists looking for fresh ideas about how to model and analyze the process of rural governance
Consumo de água e eficiência do uso para cultivar de mamona Paraguaçu submetida à fertilização nitrogenada
No full textA mamoneira, mesmo tendo sua produtividade diminuÃda sob déficit hÃdrico, tem sido apresentada como capaz de resistir à s condições de baixa precipitação, apresentando-se como alternativa de geração de renda para o semi-árido. A carência de informações sobre o efeito da fertilização nitrogenada sobre o consumo de água e a sua eficiência de uso justificou o presente trabalho. O estudo foi conduzido em casa de vegetação na UFCG, com as plantas dispostas em delineamento fatorial inteiramente casualizado com três repetições e cinco tratamentos, perfazendo o total de quinze unidades experimentais, que consistiram da aplicação de cinco doses de N (40; 80; 120; 160 e 200 kg ha-1). Analisando-se a produção de fitomassa, o consumo de água e a sua eficiência de uso, constatou-se que a cultivar aumenta a fitomassa, o consumo de água e a sua eficiência de uso com as doses de nitrogênio, indicando elevada eficiência na transformação da água consumida em matéria seca.
Palavras-Chave: Ricinus communis L.; escassez de água; fitomassa
ABSTRACT
Although the productivity of castor bean reduces under water deficit it is considered resistant to low precipitation conditions, thus constituting an alternative form of income for the semi-arid. The scarce information about the effect of nitrogen fertilization on water consumption and efficiency of use motivated this study. The study was conducted in a greenhouse located at the Federal University of Campina Grande â Campus I, with plants arranged in a factorial design with three replications and five treatments, totaling fifteen experimental units, which consisted of five nitrogen levels (40, 80, 120, 160 and 200 kg ha-1). Analyzing the phytomass, water consumption and water use efficiency it was observed that the cultivar phytomass increases, water consumption and water use efficiency with the levels of nitrogen, indicating an elevated efficiency on the conversion of water used into dry matter.
Key words: Ricinus communis L.; water stress; phytomass</div
Writing from the shadowlands: how cross-cultural literature negotiates the legacy of Edward Said
Get PDFThis thesis examines the impact of Edward Said's influential work Orientalism and its legacy in respect of contemporary reading and writing across cultures. It also questions the legitimacy of Said's retrospective stereotyping of early examples of cross-cultural representation in literature as uncompromisingly 'orientalist'.
It is well known that the release of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978 was responsible for the rise of a range of cultural and critical theories from multiculturalism to postcolonialism. It was a study that not only polarized critics and forced scholars to re-examine orientalist archives, but persuaded creative writers to re-think their ethnographic positions when it came to the literary representations of cultures other than their own. Without detracting from the enormous impact of Said, this thesis isolates gaps and silences in Said that need correcting. Furthermore, there is an element of intransigence, an uncompromising refusal to fine-tune what is essentially a binary discourse of the West and its other in Said's work, that encourages the continued interrogation of power relations but which, because of its very boldness, paradoxically disallows the extent to which the conflict of cultures indeed produced new, hybrid social and cultural formations.
In an attempt to challenge the severity of Said's claim that 'every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric', the thesis examines a number of different discursive contexts in which such a presumption is challenged. Thus while the second chapter discusses the 'traditional' profession-based orientalism of nineteenth-century E. G. Browne, the third considers the anti-imperialism of colonial administrator Leonard Woolf. The fourth chapter provides a reflection on the difficulties of diasporic 'orientalism' through the works of Michael Ondaatje while chapter five demonstrates the effects of the dialogism used by Amitav Ghosh as a defence against 'orientalism'. The thesis concludes with an examination of contemporary writing by Andrea Levy that appositely illustrates the legacy of Said's influence.
While the restrictive parameters of Said's work make it difficult to mount a thorough-going critique of Said, this thesis shows that, indeed, it is within the restraints of these parameters and in the very discourse that Said employs that he traps himself. This study claims that even Said is susceptible to 'orientalist' criticism in that he is as much an 'orientalist' as those at whom he directs his polemic
Making negotiated land reform work : initial experience from Brazil, Colombia, and South Africa
Get PDFThe author describes a new type of negotiated land reform that relies on voluntary land transfers negotiated between buyers and sellers, with the government's role restricted to establishing the necessary framework for negotiation and making a land purchase grant available to eligible beneficiaries. This approach has emerged-following the end of the Cold War and broad macroeconomic adjustment--as many countries face a second generation of reforms to address deep-rooted structural problems and provide a basis for sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. The author describes initial experiences in Brazil, Colombia, and South Africa. It is too soon to know whether negotiated land reform can rise to the challenges administrative land reform failed to solve but the data so far suggests that: 1) Negotiated land reform can succeed only if measures are taken to make the market for land sales and rentals more fluid transparent. 2) Productive projects are likely to be the key to market-assisted land reform. The potential for project productivity establishes an upper bound on the price to be paid and a basis for financial intermediaries to evaluate the project. It also requires beneficiaries to familiarize themselves with the realities they're likely to confront as independent farmers and the limits to how much land reform can help them achieve their goals. 3) The only way to effectively coordinate the entities involved in the process is through decentralized, demand-driven implementation. 4) The long-run success of land reform depends on getting the private sector involved and using the land purchase grant to"crowd in"private money.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Municipal Housing and Land,Land Use and Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Municipal Housing and Land,Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction,Banks&Banking Reform
Prospects for equitable growth in rural sub-Saharan Africa
Get PDFImproving agricultural technology equitably in Africa has been difficult in the past because of the vast differences, as well as weak institutions and infrastructure in its many regions. However, the prospects for equitable growth are good for several reasons. The distribution of land has not deteriorated, and there are few landless people in Africa. Technical packages do not favor large farms over small ones, and Africa's social institutions support people with a safety net for sources of income. The author, however, points out that equitable growth, though possible is not assured and several research and policy initiatives will be needed to capitalize on the potential. First, research must continue to focus on technology appropriate for small farms and crops. Policy makers must no longer withhold assistance from service enterprises or nonfarm activities of women. Rural infrastructure has to be upgraded, and finally, governments will need to monitor land tenure and tenancy.Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Research,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems
PRODUÇÃO E CONSUMO HÍDRICO DA BERINJELA SOB ESTRESSE SALINO IRRIGADA POR GOTEJAMENTO CONTÍNUO E PULSOS
Get PDFEggplant is a vegetable considered as moderately sensitive to salinity, and its production is affected by water deficit in the soil, mainly in the reproductive phase of the crop. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of irrigation with brackish water using continuous drip and pulse in production, water consumption, water use efficiency, and soil salinization. The experimental design was in randomized blocks, in a 4 × 4 factorial scheme, with five replicates, totaling 80 plots. The treatments consisted of four forms of water application, continuous drip, and pulse throughout the cycle; continuous drip in the vegetative phase and pulse in the reproductive phase, and pulse in the vegetative phase and drip in the reproductive phase and four levels of irrigation water salinity - ECw (0.3; 1.5; 3.0; 4.5 dS m-1). The inversion of irrigation treatments occurred 65 days after transplanting. Increase in water salinity from 0.3 to 4.5 dS m-1, the total production (-11.96%), fruit length (-5.05%), and water use efficiency (-7.01%) reduced while there was no significant effect for the forms of water application and interaction between the studied factors. Pulse irrigation provided greater water savings and resulted in higher electrical conductivity in the soil saturation extract. The efficiency of water use did not show statistical difference when continuous drip or pulse irrigation was used throughout the cycle.
A berinjela é uma hortaliça considerada moderadamente sensível à salinidade e sua produção é afetada pelo déficit hídrico no solo, principalmente na fase reprodutiva da cultura. Objetivou-se avaliar a influência do uso da irrigação com água salobra utilizando o gotejamento contínuo e pulsos na produção, consumo hídrico e eficiência do uso da água da berinjela e na salinização do solo. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados, arranjado em esquema fatorial 4 × 4, com cinco repetições, totalizando 80 parcelas. Os tratamentos foram compostos pela combinação de quatro formas de aplicação de água: gotejamento contínuo e pulsos durante todo o ciclo; gotejamento contínuo na fase vegetativa e por pulsos na fase reprodutiva e pulsos na fase vegetativa e gotejamento na reprodutiva; e quatro níveis de salinidade de água de irrigação - CEa (0,3; 1,5; 3,0; 4,5 dS m-1). A inversão das formas de irrigação ocorreu aos 65 dias após o transplantio. Com o aumento da salinidade da água de 0,3 a 4,5 dS m-1, a produção total (-11,96%), comprimento do fruto (-5,05%) e eficiência do uso da água (-7,01%) reduziram enquanto, não se verificou efeito significativo para a forma de aplicação de água e interação entre os fatores estudados. A irrigação por pulsos proporcionou maior economia de água, e resultou em maior condutividade elétrica do extrato de saturação do solo. O gotejamento contínuo ou por pulsos durante todo o ciclo não apresentaram diferenças estatísticas quanto a eficiência do uso de água, mas a irrigação por pulsos é a mais indicada por proporcionar economia de água.
 
