492 research outputs found
Does OO sync with the way we think?
No full textGiven that corrective-maintenance costs already dominate the software life cycle and look set to increase significantly, reliability in the form of reducing such costs should be the most important software improvement goal. Yet the results are not promising when we review recent corrective-maintenance data for big systems in general and for OO in particular-possibly because of mismatches between the OO paradigm and how we think
Voting Up? The Effects of Democracy and Franchise Extension on Human Stature
No full textWe study the effect of the spread of democracy on population health in 15 European countries since the middle of the 19th century, and more specifically the average height of adult males by five-year birth cohort, and we estimate the effect of transitions to democracy using within-country variation. We find that the advent of democracy increased average height by about 0.7 cm. When we also account for the extension of the franchise to women, this increases to 1 cm or about 9% of the total increase in height of birth cohorts from the 1870s to the 1970s. Intervening mechanisms include reduced inequality and increased expenditure on social and health services. Our results are robust to a wide range of econometric tests
The Age of Mass Migration: Causes and Economic Impact
No full textAbout 55 million Europeans migrated to the New World between 1850 and 1914, landing in
North and South America and in Australia. This movement, which marked a profound and permanent
shift in global population and economic activity, is described in vivid detail by Timothy J. Hatton
and Jeffrey G. Williamson, and the causes and effects relative to this great relocation are soundly
analysed. The Age of Mass Migration offers a thorough treatment of a period of vital development
in the economic history of the modern world and, moreover, devotes much objective consideration to
certain economic questions that still baffle us today: Why does a nation's emigration rate
typically rise with early industrialization? How do immigrants choose their destinations? Are
international labour markets segmented? Do immigrants truly "rob" jobs from locals? What impact do
immigrants have on wage rates and living standards in the host country? In addressing these issues,
and many of others, this book takes a new and comprehensive view of mass migration. Although
somewhat controversial in terms of method--it assigns to a social phenomenon an economic
explanation and interpretation-- The Age of Mass Migration will be useful to all students of
migration, historical or contemporary, and to anyone interested in international economic
activities
The Cliometrics of International Migration: A Survey
No full textThis is a survey of some of the key studies in the literature on international migration in history that may be described as cliometric. This literature uses the concepts and approaches of applied economics to investigate a range of historical issues and there are strong parallels with the questions that have been addressed in the literature on contemporary migrations. Here I focus on the period 1850 to 1940 and chiefly on migration from Europe to the New World. The survey is organised around six themes that include: the forces driving migration, over time and across space; the assimilation of migrants and their effects on wages and income distribution in source and destination countries; and the evolution of immigration policy. While this literature has drawn heavily on the tool kit of applied economists it also provides a wider perspective on many of the issues that concern migration today.international migration, economic history
notice, is given to the source. What Fundamentals Drive World Migration?
No full textgrateful for the contributions from previous collaborations with Ximena Clark. Hatton would like to acknowledge financial support through a British Academy Research Readership and Williamson would like to do the same to the National Science Foundation SES-0001362. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Bureau of Economic Research
The Rise and Fall of Asylum: What Happened and Why?
No full textIn the last 20years, developed countries have struggled with a rising tide of asylum seekers, a trend that has now reversed. This article examines what happened and why. It surveys the trends in asylum seeking and the literature that this has generated. It provides new regression estimates of the determinants of asylum applications up to the present. The key findings are that violence and terror can account for much of the variation and that, while tougher policies did have a deterrent effect, they account for only about a third of the decline in applications since 2001. © 2009 Journal compilation © 2009 by the Royal Economic Society (Registered Charity No. 231508)
Should we have a WTO for international migration?
No full text"The international movement of labour remains much more restricted than movement of goods or capital, and the worldwide economic gains to liberalizing migration are large. This paper asks whether those gains could be realized through better international cooperation on migration along the lines of the WTO for trade. Although public opinion is marginally more negative towards the liberalization of migration than of trade, the key impediment is the lack of a basis for reciprocity in negotiations over migration. And this is because migration is largely driven by absolute advantage rather than by comparative advantage as in the case of trade. Consequently there is no basis for WTO-style negotiations over migration and therefore no grounds for reforming the international architecture in the hope of fostering liberalization." Copyright (c) CEPR, CES, MSH, 2007.
Can Productivity Growth Explain the NAIRU? Long-Run Evidence from Britain, 1871-1999
No full textThis paper investigates the effect of productivity growth on the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) over the long run, using historically consistent time series for the UK from 1871 to 1999. A two-equation model of unemployment and wage-setting that incorporates productivity effects is estimated over the whole period, allowing for shifts associated with changes in labour market institutions. The results indicate that faster productivity growth reduces the NAIRU, but that this goes only part of the way towards explaining wide swings in average unemployment across the decades. Copyright (c) The London School of Economics and Political Science 2006.
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