Local and global experience curves for lumpy and granular energy technologies

Current electricity generation systems have been dominated by lumpy energy technologies because the electricity they create has been cheaper than that generated from granular technologies. Accelerating the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies to mitigate climate change will require a better understanding of how lumpy and granular technology innovations work to reduce domestic and foreign technology costs. We estimated one-factor and two-factor experience curves to identify drivers and assess the relative importance of local and global learning experiences in Korea's climate change mitigation efforts between lumpy and granular energy technologies. The results suggest that granular technologies are likely to play a key role in mitigating climate change due to a rapid decline in its cost. Further tapping the local potential of cost reduction in granular technologies will require decreasing the soft costs of solar technologies and ramping up wind power plant installations. The results also suggest that knowledge spillover is relatively limited and slow for lumpy technologies, but frequent and fast for granular technologies. To maximize the spillover of global learning to local innovators, policy makers should improve the absorptive capacity of a country and strengthen the global network ties of local firms.1

Developmentalist smart cities? the cases of Singapore and Seoul

Governments and companies across the globe are promoting smart cities, and their developments usually reflect both globally shared ideas and locally specific agendas and implementations. This paper examines the smart cities of Singapore and Seoul - two key global cities in Asia with legacies of state-led developmentalism. It discusses the two cities' latest smart city endeavors, trajectories, and policy motivations. In particular, it explores the role of smart city policy in governments' local and global agendas for development and argues that the two acclaimed cases can be interpreted as globally-oriented neo-developmentalist smart cities. In doing so, this paper also explains that the typically assumed developmentalist feature becomes much more complicated as it intermixes with the global cities' international outlooks and aspirations as well as the changing demands from citizens in the post-developmental era.1

Exhaustive or exhausting? Evidence on respondent fatigue in long surveys

Living standards measurement surveys require sustained attention for several hours. We quantify survey fatigue by randomizing the order of questions in 2–3 hour-long in-person surveys. An additional hour of survey time increases the probability that a respondent skips a question by 10%–64%. Because skips are more common, the total monetary value of aggregated categories such as assets or expenditures declines as the survey goes on, and this effect is sizeable for some categories: for example, an extra hour of survey time lowers food expenditures by 25%. We find similar effect sizes within phone surveys in which respondents were already familiar with questions, suggesting that cognitive burden may be a key driver of survey fatigue.1

Sectoral wage gaps and gender in rural India

Using detailed monthly household panel data from rural India, I analyze sectoral wage gaps for men and women. I show that the wage gap across the non-farm and farm sectors is much higher for women than for men. Relative to men, women also work less time in non-farm wage employment than in farm wage employment. Taken together, these findings suggest that constraints are preventing women from reallocating their time to more remunerative wage employment opportunities. Women are less likely to work outside of their own village in the non-farm sector, yet the wage gap is driven by higher caste and married women. These results are consistent with a lack of local non-farm employment opportunities interacting with barriers to labor mobility for women but not men.1

여성의 자녀 양육 부담에 따른 코로나19의 고용 충격

We examine whether the impacts of COVID-19 on labor supply differ across women with different degrees of childcare burden during the initial stage of the pandemic in South Korea. To identify the effect of the outbreak, we exploit the fact that the first wave of the outbreak in South Korea was concentrated in a specific region due to a largescale religious gathering. Utilizing the Local Area Labour Force Survey, we find that the negative impact was larger for women with young children than for women without young children. Specifically, our preferred specification suggests the employment rate of women with young children decreased by 3.9 percentage points more than that of women without young children due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Women with young children also reduced weekly working hours more than their counterparts without young children. Unlike women, the impacts of COVID-19 on the labor supply among men with and without young children were not different.1

the case of Southern African Development Community (2000-2020)

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Development Policy, 2022The paper assesses tax revenue performance in the Southern African Development Community by empirically estimating the member countries’ tax capacity and tax effort to determine member states that are near or far from their tax capacity using the standard regression approach. Tax revenue mobilization is of paramount importance for a country’s development and subsequent regional socioeconomic development; therefore, it is imperative to heighten the understanding of whether the current tax systems in the region provide enough tax revenue to meet public expenditure needs. Literature suggests that several economic, demographic, and institutional aspects restrict tax collections. In this regard, the study finds that the level of economic growth, financial deepening, and trade openness positively and significantly influence tax revenue mobilization. On the other side, urbanization, the share of agriculture in GDP, and the size of the shadow economy are negatively and significantly impacting on tax capacity. More so, the low levels of governance quality are having detrimental effects on tax collection and the effect is larger compared to other determinants. Overall low tax collection in the region is attributable to both low tax capacity and administrative inefficiencies. It is also established in the study that the impact of changes in tax structure and systems and external shocks should not be overlooked. The ranking of member countries into different groups of performers has assisted in providing broad guidance for tax policy design and reforms. However, the cross-cutting issue is the need for improving governance to build effective and efficient systems.1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 2 OVERVIEW OF SADC TAX STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS 3 SCHOLARHIP REVIEW 4 METHODS, DATA, AND DATA SOURCES 5 PRESENTATION OF RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 6 CONCLUSION, POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND AREAS FOR FURTHER STUDYmasterpublishedKlery CHIKWED

Topics on gender and child development outcomes

Thesis(Doctoral) -- KDI School: Ph.D in Development Policy, 2022This dissertation covers contemporary topics on gender and child development outcomes in developing countries. The first chapter, Women’s status in developing countries: a new measure and children’s development outcomes, highlights the limitations of traditional measures of women’s status and makes a case for a multidimensional approach that is context and concept relevant. The proposed measure draws mainly from conceptual works by Bina Agarwal (1997) and Naila Kabeer (1999). The composite index of women’s status and its independent dimensions are estimated using data from the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey I and II. The empirical analysis reveals that the indices are associated with traditional measures of women’s status with the expected sign and are also good predictors of child health and cognitive outcomes. Further analysis reveals that independent dimensions affect child development outcomes differently. The findings of this study contribute to the ongoing search for a comprehensive measure of women’s status and provide new insights into how the subject should be approached, especially in developing countries. The second chapter is titled Do cash and in-kind food transfers have the same effect on children’s welfare? Identifying mechanisms using a cluster Randomized Control Trial in Northern Uganda. The chapter presents a theoretical framework demonstrating how social assistance programs may generate different welfare outcomes for children. The model predicts that efforts to increase children’s welfare will be more effective if they shift the balance of power in the household in favor of the mother. This prediction is validated using data from an RCT in northern Uganda to assess the relative effectiveness of cash and food transfers in improving children’s nutritional outcomes. The empirical findings show that cash transfer to the mother is more effective at improving children’s welfare outcomes than in-kind food transfers of equivalent value. The study highlights the role of preference differences, social norms, and bargaining power in determining the success of child-focused interventions. The third chapter, Elected Local Female Leaders and Gender Stereotypes, examines the effects of exposure to competitively elected local female politicians in Ghana on women’s perception of themselves (self-efficacy) and men’s perceptions of women (gender stereotypes). The chapter uses data from the 2010 district assembly elections in Ghana and the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey I and II. Using a difference-in-differences with propensity score matching (PSM), we find that exposure to elected female leaders over one election cycle increases women’s self-efficacy but has no effect on gender stereotypes. The finding suggests that while there is an opportunity to promote female participation in leadership to increase women’s self-efficacy, complementary programs may be necessary to improve gender stereotypes.- Chapter 1: Women’s status – A New Measure and Child Development Outcomes - Chapter 2: Do Cash and In-kind Food Transfers Have the Same Effect on Children’s Welfare? Identifying Mechanisms Using Data from a Cluster Randomized Control Trial in Northern Uganda - Chapter 3: Elected Local Female Leaders and Gender StereotypesdoctoralpublishedJunior ABDUL-WAHA

Developing innovation ecosystem in biomedical field by establishing organized physician-scientists nurturing system in Korea

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Development Policy, 2022In the post-corona era, Korea should strive to secure a new growth engine by creating an innovative ecosystem in the biomedical field and become a global first mover in biomedical technology. To this end, it is necessary to establish an organized physician-scientists training system, and to support growth as a leading independent researcher rather than simply participating in research. In addition, it is necessary to encourage doctors to participate in research by providing many benefits through institutional support, rather than for doctors to participate in research out of simple personal curiosity, and to increase the proportion of physician scientists in the long run. When looking at cases from other countries, the proportion of physician scientists in Korea is very low, and if many physician scientists are nurtured by benchmarking the cases of excellent physician scientists, it will be able to contribute to the development of biomedical technology in Korea. The purpose of this study is to analyze the systematic method for nurturing physician scientists using AHP and to analyze the method for creating a hospital-centered innovative ecosystem. To this end, an AHP analysis model consisting of 13 detailed items and two areas of increasing incentives for research participation and supporting the growth of independent researchers was constructed. Through this study, it was found that if the hospital provides an environment for research, such as reducing treatment hours and providing research facilities and space, participation in research increases. However, in the case of reduction of treatment hours, it is necessary to come up with a plan to compensate for the financial disadvantage of doctors. In addition, institutional support is needed so that doctors can challenge start-ups to create a hospital-centered innovation ecosystem, and by establishing regional research-focused hospitals, the industry, academia, and research circles can collaborate with hospitals, and they should be linked to create a synergistic effect. Most of the existing major bio clusters in Korea have weaknesses in clinical trials and licensing. To solve this problem, it can be said that the participation of hospitals is essential.I. Introduction II. Literature Review III. Methodology IV. Data Analysis V. Discussion VI. ConclusionmasterpublishedSangwook R

inequality, poverty, and well-being

Thesis(Doctoral) -- KDI School: Ph.D in Development Policy, 2022This dissertation presents the empirical results of a series of studies on the development issues such as income inequality, poverty, and employee’s well-being. The objective of this study is to examine empirical evidence of how technological progress affect income inequality in advanced countries as well as poverty reduction in developing countries, and further to explore the effect of work hour reduction policy on employee well-being. This will enable us to expand our understanding on the effects of technological progress on socio-economic outcomes as well as the impact of labor market policy on worker’s satisfaction. This thesis consists of three chapters under the broad banner of three essays on development issues: inequality, poverty, and well-being. The first essay, Innovation and Top Income Inequality: Evidence from OECD Countries, aims to explore the effect of innovation on top income inequality in OECD countries over the period of 1980-2017. Innovation is proxied by the number of patent application. Top income inequality is expressed by top 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 10% income shares. Sample countries are 34 high-income countries as most innovations occur in these countries. Using cross-country panel and 2SLS estimations to deal with the endogeneity, I found that innovation has positive and significant impact on top income shares in rich countries. These results are also robust using alternative innovation variables such as patent grant and patent citation data. Based on this finding, I propose three kinds of policy options to reduce rising top income inequality: prevent tax loopholes used by the richest and strengthen tax progressivity for the top riches, lastly enhance educational reforms to improve moral values and thus reduce corruptions. The second essay, Financial Innovation, Financial Inclusion, and Poverty: Evidence from Developing Countries, explores the links between financial innovation and poverty in developing countries. For this, a panel was set up for 103 developing countries over the period of 2004-2018. To address endogeneity, OLS with fixed effects and instrument variable strategy are used. As external instruments, latitude of capital city and legal origins are used for European ex-colonies. The results show that financial innovation measured by Financial Inclusion Index shows negative and significant effects on poverty. This is robust when using alternative Financial Development Index created by IMF. Thus, financial innovation is a useful tool for poverty reduction in developing countries. This implies that financial innovation enhances financial inclusion through easier access to finance, which brings about growth and reduces poverty. This encourages developing countries to make efforts on boosting financial innovation to address poverty issue. The third essay, The Effect of Work Hour Reduction on Employee Satisfaction: The Case of Working Hour Reduction Policy in Korea, investigates the effect of standard 40-hour workweek policy on workers’ subjective well-being in Korea. The essential part of the policy was to reduce legal work hour per week from 44 to 40 hours, aiming to improve workers’ quality of lives. The policy was implemented in time order by industry and firm size from 2004 through 2011. This policy setting provides us a good opportunity to explore the causal impact of the policy by using DID (difference-in-difference) analysis. I use Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) data to estimate the effect of the policy on life and job satisfaction by applying DID estimation method. I found that the policy has significant effect on life satisfaction with leisure and family income while negative effects on job satisfaction overall. This result is also robust when the dependent variables are converted into binary variables.- Chapter 1: Innovation and Top Income Inequality: Evidence from OECD Countries, 1980-2017 - Chapter 2: Financial Innovation, Financial Inclusion, and Poverty: Evidence from 103 developing countries - Chapter 3: The Effect of Work Hour Reduction Policy on Employee Satisfactions: The Case of Work Hour Reduction in KoreadoctoralpublishedSooyoung HWAN

panel data analysis (1990-2019)

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Public Management, 2022Africa is expected to contribute more than half of the global demographic expansion between now and 2050. By 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is predicted to double. According to the World Bank, recent drops in the birth rate in Sub-Saharan Africa imply that the working ages (25 to 64 years) population is rising more rapidly than those of different age groups, increasing the likelihood of economic expansion. Using a panel data methodology, the paper investigates the effect of demographic expansion on the economy of 43 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1990 to 2019. The analysis employed annual secondary data from the database of development indicators of the World Bank and from the database of world economic outlook of IMF. Besides the analysis of descriptive statistics, panel model of random and fixed effects have been used to observe the data. The results of both models of fixed and random effects analysis revealed a one-to-one correlation between GDP per capita growth and population surge, suggesting that demographic expansion benefits the economy. The study recommends that Sub-Saharan African countries design and execute realistic population policy initiatives to increase the productivity level of their population to reap larger demographic dividend gains.Abstract Introduction Literature Review Empirical literature Research Method Results and Discussions ConclusionmasterpublishedHenok Fantahun TESSEM