Rural-urban migration in developing countries : a survey of theoretical predictions and empirical findings

The migration of labor from rural to urban areas is an important part of the urbanization process in developing countries. Even though it has been the focus of abundant research over the past five decades, some key policy questions have not found clear answers yet. To what extent is internal migration a desirable phenomenon and under what circumstances? Should governments intervene and, if so, with what types of interventions? What should be their policy objectives? To shed light on these important issues, the authors survey the existing theoretical models and their conflicting policy implications and discuss the policies that may be justified based on recent relevant empirical studies. A key limitation is that much of the empirical literature does not provide structural tests of the theoretical models, but only provides partial findings that can support or invalidate intuitions and in that sense, support or invalidate the policy implications of the models. The authors'broad assessment of the literature is that migration can be beneficial or at least be turned into a beneficial phenomenon so that in general migration restrictions are not desirable. They also identify some data issues and research topics which merit further investigation.Labor Markets,Urban Housing and Land Settlements,National Urban Development Policies&Strategies,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Economic Theory&Research

Women in the Legal Academy: A Brief History of Feminist Legal Theory

Women’s entry into the legal academy in significant numbers—first as students, then as faculty—was a 1970s and 1980s phenomenon. During those decades, women in law schools struggled: first, for admission and inclusion as individual students on a formally equal footing with male students; then for parity in their numbers in classes and on faculties; and, eventually, for some measure of substantive equality across various parameters, including their performance and evaluation both in and in front of the classroom, as well as in the quality of their experiences as students and faculty members and in the benefits to be reaped from their tenure. This part of the story of women’s entry into the legal academy in the 1970s and 1980s—a story of attempted admission, then inclusion, then integration and assimilation, and then, finally, equality—is now a familiar one, at least in broad outline. It is not, in its entirety, an uplifting story. According to a raft of articles produced by women law students in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, women law students during those decades participated less in the classroom, were called on and responded to differently when they did participate, suffered from more law-school-induced anxiety disorders and other mental health issues, graduated with lower GPAs and less law review experience, published fewer notes and filled fewer editorial positions on those journals, held fewer leadership positions overall while in law school, and had far more difficulties connecting with mentors, teachers, and would-be recommenders among the faculty than male students. Women law professors during those decades were tenured at significantly lower rates than men and, particularly at high prestige schools and at schools with fewer female faculty among the tenured ranks, were hired at lower rates that did not reflect their number in the pool of qualified applicants, had trouble asserting or maintaining authority in the classroom or being perceived as having authority, taught lower-prestige courses and received low teaching evaluations, and, like their students, were published far less frequently in the major and most prestigious law reviews. Much of this, albeit not all, has not changed much for either students or faculty. As women in law schools enter the posttenure and midcareer phase, many of the old problems persist while new ones appear: women faculty are invited to participate on panels less often than men, and both women students and faculty are underrepresented as authors in law reviews. Although gender-neutral parental leave is now available to faculty at most law schools, many such policies are still ad hoc. There is considerable worry, although no hard evidence, over whether men disproportionately use the time off to write rather than care for children. Women are still disproportionately overrepresented in some fields and underrepresented or unrepresented in others, and those fields correlate in unsurprising ways with levels of prestige: the more women in a field, the less prestigious. As elsewhere in the workforce, women faculty in legal education suffer from sexual harassment, most of which is unremedied. Women still suffer a pay gap in law schools that remains unaddressed at most universities, as it does elsewhere in academia. There is a sizeable literature on these depressing phenomena that stubbornly do not seem to abate. In these comments, however, I want to focus on another, less appreciated, part of the story of women’s entry into the legal academy in the 1970s and 1980s: the emergence of a body of scholarship—sometimes called feminist legal theory—produced by some of these women legal scholars over the same time period. The story I want to focus on, in other words, is not that of second- or third-wave women’s struggles within the academy, either for admission, acceptance, assimilation, or equality in law schools. Rather, this Article focuses on the story of the scholarship some of those second-wave assimilated women produced once they got there. Feminist jurisprudence, understood largely as scholarship on issues pertaining to gender equality, was launched in the 1970s, endures today, and continues to shape debates. Feminist legal theory, however, was in effect a subfield within feminist jurisprudence and, as its name implies, was an attempt to fashion a broad- based theoretical account of the relationship of law in liberal legal regimes to women’s subordination, patriarchy, and gender and sexual inequality— particularly in a post–civil rights era, when women enjoyed broad access to rights of formal equality, reproductive liberty, and liberal antidiscrimination law. Feminist legal theory so understood—a body of scholarship in search of a theoretical understanding of the relation of law to women’s subordination or, more simply, of law and patriarchy—was birthed in the 1970s, nurtured in the 1980s, and matured in the 1990s. I suggest in this Article that it is now seemingly in decline, and may soon disappear altogether. The reasons for this trajectory, I believe, are to date unexplored. Some reasons are fairly self-evident. Feminist legal theory was a product of three time-specific factors peculiar to the 1970s and 1980s: it reflected the political and the legal struggles of second-wave feminism. The critical theory schools were, to varying degrees, present or thriving in the academy in the 1970s and 1980s, within which feminist legal theory was birthed, grew, and then coexisted with critical theory, albeit at times very uneasily; and this feminist theory reflected second-wave women faculty and students’ mixed experiences of assimilation, success, and alienation in law schools themselves, as briefly recited above. Those three factors—the background politics, the presence of critical theory in law schools, and the differences in women’s experience of those schools—are all themselves either disappearing or dissipating in felt urgency, albeit in different ways and at different speeds, and that dissipation clearly is a part of the story of feminist legal theory’s decline. There are other reasons for its decline as well, however. Some are internal to feminism and feminist theory, and some pertain to the changing nature of legal scholarship from the 1980s to the present. I explore these reasons in Part II below. The story of the development of a distinctively feminist legal theory during the 1970s through the 1990s, and the story of its decline in the 2000s, is of obvious relevance to the history of second- and third-wave feminism. It should also be of interest for what it reveals about the nature of legal scholarship as it was understood, received, and produced in those decades. Its decline likewise reveals something about the changing nature of legal scholarship and the legal academy today. Thus, one conclusion I draw is that the feminist legal theory of the 1970s through the 1990s—regardless of the truth or lasting power of its claims—stands as an example of a type of legal scholarship that was somewhat distinctive to those decades. That form of legal scholarship, furthermore, likely can only emanate from the legal academy. For a host of reasons, we are currently in danger of losing this entire genre of intellectual work, which would be the polity’s loss, not just feminism’s or the legal academy’s

The end of stigma? Understanding the dynamics of legitimisation in the context of TV series consumption

This research contributes to prior work on stigmatisation by looking at stigmatisation and legitimisation as social processes in the context of TV series consumption. Using in-depth interviews, we show that the dynamics of legitimisation are complex and accompanied by the reproduction of existing stigmas and creation of new stigmas

Testing reference dependence, loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity in Spanish tourism

Based on Tversky and Kahneman’s Prospect Theory, we test the existence of reference dependence, loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity in Spanish tourism. To do this, we incorporate the reference-dependent model into a Multinomial Logit Model with Random Parameters -which controls for heterogeneity- and apply it to a sample of vacation choices made by Spaniards. We find that the difference between reference price and actual price is considered to make decisions, confirming that reference dependence exists; that people react more strongly to price increases than to price decreases relative to their reference price, which represents evidence in favor of the loss aversion phenomenon; and that there is diminishing sensitivity for losses only, showing convexity for these negative values.A partir de la Teoría de los Prospectos de Tversky y Kahneman, contrastamos la existencia de dependencia de las referencias, aversión a las pérdidas y sensibilidad decreciente en el contexto de las respuestas a los precios turísticos en España. Para ello, se incorpora el modelo de dependencia de las referencias en el Modelo Logit Multinomial con Coeficientes Aleatorios –que permite controlar la heterogeneidad-. Mostramos que la diferencia entre el precio de referencia y el precio actual es tenida en cuenta a la hora de tomar decisiones turísticas, lo que confirma la existencia de dependencia de las referencias, que los individuos reaccionan con relación a un punto de referencia en mayor medida ante los incrementos en los precios que ante reducciones en los mismos (evidencia de aversión a las pérdidas) y que existe sensibilidad decreciente únicamente para las pérdidas, mostrando una curca convexa para estos valores negativos

A Behavioral Perspective on Technology Evolution and Domain Name Regulation

This paper argues that private property and rights assignment, especially as applied to communication infrastructure and information, should be informed by advances in both technology and our understanding of psychology. Current law in this area in the United States and many other jurisdictions is founded on assumptions about human behavior that have been shown not to hold empirically. A joint recognition of this fact, together with an understanding of what new technologies make possible, leads one to question basic assumptions about how law is made and what laws we should have in a given area, if any. I begin by analyzing different aspects of U.S. law, from a high-level critique of law making to a critique of rights assignment for what I call 'simple nonrival goods.' I describe my understanding, as a non-lawyer with a background in psychology and computing, of the current conventions in U.S. law, consider the foundational assumptions that justify current conventions, describe advances in psychology and technology that call these conventions into question, and briefly note how the law might normatively change in this light. I then apply this general analysis to the question of domain name assignment by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

The political economy of innovation; an institutional analysis of industrial policy and development in Brazil

This dissertation examines Brazilian industrial policies during the administrations of President Lula (2003-2010) and questions if innovation has truly been the main driver of those instruments. It provides a brief overview on the intersections of politics, economics, innovation and institutions as well as the main choices, incentives and alliances of the Brazilian government, which are illustrated by the Innovation Law, PITCE, PDP and campaign financing of President Lula's 2002 and 2006 candidacies. By adding to the analysis Brazil's exports, its balance of trade and the expenditures of BNDES, this research indicates a disconnect between the intentions and the results of the industrial policy. China and “low-tech” businesses seem to have become the real drivers of the government's agenda; the first for its importance to the Brazilian economy and the latter for its influence with government. Finally, while recognizing some positive results, it presents an alternative model based on a “high-tech” natural resources vision of development which could convert the current challenges into opportunitiesBrazil; development; institutions; innovation; industrial policy

Decision-making and risk responsibility related to the use of food biotechnology

This thesis contributes to knowledge about consumer decision-making and risk perception related to the use of biotechnology in food production. Paper I presents a meta-analysis that examined the systematic evidence from existing research on consumers’ evaluation of biotechnology in food products. The results indicated that genetically modified (GM) food with agronomic benefits is considered an inferior alternative to unmodified food products, but its direct consumer benefits were considered more desirable. Furthermore, consumer evaluation of biotechnology was largely insensitive to the type of food product. However, the type of gene modification was important for consumers’ evaluation. Using artefactual field experiments, Papers II-IV explore the effect of context on Swedish consumer behaviour in relation to a GM food with direct tangible benefits. Papers II and III examine the interdependency in consumer decision-making, with the focus of Paper III shifting towards satisfaction as the outcome of the decision-making process. Paper II shows that the policy regulations in place had a decisive influence on consumer acceptance and that the policy context itself may induce opposition to GM food. The greatest consumer opposition was found in the most restrictive policy scenarios. The aim of Paper III was to extend the Kano model of satisfaction and use it to assess consumer satisfaction in relation to decisions taken by upstream actors in the food value chain (FVC) with respect to GM food. The findings suggest that both consumer choices and satisfaction were dependent on the degree of unanimous stances adopted by upstream food value chain actors in supporting the GM food product. Actors’ consistent rejection of GM food resulted in lower consumer acceptance of GM food and greater overall satisfaction. In contrast, consumers were more receptive to and satisfied with GM foods when the FVC actors consistently took supportive stances. This suggests that being pro-GM food is probably not a stable trait. In addition, the analysis lent support to a general preference for and higher satisfaction under a mandatory labelling regime. Paper IV explores the role of food policy regulations in cognitive information processing and deliberation of consumers’ own risk responsibility related to GM food, and whether the effect is dependent on the type of risk. The findings suggest that consumers who have health concerns show less willingness to assign responsibility to themselves in situations where GM products are introduced

Analyzing an absorptive capacity: unlearning context and information sistem capabilities as catalysts for innovativeness

This study examines the impact of a company’s unlearning context and information system (IS) capabilities on the company’s ability to challenge of basic beliefs and to implement processes that are explicitly or tacitly helpful in the reception of new ideas (absorptive capacity). We also examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and the existence and enhancement of innovativeness. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 286 large Spanish companies. Our results show that absorptive capacity is an important dynamic determinant for developing a company’s innovativeness. Moreover, this relationship is best explained with two related constructs. Firstly, the company’s unlearning context plays a key role in managing the tension between potential absorptive capacity and realised absorptive capacity. Secondly, the results also shed light on a tangible means for managers to enhance their company’s innovativeness through IS capabilities

GLOBAL ASSIMILATION AND GLOBAL ALIENATION: LIVES OF PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

This dissertation examines the careers and family lives of "professional, white-collar women" in contemporary China in order to understand the ways in which labor markets, state policies, and gender expectations affect these women's lives in an era of rapid globalization. Drawing on multidisciplinary methods including in-depth interviews with twenty women, content analyses of the biweekly, pop-culture magazine Zhiyin, and the literary analyses of two feminist novels, Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby (2001), and Mian Mian's Candy (2003), I discuss how professional women articulate the meaning of their careers and their family lives, and make sense of their experiences as part of China's path to globalization. Analyzing the ways that professional women construct themselves as "women,"--complying with traditional ideologies of womanhood that historically devalued their achievements in the workplace--I interrogate a category of identity, "professional white-collar women." Thus, I present how these "professional white-collar" women's experiences in their multinational workplaces show that their lives are intricately intertwined with the simultaneous process of being assimilated and alienated as a result of the globalization of China. By arguing that, for these women, instead of increasing their personal agency as independent individuals, their careers serve to develop their desire for materialism and capitalist modernity, I present the irony of China's participation in globalization