The Role of Agriculture in the Development Process: Recent Experiences from Ghana

Economic policies have had important implications for the role of agriculture in the socio-economic development of Ghana because of agricultures dominance of the economy. The performance of the agricultural sector has generally directed the overall economic performance since independence. The policy of market deregulation in Ghana, including agricultural markets, has not achieved the expected results due to many constraints, the key of which are institutional failures and the slow response of the private sector to take up the agricultural input markets. These have been compounded by the rain-fed agriculture that is predominant in Ghana, such that bad rainfall years have been characterized by low harvests of staple food crops and high food prices, and vice versa. This has resulted in high price volatility during the post liberalization years. In addition, under developed rural financial markets make it such that farmers are unable to invest much in new technologies and agricultural land development, thereby increasing pressure on farmlands as population increases. The paper highlights the key role of agriculture, including environmental, poverty alleviation, food security, buffer, social viability, and cultural perceptions. The failure of policy to adequately address the myriad of problems confronting agriculture has been in part because of institutional failure, and in part due to bottlenecks in the distribution system. Future agricultural research and policies should therefore target developing rural institutions, in particular, agricultural institutions, to respond adequately to new technologies and improvements in agricultural production, processing and distribution.International Development,

Equity and Justice in Global Warming Policy

Many countries are implementing or at least considering policies to counter increasingly certain negative impacts from climate change. An increasing amount of research has been devoted to the analysis of the costs of climate change and its mitigation, as well as to the design of policies, such as the international Kyoto Protocol, post-Kyoto negotiations, regional initiatives, and unilateral actions. Although most studies on climate change policies in economics have considered efficiency aspects, there is a growing literature on equity and justice. Climate change policy has important dimensions of distributive justice, both within and across generations, but in this paper we survey only studies on the intragenerational aspect, i.e., within a generation. We cover several domains including the international, regional, national, sectoral and inter-personal, and examine aspects such as the distribution of burdens from climate change, climate change policy negotiations in general, implementation of climate agreements using tradable emission permits, and the uncertainty of alternatives to emission reductions.Economics of Climate Change, Intragenerational Equity, Distributive Justice

Equity and justice in global warming policy

Many countries are implementing or at least considering policies to counter increasingly certain negative impacts from climate change. An increasing amount of research has been devoted to the analysis of the costs of climate change and its mitigation, as well as to the design of policies, such as the international Kyoto Protocol, post-Kyoto negotiations, regional initiatives, and unilateral actions. Although most studies on climate change policies in economics have considered efficiency aspects, there is a growing literature on equity and justice. Climate change policy has important dimensions of distributive justice, both within and across generations, but in this paper we survey only studies on the intragenerational aspect, i.e.., within a generation. We cover several domains including the international, regional, national, sectoral and inter-personal, and examine aspects such as the distribution of burdens from climate change, climate change policy negotiations in general, implementation of climate agreements using tradable emission permits, and the uncertainty of alternatives to emission reductions.Economics of climate change, intragenerational equity, distributive justice

Ambiguity of Social Networks in Post-Communist Contexts

The paper discusses three hypotheses. First, it introduces four ideal types of networks which are combined in the category of networks as used by social scientists. Four types result from the intersection of two implicit choices made about networks – networks are assumed to be either personal or impersonal, and are viewed either internally or externally. Thus, networks are understood in terms of sociability, access to resources, enabling structure, or social capital. Second, I argue that networks function in a fundamentally ambiguous way. They operate in their capacity of a safety net or survival kit, provide a ‘beating the system’ capacity or compensate for the system’s defects. At the same time networks provide constraints such as high costs of informal contract, limits on individual action, lock-in effects and the handicaps of social capital. Third, I illustrate differences between networks serving the economy of favors in Russia and networks serving the purposes of ‘network society.

Oil and Remittances in the Middle East

This dissertation constructs a framework for understanding the determinants of remittances. It develops the effects of multiple macro economic variables in one area in the Middle East on the remittances flows and the future development of (another Arab neighboring country) Egypt. The framework will explore the relationship between oil prices and remittances from oil based economies (mainly Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait and the Arab Emirates) to a labor exporting country (Egypt). It also highlights the impact of multiple variables affecting the flow of remittances from labor exporting Arab countries: (1) Prices of oil. (2) Oil revenues. (3) Differentials in deposit interest rate between the host and the home countries. (4) The income level in the host countries. (5) The income level in the home country. (6) Inflation rate in the home country. (7) Political instability in the area that might affect remittances flow from the host countries. These variables produce a three-outcome model, presented as three testable hypotheses. Workers\u27 remittances in the Arab countries would be adversely affected by war in the Persian Gulf. Even though there is a tremendous increase in oil prices, remittances flow to Egypt from neighboring Arab countries will decrease. Political and economic factors circumscribe the future of demand for migrant labor (imported labor) and, consequently, growth of remittances in the labor-importing countries from labor-exporting countries. This will be explained by developing a number of econometric models to test the effect of macro economic variables on the flow of remittances. Remittance is the dependent variable and the independent variables are price of oil and political instability. Other macro variables will be added to the model to be tested as independent variables: the interest rate in Egypt and host countries, the inflation rate in Egypt, and the income level of the host and the home countries

The Neglected Role of International Altruistic Investment in the Chinese Transition Economy

This Article discusses the positive role of altruistic investment in any transition economy by making specific reference to altruistic investment in the Chinese economic transition. The Article discusses the social welfare hardships arising from the transition process and then discusses the U.S. and Chinese tax incentives and barriers to altruistic investment that would lessen that hardship. After that, the Article discusses the reasons why both countries might prefer to retain those barriers. Finally, the Article concludes that altruistic investment has more positive then negative consequences and makes a simple proposal to stimulate altruistic investment in China in a manner that would assist the transition process without sacrificing either country\u27s mutually exclusive goals. The proposal, that the WTO recognize, encourage, and integrate altruistic investment through international tax policy, is useful not only in China but in other developing or economically reforming countries

The rise of East and Southeast Asians tourists in Europe: the case of Vienna

Travelers from Asia have become a potential alternative for some of the traditional European tourist markets that have stagnated due to the economic crisis. The remarkable recovery of the Japanese market, the exponential growth of Chinese and Korean markets in addition to the high spending power of Thai and Chinese tourists have painted a highly positive scenario for the tourism industry in Vienna. This paper utilizes Vienna as a case study to explore the rise of Asian tourists in Europe. Tourism statistics, media reports and materials of destination marketing organization were analyzed for evaluation of the trends and growth of Asian outbound market to Vienna. The current study contributes to the tourism industry of Austria by highlighting the fragmentations in tourist consumption patterns of tourists from East and Southeast Asia

Macroeconomic Impacts of Immigration in Malaysia: Trade, Remittances and Unemployment

The macroeconomic consequence of immigration is a disputable area among many interested parties as evidenced by the empirical studies. Most studies, however, employ Anglo-Saxon countries as their subjects, while there is an increasing demand for studies on the economic consequences of immigration in developing countries. As a developing country, Malaysia has attracted immigration over the years, and the population of migrant labour in Malaysia has reached more than two million in 2008, which makes up 7% of the total population and 20% of total labour force. Thus, such large presence has provided a rationale for an economic analysis on the impact of immigrations on the Malaysian economy. This research, hence, aims to analyze the economic impact of immigration in Malaysia in the context of trade, remittance and unemployment in an interrelated manner. These topics are examined in detail in three separate empirical essays. Specifically, the first essay examines the link between bilateral trade and immigration, while the second essay explores the relationship between remittances of the Indonesian workers in Malaysia and the macroeconomic variables both in Malaysia and Indonesia. The last empirical essay analyses the relationship between unemployment and immigration in Malaysia. These empirical essays use quantitative research methodology in the form of panel and time series data analysis. However, each essay is based on a different theoretical framework, econometric methods, timelines and samples due to availability data and the nature of the study. The findings of the first essay indicates that immigration increases both exports and imports through both preference and immigration-link mechanisms, implying that immigrants play a vital role in fostering trade between Malaysia and countries of origin. In the second essay, it is found that Indonesian labour in Malaysia take macroeconomic conditions in both countries into account in their remittance decisions and the findings demonstrate that the main motives to remit is altruism and portfolio investment, indicating the importance of the level of economic activities in both countries. The third essay reveals that there is a lack of evidence supporting the hypothesis of adverse employment effect of immigration in Malaysia, implying that the job-creation effect of immigration has taken place, which has resulted in further economic and employment growth in both public and private sectors. In conclusion, immigration is vital for both host and home countries’ economic developments as the findings of this research have demonstrated, thus refuting the claims that their presence brings more harms than benefits

Remittances and their impact on Economic Growth

In the worldwide economy, remittances represent one of the major international flows of financial resources. Worker remittances constitute an increasingly important mechanism for the transfer of resources from developed to developing countries, and remittances are the second-largest source, behind foreign direct investment, of external funding for developing countries. Sometimes the flows of remittances can exceed the flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). Yet, literature on worker remittances has so far focused mainly on the impact of remittances on income distribution within countries, on the determinants of remittances at a micro-level, or on the effects of emigration and remittances for specific countries or regions.This paper tries to study the impact of remittances on various macroeconomic and developmental aspects for the economy. This study aims to observe the impact of remittances on economic growth, using a panel data set of 21 developing countries, during the period 1992–2012. These countries have experienced a major increase in remittance inflows, and at this time accounts for the bulk of total remittance receipts, compared with other regions. The paper is then to review the theoretical as well empirical literature devoted to remittances, in order; first, to select the arguments that can be applied to the countries and second, to identify empirically if there are significant relationships between remittances and GDP per capita in these countries

Foreign Assistance and Domestic Financial Markets in Developing Countries

A.E. Res. 89-2