Production Sharing and Comparative Advantage: The Cases of East Asia and Mexico

The industrial structures and strategy of the country, which exports parts and components, seem to have a significant effect on the pattern of production sharing of the country where assembly takes place. In the case of some East Asian countries, the pattern and the competitiveness in the assembly of final products strongly depends on the industrial structure and production sharing strategy of Japan. However, the relationship between Mexico and the United States seems to be completely different in that the pattern of production sharing of the first has little relationship with the export pattern of the second of parts and components. This difference may be explained through the difference between the United States and Japan in terms of the pattern of production sharing. Japan’s production sharing is based on specialization, whereas the production sharing of the United States is based on intra-industrial trade.production sharing, parts and components, revealed comparative advantage

Where in Health Sector Do We See ODA Being Effective? With Special Reference to Eight Health Indicators

Analysis for aid effectiveness has become a hot topic of Millennium Development Goal area. While many studies seek to evaluate ODA effectiveness at macro-level or micro-level, this paper attempts to fill the gap by reproducing the analysis at meso-level. The authors tested aid effectiveness in health sector with special reference to eight health indicators. Comparing the effect of the same aid on various health indicators, we found interesting results that the statistical degree and the significance of aid vary in health indicators

Growth and Migration to a Third Country: The Case of Korean Migrants in Latin America

This paper examines the relationship between growth and migration with the case of Korean migrants in the Latin American region. It first shows the trends of economic growth and Korean migrants in Latin American countries and then empirically tests if the growth rate affects the number of Koreans in eighteen countries in Latin America. The regression results confirm that countries with higher economic growth attract more Koreans, notably from other countries in the region that experience lower growth. This analysis provides an interesting perspective in understanding determinants of migration, where economic growth has not been considered as an important factor yet

Different Paths of Deindustrialization: Latin American and Southeast Asian Countries from a Comparative Perspective

This paper looks from a comparative perspective at different paths of deindustrialization taken by Latin American and Southeast Asian countries. Using a sample of 112 developing countries over the period between 1990 and 2012, it is analyzed how each deindustrialization source has affected the deindustrialization paths of the two country groups. It is found that, the inverted-U relationship between the share of value added by manufacturing in total GDP and per capita income; the continuous downward slope of the inverted-U curve; the Dutch Disease effect; and the emergence of China as a major player in the world trade scene have affected the deindustrialization paths of the two country groups with different timings, speeds, and degrees

Maternity waiting home as a potential intervention for reducing the maternal mortality ratio in El Salvador: an observational case study

Abstract Background El Salvador is recognized as a country that has effectively reduced its Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). While health indicators, such as total fertility rate, adolescent fertility rate, skilled birth attendance, and health expenditures, have improved in El Salvador, this improvement was unremarkable compared to advancements in other developing countries. How El Salvador could achieve an outstanding decrease in MMR despite unexceptional improvements in health and non-health indicators is a question that deserves deep research. We used quantitative methods and an observational case study to show that El Salvador could reduce its MMR more than expected by instituting health policies that not only aimed to reduce the (adolescent) fertility rate, but also provide safe birthing conditions and medical services to pregnant women through maternity waiting homes. Methods We ran pooled ordinary least squares regression and panel regression with fixed effects using MMR as the dependent variable and health and non-health factors as the independent variables. We conducted residual analysis, calculated the predicted value of MMR, and compared it with the observed value in El Salvador. To explain the change in MMR in El Salvador, we carried out an observational case study of maternity waiting homes in that country. Results El Salvador could reduce MMR by improving health factors such as fertility rate skilled birth attendance and non-health factors, such as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and female empowerment. However, even while considering these factors, the MMR of El Salvador decreased by more than expected. We confirmed this by analyzing the residuals of the regression model. This improvement in MMR, which is larger than expected from the regression results, can be attributed partly to government measures such as maternity waiting homes. Conclusions The reason for the unexplained reduction in El Salvadors MMR seems to be attributed in part to health policies that not only aim to reduce the fertility rate but also to provide safe birthing conditions and medical services to pregnant women through maternity waiting homes

Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and International Flow of Labor: OECD Countries

This paper examines the effect of trade on the international movement of labor using migration data into 28 OECD countries. The effect of foreign direct investment on the flow of labor is also considered. The results show that the increased exports of a country lower the migration outflow, whereas increased imports work in the opposite direction. But the rise of bilateral trade raises migration flow into the partner country. Total foreign direct investment into a country does not affect the outflow of labor. But increased bilateral investment raises the movement of people into the investing country

Conflict of Interest over Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Its Influence on Shifting Paradigm in Development Financing: Learning from Multi-Bi ODA

This study investigates why conflict of interest occurs in multi-bi ODA – a hybrid form of bilateral ODA and multilateral ODA – and focuses on the bilateral relations between donor countries and multilateral organizations for analysis. Significantly, donor countries and multilateral organizations can each have their respective interests due to the hybrid nature of multi-bi ODA, and consequently, the relationship of donor countries and multilateral organizations is not always cooperative and mutually beneficial in multi-bi ODA. In Particular, this study focuses on the reason why conflict arises in multibi ODA based on the Principal-Agent Model to analyze the conflict-based relationship of donor countries and multilateral organizations

Effects of Food Import and Source Diversification on Food Security

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of food import and source diversification on the stability of food price. The paper shows that high import reliance is helpful to reduce the price variability for banana, pineapple, tomato, spice, poultry meat, wine, maize, and bovine meat, whereas there are some exceptions like cabbage. This means that self-sufficiency for most of the foods is not good for the stability of price. As for diversification of food import source, diversification is helpful to reduce the variability of import price for banana, pineapple, tomato, spice, poultry meat, wine, apple, grape, orange, tea, pig meat, tobacco, and cabbage. In addition, a country should diversify more its import source in order to stabilize import price when it is importing food from developing countries than when it is importing from developed ones. This is probably because developed countries, with better infrastructure for agriculture, can maintain more stable production and price