[Review of] Ernest R. Myers, The Community Psychology Concept: Integrating Theory, Education, and Practice in Psychology, Social Work, and Public Administration

Psychologists and other social scientists are critically analyzing the “state of the art” of community psychology. Their question is how this developing discipline can be best organized for pursuit of knowledge needed to bring about positive community change

Are Managers’ Perceptions of Constraints to Growth Reliable? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in South Africa

Can surveys of what managers see as the biggest problems that their firm faces provide useful information on the main constraints to private sector and economic development and be used to prioritize reforms in these areas? One of many concerns about doing this is that managers’ responses to questions about specific areas of the investment climate might reflect their assessment of overall investment climate or their overall business confidence rather than their views on that specific area of the investment climate. This paper uses a natural experiment in South Africa to assess whether this is the case. When the World Bank’s 2007-2008 Enterprise Survey was being carried out, a major electricity crisis hit South Africa. The crisis resulted in many more managers saying that power was a serious constraint on enterprise operations—the share rose from about 10 percent of managers before the crisis to close to 50 percent after the crisis. But it also resulted in greater concern about most other areas of the investment climate—including areas such as taxation, regulation, and other areas of infrastructure that were unrelated to the crisis. This suggests that managers do not fully compartmentalize their responses. Moreover, the changes were large enough to suggest that cross-time and cross-country comparisons of perception data will be difficult.Subjective Data; Firm-level Data; Perceptions; South Africa

How the quality of institutions affects technological deepening in developing countries

This paper assesses the effect of institutional quality on research and development (R&D) expenditures in developing countries. The paper finds that the risk of expropriation and the rule of law are correlated with R&D expenditures. Since both institutional variables increase as institutional quality improves (i.e., as risk of expropriation decreases and rule of law improves), this suggests that stronger institutions encourage greater R&D expenditures. The result for the risk of expropriation is more highly significant and far more robust than the result for the'rule of law'. Although R&D is not the primary way that developing countries gain access to technology, this result is interesting for at least two reasons. First, R&D might encourage technological deepening better than other methods that developing countries use to gain access to technology (e.g., through foreign direct investment (FDI) or capital goods imports). Second, past work has shown that another important way that developing countries gain access to technology, through FDI, is also positively correlated with institutional quality (i.e., as institutional quality improves, FDI increases).International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Environmental Economics&Policies,Decentralization,Economic Theory&Research,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Science Education,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism

Lying about firm performance: Evidence from a survey in Nigeria

It is difficult to be sure that managers in developing countries report financial information accurately and truthfully during firm surveys. The most common concern is that managers might under-report performance to avoid attracting attention from the tax authorities or corrupt bureaucrats. Using a method developed in the literature on corruption, this paper identifies managers who appear to be reticent or deceptive and compares their answers with the answers of non-reticent managers. The paper shows that reticent managers report that their firms are more, not less, productive than non-reticent managers. The paper then assesses possible reasons for this, finding that the most likely explanation is that reticent managers exaggerate performance so that they or their firms look good. Because past studies have found that reticent managers appear to lie about other aspects of firm and manager behavior—including underreporting corruption—this suggests that it will be difficult to fully assess how these behaviors affect firm performance unless reticence is controlled for.Reticence; Nigeria; Firm Surveys; Corruption; Labor Productivity

How petty is petty corruption? Evidence from firm survey in Africa

Recent firm-level surveys suggest that petty corruption is a serious problem for African firms, costing the average firm in many countries between 2.5 and 4.5 percent of sales. However, a minor difference in the way firms answer the question has a large effect on estimates of the size of the burden. On average, firms report payments that are between four and fifteen times higher when they report them as a percent of sales than when they report them in monetary terms. This paper discusses several possible reasons why there might be a difference including outliers, differences between firms that report bribes in monetary terms and firms that report them as a percent of sales, and the sensitivity of the corruption question. But none of these explanations explain the discrepancy. One plausible remaining reason is that firm managers overestimate bribes when they report them in percentage terms. If this is the case, petty corruption might be far less costly than the raw data suggest.Corruption; Africa; Firm Surveys

Firm Registration and Bribes: Results from a Microenterprise Survey in Africa

If corrupt bureaucrats target registered firms, then corruption may discourage registration. Using data from a survey of 4,801 microenterprises in Zambia, this paper looks at whether corruption is a more or less serious problem for registered firms. The paper finds results consistent with the cross-country evidence—registered firms appear to be more concerned about corruption than unregistered firms. This suggests that remaining informal and out-of-sight might reduce the burden of corruption. The paper also looks at two possible reasons why registered firms might be more concerned about corruption. It finds that there is little evidence that government officials specifically target registered firms. Registered firms were more likely to be involved in transactions with government or parastatal officials that could involve bribes—possibly explaining why they are more concerned about corruption than other firms are—but they were no more likely to pay bribes during these transactions.Zambia; Africa; Corruption; Petty Corruption; Informality; Bribes; Registration

Beyond tariffs and quotas : why don't African manufacturers export more?

There has been much concern about Africa's recent export performance. Even though tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade have been falling, Africa's share of world exports has declined and most African countries remain highly dependent on a narrow range of primary commodities for export earnings. The author looks at factors that affect the export performance of manufacturing enterprises in eight African countries. In addition to enterprise characteristics (such as size, ownership, and education of the manager), policy-related variables also affect export performance. Manufacturing enterprises are less likely to export in countries with restrictive trade and customs regulation and poor customs administration. In contrast, there is less evidence that the quality of domestic transportation infrastructure has a large impact on export performance. Although the coefficient on this variable is negative, it is statistically insignificant in most model specifications.

Bridging the digital divide - how enterprise ownership and foreign competition affect Internet access in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Many observers attributed the rapid productivity growth observed in the United States in the mid- to late 1990s, to the growing use of information, and the Internet. This in turn created concern that developing, and transition economies - where use of information technology, and the Internet was less widespread - would be left behind as productivity, and growth accelerated in technologically advanced countries, and stagnated elsewhere. Using enterprise-level data from twelve transition economies, the author looks at factors that affect whether enterprises in these countries are connected to the Internet. He finds that foreign-owned enterprises are more likely to have Internet access than other enterprises. And that employee-owned enterprises are less likely to have access. Even after controlling for other factors that might affect Internet connectivity, the quality of a country's telecommunications infrastructure appears to have a significant effect on the likelihood that an enterprise in that country has Internet access. Reducing corruption, and taking other steps to improve the business environment, would benefit domestic economies, even if Internet access had little short-term impact on productivity, or growth.General Technology,Knowledge Economy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,General Technology,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Knowledge Economy

Does Internet Connectivity Affect Export Performance? Evidence from Transition Economies

exports, information technology, FDI

A transitory regime : water supply in Conakry, Guinea

Both consumers and the government benefited from reform of the water system in Conakry, Guinea, whose deterioration since independence had become critical by the mid-1980s. Less than 40 percent of Conakry's population had access to piped water - low even by regional standards - and service was intermittent, at best, for the few who had connections. The public agency in charge of the sector was inefficient, overstaffed, and virtually insolvent. In several ways, the reform introduced to the sector in 1989 under a World Bank-led project was remarkable. It showed that even in a weak institutional environment, where contracts are hard to enforce and political interference is common, private sector participation can improve sector performance. The authors discuss the mechanismsthat made progress possible and identify factors that inhibit the positive effects of reform. Water has become very expensive, the number of connections has increased very slowly, and conflicts have developed between SEEG (the private operator) and SONEG (the state agency). Among the underlying problems: a) The lack of strong, stable institutions. b) The lack of an independent agency capable of restraining arbitrary government action, regulating the private operator, and enforcing contractual arrangements. c) The lack of adequate conflict resolution mechanisms for contract disputes. d) Weak administrative capacity.Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Water Conservation,Decentralization,Water Supply and Systems,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water and Industry,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water Conservation