Good Governance, Welfare, and Transformation

Market conforming institutions are a precondition for a thriving and stable economy. This is the upshot of the Washington consensus or, of somewhat earlier origin, the "Eucken hypothesis" Another hypothesis of Eucken has it that market conforming institutions are the product of a strong state. However, more general and more important than the strong state is good governance. In this paper I refer to it as the "Lorenzetti hypothesis". The paper tries to figure out the mechanisms by which good governance and economic order influence economic outcome. Then the two hypotheses are tested for two aspects of economic outcome: productivity as measured by GNP per capita over a wide range of countries and transformation success as measured by GNP growth over the European transformation countries. The tests confirm the theoretical expectation that good governance is more important than good orderGovernance; Economic order; Development

EXPLORING THE DETERMINANTS OF GLOBAL ‘SOCIAL PRODUCTION’ OF INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE: INSIGHTS FROM SETI@HOME

Commons-based peer production is an activity that is emerging as a distinct mode of resource allocation and production of information, knowledge and culture (‘social production’ for short), potentially heralding a new stage in the development of information/knowledge-based economies. This paper presents a cross-country analysis of factors determining the information and knowledge output of the paradigmatic social production project, i.e. SETI@home. The main hypothesis explored is that the level of average subjective well-being in a country is a motivational proxy variable that can help explain the cross-country variation in SETI@home output levels. The hypothesis that trust might be of lesser importance is also explored. I find support for both hypotheses, but only for developed and advanced countries, not poor countries.

India - India's growing conflict between trade and transport : issues and options

India was a rather marginal participant in world trade during the early years after independence. Since 1980, however, the structure and orientation of Indian export trades have undergone fundamental changes. Substantial progress has been made in diversifying the export base - manufactured goods have increased and the traditional bulk sector has shrunk. Key targets for the export of manufactured goods are the European, Japanese and North American markets. However, these markets are characterized by increasingly efficient trade logistics, including containerization and multimodal transport arrangements. To enable further trade growth, India is confronted with a need to tie into the highly organized international trade logistics networks, something the country is totally unprepared to cope with in terms of demanding logistical arrangements. There is a real danger that India's trade performance will deteriorate, if no corrective measures are taken. A highly fragmented service industry, outdated regulations, heavy Government control, a constrained private sector, and largely inadequate infrastructure have curtailed efforts to improve trade logistics, including containerization and multimodal transport arrangements in India. Major reforms are called for so that an effective framework for initiating urgently required system adjustments can be established.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Transport and Trade Logistics,Common Carriers Industry

The international ocean transport industry in crisis : assessing the reasons and outlook

Until 1980, the world merchant fleet expanded rapidly in response to thriving seatrade markets. Since then, it has not grown much. The industry did not adjust effectively to periodic global recession, and the fleet's earnings deteriorated as the gap widened between the supply of tonnage and the demand for transport. The unpredictability of seatrade markets and the changing structure of demand for ocean transport complicated shipowners'efforts to retrench and draw up defensive strategies. Advances in ship design and ocean transport technologies allowed shipowners to adjust to the greater need for specialized vessels, but chose to retain their assets and their adoption was expensive. Most shipowners added a few new vessels after 1980, often supported by government subsidies. Government regulations created serious distortions in ocean transport and impeded free market adjustments. The most serious issues the industry faces are a critically overaged fleet and shortage of capital. Becauseof reduced freight earnings, maintenance has been neglected, leading to frequent structural failure. Ship casualties - often with serious envionmental damage - have reached alarming levels. The deteriorating safety record has caused insurance costs to escalate and has provoked calls for stricter liability rules, stringent technical standards, and rigorous inspection. Enforcement would make ocean transport more expensive. To meet expected demand for ocean transport safely and efficiently, a great deal of overaged tonnage must be replaced, maintenance must be improved, and new tonnage has to be added. The estimated cost: almost US$400 billion in constant 1992 prices. But traditional financing, through mortgage lending and government subsidy, is becoming scarce. Leasing or cashflow-based lending are promising alternatives, but they required predictable revenue streams based on long-term freight contracts predicated on cargo-owners'cooperation, which remains doubtful. No effective arrangements have been made to meet the industry's capital requirements, and doubts are more numerous than assurances in the industry. The crisis that has developed is unprecedented.Common Carriers Industry,Ports&Waterways,Transport and Trade Logistics,Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND NEW ZEALAND'S PRODUCTIVITY MALAISE: AN INDUSTRY-LEVEL STUDY

This paper examines the link between information and communication technology (ICT) and New Zealand's labour productivity (LP) growth in 29 industries over the period 1988-2003, and over relevant sub-periods. After deriving an ICT intensity index in order to classify industries into 'more ICT intensive' and 'less ICT intensive', we compare LP growth rates for these two industry groupings. Further, we employ dummy variable regression models, including difference-in-difference models, to more formally test the relationship between ICT intensity and LP growth. The results prove to be sensitive to the time period specified. When breaks in the data series are taken into account, there seems to be support for the view that LP growth of more ICT intensive industries has improved over time relative to that of less ICT intensive industries, even though overall LP growth was weak. To put it differently, the restrained New Zealand LP performance apparent from our data seems to have been due mainly to the decline in LP growth of less ICT intensive industries. Our results illustrate that lack of overall productivity growth per se is not necessarily evidence against the beneficial productivity impacts of ICT. Rather, the proper comparison is that between the productivity performance of more ICT intensive versus less ICT intensive industries. However, our results can only be taken as suggestive, given the fact that ICT is but one of the determinants of LP, and given the many inherent measurement problems.Information and Communication Technology, Labour Productivity Growth, ICT Intensive Industries, New Zealand., Productivity Analysis, O47, O50,

MAORI AND THE INFORMATION WORKFORCE, 1991-2001

This paper documents the size, composition and changes in New Zealand's information workforce over the period 1991 to 2001. The estimates are disaggregated into Maori/non-Maori, by gender, and by major occupational categories. The absolute as well as relative size of the information workforce has continued to grow during the period, though the relative growth rate is a lot lower than during the 1980s. While the findings for women in general are encouraging, those for Maori, and especially Maori men, are less so. Maori remain underrepresented in the information workforce. Although their participation has increased, the gaps in participation rates between Maori and non-Maori have changed little.Labor and Human Capital,

The Growth and Gender Composition of New Zealand's Information Work Force

This paper documents the continuing growth and gender composition of New Zealand's information work force, at the aggregate level as well as by major occupation groups, over the period 1976-96. Information occupations have been selected from five-yearly Census occupation data at the four-digit level. After lagging behind the US in the past, the relative size of New Zealand's information work force now seems similar to that of the US. By / 996, about 55 percent of the female workforce was employed in information occupations, compared to 40 precent of the male workforce. There seems to have been relatively faster up skilling of the female information work force. The paper also briefly comments on related, but much narrower, 'knowledge worker' concepts, i.e. R&D personnel and the workers of the 'digital' economy, and 011 some of the problems encountered if one wants to relate the work force measures to endogenous growth theory. Finally, a long wish list of further research is provided