Who Commits to the Rule of Law? Constrained Government and Foreign Direct Investment in Postcommunist States

Research linking credible commitments to the rule of law in terms of property rights and contract enforcement is a hallmark of recent efforts to explain economic growth and development. However, many postcommunist states have had difficulty making such commitments and spurring growth. Many argue political polarization prevents states from reforming laws and protecting property rights in some countries whereas single-party governance renders state promises incredible in others. I analyze pooled cross-sectional time-series data for twenty-four postcommunist countries and provide evidence effective constraints among elected officials act as democratic commitment mechanisms rendering government policies credible

The impact of Participatory Budgeting on health and wellbeing:A scoping review of evaluations

Background: Participatory budgeting (PB), citizens deliberating among themselves and with officials to decide how to allocate funds for public goods, has been increasingly implemented across Europe and worldwide. While PB is recommended as good practice by the World Bank and the United Nations, with potential to improve health and wellbeing, it is unclear what evaluations have been conducted on the impact of PB on health and wellbeing. Methods: For this scoping review, we searched 21 databases with no restrictions on publication date or language. The search term ‘participatory budget’ was used as the relevant global label for the intervention of interest. Studies were included if they reported original analysis of health, social, political, or economic and budgetary outcomes of PB. We examined the study design, analysis, outcomes and location of included articles. Findings are reported narratively. Results: From 1458 identified references, 37 studies were included. The majority of evaluations (n = 24) were of PB in South America, seven were in Europe. Most evaluations were case studies (n = 23) conducting ethnography and surveys, focussing on political outcomes such as participation in PB or impacts on political activities. All of the quantitative observational studies analysing population level data, except one in Russia, were conducted in South America. Conclusion: Despite increasing interest in PB, evaluations applying robust methods to analyse health and wellbeing outcomes are scarce, particularly beyond Brazil. Therefore, implementation of PB schemes should be accompanied by rigorous qualitative and quantitative evaluation to identify impacts and the processes by which they are realised

Control of urea hydrolysis and nitrification in soil by chemicals - Prospects and problems

A review is made of the recent work to assess the prospects of regulating urea hydrolysis and nitrification processes in soils by employing chemicals that can retard urea hydrolysis and nitrification. The possible benefits from control of nitrogen transformations in terms of conserving and enhancing fertilizer nitrogen efficiency for crop production and the problems associated with their use with regard to N metabolism of plants have also been discussed with examples. Prospects of using cheap and effective indigenous materials and chemicals for control of urea hydrolysis and nitrification under specific soil situations appear eminent in improving the fertilizer nitrogen efficiency. Urease inhibitors may be helpful in reducing problems associated with ammonia volatilization if this is not offset by leaching of urea. On the other hand retardation of nitrification appears useful in reducing losses that accompany nitrification due to leaching and denitrification, and with the plants that metabolize equally well with relatively higher amounts of NH4–N may be more effective in improving the utilization of fertilizer N under these situation

Trapping the tigers: Regulation of market entry and the rule of law in SE Asia

Recent research identifies high barriers to registering a business as critical impediments to economic development around the world. Similarly, the lack of credible commitment to the rule of law – especially in the areas of property rights and contract enforcement – is also connected to economic underdevelopment. Scholarship treats these factors as rival explanations for underdevelopment. However, I argue the rule of law is the causal mechanism through which barriers to entry in the marketplace influence economic outcomes. Specifically, I present evidence perceptions of the rule of law in Southeast Asia decline as the legal restrictions on registering a business increase because public officials use their gatekeeping positions to extract rents and raise the costs of formalizing private enterprises. High disincentives to register a business drive entrepreneurs underground, which in turn leaves them vulnerable to extortion or confiscation by public officials and undermines perceptions of the rule of law. I employ pooled cross-sectional time-series data for all countries in SE Asia between 1996 and 2010 to test my theoretical argument. I use Two-Stage Least Squares Instrumental Variables, Time Series, Cross-Sectional and OLS regression models to isolate causal mechanisms and causal directions among my variables. My analyses demonstrate the deleterious effect of legal barriers to entry on the rule of law and provides a new direction for scholarship on the topic