Assessing the World Bank's influence on the good governance paradigm

What does governance mean for the World Bank (WB) and how far does the organization influence the world community with this concept? The World Bank primarily focused on economic aspects of governance in the 1980s and progressively moved to its political dimensions in the end of 1990s. The paper discusses the reasons for this global shift and its consistency with regard to the values of the liberal society. Bibliometric methods are used to evaluate the role of the Bank as a producer of knowledge on this specific issue. In addition the academic relationships that the organization built to shape the 'good governance' concept are explored. As well as networking, which contributes to the promotion of its worldwide influence, the soft and hard powers of the Bank are seen at work through aid allocation systems. The potential influence of the main WB's governance indicators (CPIA, WGI and Doing Business) is depicted through what donors claim, and beyond rhetoric, through what correlations suggest. For each of the main international donors, cross-sectional econometric regressions are run on large samples of developing countries (2005-2008). According to the donor we look at, empirical results do not reject strong covariations between new commitments and the CPIA or the WGI.The World Bank;governance;liberal society;Knowledge;aid commitments;Soft and Hard power

Total Factor Productivity of Tunisia’s manufacturing sectors: measurement, determinants and convergence towards OECD countries

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, sector-based Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is calculated for six Tunisian manufacturing sectors over the period 1983-2002. Economic determinants of the productive performance are also investigated. In doing so, we take care of the direction of the causality by using a panel data Granger type-test. The recent literature in international economics has placed a particular emphasis on the relation between TFP and variables reflecting the potential impact of both trade and financial openness. Sector-based TFPs proved to be sensitive to some of these variables, highlighting a causality that does not reject the stimulating impact of exports and foreign direct investments. Second, the paper implements some panel data unit root tests to investigate the statistical hypothesis of TFP catching up of Tunisia with OECD members. In benchmarking each of the six Tunisian sectors by those of the most developed countries, panel data unit root tests do not reject the hypothesis of an overall catching- up for five of them.

Assessing the World Bank's influence on the good governance paradigm

What does governance mean for the World Bank and to what extent does the organization succeed in diffusing the paradigm worldwide? The World Bank primarily focused on economic aspects of governance in the 1980s, and progressively moved to its political dimensions towards the end of 1990s. The paper discusses the reasons for this global shift and its consistency with regard to the values of the liberal society. Bibliometric methods are used to evaluate the role of the Bank as a producer of knowledge on this specific issue. The potential influence of the World Bank's main governance indicators: Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) and Doing Business, is depicted through what donors claim when allocating aid, and beyond rhetoric, through what correlations suggest. For each of the main international donors, cross-sectional econometric regressions are run on large samples of developing countries (2005-2008). Depending on the donor we look at, empirical results do not reject strong covariations between new aid commitments and the CPIA, and to a lesser extent with the WGI.The World Bank;governance;liberal society;soft power;aid commitments

Technical Efficiency Measurement within the Ivorian Manufacturing Sector: a Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

The African industrial structure is characterised by a strong firm-size heterogeneity with a co-existence of small if not micro-enterprises of the informal sector and large formal organisations operating with a modern technology. In this paper, we investigate the technical efficiency of Ivorian manufacturing firms in four sectors of economic activity: textile and garment, metal products, wood and furniture, food processing. The DEA production frontier is the non-parametric methodology to which we refer to. Efficiency scores are calculated by following the four-stage procedure as presented by Fried, Schmidt and Yaisawarng (1999). In other words, the initial DEA scores are adjusted to take into account the impact of the external operating environment on the volume of the input use. Technical efficiency are then decomposed into three elements: the pure managerial effect, the impact of the production scale, but also a technological effect capturing the potential gain that could result from the adoption of the modern technology by small informal firms.formal-informal sectors, manufacturing sector, non parametric frontier, cote d'ivoire, Technical efficiency

Total Factor Productivity of Tunisia's manufacturing sectors: measurement, determinants and convergence towards OECD countries

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, sector-based Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is calculated for six Tunisian manufacturing sectors over the period 1983-2002. Economic determinants of the productive performance are also investigated. In doing so, we take care of the direction of the causality by using a panel data Granger type-test. The recent literature in international economics has placed a particular emphasis on the relation between TFP and variables reflecting the potential impact of both trade and financial openness. Sector-based TFPs proved to be sensitive to some of these variables, highlighting a causality that does not reject the stimulating impact of exports and foreign direct investments. Second, the paper implements some panel data unit root tests to investigate the statistical hypothesis of TFP catching up of Tunisia with OECD members. In benchmarking each of the six Tunisian sectors by those of the most developed countries, panel data unit root tests do not reject the hypothesis of an overall catching- up for five of them.cerdi

Assessing the World Bank’s influence on the good governance paradigm

What does governance mean for the World Bank and to what extent does the organization succeed in diffusing the paradigm worldwide? The World Bank primarily focused on economic aspects of governance in the 1980s, and progressively moved to its political dimensions towards the end of 1990s. The paper discusses the reasons for this global shift and its consistency with regard to the values of the liberal society. Bibliometric methods are used to evaluate the role of the Bank as a producer of knowledge on this specific issue. The potential influence of the World Bank’s main governance indicators: Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) and Doing Business, is depicted through what donors claim when allocating aid, and beyond rhetoric, through what correlations suggest. For each of the main international donors, cross-sectional econometric regressions are run on large samples of developing countries (2005-2008). Depending on the donor we look at, empirical results do not reject strong covariations between new aid commitments and the CPIA, and to a lesser extent with the WGI.The World Bank, governance, liberal society, soft power, aid commitments

Exchange Rate Undervaluation and Manufactured Exports: A Deliberate Strategy?

Recent literature suggests that a proactive exchange rate policy in accordance with price incentives (i.e. undervaluation) can foster manufactured exports and growth. This paper is built on these recent developments and investigates, using a sample of 52 developing countries, whether such a proactive exchange rate policy is adopted. The results show that during the period 1991-2005 a number of countries has used undervaluation to foster the price competitiveness of manufactured exports.Exchange rate, Misalignment, Undervaluation, Exports diversification

Exchange Rate Undervaluation to Foster Manufactured Exports: A Deliberate Strategy?

Recent literature suggests that a proactive strategy consisting of deliberate real exchange rate depreciation can promote exports diversification and growth. This paper is built on these recent developments and investigates whether four developing countries have adopted such a strategy. Data from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia are used to construct and compare the macroeconomic Real Effective exchange rate (REER), similar exchange rates at the sector level (SREER) and the macroeconomic Equilibrium Real Effective exchange rate (EREER). It shows that there are instances where the objective of diversifying exports through depreciation of exchange rate comes at the expense of further misalignment (REER departs from the EREER) and, then, monetary authorities are doomed to choose. The results show that Morocco and Tunisia are choosing the proactive exchange rate strategy while Egypt and Jordan are not. This fits with the observation that the former are doing much better than the latter in terms of exports diversification.Exchange rate, Misalignment, Undervaluation, Exports diversification

Exchange Rate Undervaluation and Manufactured Exports: A Deliberate Strategy?

Recent literature suggests that a proactive exchange rate policy in accordance with price incentives (i.e. undervaluation) can foster manufactured exports and growth. This paper is built on these recent developments and investigates, using a sample of 52 developing countries, whether such a proactive exchange rate policy is adopted. The results show that during the period 1991-2005 a number of countries has used undervaluation to foster the price competitiveness of manufactured exports.Exchange rate;Misalignment;Undervaluation;Exports diversification