Does Political Reservation Affect Voting Behavior? Empirical Evidence from India

Using microdata from the National Election Study of the 2004 parliamentary elections in India, we empirically examine the impact of political reservation for disadvantaged castes and tribes on voting behavior. We find that in a reserved constituency, where only members of the disadvantaged castes can stand for election, voters of the disadvantaged castes are encouraged to vote. On the other hand, the system of constituency reservation does not have any impact on the turnout of voters belonging to other groups, including relatively upper caste voters. These voters, however, tend to change political party to vote for in reserved constituencies. These findings imply that there is a general acceptance of political reservation in the Indian electoral system.Political Reservation, Voter Turnout, Castes, India

Stable Wage Distribution in Japan, 1982-2002: A Counter Example for SBTC?

Wage distribution has been nearly stable in Japan for the last two decades, contrary to findings in the US, Canada, and the UK. The change in wage distribution during this period was almost completely caused by a distributional change in worker attributes. This implies that skill prices were very stable between 1982 and 2002. Both demand and supply for skilled workers have increased because of skill-biased technological change (SBTC), a rise in the number of college-educated workers induced by educational policy changes, and the aging of the population. In the balance of shifts in demand and supply, the skill price has been stable. Industries that experienced rapid computerization also experienced workers' skill upgrading. We find evidence consistent with SBTC.

Is Minimum Wage an Effective Anti-Poverty Policy in Japan?

This paper considers whether minimum wage is a well-targeted anti-poverty policy by examining the backgrounds of minimum-wage workers, and whether raising the minimum wage reduces employment for unskilled workers. An examination of micro data from a large-scale government household survey, the Employment Structure Survey (Shugyo Kozo Kihon Chosa), reveals that about half of minimum-wage workers belong to households with annual incomes of more than 5 million yen as a non-head of household. A regression analysis indicates that an increase in the minimum wage moderately reduces the employment of male teenagers and middle-aged, married females, while it encourages the employment of high school age youth.

Aid Proliferation and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis

In this paper, we examine whether aid proliferation hinders aid effectiveness in promoting economic growth. We employ a wide variety of specifications of the standard aid-growth regression using Roodman's (2007a) dataset. Specifically, we include a donor-concentration index as a proxy for donor proliferation and the interaction term between aid and a donor-concentration index as additional independent variables. Our best empirical results are in favor of a hypothesis that aid proliferation involves a negative effect on economic growth of the recipient countries with proper correction for possible biases arising from omitted variable and endogeneity problems.

Relationship between Tourniquet Pressure and a Cross-Section Area of Superficial Vein of Forearm

This study investigated the appropriate tourniquet pressure (TP) and duration of tourniquet application for venipuncture by calculating the venous cross-section (VCS) area on ultrasonography. Twenty healthy volunteers without cardiovascular risk factors were enrolled in this study. A target vein (either a cephalic or median cubital vein) was selected on ultrasonography. The pneumatic tourniquet was inflated using a rapid cuff inflator system at setting pressure for 120sec. TP strength was varied from 20mmHg to 100mmHg, in 20mmHg increments. The order of TP was randomized. Compari-sons among more than 3 groups were performed by one-way repeated-measures ANOVA and the Bonferroni method. The VCS area increased rapidly until 10sec after tourniquet inflation. The VCS area then increased gradually until 30sec after tourniquet inflation. After that, the VCS area did not increase remarkably. The VCS area increased with TP strength up to 80mmHg, but the VCS area at TP 100mmHg decreased to less than that at TP 40mmHg. Based on these results, we recommend a tourniquet pressure of 60mmHg, and duration of tourniquet application is 30 to 60sec for venipuncture