Language and Identity: Limonese Creole and the Black Minority of Costa Rica

Given the general connection between the development of nationalism and linguistic uniformity, the existence of multilingualism and ethnic diversity in a country is a complex problem. Limonese Creole is the language spoken by a Black minority of approximately 30,000 people who have lived in predominantly white and Spanish-speaking Costa Rica for over 400 years. The Limon Province, where this group resides, is markedly distinguishable from the rest in terms of its geography, history, population, economy, language, and culture. This paper seeks to present the development of ethnic relations and language in that area. History shows that either harmonious bilingualism or fiercely suppressing colonialism usually prevails in a languages-in-contact situation. In this case study, the historical relationship between ethnicity and language accounts for differences between societies, with such divergent consequences of contact as racial nationalism, cultural assimilation and fusion, and possibly even language extinction

[Review of] Marcyliena Morgan , ed. Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Situations

The result of a 1990 conference on The Social Significance of Creole Language Studies sponsored by Pomona and Pitzer of the Claremont Colleges and the University of California, Los Angeles, this stimulating collection of six papers enriches the field of pidgin and creole studies by exploring the manner in which language and language choice reflect and mediate the social landscape.

Times of Crisis and Seeds of New Intimacies on a N orth A egean I sland: Activism, Alternative Exchange Networks, and Re‐Imagined Communities

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102138/1/sena12040.pd

The Economic Costs of Corruption: A Survey and New Evidence

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the economic costs of corruption. Corruption affects economic growth, the level of GDP per capita, investment activity, international trade and price stability negatively. Additionally, it biases the composition of government expenditures. The second part of the paper estimates the effect of corruption on economic growth and GDP per capita as well as on six possible transmission channels. The results of this analysis allows to calculate the total effect of corruption: An increase of corruption by about one index point reduces GDP growth by 0.13 percentage points and GDP per capita by 425 US$.Costs of Corruption, Survey, Empirical Evidence

The Economic Cost of Corruption: A Survey and New Evidence

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the economic costs of corruption. Corruption affects economic growth, the level of GDP per capita, investment activity, international trade and price stability negatively. Additionally, it biases the composition of government expenditures. The second part of the paper estimates the effect of corruption on economic growth and GDP per capita as well as on six possible transmission channels. The results of this analysis allows to calculate the total effect of corruption: An increase of corruption by about one index point reduces GDP growth by 0.13 percentage points and GDP per capita by 425 US$

Labour adjustment in agriculture: Assessing the heterogeneity across transition countries

A standard model of labour adjustment in times of economic transition assumes a constant impact of variables like sectoral income differences, unemployment or the relative size of the agricultural sector. This paper shows for a panel of 29 European and Asian transition countries that the standard model fails to take the heterogeneity of determinants of sectoral labour adjustment properly into account. A random coefficients model reveals quite heterogeneous influences of the intersectoral income ratio, the relative size of agricultural employment, the unemployment rate, and the general level of economic development on a measure of sectoral labour adjustment across transition countries. Moreover, for selected determinants the estimated coefficients show opposing signs

Spread of retailer food quality standards: an international perspective

Privately initiated food quality standards are currently important elements in the marketing of food and agricultural products. At the same time, they stand in the centre of a discussion about potential negative effects on small farmers and farmers in developing countries. This study aims at analysing the adoption of two private food standards, BRC Technical Food Standard and GlobalGAP, at an aggregated crosscountry level. The results of the econometric analysis reveal some (potential) barriers for developing countries to access this type of organisational innovation. Certificates seem to be issued more probably in larger and wealthier countries, countries with a better institutional quality, better infrastructural conditions and in former UK colonies

Agricultural labour adjustment and the impact of Institutions

The economic transformation in countries of Central and Eastern Europe as well as Asia resulted in a diverse picture of change in agricultural labour use. Based on a measure of sectoral labour adjustment, the paper explores the determinants of occupational labour flows paying special attention to the impact of institutions. Annual rates of occupational migration between agriculture and non-agriculture over the period 1978-2005 are calculated for a panel of 30 transition countries. Annual migration from agriculture ranges from outflows of nearly 8 percent of the agricultural labour force to immigration into agriculture about 9 percent on average. Fixed-effects panel models are used to explain the annual intersectoral labour flow. The most important determinants of the migration rate are the relative income differences between non-agricultural and agricultural sectors, the relative magnitude of agricultural labour, the development of terms of trade and the level of unemployment. Furthermore, the speed of economic reforms and the way of land privatization affect occupational migration significantly. An increasing intersectoral income difference points to still existing mobility restrictions for agricultural labour in some of the countries analyzed

VOLUNTARY CERTIFICATION SCHEMES AND LEGAL MINIMUM STANDARDS

EU farmers face increasing requests to comply with legal as well as private agribusiness and retail standards. Both requests potentially raise farmer’s administrative burden. This paper discusses the potential synergies between cross-compliance and third-party certification schemes. In selected aspects cross-compliance and several certification schemes ask similar measures. However, both regulatory approaches differ considerably in other areas. The heterogeneous nature of the various certification schemes in place prevent a general conclusion. As a tendency systemic standards like organic agriculture provide the largest overlap with cross-compliance. Certificates of origin, on the opposite side, have no relation with cross-compliance.Cross-compliance, certification schemes, institutional economics, Common Agricultural Policy, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Agricultural Finance, Financial Economics,