Happiness, ethnic discrimination and human rights in post-colonial / multicultural New Zealand : an exploration of ethnic discrimination as a barrier to the fulfilment of human rights in New Zealand, through a study of the impact of ethnic discrimination from state institutions on the ability of ethnic minorities to pursue their versions of happiness : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

The impact of ethnic discrimination on the ability of ethnic minorities to pursue their own versions of happiness has not been explored, especially in a New Zealand context. The pursuing of the primary sources of happiness has an impact on how people live their daily lives. When these primary sources are either hindered or threatened this can have an adverse effect on happiness. This research is positioned in the post-colonial / multicultural setting that is 21st New Zealand. From a viewpoint of liberal multiculturalism, the relationship between recognition of identity and distribution of resources is examined through an investigation of ethnic discrimination. This relationship is explored by positioning happiness as both an object at stake in its navigation and as a pivot point in debate on the status of multiculturalism. This research draws its data from an online survey of 1878 participants in Auckland, New Zealand, with each identifying primarily with one of six ethnic identities (Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Maori, Pakeha and Samoan). The survey asked respondents about their primary sources of happiness and their experiences of ethnic discrimination from state institutions. Survey findings show that ethnic discrimination has a negative impact on the happiness of ethnic minorities when that discrimination puts barriers in place that prevent them from meeting their basic needs, and, therefore their access to primary sources of happiness. The survey findings identify family as the primary and shared source of happiness across ethnic groups. Furthermore, the survey data indicate that it is the state institutions responsible for meeting basic needs, or at least not hindering them, (Work and Income, Ministry of Health and Department of Corrections) that have the highest frequency of reported experiences of ethnic discrimination. Contextualised in a human rights framework, these results raise suggest a possible role for group rights (as compared to individual) in the both the negotiation of the relationship between recognition and distribution and the eradication of discrimination by New Zealand state institutions

Economic Growth Related to Mutually Interdependent Institutions and Technology

The following propositions are argued. Technological advance is a necessary condition for sustained economic growth. It can be sustained by more then one set of institutions. Technology and institutions co-evolve. Although some institutions inhibit growth while others encourage it, no single institution is either necessary or sufficient to produce either sustained or zero growth. Sustained growth began with the two Industrial Revolutions and was solidified by the 'invention of how to invent'. Explaining these events requires studying several trajectories that were established in the medieval period and evolved slowly through the early modern period and were unique to the West.Sustained growth, institutions, technological change, technological trajectories, the Industrial Revolutions, early modern science, medieval universities.

Some Legacies of Robbins'Nature and Signifance of Economic Science

The Abstract of your paper: This paper criticises three Robbinsian positions still often found in modern economics: (1) the methodology of intuitively obvious assumptions; (2) treating facts as illustrations rather than as tests of theoretical propositions; (3) assuming that theory provides universally applicable generalisations independent of the characteristics of individual economies and so are independent of specific historical processes. Two corollaries of point (3) are that theory cannot assist in explaining unique historical events such as the emergence of sustained growth in the West and that economists need not interest themselves in the details of the technologies that produce the nation's wealth.methodology, economic generalisations, measurement, positive economics, historical specificity

Measuring the Impacts of FDI in Central and Eastern Europe

The impacts of inward FDI on host countries are frequently studied using balance-of-payments based measures of flows and stocks. These are unreliable for the purpose because, while theories of the effects of investment are based on FDI production and employment in the host country, these measures are often distorted approximations of the location of real activity. The mismeasurement is particularly important if trade openness, often associated with FDI, is treated as a control variable. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe, a very minor object of US direct investment, have, since 1990, become a major location for FDI from Europe, especially from Germany. The investments from both the US and Germany are, on average, very labor-intensive, and are heavily concentrated in Motor Vehicles. One result has been a shift in the export comparative advantage of these countries toward the machinery and transport equipment sector. Microdata studies in the CEE countries have found that foreign participation is associated with higher productivity in the affiliates themselves. Spillovers to indigenous firms are more spotty, clearer to upstream suppliers than to firms in the same industries as the affiliates.

Quality change and other influences on measures of export prices of manufactured goods

Measures of long-term trends in world export prices for manufactured goods, and in the terms of trade between manufactured goods and primary products, are sensitive to many choices in methods for weighting indexes, base periods, and (most important) changes in quality. For example: 1) wieghting products by their importance in exports to developing countries, rather than by their importance in exports to all countries, reduces the estimated rate of increase in prices for manufactured goods by about 0.1 or 0.2 percentage points a year; 2) a shift in weights from those of an early year (1963) to those of a recent year (1986) reduces the rate of increase in prices by about a third of a percentage point a year; 3) export price indexes with weights of Japanese exports grow about 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points a year less than one weighted by the U.S. export composition, with the larger difference for indexes based on 1963 weights; 4) adjusting the price index for exports of machinery and transport equipment for quality changes not accounted for in the price indexes reduces the rate of increase for those products by about one percentage point a year, and that adjustment for only those products reduces the estimated rate of increase in prices for all manufactures by about half a percentage point a year. Conservative estimates of the bias in the most commonly used measure of export prices of manufactured products - the U.N. export unit value index for manufactures - suggest that this measure overstates the long-run rise in prices for manufactured goods by more than half a percentage point a year, probably one percentage point or more. If so, there has been no long-term trend toward the prices of manufactured goods rising faster that prices for primary products. However, no conceivable estimate of bias in measures of prices for manufactured goods would reverse the picture of declining relative prices for primary products in the 1980s.Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT