This paper measures the impact of North American Free Trade Agreement–induced real border price changes of Mexican imports and exports on wages and employment of agricultural workers in Mexico. I find that changes in real border prices of crops did not affect agricultural wages. On the other hand, increases in the real price of vegetables (main agricultural export) were associated with an increase in employment in the cultivation of vegetables, whereas the drop in the real price of corn (main agricultural import) reduced the employment in the corn sector. This is in line with the predictions of neoclassical trade theory: in the absence of mobility costs or sector-specific skills, factors moved smoothly from import-competing sectors into export-competing sectors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper builds on previous work published in this journal by considering the historical roots of poverty in relation to the denial or otherwise of access to the information made available by radio technology. The case study is that of the British Empire in the early post-war years. New dimensions of access that are developing economy sensitive are presented and evaluated. We find that the colonial legacy of radio broadcast is significantly correlated with the diffusion and adoption of radio technologies in subsequent years and that this in terms was largely the reflection of geo-political considerations. Differential access to information has its roots in the colonial historical past. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Researchers argue that programmes promoting SHGs often attract women already active in the public domain (‘self-selection effect’), excluding those most in need of assistance. This exaggerates estimates of the effects of the programme (‘programme effects’). This paper attempts to test the significance of the programme effect of SHGs by comparing empowerment levels of newly inducted and older members of SHGs, based on a survey conducted in six municipalities in West Bengal, India. Results indicate that programme effects operated only to reduce tolerance of domestic violence and enhance status of members within the household. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recent empirical research on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth has provided controversial results. Some studies predict a negative effect of inequality on growth and some a positive effect. Answers to the controversy have usually been sought in the problems of the estimation technique, the measure of inequality or in some form of non-linearity in the relationship between inequality and growth. This study accounts for these problems by using an improved measure of income distribution and a parametric group-related panel estimation. In conclusion, we find that the effect of inequality is likely to be non-linear. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Stiglitz's Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (CMEPSP) argued that well-being is multidimensional and identified eight distinct dimensions. Conventional linear techniques confirm that a large number of dimensions are needed to describe development. In contrast, a new non-linear technique that we introduce from chaos theory shows that a smaller number of dimensions are needed to span the development space. From the analysis, variables representing the Health, Education, Inequality and Individual Rights areas of life quality would provide a broad picture of development, whereas income per capita adds little extra information. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Drawing on data from the first large scale survey of street working children in Minas Gerais, Brazil, this article calls for a debate around how to support street working children. Street working children experience multiple human rights abuses; yet anti-poverty programmes do not target sufficiently their needs and fail to engage with their perceptions of their lives or consider the choices they make as salient for policy making. Using insights from the new sociology of childhood, we argue that policy makers need to come to terms with the agency of child street workers and adjust their policies accordingly. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

International trade economists have largely avoided undertaking analysis of the fair trade movement because of the fact that fair trade is generally viewed as a price subsidy. Standard international trade models show this type of trade policy to be inefficient, as it would cause oversupply and further depress world prices. The problem with applying a standard international trade model to fair trade in coffee is that the input markets associated with coffee production are not perfectly competitive. Since perfect competition is an assumption common to many models of international trade, the conclusions of these models are not applicable in this setting. In this paper, we examine three models of coffee production. In the first model, the problem for coffee farmers is examined as if all markets were perfectly competitive; in the second model, we examine coffee production with an inefficient credit market in the absence of fair trade; and in the third model, we examine coffee production with an inefficient credit market but with the possibility of fair trade. Farmer welfare is improved with fair trade at the expense of local middlemen, but total welfare is lower than what could be achieved with perfect competition. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The standard empowerment model underlying gender policies by international organisations emphasises women's access to resources. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the relative importance of access to resources as compared with women's agency, recognising that this agency may be limited by gendered institutional constraints. It presents a cross-country analysis with a variety of formal and informal gendered institutions, access to resources and well-being achievements. The regression analysis suggests that women's empowerment depends both on access to resources (positively) and on gendered institutions (negatively), with different institutions affecting different dimensions of empowerment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The aim of this paper is to provide some new empirical evidence on the determinants of volatility of real exchange rates in emerging countries, focusing on the role of international financial integration in particular. A reduced-form model is estimated using the generalised method of moments for dynamic panels over the period 1979–2004 for a sample of 39 developing countries grouped into three regions (Latin America, Asia and MENA). Our findings suggest that different types of shocks (external, real and monetary) can account for the volatility of real exchange rates in emerging economies, with international financial integration being a major driving force. Therefore, financial liberalisation and integration should be pursued only gradually in emerging countries. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article presents a case study of Wisdom Microfinance Institution (WISDOM) and examines how community workers were used to mitigate the exclusion of groups vulnerable to marginalization. By taking advantage of its relationship with World Vision Ethiopia (WVE) and collaborating in its lending processes, WISDOM was able to make itself more accessible to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) caregivers in two major ways. First, the involvement of WVE community workers in forming community banks for WISDOM served to include more OVC caregivers than anyone had realized at the time. Second, collaborating with WVE community workers in monitoring clients helped WISDOM to gain vital information that led to more effective monitoring. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The study was undertaken to investigate how willing would farmers be to pay for agricultural extension service in Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 268 respondents. Results showed that most farmers (95.1 per cent) were willing to pay for improved extension service as long as the service remained relevant to their needs. Farmers were willing to pay N1000 annually as their own share of the service cost. The most important factors that influenced farmers' willingness to pay were states of origin, items originally paid for, major occupation, minor occupation, number of years in school and sale of farm produce. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper uses a computable general equilibrium approach to simulate two opposing views describing regional trade agreements either as building blocks for or stumbling blocks to multilateral trade liberalisation. This study focuses on the regional trade agreement between the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) and the European Union (EU). Results show that, although a regional trade agreement may slightly raise welfare among the members of the agreement, the cost to nonmembers can be high. The regional breakdown in our design considers 14 regions, allowing for country-specific analysis for one least-developed country (Democratic Republic of Congo) and one non-least-developed country (Cameroon). Multilateral liberalisation amplifies welfare gain for Cameroon. The Democratic Republic of Congo, with its weaker institutional capacity, is affected negatively. An EU-CEMAC regional free trade agreement without multilateralism produces gains for both Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper analyses the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and the impact of nonfarm employment on household income. A clear empirical regularity is that women are significantly less likely than men to be in wage employment and more likely than men to be in self-employment activities. We find also that households whose heads have completed secondary education or higher gravitate more toward wage employment. Nonfarm employment appears to be crucial for the alleviation from rural poverty in Ghana. With limited opportunities in agriculture, nonfarm employment is necessary to augment or supplement farm incomes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This field research investigated the livelihoods of rural communities in Nawalparasi District, Nepal. An adapted form of the Delphi technique was used to assess community perceptions regarding factors which affected their livelihoods. The six most significant factors were selected by participants and ranked in order of importance. Research findings indicated that important factors across communities included those related to water resources, education, health and roads. Climate and environmental change were found to be impacting on livelihoods, and results indicated that education and environmental awareness were two key factors affecting a community's ability to adapt to change. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recently, Ethiopia has registered significant reduction of infant and under-five mortality rates. However, the gains in improved health outcomes are uneven across regions of the country. Using panel data models, the article finds that inter-regional disparities in infant and child mortality rates are strongly associated with factors within and beyond the health sector. In particular, the results suggest that infant mortality rate is negatively related with real per capita public health expenditure, urbanisation and health extension programme. On the other hand, the number of hospital beds and primary school gross enrolment significantly decrease under-five mortality rate. The article draws some initial policy implications. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article aims to explore the different accountability discourses of the various actors in the Spanish international aid system and to examine them in light of the various theoretical interpretations of development accountability. The conclusions reached suggest a technical and financial accountability model, largely isolated from international debates where political and social issues are at the core of the concept. Although this can be explained by a range of factors which are specific to the Spanish aid system, there are also interesting tendencies that are deepening a new understanding and practice of the idea. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The article studies the dynamics of chronic poverty in rural India. The article attempts to analyse the factors influencing the incidence and mobility of poverty and the changes in the influence of these factors over time. This article uses the household panel survey data collected by NCAER. It examines whether there has been change in the influence of factors such as village level infrastructure, household size and composition, and economic growth on poverty dynamics in different periods of time. The impact of a number of factors changes over time implying that the strategies for poverty reduction would have to take into account the changing economic environment. The article further presents an analysis of growth rate of per capita expenditure for the same set households to analyse the extent of consumption growth, which is also an indicator of poverty reduction for rural India. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study estimates the formal–informal as well as the formal and informal male–female employment hourly income differentials in urban China. The results indicate that differences between the characteristics of formal and informal employment account for a much higher percentage of the hourly income differential than does discrimination in the labour market. In addition, we found that ignoring the sample selection bias results in the overestimation of the formal and informal male–female hourly income differential and the degree of discrimination against informal employment of women and conversely, the underestimation of the degree of discrimination against formal employment of women. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Trinidad and Tobago has a non-negligible proportion of its population in poverty. After constructing a household consumption aggregate adjusted for price and household composition differentials, we measured the rate of poverty and examined the determinants of poverty and household welfare on the basis of the Survey of Living Conditions 2005 data set. Relevant econometric techniques were adopted to identify the probability of being poor for all households and household welfare for a sample of only poor households. Our findings indicate that the poverty rate is higher than the existing estimates and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics play significant roles in poverty and household welfare. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We evaluate the effect of delivery mechanisms for training provided by facilitators of self-help groups. Indian self-help groups are unique in that they are mainly non-government organisation–formed microfinance groups but later funded by commercial banks. We correct for both membership and training endogeneity. Training impacts assets but not income. Underlying conditions that benefit training include better infrastructure (as in paved roads), linkage model type and training organiser. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article examines the issue of trade reforms confronting many African Caribbean and Pacific countries such as Fiji, which are set to lose their European Union sugar price subsidy at the end of 2007. It was found that attempts to offset the adverse impacts of the subsidy removal by targeting to improve the performance of any particular sector are counterproductive. Although the optimal policy for Fiji is a broad-based diversification of exports, it is further argued that small developing economies need to address supply-side constraints so that structural reforms can effectively sustain the economy's competitiveness in an increasingly globalised world economy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this article, we analyze inequality changes in Peru under the first Garcia government (1985–1990). Our findings indicate that stability in consumption inequality and a substantial decline in wealth inequality were achieved, probably thanks to the government's demand-led policies, despite their deleterious effects on other macroeconomic indicators. The following analysis reveals that inequality in most functionings, including overall well-being, diminished, as did geographical disparities. We thus offer here (i) a methodological contribution to the debate on inequality, stressing the need to go beyond consumption/income inequality if one wants to track inequality changes across time, and (ii) a contribution to the debate about the socioeconomic situation in Peru between 1985 and 1990. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Post-development theorists have reminded us that ‘development’ is a cultural construct—a set of organising assumptions through which we order the world and understand our place in it. As such, notions of development are not singular but vary between different groups of people. This paper seeks to bring further nuance to these understandings. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on Siquijor Island in the Philippines, it explores contending ideals of the good life—one based on material accumulation, the other on austerity—at once valued by most residents. It shows that notions of development vary not only between groups but that individuals can simultaneously hold multiple ideals of development. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Land degradation has become a most pressing issue in drylands. Although crop and livestock production have been the dominant sources of income, there is an increasing realisation that alternative livelihood options need to be explored to ensure both environmental and economic sustainability. This paper provides a systematic review of alternative livelihood strategies currently adopted for improving livelihood conditions of dryland dwellers in different parts of the world. Although drylands encompass a vast social and geographic terrain and represent a heterogeneous socio-economic environment, this paper has been able to document some general lessons applicable to rural drylands for diversifying livelihood opportunities and promoting rural development while minimising the pressure from intensive land-based activities. The paper concludes with a discussion on how international development policies can move forward in the fight against land degradation and in helping achieve poverty reduction through investments in sustainable land management and alternative livelihood strategies. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study estimates the effect of farmer field schools in rural Ethiopia on income from agriculture. The farmer field schools were established in association with participatory forest management associations for forest protection funded by Japanese aid. We employ a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach to correct for possible biases due to selection of participants. We find that by participating in the farmer field schools, agricultural households increased their real income per worker by about 60-160 US dollars in two years on average, which is equivalent to, or even more than, the average income per worker before the project. We also find evidence that the large increase in income is due to the use of new agricultural practices, such as new varieties, taught and promoted in the farmer field schools. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article discusses the Pinochet regime's market-oriented water code and argues that in some areas, the law allowed the creation of an active water rights' market, but that in other areas, it failed to promote a market because it disregarded the variability of water throughout Chile and failed to provide for adequate mechanisms for water storage and distribution. Reforms implemented during the Concertaciόn governments have improved the functioning of water markets by establishing fees and incentives to avoid speculation, improve regulation and protect the environment. This article concludes by proposing a set of policy recommendations to improve water distribution and protect the environment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Global macroeconomic imbalances are among the key issues facing policymakers, especially in the USA and China. Although there has been a great deal of debate about this important issue, there appears to have been a general failure to adequately pay attention to the role of the exchange rate in allocating resources internally between tradables and non-tradables. These sectoral changes can have both real and macroeconomic consequences. This paper offers a simple analytical exposition of some of the issues relating to China's and East Asia's development and their impact on global imbalances using a two-sector tradable and non-tradables model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article analyses aid effectiveness from the donor's perspective. An aid contract is effective for the donor when she is able to observe her required levels of trade and institutional change on the territory of the recipient. The distinction between reciprocal, normative and just donors indicates three different approaches to aid effectiveness. The aid systems of the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union are cases that differentiate along the lines of donors whose primary intentionality lies in the accumulation of trade and investment profits, donors that advance the implementation of institutional change and donors that put equal weight in both strategies. The existence of numerous veto players in the German aid system and the singularity of administrative organization in the British aid system operationalise the distinction between normative and reciprocal donors. The aid system of the European Union is defined as just because economic cooperation or institutional change alone is treated as insufficient for aid effectiveness. Hence, the success of the Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States Program (TACIS) is due to the strategic choices of European Union bureaucrats and their treatment of antithetical donor preferences as complementary in the process of aid implementation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The paper analyses the convergence hypothesis in Latin America during 1960–2005. The evidence is not favourable to clear convergence or divergence trends and suggests the existence of transitory clubs of convergence. After 1990–1994, the lower income economies showed convergence to the richer countries but in a context of increasing dispersion of the per capita income. The development accounting and the decomposition of the total factor productivity indicate that those results are mainly explained by relative differences in technological capabilities. These are determined by structural and political factors. The efforts to integrate the economies were not enough to reduce the gap. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A donor-supported project in three Central Asian countries used rural vocational education and training (VET) schools of the formal education system to promote income generation for adults. These schools are responsible for initial VET and not for non-formal skills training of adults. They received capacity building support from local experts to cope with the new tasks. They acquired, through additional peer learning events, competencies to design and conduct demand-driven training for rural workers. Meanwhile, the schools are performing well, and the beneficiaries of the programmes increased their income. Schools are no longer isolated educational institutions but an important networking part in rural development. The project's experience is discussed in the context of the international discussion. Conclusions for interventions and international VET cooperation are drawn: the existing (VET) resources should be used more systematically in community development approaches accompanied by capacity building for school staff. The intervention required simultaneously a policy dialogue with the line ministries. The dialogue is based on the evidence of best practice. This is a precondition for ownership-driven policies to reform VET systems in Central Asia towards demand driven training for adults. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The study employed the accounting approach to fiscal policy consistency to analyse the sustainability of Uganda's fiscal policy. The deficits were calculated from the financing side by considering increases in liabilities of the consolidated government. To assess whether the deficits have been compatible with other macroeconomic targets, the financeable deficit is derived and compared with the calculated actual deficits. The results show that the consolidated deficit is consistent with attainment of target outcomes for other macroeconomic variables, most notably inflation and gross domestic product growth rates. However, the inflation target has been achieved at the cost of an unsustainable domestic debt. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Informality in the labour market is far from clearly defined in the development literature. To understand the nature of informality in terms of the legalistic and the productivity view, this paper makes an empirical contribution to the debate.

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the informality dimensions in the Mexican labour market, employing a rich labour market data set.

A substantial overlap between the current social security coverage, contracts and individual's job history is found. Moreover, age, education, marital status and scores in the Raven's test, an ability measure, are significant determinants for the various forms of informality. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper illustrates the persistence of an exogenous model of development that underpins many interventions aimed at employing information and communication technologies (ICTs) to meet development goals. The analysis is based on a sample of texts from reports produced by United Nations agencies and the World Bank. The aim is to show how the discourse on ICT interventions invariably is reminiscent of a dominant exogenous model even when alternative models with respect to development are seen to influence policy and practice. It is argued that practice-based, emergence approaches offer an attractive, although insufficient, way forward. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Understanding landslide processes in developing counties, coupled with community engagement can deliver landslide hazard reduction ‘on the ground’, leading to behavioural change within communities and governments. On this basis, we undertook a ‘strategic incrementalism’ approach to landslide risk reduction. The change achieved in stakeholder engagement was simultaneously a major challenge and the determinant of the project success. However, the resulting stakeholder commitment demonstrates the clear benefit of designing risk reduction measures that deliver research, on-the-ground reduction of risk and behavioural change and provides specific evidence that strategic incrementalism is a viable process. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Microstructure aspects of nominal exchange rate determination are less relevant in countries with embryonic financial markets. In less-developed economies, trade in goods and services is a more significant driver of currency demand than financial market speculation or hedging, and central banks actively set monetary variables. We develop a simple variation of the standard monetary model of exchange rate determination, incorporating interest rate rules but not relying on interest rate parity, and study the effect of monetary fundamentals on the Mozambican exchange rate. We find a long-run relationship between fundamentals and exchange rates, with coefficient signs in regression equations consistent with theoretic predictions. Moreover, the monetary model outperforms a random walk in predicting metical exchange rates out of sample at the four-quarter horizon. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Advanced OECD countries are widely held responsible for containing global carbon emissions by providing financial and technical support to developing economies where emissions are increasing most rapidly. It is open to question, however, whether more generous official development assistance would help fight climate change effectively. Empirical evidence on the effects of foreign aid on energy and carbon emission intensities in recipient countries hardly exists. We contribute to closing this gap by considering energy use and carbon emissions as dependent climate-related variables and the volume and structure of aid as possible determinants. In particular, we assessed the impact of aid that donors classify to be specifically related to energy issues. We performed dynamic panel Generalised Method of Moments and Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected estimations. We found that aid tends to be effective in reducing the energy intensity of GDP in recipient countries. All the same, the carbon intensity of energy use is hardly affected. Scaling up aid efforts would thus be insufficient to fight climate change beyond improving energy efficiency. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article examines the forms of economic restructuring recently undertaken by Mauritius and Seychelles in response to recent changes in the global economy, which have a fundamental impact upon their socio-economic landscape. We argue that both Mauritius and Seychelles have recently embarked upon programmes that do not actually attenuate their exposure to the vagaries of international trade but continue a historic pattern of development that addresses ailing economic performance by refining and then replacing one small set of industries with another. The latest phase of restructuring is merely the most recent instalment in this pattern. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article combines a review of the importance of artisanal mining to the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable rural populations in Africa with critical reflections on the scope for supporting such livelihoods through microfinance services. Drawing on interviews with mining communities, lending institutions and policymakers, the study examines constraints in accessing formal and informal financial services and argues for a more flexible, context-specific and goal-oriented institutional approach to supporting mineworkers. It gives particular attention to the potential roles of group lending and saving schemes adapted from the Grameen Bank model, public subsidies for credit and equipment hire purchase loans as components of an integrated programme of support and technical training. The cases examined illustrate why governments, international donors, private sector institutions and researchers should expand the discussion of microfinance objectives and services beyond conventional commercial approaches in order to explicitly address development concerns related to social marginalisation and capacity-strengthening among vulnerable groups. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper investigates the causes and effects of bribe payments using data from garment-producing firms in Cambodia. We uncover the reasons why firms pay bribes and describe what they receive in return. We test the hypothesis that bribe payments reduce bureaucratic delays and find that bribery can improve productivity by reducing bureaucratic delays. The evidence suggests that, if the government improves administrative services, firms can reduce unofficial payments because unavoidable bureaucratic delays compel them to pay bribes. Our evidence also suggests that foreign ownership can explain why firms are not harassed heavily in this industry. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Along with an increasing integration with global goods and services markets, regional centres of industrial development have emerged in Turkey. Global linkages may play an important role in regional disparities in a developing country like Turkey through the determination of the locations of industries. This paper examines to what extent global linkages, operationalised by export performance, impact on agglomeration economies and regional disparities in industrial production and industrial employment in Turkey. To this end, using province-level industrial data, panel regressions are run to analyse the determinants of disparities and agglomeration in terms of industrial value added and employment by adding the size of exports as an explanatory variable. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Establishing a few community-based plant clinics in Nicaragua led to a series of innovations in plant health service delivery. A grassroots experiment became a nationwide initiative involving local service providers, universities, research institutions and diagnostic laboratories. This led to the creation of a ‘National Plant Health System’ offering regular advice to farmers. The innovations were driven by a momentum for change, committed individuals, joint learning and flexibility in programme management. External facilitation encouraged experimentation and bolstered growth of new alliances. The development of the national plant health system was constrained by existing work cultures that limit the scope of individual and institutional innovations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper explores the inter-relations between economic growth, international trade and environmental degradation empirically by using panel data. Previous critique, especially on the econometric specification, is embedded. Several environmental factors and one sustainability indicator are analysed. The results indicate that there is an environmental Kuznets curve for most pollutants, but with several reservations. None of the various hypotheses that concern the link between trade and environmental degradation can be entirely confirmed. There is modest support for the pollution haven hypothesis. In addition, trade liberalisation might be beneficial to sustainable development for rich countries but harmful to poor ones. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper examines the effect of foreign aid on poverty. The impact of aid on poverty is assessed using dynamic panel estimation techniques, which enable us to control for time-invariant country-specific effects and endogeneity of aid. The results suggest that aid has a significant poverty-reducing effect even after controlling for average income. Specifically, foreign aid is associated with a decline in poverty as measured by the poverty rate, poverty gap index and squared poverty gap index. We also find that the composition of aid matters—multilateral aid and grants do better in reducing poverty than bilateral aid and loans. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper addresses the question of how cash constrained and inexperienced people in developing countries can start their businesses by looking at the informal garment industry of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This industry caters primarily for the domestic local markets and produce garments through local subcontracting systems. These subcontracting systems are embedded in social networks, which are based on kinship and territorial relationships, and are reciprocal in nature. This paper argues that in the absence of formal institutions supporting business start-ups, such reciprocal informal subcontracting could play major roles. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper considers community-based adaptation (CBA) to climate change and its relationship to the theory and practice of participatory development. It is argued that CBA needs to recognise the considered experience of participatory development to date, particularly in relation to local involvement in project planning and implementation, as well as acknowledging the specific challenges raised by climate change. Without attention to risks and uncertainty, political structures and institutions, the necessarily multi-level nature of adaptation policy and programming, and the links between mitigation and adaptation politics and practice, outcomes of CBA interventions are unlikely to support pro-poor development. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The rapid spread of mobile telephony throughout the developing world offers researchers a new and exciting means of data collection. This paper describes and analyses the experience of a research project that used mobile phones to collect high frequency, quantitative economic data from households in rural Tanzania. I discuss the research design, highlight some of the mistakes made and lessons learned, and speculate on the applicability of this method in other settings. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article investigates the effect of life insurance on economic growth and what conditions affect the insurance-growth nexus. These conditions include the degree of financial development, private saving rates, interest rates, social security expenditures, income, young dependency ratio, life expectancy, and geographic regions. The main findings confirm the positive impact of the development of the life insurance market on economic growth. The insurance-growth nexus varies across countries with different conditions. For example, the positive impact on economic growth is mitigated in the middle-income countries, but amplified in the low-income countries. Moreover, both the development of stock market and the life insurance market are substitutes rather than complements. Based on our findings, this study offers useful insights for policy-makers and insurers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In the literature of economic development and civil society, extensive research has been done on the role of western NGOs in fighting poverty; however, there is hardly any study on the role of the NGOs originating from Muslim nations on this issue. There is even a complete silence when it comes to expatriate Muslim NGOs that are functional in the West. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying a Muslim immigrant NGO, Islamische Gemeinschaft Milli Görüş (IGMG), with a focus on its Kurban (meat distribution) projects in more than 70 countries between 2004 and 2009. It argues that a strong transnationalism tendency exists in the expatriate Turkish community living in Germany. The Kurban projects have both the characteristics of this transnational leaning and play an important role in strengthening their own identity in Germany. Through such projects, immigrants not only get first hand information about the situation of Muslims in other countries but also feel part of transnational Islamic community, ummah. Such activities create awareness about poverty among Muslim immigrants and directly contribute to poverty alleviation by aid, investment and projects. From a broader perspective, this study argues that such projects reinforce their identity as immigrants internally/domestically by highlighting the transnational role of Islam and challenges the argument that immigrants are only consumers rather than active contributors to the poverty alleviation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Latin American and Caribbean countries are world leaders in intentional homicide rates. Our estimates suggest that the intentional homicide rate in the Latin America and Caribbean region is 40 per cent higher than the average for the rest of the world. The intentional homicide rate for a group of violent countries (Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Jamaica) is nearly 58 per cent higher than the world's average. Utilising an international panel data set to study the determinants of intentional homicide, we demonstrate that intentional homicide is highly inert, counter-cyclical, declines with development and rises with violence and income inequality. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We develop a growth-employment model that decomposes the Indonesian economy into six components, based on a combination of economic sectors and location, and ascertain the sectors that created the most jobs in Indonesia over the past two decades. We find that urban employment is mostly driven by higher growth in the services sector, especially areas that require skilled personnel. Meanwhile, the agriculture sector growth still drives employment in rural areas, although it appears that the services sector also creates a significant number of jobs. Based on these findings, we provide some policy recommendations. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We show that the impact of foreign aid on bureaucratic quality in recipient countries varies with the mode of delivery. Specifically, grants are found to impair the functioning of the bureaucracy, whereas loans are not. The negative impact of grants is larger when they are given as budget support rather than as assistance for specific projects or for programmes in general. Our results thus suggest that the probability of adverse effects rises with the degree of discretion recipients have over the incoming resources, which is in conflict with donors' recent emphasis on strengthening local ownership by limiting the conditions attached to foreign aid. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

India has experienced unprecedented growth in the last two decades—a development largely attributed to economic reforms initiated in the early 1990s. India's approach to liberalisation has been commended for its gradual implementation and its sympathy for poor rural workers. Studies examining the relevance of this claim generally use national survey data, which are seriously limited. So far little effort has been focussed on understanding what reforms actually mean for the rural poor using primary data. In this paper, we use data from a household survey carried out in the villages of Andhra Pradesh. We ask what impact India's reforms have had on its female agricultural labour—who are arguably among its poorest. Specifically, we investigate the impact of three developments considered fundamental to India's economic transformation: a sectoral shift in favour of industry, credit market reforms and poverty alleviation strategies. We argue that despite having a beneficial impact overall, economic reforms have resulted in further marginalising rural women into badly paid and socially debasing waged work. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Domestic human capital is definitely a determinant of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows for the developing world. Yet, the contribution of human capital will depend to a great extent on the institutional framework of a nation. Good political rights and civil liberties favour human capital to reap the benefits of FDI inflows more efficiently. Our paper shows that the interlinkages between FDI, human capital and institutions play a very important role in explaining FDI inflows to developing countries. The results show that in the presence of good political rights and civil liberties, the association between human and FDI inflows is enhanced. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper explores partnership in the Catholic Church-aid chain. The focus for the research was the wielding of power in relationships and the notion that agencies involved in a relationship will be motivated to represent this as a partnership even if it is far from being so (a ‘social pathology’). The aid chain selected for the research comprised a number of dioceses in Nigeria and two of the major International Catholic Church-based donors. In the Catholic Church-based aid chain there is the time and determination to work matters out, which suggests inter-dependency between all involved and avoidance of ‘social pathology’. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper tests the hysteresis hypothesis in unemployment for 13 Latin American countries covering the period 1980–2005. The tests exploit the time series and the cross sectional variation of the series, and allows for cross section dependence and a different number of endogenously determined structural breakpoints. The findings give support to the hysteric dynamic hypothesis for the majority of the countries analysed. The implications of the results have ramifications regarding macro-stabilisation, structural reform, and the design of social safety protection. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Kenya's stated policy is to increase dairy production through sustained liberalization of output and input markets. The present study assessed dairy farmers' responsiveness to both market price factors and non-price factors within a liberalized market environment. Econometric analysis used in the study is based on a profit function using farm household survey data collected for a year. Results showed that dairy farmers are more responsive to non-price factors than to price factors. Hence the need for a consistent and a sustained liberalization program in the sub-sector, as well as reinforcing liberalization policies in place by increasing public expenditure on rural infrastructure and other agricultural support services. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article departs from a critique of objectivist understandings of the state as a relatively coherent administrative and coercive apparatus. It argues that objectivist understandings of the state may prevent our ability of seeing politics as it is. On the basis of the fact that institutions only exist insofar as they are systematically activated in social relations, the article provides conceptual tools that seek to capture the context-specific, relational characteristics of the state. The theoretical arguments are illustrated by examples from both developed and developing countries. In thinking beyond categorical and objectivist understandings of statehood encapsulated in concepts like state capacity and state failure, the article distinguishes kinds and degrees of state failures. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper employs conditional probabilities generated from a homogenous two-state Markov chain to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of the efficacy of central bank intervention on the foreign exchange market in Uganda. This enables us to explicitly model the fact that intervention actions usually do not target the exchange rate itself but rather its orderly movement. The results suggest that seasonal pressures are largely responsible for moving the short-term exchange rate process between the different state spaces. Intervention reduces the probability of the exchange rate process staying in a regime characterised by sharp and disruptive tendencies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article describes the partnership between the Agency for Entrepreneurship and Small Business – SEBRAE/Santa Catarina – and the organization Toca Tapetes, discussing the process of inserting the organization Toca Tapetes, located in Santa Catarina/Brazil-, and it´s contribution to sustainable territorial development and economic plurality. This article was completed through a literature search and a case study in organizations Toca Tapetes and SEBRAE. It was used the observation technique, in visits during January 2009, and made interviews with members from Toca tapetes and SEBRAE, with semi-structured and non-disguised roadmap questions. The survey's deliverables are predominantly descriptive about the partnership process formation between organizations and integration of Toca Tapetes into the Fair Trade movement are presented, and relationships between variables and the central objective of the work are established. This study found that the case of SEBRAE and Toca Tapetes partnership is an example that resulted in the strengthening of an organization that contributes to sustainable and environmental friendly territorial development, based on an economic plurality concerned with citizenship values, as it managed to combine the need to change the reality of individuals to local tradition. Forging a partnership with SEBRAE was definitive for the increase of Toca´s Tapetes activities, whether in education and training, promotion or inclusion in national competitions. The distinguishing feature of partnership to provide an effective contribution to the development lies in the effort of conceptual change, being action responsible for the community, the activity carried out, the environment, workers and the market. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Globalisation arguably brings about socio-economic development but the distribution of these benefits is unequal. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), whose growth has often been closely linked with globalisation, have been outspoken regarding this inequality. Despite clear linkages between NGOs and globalisation, there has been little research aiming at understanding how NGOs engage with the issue of globalisation itself. Using the case of Indonesia, this study aims to uncover how NGOs utilise the Internet to respond to globalisation-related issues. NGOs should understand global issues in their local contexts and rearticulate more saliently for their beneficiaries. Technology can serve this purpose when used strategically. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study aims to investigate the relation between corporate saving and economic growth during the period from 1995 to 2006 in 7 developing countries and 16 developed countries. The results show that corporate savings generally add to the economic growth of developing countries regardless of legal origins. On the contrary, corporate savings generally do not contribute to the economic growth of developed countries. Developed countries with common law and Scandinavian civil law legal origins particularly see the negative relation between corporate saving and economic growth, while countries with other legal origins observe no such relation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The ability of health systems to positively affect the health and well-being of communities will be limited if the systems fail to address the crucial role and dynamic nature of communities and ignore key community members and existing institutions. Without a custom for input or an infrastructure for collaboration between individual and institutional community assets and their local health systems, health interventions can lead to failure, duplication or interference with existing health-related activities. This paper examines the roles of community leaders and institutions in two remote Iranian villages and makes recommendations for improving and sustaining participatory relationships between local communities and their health systems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper examines the differences in welfare, as measured by per capita expenditure (PCE), between social groups in rural India across the entire welfare distribution. The paper establishes that the disadvantage suffered by two historically disadvantaged groups- Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs)—is underestimated when the comparison group is Non-SCs/STs rather than General Category (GC) (mostly higher castes). The ST households are the most disadvantaged followed by the SC and the Other Backward Caste (OBC) households with respect to GC households, and the disadvantage exists across the entire distribution. Better covariates and better returns to those covariates contribute to the advantage of the GC households. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Starting from the constraints and incentives that cause countries to issue debt in foreign currency, this paper provides an overview of policy approaches for choosing the optimal currency structure of sovereign foreign-currency debt. The objective of sovereign debt managers generally includes both risk and cost minimisation, while constraints to foreign-currency debt allocation originate in the parameters of the domestic macroeconomy, the shocks it faces and the initial conditions. Overall, the main parameters that drive the solutions for optimal currency allocation of foreign-currency debt are the covariances of macrovariables with exchange rates and the variances of different exchange rates. Both the covariances and the exchange rate volatility can be deceptive when a fixed exchange rate regime is maintained, however. To adequately capture the expected covariances in the context of managed exchange rate regimes, we suggest that sovereign debt managers work with equilibrium instead of actual exchange rates. For the same reason and because the estimates of relative exchange rate variances should be forward looking, we suggest using synchronisation indicators in the policy analysis to better capture the underlying drivers of exchange rate volatility across currencies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper provides new evidences about the determinants of institutional quality. Prior to implementing our empirical research, we discuss the criteria that should be used to judge the quality of institutions. Then, we identify the factors that, according to these criteria, determine institutional quality. The results obtained in the estimated model enable to draw some interesting conclusions. Firstly, development level determines institutional quality: the highest the former, the highest the latter. Secondly, income distribution conditions institutional quality. Thirdly, a sound tax system is positively associated with institutional quality improvement. Taxes provide the necessary revenue to generate quality institutions and create a narrower and more demanding relation between State and citizens. Finally, education improves institutional quality. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The potential distributional effects of public education as a producer of endowments are discussed, taking into consideration the presence of systemic inefficiency in the sector, which is typical in developing economies. The analysis has implications for policymakers, as it suggests the following: a) not addressing the inefficiency in educational systems has a cost in terms of wage inequality, and b) the effects of trade may be mediated or even reversed by the orientation of the education policy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper discusses countries along the dimensions of democracy vs. autocracy, income equality vs. inequality, and economic rent-extraction vs. creation and compares them in a regional context. Transitions within those qualitative characteristics are generally scarce. When occurring, they are limited to one aspect only. Transitions towards more democracy, income equality, and productive economic activity are most likely when relative equality is already given. Contrary to the general redistribution hypothesis of democratisation, this suggests that successful democratisation stems from initial income equality; it is not democratisation that leads to more income equality. Rising income inequality is identified as the greatest threat to the sustainability of favorable socioeconomic and political developments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Empirical research has generally attributed the dismal performance of Africa's economic growth to country-specific socio-economic and geo-political factors. This paper shows that while country-specific issues matter for Africa's economic growth, common global economic factors do matter as well. The importance of common global economic factors has been augmented by increased globalization, the introduction of the World Trade Organization and the current global economic crisis. Using system GMM panel data techniques that extend previous literature on Africa's growth, the estimation results provide new insights into the positive relationship between the world business cycle and the growth rates of African countries. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Philippines has an exhaustive decentralisation code providing local governments with a high degree of discretion. But the concurrent upward and downward accountability mechanisms are weak resulting in inefficiency and ineffectiveness of local governments. We employ a diagnostic framework to analyse local governments' discretion and accountability in political, administrative and fiscal domains. We find that the entrenched culture of power accumulation and patronage—within which decentralisation operates—has resulted in elite capture at the local level. This along with lack of capacity at national and local levels has caused serious impediments in downward accountability of local governments. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We investigate whether and how technical cooperation aid (TC) facilitates technological diffusion from developed to developing countries, comparing it with foreign direct investment (FDI) and external openness. Two robust findings emerge. First, TC, FDI and openness all contribute to international technology transfers and openness seems to contribute the most, which is followed by TC. Second, around 6–17 countries out of 85 in our sample fail to catch up to the technological leader over the 36 years. These results suggest that as a policy instrument, TC can play an important role in facilitating technological catch up of developing countries. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The authors illustrate how notions of poverty are constructed around specific ‘memes’, or replicating units of cultural information, around which concepts and ideas develop and change. Three ‘memes’ characterising definitions of poverty over the previous years were identified: ‘basic needs’, ‘multidimensional’ and ‘deprivation’. The analysis illustrated the semantic space in which each term was utilised and to the extent it changed and modified over time by different actors. The results revealed how ‘memes’ compete with one another across the discourse. Within this competition, older concepts are almost never fully abandoned, but rather repackaged and reutilised. Thus, new definitions of poverty are less innovative than portrayed in the wider literature. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Disability and poverty have a complex and interdependent relationship. It is commonly understood that persons with disabilities are more likely to be poor and that poverty may contribute to sustaining disability. This interdependency is revealed not only through an examination of poverty in terms of income but also on a broader scale through other poverty related dimensions. Just how robust is this link? This paper compares data collected from household surveys in Afghanistan and Zambia, and explores the potential link between multidimensional poverty and disability. We find evidence of lower access to health care, education and labour market for people with disabilities, whatever is the disability status, but poverty measured by an asset index is not statistically different between people with and without disabilities. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper examines the relationship between disability and poverty at a health-demographic surveillance site in Viet Nam using alternative measures of disability severity. Analysis of the site population (n = 65 400) is combined with interviews of 27 households containing members with disabilities. Results show that disability severity is positively associated with poverty. Results support recent efforts of the Vietnamese government to extend programmes of social protection for households containing members with severe disabilities. However, a higher level of disability targeting is required, both in terms of eligibility and of benefit levels. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study investigates the use of microfinance services among economically active disabled people in Uganda. The findings suggest that disabled people make more use of microfinance services than previously assumed. A total of 89 per cent of the survey's respondents state that they have used at least one type of microfinance service. Informal self-help schemes are more easily accessed than formal institutional schemes, and disabled people access more savings than loans. The multivariate analysis shows that access to microfinance services is positively related to education level. In addition, deaf people generally have less access to microfinance than those in other disability categories. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Women entrepreneurs account for a sizable majority of small-scale entrepreneurs in Africa. A minor change in their capitalization could assure their participation in diverse productive activities and has a large impact on their lives and families, as well as on the economy. While their access to credit is impeded profoundly because of the regulatory constraints imposed by formal financial institutions, on one hand, the informal sector interest rates as high as 300 per cent are literally untenable, on the other. The paper investigates the contribution of microfinance to the economic improvement of women small-scale entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa. The research assesses the impact of credit and saving services on the economic improvement of women small-scale entrepreneurs by using secondary data and a quantitative analysis based on questionnaires and interviews. The study probes financial facets such as income, savings, credit, financial services, family obligations and access to education. It concludes that women entrepreneurs who obtain microfinance face a number of problems. The study exposes the overall environment constraining women entrepreneurs on financial fronts and suggests some measures of relief to ameliorate the situation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The village banking approach to microfinance aims to empower women by giving them responsibility for and control over certain aspects of the intervention. This paper explores how women members negotiate participation in the bank and analyses the relationship between responsibility, risk and empowerment. It is based on an ethnographic study in Luribay, Bolivia where the microfinance institution Credit with Rural Education has been operating since 2000. The village bank is placed in the context of gender relations in Luribay and ideas of risk, responsibility and empowerment explored in that context. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study examines the role of business innovation as an important, but understudied intervening relationship between microcredit loans and income level. Using archival and survey data of microcredit clients from the Dominican Republic, the study finds that loan size has a positive effect on income level, but only in the presence of business innovation. We find that greater business training in relation to competitors is a significant indicator of business innovation. The findings also suggest that personal characteristics and competitive environment play a joint, but opposite role with innovation in predicting income level. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article aimed to deepen understandings of poor household borrowing practices by drawing on a case study from rural Southern India. It combines descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis to show that households juggle with a wide range of borrowing sources and that each serves very specific purposes. From a theoretical perspective, we suggest that the neoclassical cost/benefit framework often used to analyse debt decisions should be enlarged to include social criteria in line with recent insights from economic anthropology and political economy. From a policy perspective, we argue that all things being equal, local financial arrangements might have important comparative advantages over traditional microfinance products. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We use maximum likelihood models to analyse the impact of mother's education on infant and child mortality in Uganda. The data were obtained from the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2006. Our results confirm the hypothesis that mother's education is fundamental in reducing infant and child mortality. This suggests that efforts to reduce child mortality need to target measures that aim to educate women. The government programme to extend free education at the secondary level is therefore a commendable effort that needs to be strengthened. This therefore needs to be embraced by all stakeholders to encourage girls to attain education beyond secondary level. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Despite the rising importance of fair trade (FT), a relatively small amount of academic research has been done in this area so far. Advocates of FT claim that it will ultimately improve the living conditions of the poor. Opponents hold that it will worsen their situation. More often than not, public discussion is affected by dogmatic views, prejudices and emotional charges. This paper aims to contribute to an objective discussion of the topic. We present a matching model to analyse the welfare effects of FT in an agricultural market. Our results show that producers obtaining FT certification are better off. All others will lose if incentives for importers to enter the market decline. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The period between 1980 and 2005 registered declining poverty, especially in its extreme form, and increasing economic inequality with implications for the economic footing of the global poor- and low-income groups. Disentangling the roles of economic growth, openness and political institutions in determining poverty and inequality using cross-national data faces enormous methodological challenges. Nevertheless, panel data regressions estimated here suggest that the poor- and low-income groups do not benefit much from economic openness and political democracy. While economic growth and government expenditures do not significantly affect poverty, they prove somewhat effective at containing inequality. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.