Search

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that the application of social policy in the North East of England is often characterised by tension and conflict. The agencies and professionals charged with implementation of Westminster driven policies constantly seek to deploy their knowledge of local conditions in order to make them both practical and palatable.Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the region via established literature from history, geography, sociology and social policy. The paper gives illustrations via empirical work which has evaluated initiatives to improve the health of long term health-related benefit recipients and to sustain individuals in employment in the region.Findings Central to the paper’s argument is the notion of “biographies of place”. The core of this idea is that places have biographies in the same way as individuals and possess specific identities. These biographies have been shaped by the intersections between environment, history, culture and economic and social policy. The paper identifies the region’s economic development, subsequent decline and the alliance of labour politics and industrial employers around a common consensus that sought economic prosperity and social progress via a vision of “modernisation” as a key component of this biography.Originality/value The paper argues that an appreciation of these spatial biographies can result in innovative and more effective social policy interventions with the potential to address issues that affect entire localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how countries can make a more efficient and effective cooperation strategy, considering their competitive strengths and weaknesses.Design/methodology/approach This paper is an exploratory study in examining the efficient way of national cooperation from the competitiveness perspective. By applying the double diamond-based nine-factor model and the framework for the life cycle of national competitiveness, this study proposes the importance of cooperation strategy, considering the current competitiveness status. A case study of two economies of South Korea (hereafter referred to as Korea) and Dubai reveals a potentially substantial cooperative relationship.Findings Although Korea and Dubai are geographically and culturally distant, they share complementary resources to enhance their overall competitiveness. In addition, their past experiences of growth can effectively deal with their current challenges and help their economies move to more advanced stage.Practical implications The methodology used in this paper can provide a useful guideline for policy makers to examine the current development status of their economies, find an appropriate cooperation partner and decide the priority of cooperating areas.Originality/value Although most existing studies explain national competitiveness from a narrow perspective, this paper provides a more comprehensive analysis using the extended model of Porter’s single diamond model. In addition, this paper conducts an intensive case study of Dubai and Korea for possible cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the growth drivers of start-up firms from the process perspective. Increasing scholarly attention to the growth of start-up firms has led to a more sophisticated understanding of their drivers. However, the richness of the results is partly offset by both potential and real contradictions in the literature. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, 233 studies on the growth of start-up firms are reviewed using a process-oriented lens. Findings – The analysis reveals an imbalance in the use of variance-based empirical approaches to study the process-based phenomenon and some misalignments in the use of non-process-based empirical approaches to improve a process-based theory. Originality/value – This paper offers an original perspective from which to reconsider the relevant literature and provides useful recommendations for researchers to forge a path ahead in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Economic growth is defined as growth in the capacity to meet individual and collective consumption demands. Decline in economic growth for a longer period (i.e. recession) occurs as a part of the "The Limits of Growth" concept. During such an economic crisis, three policy concepts can be implemented: "austerity"; "business as usual"; and "fiscal stimulus". The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic response to the 2008 recession, in the area of sustainable transport system development, in Europe.Design/methodology/approach The study assesses and identifies the need for investments in transport infrastructure, in particular rail, to remove barriers to developing a sustainable multimodal transport system. Towards this, by analysing secondary data collected from relevant online sources, the paper explores the prospects for sustainable rail freight transport development in Europe, during the recession period. For this, eight EU countries were selected, based on the length of railway lines in use: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the UK.Findings Investment in five transport infrastructures were examined – road, rail, IWT, maritime ports and airports – and the research finds that overall, the "austerity" policy was implemented for investment in rail infrastructure, whereas a modest "stimulus" policy can be observed for investment in road infrastructure. The average investment in IWT infrastructure had a "stimulus" policy, whereas the average investment in Maritime port and Airport infrastructure suggests a "business as usual" policy. Of the various approaches taken in the recent recession period, European rail transport appears to have fared least well.Research limitations/implications To some extent, the research is limited by lack of some data (e.g. data unavailability on the UK airport infrastructure investment from year 2006).Practical implications The findings of the research will encourage policy makers in national government to invest in sustainable transport infrastructure.Originality/value The study suggests that there is a lack of uniform policy response to the recession, in terms of investment in transport infrastructure, and that there is a significant difference between the policy goals set by the EU – modal shift from road to rail and/ IWT to develop a sustainable transport system – and their practice. The author argues for an integrative, common and action-oriented approach to sustainable rail freight system development, by European countries, to develop effective, Europe-wide rail freight corridors, under schemes such as Horizon 2020 and Shift2Rail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The Obama’s reform of the US healthcare system has been a major topic of debate in the USA. The USA feels the need to provide 48 million residents with health insurance. The Affordable Care Act has this goal, but the several factors have limited its capacity and implementation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this reform, paying attention to its potential implications for the human and economic development of both the USA and the rest of the world. The authors show that developed countries also need policies for enhancing human development and also the developing world may benefit from policy changes in the “first world.”Design/methodology/approach The methodology is based on discursive discussion. The argumentation first presents the reform, and highlights its advantages and its flaws for the citizens of both the USA and of developing countries.Findings The authors claim that the reform presents some flaws that render it still insufficient to cover all the health needs of the poor in the USA. However, the reform is likely to attract more immigrant workers to the USA, since it is likely to improve the living conditions of immigrants as well as those of their families.Originality/value The original point of the paper is the link between the reform and the benefits for non-US citizens. The extant literature has widely discussed the impact of the reform on the domestic market and on the US citizens. The authors widen this perspective showing that an important reform in a large country may be beneficial for people living elsewhere as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the competitiveness of a certain territory may be developed and maintained in the context of a global economy through the exploitation of its intrinsic value. The paper contributes to managerial literature by embracing a systemic perspective using business models (BMs) and adapting the original Osterwalder and Pigneur’s (2010) framework (canvas) to the specific context of territorial development.Design/methodology/approach The paper proposes a conceptual framework placing the territory and its actors in a dominant position. This choice allows us to look at BMs as the instruments of success of an entire territory (instead of a single firm as typically assessed in managerial literature) – a cooperating system. To do so, the authors build on previous works on “triple” and “quadruple helix”, which, although primarily focused on technological innovation, may also be used for more general aims such as guiding the specialization of a specific territory and supporting its economic sustainability. The paper contends that a BM might be the instrument to orchestrate actors’ (helices) cooperation by combining the focus on territories with a systemic perspective. Through the implementation of a common BM, each system should be able to orchestrate policies implemented by the different leading forces of the territory to assist processes of economic development.Findings The paper extends the literature on BMs conceptually linking its roots to the existing managerial literature on territory governance and networks. It offers a dual range of outcomes: first, it provides public policy makers with useful guidelines with regard to political, institutional, educational and entrepreneurial choices to be implemented for the development of a given geographical area; second, it examines the relational network linking the various actors of a territory, which are key to its growth and success.Originality/value This paper offers a new way for recovering/sustaining economically depressed areas. To the authors’ knowledge, BMs have never been used at territorial level, but only at firm level. They believe that, through this new view of BMs, policy makers can help each territory to express its intrinsic and peculiar value. By combining BMs with the concepts of triple and quadruple helix, the authors offer a new way to look at how governments, educational institutions and firms can cooperate to help a territory in finding and improving its intrinsic specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Nowadays, foreign capital inflow (FCI) is considered as a catalyst for economic development and an important source of transferring technology and foreign exchange earnings from developed to developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, first, the impact of different forms of FCIs, namely, foreign direct investment (FDI), personal remittances (PR) and official development assistant (ODA) on economic growth on 26 top African countries; and, second, which of them is more effective on economic growth of the studied countries. The results of this paper are very important for host governments’ policy and help them to design their economic plans to absorb the suitable foreign inflow.Design/methodology/approach The paper uses Pooled Mean Group (PMG) econometric technique to estimate the heterogeneous panels over the period 1992–2016.Findings The results of the study show that all three forms of FCIs have positive and significant effects on economic growth in the long and short run. However, the PR had the most effect on economic growth in the long and short run. The study suggests that the governments should design and implement appropriate fiscal, monetary and trade policies in order to create and improve an enabling environment to attract FCIs as a supplementary source of domestic investment.Research limitations/implications The research limitations of this paper are as follows: data sets of FDI, PR and ODA were available not for all African countries; and, data sets that were available were of before the year 1992. Thus, the research is done for the African countries which had the data sets after the year 1992.Practical implications The result of this paper indicates the impact of each FDI, PR and ODA in economic growth. So, countries can take more attentions to each of them on economic planning.Social implications FCIs are one of the important external source of exchange for each country. So, the study of importance of each of them is necessary for economic planning.Originality/value Most of the previous studies have examined the impact of three different forms of FCIs on economic growth separately, on different countries and regions and using various models and econometric techniques. One of the contributions of this paper is focused on the impacts of FDI, PR and ODA on economic growth separately and simultaneously in 26 top recipient African countries and using the PMG technique which is an advanced econometrical estimation and studied less about it. The other contribution of this research is the comparison of the impact of different FCIs on economic growth, and it is very important for governments’ economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Financial inclusion policy focuses on bringing the less privileged groups into the formal financial system. Financial inclusion has a lot of benefits in the society. It can reduce the level of poverty, inequality and encourage business startup. This study aims to examine the impact of financial inclusion on entrepreneurship in selected African countries. Design/methodology/approach: This paper examines how financial inclusion impacts entrepreneurship in 13 selected African countries using data from World Bank Development Indicators, IMF's International Financial Statistics, doing business and World Bank Entrepreneurship Survey for the period of 2005-2016. It uses panel data regression techniques such as random effect, IV estimation and robust least square. Findings: The results show that financial inclusion has a significant and positive effect on entrepreneurship in Africa. This result is robust to both alternative measures of financial inclusion and alternative estimators. Originality/value: The possible relationship between financial inclusion and entrepreneurial development has been an ongoing debate in other developing countries. However, this issue has been neglected in the African region. There are little or no evidence to support the possible relationship in Africa. This paper makes an important contribution in this respect and further provides insightful information in the ongoing debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the direct and indirect impacts of social organization in promoting Chinese economic growth. It adopts empirical research to test the correlated hypotheses, and tries to put forward some policy suggestions.Design/methodology/approach Social organizations are measured by four indicators in this paper. It proposes five hypotheses about the impact of social organization on economic growth and builds an economic growth model including social organization. The ordinary least squares and stepwise regression methods are conducted to estimate the economic growth model with the data from 1999 to 2015.Findings Through the empirical analysis, it finds that the added value of social organization, human capital, investment and government budget expenditure affect economic growth significantly. The number of social organization at the end of each year has a positive significant effect on entrepreneurship, while the added value and growth rate of it have a negative effect on it. The numbers of social organization and full-time employee have significant effect on number to workers in the labor force. Only the number of social organization has positive significant effect on public education.Originality/value This paper conducts an empirical study on the impact of social organization on economic growth in China and fills a gap of the role of social organization on the economy in developing countries. The results provide referenced information for public policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Recently, acoustic characteristics of the indoor space are more important due to society economic development needs. Meanwhile, container houses are gradually widely used in quite a lot of space applications for sustainable and easy use features. Those are still need to remain the pleasant and quiet sound environment. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, commercial software Ecotect Analysis is used to calculate the sound characteristics of container house. And the decorated material of this small indoor space is redesigned for obtaining the acoustic comfort under the optimal reverberation time. First, three-dimensional model of the container house is constructed by default tools of software. The indoor acoustic characteristics for various design conditions can be obtained by the simulation process. Findings – By comparing the experiment and simulation results, excellent agreement is represented to verify the feasibility of the software. Second, the original container house is caused by reverberation time distribution in 140-315 ms. After selecting the interior material, its reverberation time distribution in 160-680 ms. Originality/value – Following the design process, the spatial designers can assess the indoor acoustic characteristics in concept design stage and good acoustic comfort environment of building is derived. Meanwhile, improve the quality of living and construction costs reducing can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the dramatically changed role of Russia in the global economy since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, as the Soviet institutions collapsed and were either reformed or replaced in a new Russian institutional landscape. The paper presents a fact-based and balanced view of Russia's evolving role in the global economy, as distinguished from the sometimes one-sided view presented by some Western commentators. The authors establish that the two countervailing views are fundamentally based on different cultural perspectives about institutions, primarily the roles of business and government. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is developed as a perspectives article drawing upon the decades of academic and business experience of all three authors with Russian business, management and the economy. The paper focuses on the structure of Russian institutional change and places it within the historical context of the challenges of various periods of time from the late 1980s to the present. The authors posit that cultural foundations complicate that institutional evolution. Findings: Russia will remain a major player in world markets for energy, raw materials and armaments for the near future at least. Principal institutional questions facing Russia have to do with how to reduce the country's overall dependence on raw material exports, with its vulnerability to world market fluctuations, and how to modernize Russian economic and political institutions. The degree of success in addressing these questions will depend largely upon the ability of the new and reformed economic institutions to show the flexibility to respond to changes in the global order, on whether political considerations will continue to supersede economic issues, and how markedly cultural traditions will continue to impede positive changes. Research limitations/implications: The entire system of international trade is under question, disrupted by the growing nationalism that is threatening the globalization that became institutionalized over decades in the wake of the Second World War. Russia's future role is partially dependent upon how new patterns of international trade develop in response to the current disruption of established trade regimes, and by how political conflicts are expressed economically. The authors observe that Russia's historical and cultural traditions, especially acquiescence to a highly centralized government with a strong autocratic leader, limit the country's options. The authors explore how Russia's reactions to Western sanctions have led to a new strategic approach, moving away from full engagement in the global economy to selective economic, and sometimes political, alliances with primarily non-Western countries, most notably China. The authors contrast Russia's situation with that of China, which has been able to make substantial economic progress while still embracing a strong, centralized political institutional structure. Originality/value: Many Western analysts have viewed Russian institutional evolution very critically through the lens of Western politics and sanctions, while Russia has continued along its own path of economic and institutional development. Each view, the authors argue, is based upon differing cultural perspectives of the roles of business and government. As a result, a distinct difference exists between the Western and Russian perspectives on Russia's role in the world. This paper presents both points of view and explores the future of Russia's position in the world economy based upon its evolving strategy for national economic policy. The authors contrast the situations of Russia and China, highlighting how Western-centric cultural views have affected perceptions of each country, sometimes similarly and at times with decided differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationship between the copper price dynamics and economic growth in Zambia over the period from 1995 to 2015.Design/methodology/approach The study uses a data set assembled from five difference sources: the heritage foundation; the London metal exchange index; the Penn World Tables version 9.0; the total economy database; and the World Bank Development Indicators. The paper employs the Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) approach as the estimation technique.Findings The estimates demonstrate that there exists a positive and significant relationship between movements in copper prices and economic growth in Zambia. The study draws policy implications from these findings.Research limitations/implications This study is limited to the period from 1995 to 2015, this is due to lack of data on the country's institutional indicators, trade openness and the real exchange rate.Practical implications There have been calls to diversify the economy of Zambia due to the recurring chaotic events, which are often induced by over-dependence on copper exports. Thus, the study findings will be useful to academia, policy makers and stakeholders with vested interest in the economy of Zambia.Originality/value To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first empirical study to investigate the causal relationship that exists between copper prices and economic growth in Zambia. The existing empirical studies in the domain have devoted their attention on establishing the relationship between commodity price movements and exchange rates in Zambia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide more reliable estimates of the relationship between government spending and economic growth in the European Union (EU) during the period of 1995-2015.Design/methodology/approach The methodology consisted of several different stages. In the first stage for an assessment of dynamics of government spending and economic growth indicators over two decades, descriptive statistics analysis was employed. Correlation analysis helped to identify the relationships between government expenditures (GEs) and economic growth. In the third stage, for modeling the relationship and the estimation of causality between GE and economic growth, Granger causality testing was applied.Findings The research indicated that eight EU countries have a significant relationship between government spending and economic growth.Research limitations/implications This study has been bounded by general GE and economic growth only. The breakdowns of general GE on the basis of the activities they support have not been considered in this paper, which is the main limitation of the research. Despite the limitation, it might be maintained that the research highlights key relationships in the EU countries.Originality/value These insights might be useful for policy makers. In countries with unidirectional causality running from GE to economic growth, the government can employ expenditure as a factor for growth. The governments should ensure that resources are properly managed and efficiently allocated to accelerate economic growth in the countries with unidirectional causality from GDP to GE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among employment, real wage, and output growth in Canada. Design/methodology/approach – Using quarterly data from 1994q2 to 2012q3, this paper employs a vector autoregressive framework while allowing for the derivation of output from its historical maximum over the sample period to affect future output, employment, and real wage growth dynamics. Findings – There are three main findings: output growth is significant in predicting employment growth and vice versa; real wage growth neither Granger causes employment growth nor output growth, but employment growth Granger causes real wage growth; and non-linear dynamics, captured by the current depth regression (CDR) effect term, through the sign as well as the magnitude of output changes, are important in characterizing the evolution of the relationship among output, employment, and real wage growth. Practical implications – The findings of this research have significant implications for policy makers. Output and employment growth are important in forecasting each other in Canada. In contrast to the mainstream theory, real growth is insignificant in explaining the future dynamics of employment in Canada. Policies need to be formulated to encourage the growth of employment to ensure sustain output growth. Originality/value – This study examines empirically the real output, real wage, and employment link in Canada. This study uses the most recently revised GDP data arising from the 2012 Historical Revision of the Canadian System of National Accounts. The econometric methodology involves the standard vector autoregression (VAR) model to which the authors introduce non-linear dynamics through a term that controls for the deviation of output from its preceding historical maximum: the CDR effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reveal the economic impact of policy reversals related to market liberalization reforms in China. Design/methodology/approach: To perform the analysis, the authors hand-collect 59 financial market liberalization policy reversals from 1999 to 2017. These reversals are related to the liberalization of the stock market, bond market, derivatives market, forex market, lending market, and real estate market etc. The authors employ a stylized equilibrium interest rate model from Li et al. (2013) to deduce the impact of policy reversals on economic growth and the associated volatility after the announcement of each policy reversal. Findings: First, the authors discover that about half of reversals are related to some tradeoff between the economic growth and the volatility associated with growth. Second, the authors also find that about a quarter of the reversals are detrimental to both the growth and the stability. These reversals, if known to policymakers, should be entirely avoided or corrected. Third, using a simple diagnostic test, the authors can identify detrimental reversals at the intra-day frequency by computing the change of the term spread and the volatility before and after the reversals. Practical implications: The findings are useful for identifying effective policymaking in developing countries where mature democratic and rigorous policymaking processes are often lacking and formulating economic policies is challenging. The findings suggest that policy reversals serve China well by improving the quality of the policy made without posing destructive consequences to the existing economic infrastructure. This empirical evidence is important for a better understanding of the benefits of policy reversals on economic growth. Social implications: The empirical procedure provides a timely and objective evaluation of policy shifts, allowing for the general public to discern the rationale behind the policy decisions. Consequently, stakeholders' trust and confidence in policymakers is enhanced so that the probability of the successful implementation of structural reforms may increase in these developing countries. Originality/value: First, the results reveal some successful examples of Chinese policymaking in the path of liberalizing financial market. The authors find that the Chinese liberalization policy flip-flops have resulted in a more balanced growth on some occasions with reduced growth rate and volatility. Second, the proposed methodology provides an objective evaluation of policy shifts, allowing for the public to infer the general direction of the impact generated by policy shifts. Subsequently, stakeholders' trust and confidence in policymakers can be enhanced and/or restored if the process of finding a successful path of structural reforms is unambiguous. Finally, the interest rate model also provides a timely method to evaluate the impact of policy shifts at an intra-day frequency, whereas most macroeconomic indicators are available at longer frequencies such as monthly or quarterly. The timeliness in understanding the economic consequences of policy reversals can be critical to prevent the destructive consequences of bad ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Empirically, the purpose of this paper is to investigate policy variables that determine monetary policy and economic growth of some selected countries within the economic bloc of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The selected countries are Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Design/methodology/approach: Annual time series data for a panel of 11 Southern African countries spanning 1980–2015 were employed in the study. The major instrument of estimation is the dynamic regression panel model. In order to conform to econometric principles, robustness checks were carried out on the variables of interest so as to avoid spurious results. An estimation of impulse response and variance decomposition analyses were to complement the approach to the study. Findings: The result of the long-run dynamic panel regression reveals that GDP growth rate, inflation rate, exchange rate, money supply and oil and commodity prices do have profound impact on monetary policy within SADC. It was further revealed from the study that commodity price shock is the major exogenous determinant of monetary policy dynamics and the effect is transmitted via exchange rate channel to macroeconomics of the region; with inflation rate and money supply playing a major role in the transmission mechanism as it affects the economies of the countries in this region. Practical implications: The policy implication is that inflation is seen as a major challenge to the countries under review. Among other things, a hybrid of inflation and monetary targeting should be adopted to complement each other as policy combination within the region. Originality/value: The study accounts for the determinants of monetary policy vis-à-vis growth potentials of some selected countries in SADC, using a combination of dynamic regression panel approach and SVAR elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the pathways through which social protection policies in China and India can address the key challenges facing poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged groups under rapid transformation in both countries. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews the main social protection policies in China and India and analyzes the challenges that they are facing. This analysis is based on an evaluation of poverty and food security trends in both countries among vulnerable and disadvantaged groups followed by an overview of major experiences and gaps in social protection policies in the two emerging Asian giants. Findings – Improving the coverage and targeting of social protection systems is vital, and will require a multi-faceted reform portfolio that promotes more integrated and horizontally equitable systems. Emphasis should be placed on developing productive, cross-sectoral social protection programs that combine short-term social safety support with long-term tools to enhance productivity, paying special attention to nutrition, health, and human capital development. More efficient coverage and targeting should bridge the rural and urban divide and be grounded in transparent criteria and procedures that govern program implementation at all levels of the government. As both countries become more urbanized, social protection programs need to give equal attention to emerging food insecurity and nutrition issues within urban areas without detracting from food security and nutrition efforts in rural areas. Originality/value – Faced with a sizable population of undernourished and poor people, India and China have applied rather different approaches to address food insecurity. The originality and value of this paper lie in an in-depth parallel analysis of how China and India can better use their social protection systems to address food insecurity and undernutrition among poor, vulnerable, and disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The primacy of institutions for economic progress has been established in the literature. Yet, less research attention is paid to the existence and persistence of weak economic institutions in Africa. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the determinants of the quality of economic institutions in Africa. Design/methodology/approach: Hausman–Taylor instrumental variable estimator of panel regression was employed for a sample of 43 Sub-Sahara African countries over the period 1995–2017. Findings: The study finds that the existence and persistence of weak economic institutions in Africa is more of design than destiny. That is, weak economic institutions are created and sustained more by bad political institutions rather than cultural diversity and geographical factors. Therefore, strong political institutions need to be entrenched to reverse the equilibrium of weak economic institutions and dismal economic performance in the continent. Practical implications: The study provides deep understanding of the determinants of economic institutions. This is imperative for policy makers, development agencies and stakeholders in designing viable economic policies and programs for the continent. Originality/value: The novelty of the study is rooted in the examination of the factors responsible for the development and persistence of weak economic institutions in Africa. The idea is original because previous studies focus on political institutions and neglected economic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Poverty alleviation is a global challenge. Human society has never ceased to fight against poverty. China was once the developing country with the largest rural poor population in the world. Remarkable achievements have been made in China’s antipoverty program over the past decades, shaping a unique poverty reduction strategy with Chinese characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to first review the history of China’s rural reform and antipoverty, and then analyze the related policy systems, mechanism innovations and future challenges in poverty alleviation and development. At last, some specific policy implications were provided.Design/methodology/approach Literature on China’s antipoverty history was reviewed and mechanism innovations on targeted poverty alleviation strategy were investigated.Findings Along with the deepening of the rural reform, the poverty alleviation and development in new China have undergone six stages, and experienced a transformation from relief-oriented to development-oriented poverty alleviation. The object of poverty alleviation has gradually targeted with a transformation from poor counties/areas to villages/households, and the effectiveness of poverty alleviation is also gradually improved. However, the increase in the difficulty of antipoverty, fragile ecological environment, rapid population aging and rural decline poses challenges to the construction of a well-off society in an all-round way in China. Specific antipoverty measures were put forward based on the investigation. Finally, the authors emphasize the importance of strengthening the study of poverty geography.Originality/value This study investigates the history of China’s antipoverty policy and analyzes the future challenges for implementing targeted poverty alleviation policy. These findings will lay a foundation for the formulation of China’s antipoverty policies after 2020, and provide experience for poverty alleviation in other developing countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between urbanization and economic growth in ASEAN countries for the period 1993-2014.Design/methodology/approach The Granger causality test and the regression estimation method with static and dynamic panel data (FE, RE, Driscoll and Kraay, D-GMM and PMG) were used. The sample includes seven ASEAN countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.Findings The results show that at least a causal relationship exists between urbanization and economic growth and urbanization positively impacts economic growth. However, the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is non-linear. The urbanization reaches a threshold after which it may impede the economic growth. The estimated threshold is 69.99 percent for the static model and 67.94 percent for the dynamic model.Research limitations/implications The evidence from this study suggests that there is a non-linear relationship between urbanization and the economic growth. Urbanization has the potential to accelerate the economic growth, and this potential will depend on the establishment of favorable institutions and investments in appropriate public infrastructure.Practical implications The decision on the model of urbanization needs to be based on social and environmental considerations as well as market-based economic efficiency. The quality of urbanization manifests in the way that people and businesses perceive when they come to cities and their position in the labor market, urban housing, niche commodity markets, supply chain, collaborative network and physical space for the operation of the business. Most ASEAN countries have not yet reached a high level of urbanization, despite having a number of policies for promoting urbanization to contribute to the economic growth. However, policymakers should find ways to facilitate the development of urbanization that contributes to economic growth, employment growth, environmental sustainability, rather than the pursuit of speeding up the process of urbanization.Originality/value Between urbanization and economic growth at least a causal relationship exists. Urbanization positively impacts economic growth. However, the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is non-linear. The urbanization reaches a threshold after which it may impede the economic growth. The estimated threshold is 69.99 percent for the static model and 67.94 percent for the dynamic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of institutional quality on the export-led growth (ELG) with global evidence of a panel of 119 countries.Design/methodology/approach The research framework looks at the role of exports in promoting growth via. good institutional quality. The methods of testing are panel data approach of causality, and fixed and random effects models.Findings Empirical results show that good Institutional quality mediates the ELG relationship in general, and middle income group in specific. The legal institutional quality has significant positive impact, whereas political and economic institutional quality have significant negative impact on ELG for all sampled countries.Research limitations/implications The Kuncic’s (2014) institutional quality data are annually available between 1990 and 2010. Therefore, time series analysis for individual country is bias with 21 observations. And, this study ignores other potential variables such as capital, labor, real exchange rate, and so on, may possibly contribute to omitted-variables bias.Practical implications Policymakers may well utilize institutional quality reforms either in terms of improving existing institutional quality or enhancing “second-best” institutions as a policy instrument to reap success from export-oriented growth strategies.Originality/value Existing studies on ELG have ignored institutional quality as a relevant variable. It looks at the three institutional quality indicators, namely political, economic, and legal in ELG framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to integrate established information systems theories (post-acceptance model (PAM) and task-technology fit (TTF)) to model and test determinants of user continuance intention within Kenya toward a proliferated mobile money service called M-pesa.Design/methodology/approach A positivist method informed the design of the study. A survey instrument was developed and administered amongst M-pesa users in Kenya, yielding 618 responses. Selection of users followed a systematic sampling technique. Afterwards, structural equation modelling (SEM)-partial least squares (“SEM-PLS”) was used to examine the measurement and structural model of the study.Findings The results revealed an unexpected finding that TTF’s utilization has a stronger path coefficient than PAM’s satisfaction in predicting user continuance intention toward M-pesa. This is contrary to most extant literature reports that satisfaction is the dominant predictor of usage continuance. Also, unexpected, the results revealed a lack of significant influence between the PAM’s post-usage usefulness (PUU) and satisfaction. Again, the relationship between PUU and satisfaction in most extant studies is reported as significant.Originality/value The study suggests that saliency order of determinants of user continuance intention could differ within the developing world and developed world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Crisis events are windows of opportunity during which a country’s leaders may implement economic policy adjustments which change that country’s level of economic freedom and affect the local capital market. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between annual changes in an economic freedom index, six types of crises and equity market returns.Design/methodology/approach The author uses fixed-effects regressions on annual panel data for 69 countries during the period 2000-2010.Findings Banking, domestic debt and inflation crises decrease economic freedom, and an external debt crisis weakly relates to increases in economic freedom. Only banking crises relate to a change in economic freedom in the following year, suggesting that crisis-driven changes in economic freedom happen quickly. Gains in economic freedom are more likely to occur during periods of positive local and global equity returns. Preceding and contemporaneous to increases in economic freedom, a country’s equity market outperforms a global equity index, offering observers a leading indicator for economic policy change.Originality/value The author finds that crises coincide with decreases in economic freedom, while gains in economic freedom happen during periods of positive capital market sentiment. The absence of a relationship between one-year lagged crisis events and changes in economic freedom suggests prior research relating gains in economic freedom to a crisis occurring 5 or 10 years earlier is a relationship which is more complex, non-linear and specific to the selected data period or spurious. Furthermore, relative equity market returns are related to changes in economic freedom, suggesting that equity markets identify which countries have increased economic freedom, long before popular economic freedom indexes are published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The total number of widows in India exceeds 33 million. Yet, despite the large number of women affected, little is known about their living conditions. Widows are particularly vulnerable and deserve special attention within the study of public policy and economic development. This paper is based on an analytical research study conducted by interviewing 300 randomly selected rural widows of all age groups from rural parts of the Vidarbha region. An attempt is made to achieve better understanding of social and economic condition of widows, by focusing attention on widowhood as a social problem. This study explores the dominant ideological construction of widowhood in the context of patriarchy, religion, and customs. Nearly 69% widows were illiterate, 96% had economic problems, and 47% faced discrimination due to caste and religious obligations. Elderly widows constituted 49% of the sample, age had placed them in a difficult position to discrimination, dependence, oppression, and health problems. Among elderly widows there was a wide spread feeling of psychological neglect and isolation. The paper also discusses some key issues of social, economic policy, and action in support of widows' property rights, social security, employment, social identity, and participation in society. The study identifies factors that account for high levels of deprivation which includes limited freedom to remarry, insecure property rights, living arrangement of elderly, social stigma, restricted employment opportunities, and lack of social support. The study extensively deals with social work intervention aspects in helping the widows and discusses social, economic, and policy implications of the problems of widows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]