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This study explores and emphasises the utility of non-financial remittances to Africa's developmental aspirations and the importance of critical thinking in the management of diaspora matters by agencies of government saddled with the diaspora affairs of developing countries in Africa. Drawing on the literature review and using the Socratic approach, the reflective analysis of this study demonstrates that greater value could be extracted from Africans' diaspora remittances if more attention is focused on non-financial remittances and the remitters' wellbeing. Through the exploration of the philosophical bases of the remittance processes, the study draws out non-financial remittances of ideas, skill, knowledge, technology, and innovation as a preferred and more valuable form of remittances with real effects on Africa's economic growth and development. The study contributes by deepening our knowledge of non-financial remittances to the socio-economic development of less advanced countries, particularly in Africa. Key Words: Diaspora; remittances; development; philosophical paradigms; Nigeria; Africa, INTRODUCTION Background The main purpose of this study is to explore the attributes of non-financial remittances in the development framework of African countries as against the predominant exposition of financial [...]

This study examines the factors contributing to developing subsidiary knowledge in Malaysian foreign subsidiaries. Prior research on subsidiaries in multinational corporations has either concentrated on transferring knowledge from headquarters to subsidiaries or vice versa, ignoring the factors associated with subsidiary knowledge development through embedded relationship factors. Although embedded relations are essential for developing knowledge, the direction is most important for developing subsidiary knowledge. The significance of subsidiary knowledge development, subsidiary autonomy, and external and internal embeddedness has been poorly illuminated by prior research. This is because the perception of knowledge development is emphasized from the headquarters' perspective, while the subsidiary functions as a passive recipient. Using the resource-based and network theories, we argue that subsidiary development depends on the subsidiary's autonomy practice and the level of engagement or network relations between external and internal network partners. Our research shows that subsidiary autonomy and external embeddedness are the most significant predictors of subsidiary knowledge development. Internal embeddedness in subsidiary knowledge development is inconsistent with the theoretical assumptions for subsidiary autonomy and external embeddedness. In regression analysis, the survey results of 170 foreign-owned subsidiaries in Malaysia validate our hypotheses. According to the results of this study, subsidiary autonomy and external and internal embeddedness are the most significant predictors of subsidiary knowledge development. This study's findings have implications for subsidiary administrators in developing nations and multinational corporations. While subsidiaries are developing their knowledge, multinationals need to consider how much autonomy to offer them in this process. When subsidiaries are able to make independent decisions, embedded relationships will increase, and knowledge will be more likely to develop. This specific knowledge eventually contributes to the knowledge base of the MNE. JEL Classifications: F44, L10, L17 and L86 Keywords: Subsidiary Autonomy, external embeddedness, internal embeddedness, subsidiary knowledge development,, INTRODUCTION MNEs of subsidiaries are the centre of various international business (IB) challenges due to their complex global business climate (Meyer et al., 2020; Kostova et al., 2018; Birkinshaw, 2016; [...]

Remittances are significant as a large component of a region's foreign exchange and gross domestic product, especially in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Inoue (2018) found that remittances lower the level of poverty in receiving countries. The increase in remittances to developing countries (Mondal & Khanam 2018) necessitates investigation of motivations for flow of remittances. This research examines the relationship between altruism and remittance outflow as well as trust and remittances. This study used a quantitative cross-sectional research design with 214 countries representing Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, North America, the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The data for remittance outflow was obtained from the World Bank's 2013 and 2014 data archives, altruism data from the World Giving Index, total population from the World Bank 2014 archives, and data for trust from the Interpersonal Trust Index. The results showed that Sao Tome and Principe sent the least in remittances during the years 2013 and 2014, while migrants in the U.S. sent the most in remittances. Norway had the highest trust score, while New Zealand and Australia had the highest score for altruism. There was a moderate, positive linear relationship between trust and remittance outflow, and between altruism and remittance outflow. Two models were developed for this study. Model 1 consisted of 63 countries while Model 2 had 61 countries. Linear regressions were utilized to analyze the research models and test the study's hypotheses. The findings in Model 1 showed that altruism and trust explained motivations for remittance, while Model 2 showed that trust was the main motive. Altruism and trust are significant predictors for remittances. Between the two predictors, trust is most important to migrants. Policy implications of the study include focusing on formal channels of remitting such as banks and other official businesses that can transfer money. Furthermore, governments should concentrate on building trust in people by getting more citizens involved in policymaking whether they are local or live abroad. These efforts can significantly increase remittances, which in turn can improve a country's economy. JEL Classifications: E4, E5, G2 and O1 Keywords: Remittances, Migration, Altruism, Trust Contact Author's Email Address: ggreenidge@nwmissouri.edu, INTRODUCTION Remittances are defined as the transfer from earnings or wealth by migrants (citizens living abroad) to their home country for support, investments, and other purposes (Alleyne, Kirton & Figueroa [...]

Competing studies use food consumption to measure the impact of political regime on the welfare of the poor. Democracies may outperform autocracies by using growth to hide redistribution, improving caloric consumption and currying favor. Alternatively, autocracies may have greater incentives to lower food prices to quell urban unrest. We test these competing theories using a more detailed, continuous, nuanced measure of food consumption quality--cereal equivalent values. We find evidence to support the second hypothesis, that autocracies outperform democracies at low incomes. For higher incomes, democracies perform significantly better. Segregated by growth, autocracies again outperform democracies at low incomes. Comperative Economic Studies (2017) 59, 107-125. doi: 10.1057/s41294-0170022-8; published online 9 February 2017 Keywords: food consumption, food cost, political regime, cereal equivalents JEL: 0200, P51, Q18, INTRODUCTION Political regimes wield considerable influence over the welfare of the poor. Evaluating this influence requires us to consider both the differential political incentive structures across regimes and the actual [...]

Many developing countries undertaking a fiscal adjustment have followed the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) recommendation to create a large taxpayer unit (LTU) to ensure stable or enhanced revenue flows, but the problem is that researchers have not conducted a systematic evaluation (other than a survey) of this recommendation's revenue raising effects. It is important to understand the effects of this reform measure because limited country resources should be allocated carefully to policy reforms that have a reasonable chance of success. In order to address the issue, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of this fiscal reform using economic data. A unique panel data set has been assembled to evaluate performance of LTUs based on each country's tax share (tax revenue divided by GDP) over a seven-year period. Employing a straightforward empirical methodology of comparing changes in the average annual tax share before and after implementation, a surprising 43 percent of countries experienced a decline in the tax share after implementing an LTU. The implication for policy makers is that successful reform not only includes adopting the correct policy, but also taking adequate steps to ensure that the policy is well-implemented. JEL Classification: H39, O23, O57 Keywords: economic development; fiscal adjustment; tax administration reform; large taxpayers' unit, INTRODUCTION When a developing or emerging market country experiences a fiscal crisis, it must undergo an adjustment process that requires country officials to make difficult trade-offs. In most cases, these [...]

Voice of Experience advances the tradition and service of the Journal of Research Administration by fostering consideration of and reflection upon contemporary issues and concerns in research administration. VOE is [...]

This paper assesses the growth impact of telecommunications infrastructure investment in developing countries by subjecting country specific data on mainline tele-density and per capita growth to Granger causality test within a panel co-integration framework. The results suggest that growth effects vary widely across country groupings reflecting different levels of development. Mainline tele-density and per capita growth strongly reinforces each other for countries that are relatively less developed. In contrast, there is, at best, a weak evidence of a bi-directional causal link between the two variables for countries that are relatively more industrialized. These differences in mainline tele-density and per capita growth relationship suggest that investment in telecommunications infrastructure, with its potential to generate high growth return, may serve as the central engine for driving the development process forward in the less developed countries. Keywords: Developing Countries, Telecommunications Infrastructure, Spillover Network Effects, development gap, growth convergence, Per Capita Growth, Mainline Tele-density, Co integration, Causality, 1. INTRODUCTION Asymmetry in per capita income growth has always been a major concern in the growth theoretic literature. Consequently, a key question that often intrigued economists is whether there [...]

The rapid rise in schooling in developing countries in recent decades has been dramatic. However, many cross-country regression analyses of the impact of schooling on economic growth find low and insignificant coefficients. This empirical 'puzzle' contrasts with theoretical arguments that schooling, through raising human capital, should raise income levels. This paper argues that poor results are to be expected when regression samples include countries that vary greatly in their ability to use schooling productively. Data on corruption, the black market premium on foreign exchange and the extent of the brain drain for developing countries are used as indicators of an economy's productive use of schooling. Regression analysis shows that the impact of schooling on economic growth is substantially higher in countries that are adjudged to use schooling productively. JEL classification: 121; 015; 040 Keywords: Schooling; Human capital; Corruption; Brain drain; Economic growth

A study was conducted to evaluate whether foreign investment responds to changes in levels of economic freedom. It also tests whether the insignificant coefficient found in other studies is caused by the level of aggregation in the economic freedom data. Findings show that foreign direct investment varies positively with increases in certain elements of economic freedom.

The Commission on Health Research for Development based at Harvard University demonstrated in a landmark 1990 study that less than 10 percent of the world's resources for health research were [...]

Patterns of causation between income, export, import and investment growth for 39 developing countries are examined using model selection techniques which are based on ex ante predictive ability criteria to identify the best predictive model for each country. In particular, we look at the incidence of causation and reverse causation between various economic variables which are commonly believed to lead economic growth and find that there is less reverse causation from income to these variables than previously thought. We also construct an index of global business cycle conditions and find that models of countries with high trade exposure, growth rates and investment rates tend to gain in predictive ability from the addition of this variable. JEL classification: F43; 047 Keywords: Reverse causation; Exports; Global business conditions; Growth; Investment

The World Bank has been conducting household surveys in several developing countries. In several countries, follow-up surveys have been conducted in which the same dwellings that were visited in an earlier survey are visited again, and if the same people live there and agree to be interviewed, they yield longitudinal information. The surveys lose over time some of their samples (survey attrition). I test whether the same regressions apply to people who are interviewed repeatedly as to those who are interviewed once. I assess the effect of survey attrition in the Living Standards Measurement Surveys of Peru (1991-1994 and 1985/1986-1990), Cote d'Ivoire (1985-1988) and Vietnam (1992/1993-1997/1998). The preponderance of the evidence indicates that survey attrition does not have a major impact on the estimates of equations of schooling attainment, labor force participation, self-employment, wages and fertility. JEL classification: C81; C23; I21; J21; J23; J31; J13; O15 Keywords: Survey attrition; Longitudinal surveys; Peru; Cote d'Ivoire; Vietnam

Globalization is bringing a worldwide knowledge-based economomy into being, and consequently, governments are encouraging innovation in industry through national systems of innovation. One such NSI effort involves the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) cluster of Malaysia, and this paper discusses linkages for enabling communication among NSI stakeholders in that country.

This paper shows different implications brought about by immigration between developed and developing countries, as to output contraction, income distribution, immigrant skills, and wages of native workers.

Research into the energy policy of developing countries is given. Analysis of existing energy policy models is outlined and discussed.

Research into the effects of direct foreign investments on developing countries are given. The research shows a decline in energy intensity due to the leapfrogging of old fashioned technologies to newer technologies.

In this paper, we use weekly stock market data for a group of Latin American countries to analyze the behavior of volatility through time. We are particularly interested in understanding whether periods of high volatility are correlated across countries. The analysis uses both on univariate and bivariate switching volatility models. Our results do not rely on the correlation coefficients, but on the co-dependence of volatility regimes. The results indicate that high-volatility episodes are, in general, short-lived, lasting from 2 to 12 weeks. We find strong evidence of volatility co-movements across countries, especially among the Mercosur countries. JEL classification: F3; G12; G15 Keywords: Stock returns; Interdependence; Volatility; Contagion; Emerging markets

We provide an analysis of real economic growth prospects in emerging markets after financial liberalizations. We identify the financial liberalization dates and examine the influence of liberalizations while controlling for a number of other macroeconomic and financial variables. Our work also introduces an econometric methodology that allows us to use extensive time-series as well as cross-sectional information for our tests. We find across a number of different specifications that financial liberalizations are associated with significant increases in real economic growth. The effect is larger for countries with high education levels. JEL classification: F3; G0; O1