Indigenous Resource Management Plans: Transporting Non-Indigenous People into the Indigenous World

The paper explores the degree to which Indigenous groups perceive that resource management plans they develop are able to help deliver outcomes they seek through formal planning systems. It does this by a case study of practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Some Indigenous groups are concerned they are being encouraged to devote considerable effort to production of major planning documents for use in interaction with environmental agencies, yet in practice, such plans can appear to have a limited role in bringing about desired change or affecting wider planning processes. The research contributes a New Zealand dimension to this international debate.     

The Comparative Inclusive Human Development of Globalisation in Africa

This study examines the impact of globalisation on inclusive human development in 51 African countries for the period 1996–2011 with particular emphasis on income levels (low income vs. middle income), legal origins (English common law vs. French civil law), resource wealth (oil-rich vs. oil-poor), landlockedness (landlocked vs. unlandlocked), religious domination (Christianity vs. Islam) and political stability (stable vs. unstable). The empirical evidence is based on instrumental variable panel Fixed effects and Tobit regressions in order to control for the unobserved heterogeneity and limited range in the dependent variable. Political, economic, social and general globalisation variables are used. Six main hypotheses are investigated. The findings broadly show that middle income, English common law, oil-poor, unlandlocked, Christian-oriented and politically-stable countries are associated with comparatively higher levels of globalisation-driven inclusive human development. Puzzling findings are elucidated and policy implications discussed.     

Fathering With Multiple Partners: Links to Children's Well‐Being in Early Childhood

The claim that multiple partner fertility may pose a risk of adverse outcomes for children has not been tested. We test this argument using a sample of 4,027 resident fathers and children from the Fragile Families and Child Well‐being Survey by examining the pathways through which fathers' multipartnered fertility is associated with children's externalizing behaviors and physical health status at 36 months. Path analyses indicate that multiple partner fertility exerted both a significant direct and indirect effect through paternal depression to influence children's externalizing behaviors. Fathers' multiple partner fertility also exerted a significant indirect effect through one mediator—father involvement—to influence children's physical health. This evidence suggests that the disruptions brought about by multipartnered fertility are important for understanding child well‐being.     

The Prospects for Foreign Debt Sustainability in Post‐Completion‐Point Countries: Implications of the HIPC‐MDRI Framework

The Enhanced HIPC Initiative was launched in 1999 to reduce the Net Present Value (NPV) of foreign debt of the world's poorest countries to a sustainable threshold of 150% of their exports. This article applies a simple growth‐with‐debt model to 16 post‐completion‐point HIPCs to assess whether this goal will be met by 2015. Its somewhat optimistic base‐case projections suggest that participation in the current Enhanced HIPC‐MDRI initiative will only reduce the NPV of their total external debt to 176% of exports by this date. Sensitivity tests which expose these countries to adverse exogenous shocks help draw attention to policies that could ensure that they do not again accumulate unsustainable debt levels.     

The disability self‐direction movement: Considering the benefits and challenges for an Australian response

The following article provides a snapshot of the current self‐direction movement within the disability sector across the industrialised world, with particular emphasis on the Australian context. As a global movement, self‐direction has been in progress for several decades through a variety of implemented responses. Despite implementation variation, all self‐direction models aim to facilitate individual control and decision making in care and support services. We describe self‐direction, its various models and programs, and explore its benefits and challenges. We conclude by making broad recommendations for decision makers involved in self‐direction. In particular, we offer a hierarchical decision tree that can be used to inform policy decisions at a systems – government policy – and organisational level.     

Single Custodial Fathers' Involvement and Parenting: Implications for Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood

Using a sample of 3,977 youths from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), this study examines the unique characteristics of single‐custodial‐father families with adolescents and the effects of single fathers' involvement and parenting on outcomes in emerging adulthood. Findings suggest that single‐custodial‐father families are distinct from single‐mother and 2‐biological‐parent families in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, parenting styles, and involvement. Parenting styles and involvement mediate the differences between single‐father families and 2‐parent families in terms of high school completion and disconnectedness and partially mediate differences for single‐custodial‐father families with a partner. Family and sociodemographic characteristics are also associated with being disconnected for adolescents residing with a cohabiting custodial father.     

Income management in Australia: A critical examination of the evidence

The introduction of income management – sometimes called welfare quarantining – for subgroups of Australian income security recipients within the Northern Territory, and subsequently a number of other trial sites, has provoked considerable contention. The present study critically examined the arguments and evidence presented in favour of income management with particular reference to the guidelines, methodology and findings of official evaluations conducted by the Commonwealth Government. We identified five key issues that do not seem to be adequately addressed by official evaluations: choice and control, the quality of decision making, consultation with local community members, structural disadvantage and economic cost. We used these concepts to develop a proposed alternative model for assessing the impact of income management on local communities.     

Energy crop production in an urban area: a comparison of habitat types and land use forms targeting economic benefits and impact on species diversity

In urban areas, the potential of biomass production is rarely utilized, although many biomass sources are located in cities, ranging from road margins to public parks. There is, however, increasing interest in these potential biomass sources, as they are close to consumers and provide options to reduce maintenance costs of urban green areas. We analyzed the costs and benefits of utilizing biomass, and compared it to the biodiversity maintained on 17 urban land use forms the Ruhr Metropolitan Area (Germany). Economic costs and benefits were reflected by contribution margins, while biodiversity was measured by species numbers of plants, birds and butterflies. For the 17 land use types, there is a weak overall correlation between contribution margins and species numbers. However, this is mainly due to the two land use forms with the highest contribution margins (cultivation of energy maize and fertilized grassland), which are characterized by the lowest species numbers. For the remaining cases, there is no relationship between contribution margins and species numbers. Comparatively high contribution margins and high mean species numbers were observed for road margins, industrial fallows with wood cutting for biogas production and water-influenced grassland mown traditionally. We conclude that biomass production and the maintenance of urban biodiversity is not necessarily a contradiction.     

Tenure and Spending Within UK Households at the End of the Recent Recession

Housing costs form a substantial share of aggregate demand in the UK. This study examines the distribution of total expenditure-to-income by homeownership status at the end of the recent recession in 2010. Multivariate quantile regressions uncover four important points. First, owner-occupiers in England have considerably higher mean spending ratios than their peers in other parts of the UK; an indication of their wealthier status. Second, the average spending ratio for residential-occupiers in all UK regions, with the exception of Northern Ireland, is significantly higher than the mean ratio for tenants in both private and public properties. In this last region, the spending rate for private tenants is more prominent. Third, the disparity in the expenditure ratio between owner-occupiers and tenants is significantly more pronounced in England. Fourth, renters in public housing in Scotland and Wales have much higher spending ratios than their counterparts in private properties, reflecting a greater overall social security provided by the devolved government there. Policy implications allied with heterogeneity in the consumption effect of housing wealth across the different homeownership cohorts is discussed.