A panel data analysis of the impact of trade on human development

Arguments for a positive link between trade and per-capita income are often met with the counterargument that “there is more to life than income”—the implication being that trade improves income, but degrades “quality of life.” In this paper, we attempt to address this counterargument by examining the impact of trade on countries’ social developments as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI)—a composite measure of education, literacy, and income published by the United Nations Development Programme. Utilizing a generalized method of moments (GMM) procedure in a panel data framework, we find that increases in trade are positively associated with future increases in social welfare.     

Spatial microsimulation for rural policy analysis in Ireland: The implications of CAP reforms for the national spatial strategy

Microsimulation attempts to describe economic and social events by modelling the behaviour of individual agents. These models have proved useful in evaluating the impact of policy changes at the micro level. Spatial microsimulation models contain geographic information and allow for a regional or local approach to policy analysis. This paper builds on previous work on urban systems by employing similar modelling techniques for the analysis of rural areas [Birkin, M., Clarke, M., 1988. SYNTHESIS—a synthetic spatial information system for urban and regional analysis: methods and examples. Environment and Planning A 20, 1645–1671; Ballas, D. et al., 1999. Exploring microsimulation methodologies for the estimation of household attributes. The Fourth International Conference on GeoComputation, 25–28 July 1999, Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA (paper presentation); Ballas, D, Clarke, G. P., 2000. GIS and microsimulation for local labour market policy analysis. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 24, 305–330; Ballas, D., Clarke, G. P., 2001a. Modelling the local impacts of national social policies: a spatial microsimulation approach. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 19, 587–606; Ballas, D., Clarke, G. P., 2001b. Towards local implications of major job transformations in the city: a spatial microsimulation approach. Geographical Analysis 33, 291–311]. It describes the development of the simulation model for the Irish local economy (SMILE) model. SMILE is a static and dynamic spatial microsimulation designed to analyse the impact of policy change and economic development on rural areas in Ireland. This paper focuses on the static model. First, we describe the European and Irish policy environment and indicate the importance of building spatial models to analyse change in rural Ireland. Second, we review existing literature on regional and local modelling techniques and the use of spatial models as tools for policy analysis. Third, we describe the SMILE static model. The model generates synthetic spatially referenced population for the Irish Republic at the small area level—the population micro data is produced for district electoral divisions (DEDs). Finally, we show how data from other sources can be linked to the static model output. We link data from the Irish National Farm Survey on farm system, income and off-farm employment of operator to the SMILE static model. We use this example to show its potential as a tool for policy analysis.     

Aid and its impact on domestic change: The case of police reforms in Macedonia

This article examines the role that aid from the European Union (EU) has played in leading to change in non‐EU Member States. It particularly explores whether the EU's financial assistance has led to change in Macedonia. The question of police reforms in Macedonia, and of the EU's impact on these, are complex because of the sensitivity of such reforms in terms of the functioning of the country's multi‐ethnic democracy. Using the institutionalism approach, the article argues that the police reforms have indeed been heavily dependent on EU funding and traces the EU's role in the implementation of police reforms in Macedonia.     

Analyzing the impact of indirect tax reforms on rank-dependent social welfare functions: a positional dominance approach

A new approach is developed to identify marginal tax reforms for pairs of commodities and to test for the robustness of their impacts on Yaari’s dual social welfare functions. The rank-dependent social evaluation approach gives rise to a new device, the s-concentration curve, which is a generalization of the standard concentration curve. The s-concentration curves are provided for every order of positional dominance and an illustration is performed using Canadian data. We thank Jean-Yves Duclos, Peter Lambert, and an anonymous referee for insightful comments and suggestions. This paper was funded through the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of the Government of Canada and the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture of the Government of Quebec.     

The impact of a national strategy to increase physical activity among older adults on national organizations

This study was designed to evaluate the impact of the National Blueprint (NB) on the policies, programs, and organizational culture of selected national organizations. The theoretical model selected to assess the impact of the NB on organizational behavior was Burke's system theory of organizational change. Three organizations, AARP, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the Administration on Aging (AoA), were selected for the study. Two individuals in each of these organizations were selected for interview. Semistructured interviews and document reviews were used in the data-collection process. Findings showed that the publication and establishment of the NB resulted in changes in the operating procedures of AARP, ACSM, and AoA. The results were broadly consistent with Burke's system theory of organizational change. The publication of the NB was shown to affect the behavior of organizational leaders, organizational culture, policies, programs, and individual and organizational performance. The new information generated has increased our understanding of the impact of health campaigns on organizational behavior.     

The impact of emigration on national development in the Arab region: the case of the Yemen Arab Republic

"The focus of this article is the impact of emigration on national development in labor sending countries experiencing wide-scale emigration, the main contention being that, due to the characteristics of contemporary labor movements among Arab countries, there obtains a contradiction between short term benefits and long term adverse effects. The article briefly defines development, then presents empirical evidence from the Yemen Arab Republic of the negative impact of labor emigration."     

国际贸易中间商、贸易交易方式与贸易监管制度改革

国际贸易中间商不仅为国际贸易学者所关注,而且也是一个主要的实践问题。从国际贸易中间商产生的角度出发,分析跨国公司与国际贸易中间商之间的关系,国际贸易中间商形成的贸易交易方式以及这种贸易交易方式下的贸易制度需求都是值得关注和研究的问题。     

The impact of neoliberal school choice reforms on students with disabilities: perspectives from New York City

This disability studies in education informed study unpacks effects of neoliberal reforms on students with disabilities in New York City schools. These reforms proliferated small themed schools, dismantled many large schools, and required students to apply to high school. This multi-site case study researched two high schools, one large and one small, with data from interviews and document review. Findings reveal how reforms forced large schools to accept many marginalized students with disabilities, while small schools employed tactics to avoid accepting many students with disabilities seen as having intensive needs. Finally, contextual analysis reveals how larger city politics perpetuated segregative ideologies.     

A limit theorem on the dual core of a distributive social system

I consider abstract social systems where the distribution of wealth is an object of common concern. I study, in particular, the systems where liberal distributive social contracts consist of the Pareto-efficient distributions that are unanimously preferred to the initial distribution. I define a Dual Distributive Core from a process of decentralized auction on the budget shares of Lindahl associated with net transfers, operated by coalitions aiming at increasing the value of the public good for their members while maintaining their utility levels. I establish that the dual distributive core converges, as the number of distributive agents becomes large relative to the number of agent types, to a typically finite number of distributive liberal social contracts, which correspond to the Lindahl equilibria that are unanimously preferred to the initial distribution. This process of decentralized auction provides a theoretical foundation for contractual policies of redistribution. The comparison with the usual notion of core with public goods (Foley 1970) yields the following results in this context: the Foley-core is a subset, generally proper, of the set of liberal distributive social contracts; it does not contain, in general, distributive Lindahl equilibria.     

The representation of North Korean national image in national newspapers in the United States

This study examines how two major U.S. newspapers (The New York Times and The Washington Post) represented North Korea's national image during the two-year period (from 2001 to 2002). According to the findings, The New York Times and Washington Post showed a similar trend in their portrayal of North Korea. An anti-North Korea frame dominated the news coverage of North Korea in both newspapers. Furthermore, this study reveals that most news articles related to North Korea were classified into negative images instead of positive images.     

贸易方式、贸易功能与上海国际贸易中心的基本形态

从上海目前存在的国际贸易方式入手,分析不同贸易方式下的贸易功能,以及这种贸易功能与国际贸易中心建设之间的关系,同时进一步分析上海要求和能够建设什么样的具有贸易利益和城市功能转型的国际贸易中心,建设国际贸易中心需要什么样的贸易体制环境。     

The role of Jews in the transatlantic slave trade

The recent controversy instigated by Leonard Jeffries has prompted discussion of the relationship between the development of the transatlantic slave trade and European Jewish communities. Closer attention to the role played by Jews in the development of the trade, and its associated enterprises, suggests that little direct involvement can be identified. In the Dutch slave trade Jews can be said to have had tangible significance, but even here their involvement was relatively marginal. Through detailed analysis of the historiography of slavery, the ‘conspiracy theory’ approach to the issue is substantially challenged and disproved.     

New trade formations: precarity,pragmatic cosmopolitanism and long‐distance trade in the Caucasus

For many ordinary people responding to ongoing post‐Soviet precarity, domestic and transnational trade has become a common choice of livelihood. This article is about the small and medium sized traders who deal in cheap Chinese commodities in the Caucasus –particularly in Georgia and Armenia. It introduces the notion of ‘trade formations’ to account for the multiple ways in which cross‐cultural trade and microfinance practices, as well as stereotypes about national and regional groups and trading minorities, highlight the role of trust, reputation and everyday diplomacy in long‐distance commercial networks. While current trade networks are rooted in the cultures of trade practised under the Soviets, dispositions of pragmatic cosmopolitanism and defensive nationalism often determine who may or may not respond to post‐Soviet precarity by turning to transnational trade, embracing political and religious diversity, and overlooking hostilities, past and present.