scholarly journals Access to Government Information and Corruption: An Empirical Investigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2B) ◽  
Author(s):  
AbdelRahman AbdelRahman
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Principal Finding ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Cross Country

  This study taps into a newly constructed index of actual access to government information with a view to finding out whether such access reduces corruption. It draws on a few cases at the micro level and on cross-country data at the macro level to investigate this research question. The study is designed to detect for methodological problems commonly encountered in regression models used to empirically investigate the causes of corruption. The principal finding of the study is that access to government information reduces corruption at both the micro and macro levels. Another key finding is that a supporting institutional and political environment is necessary for the effectiveness of access to government information as an anti-corruption policy tool. A third finding is that access to government information through the traditional is an effective policy tool for curbing corruption, particularly in contexts characterized by limited computer and Internet penetration in society. This study underscores the importance of using traditional media as civic engagement tools in anti-corruption policy initiatives. The policy implication here is that access to government information through the traditional media may have to be an important component of anti-corruption policy initiatives.

scholarly journals To Trade or Not To Trade? Criteria for Applying Cap and Trade

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 953-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Benkovic ◽  
Joseph Kruger
Keyword(s):  
Emissions Trading ◽  
Environmental Problem ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Cap And Trade ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Foreign Governments ◽  
Trading Program ◽  
The U.S

The use of emissions trading (cap and trade) is gaining worldwide recognition as an extremely effective policy tool. The U.S. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Emissions Trading Program has achieved an unprecedented level of environmental protection in a cost-effective manner. The successful results of the program have led domestic and foreign governments to consider the application of cap and trade to address other air quality issues. Certain analyses are particularly important in determining whether or not cap and trade is an appropriate policy tool. This paper offers a set of questions that can be used as criteria for determining whether or not cap and trade is the preferred policy approach to an environmental problem.

Institutions and development: the primacy of microanalysis

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
MWANGI S. KIMENYI
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Policy Relevance ◽  
Microeconomic Analysis ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Economic Development Theory ◽  
The Empirical Analysis

Abstract:In recent years, there have been major advances in the empirical analysis of the link between institutions and development. However, a number of methodological problems – both theoretical and empirical – remain unresolved and have been well articulated by Ha-Joon Chang in his article ‘Institutions and Economic Development: Theory, Policy and History’. These problems raise valid concerns about the policy relevance of the evidence arising from the studies. A more reliable approach to study the link between institutions and development and overcome the inherent problems of cross-country empirical analysis is to direct focus to microeconomic analysis of institutions. Such an approach avoids ideologically driven normative judgments about the superiority of particular institutional arrangements and also offers a more credible and tractable avenue to investigate institutional change.

scholarly journals From Third World Theory to Belt and Road Initiative: International Aid as a Chinese Foreign Policy Tool

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Carneiro Corrêa Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Research Question ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
The Third World

Abstract In 1946, Mao Zedong began to elaborate his theory of the Third World from the perception that there would be an ‘intermediate zone’ of countries between the two superpowers. From there, he concluded that Africa, Latin America, and Asia, except for Japan, would compose the revolutionary forces capable of defeating imperialism, colonialism, and hegemonism. The start of international aid from the People’s Republic of China to developing countries dates back to the period immediately after the Bandung Conference of 1955, extending to the present. Through a bibliographical and documentary analysis, the article starts with the following research question: What role did domestic and international factors play in China’s foreign aid drivers over the years? To answer the question, the evolution of Chinese international assistance was studied from Mao to the Belt and Road Initiative, which is the complete expression of the country’s ‘quaternity’ model of co-operation, combining aid, trade, investment, and technical assistance.

scholarly journals Consolidated Climate Markets Mechanism Analysis—Case Studies of China, Japan, and Taiwan

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6478
Author(s):  
Jules Chuang ◽  
Hsing-Lung Lien ◽  
Akemi Kokubo Roche ◽  
Pei-Hsuan Liao ◽  
Walter Den
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Financial Burden ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Mechanism Analysis ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Ghg Reduction ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Trading Mechanisms ◽  
Primary Instrument

The post-Kyoto Protocol era has seen a transition to focus on the development of a renewable energy (RE) market as a primary instrument to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. This paper analyses the development of GHG reduction and RE market in China, Japan, and Taiwan that are geographically proximate but socioeconomically diverse, and each plays a different but significant role in the world’s economy. By deploying a consolidated model incorporating the key components of market drivers underlying the goal of achieving GHG reduction, we threaded through the policy- and market-instruments implemented for each of the case studies over the past 20 years using the model. One commonality is that subsidiary schemes in the form of feed-in tariffs have served as an effective policy tool to boost the growth of renewable energy installations, though the worsening financial burden renders this path unsustainable. Over-reliance on feed-in-tariff schemes may have also impeded the liberation of an energy market pivotal to the success of elevating RE portfolio through trading mechanisms. What followed were the implementations of renewable energy certificate (REC) systems that have experienced various roadblocks leading to failures of the certificate market. By understanding the paths engaged in each of the cases, a conceptualized strategy depicted by the consolidated model is proposed to show the links between a renewable market and a carbon market. The framework would expedite the trading of RECs and carbon credits to accelerate the attainment of GHG emission reduction goals.

Religion and Institutional Quality: Long-Term Effects of the Financial Systems in Protestantism and Islam

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-454
Author(s):  
Rasmus Broms ◽  
Bo Rothstein
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Institutional Quality ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Virtuous Cycle ◽  
Parish System

Religion is one of the most commonly cited explanations for cross-country variation in institutional quality. In particular, Protestantism, and the cultural values that follow from its doctrine, has been identified as particularly beneficial. Nevertheless, micro-level studies provide little evidence for religion producing norms and values conducive to good institutions. We propose an alternate explanation for the observed macro-level variation: historical systems for local religious financing, contrasting the medieval parish system in Northwestern Europe, where members collectively paid for and administrated religious services as public goods, with the Ottoman Empire, where such goods were normally provided through endowments from private individuals and tax collection was comparatively privatized. We argue that a legacy of collective financing and accountability in the former region created a virtuous cycle of high state capacity and low corruption, reverberating to this day as good institutions.

Effects of Labour Regulation on Manufacturing Firms in India: A Leximetric Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abishek S. Choutagunta
Keyword(s):  
Case Law ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Quarterly Journal ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Industrial Disputes ◽  
Labour Regulation ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Abstract Inefficiencies and rigidities in the supply of inputs caused by strict laws and regulation could lead to distortions in the production structures of firms. These distortions, when magnified, can have adverse effects on the economic performance of a country. The study by Botero et al. (Botero, Juan C., Simeon Djankov, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez de-Silanes, and Andrei Shleifer. 2004. “The Regulation of Labor.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 119: 1339–1382.) among others, has observed that richer counties with social welfare supports tend to regulate labour less than relatively poorer countries; but, these studies concentrate mainly on country-wide or cross-country data leaving out variations exclusively found in micro-level data. This study fills a gap in the literature by conducting a comprehensive study of the effects of labour laws on output and productivity of manufacturing firms in Indian states. Unlike previous studies which measure the strength of labour regulation by interpreting labour laws, this study measures the same by mining information from case-law citations of labour laws and builds an index of labour litigiousness which proxies for the strength of labour regulation. Results show that labour litigation and industrial disputes have significant negative influences on both output and productivity of manufacturing firms.

TRADE OPENNESS AND THE PHILLIPS CURVE: EVIDENCE FROM ASEAN COUNTRIES

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
FUMITAKA FURUOKA ◽  
PUI KIEW LING ◽  
MA TIN CHOMAR ◽  
LARISA NIKITINA
Keyword(s):  
Phillips Curve ◽  
Trade Openness ◽  
Empirical Finding ◽  
New Keynesian ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
High Inflation ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Asean Countries ◽  
Central Bankers

A flattening of the Phillips curve in recent decades has attracted a considerable interest of researchers and central bankers. As trade openness might be among the main causes of this phenomenon, this study puts forward a testable ‘openness–Phillips curve’ hypothesis. Two methods — a static and a dynamic approaches — were employed to test the hypothesis by estimating slope coefficients of the new Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) and hybrid NKPC in ten ASEAN countries. A notable empirical finding is that in the periods of a higher trade openness, the Phillips curve tended to be flatter in the close economies and steeper in the open economies. These findings have some economic and political implications. The main one is that central banks in the ASEAN countries where the flattening of the Phillips curve takes place would not be able to employ the Phillips curve as an effective policy tool. Besides, countries with high inflation and unemployment rates could face some political uncertainty.

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