CORRUPTION AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: PROBLEMATIQUE, NEXUS, CONSEQUENCES AND WAY FORWARD

The phenomenon of corruption has no doubt become monstrous and pervasive in the Nigerian state, such that it has threatened the very foundation for her rapid development in socio-economic and political trajectory. Given its innumerable manifestations, corruption has permeated all spheres of life and institutions of governance. More worrisome is the fact that successive governments continue to battle with this endemic scourge, all to no avail as it keeps increasing by leaps and bounds. This paper, therefore, argues that corruption is responsible for the state of underdevelopment in Nigeria and Africa by extension because there exists, a clear nexus between corruption and underdevelopment. The paper further imports the basic tenets of prebendalism as a theoretical construct to understanding corruption and the reasons why it is prevalent. Complementing this theoretical analysis is the utilization of the documentary and desktop analytical approach and/or information cum personal experiences in the articulation of the causes and effects of corruption on the society. The paper therefore concludes that though corruption is pervasive and global, it is antithetical to development in all facets. Hence, it requires a holistic and an unsentimental approach to conquer it, the paper recommends institutionalization of legal frameworks, stringent punishment like capital punishment as well as improvement in salary and wage structures of bureaucratic officials as probable and workable solutions to minimize corruption to its barest minimum. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0770/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Social Models for Dealing with Inequalities

This chapter compares social models in Europe and Latin America. The goal is to study the interaction between two institutions: on the one hand, pre-distributive (ex ante) institutions, such as the structure and coverage of collective bargaining and, on the other hand, post-distributive (ex post) institutions, such as unemployment protection and social policy. Pre-distributive institutions are important for correcting inequalities in the labour market, because they introduce guidelines for egalitarian wage structures. Post-distributive institutions help to mitigate inequalities generated in the labour market.The methodology is based on statistical analysis of a series of indicators related to pre and post-distributive policies. The results present three types of model: (1) coordinated economies, typical of neo-corporatist Scandinavian countries; (2) mixed economies, typical of Mediterranean systems, and (3) uncoordinated economies, which equate to liberalism and the Latin American ‘structural heterogeneity’ model. It is neo-corporatist coordinated economies that generate the most pre and post-distributive equality. In turn, uncoordinated economies, and Latin American ones in particular, generate more inequalities due to highly informal employment and the weakness of their post-distributive institutions.

Workforce Composition and the Risk of Labor Market Exit Among Older Workers in Finnish Companies

This article investigates how a firm’s workforce characteristics affect an individual’s timing of exit from the labor market. It analyzes the relations between the age, skill, and wage structures of companies and the risk of labor market exit of Finnish older workers by using the detailed longitudinal register-based Finnish Linked Employer–Employee Data. The study follows the Finnish working population born between 1942 and 1950 (N = 216,713). Multilevel discrete-time survival analysis with individuals nested in firms is applied to estimate the risk of permanent exit from work between the ages of 53 and 68. The results show that these risks differ between firms: greater diversity in age and education levels among the workforce as well as seniority-based wage systems within a firm decrease the propensity of early exit, while being employed at a firm with an older staff increases the risk of exit. The findings from interactions between individual- and firm-level characteristics further illustrate that one’s individual characteristics matter in relation to the characteristics of the overall firm’s workforce. Being dissimilar from one’s coworkers, especially in terms of skills and education, can reduce the risk of early exit.

Firms are key to advancing equality and productivity

Subject Firm-level inequality. Significance Income inequality has risen since the 1980s across the developed world, suggesting that general factors are affecting modern economic life more than local factors. Since the 1990s, growth in wages and productivity has decelerated. Two strands of research use thousands of individual company records based on millions of employees to illustrate that firm-level wage structures and productivity growth are diverging, intensifying the changes in equality, income and productivity. Impacts Employee sorting into high- and low-wage firms has broader welfare implications for those trapped near the bottom of income distribution. Reduced business dynamism suggests a role for anti-monopoly policies, even if it means an apparent attack on productive firms. Declining dynamism, rising productivity divergence and a greater range of business models may continue to dampen wages and productivity.

THE BUSINESS CYCLE WITH NOMINAL CONTRACTS AND SEARCH FRICTIONS

Macroeconomic models of the economy with rigid wage structures tend to predict unrealistically volatile labor hours and countercyclical productivity. This study extends the Cho–Cooley model by incorporating labor market frictions and efficient bargaining as an alternative contracting scheme in which contracts are forward-looking and specify labor hours and wage rates. By accounting for search frictions and realistic contractual schemes, the extended model overcomes two counterfactual predictions: (1) excess volatility of employment and output and (2) countercyclical productivity. However, the extended model fails to produce the Beveridge curve.

The Transformation of Capitalism and the Limits of Democracy

Capitalism has undergone a number of important transformations and challenges. Within the West, capitalism responded to these problems with Keynesian solutions, creating an expanded social contract and growing middle class. But alongside its triumphalism with the fall of the Soviet Union, capitalism was reaching its own limits of expansion within the Keynesian model. Without an external threat, capitalism was free to focus on the wage structures and social benefits that restricted corporate profitability. The middle class had reached their limits and the working class had overreached theirs. Neoliberalism, led by financialisation, transformed capitalism into an updated model of its pre-Keynesian existence. Capitalism was rapidly transforming from a nation-centric system into a global structure of accumulation and power. Austerity in the developed North and structural adjustment programmes in the developing South resulted from a break with industrial-era national capitalism.