-
作者：Dong, Xiao-yuan; Zhang, Liqin
作者单位：University of Winnipeg; China Agricultural University
摘要：We use firm-level data to analyze male-female wage differences in Chinese industry in the late 1990s. Our estimates indicate that employers' discrimination against women was not a significant source of the gender wage gap in Chinese state-owned enterprises. Instead, we find that the relative wage of unskilled female to male workers was higher than their relative productivity. This result indicates that unskilled female workers in the state sector had historically received wage premiums and con...
-
作者：Aubert, Cecile; de Janvy, Alain; Sadoulet, Elisabeth
作者单位：Universite de Bordeaux; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
摘要：Credit agents in microfinance institutions (MFIs) must be given incentives to acquire information on potential borrowers and select them in accordance with the MFI's objectives. We show that while giving incentives has no cost in for-profit MFIs, it is costly in pro-poor MFIs: When repayment and wealth are positively correlated, a pro-poor MFI cannot obtain the selection of poor clients in the proportion it wishes with incentives based solely on repayment. It then becomes necessary to audit th...
-
作者：Hu, Albert Guangzhou; Jefferson, Gary H.
作者单位：National University of Singapore; Brandeis University
摘要：China's patent surge, documented in this paper, is seemingly paradoxical given the country's weak record of protecting intellectual property rights. Using a firm-level data set that spans the population of China's large and medium-size industrial enterprises, this paper explores the factors that account for China's rising patent activity. While the intensification of research and development in the Chinese economy tracks with patenting activity, it explains only a fraction of the patent explos...
-
作者：Nicita, Alessandro
作者单位：The World Bank
摘要：Trade policy literature has for many years emphasized open policies positive impact on economic growth and development. While these results generally hold when measured on averages, empirical evidence Suggests that trade liberalization is unlikely to produce beneficial results across all households. This study adds to the literature by providing an analysis of the distributive effects of tariff liberalization in Mexico. The paper examines the effect of tariff liberalization from the perspectiv...
-
作者：Billger, Sherrilyn M.; Goel, Rajeev K.
作者单位：Illinois State University
摘要：We examine the determinants of corruption using recent cross-sectional data for nearly one hundred countries. While the causes of corruption have drawn economists' interest in recent years, our main contribution is to examine the corruption determinants throughout the conditional distribution of corruption across nations. Are there different causes of corruption in highly corrupt nations compared to the least corrupt countries? For instance, we examine whether greater democracy and more econom...
-
作者：Gine, Xavier; Yang, Dean
作者单位：University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：Does production risk suppress the demand for credit? We implemented a randomized field experiment to ask whether provision of insurance against a major source of production risk induces farmers to take out loans to adopt a new crop technology. The study sample was composed of roughly 800 maize and groundnut farmers in Malawi, where by far the dominant source of production risk is the level of rainfall. We randomly selected half of the farmers to be offered credit to purchase high-yielding hybr...
-
作者：Sparber, Chad
作者单位：Colgate University
摘要：Empirical evidence illustrates that diversity generates both economic costs and benefits. This paper develops a theoretical model that accounts for the positive and deleterious effects of heterogeneity. First, an expanded Solow Growth Model demonstrates that the direct effects of diversity can be positive or negative, and depend upon the size of fixed parameter Values. Second, diversity also influences individuals' location decisions. Segregation (variation of diversity across regions) always ...
-
作者：Bjornskov, Christian
作者单位：Aarhus University
摘要：This note suggests that the association between income inequality and economic growth rates might arguably depend on the political ideology of incumbent governments. Estimates indicate that Under leftwing governments, inequality is negatively associated with growth while the association is positive under rightwing governments. This may provide a qualification to recent studies of inequality. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.
-
作者：Zenou, Yves
作者单位：Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
摘要：A labor market model is developed in which the formal sector is characterized by search frictions whereas the informal sector is competitive. We show that there exists a unique steady-state equilibrium in this dual economy. We then consider different policies financed by a tax on firms' profits. We find that reducing the unemployment benefit or the firms' entry cost in the formal sector induces higher job creation and formal employment, reduces the size of the informal sector but has an ambigu...
-
作者：Liu, Zhiqiang
作者单位：State University of New York (SUNY) System; University at Buffalo, SUNY
摘要：Within the endogenous growth framework, we offer an explanation on how foreign direct investment (FDI) generates externalities in the form of technology transfer. We distinguish between the level and rate effects of spillovers on the productivity of domestic firms. A new insight gained trom the theory is that the level and rate effects of spillovers can go in opposite directions. The negative level effect underscores the fact that technology transfer is a costly process-scarce resources must b...
