{"title":"The changing wheels hypothesis. Corruption and development: Evidence from China","authors":"Beatriz Simon-Yarza","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100094","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100094","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>China's recent economic growth, along with rising corruption, challenges the widespread sanding wheels view of corruption. The lack of a general theory linking corruption and development prevents us from disentangling China's paradox. This paper aims to fill in this gap by providing the changing wheels hypothesis, which conceptualizes the relationship between corruption and growth from an institutional perspective. This theory reconciles previous conflicting findings on corruption and explains the changing role of corruption in the process of China's recent development.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"12 ","pages":"Article 100094"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266731932300037X/pdfft?md5=c9e3b87f67e8ad1a0d92a359f904a2ec&pid=1-s2.0-S266731932300037X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138610991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monetary policy and gender discrimination in the credit market","authors":"Radeef Chundakkadan","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2023.100095","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The studies on monetary policy highlight that a contractionary policy reduces a firm's access to external funds. However, it is unknown whether it affects men and women equally. In this scenario, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, to investigate the differential effect of monetary policy on female- and male-run firms. We find that a contractionary monetary policy widens credit market discrimination, i.e., female-owned and -managed firms receive less funds during a tight monetary policy period. This effect reverses during the expansionary period, i.e., female-run firms are more likely to receive funds than male-run firms. This result implies that during a tight policy period, financial institutions resort to credit rationing and women are the victims of this practice, whereas during an expansionary period, banks are flushed with money and they channelize these excess funds to female-owned firms. Our results also indicate that the adverse effects of the policy fall heavily on small and medium enterprises. Second, to study the impact of gender equality on monetary policy-led credit market discrimination. We find that credit market discrimination during the contractionary period is relatively lower (higher) in a country where gender equality (gap) is higher. This is another evidence that women receive less external funds not based on their lack of repayment ability but rather on society's predetermined notions about their incapability.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"12 ","pages":"Article 100095"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667319323000381/pdfft?md5=7a29650deeef074c1bf21c886e1c115c&pid=1-s2.0-S2667319323000381-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138501067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Estimating the employment effect of the minimum wage through variation in compliance: Evidence from five US states","authors":"Michael Gmeiner , Robert Gmeiner","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2023.100096","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The implications of a binding minimum wage law on employment have been the subject of a lively and ongoing debate. Estimation of employment effects may be hindered by the non-random manner in which minimum wage laws are created. To overcome this, we explore the employment implications of the minimum wage in the US restaurant industry through an approach that exploits variation in compliance, as opposed to legislation. In the five US states without state minimum wages, violations of the US federal minimum wage are shown to be associated with decreased employment in the restaurant industry in the time period around the federal minimum wage increases of 2007 through 2009. The most robust specification shows an elasticity of employment with respect to unpaid wages of -0.233. Robustness checks use earlier time periods to show results do not reflect seasonal trends, vary the group of industries used as controls, and only use 2007 to show estimates are not confounded by a unique effect of the Great Recession on the restaurant industry.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"12 ","pages":"Article 100096"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667319323000393/pdfft?md5=edd9a7f05bcc68345bd16331a868ab5d&pid=1-s2.0-S2667319323000393-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139100743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A political argument for inefficiency under severe political pressure","authors":"Doron Nisani","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100093","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100093","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Who watches the watchmen? In order to examine the role of the governance separation of powers principle in economics, we developed a theoretical model of a structurally failed market with and without political pressure. We conclude that if the executive branch is dedicated to its public duty, then the enforcement of a differential price policy yields an efficient resource allocation. However, if the executive branch attempts to balance its public duty against its personal interests, then the legislative and judicial branches should compel the executive branch to enforce a uniform price policy (seemingly an inefficient allocation, but one that ultimately reduces the public welfare loss) in order to safeguard the public's interests.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"12 ","pages":"Article 100093"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667319323000368/pdfft?md5=d5d25c74d0a3be635ba38f791116b99e&pid=1-s2.0-S2667319323000368-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135455179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Central bank digital currency and fiscal policy in a Diamond-Dybvig Model","authors":"Jafar El Armali","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100089","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100089","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>After introducing digital currency, the central bank emerges as a monopolist bank. It then faces an “impossible trinity”. To achieve price stability and financial stability, optimal consumption allocation is sacrificed. In this paper, I show that fiscal policy designed in coordination with the central bank achieves optimal allocation while maintaining price stability and financial stability.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"12 ","pages":"Article 100089"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667319323000320/pdfft?md5=01c8189c7da574a8fb88ef3f3c157929&pid=1-s2.0-S2667319323000320-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135433647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Analysis of the Syrian Economy in the Era of Military Conflict, 2011–2020: The Perspective of Government and Economics","authors":"Forat Suliman , Homam Khwanda , R.V. Ramana Murthy","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2023.100082","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Moving into the twelfth year of conflict in Syria, the current profile indicates the violence and displacement that unfolded in 2011 have no parallels in recent history. Among the many consequences, physical capital destruction has been the most dramatic- the economic toll of war has been estimated to be about US$1.2 trillion, according to official data. This paper takes stock of the conflict's impact on domestic capital in Syria. It also contributes to the empirical literature on the effect of government capital spending on private capital during 1970–2011, using Vector Error Model (VECM) model. The key findings are: (1) the economy facing extreme limitations in raising the investment rate- as the total investment share of GDP (in real term) has dropped from 20% in 2010 to less than 7% in 2020; (2) the public investment appears to have a significant role- as it influences the economic growth in Syria directly and indirectly through private investment (in which crowding- in effect found to be significant). Further, we argue that political and institutional factors will determine the shape and scope of attracting foreign capital and enhancing local business during the reconstruction phase.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100082"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50193243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Government expenditure and behavior during war and pandemic, public housing, and factors improving state capacity and credibility","authors":"Zhangkai Huang, David Daokui Li","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2023.100088","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100088"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50193777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An assessment of the public confidence in governance institutions in India: Empirical evidence using IHDS survey","authors":"Hrushikesh Mallick , Balakrushna Padhi , Udaya Shankar Mishra","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2023.100080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Using two rounds of the Indian Human Development Survey (2004–05 & 2011–12), this study evaluates levels of household confidence in the governance institutions across Indian states. The observed broad pattern conveys that although there is a marginal improvement (from 0.582 in 2004–05 to 0.602 in 2011–12) in the confidence in the governance institutions, there still exists a great deal of deficit in it. analysing the socioeconomic determinants of the degree of confidence, we find that over time regional identities along with class, caste, and other attributes shape the levels of confidence in governance institutions. Such an observation leads to an inference that improvement in confidence in governance institutions is responsive to the development divide across regions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100080"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50193791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Nexus between Financial and Investment developments and State Capacity. The case of G-20","authors":"Sotirios K. Bellos, Petros Golitsis","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100081","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2023.100081","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>On this paper we examine the relationships between state capacity, approximated by the Composite Index of National Capabilities, and certain macroeconomic and financial variables. Particularly, we study the nexus of their interactions by focusing on the G-20 economies from 1980 to 2020 by applying a robust GMM panel VAR model. Our results capture a negative and lasting impact of ‘domestic credit to private sector’, a negative short-term impact of market capitalization, along with a positive impact of inward and outward FDIs, and of gross capital formation, on state capacity. State capacity, in its turn, enhances in the short-term market capitalization, consumes credit to private sector, and substantially boosts gross capital formation in the medium-term. Trade openness enhances state capacity and is enhanced by state capacity as well. The presence of financial crises, such as the Asian Financial Crisis or the Global Financial Crisis, affects negatively state capacity. Conversely, the absence of financial crises has a positive impact on state capacity, leading to its amelioration. Furthermore, the specific case of the Second Oil Crisis is found to strengthen state capacity. These findings shed light to the mechanisms that impact national power and provide a framework for policy design and conduct.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100081"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50193778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effect of COVID-19 on local government policy implementation: Declines in police reports of domestic violence during lockdowns","authors":"Jeremy A. Cook , Timothy W. Taylor","doi":"10.1016/j.jge.2023.100087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2023.100087","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We document a reduction in police reporting of domestic violence during shelter-in-place (SIP) orders issued by city governments in March and April of 2020. Using data from 18 large U.S. city police departments, we exploit the unique timing of city-specific SIP orders to identify a decrease as high as 11 percent in police reports of domestic violence. Lockdowns, explicitly designed to reduce contact among civilian populations, may also lead to reduced contact between emergency responders and civilians. Our findings suggest police change their own behaviors in response to government-issued SIP orders leading to a decrease in agency reports of domestic violence. While previous scholarship on domestic violence has found an increase in emergency calls for service from households during SIP, we consistently find a decrease in police reporting of domestic violence. By centering our analysis on the responses of law enforcement agencies, we highlight the divergence in the consequences of SIP orders on household behaviors versus institutional behaviors. We present robust findings using event studies in addition to both staggered treatment and conventional difference-in-differences estimators. The implications of our study extend to city officials who are tasked with assessing the unique repercussions of SIP orders on both households and the responsiveness of local government agencies. This research underscores the multifaceted nature of the effects induced by external shocks such as COVID-19, shedding light on the intricate interplay between societal dynamics and institutional responses.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100785,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Government and Economics","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100087"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50193792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}