International Journal of Development Issues最新文献

{"title":"Do the knowledge economy increase inequality? Reassessment of the impact of the Kuznets curve on income inequality in OECD","authors":"Kei Toyozawa, T. Kinugasa, Yoichi Matsubayashi","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-04-2022-0086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-04-2022-0086","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to focus on the influence of industrial structure changes, which is the fundamental idea of the Kuznets hypothesis, especially the service–knowledge structural change, on income inequality.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This analysis uses the interaction term is that industrial structure changes multiplied by period dummy, this study indicates the effect of industrial structure changes on inequality from the 1970s. Using this method, this study reveals the impact of transitions in industrial structure, from agriculture to knowledge, on inequality.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Empirical analysis reveals a Kuznets curve relationship between income inequality and the agriculture–manufacturing structural change before the 1970s. From the 1980s to the 2000s, “The Great U-Turn,” which refers to events that expanded economic inequalities again, is observed in the relationship between inequality and the manufacturing–service structural change. Moreover, the service–knowledge structural change effect on inequality after the 2010s, through the Kuznets curve relationship. Therefore, this study confirms the Kuznets hypothesis is not a thing of the past hypothesis.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This study shows why income inequality in organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) countries has continued to increase in these days. Specifically, this study focuses on the impact of industrial structure changes and long-term trends, which has not been fully discussed in recent studies. The authors perform empirical analysis based on the relationship between these changes and inequality in developed countries. In addition, by setting a period dummy variable every decade, this study visualizes the transition of industrial structure changes in OECD clearly.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49245754","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":"Do remittances matter for health outcomes in developing countries? Fresh evidence from a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model","authors":"Ronald Djeunankan, H. Tékam","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-04-2022-0079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-04-2022-0079","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to contribute to the growing literature on the effects of remittances and the determinants of health outcomes by analysing for the first time the effect of remittances on health outcomes in developing countries using a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This study uses panel data from 107 developing countries over the period from 1990 to 2018 to examine the effect of remittances on health outcome in developing countries.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The main findings from study is that remittances improve health outcomes in developing countries. Another finding of this study is that income, trade, foreign direct investment and financial devlopment improve health outcome.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000The contribution of this study is fourfold. Firstly, it adopts the PVAR methodology in a Generalized Method of Moments framework proposed by Abrigo and Love (2016). Secondly, it analyses the implications of remittances on health outcomes by relying on two comprehensive measures of health outcomes commonly used in the literature which are life expectancy at birth and the rate of under-five mortality rates. Thirdly, we identify governance and maternal education as the channels through which remittances improve health outcomes in developing countries. Finally, the current paper covers an extensive time span (29 years) and focuses on a large sample (107 countries).\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43029679","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":"Testing Okun’s law at sectoral level: evidence from Nigeria","authors":"I. Raifu","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-04-2022-0070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-04-2022-0070","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000Researchers have long been interested in testing the validity of Okun’s law due to its macroeconomic policy implications. However, most of the studies have focused on testing the law using aggregate data on unemployment and output. In recent times, attention has been shifted to testing the law at the sectoral level. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to examine the response of unemployment to sectoral outputs in Nigeria using the data that covers a period from 1981-2020.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000To test the validity of Okun’s law at the sectoral level, both difference and gap methods of specifying Okun’s law are used. Furthermore, the author also uses a series of estimation methods, which include ordinary least squares (OLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS), fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and canonical cointegration regression (CCR).\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The results, based on the difference model, are mixed irrespective of estimation and data filter methods. For the gap model, Okun’s law holds for all sectors irrespective of estimation techniques (especially DOLS, FMOLS and CCR) when the Hodrick–Prescott filter method is used to filter data. However, the author discovers that the coefficients of Okun’s law vary across the sectors as the response of unemployment to services sector output is greater than the rest of the sectors. When the Hamilton filter method is used to filter data, the results appear to be mixed across the sectors. The results are almost ditto when all the sectoral variables are put in one model.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the validity of sectoral Okun’s law in Nigeria, the leading economy in Africa.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43790217","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":"A new multidimensional approach to measuring the middle class dynamics: evidence from Morocco","authors":"Fouzia Daoudim, F. Bakass","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-03-2022-0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-03-2022-0049","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This paper aims to propose a dynamic multidimensional approach to identify the middle class and then to reliably study the structural changes that have marked it in terms of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and aspirations.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This study uses Moroccan data from the 2007 and 2014 household expenditure surveys. The method consists in applying a factor analysis of mixed data on a set of variables inspired by Bourdieu’s concepts of social space and forms of capital, then performing a hierarchical ascending classification consolidated by the k-means clustering, along with adopting the same indicators and weighting for both years studied to ensure reliable comparison.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The classification results identified three social classes whose changing size reveals a decline of the lower class and an expansion of the upper and middle classes. Some characteristics of the middle class are becoming close to those of the upper class, like fertility behavior, while a significant gap remains between the two classes in other characteristics, like education. Moreover, middle-class perceptions reflect their downgrading, confirming that the so-called decline of the middle class is more related to feelings than to objective realities.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000Middle class studies are generally based on a single criterion (income or consumption) with somewhat arbitrary boundaries that are often ill-suited to developing countries. This paper proposes a new dynamic multidimensional approach to overcome these problems while adopting a new technique for reliable intertemporal comparisons.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46499895","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":"Revisiting the effects of natural resources on income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"Désiré Avom, Nesta Ntsame Ovono, Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-02-2022-0036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-02-2022-0036","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to analyze the effects of natural resource rents on income inequality.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000This study uses a panel quantile regression (QR) approach for 42 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1998–2018.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The results show that natural resource rents have a negative and statistically significant effect on income inequality. Regarding the types of resources, the results show that coal rents increase inequality, while forestry and oil rents reduce income inequality. The results also show that the effects of mining and gas rents vary along the income inequality distribution. Finally, the results reveal a negative and significant effect of natural resource rents on income inequality in all sub-regions except Southern Africa.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000The results suggest that the SSA Governments should intensify the implementation of income redistribution policies such as family allowances to poor families with multiple children and public sector job creation. SSA policymakers should also increase access to electricity, and internet, and allocate a portion of oil revenues to create an intergenerational sovereign wealth fund.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000First, few studies have analyzed the effects of various types of natural resource rents on income inequality. To this end, this study used the QR method to examine the impact of natural resource rents on inequality, by laying emphasis on various types of natural resources. This study takes into account the likely heterogeneity across countries that may exist when considering a sample such as SSA countries, by examining the effects in the different sub-regions that make up this part of Africa (Central Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa and East Africa).\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41519817","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":"Fiscal sustainability in highly indebted countries: evidence from Jamaica","authors":"C. Clarke, Patrice Whitely, Travis Reid","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-01-2022-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-01-2022-0003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This study aims to explore the sustainability of Jamaica’s public debt over a highly volatile period of time.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The authors use a suite of econometric tools, including, unit root testing, cointegration testing and estimating a fiscal reaction function. The authors control for structural breaks in the regression analysis.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The authors find that whilst reschedulings might be indicative of cash-flow problems in Jamaica, fiscal policy has responded effectively to increase the public debt, thereby making the debt sustainable. Notwithstanding the political economy and social demands of the population prior to the impact of the pandemic, the implications of higher debt stocks (higher debt-servicing and lower social expenditures) might make this approach to fiscal policy and debt management infeasible. As a result, the authors recommend that the government will need to take an active approach in managing its debt position to facilitate responses to shocks and provide conditions within which maintaining fiscal discipline is feasible.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore fiscal sustainability in Jamaica over this time period whilst taking into consideration structural breaks caused by the global financial crisis and debt restructurings. The authors also take into consideration variables such as exchange rates and the occurrence of elections, which have not been included in previous studies.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46130642","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":"Economic complexity and entrepreneurship: insights from Africa","authors":"F. Ajide","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-03-2022-0047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-03-2022-0047","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000Economic complexity reflects the nature of knowledge accumulated and technological capability of a nation. This study aims to evaluate the impact of economic complexity on entrepreneurship in selected African countries.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The study uses country’s level data of 18 countries covering a period of 2006–2017. Data are sourced from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Observatory of Economic Complexity database, World Bank’s Entrepreneurship Database and World Development indicators. To estimate models, the study uses panel-spatial correlation consistent, which is based on Driscoll and Kraay’s (1998) standard error, Method of Moments Panel Quantile regression proposed by Machado and Silva (2019) and instrumental variables estimation techniques.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The study’s findings are as follows. First, economic complexity improves entrepreneurship in Africa. Second, there is no evidence of nonlinear relationship between economic complexity and entrepreneurship for the case of African nations. The positive impact of economic complexity on entrepreneurship is persistent across all quantiles in the analysis. The empirical analysis suggests that the beneficial impact of African entrepreneurship is further strengthened by ethnic and religious diversity but reduced by weak political institutions.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This study stresses the role of economic complexity in the entrepreneurial activities. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to empirically provide insights on the important role of economic complexity on entrepreneurship in Africa.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48599414","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":"Impact of the ATC on the performance and productivity of Indian apparel manufacturing","authors":"Dhwani Gambhir","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-02-2022-0045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-02-2022-0045","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This paper aims to study the productivity growth in the Indian apparel industry in aggregate over the period 1995–2015 and compare the performance of the Indian apparel industry during the decade of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) and the decade post its expiry.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The aggregate productivity performance has been studied using the technique of growth accounting and the translog index. A comparison of industry performance has also been made by analysing data. The data has been collated from Annual Survey of Industries reports, CMIE Economic Outlook and CMIE Industry Outlook databases.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The apparel industry has seen significant growth in terms of all industry variables and exports. However, the growth in exports is much lower than the growth in other industry variables related to output and input. While there is productivity improvement in aggregate over the study period, the quantum is low. Total factor productivity growth is positive and higher for the period post the ATC.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000To the best of the author’s knowledge, there has been no such recent study comparing performance and productivity in Indian apparel manufacturing during and after the expiry of the ATC.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42855380","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":"Impact of export diversification on economic growth: a system GMM approach","authors":"Swathi Markakkaran, P. Sridharan","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-10-2021-0210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-10-2021-0210","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000This paper aims to empirically analyze the impact of export diversification on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000Using system generalized method of moments (GMM), a nonlinear model in a dynamic panel data growth framework for 101 countries between 1995 and 2019 was estimated.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000Results evidenced that export concentration, measured by the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), is negatively associated with GDP per capita growth after controlling for the effects of other explanatory variables. Further, the squared term of HHI used in the model to measure the nonlinear relationship between export concentration and economic growth indicated that the low-income and lower-middle-income countries benefited from export diversification. At the same time, high-income and upper-middle-income countries perform well with their export specialization. The results of the robustness check validate the findings of nonlinear estimation.\u0000\u0000\u0000Research limitations/implications\u0000The findings recommend that low-income and lower-middle-income countries diversify their export basket to improve economic growth by generating stable export earnings. Similarly, high-income and upper-middle-income countries should focus on measures to close the product lines which no longer belong to their factor endowments and rebalance their export basket.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This study contributes to the existing literature by using the system GMM method, which is most appropriate for a dynamic panel data growth framework with up-to-date data. Further, this study segregates a large panel into 43 concentrated and 58 diversified countries to test the robustness of the empirical results.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42645957","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":"Social safety net programs and food sufficiency during COVID-19 pandemic in the USA","authors":"Kolawole Ogundari, A. Aromolaran, J. Akinwehinmi","doi":"10.1108/ijdi-11-2021-0238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdi-11-2021-0238","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Purpose\u0000The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many households to experience income shocks because of the unprecedented job loss, resulting in the demand for public and private food assistance programs and a surge in unemployment insurance filing in the USA. This study aims to investigate the association between social safety programs (e.g. supplementary nutritional assistance programs (SNAP), unemployment insurance and charitable food assistance) and household food sufficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.\u0000\u0000\u0000Design/methodology/approach\u0000The authors used the Household Pulse Surveys (HPS) conducted by the US Census Bureau from August 2020 to March 2021. And, the authors used an ordered probit model for the empirical analysis because the indicator of food sufficiency constructed from the HPS is an ordinal variable with four categories. The indicator identifies four groups of households: severe food insufficiency, moderate food insufficiency, mild food sufficiency and food sufficiency.\u0000\u0000\u0000Findings\u0000The results show that food sufficiency is significantly higher among the SNAP, unemployment insurance and charitable food assistance recipients than non-recipients. Furthermore, the results indicate that food sufficiency is significantly lower among black, Asian, Hispanic and other races than white households. Concerning the intersectional effect of social safety net programs and race/ethnicity on household food sufficiency, the authors find that the household food sufficiency is significantly higher among white, black and Asian households who benefited from SNAP, compared with non-beneficiary households. On the other hand, the authors find no evidence that participation in SNAP increases food sufficiency significantly among Hispanics and other races. In addition, the likelihood of food sufficiency increases significantly among white, black, Asian, Hispanic and other races that received unemployment insurance and charitable food assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with those who did not benefit from the programs.\u0000\u0000\u0000Practical implications\u0000These results underscore the critical role collective America’s social safety net programs played in increasing food sufficiency among Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the results suggest that families' basic needs (food sufficiency) would have been at risk if these safety net programs were not available to households during the pandemic. This, therefore, highlights the important role that government- and non-government-supported food emergency assistance programs can play in preventing people from facing food insufficiency problems in a tough time or during a crisis in the USA.\u0000\u0000\u0000Originality/value\u0000This study highlights the dynamic relationship between Americans’ social safety net programs and household food sufficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic.\u0000","PeriodicalId":37830,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Development Issues","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44542205","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}