{"title":"Birth Weight and Cognitive Development during Childhood: Evidence from India","authors":"Santosh Kumar, Kaushalendra Kumar, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Arindam Nandi","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12335","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-3441.12335","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Health at birth is an important indicator of human capital development over the life course. This paper uses longitudinal data from the Young Lives survey and employs instrumental variable regression models to estimate the effect of birth weight on cognitive development during childhood in India. We find that a 10 per cent increase in birth weight increases cognitive test scores by 0.11 standard deviations at 5–8 years of age. Low birth weight infants experience a lower test score compared with normal birth weight infants. The positive effect of birth weight on a cognitive test score is larger for girls, children from rural households and those with less educated mothers. Our findings suggest that health policies designed to improve birth weight could improve human capital in resource-poor settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"41 2","pages":"155-175"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137505532","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2022-03-25DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12334
Caillan Fellows, Brian Dollery, Rui Marques
{"title":"An Evaluation of the Financial Sustainability of Remote Australian Local Councils*","authors":"Caillan Fellows, Brian Dollery, Rui Marques","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12334","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1759-3441.12334","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Spatial remoteness in the sense of great distances between population centres and limited access to public services is an on-going problem in Australian local government, where there exist large, sparsely populated regions dominated by the 'tyranny of distance'. From a public policy perspective, it is important to understand the impact of remoteness on local authorities. Accordingly, in this paper, we estimate the relationship between remoteness and financial sustainability using a 2014–2018 sample of Australian local governments. In general, we find only limited empirical evidence for a relationship between geographical remoteness and financial sustainability as we have proxied it.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"41 2","pages":"110-127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1759-3441.12334","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120844484","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2022-03-09DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12333
Syed Hasanat Shah, Syed Ali Raza
{"title":"The Impact of Services FDI on Services Exports in NICs","authors":"Syed Hasanat Shah, Syed Ali Raza","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12333","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1759-3441.12333","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates the impact of services FDI inflows on services exports in Newly Industrialised countries (NICs) by employing panel data techniques. FDI inflows in Services are a good tool to connect local services producers to the global value chain and boost services exports. The findings in the paper suggest that FDI inflows in services sector significantly contribute to services exports in NICs. Recently, many NICs countries wanted to strategically shift their reliance from manufacturing export to services export and our findings support this policy shift. Beside FDI inflows in services, increase in global demand for services and improvement of local infrastructure in NICs positively contribute to services exports in NICs.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"41 2","pages":"176-181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127316397","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2022-01-18DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12332
Hazwan Haini, Pang Wei Loon
{"title":"Information Communication Technologies, Globalisation and Growth: Evidence from the ASEAN Economies*","authors":"Hazwan Haini, Pang Wei Loon","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12332","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1759-3441.12332","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) and globalisation on economic growth in the (Association of South-East Asian) ASEAN economies from 1999 to 2019 using dynamic panel estimators. Previous literature has shown that ICT and globalisation can impact growth through the role of knowledge dissemination and information. Subsequently, this study examines the moderating impact of globalisation on the relationship between ICT and economic growth. Our results show that both ICT and globalisation are positive to growth. Interestingly, the marginal impact of ICT and globalisation suggests that the marginal impact of ICT is insignificant at low levels of globalisation. Policy implications are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"41 1","pages":"34-53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125518834","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2021-12-09DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12331
Claudio Borio
{"title":"Back to the Future: Intellectual Challenges for Monetary Policy*","authors":"Claudio Borio","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-3441.12331","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The central banking community is facing major challenges – economic, intellectual and institutional. A key economic challenge is the need to rebuild room for policy manoeuvre, which has fallen drastically over time. This lecture focuses on the intellectual challenge, that is, facts on the ground are increasingly testing the long-standing analytical paradigms on which central banks can rely to inform their policies. It argues that certain deeply held beliefs underpinning those paradigms can complicate the task of regaining policy headroom.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"40 4","pages":"273-287"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2021-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137491804","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2021-09-24DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12329
Lydia Cheung, Mario Andres Fernandez
{"title":"Changes in Amenity Values after COVID-19 Lockdowns in Auckland, New Zealand","authors":"Lydia Cheung, Mario Andres Fernandez","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12329","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1759-3441.12329","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, New Zealand stood out with its ambitious elimination goal and the small death count per capita. The country’s strategy included full lockdown measures that were strict by international standards. In this paper we investigate whether New Zealand’s strict lockdowns brought significant changes to the dwelling price capitalisation of environmental amenities. Our results show a nuanced landscape. While before the pandemic, Auckland homebuyers were willing to pay a premium for dwellings located adjacent to open spaces, such premium either vanished or became a penalty during the lockdown phases. There was also a significant premium for dwellings within 300 m of beaches. But again such premium either decreases or becomes a penalty across the lockdown phases. In addition, we find a preference for dwellings located further away from Auckland CBD. Hence, some amenities that used to have a positive (or neutral) impact on the price of a property have now become disamenities from homebuyers’ perspective after the experience of the pandemic. This paper informs planners, policy-makers and private actors with a better understanding of the behaviour of Auckland’s housing market under the disruptions due to the pandemic and lockdowns.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"40 4","pages":"331-350"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2021-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1759-3441.12329","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130723152","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2021-08-16DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12328
Marco Guerrazzi
{"title":"How Long does a Generation Last? Assessing the Relationship Between Infinite and Finite Horizon Dynamic Models*","authors":"Marco Guerrazzi","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12328","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1759-3441.12328","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This note aims at assessing the temporal relationship that exists between the time reference of dynamic models with infinite and finite horizon. Specifically, comparing the optimal inter-temporal plans arising from an infinite horizon model and a 2-period overlapping generations model in their stationary equilibria, I suggest way to assess the number of time periods of the former that form a time unit of the latter. Relying on an argument grounded on consumption smoothing, I show that the theoretical length of a generation is an increasing function of the discount factor of the optimising agent. Moreover, from an empirical point of view, I give evidence that this analysis corroborates the well-documented nexus that links demographic developments and the path of interest rates, and it offers interesting insights for the calibration of discount rates in computational models.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"41 1","pages":"89-98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2021-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/1759-3441.12328","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129403419","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2021-07-26DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12327
Caillan Fellows, Brian Dollery, Carolyn-Thi Thanh Dung Tran
{"title":"Is Bigger More Efficient? An Empirical Analysis of Scale Economies in Administration in South Australian Local Government*","authors":"Caillan Fellows, Brian Dollery, Carolyn-Thi Thanh Dung Tran","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12327","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1759-3441.12327","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A vast empirical literature has investigated economies of scale in municipal operations, especially in water and wastewater provision as well as domestic waste management. By contrast, comparatively few studies have been conducted on the extent of scale economies in local government administration. Given the stress placed on scale economies in Australian state and territory government policies aimed at the structural reform of local government through municipal mergers, including in South Australian (SA) local government, the absence of empirical research into administrative scale economies is unfortunate. To address this gap in the empirical literature, in this paper, we consider administrative scale economies in the SA local government system using four-year panel data from 2015–2016 to 2018–2019. We find limited evidence for a relationship between administrative intensity and municipal by population size and for a difference between the administrative intensity of urban and rural councils.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"41 1","pages":"54-67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2021-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/1759-3441.12327","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132321604","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}
Economic PapersPub Date : 2021-07-05DOI: 10.1111/1759-3441.12325
Lin Crase
{"title":"Lessons in Policy Incoherence: A Review of Recent Water Policies, Water Planning and Drought Policy in Australia","authors":"Lin Crase","doi":"10.1111/1759-3441.12325","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1759-3441.12325","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The purpose of this paper was to consider the extent to which drought policy in Australia is consistent with water policy and to also reflect on the coherence of government planning in the Murray–Darling Basin. At the outset, it is contended that the gains from an efficiency-enhancing water policy are likely to be substantially weakened if responses to drought and basin planning run counter to this. The analysis centres on the federal government's response to the Productivity Commission in April 2019, the legacy of interventions in the Murray–Darling Basin and the subsequent “Australian Government Drought Response, Resilience and Preparedness Plan” (the Drought Plan) released in late 2019. Collectively, the analysis adds to the literature that considers coherence within environmental management but also highlights where weaknesses could be given more attention.</p>","PeriodicalId":45208,"journal":{"name":"Economic Papers","volume":"40 4","pages":"313-330"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2021-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/1759-3441.12325","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125870275","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}