How do civil wars affect student achievement? How do social networks affect public goods? And how much has been achieved since the UN High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in 2013? These are a few of the questions tackled by our researchers over the last month — in one book, two journal articles and five working papers, among others. Click here for the full list.
Books
‘Economic Systems of Innovation in the Arab Region‘ discusses the causes, consequences and implications of poor systems of innovation in the Middle East and North Africa. By examining the comparative weakness of innovation, the economic structure, and the diversity of the region, this book shows that the development of Arab regional systems of innovation relies on the development of sound economic policies and incentives. The author’s contribution is key for students and scholars of economics, innovation and international relations. By Dr. Samia Mohamed Nour.
Journal Articles
‘Social network and private provision of public goods‘ uses a simple model with interdependent utilities to study how social networks influence individual voluntary contributions to the provision of a public good. Departing from the standard model of public good provision, this article assumes that an agent’s utility has two terms: (a) ‘ego’-utility derived from the agent’s consumption of public and private goods, and (b) a social utility which is the sum of utility spillovers from other agents with whom the agent has social relationships. The authors establish conditions for the existence of a unique interior Nash equilibrium and describe the equilibrium in terms of network characteristics; they then show that social networks always have a positive effect on the provision of the public good. The study also finds that, in networks with ‘small world’-like modular structures, ‘bridging’ ties connecting distant parts of social network play an important role inducing an agent’s contribution to public good. Assumptions and results of the model are discussed in relation to the role of social capital in community-level development projects and to the effect of innovation networks on firms’ R&D investments. By Affiliated Researcher Dr. Bulat Sanditov et al.
‘Educational achievement at schools: Assessing the effect of the civil conflict using a pseudo-panel of schools‘ explores the relationship between civil conflict and educational achievement in Colombia. The results obtained in this article provide evidence of the negative repercussions that a civil conflict can have on human capital accumulation at the school level. Results show a negative and significant relation between the intensity and presence of conflict and the levels of performance in the mathematics and language examinations. By Affiliated Researcher Dr. Silvia Gómez Soler.
Research Reports
‘A Global Civil Society Report on Progress and Impact for Migrants’ Rights and Development‘ assesses what progress has been made on achieving each of the eight goals highlighted in civil society’s 5-year 8-point Plan of Action since the UN High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in 2013. Based on interviews, literature review and a global survey among 350 civil society organisations, this report paints a picture of progress and stagnation, of action taken by civil society and of ways to take the Plan forward. By Researcher Elaine McGregor.
Working Papers
‘Structural decompositions of energy consumption, energy intensity, emissions and emission intensity – A sectoral perspective‘ uses more than 68 million data points from the newly introduced World Input-Output Database (WIOD) over 1995 to 2009. This paper investigates the historical dynamics of energy consumption, aggregate energy intensity, total emissions and total emission intensity at sectoral level by decomposing their relative changes in the input-output framework into five influencing factors: intensity effect, inter-industry structural effect, trade effect in intermediate inputs, structural change effect in final demand and total final demand effect. By PhD Fellow Sheng Zhong.
‘The dynamics of vehicle energy efficiency: Evidence from the Massachusetts Vehicle Census‘ uses a rich quarterly panel dataset containing about 3.9 million vehicles in Massachusetts over the period 2008q1 – 2011q4. This paper attempts to improve the micro-level empirical basis of the study of population-level vehicle energy efficiency, and to provide some evidence that supports policy making related to sustainable development with regard to road vehicles. The results confirm the importance of structural chance in the vehicle population, convergence of aggregate vehicle energy efficiency between municipalities and the crucial role of socio-economic factors in shaping vehicles distribution. By PhD Fellow Sheng Zhong.
‘The role of technological trajectories in catching-up-based development: An application to energy efficiency technologies‘ argues that the analysis level of a technological trajectory is very suitable to analyse the decisions of firms in latecomer countries with regard to the technological area that they should focus on. Technological trajectories are the main focal points along which technological innovation develops, and they are more detailed than the common sectors, like electronics of pharmaceuticals, that are used in the analysis of catching-up based growth. This paper presents a collection of methods that has been proposed in the literature to identify technological trajectories. These methods use patent citation networks, and are applied to two separate fields in energy efficiency technologies. The authors identify the relevant technological trajectories, and analyse how the main countries active in these fields can be classified as either latecomer or incumbent countries. By PhD Fellow Sheng Zhong and Prof. Bart Verspagen.
‘Inclusive labour market: A role for a job guarantee scheme‘ argues that in the European labour market there is a clear scope for improvement in activity rates. This paper proposes to experiment with Job Guarantee (JG) projects. On the one hand, JG projects should provide a macroeconomic stimulus to the economy by employing everybody who is out of work in JG jobs at the minimum wage. On the other hand, JG projects could stop the downward trend in job quality and foster inclusive labour markets by providing quality jobs and sustainable employment. The authors propose to finance the JG Scheme by redirecting social security (administration) funds, by including JG elements in the European Investment Plan (also known as the Juncker Plan) and to spend part of the €60 billion which the ECB is injecting each month in the Euro Area on job guarantee projects. By Prof. Joan Muysken et al.
‘Management standard certification and firm productivity: micro-evidence from Africa‘ uses micro evidence from manufacturing and services firms located in 55 African countries. This paper shows that better management practice, reflected by international management certification, helps firms to raise productivity. The authors find that larger and older firms, and firms operating closer to the technological frontier, are more likely to possess international management standards certification. By Dr. Micheline Goedhuys and Prof. Pierre Mohnen.
MEDIA CREDITS
World Bank / C.Kesl