Have extractive industries promoted structural transformation or led to unsustainable development paths? A new PhD dissertation reveals that some of the mechanisms hypothesised by the Dutch disease are no longer systematically observed. However, the expansion of commodity prices has had significant negative effects on the development of production linkages and diversification efforts.
How do firms innovate in Latin America? What are their main innovation practices and strategies? A new working paper finds that Latin American firms display an idiosyncratic approach to “open management” innovation. The analysis also shows that firm resources and capabilities drive innovation strategy selection.
These are just two questions tackled by our researchers in May 2022 — in four journal articles, two book chapters, twoworking papers and two PhD dissertations, among many others. Click here for the full list of our most recent publications.
Journal articles
‘The impact of parental migration on psychological well-being of children in Ghana‘ examines the time-varying effects of internal and international parental migration on the psychological well-being of children who stay behind in an African context. The study observes a higher level of well-being amongst girls when parents migrate and divorce. However, parental migration and divorce are more likely to increase the psychological vulnerability of boys. In Ghana, the psychological well-being of children is nuanced by which parent has migrated, marital status of migrant parent and the gender of the child. By Radhika Raturi and Dr. Victor Cebotari.
‘Personal Recognition Strategies of Undocumented Migrant Domestic Workers in The Netherlands‘ contends that the struggle of undocumented migrants for recognition does not only revolve around collective efforts to claim the “right to rights” in the public sphere. This article argues that recognition also involves the careful everyday negotiation and renegotiation of social statuses in interpersonal interactions with “significant others” in the private sphere. The authors identify four recognition strategies adopted by Filipino undocumented migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands: being the breadwinner, taking pride in work, creating a sense of belonging, and being civically engaged. By PhD candidate Lalaine Siruno, Prof. Arjen Leerkes et al.
‘The value of educational micro-credentials in open access online education: a doctoral education case‘ explores the effect of implementing educational open microcredentials on student motivation, engagement, and completion in open access online courses. This case study reviews the impact on the Community of Learning for African PhD Fellows, a capacity-building project supporting PhD fellows in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results indicate that course completion was low, in course offering rounds with and without online certification. Main hurdles to completion are lack of time and lack of direct career benefits or academic value attached to the course completion. The authors found that, while open access online courses are appreciated by PhD fellows, the implementation of open microcredentials did not provide an incentive for the completion of online courses for this population. Hard and soft copy certificates at this point are more appreciated. By Dr. Mindel van de Laar, Cristina Mancigotti, Richard E West, Paris Cosma and Dennis Katwal.
‘CO2 emissions and income growth in Latin America: long-term patterns and determinants‘ seeks to estimate the relationship between income and CO2 emissions per capita in 21 Latin American Countries (LACs) from 1960 to 2017. The study finds there is not any unique pattern that describes the income-emission relationship in all countries of the region. Overall, these results call for increased environmental action in the region. By PhD candidate Cecilia Seri et al.
Book chapters
‘Economic Sentiment and Climate Transition During the COVID-19 Pandemic‘ analyses the dependence between a newspaper-based economic sentiment index of the United States and four climate-themed financial indices since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that when market conditions were very poor, dependence is strongest between economic sentiment and green bonds index in the intermediate time. However, under normal market returns, results show a similar pattern of increased dependence across the weekly, monthly and yearly cycles for all the climate-themed indices except green bonds. By Dr. Gideon Ndubuisi et al.
‘Multiple faces of migration and development‘ examines three ways in which the relationship between migration and development has been historically interpreted by a range of different actors through three faces: Nation building, neoliberalism, and multilateralism. By Dr. Elaine Lebon-McGregor et al.
Working papers
‘Remittance dependence, support for taxation and quality of public services in Africa’ explores the heterogeneous effect of migrant remittances on citizens’ support for taxation. The paper further examines whether citizens’ valuation of the quality of public services is an important factor in determining the classification of individuals into classes. The study finds that citizens who have a positive appraisal of the quality of the public service delivery have a lower probability of belonging to the class/subtype in which depending on remittances reduces support for taxation. By Dr. Maty Konte and Dr. Gideon Ndubuisi.
‘How do firms innovate in Latin America? Identification of innovation strategies and their main adoption determinants‘ seeks to identify the main innovation practices and strategies performed by Latin American firms. Three of the four identified innovation strategies can be linked to results from similar studies using European firm-level data. However, none of these strategies resembles a strong science or research orientation. An approach to “open management” innovation emerges as idiosyncratic for Latin American firms. These innovation strategies are associated with differences in sales growth and labour productivity. The analysis also shows that firm resources and capabilities drive innovation strategy selection. By PhD candidate Fernando Vargas.
PhD defence
‘Beyond the Right to Work: Labour Market Engagement of Protracted Refugees through a Social Exclusion Lens’ seeks to better understand the role of refugee-related policies pertaining to status, camp and right to work in shaping the labour market engagement of protracted refugees. This dissertation furthermore is able to account for both between and within group differences of protracted refugee groups. This is explored within the context of Jordan, by examining the labour market engagement of Syrian and Palestinian refugees using a mixed-methods approach. By Dr. Tamara A. Kool.
‘Extractive Industries and Structural Transformation’ explores whether extractive sectors have promoted structural transformation, or on the contrary, have led to unsustainable development paths, based on their macro-level performance in recent decades. This dissertation reveals that some of the mechanisms hypothesised by the Dutch disease are no longer systematically observed. However, the expansion of commodity prices has had significant negative effects on the development of production linkages and diversification efforts, affecting the development of productive capacities in both the short and long term. By Dr. Beatriz Calzada Olvera.
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