This Working Paper series provides a vehicle for preliminary circulation of research results in t... more This Working Paper series provides a vehicle for preliminary circulation of research results in the fields of economic development and international trade. The series is intended to stimulate discussion and critical comment. Staff and visitors in any part of the Australian National University are encouraged to contribute. To facilitate prompt distribution, papers are screened, but not formally refereed.
This report was commissioned to generate additional knowledge about labour mobility in the Asia-P... more This report was commissioned to generate additional knowledge about labour mobility in the Asia-Pacific region, at present and over time, to inform APEC member economies' deliberations about options to manage regional demand and enhance worker mobility to optimise potential benefits such as reducing unemployment, boosting productivity, addressing labour force imbalances, and contributing to economic development. Within the bounds of existing data, the report: - Describes patterns and trends in international labour mobility both globally and within the APEC region. - Provides a quantitative analysis of labour flows and their determinants around the world and APEC economies using key baseline indicators. - Discusses major push and pull factors determining international labour mobility. - Reviews the global literature, along with policies pertaining to labour mobility in the region.
Mental health is a neglected health issue in developing countries. We test if mental health issue... more Mental health is a neglected health issue in developing countries. We test if mental health issues are particularly likely to occur among some of the most vulnerable children in developing countries: those that work. Despite falling in recent decades, child labor still engages 168 million children across the world. While the negative impacts of child labor on physical health are well documented, the effect of child labor on a child's psychosocial wellbeing has been neglected. We investigate this issue with a new dataset of 947 children aged 12-18 years from 750 households in 20 villages across five districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Our purpose-built survey allows for a holistic approach to the analysis of child wellbeing by accounting for levels of happiness, hope, emotional wellbeing, self-efficacy, fear and stress. We use a variety of econometric approaches, some of which utilize household-level fixed effects and account for differences between working and nonworking siblings. We document a robust, large and negative association between child labor and most measures of psychosocial wellbeing. The results are robust to a battery of exercises, including tests for selection on unobservables, randomization inference, instrumental variable techniques, and falsification exercises.
Abstract Scientific evidence has shown that natural disasters have severe short- and long-run imp... more Abstract Scientific evidence has shown that natural disasters have severe short- and long-run impacts on economic growth, development, and poverty reduction. With climate change being recognized as one of the most significant challenges facing humankind in the 21st century, it is predicted to exacerbate climate hazards and amplify the risk of extreme weather disasters. People in the developing world are widely believed to be more vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change because of their reliance on agriculture, resource scarcity, poor infrastructure, and unstable institutions. The 2009 World Development Report found that by the end of this century, Vietnam will be one of five countries most affected by natural disasters and climate change due to its long coastlines, a high concentration of population and economic activity in coastal areas and a heavy reliance on agriculture, natural resources, and forestry. This chapter presents findings relating to the impacts of natural disasters and climate change on agriculture in Vietnam. In nearly all regions of the country, agricultural production is expected to decline. Rice production is found to be most affected by natural disasters climate change, while Central Highland and North-West are the most vulnerable regions.
Debates on resilience to economic shocks in the ASEAN region focus on what policymakers can do to... more Debates on resilience to economic shocks in the ASEAN region focus on what policymakers can do to mitigate negative impacts associated with financial-economic crises. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that the region is also vulnerable to health-economic crises. This study applies a difference-in-difference strategy to data from the 2003 SARS epidemic to shed light on how a global pandemic can affect labour supply and remittances in ASEAN economies. Findings suggest that even a relatively short-lived epidemic can have long-lasting effects on labour supply.
Migration is a normal and common human occurrence. Moving to seek new opportunities, new lands, n... more Migration is a normal and common human occurrence. Moving to seek new opportunities, new lands, new freedoms, fleeing persecution or economic stagnation is a phenomenon that has shaped and continues to shape human societies across the world.
Bonnal (2010) studies the effect of labour standards on economic growth using a dynamic panel dat... more Bonnal (2010) studies the effect of labour standards on economic growth using a dynamic panel data model for 121 countries over 1974-2004. He focuses on two measures of labour standards and finds that higher labour standards promote economic growth. This study tests the robustness of these results by (a) using a longer period of study (1965-2000), (b) using five-year averaged data to control for cyclicality in GDP growth, and (c) using a larger number of labour standard indicators. The results reveal heterogeneous effects- decreasing injuries at work increases growth, while rising maternity leave decreases growth.
This paper analyses the mean-reverting component in real stock prices for twenty countries, using... more This paper analyses the mean-reverting component in real stock prices for twenty countries, using the structural times series model developed by Harvey (1985, 1989), to decompose real stock prices into their permanent, transitory and seasonal components. The empirical results show that there is a large and statistically significant mean-reverting component in each country's real stock prices, as well as a significant seasonal component in nineteen of the twenty countries. For sixteen out of the twenty countries, the transitory component accounts for more than 50 per cent of the total variation in real stock prices. As such, real stock prices are not pure random walk processes.
Child sponsorship has been a foundation of Plan Internationals work since our beginnings. We curr... more Child sponsorship has been a foundation of Plan Internationals work since our beginnings. We currently engage with 1.4 million sponsored children in 481 countries through sponsorship activities, communications and programmes. Back in 2006 we began to record the annual surveys that are conducted with all sponsored children. Since then, we have generated a unique and vast dataset from more than 12 million surveys conducted among 2.7 million sponsored children. This report presents a condensed version of the full study findings by RMIT University.4 It also offers our responses to those findings, in which we see particular relevance for sponsorship operations, the programmes and influencing work that we do in communities, and marketing and fundraising activities.
This paper examines the gendered impacts of multiple severe global economic shocks in two Melanes... more This paper examines the gendered impacts of multiple severe global economic shocks in two Melanesian countries: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It focuses on the sharp food and fuel price hikes in 2007 and 2008 and the subsequent Global Financial Crisis, which quickly turned into a broader economic crisis. Using gender disaggregated data, it examines the impacts on women across three economic spheres: financial; productive; and reproductive. Findings indicate that that a disproportionate burden of the adjustment to these shocks was borne by women. Without gender-disaggregation and a focus on gender norms, policies risk being, at best, incomplete and at worst harmful, to women. Formal social protection schemes must therefore account for gender norms; focusing on practical and achievable measures to advance women's economic empowerment within existing institutional structures. Possible policies include financial inclusion, developing better and safer informal markets, lifting agricul...
In recent years, some parts of the developing world experienced considerable advancements in econ... more In recent years, some parts of the developing world experienced considerable advancements in economic development and poverty reduction, while many others lagged behind. These varying outcomes warrant an investigation into the role that policies play in poverty reduction. This study focuses on government policies that drive strong economic outcomes for the private sector (referred to here as pro-growth policies) and their effect on poverty reduction. The analysis revealed that countries that adopt pro-growth policies tend to have lower levels of poverty. It is contended that pro-growth policies lead to job creation, which translates into more opportunities to get out of poverty. Specifically, the analysis presented in this report shows that countries with policies that promote greater access to credit as well as the protection of minority investors have lower levels of poverty. It is argued that access to credit can decrease poverty through several mechanisms, particularly by facili...
This Working Paper series provides a vehicle for preliminary circulation of research results in t... more This Working Paper series provides a vehicle for preliminary circulation of research results in the fields of economic development and international trade. The series is intended to stimulate discussion and critical comment. Staff and visitors in any part of the Australian National University are encouraged to contribute. To facilitate prompt distribution, papers are screened, but not formally refereed.
This report was commissioned to generate additional knowledge about labour mobility in the Asia-P... more This report was commissioned to generate additional knowledge about labour mobility in the Asia-Pacific region, at present and over time, to inform APEC member economies' deliberations about options to manage regional demand and enhance worker mobility to optimise potential benefits such as reducing unemployment, boosting productivity, addressing labour force imbalances, and contributing to economic development. Within the bounds of existing data, the report: - Describes patterns and trends in international labour mobility both globally and within the APEC region. - Provides a quantitative analysis of labour flows and their determinants around the world and APEC economies using key baseline indicators. - Discusses major push and pull factors determining international labour mobility. - Reviews the global literature, along with policies pertaining to labour mobility in the region.
Mental health is a neglected health issue in developing countries. We test if mental health issue... more Mental health is a neglected health issue in developing countries. We test if mental health issues are particularly likely to occur among some of the most vulnerable children in developing countries: those that work. Despite falling in recent decades, child labor still engages 168 million children across the world. While the negative impacts of child labor on physical health are well documented, the effect of child labor on a child's psychosocial wellbeing has been neglected. We investigate this issue with a new dataset of 947 children aged 12-18 years from 750 households in 20 villages across five districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Our purpose-built survey allows for a holistic approach to the analysis of child wellbeing by accounting for levels of happiness, hope, emotional wellbeing, self-efficacy, fear and stress. We use a variety of econometric approaches, some of which utilize household-level fixed effects and account for differences between working and nonworking siblings. We document a robust, large and negative association between child labor and most measures of psychosocial wellbeing. The results are robust to a battery of exercises, including tests for selection on unobservables, randomization inference, instrumental variable techniques, and falsification exercises.
Abstract Scientific evidence has shown that natural disasters have severe short- and long-run imp... more Abstract Scientific evidence has shown that natural disasters have severe short- and long-run impacts on economic growth, development, and poverty reduction. With climate change being recognized as one of the most significant challenges facing humankind in the 21st century, it is predicted to exacerbate climate hazards and amplify the risk of extreme weather disasters. People in the developing world are widely believed to be more vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change because of their reliance on agriculture, resource scarcity, poor infrastructure, and unstable institutions. The 2009 World Development Report found that by the end of this century, Vietnam will be one of five countries most affected by natural disasters and climate change due to its long coastlines, a high concentration of population and economic activity in coastal areas and a heavy reliance on agriculture, natural resources, and forestry. This chapter presents findings relating to the impacts of natural disasters and climate change on agriculture in Vietnam. In nearly all regions of the country, agricultural production is expected to decline. Rice production is found to be most affected by natural disasters climate change, while Central Highland and North-West are the most vulnerable regions.
Debates on resilience to economic shocks in the ASEAN region focus on what policymakers can do to... more Debates on resilience to economic shocks in the ASEAN region focus on what policymakers can do to mitigate negative impacts associated with financial-economic crises. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that the region is also vulnerable to health-economic crises. This study applies a difference-in-difference strategy to data from the 2003 SARS epidemic to shed light on how a global pandemic can affect labour supply and remittances in ASEAN economies. Findings suggest that even a relatively short-lived epidemic can have long-lasting effects on labour supply.
Migration is a normal and common human occurrence. Moving to seek new opportunities, new lands, n... more Migration is a normal and common human occurrence. Moving to seek new opportunities, new lands, new freedoms, fleeing persecution or economic stagnation is a phenomenon that has shaped and continues to shape human societies across the world.
Bonnal (2010) studies the effect of labour standards on economic growth using a dynamic panel dat... more Bonnal (2010) studies the effect of labour standards on economic growth using a dynamic panel data model for 121 countries over 1974-2004. He focuses on two measures of labour standards and finds that higher labour standards promote economic growth. This study tests the robustness of these results by (a) using a longer period of study (1965-2000), (b) using five-year averaged data to control for cyclicality in GDP growth, and (c) using a larger number of labour standard indicators. The results reveal heterogeneous effects- decreasing injuries at work increases growth, while rising maternity leave decreases growth.
This paper analyses the mean-reverting component in real stock prices for twenty countries, using... more This paper analyses the mean-reverting component in real stock prices for twenty countries, using the structural times series model developed by Harvey (1985, 1989), to decompose real stock prices into their permanent, transitory and seasonal components. The empirical results show that there is a large and statistically significant mean-reverting component in each country's real stock prices, as well as a significant seasonal component in nineteen of the twenty countries. For sixteen out of the twenty countries, the transitory component accounts for more than 50 per cent of the total variation in real stock prices. As such, real stock prices are not pure random walk processes.
Child sponsorship has been a foundation of Plan Internationals work since our beginnings. We curr... more Child sponsorship has been a foundation of Plan Internationals work since our beginnings. We currently engage with 1.4 million sponsored children in 481 countries through sponsorship activities, communications and programmes. Back in 2006 we began to record the annual surveys that are conducted with all sponsored children. Since then, we have generated a unique and vast dataset from more than 12 million surveys conducted among 2.7 million sponsored children. This report presents a condensed version of the full study findings by RMIT University.4 It also offers our responses to those findings, in which we see particular relevance for sponsorship operations, the programmes and influencing work that we do in communities, and marketing and fundraising activities.
This paper examines the gendered impacts of multiple severe global economic shocks in two Melanes... more This paper examines the gendered impacts of multiple severe global economic shocks in two Melanesian countries: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It focuses on the sharp food and fuel price hikes in 2007 and 2008 and the subsequent Global Financial Crisis, which quickly turned into a broader economic crisis. Using gender disaggregated data, it examines the impacts on women across three economic spheres: financial; productive; and reproductive. Findings indicate that that a disproportionate burden of the adjustment to these shocks was borne by women. Without gender-disaggregation and a focus on gender norms, policies risk being, at best, incomplete and at worst harmful, to women. Formal social protection schemes must therefore account for gender norms; focusing on practical and achievable measures to advance women's economic empowerment within existing institutional structures. Possible policies include financial inclusion, developing better and safer informal markets, lifting agricul...
In recent years, some parts of the developing world experienced considerable advancements in econ... more In recent years, some parts of the developing world experienced considerable advancements in economic development and poverty reduction, while many others lagged behind. These varying outcomes warrant an investigation into the role that policies play in poverty reduction. This study focuses on government policies that drive strong economic outcomes for the private sector (referred to here as pro-growth policies) and their effect on poverty reduction. The analysis revealed that countries that adopt pro-growth policies tend to have lower levels of poverty. It is contended that pro-growth policies lead to job creation, which translates into more opportunities to get out of poverty. Specifically, the analysis presented in this report shows that countries with policies that promote greater access to credit as well as the protection of minority investors have lower levels of poverty. It is argued that access to credit can decrease poverty through several mechanisms, particularly by facili...
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