Posts Tagged Development
Michael Clemens (Washington) on the Economics of Migration
Posted by sangus in Development on 23 April, 2013
Dr Michael Clemens
In this podcast we meet Dr Michael Clemens from the Center for Global Development in Washington. Dr Clemens is a passionate advocate of greater migration flows due to the economic benefits such flows bring, be it in spillovers to education and technology, or via direct reductions in labour costs. Dr Clemens’ recent work exploited a lottery system which was used to provide a temporary working visa to a sub-set of Indian software workers from a single firm, allowing Clemens to differentiate between place of work, whilst keeping all other aspects constant (type of work, firm policies and practices, etc.). Like other workers, Dr Clemens found that a large component of wage differentials was place-based, the so-called ‘Big-Mac Theory’ of development.
Pietro Peretto (Duke) on The Economics of Prosperity on a Finite Planet
Posted by sangus in Growth, Podcast, Sustainability on 1 May, 2012
Pietro Peretto (Duke)
Pietro Peretto, Professor of Economics, Duke University, is tackling the very biggest topic in Economics — How can humanity experience increasing living standards in a world of finite resources? Or more particularly, does the stabilisation of population levels imply the cessation of economic prosperity gains? Professor Peretto is a theorist who has been developing analytical models of human output and interaction with the environment. Professor Peretto was in Melbourne recently for the 17th Australasian Macroeconomic Workshop, at Monash University.
Read the paper on which this Podcast is based: Peretto, Pietro F. and Valente, Simone, Growth on a Finite Planet: Resources, Technology and Population in the Long Run (June 29, 2011). Economic Research Initiatives at Duke (ERID) Working Paper No. 103.
Or download the podcast here: download (mp3)
Markus Brueckner (U of Adelaide) on Economic Growth, Foreign Aid and Causality
Posted by sangus in Development, Growth, Interview, Podcast, Poverty, Uncategorized on 15 July, 2011
Markus Brueckner (University of Adelaide)
Markus Brueckner is a senior lecturer at the School of Economics, University of Adelaide, and has research interests including economic growth, political economy and applied econometrics. Along with a number of articles published in highly respected academic journals, Dr Brueckner has written for the New York Times, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal.
In his most recent work, Dr Brueckner has been looking at the link between foreign aid and growth, or more specifically growth and foreign aid. I began our discussion for EconomicsNow! by asking Markus to outline the present consensus view amongst academic economists on the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth.
Read the paper on which this Podcast is based: “On the Simultaneity Problem in the Aid and Growth Debate.” Journal of Applied Econometrics (Forthcoming).
Or download the podcast here: download (mp3)
Craig Mawdsley (OneSeed) on Sweatshops, Textiles, and Micro-business for development
Posted by sangus in Development, Interview, Podcast, Poverty on 6 June, 2011
Craig Mawdsley is Director of OneSeed a textiles importing business bringing hand-made dresses, bags and other textiles from Cambodia to the markets of Australia. The business began around 6 years ago with Craig’s $500 tax return as seed capital and growing ever since with sales in 2011 expected to hit $100,000. In this podcast Craig explains the philosophy behind OneSeed, and what OneSeed does for the Cambodians employed by it. Along the way, we discuss international trade theory, labour laws, specialisation, micro-business and the notorious sweat-shops of Cambodia. Craig is also a graduate of Monash University and the second-year economics unit, “Prosperity, Poverty and Sustainability”.
Or download the podcast here: download (mp3)
Paul Raschky (Monash University) on where Foreign Aid Actually Ends Up
Posted by sangus in Development, Interview, Podcast, Poverty on 11 April, 2011
Dr Paul Raschky
For some, foreign aid, is the only great hope for ending poverty in the very poor nations of our world, whilst for others, foreign aid is a key part of the problem — fueling wars, corruption and inefficient allocations of capital — making bad situations even worse. Whilst many researchers have attempted to look at the connection between foreign aid and development, getting good data on economic matters in the very poor, poorly governed and sometimes secretive nations can stymy even the most diligent research efforts. If you consider that some estimates of corruption in Africa alone run close to $150 billion (1), and that some heads of African states are listed as multi-billionaires even whilst their nations remain terribly impoverished (2), it is no wonder that getting transparent access to what is really happening with the foreign aid money can be a challenge.
Margaret Docking on Family Planning in Uganda and the Struggle Behind MDG goal 5
The United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) put much emphasis on health, and infant and maternal health at that. Unfortunately, however, it is the maternal health goal — goal 5 (Improve Maternal health) — that is proving the most stubborn of all the MDGs to bring down. Indeed, the annual maternal mortality rate is falling at just 1.3%, well below the target of 5.5%. And as is sadly common, the African picture is far worse than the average. For example, whilst some improvements have been made in the use of skilled attendants at birth, less than half of all births are attended by such assistance in Africa, comparing to the global developing country average of over 60%.
In this post, we hear from Margaret Docking, an Australian trained midwife, who with her plumber husband, headed to Uganda in 2010 on a short-term mission. Expecting to work as a midwife in the hospitals of Uganda, Margaret quickly changed tack, eventually deciding that working on the causes of the extreme fertility rate (nudging 10) would be far more worthwhile than trying to incrementally improve the disastrous conditions under which most babies are born in Uganda.
Or download the podcast or transcript here: Podcast (mp3) | Transcript (pdf)
Global maternal mortality ratio data, 2008 (top) and trend (bottom)
Links:
Briefing: Explaining the North African Uprisings: the (lost) Economic story
Posted by sangus in Development, Podcast on 22 March, 2011
Special Guest writer, Jeremy Kamil, brings us a fascinating piece on the recent uprisings in Northern Africa. The key question Jeremy addresses is, ‘Why these nations, and why now?’ Whilst many in the press have offered answers to this question, Jeremy’s analysis goes beyond the standard explanations and looks at what really causes educated, civilised and well meaning men and women to take up the machinery of war against their own government. Jeremy is a current Honours student in the Economics Department at Monash University and is writing on inflation in China, and how economic policy might manage this growing headache for the rising Asian powerhouse.