Is innovation destroying jobs across Europe? Do authoritarian regimes gain “extra” development funding from the Chinese? And why are so many South Africans still malnourished, despite social grants? These are just a few of the questions tackled by our researchers in February 2017 — in three journal articles and eight working papers, among many others. Click here for the full list of our most recent publications.
Journal articles
‘Raising the international poverty line – a comparison of necessary adjustments of final demand spending in OECD and non-OECD countries‘ is an article in the book The Social Footprints of Global Trade, which discusses in detail the social life cycle assessment of the global economy using the comprehensive multi-regional input-output technique. The need for reporting on such indicators falls within the purview of corporate/national social responsibility (part of the “triple bottom line”). The book offers a valuable contribution to the literature for researchers and students engaged in the social sciences, human rights, and the implications of international trade on labour in developing countries. By Kirsten Wiebe.
‘Migration and the Multi-Dimensional Well-Being of Elderly Persons in Georgia‘ proposes a multi-dimensional well-being index that has been specifically designed to encompass the unique resources and constraints faced by elderly individuals in different age cohorts. The article‘s findings suggest that the migration status of an elderly person’s adult children is related to the attainment of well-being. Elderly individuals with a migrant child are more likely to attain well-being in physical health as well as in the overall multidimensional well-being index. By PhD fellow Jennifer Waidler, Dr. Michaella Vanore, Profs. Franziska Gassmann and Melissa Siegel.
‘Decomposing health inequality in the EU‘ aims to understand how individual-level differences in demographic characteristics, education, labour market factors and income shape the prevalence of poor self-assessed health in the EU. The study finds regional variation in the decomposition results. The analysed factors explain up to a third of the health inequality in the EU for Southern and Central and Eastern European countries, but they fail to explain the health differences for the Western European countries. The authors suggest that cross-country variation in the reporting of self-assessed health may be partially responsible for this result. Finally, they find that the detailed decomposition results for some of the explanatory factors are sensitive to the decomposition sequence, which shows that interaction effects merit further investigation. By PhD fellow Gintare Mazeikaite, Dr. Denisa Maria Sologon and Prof. Cathal O’Donoghue.
PhD defences
‘Access to Justice and Legal Empowerment of Victims of Domestic Violence through Legal Organisations in the City of Buenos Aires: A Qualitative Empirical Legal Study’ explores the relation between access to justice and legal empowerment of victims of domestic violence. This PhD dissertation uses qualitative empirical legal methods to present the voices of relevant actors and builds upon a theoretical framework to explain the phenomenon of legal empowerment. The study conveys that developments in legal provisions and legal organisations can legally empower victims of domestic violence who obtain access to justice. By Dr. Julieta Marotta.
Research reports
‘Mapping the Syrian diaspora in Germany – Contributions to peace, reconstruction and potentials for collaboration with German Development Cooperation’ examines the characteristics of the Syrian diaspora in Germany, the level and structures of diaspora organisations, their political leanings and affiliations, and their existing and potential engagement in conflict resolution and reconstruction. Moreover, the report identifies potential for cooperation between diaspora organisations and the German Development Cooperation. By PhD fellow Nora Jasmin Ragab, Prof. Melissa Siegel et al.
Working papers
‘Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa’ empirically investigates whether African authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development assistance than democratic ones, both in absolute and relative terms. The “ordinary least squares” results suggest that Chinese development finance does not systematically flow to more authoritarian countries (controlling for strategic, economic, political, institutional and geographic confounding factors). The results are not driven by the specific democracy indicator used in the analysis. By PhD fellow Tobias Broich.
‘Is innovation destroying jobs? Firm-level evidence from the EU’ finds a significant labour-friendly impact of R&D expenditures (after running Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected estimates) on the top European R&D investors over the period 2002-2013. However, this positive employment effect appears limited in magnitude and entirely due to the medium-and high-tech sectors, while no effect can be detected in the low-tech industries. From a policy point of view, the outcome of this paper supports the EU2020 strategy, but – taking into account that most European economies are specialised in low-tech activities – sheds concerns on future perspectives of the European labour market. By Prof. Marco Vivarelli et al.
‘Pathways for capacity building in heterogeneous value chains: Evidence from the case of IT-enabled services in South Africa‘ explores how service providers in developing countries build service delivery competence critical to their performance, focusing specifically on the development of human resource management capabilities and domain expertise. Results show that participation in global value chains triggers learning processes for firms that are crucial in building service delivery competence, especially in the absence of a strong national system of innovation. Nevertheless, interactions between actors and institutions within the country, as well as internal firm resources are critical to acquire and adapt foreign-sourced knowledge to the local context. Finally, the paper finds local and regional value chains of IT-enabled services offer additional learning avenues for capability formation and potential pathways into GVCs for domestic firms. By PhD fellow Charlotte Keijser and Dr. Michiko Iizuka.
‘US and Soviet foreign aid during the Cold War: A case study of Ethiopia‘ provides a historical perspective of Ethiopia’s position in the international aid game at the Horn of Africa during the Cold War era (1945-1991). The main conclusions of this study are threefold. First, the countries of Ethiopia and Somalia became classic examples of pawns in Cold War politics. The two superpowers, the United States of America (USA) and the Soviet Union, switched sides to support countries to which they had been previously furnishing assistance at the apex of the Cold War. Second, recipient governments are able to use international development assistance as a tool to implement as much of their policy agenda as possible. Both the Imperial Government of Ethiopia (1941-1974) and the Ethiopian communist government (1974-1990) aimed at maximising external financial resources while minimising the amount of loss of sovereignty over the policy agenda. Third, the 1984-86 famine in the Horn of Africa region convincingly highlights the moral dilemma that the international donor community faced when assisting nondemocratic recipient states. By PhD fellow Tobias Broich.
‘Why does malnutrition persist in South Africa despite social grants?‘ This paper reviews the evidence on food security and child nutrition trends in South Africa and identifies several reasons why nutrition outcomes appear to be lagging behind improvements in other food security indicators. By PhD fellow Jennifer Waidler et al.
‘Financing rural households and its impact: Evidence from randomized field experiment data’ evaluates the short-term impact of financial support to smallholder farmers and training programme to married women in two regions of Ethiopia. The paper’s three main findings show that: first, the program seems to improve rural households’ annual income from farm and non-farm economic activities (26 per cent); second, financial incentive positively affects smallholders’ innovative farm practices, adoption of modern technologies and new marketing approach; third, only training to resource-poor rural women is not enough to their income earning activities. By Dr. Tigist Mekonnen Melesse.
‘Impact of agricultural technology adoption on market participation in the rural social network system‘ provides empirical evidence regarding the impact of agricultural technologies on smallholders’ output market participation. The estimation results show that the use of improved agricultural inputs significantly affects farm households marketable surplus production. The paper argues that access to credit and training fosters technology adoption. Therefore, agriculture and rural development policy need to focus on supporting agricultural technology adoption. By Dr. Tigist Mekonnen Melesse.
‘Productivity and household welfare impact of technology adoption: Micro-level evidence from rural Ethiopia‘ evaluates the potential impact of improved agricultural technologies on smallholders’ crop productivity and welfare. The paper finds that there is positive and significant effect of improved technology adoption on the rural households’ crop productivity and welfare in Ethiopia. Key factors for crop productivity and household welfare in the rural farm households are educational level, farm size, credit access, labor use, an extension program, expenditure for modern input and asset holding. While large household size negatively affects the welfare of households. For improving productivity, food security and welfare of smallholder farmers, policy priority should be an investment in research and development on major cereal crops adapted to local agro-ecological condition. By Dr. Tigist Mekonnen Melesse.
ARCHIVE
MEDIA CREDITS
Flickr / R.C.Marlner