Basket Cases Research Articles

Basket Cases: How Real-World Testing for Drugs Approved Based on Basket Trials Might Lead to False Diagnoses, Patient Risks, and Squandered Resources.

Basket Cases: How Real-World Testing for Drugs Approved Based on Basket Trials Might Lead to False Diagnoses, Patient Risks, and Squandered Resources.

Recent growth experiences of Asian tigers: where does India stand?

Purpose – The four Asian tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan (also called Four Dragons) experienced miraculous high growth rates in the pre-1990s period and rapidly transformed their economic status from less developed “basket cases” to developed high-income countries gaining entry to the rich OECD club of countries. These countries even in the post-1990s, barring few years, have continued to grow further and are an inspiring role model for the newly emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to adduce certain trends in these countries since the 1990s and specifically examine role of human capital and knowledge building, productivity convergence and intra-regional trade in the Asian tigers’. The authors examine these in the context of India. Design/methodology/approach – The paper in a simple descriptive yet analytical approach explores the relevance of above factors in the Indian context. Findings – The study observed that India ranks far below the Asian tigers in the knowledge economy index (KEI). The results at the sub-national level showed large disparities across the states in knowledge economy reflecting country’s difficulties in catching up with other countries overall. Regarding labour productivity, the results show that India was moving away from the benchmark country until 1990 (pre-reform period) and started catching up particularly due to physical capital (not necessarily human capital) since 1995 onwards. Originality/value – The study is unique due to several reasons. First, it contributes to the literature examining contemporaneous Asian tigers and Indian economies performance as not many studies exist in this area. Second, the study also builds a unique first ever KEI at the sub-national level for India and is, therefore, a contribution in this respect. Finally, the study also contributes to the literature on Indian economic development.

A Cacophony of Dissonance

A Cacophony of Dissonance

Basket Cases and Breadbaskets: Sacred Rice and Agricultural Development in PostcolonialAfrica

AbstractBased on ethnographic research among ruralDiola inGuinea‐Bissau, I provide a broad view of the history and interpenetration of rice in social, political, religious, and ecological domains, while chronicling the current difficulties of residents in this region who are no longer able to grow enough of it. These farmers' experiences are unfolding at a time of revitalized attention to agricultural development inAfrica, particularly under the auspices of theNewGreenRevolution forAfrica. I examine the premises that constitute the resuscitated effort to address the plight ofAfrican farmers. I argue that the totalizing quality of rice inDiola and other rice‐cultivating societies requires a development approach that takes into account dimensions of agrarian life not encapsulated by the high‐modernist and antipolitical orientation of theNewGreenRevolution forAfrica.

ICT for Enhanced Governance and Development in Africa: The Potential of Debt-for-Development Exchanges

This paper argues three main points. First, that deficient governance in African economies is a principal cause of their poorer economic conditions. Second, ICT can be used to enhance governance, and in turn development, in African economies. Third, ICT projects aimed at enhancing governance in African countries are most suited for funding through debt-for-development exchange programs. The reasons are that such programs: (1) are saleable to, and within, donor countries and institutions; (2) align very well with, and complement, the goals of development aid; (3) are financially self-sustaining; (4) cut waste, and yield efficiencies and economic growth in the recipient countries; (5) could be apt for private sector participation and investments; and (6) can be a possible way of solving the basket cases that many African economies have been in the past.

Perceptions of Classroom Realities: Case Pedagogy in an English Education Methods Course

Preparing novice teachers to manage the broad array of educational decisions and day-to-day problems inherent in classroom teaching is an ongoing challenge. This article describes a model of student-initiated, case-based pedagogy, in the form of Basket Cases, implemented in an English education methods class and interprets the results. Exploring features of this classroom intervention uncovers issues of particular concern to beginning teachers, provides feedback to the program, and supports the use of case pedagogy in teacher education.

Debt Restructuring: Evolution or Revolution?

THE PAPERS BY BULOW, Sachs, and White illustrate the interconnections inherent in most important economic policy issues, not least those concerning the structure of the international financial system. One of the most timely of these issues is whether there should be an international bankruptcy court for sovereign debt. Two of the three papers in this symposium, those by Bulow and Sachs, provide brief answers to that question within a more expansive essay on what is wrong with the international financial system. Both argue that a thorough reform of the system is needed; a bankruptcy court is an important side issue in Sachs' view and a distraction in Bulow's. There are some similarities in their critiques, but they differ fundamentally on the central issue of sovereign debt. Sachs wants governments to provide more financial resources to heavily indebted countries, including through the international financial institutions (IFIs) and streamlined debt relief, to give those countries a fresh start. Bulow wants governments and markets to provide fewer resources because national and international institutions have squandered what has been provided in the past, and he argues further that those institutions should first be largely privatized. Sachs and Bulow cannot both be right in their prescriptions for the international financial system. My judgment is that they are both mostly wrong, but that is for another day. Bulow and Sachs in their papers do provide a service. They remind us that the issue of sovereign debt is connected with the structure of economic institutions and incentives for sound policies. Sachs also implicitly reminds us that a well-functioning international financial system must deal with countries that differ in their economic and financial circumstances over time and across a broad continuum. Not all are perennial financial basket cases. At least four of the countries that Sachs identifies as having chronic, continuing debt crises--Bolivia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador, and Nigeria--were borrowers in international financial markets on commercial terms not so long ago. Further along the continuum, Turkey is not a new member of the club of advanced industrial countries (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) whose external financial crisis, like Mexico's or Korea's, demonstrates at least to some that it should not have been admitted; Turkey has been a member of the club for many years. Finally, during the era of floating exchange rates, even Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States have borrowed from the International Monetary Fund. Circumstances change, and thus to consign all current basket cases permanently to the international welfare rolls is fundamentally flawed as an initial premise. I would like to address the issue of international bankruptcy arrangements by posing three questions. First, is an international bankruptcy court an appropriate solution to problems of sovereign debt? Second, what are the connections between this concept and recent proposals for a so-called sovereign debt restructuring mechanism (SDRM)? And third, should we expect revolution or evolution going forward? Bulow's answer to the first question is no: although the SDRM proposals may be a step in the right direction, a bankruptcy court is unnecessary. Sachs' answer is yes: such a court is needed to give countries a fresh start. White says the analogy to domestic bankruptcy procedures is weak, but a court or the equivalent may be needed if we are serious about solving the three basic problems in this area that she and others have identified: reining in rogue creditors, providing seniority for private sector financing to countries while their debts are being restructured, and forcing closure on the parties. My own view is that an international bankruptcy court for sovereign debt would be useful in addressing these problems, and it would be desirable (largely for the reasons advanced by Sachs), but it is not now feasible. …

Drawing a gloriously false inference

A stupid argument brings shame to any scholarly effort; but no dishonor attends an erroneous claim—especially in science, lest we all become psychological basket cases, because the vast majority of novel hypotheses turn out to be dead wrong. I would even grant substantial kudos to a class of claims that one of my colleagues, speaking of Emmanuel Velikovsky's neocatastrophic theories, called “gloriously wrong”—for this complex and radical argument enjoyed at least a glimmer of empirical plausibility, and would have annihilated most of our complacent beliefs about the nature of geologic change, had the evidence proved sound and the mechanism workable. But Venus turned out to be an old planet with a stable orbit, not a young comet, and the hypothesis of “worlds in collision” collapsed.

After the Storm

For those keen on closer ties between Canada and the countries of the Asia Pacific, the last couple of years have been difficult. In a case of almost unbelievably bad timing, the bloom faded from the Asian boom, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Vancouver appeared to implode in a cloud of acrimony and pepper spray in 1998, Canada's Year of Asia Pacific. Regional currencies and stock markets sank, and the Bre-X fiasco added to the woes. Since then, the 'Asian contagion,' which the best national and multilateral analysts failed to predict, has been blamed for precipitating crises in Russia and Latin America. The legions of newly minted promoters ran for cover, and the entire Asia-Pacific region has assumed a much lower profile in Canadian foreign policy and media circles. Fashion changed, and the herd galloped off to greener pastures elsewhere.While many causes have been assigned to Asia's well-advertised demise -- overvalued currencies and equity markets perhaps foremost among them -- globalization has played the most significant role. Among globalization's many and often conflicting characteristics is a preference for global and multilateral trade, finance and investment relations at the expense of more traditional regional and bilateral ties. In some key countries in the Asia Pacific, the impact of globalization has been accelerated and accentuated by the preferred tonic of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- policy conditionalities and neoliberal reforms. Although this was greeted enthusiastically by supporters of an integrated, if asymmetrical, world political economy, the costs imposed upon civil society were very real.Trade liberalization, structural adjustment, and other IMF-favoured macroeconomic policies tend to concentrate wealth, both within and between states. As globalization continues, neither the gains nor the losses from the process are evenly distributed, especially in the short term. At the same time, the ability of many of the regions governments to cope effectively with the consequences of globalization and the requirements of the international financial institutions is extremely limited. Welfare reductions, programme cuts, interest rate hikes, currency devaluation, privatization, and marketization are politically tough to implement, especially at times of economic weakness.The imposition of these 'reforms' can contribute to the creation of desperate circumstances which, when combined with population pressure, resource scarcity, and a rush to the bottom in terms of labour standards and workers rights, can give rise to feelings of intense insecurity among those most affected. One has to look no further than contemporary Pakistan or Indonesia. Polarization of income and wealth is leaving an increasing number of citizens economically distressed and politically disenfranchised, while government priorities have moved further away from the welfare vocation of providing for the disadvantaged and more in the direction of providing a suitable 'enabling environment' for and competitive incentives to business. Even in political cultures steeped in the ethics of Buddhist acceptance or Confucian submission, this is a potentially explosive combination.Globalization, with its inherently deregulating and liberalizing dynamic, expedited both the inflow of foreign capital and the outflow of export products. This, in turn, fuelled Asia's decade of record-breaking expansion and the flight of investment that precipitated the crisis when perceptions suddenly changed. The dazzling transformation of mainstream Western thinking about Asian business practices and political culture is particularly instructive. What was seen as an outstanding example of co-operation among business, labour, and government one day became 'crony capitalism' the next day. Countries that had been regarded as economic miracles and Asian tigers by pundits and financial markets alike came almost overnight to be seen as 'basket cases' and 'alley cats. …

“Basket cases”: Tax incentives and international joint venture participation by American multinational firms

This paper examines the impact of the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA) on international joint ventures by American firms. The TRA mandates the use of separate “baskets” in calculating foreign tax credits on dividends received from each foreign corporation owned 50% or less by Americans – which greatly reduces the attractiveness of joint ventures, especially those in low-tax foreign countries. Since the effect of the TRA on joint ventures varies with foreign tax rates, the country-level pattern of subsequent joint venture activity illustrates the sensitivity of organizational form to tax considerations. The evidence indicates that American participation in international joint ventures fell sharply after 1986, particularly in low-tax countries. Moreover, joint ventures in low-tax countries use more debt and pay greater royalties to their American parents after 1986, reflecting their incentives to economize on dividend payments.

Democracy in Africa: No Time to Forsake It

mixed record of democratization, including the emergence of a large number of hybrid regimes committed to effective governance and real economic development but not Western-style democracy, has led some analysts and foreign policy makers to question the wisdom of promoting democracy as a core theme of U.S. Africa policy. Lately, the focus has been on the leaders who have come to power in Central Africa and the Horn?Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and Laurent Kabila of the former Zaire (Dan Connell and Frank Smyth, Africa's New Bloc, March/April 1998). Attention has focused on these five because upon taking power all inherited economic basket cases, and some the legacy of civil war. What sets this group apart is not their newness or cohesiveness as a