Capital Endowments Research Articles

The Nexus between Poverty, Inequality and Growth: A Case Study of Cameroon and Kenya

Abstract We conduct an in-depth analysis of the nexus between inequality of opportunity and inclusive growth in Cameroon and Kenya employing cross-sectional data collected over two time periods in each country. Empirical results show that changes in education, health and labour market endowments have large effects on household economic well-being, as proxied by total expenditures per adult equivalent. Employing the regression-based decomposition, we find that effort-based variables are associated with greater Gini inequality compared with circumstance-based variables—more so for Cameroon than Kenya. Among the effort-based variables, education in Cameroon and health in Kenya, are the main correlates of income inequality. The factual and counterfactual distribution analyses undertaken demonstrate that equalisation of human capital endowments is strongly inequality-reducing and further promotes pro-poor growth. Meanwhile, elimination of circumstance disparities in Cameroon reduces Gini inequality, enhances pro-poorness of the growth process, promotes shared-prosperity in urban areas and reduces inequality between the tails of the distribution of well-being. In Kenya, elimination of circumstance-based disparities is pro-poor improving, shared prosperity enhancing, but Gini inequality augmenting. In contrast to the Cameroonian case, equalisation of circumstances increases inequality between the tails of the distribution of well-being. The mechanisms behind these findings are probably the country-specific redistributive policies.

Mind the gap: an empirical analysis of pay discrimination in Hollywood

PurposeThis study aims to identify and explain a possible gender pay gap in the creative industry. By using the salary information of Hollywood actors, this paper restricts the analysis to a relatively homogenous group of workers. In addition, actors' human capital endowments and past performance can be measured precisely. The factors that impact the salaries of movie stars are likely to influence the pay of other high-wage employees, such as athletes and executives.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a rich panel data set including 178 female and male actors in 973 movies released between 1980 and 2019. Using a random-effects model and the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition approach, this paper distinguishes between a fraction of the gender pay gap that can be explained and another fraction that cannot be explained. Hence, only the unexplained residual typically obtained by estimating two standard Mincer-type earnings functions is due to discriminatory pay practices.FindingsThis study reveals a pay difference between female and male actors. Gender-specific representation in leading roles and systematic differences in performance measures can explain this pay difference. While female actors' underrepresentation in leading roles reflects consumer tastes and, therefore, reflects discriminatory attitudes, no evidence can be found for direct pay discrimination in Hollywood's movie business.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first Hollywood study to relying on a rich panel data set that includes various measures of the human capital characteristics of the different individual actors. This paper's theoretical contribution lies in applying classic labor economics reasoning to explain pay determination in Hollywood's movie business.

Economic risk assessment of climate change at the city level. The case of Cape Town, South Africa

ABSTRACTEstimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remains highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in middle-income cities to inform municipal climate response strategies. Building on a capital-based framework (CBF), spatially disaggregated baseline and future scenario scores for economic wealth and its exposure to climate change are developed for six different classes of capital across 77 major suburbs in Cape Town, South Africa. Capital-at-risk was calculated by combining relative exposure and capital scores across different scenarios, with population impacted for major suburbs and the city’s eight main planning districts. The economic risk assessment presented here provides a generic approach to assist city managers through an enhanced understanding of the relative levels of capital endowment across the city vis-à-vis relative levels of exposure to climate-related hazards over time.

The Restrictive Factors of Migrant Workers Returning Home to Be an Entrepreneurship Under the Background of Rural Revitalization

In 2017, based on the new requirements of agricultural development, the Party and the state put forward the "rural revitalization strategy" for the new era, which is a precise guide for China's overall planning for agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the future. Rural revitalization, "prosperity" in industrial development, innovation and entrepreneurship is the primary way. In view of the historical experience, the party and the state fully realize that talent is the key element to realize the "butterfly change to prosperity" of the rural industry. Migrant workers, as the "elite immigrants" who stand out among China's rural population, migrant workers have become an important human resource for the Party and the country to realize rural revitalization. The Party and the country have continuously helped migrant workers to return to their hometown to start their own businesses from the policy and legal level, attracting a large number of migrant workers to participate in rural entrepreneurship activities. However, entrepreneurship is a complex and arduous business activity, which cannot achieve the best effect of rural industrial revitalization due to the lack of personal capital endowment, the deviation of the entrepreneurship policy of returning migrant workers, and the constraints of venture capital and financing. Therefore, migrant workers should strive to learn their own entrepreneurial knowledge and skills; local governments need to improve entrepreneurship education and training, policy adjustment and financial financing.

Firm‐level productivity growth returns of social capital: Evidence from Western Europe

AbstractWe analyze the firm‐level labor productivity growth returns of social capital—defined as a synthetic measure of “generalized trust,” “active participation,” and “social norms”—using a large sample of manufacturing firms in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. We find that firms' labor productivity growth is higher in areas with a better social capital endowment. The positive returns of social capital are, nevertheless, unevenly distributed across firms, with smaller, less productive, less capital‐endowed, and low‐tech firms benefitting the most from operating in strong social capital ecosystems.

A joint spatial econometric model for regional FDI and output growth.

This paper studies the joint dynamics of foreign direct investments (FDI) and output growth in European regions by using spatially augmented systems of equations modeling framework that incorporates third-region and spillover effects. The joint framework is used to study the dynamic impacts of regional human capital endowments, which demonstrates the importance of explicitly accounting for an endogenous relationship. The relationship is highlighted in a stylized projection exercise, where the long-run impacts are pronounced in Eastern Europe and capital cities. Overall, ignoring the relationship of regional economic performance and FDI distorts the implied transmission mechanism, which is of utmost importance for policy makers.

Fantastic Corruption and the Underdevelopment of Nigeria: The Spectators Paradigm

A lot of hypotheses and theories have been adduced to analyse and explain the fact of endemic corruption and its deleterious effects on the development imperatives of Nigeria, where some of these explicating assumptions have tended toward overuse and monotony, hence the need for new ideas regarding both descriptive endeavors and prescribed remedies. In all these, Nigeria, despite its supposedly flourishing potential has found it difficult to achieve the level of development that is proportional to its human and capital endowments, not as much as by other reasons than by the fact of the recycling of an insincere class of leaders who, either as former military or civilian administrators, promised to fight corruption before taking office, but do exactly the opposite, and or are enmeshed in worse corruption controversies than the previous regimes. This paper innovates on both the conceptual exposition of corruption as was captured by the former Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron and the utilization of an evolving theory-bound paradigm – the Spectators Approach to explain Nigeria’s leadership behavioral schemes in cajoling the masses to vote for them, but not doing much in line with their earlier sold promises/manifestoes, after gaining office. The paper recommends, among others, that all former presidents should be investigated and called to account regarding all direct and indirect corruption allegations levelled against them and that they should be tried where found guilty, otherwise, there would be no persuasive deterrent for future Nigerian leaders.

Analysis of strengths and weaknesses of land reform farms of diverse farmers and uses in the Waterberg District, South Africa

In this study, we aimed to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of land reform (LR) farms (‘farm issues’) because the lack of understanding of these issues could partly be the cause of limited livelihood gains from these farms. Furthermore, the examination of these issues provided specific recommendations to each group of farms, which could improve LR farmers' livelihood gains. We investigated 50 LR farms in the Waterberg District Municipality (WDM), Limpopo Province, in South Africa. A survey was conducted, literature about the consequences of climate change and prospects for financial support from the state was reviewed, and a stakeholder workshop was organised. We used Fisher-Freeman-Halton exact test to analyse survey data and conducted strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to explore strategic issues. Farms were classified into 3 groups based on their SWOT issues: A-better-off farms dominated by extensive land uses (n = 22), B- better-off farms dominated by intensive land uses (n = 24), and C- poor farms dominated by either extensive or intensive uses (n = 4). Farmers' social class, conditions of farm physical capital endowment, and the characteristics of the land use activities determined the strengths and weaknesses of LR farms. Strengths of group A farms were good physical capital and less external financial support requirements, and weaknesses were that partnerships were unlikely and family labour was costly. The distinct strength of group B farms was that partnerships were likely, and their high need for external financial support was a distinct weakness. Group C farms had distinct strengths in that family labour was cheap, and insufficient physical capital was their weakness. Acknowledging the diversity in strengths and weaknesses of farms is essential for land reform to play a critical role in rural development. We envisage that financial support from the state, will yield improved production in poor farms. Private investors will yield high production in the better-off farms only if farmers adopt climate-smart agricultural practices.

A qualitative and quantitative approach to the drivers of economic growth in the EU

This study assesses the effects of human capital (focusing on highly educated immigrants), knowledge creation, and global governance quality on economic output (proxied by gross domestic product [GDP] per capita) for EU member states between 2000 and 2020. First, we use a qualitative approach to emphasise the connections between GDP per capita and various determinants of economic growth by performing a social network analysis [SNA]. The results reveal that the three most important features of each network are a high GDP per capita, governance quality, and human capital endowment (low scenario, respectively). Second, we use quantitative data with which we run different econometric models, such as robust regression analysis, generalised method of moments (addressing endogeneity issues), and structural equation modelling. We find that all the regressors have a significant influence on GDP per capita, with the greatest magnitude exercised by tertiary-educated immigrants (valuable resources acquired by destination countries), followed by knowledge and governance quality indicators. These results remain robust to several changes in the empirical estimation techniques.

资本禀赋对公共服务满意度的影响研究——基于CSS (2021)的实证分析

资本禀赋对公共服务满意度的影响研究——基于CSS (2021)的实证分析

TURKISH ECONOMY IN THE BELT ROAD INITIATIVE: A GRAVITY MODEL FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE

In this paper, we attempt to analyze the determinants of international trade flows between Turkey and countries in the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project and their implications for the Turkish economy through the estimation of panel data using a gravity model. In particular, we employ the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation procedure for the nine OBOR nations from the period 2000-2021. This estimator is more robust than other methods such as pooled, fixed, and random models and it is free from the problems of autocorrelation, asymptotic bias, multicollinearity, and heteroscedasticty in the residuals for estimation and inference. First, panel unit root tests show that conducted variables are stationary at the conventional level. Second, the gravity estimations revealed that remoteness, scale, land endowment variables and, dummies (Preferential Trade Agreement and Border) in the gravity model have a positive impact, while GDP Distance and Capital Endowment have an inverse effect on trade flows. Only the language dummy is statistically insignificant. For policy purposes, we concluded that it would be better to promote trade flows with the OBOR countries.

Childcare Support Policies, Endogenous Fertility, and Human Capital Accumulation

This paper analyzes the interaction among childcare support policies, endogenous fertility, and human capital accumulation using an overlapping-generations model, which is mainly based on Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) and Cardak (2004). Although Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) consider endogenous fertility and child allowances in a model of a small open economy, they ignore educational expenditures and do not analyze human capital accumulation. Although Cardak (2004) considers human capital accumulation and assumes it is determined by governmental or parental expenditures on education and by parent’s human capital endowments, he ignores child allowances and assumes population size is constant in each period. This study considers human capital accumulation in a model introduced childcare time with endogenous fertility and assumes that child allowances and childcare facilities are financed by income tax and childcare fee. We then consider two childcare support policies―raise child allowances or expand childcare facilities―and compare the effects of both policies on endogenous fertility and human capital accumulation.

Exogenous Wage Decline, Utility Changes, Endogenous Fertility, and Human Capital Accumulation

This paper analyzes the effects of wage decline by exogenous economic shock and individuals’ utility changes on fertility rate and human capital accumulation using an overlapping-generations model, which is mainly based on Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) and Cardak (2004). Although Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) consider childcare cost and child allowances in a model of a small open economy, they ignore educational expenditures and do not analyze human capital accumulation. Although Cardak (2004) considers human capital accumulation and assumes it is determined by governmental or parental expenditures on education and by parent’s human capital endowments, he ignores childcare cost and child allowances, and assumes population size is constant in each period. This study considers human capital accumulation in a model of a closed economy with endogenous fertility. We then consider the effects of declining wage rate on fertility rate, human capital accumulation, and economic growth when an individual’s preferences for his consumption change. This paper is motivated by declining birthrate by the cost burden of educational expenses and wage decline by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in Japan. We find that increased preference for consumption of individuals decreases the number of children (reduce fertility rate), constricts human capital accumulation, and surely impairs economic growth when wage rate declines by exogenous economic shock.

Enhancing Livestock Productivity in the Desert Ecologies of Pakistan: Setting the Development Priorities.

Livestock is now sharing by more than 53 percent of total agricultural value added in Pakistan. Identifying and developing the potential areas of livestock production is part of the overall development strategy for this sector while rural poverty alleviation is a major concern of Pakistan’s overall development policy. Our major livestock production systems are grazing, stall-fed and grazing-cum-stall-fed based. Grazing based livestock farming is economical and customary system in mountainous, rainfed, deserts and salinity affected areas. The livestock herders of desert areas deserve special attention of the policy-makers because of their most deprived living conditions as majority is living below poverty line by all poverty measuring standards. The present study is aimed to generate an updated synthesis based on empirical knowledge about status of livestock farming in desert ecologies of Pakistan. The results show that the average herd sizes maintained by the herders is fairly large to cover losses due to drought, disease and other epidemics. The human and physical capital endowments of the farmers are generally poor. Other common characteristics are: major dependence on natural vegetation with limited supply of fodder, more physical exertion of animals during grazing, poor animal health, practicing natural method of breeding, low milk and meat productivity, highly limited livestock and milk marketing opportunities, etc. The stall feeding is mainly composed of dry stalks and straws of different crops along with a small quantity of food grains. On marketing side, because of location and lack of infrastructure support, milk marketing opportunities are meager, therefore, it is converted into desi ghee—a value added and preserved form which is sold in nearby town markets. In marketing of live animals, the farmers are always exploited by beoparies. On average herd size, the net monthly income in Cholistan desert from cattle (for milk), sheep and goats farming (for meat purpose) was Rs 10128, Rs 990 and Rs 508, respectively; for Thal desert the corresponding estimates were Rs 457, Rs 359 and Rs 552, respectively; and for Tharparkar, the corresponding estimates are Rs 918, Rs 3221 and Rs 331, respectively. There is a strong need of prioritising development efforts for desert ecologies. High priority areas include efforts for increasing availability of rangeland vegetation and green fodder, improvement in the genetic potential of local livestock breeds, provision of more efficient livestock health coverage, and establishment of milk collection centres of milk processing plants. The low priority areas include designing regulatory framework for milk and livestock marketing, programs for human capacity building, facilitating through institutional credit, and different incentives for the veterinary staff posted in such areas. JEL classification: Q130, Q190, Q200 Keywords: Desert, Tharparkar, Thal, Cholistan, Livestock Farming, Livestock Feeding Patterns, Feed Composition, Livestock Trade Intensity, Priority Setting.

Capital endowment, health information literacy and healthy dietary behaviors: Evidence from a survey of Chinese rural residents

Unhealthy diets threaten people’s health and this is exacerbated by capital inequality. Drawing on Bourdieu’s capital theory, this study constructs a model of residents’ healthy diet decision to analyze the effects of capital endowment and health information literacy on rural residents’ healthy dietary behaviors in China. Based on a dataset of 899 rural residents from 16 prefecture cities in Shandong Province in 2022, confirmatory factor analysis and path hypothesis test of capital endowment and health information literacy were conducted using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We examined the mediating effect of health information literacy, tested the generalizability of the healthy diet decision model by Multi-Group analysis, and examined the importance ranking of model variables by Importance-Performance map analysis. Economic capital, cultural capital, cognitive social capital, and health information literacy had a significant positive correlation with healthy dietary behaviors, among which cognitive social capital had the strongest correlation, while structural social capital did not have a significant correlation. In addition to directly influencing rural residents’ healthy dietary behaviors, health information literacy also played a mediating effect in residents’ healthy diet decision model. Our healthy diet decision model had certain generalization ability. The government and other related parties should expand the channels for rural residents to obtain cognitive social capital to improve the accessibility of cognitive social capital for rural residents and improve their ability to obtain, identify and apply health information by means of publicity and education.

Effects of ICTs on the Terms of Trade of Sub-Saharan African Economies

This paper argues that the increasing adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is a factor that improves the terms of trade of sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies. According to new theories of international trade, ICTs can change the terms of trade by increasing productivity, reducing costs, and increasing human capital endowment and specialization. Here, we use World Development Indicators (WDI) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) data over the period from 2005 to 2017 and a vector autoregression (VAR) model on a panel of 39 SSA countries to illustrate the importance of ICTs in this regard. Our results show that the change in the terms-of-trade index is positively affected by the change in the number of internet users as a percentage of mobile phone subscribers in SSA. Furthermore, an impulse response function shows that a shock that would increase the number of internet users by 10 percent of mobile phone subscribers would result in the terms-of-trade index gains of more than 5% within about a year.

Measuring music-genre preferences: Discrepancies between direct and indirect methods

Preferences are essential in explaining consumer choice and have been studied from different standpoints. Some empirical studies aimed at measuring music preferences have used direct procedures (i.e., list of genres), while other studies have used indirect measures (i.e., listening to excerpts of music). This article focuses on analyzing music-genre preferences to identify whether they differ depending on the type of measure used (direct vs. indirect), studying their consistency. A survey was conducted among 753 individuals. The results highlight not only the discrepancies of using one measure or another but also the relevance of familiarity and experience, associated with individuals’ endowment of cultural capital. Findings explain the (in)consistency of reported preferences through direct and indirect means. All in all, the research suggests that direct and indirect methods to measure music preferences may be capturing different dimensions.

Uncovering the Deviation of Farmers’ Green Manure Planting Willingness and Behavior

Planting green manure is an effective way to improve the agricultural environment and the quality of cultivated land in China. However, deviation from green manure planting willingness and behavior (DWB) becomes a serious obstacle to the promotion of green manure planting technology. For economic farmers, whether to plant green manure is a rational choice made after weighing up family endowments. In addition, ecological cognition plays a moderating role in the “willingness-behavior” transformation process of farmers’ green manure planting on the basis of family endowments. We selected four counties in which to conduct a questionnaire survey in Gansu and carried out interviews with 375 farmers. Based on the survey data, our study identified determinants that influence farmers’ DWB and examined the moderating effect of ecological cognition. In our paper, results show that the probability of farmers’ DWB is 41.87%. Farmers’ DWB is not only negatively affected by social network information and ecological compensation (eco-compensation) and positively influenced by the scale of cultivated land, but also restricted by human capital endowment characteristics such as age and education. In addition, ecological cognition played a significant moderating effect on farmers’ DWB. Farmers with high ecological cognition were more aware and capable of promoting green manure planting intentions into practice. Furthermore, different groups of farmers had different characteristics of DWB. The findings are useful and helpful in better understand the influencing factors of farmers’ DWB for policy makers and managers and can provide some effective support for policies designed to encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable green manure.

Resources or Capital?—The Quality Improvement Mechanism of Precision Poverty Alleviation by Land Elements

With China facing the challenges of fragmentation, multidimensionality, and the dynamics of relative poverty under the present situation, more attention is being paid to the role of land in poverty alleviation. In order to improve the quality of precision in poverty alleviation, it is urgent to clarify the micromechanisms of precision poverty alleviation methods that utilize land elements. On the basis of panel data from 29 provinces from 2010 to 2016, this research uses a panel vector autoregressive model to empirically analyze the mechanisms of interaction among land resource endowment, land capital endowment, and rural poverty. The research results show that the improvement of land resource endowment has had a relatively prominent effect on short-term poverty reduction, while the improvement of land capital endowment has had a relatively longer-term effect on the improvement of rural poverty. Land capital endowment and rural poverty can constitute a positive, cumulative circular effect, which can play a sustainable role in improving poverty. The increase in land resource endowment has a positive effect on land capital endowment, but excessive increases in land capital endowment were found to have a negative effect on land resource endowment. Therefore, the implementation of land element resource-based and capital-based poverty alleviation policies can distinguish between shorter-term and relatively longer-term goals, enabling a more accurate improvement of the quality of poverty alleviation. At the same time, this approach is more sustainable, since it makes full use of the circular effect constituted by land capital endowment and rural poverty. However, attention should be paid to preventing damages to land resource endowment, which can be caused by the excessive capitalization of land.

Market structure, factor endowment, and technology adoption

This paper investigates how technology adoption depends on factor endowment when new, capital-intensive technology is privately accessible. The non-competitive market structure is shown to indirectly distort factor prices in general equilibrium, resulting in a nonmonotonic capital endowment impact on static allocation efficiency and the dynamic pattern of industrial upgrading. Moreover, an increase in the initial capital endowment may delay rather than facilitate the adoption of capital-intensive technology. Private accessibility to the new technology may also result in premature adoption, overutilization, and multiple equilibria. Welfare-enhancing policies are discussed.