Heterogeneous Countries Research Articles

Heterogeneous country responses to the Great Recession: the role of supply chains

The one time shock of the Great Recession in 2008/9 opens up the opportunity to study the sensitivity of countries to global economic shocks. Some countries are more resilient to global shocks than others. The authors analyze the link between the country response to the Great Recession and participation in global supply chains. Their preferred measure of supply chains is the Grubel–Lloyd index, which enables us to use detailed trade data over longer periods of time. The main finding is that strong involvement in global supply chains slows down the recovery of countries to recessions. Europe, which is heavily involved in global supply chains, is a case in point.

Transboundary Pollution Control and Competitiveness Concerns in a Two-Country Differential Game

We analyze a transboundary pollution control problem in a heterogeneous two-country differential game in which each country’s regulator cares for the implications of environmental policy on its competitiveness. We characterize and compare the noncooperative and the cooperative solutions, showing that under both scenarios, the heterogeneous countries impose different tax rates despite such competitiveness concerns. This may suggest that, while implementing some kind of mitigation policy is necessary to combat climate change, a universally homogeneous environmental tax may not be either desirable or optimal.

Does Smallness Enhance Power-Sharing? Explaining Suriname’s Multiethnic Democracy

ABSTRACTPointing to a number of informal dynamics in small societies that are supposed to enhance cooperation and consensus, traditional studies on power-sharing posit that small states are ‘most likely’ candidates for stable, multiethnic democracy. These assumptions are, however, challenged by the case study literature on small states which highlights a variety of informal patterns that undermine democratic governance. Addressing this contradiction, the present paper provides an in-depth analysis of power-sharing politics in Suriname, a small, culturally heterogeneous country in South America that initially figured as a prominent case in consociational theory. The analysis reveals that the smallness of Suriname strongly affects and shapes the nature of democracy in the country. On the one hand, clientelism ensures that members of each ethnic group included in power-sharing arrangements have access to state resources and services, thus providing a large measure of political stability. On the other hand, clientelism undermines the functioning of multiethnic democracy by a host of negative side effects, among which economic and social dependency of citizens, executive dominance and authoritarian politics, endemic corruption that goes largely unpunished, and state predation by elites. The upshot is that whereas power-sharing arrangements in small societies might indeed be facilitated by a small population size, there is a heavy price to pay in terms of the quality of democracy.

The Representation of Micro-diverse Koreans

Abstract South Korea has changed from a culturally homogeneous to a heterogeneous country through international marriages and “multicultural families.” This produces a unique kind of diversity in the experiences of families and individual persons, which may require political representation. This phenomenon of multiplicitous identity can be called “micro-diversity.” Although Korea has multicultural policies in response, its difference blind legislative representation is problematised in the process. Existing research into “descriptive representation” has explained why existing groups should be represented by members for reasons of significant historical disadvantages. These theories remain inapplicable or opposed to representing micro-diversity in Korea, where group attachment amongst micro-diverse persons is currently unclear. The paper shows, however, that potential groups are always part of representative relationships and that these are never equivalent to current constituencies. Hence, compelling norms of descriptive representation for potential groups may be articulated, which justify descriptive representation for micro-diverse Koreans.

Individual, situational, and cultural correlates of acquiescent responding: Towards a unified conceptual framework

Acquiescence ('yea-saying') can seriously harm the validity of self-report questionnaire data. Towards a better understanding of why some individuals and groups acquiesce more strongly than others do, we developed a unified conceptual framework of acquiescent responding. Our framework posits that acquiescent responding is a joint function of respondent characteristics (e.g. age, education, values), situational/survey characteristics (e.g., interview privacy, respondents' interest), and cultural characteristics (e.g., social norms, economic development). The framework posits two putative mechanisms through which these characteristics may relate to acquiescence: cognitive processing capacities and deferential communication styles. Multilevel analyses using data from 60 heterogeneous countries from the World Values Survey (N=90,347) support our framework's proposition that acquiescence is a joint function of respondent, situational, and cultural characteristics. Acquiescence was higher among respondents who were older (over 55years old), less educated, who valued deference (i.e., conformity and tradition), and, unexpectedly, were male. Interview privacy corresponded to lower acquiescence, but this association was small and vanished after including respondent characteristics. Unexpectedly, acquiescence was higher in interviewees who showed a stronger interest in the interview. Finally, acquiescence was considerably higher in countries with stronger social norms of deference. We discuss implications of these findings for the validity of research based on self-report data and delineate how our framework can guide future inquiries into acquiescent responding.

Environmental awareness: The case of climate change

The extent of provision of a public good often relies on social awareness and public support for it. This applies, in particular, to global reduction of greenhouse gases and its relevance for mitigating climate change. We examine the concept of “public awareness” by introducing a formal model that analyzes efforts to mitigate climate change in a setting with heterogeneous countries. In the theoretical part we examine the Nash equilibrium of the contribution game. The effects of awareness and economic parameters on mitigation efforts can be disentangled, raising the possibility of linking awareness of climate change with economic wealth. The second part provides some empirical observations and offers the rankings of countries regarding awareness for climate change, as well as an empirical relationship between awareness and economic wealth.

Do heterogeneous countries respond differently to oil price shocks?

The article studies the macroeconomic impact of oil price changes driven by oil supply, oil-specific demand and economic activity shocks in 17 highly heterogeneous countries. Countries are classified in seven groups: advanced, emerging, oil exporters, oil importers, with energy price controls and without energy price controls. We study the response of industrial activity, inflation, interest rates and exchange rates to oil price shocks. The results show that the level of development is the main factor explaining the differences in the way countries react to oil price shocks. Then, such differences can be condensed comparing two groups: advanced vs. emerging economies. Remarkably, our results indicate that there are no significant differences in the response of industrial production between oil exporters and importers. This suggests an important reduction in the profits for oil exporters derived from increases in oil prices. We posit, as potential explanations of the latter finding the recent evolution of the export markets, the decline in the energy intensity of the global economy and the degree of trade openness.

PENDIDIKAN AGAMA ISLAM (PAI) DALAM PENANGGULANGAN RADIKALISME

Indonesia is a plural and heterogeneous country, and has the potential for multi-ethnic, cultural, multi-religious wealth, all of which are the potential to build a large multicultural country, any religion has a tendency to carry out truth claims because religion is a belief value that must be held firmly by its adherents, the attitude of the truth claim will be positive if it is only intrinsic Orientation in its appreciation and application, not for extrinsic orientation that causes negative prejudice and conflict. Intrinsic religion fulfills all life with motivation and meaning, while extrinsic religion makes religion enslaved to support and justify personal interests, The aim of Islamic education is to form perfect human being.. then Islamic religious education is the solution to make followers of religion not included in the radical, by giving Learning and methods of Non-Radicalism Islamic Education,

Estimating Asian Contribution to the Brazilian Population: A New Application of a Validated Set of 61 Ancestry Informative Markers.

Estimates of different ancestral proportions in admixed populations are very important in population genetics studies, especially for the detection of population substructure effects in studies of case-control associations. Brazil is one of the most heterogeneous countries in the world, both from a socio-cultural and a genetic point of view. In this work, we investigated a previously developed set of 61 ancestry informative markers (AIM), aiming to estimate the proportions of four different ancestral groups (African, European, Native American and Asian) in Brazilian populations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to use a set of AIM to investigate the genetic contribution of all four main parental populations to the Brazilian population, including Asian contribution. All selected markers were genotyped through multiplex PCR and capillary electrophoresis. The set was able to successfully differentiate the four ancestral populations (represented by 939 individuals) and identify their genetic contributions to the Brazilian population. In addition, it was used to estimate individual interethnic admixture of 1050 individuals from the Southeast region of Brazil and it showed that these individuals present a higher European ancestry contribution, followed by African, Asian and Native American ancestry contributions. Therefore, the 61 AIM set has proved to be a valuable tool to estimate individual and global ancestry proportions in populations mainly formed by these four groups. Our findings highlight the importance of using sets of AIM to evaluate population substructure in studies carried in admixed populations, in order to avoid misinterpretation of results.

Market integration, country institutions and IPO underpricing

We extend the IPO literature analysing the role of financial market integration in the development of IPO markets and the pricing of newly listed stocks. Using a hierarchical linear model, we show that differences in underpricing between markets with high and low financial integration levels are economically significant and may explain the choice of location in the listing process. Firstly, market integration negatively affects the level of IPO underpricing by increasing the importance and efficiency of the financial intermediation process via tradable securities. Secondly, the presence of a deeper market integration has a moderation effect, which weakens the explanatory power of country institutions in the cross-country variation of IPO underpricing. Finally, we suggest a hierarchical structure be assumed for the modelling of cross-country IPO studies with heterogeneous country characteristics. Our results are robust to alternative measures of financial integration and several model specifications.

Public debt sustainability: An empirical study on OECD countries

For a panel of 21 OECD heterogeneous countries from 1991 to 2015, we study governments’ reactions to the accumulation of debt and look at whether governments voluntary take corrective measures when the debt-GDP ratio starts rising or they rather let the debt grow. We distinguish between discretionary and automatic response of primary balance of government actions, as captured by the structural component of public primary balance and by cyclical component of public primary balance. We show the existence of a systematic long-term relationship between debt and structural primary balance supporting the view that the long-term governments’ discretionary response to increases in the debt-GDP ratio is negative, that is, governments are not currently taking long-term actions that counteract the increases in debts and do not satisfy the intertemporal budget constraint. In the short term, an asymmetric fiscal policy response exploiting the output gap, by part of the political class of the countries considered, seems to emerge: it intervenes with a new deficit and debt when the output gap is positive, but it does not adopt a symmetrical correction when the situation is reversed.

The Coexistence of Different Welfare Regimes in the Same Country: A Comparative Analysis of the Brazilian Municipalities Heterogeneity

This paper demonstrates that heterogeneous countries such as Brazil have vast differences in welfare arrangements at the sub-national level. A number of social policies (social insurance, education, health and social assistance) were analysed in 5,565 Brazilian municipalities along five dimensions: expenditure, coverage, share of private spending, family structure and poverty. The grade of membership method was used to cluster municipalities and identify the main differences in their welfare regimes. Factor analysis was also used to explore which dimensions are most relevant in characterizing these sub-national regimes. The results show highly heterogeneous institutional forms of social protection across municipalities, which are classified as social assistance, quasi-social assistance, corporative, quasi-corporative, family insurance and intermediary welfare regimes.

Darwin's naturalization hypothesis does not explain the spread of nonnative weed species naturalized in México.

BackgroundDespite numerous tests of Darwin’s naturalization hypothesis (DNH) evidence for its support or rejection is still contradictory. We tested a DNH derived prediction stating that nonnative species (NNS) without native congeneric relatives (NCR) will spread to a greater number of localities than species with close relatives in the new range. This test controlled the effect of residence time (Rt) on the spread of NNS and used naturalized species beyond their lag phase to avoid the effect of stochastic events in the establishment and the lag phases that could obscure the NCR effects on NNS.MethodsWe compared the number of localities (spread) occupied by NNS with and without NCR using 13,977 herbarium records for 305 NNS of weeds. We regressed the number of localities occupied by NNS versus Rt to determine the effect of time on the spread of NNS. Then, we selected the species with Rt greater than the expected span of the lag phase, whose residuals were above and below the regression confidence limits; these NNS were classified as widespread (those occupying more localities than expected by Rt) and limited-spread (those occupying fewer localities than expected). These sets were again subclassified into two groups: NNS with and without NCR at the genus level. The number of NNS with and without NCR was compared using χ2 tests and Spearman correlations between the residuals and the number of relatives. Then, we grouped the NNS using 34 biological attributes and five usages to identify the groups’ possible associations with spread and to test DNH. To identify species groups, we performed a nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis and evaluated the influences of the number of relatives, localities, herbarium specimens, Rt, and residuals of regression. The Spearman correlation and the Mann–Whitney U test were used to determine if the DNH prediction was met. Additionally, we used the clustering objects on subsets of attributes (COSA) method to identify possible syndromes (sets of biological attributes and usages) associated to four groups of NNS useful to test DNH (those with and without NCR and those in more and fewer localities than expected by Rt).ResultsResidence time explained 33% of the variation in localities occupied by nonnative trees and shrubs and 46% of the variation for herbs and subshrubs. The residuals of the regression for NNS were not associated with the number or presence of NCR. In each of the NMDS groups, the number of localities occupied by NNS with and without NCR did not significantly differ. The COSA analysis detected that only NNS with NCR in more and fewer localities than expected share biological attributes and usages, but they differ in their relative importance.DiscussionOur results suggest that DNH does not explain the spread of naturalized species in a highly heterogeneous country. Thus, the presence of NCR is not a useful characteristic in risk analyses for naturalized NNS.

Impact of innovation on economic development: Cross nation comparison of Canada, South Korea and Pakistan

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of innovation on three heterogeneous countries, Canada, South Korea, and Pakistan by using the consistent time series data from 1991-2011. The results confirmed the positive association between innovation and country’s economic growth controlling the factors of FDI inflows, R&D expenditures, high technology exports, patent applications residents, and scientific & technical journals. The study conclude that technological innovation have a substantial impact on increasing country’s economic growth, hence it is imperative to device strong policies to attract foreign investors to devote resources in a host country for development.

Integrasi Triadik Tafsir al-Qur’an: Upaya Penyelesaian Problem Kontemporer Indonesia

Islam is a religion raḥmatan lil ‘ālamīn and has major source of al-Qur’an shalih li kulli zaman wa makan that contains everything about human life, but the Koran can’t speak for themselves; it requires the efforts of dialogue between man and the Koran to dynamic the verses of the Koran in human life anywhere and anytime, including in Indonesia in the contemporary era. Indonesia is the largest and poverty issues. A variety of complex issues in Indo- nesia can be solved by using an alternative solution offers integration concept triadic that includes the integration between Islam, Indonesia, and science, by constructed the concept of triadic that Islam expected more grounded and dynamic in society to address the problems of contemporary Indonesian.Muslim population in the world. But although Indonesia is categorized as the largest Muslim country, as a heterogeneous country, Indonesia has a lot of issues of particular concern and should be resolved quickly and accurately, the problems faced by Indonesia most such as corruption.

Integrating Airborne Hyperspectral, Topographic, and Soil Data for Estimating Pasture Quality Using Recursive Feature Elimination with Random Forest Regression

Accurate and efficient monitoring of pasture quality on hill country farm systems is crucial for pasture management and optimizing production. Hyperspectral imaging is a promising tool for mapping a wide range of biophysical and biochemical properties of vegetation from leaf to canopy scale. In this study, the potential of high spatial resolution and airborne hyperspectral imaging for predicting crude protein (CP) and metabolizable energy (ME) in heterogeneous hill country farm was investigated. Regression models were developed between measured pasture quality values and hyperspectral data using random forest regression (RF). The results proved that pasture quality could be predicted with hyperspectral data alone; however, accuracy was improved after combining the hyperspectral data with environmental data (elevation, slope angle, slope aspect, and soil type) where the prediction accuracy for CP was R2CV (cross-validated coefficient of determination) = 0.70, RMSECV (cross-validated root mean square error) = 2.06%, RPDCV (cross-validated ratio to prediction deviation) = 1.82 and ME: R2CV = 0.75, RMSECV = 0.65 MJ/kg DM, RPDCV = 2.11. Interestingly, the accuracy was further out-performed by considering important hyperspectral and environmental variables using RF combined with recursive feature elimination (RFE) (CP: R2CV = 0.80, RMSECV = 1.68%, RPDCV = 2.23; ME: R2CV = 0.78, RMSECV = 0.61 MJ/kg DM, RPDCV = 2.19). Similar performance trends were noticed with validation data. Utilizing the best model, spatial pasture quality maps were created across the farm. Overall, this study showed the potential of airborne hyperspectral data for producing accurate pasture quality maps, which will help farm managers to optimize decisions to improve environmental and economic benefits.

Labor market trends in a low and heterogeneous productivity country. Evidence from Argentina’s manufacturing

ABSTRACT During Substitution Industrialization (1930-1975), wages rose, and unemployment and poverty were low. During the “neoliberal process” (1976-2002) the liberalization of the goods and financial markets resulted in the regression of the productive structure, high unemployment and the decline of real wages. Finally, since the collapse of 2002, Argentina has had enormous success in terms of unemployment, with limited achievements in wages or poverty. This paper tries to answer why Argentina faces difficulties to return to past labor market figures highlighting the process of capital differentiation and the new international division of labor.

The impact of air transportation, railways transportation, and port container traffic on energy demand, customs duty, and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of low-, middle-, and high -income countries

The transportation sector is highly sensitive due to the excessive use of energy, which though generates sufficient amount of income in terms of customs duty that supports country's per capita income; however, its effect largely the energy security issues across the globe. This study examines the impact of air transportation, railways transportation, and container port traffic on energy demand, customs duty, and economic growth in a panel of 40 heterogeneous countries, which comprises 16 low income & lower middle income (LI&LMI) countries and 24 upper middle & high income (UM&HI) countries for the period of 1990–2015. The study employed panel econometric techniques which account for cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity. The results show that air-railways transportation has a positive and significant relationship with the energy demand (ED) in aggregated panel, whereas air-railways passengers carried positively influenced ED in LI&LMI countries, and railways transported goods (RT) significantly increases ED in UM&HI countries. Air freight (AF) and railways passengers carried (RPC) escalate customs duty (CUD) in aggregated panel, while RPC positively influences CUD in LI&LMI countries, and AF significantly increases CUD in UM&HI countries. Container port traffic (CPT) positively influenced per capita income (GDPPC) across countries. The causality estimates confirmed the bidirectional relationship, unidirectional, reverse causality, and no causal relationships between the studied variables with different transportation modes. The estimates of impulse response function (IRF) suggest that transportation (except RPC) and growth factors will positively influence ED in aggregated panel while differential impacts of transportation and growth factors will affect CUD over a next 30 years time period. The variance decomposition analysis (VDA) shows that GDPPC will largely influence by ED and least influenced by CUD, while CPT will greatly affect by CUD and least influenced by AF, over a next 30 years period. The overall results provoked the need of transportation energy infrastructure that desirable for long-term sustainable growth across countries.

Stillbirth prevalence in Brazil: an exploration of regional differences

ObjectiveBrazil is a large, heterogeneous, and diverse country, marked by social, economic, and regional inequalities. Stillbirth is a global concern, especially in low‐ and middle‐income countries. This study investigated the prevalence and possible determinants of stillbirth in different regions of Brazil. MethodsThis is a cross‐sectional study including all women of reproductive age who had had a pregnancy in the last five years, enrolled in the most recent Brazilian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS/PNDS‐2006/07). Logistic regression was used to assess the association between region and other maternal characteristics and stillbirth risk. ResultsThe prevalence of stillbirth in Brazil was 14.82 per 1000 births, with great variation by region of the country, and a higher prevalence among the most deprived. The North and Northeast regions had the highest odds of stillbirth compared to the Center‐West, which persisted after adjustment for multiple confounders – including deprivation level and ethnicity. Low maternal age and maternal obesity were also related to higher odds of stillbirth. ConclusionIn Brazil, the region influences stillbirth risk, with much higher risk in the North and Northeast. Variation in socioeconomic level does not explain this finding. Further research on the subject should explore other possible explanations, such as antenatal care and type of delivery, as well as the role of the private and public health systems in determining stillbirth. Preventive strategies should be directed to these historically disadvantaged regions, such as guaranteeing access and quality of care during pregnancy and around the time of birth.

Age-of-Arrival Effects on the Education of Immigrant Children: A Sibling Study

We analysed the effects of late entry on the human capital of immigrant children, and investigated the channels via which age-at-migration affects the native-immigrant education gap. Ordinary-least-squares estimates could have been biased if parents factored the age of children into their migration decision. Using a sample of siblings from the 2000 US Census, we employed a family fixed-effects estimation strategy and found a negative and convex relationship between human capital and age-of-arrival. Teenage entrants’ outcomes were worst affected compared to younger entrants. Language was found to be an important mediating factor via which age-of-arrival influenced education. The critical age for English proficiency was 8–10. Age-of-arrival affected education not only through language but also via heterogeneous origin country conditions. The additional privileges of birth-right citizenship, if any, were disentangled from the benefits of zero age-of-arrival for natives. Citizenship by birth provided few advantages, except for college enrollment. Results were robust to sample selection changes.