Non-economic Variables Research Articles

The information society: an international perspective

Introduction: Politics and the Information Society Part I: The Information Workforce in Developing Countries Measurement and Cross-National Comparisons of the Information Workforce Explaining Information Workforce Growth in Developing Countries Part II: Diffusion of Information Technologies in the Developing World: A Matter of Politics Rather Than Markets Politics as a Driver of Information Technology Diffusion The Impact of Government Policy on the Process of Technological Substitution The Impact of Government Policy on Information Technology Transfer Non-Economic Variables as Drivers of Diffusion of Information Technologies among Governments Part III: General Conclusion Bibliography Index

International Forest Projects: Trends, Profitability and Financing

International forest projects financed by development assistance agencies or international lending institutions, have evolved during the last 20 years from industrial forest management projects to agroforestry/watershed conservation projects. A 1985 World Resources Institute report calls for the investment of $8 billions US over the period 1987-91 to fight deforestation. International forest projects ex-ante rates of return are found to be well above 10%. Non-economic variables and economic variables are listed to explain a 50% discrepancy between those and ex-post rates of return of forest plantation projects in West Africa. The financial and economic analysis is defined and proposed to improve their financing. Key words: Tropical forestry action plan, rates of return, common property, externalities, private and public sectors participation.

Paying dues to the union: A study of blue-collar workers in a right-to-work environment

Of the 39 states that permit some form of public sector collective bargaining, union security agreements are prohibited in 19. Employees may join and pay dues to the union representing them in these states but they are not required to do so. This study of 372 state government workers compares union dues-payers and non-dues-payers on a variety of personal, positional, economic, and noneconomic variables. Workers who were exposed to more physical danger and less noise were more likely to be dues-payers; higher seniority workers and skilled craftworkers were more likely to pay dues. Results suggest that union voting and union dues-paying have different antecedents. They also raise questions about the generalizability of previous dues-paying research to blue-collar settings. Holding a union card in a right-to-work environment seems to have little to do with the traditional collective pursuit of economic power.

The literature of demography; its characteristics and changes over time

Changes in the characteristics of the demographic literature between 1964 and 1984 are reviewed by means of a statistical comparison of the entries in Population Index for the subjects pertaining to population movements: fertility, (including fertil ity controls), mortality, nuptiality and migrations. The number of studies on interrelations between demography and economic or non-economic variables declined drastically. A similar de cline in historical demography (and possibly also in regional studies) may be due to changes in editonal policy. The share of mortality studies from developing countnes increased consider ably. The percentage of publications in English is increasing. There was a marked growth in the percentage of reports of various kinds, matched by a sharp drop in the number of books published. Tentative explanations for some of these seemingly surpnsing trends are offered; they involve the con traceptive revolution, the development of epidemiological re search, the improvement in the quality of vital data in develop ing countries, the nsing cost of book production, and the increasing use of the English language in foreign journals.

Energy Demand Analysis in Developing Countries: A Review

Energy demand analysis is an important component of integrated energy planning and policy in developing countries. Planners and policy makers need to have a good understanding of the factors affecting growth and pattern of energy demand before they can proceed to make demand projections for the future. Given the capital intensity and long gestation periods of energy investments, supply bottlenecks, and adverse effects of energy shortages, detailed demand studies need to be under taken at the aggregate and sectoral levels. An analysis of the influence of price and nonprice variables on energy demand would also be neces sary for designing policy measures relating to energy conservation. Energy demand analysis (EDA) involves (a) assembling and presenting a consistent set of data on consumption of various forms of energy, (b) estimating the level of shortage or unfulfilled demand at rele vant price ranges, and (c) quantifying the relationship of energy demand with relevant economic and noneconomic variables such as income, population, prices of different energy sources and their substitutes, changes in technology, etc. In the context of developing countries, EDA becomes complex on account of the following factors: (i) Apart from the compilation of data on commercial fuels, there is a need to estimate the consumption of traditional (or non commercial) forms of energy (biomass as well as animate sources)

Illegal Migration and US Immigration Reform: A Conceptual Framework

This paper presents a conceptual framework for analyzing international illegal migration from developing countries. The model postulates that the decision to migrate is some function of the expected income differential between the home and destination countries where this differential comprises not only home and destination wage and unemployment rates but also 2 new variables unique to decision making by illegal migrants--the probability of capture and deportation and the degree of wage discrimination against illegal workers. The model implies that illegal migration responds to a variety of economic and noneconomic variables that are either negligible or nonexistent in an analysis of internal domestic and legal international migration. Through a simulation that reflects the current environment in which illegal migration from Mexico into the US takes place the model is used to evaluate the impact of the 1986 Simpson-Rodino Immigration Reform and Control Act designed to curb the inflow of illegal migrants through the imposition of employer penalties and increased border apprehension. The simulation reveals some major weaknesses of the legislation. (authors)

Assessing the Relationship between Quality of Life and Marital and Income Satisfaction: A Path Analytic Approach

In a study of factors directly and indirectly involved with the quality of life for married couples, economic and noneconomic variables appeared to cluster and show two pathsfor husbands and wives to satisfaction with quality of life. Path analysis revealed that agreement over financial expenditures contributed to satisfaction with quality of life indirectly, through satisfaction with spouse for husbands and through satisfaction with spouse and income satisfaction for wives. Increased understanding of the role of disagreements over finances and other family satisfactions in contributing to family well-being may give counselors a firmer foundation upon which to build intervention strategies with their clients.

Faculty intentions to unionize: Theory and evidence

In this paper, we test the Farber/Saks model of why workers join unions. Specifically, we find that their model can be extended to intentions to unionize among university professors. Significant predictors of the intention to unionize include economic variables, job security variables, and other noneconomic variables.

Estimating the demand for library service: theory and practice.

AbstractIssues related to the demand for library service are not new to library administrators and other information scientists. However, formal economic analysis of that demand is just beginning. This paper has two objectives: to explain the theoretical links between the demand for library service and key economic variables and to describe how demand was estimated in one specific experimental context: the demand for library service of institutional users of the Cleveland Health Sciences Library. This study is cited to illustrate some problems that are likely to arise in attempting to estimate statistically the parameters of library demand functions. The need for more precise economic analysis of library demand has grown as forms of information that have traditionally been provided free to users begin to acquire explicit price tags. This trend is likely to continue. Most economic models for setting library user fees require specific inputs about the demand for information and the sensitivity of demand to changes in economic variables. Even in situations where user fees are not applicable, an understanding of the demand function can be useful in predicting how the amount of library service demanded might change if underlying economic or noneconomic variables change. As more complete data become available, economic analysis of library demand will be employed more frequently as a policymaking tool.

Testing the economic theory of fertility with cross-sectional and change data.

Abstract Previous tests of the economic theory of fertility using multivariate regression techniques have generally analyzed only cross‐sectional data. Some students of fertility, notably Janowitz (1973a,b), have argued that such studies must also be conducted with change data. This paper presents tests of the economic theory of fertility with both cross‐sectional and change data for the 48 contiguous states. The cross‐sectional analyses examined the effects of male and female income on the marital fertility of 20–24 year olds for 1950, 1960, and 1970 while controlling for the effects of education, urbanization, race, religion, and population density. Controlling for the effects of the same noneconomic variables, a second set of multivariate regression analyses examined the effects of changes in male and female income on changes in the level of marital fertility of 20–24 year olds during the 1950–60 and 1960–70 periods. Both the analyses with cross‐sectional data and change scores provided support for the...

Demand for Electric Energy in the United States

A model predicting elasticities is more useful in the prediction of growth in electric power demand than the usual extrapolative techniques. Model projections for compound base demand estimate an annual rate of 8.02% from 1970 to 1990. Each sector is projected for alternative price assumptions. Demand of all sectors is assumed to be a function of electricity and gas prices, per capita income, and several non-economic variables. In addition, demand in the residential sector is considered a function of the number of customers; the commercial sector of output and cost of labor; and the industrial sector of value added in manufacturing, minerals production, labor costs, and climate. Regression results indicate that price elasticity is significant in residential and commercial sectors, and significantly greater in the industrial sector. (14 references) (DCK)

Nutrition and human capital formation: The Urban deprived Mexican American youth

One of the preconditions for participation in urban development, or any economic development, may well be a proper diet. Yet little is understood about the demand function for nutrition—particularly that of minorities. This study uses regression analysis applied to field research data in an effort to yield insight into the demand for nutrition of urban deprived single Mexican-American youth ages 14 to 21 years old. The regression equation includes both economic and noneconomic dependent variables. The results indicate that there exists a synergistic relationship between economic and noneconomic variables influencing the demand for nutrition. The facts that the economic variable income had no relationship to diet led the writer to conclude there are two types of poverty, internalized and external, and that the preponderance of the literature contains data and reasoning taken from the external group where there apparently is a relationship between income and diet. Internalized poverty means a psychological inability to provide for the future, i.e., incapable of engaging in activities that are spaced over time. External poverty means a temporary situational poverty directly connected to the prevaling economic conditions.

Internal external poverty and nutritional determinants of urban slum youth

The purpose of the study was to determine which commonly selected economic variables affected the nutrition of urban slum youth. An attempt was also made to determine whether noneconomic variables ...

A Dynamic Analysis of Labor Force Participation of Married Women of Childbearing Age

The study for the first time relates labor force behavior of a panel of married women of childbearing age, over a ten-year period, to economic and noneconomic variables. The dependent variable, labor force attachment, is measured by current work behavior, work plans, and actual labor force participation for each woman over a decade. When this variable is related by multiple regression analysis to economic and sociological variables, the most important influences on a wife's labor force participation are found to be expected family size and wife's education. Since education for women is increasing and family size is expected to decrease, there should be an important increase in the labor force participation of younger married women in the coming decades.

The Use of Multivariate Analysis in Development Theory: A Critique of the Approach Adopted by Adelman and Morris

The use of multivariate techniques in development theory has been pioneered in this Journal by Irma Adelman and Cynthia Taft Morris.1 They have utilized both factor analysis (FA) and discriminant analysis (DA) to show the interrelationship between economic success and noneconomic variables. While the articles in question were very important in introducing these new tools of analysis, it is appropriate at this juncture to examine their correct usage and their relationship to each other and to multiple regression. The process of discussing these techniques inevitably develops into a critique of the Adelman-Morris articles. This is not the whole purpose of this paper, which aims also to show how and when FA and DA should be used. The paper is in two sections, the first concentrating on factor analysis and the second on discriminant analysis. In each case the procedure adopted is to commence by outlining the general methodology behind the technique, so as to give a background to the following discussion. The discussion first considers the applications of the technique in development theory and then its use in the AdelmanMorris articles.

The Determinants of University Participation in Canada (1977–2003)

The decision to attend university is influenced by a large set of factors, ranging from economic considerations that affect affordability to family characteristics such as parental education levels. We examine the relationship between university participation and various economic and non-economic variables over the past twenty-five years in Canada. We quantify the importance of the various factors in the data sets available to us in order to understand trends in university participation and, in particular, to take account of the increasingly greater propensity of young women than men to attend university.

Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development

Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development

Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development.

Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development.

Book Review: Labor Economics: Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development

Book Review: Labor Economics: Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development

Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development.

Toward an Integrated Theory of Development: Economic and Noneconomic Variables in Rural Development.