Period Of Rapid Economic Change Research Articles

Food systems transformation, animal-source foods consumption, inequality, and nutrition in Myanmar

AbstractThis study traces the consumption of animal-source foods (ASF) during a period of rapid economic change and food system transformation in Myanmar. We use data from two nationally representative consumption surveys conducted in 2010 and 2015 and food composition tables to estimate the contributions of ASF to estimated average requirements (EARs) of key nutrients among population subgroups differentiated by geography and economic status. We find: (1) Little change in the average quantity of ASF consumed per individual, but substantial changes in the composition of the ASF consumed. (2) Increasing rural–urban and income-linked inequality in quantities of ASF and associated nutrients consumed. (3) Declines in the adequacy of intakes of five out of eight micronutrients (calcium, iron, zinc, thiamine, vitamin B12) and small increases in two (selenium and vitamin A), due to the changing composition of ASF; most importantly, reductions in the supply of diverse aquatic foods from capture fisheries and increasing availability of intensively reared chicken. (4) Elevated levels of ASF-derived total fat and sodium consumption among better-off consumers, suggesting an emerging triple burden of malnutrition. We review the implications of these results for food security, nutrition-sensitive policies and interventions beyond Myanmar.

Financial development and economic growth nexus in Africa

AbstractIn contemporary years, African economies have experienced a period of rapid economic change to the sustainable growth of economic development. Although the existing literature has confirmed that investment and foreign business are two central growth engines of African's economy, examinations on the impacts of financial development (FD)‐economic growth (EG) nexus using a comprehensive structure are still unusual. This paper examines the dynamic nexus between financial development‐Economic growths using a country data set covering the period 1980 to 2017 by using panel vector autoregressive and the panel quantile regression technique. The empirical results confirm that significant cointegration relationships among FD‐EG exist, no matter in the sub‐sample for the countries. At the same time the granger causality test, report that foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade granger cause per capita gross domestic product. The motivation of the empirical investigation lies in reviewing the broad effect of financial development‐economic growth nexus and providing precise recommendations to policymakers. Also, to make the conclusion more relevant, we discussed the results for the subsamples for the developing African countries (Western, Southern, Northern, Central, and Eastern). Distinctive indicators for financial development are applied to affirm the stability and robustness of the estimation outcomes. Further restructuring the financial system and accelerating the change of the economic structure are dynamic for African's sustainable economic growth.

Postsecondary Education in Canada: Returns to University, College and Trades Education

By international standards, the level of educational attainment in Canada is exceptionally high, with the proportion of adult Canadians holding postsecondary educational certificates being more than twice the OECD average. This remarkable ranking is primarily the result of high participation in non-university postsecondary educational sectors: colleges, trades institutions, and other vocational educators. While the non-university postsecondary education (PSE) sector is clearly important in terms of both the quantity and the qualitative nature of human capital it produces, it has received very little attention in the academic literature , which has tended to focus on the outcomes of university graduates. This paper uses Census data from 1980 to 2000 to examine the evolution of the earnings premia to university, college, and trades educat i o n over a 20-year period of rapid economic change. Examining this evolution is a prerequisite to understanding the behaviour of participation in the various postsecondary education streams and to the appropriate conduct of educational and labour market policy.

Progressive Internationalism and the Road Not Taken

According to Alan Dawley's synthesis, the social conscience and political commitments of American were fundamentally shaped by their internationalist sensibility. Where other historians have diagnosed with an irrational case of status anxiety, indicted them as old-line elites out to control immigrant workers, or lamented their promotion of a regulatory system that ultimately produced conservative results, Dawley points abroad to address another dimension of the literature. Despite their diverse interests and affiliations, he argues, were fundamentally driven by a hope that the promotion of social justice and revitalization of public life in the United States would form the core of an international campaign. In a world knit together by far-flung markets and the international state system, Dawley explains, progressives confronted social problems that crossed national boundaries, and their solutions did the same (p. 3). Revolutions in Russia, China, and Mexico inspired many of them with the sense that their reformist efforts at home might become part of a wider, global transformation in which popular needs would surpass the dictates of laissez-faire, and participatory democracy would replace imperial and dictatorial tyranny. But U.S. intervention in those revolutions and the pivotal American entry into World War I divided the movement and betrayed many of its fondest hopes. The result, Dawley argues, was a sadder and wiser politics that we would still do well to emulate, a conclusion that raises fundamental questions about the concept of progressivism itself. To introduce the new internationalism that animated so many progressives, Dawley provides a series of illustrative vignettes. Rather than trying to define a single, ideological core, he focuses on the varied experiences of key individuals in a period of rapid economic change and intellectual ferment. Advances in communications, the mobility of labor forces, and the rise of an international working-class movement all led reformers like Jane

Urban agriculture in Cameroon: an anti-politics machine in the making?

Urban agriculture in Africa is a growth area for development institutions and researchers. It is often portrayed as a coping strategy through which the urban poor have adapted to structural adjustment. It is enframed in an apolitical, ahistorical way because development institutions seek to create spaces into which development projects can be inserted in the future. This paper uses a case study from the town of Buea in south-west Cameroon to illustrate the differences between the international image of urban agriculture and its practice in one particular place. The increase in agricultural production in Buea in the 1990s initially appears to conform to the standard picture of urban farming as a recent, pragmatic and unplanned response to falling household incomes. However, such a portrayal neglects the history of urban farming, the pleasure that agriculture brings to farmers and the political consequences of expanding agricultural production. One of the concrete outcomes of increased urban agriculture in Buea in the 1990s has been to act as a `safety valve' against social unrest. It has acted as an `anti-politics machine'; a mechanism through which a sensitive political operation (reducing the salaries of civil servants) is achieved through apparently disconnected apolitical acts (enabling urban households to expand agricultural production). The Cameroonian government has opportunistically encouraged urban agriculture during a period of rapid economic change as one strategy for reproducing existing social relations.

Changes in Living Arrangement and Familial Support for the Elderly in Taiwan: 1963-1991

Data from two cross sectional household surveys conducted in 1963 and 1991 in the city of Taipei arc used to study the effect of industrialization, urbanization and economic growth on intergencrational eo-residencc and family support for the elderly. Changes in attitude toward intergencrational living arrangement and financial support from children are also examined enabling the assessment of the strength of cultural factors in maintaining peoples attitude toward elderly support during a period of rapid economic change. Our results show that intergenerational co-residence has declined significantly. However, this does not necessarily jeopardize the welfare of the elderly as son’s increase income transfers to parents, compensating for non co-residence. The study also indicates that attitudinal change in respect of financial support has been much more drastic than that in respect to co-residence.

Ekonomi och identitet: de svenska judarnas ekonomiska verksamheter och självbild från 1800-talets andra hälft till 1930

The overall aim is to study first, how a very small ethnic group has coped socio-economically within the Swedish society during a period of rapid economic change and modernisation (the main period of industrialisation) and second, how this has affected Jewish self-identity and the degree of assimilation. On one hand the Jewish minority in Sweden was bound to its history and traditions, but on the other hand every generation has made its own decisions, which have led partly to a redefinition of the self. The purpose is to show that economic experiences determine modern Jewish identity just as much as religious and cultural factors. Since the end of the 18th century Jews have been permitted to settle down in Sweden. The arguments to allow this have mainly been economic: Swedes wanted Jewish know-how, capital and access to their financial networks.

Observations on training and management development in the People’s Republic of China

Gives an eye‐witness account of how training and management development policies are put into practice in Chinese state‐owned enterprises. Makes observations on how training is perceived and implemented in a period of rapid economic change. Also discusses the contribution that western countries could make and the obstacles that could be met, as a result. Draws evidence for these observations from the author’s involvement in a major United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the design and teaching of management strategy and human resource management courses to cohorts of managers from selected Chinese foreign trade corporations (FTCs). Asserts that, despite much effort being made to train and develop as many managers as possible, there is still an urgent need for appropriate management training programmes that could meet the quest for skilful and efficient managers who would be able to cope with the managerial demands of increasing economic reforms. Argues, therefore, that there is a gap between the abilities and the process of developing Chinese managers on the one hand and what is required from them for exploiting the economic reform on the other. The process of introducing and implementing training programmes in the People’s Republic of China is characterized by a clear emphasis on quantitative rather than qualitative knowledge and by a poor appreciation of training priorities, because of the way in which management is perceived and managers are controlled.

What Else Did Indians Have to Do with Their Time? Alternatives to Labor Migration in Prerevolutionary Guatemala

For the Indian population of Guatemala, the late nineteenth century brought a period of rapid economic change associated with the increase