Tinpots,Totalitarians (and Democrats): An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Economic Growth on Civil Liberties and Political Rights

Ronald Wintrobe (1990, 1998) has recently provided atheoretical foundation for estimating equations that attemptto explain the dependence of civil liberties and politicalrights in non-democratic regimes on the history of economicgrowth. This theory suggests that data from different kinds ofnon-democratic countries should not be pooled without allowingcoefficients to vary with regime type. It also placesinteresting restrictions on the signs of the coefficients ofeconomic growth in equations explaining freedom in the typesof regimes Wintrobe identifies. In this paper, we employ theserestrictions to test Wintrobe's theory. Some additionalhypotheses about the difference between democratic andnon-democratic regimes and about the role of education, notconsidered by Wintrobe, are also investigated.The results indicate clearly that the relationship between thedegree of freedom – as measured by the sum of the Gastilindexes of civil liberties and political rights – andeconomic growth varies significantly across all types ofregimes. Totalitarians (that attempt to maximize power) areclearly different than tinpots (that just attempt to maintainpower) in this respect, and non-democratic regimes differ fromdemocracies. Other aspects of the theory are partiallyconfirmed. In particular, in totalitarian regimes, positivegrowth reduces freedom, and negative growth increases it insome specifications. The theory predicts the opposite patternfor tinpots, and we do find that negative growth reducesfreedom in tinpot regimes. However, positive growth in tinpotsalso appears to reduce freedom in some cases, which is not inaccord with the theory. Secondary schooling has a positive effect on freedom, as inprevious empirical work, a result that is shown here to holdeven when each type of regime is considered separately. Butthe effect of primary schooling is different: in tinpot andtotalitarian regimes, but not in democracies, primaryschooling is associated with reduced freedom.     

Bureaucratic Corruption and Income: Evidence from the Land Sector in Bangladesh

We examine, for the first time, the effects of corruption on income using household survey data from a developing country. Estimating the effects of corruption on income is challenging because of the simultaneous relationship between the two variables. We use a two-step instrumental variable approach to identify the effects of corruption on income. We find that after adjusting for simultaneity bias the act of bribery reduces income and that higher bribes have a negative effect on income. Taken together, our results provide a possible explanation why a vicious cycle between corruption and income inequality does not exist in the land sector in Bangladesh.     

Les étudiants et la fonction publique: une etude des perceptions,des valeurs professionnelles et de I'attrait cornparatif

Sommaire. Cette communication donne les résultats dune enquête entreprise en 1973 par ses auteurs à l'occasion de laquelle ils distribuèrent un questionnaire comprenant quarante-trois questions à 323 étudiants de deux universités et trois cégeps de la province de Québec. Les opinions exprimées par ces répon-dants indiquent qu'une trés grande majorité des étudiants préfèrent orienter leur future carrière vers le secteur privé plutôt que vers le secteur public. 11s conçoi-vent le travail dans le secteur privé comme étant créateur, captivant et comme demandant de l'initiative. Par opposition ils ont tendance à considérer que le travail dans la fonction public requiert peu d'initiatives et est routinier. Nos conclusions confirment des études antérieures suivant lesquelles les anté cédants socio-économiques des personnes questionnées déterminent leurs perceptions et leurs attitudes vis-à-vis de I'emploi. Nous avons trouvé que les étudiants des couches socio-économiques inférieures avaient une opinion plus favorable de l'emploi dans le secteur public que leurs collégues plus favorisés. Les femmes éftaient plus favorable au service public que les hommes. Les étudiants des collèges avaient une nieilleure opinion de la fonction publique que leurs anînéks des universit.és. La fonction publique fédérale a un peu plus de prestige que la fonction publique québécoise bien que les étudiants ne soient pas -plus tentés de traveler pour le gouvernement fédéral que pour le gouvernement provincial. Abstract. This paper reports the results of a survey done by the authors in 1973. A close-ended questionnaire of forty-three items was administered to 323 students of two universities and three cégeps in the province of Québec. The attitudes expressed by our sample indicate that an overwhelming majority of students prefer the private sector as opposed to the public service, for future employment. The nature of work in the private sector is perceived to be challenging, captivating, and requiring initiative. Work in the public sector is generally looked upon as routine and requiring little initiative. Our findings support the conclusions of previous studies that the socioeconomic background of the respondents determines the nature of their perceptions and attitudes towards employment. We found that the students of lower socioeconomic status were more favorably inclined towards public service than those with higher status. Women were more attracted to public service than men. The cégep students had a better image of the public service than did their seniors in the universities. The federal Public Service projects a slightly better image than the Fonction Publiqué Québécoise. However, the students are not more attracted to work for the federal government than the provincial government.     

Scanning Electron Microscopy–Energy‐Dispersive X‐Ray (SEM/EDX): A Rapid Diagnostic Tool to Aid the Identification of Burnt Bone and Contested Cremains

This study investigates the use of Scanning electron microscopy–energy‐dispersive X‐ray (SEM‐EDX) as a diagnostic tool for the determination of the osseous origin of samples subjected to different temperatures. Sheep (Ovis aries) ribs of two experimental groups (fleshed and defleshed) were burned at temperatures of between 100°C and 1100°C in 100°C increments and subsequently analyzed with the SEM‐EDX to determine the atomic percentage of present elements. Three‐factor ANOVA analysis showed that neither the exposure temperature, nor whether the burning occurred with or without soft tissue present had any significant influence on the bone's overall elemental makeup (p > 0.05). The Ca/P ratio remained in the osseous typical range of between 1.6 and 2.58 in all analyzed samples. This demonstrates that even faced with high temperatures, the overall gross elemental content and atomic percentage of elements in bone remain stable, creating a unique “fingerprint” for osseous material, even after exposure to extreme conditions.     

The age estimation of blood stains up to 30 days old using visible wavelength hyperspectral image analysis and linear discriminant analysis

A novel application of visible wavelength hyperspectral image analysis has been applied to determine the age of blood stains up to 30 days old. Reflectance spectra from selected locations within the hyperspectral image, obtained from a portable instrument, were subjected to spectral pre-processing. This was followed by the application of a linear discriminant classification model, making estimations possible with an average error of ± 0.27 days for the first 7 days and an overall average error of ± 1.17 days up to 30 days. This is also the first reported study of the determination of the age of fresh blood stains (less than one day old) with an error of ± 0.09 h. The studies have been made under controlled conditions and represent, at this stage, proof of concept results but also are the most accurate age estimation results for measurements between 0 and 30 days reported to date. The results are consistent with well-established kinetic processes suggesting that the pre-processing stages described are revealing spectroscopic changes which are reliably following the time dependent oxidation of HbO₂. The potential for parameterisation of environmental factors to make the method generally applicable at crime scenes is discussed, along with the developments required to further improve classification and to make the instrument genuinely portable.     

From struggle in responsible investment to potential to improve global environmental governance through UN PRI

This article introduces an exploratory framework which, on a conceptual level, suggests that the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment can contribute to the accessibility of responsible investment and encourage institutional investors to undertake it. By co-operating with leaders of global environmental governance and by engaging with investee companies in the field of the environment, responsible investment by institutional investors may help to improve the lack of coherence in global environmental governance.     

Demographic pressure,technological innovation and welfare: The case of the agriculture of Bangladesh

In the early years of its introduction, the HYV technology was widely regarded as a technical breakthrough that would bring about rapid agrarian progress and a revolutionary improvement in the standard of living of the farm population. Three decades later the promise of the new technology remains unfulfilled. This article argues that the adoption of the HYV technology in the agriculture of Bangladesh was determined mainly by an acute demographic pressure. Since the non‐agricultural sectors did not expand sufficiently rapidly, there was a tremendous pressure on agriculture to accommodate the additional workforce. The imperative to employ a larger workforce and feed a rising population forced the farmers to adopt the labour‐intensive, land‐augmenting HYV technology. The welfare of the farmers did not show any secular increase with the switch to the new technology.     

Unequal Laws and the Disempowerment of Women in the Labour Market: Evidence from Firm-Level Data

Institutions are defined as the set of rules that govern human interactions. When these rules are discriminatory, they may disempower segments of a population in the economic spheres of activity. In this study, we explore whether laws that discriminate against women influence their engagement in the economy. We adopt a holistic approach where we explore an overall measure of unequal laws also known as legal gender disparities and relate it to several labour market outcomes for women. Using data for over 59,000 firms across 94 economies, we find that unequal laws not only discourage women’s participation in the private sector workforce, but also their likelihood to become top managers and owners of firms. Suggestive evidence indicates that access to finance, property ownership, business registration, and labour market constraints are pathways by which legal gender disparities disempower women in the private sector.