Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Rural Peru

We estimate the effects of mobile phone coverage on different measures of economic development. We exploit the timing of mobile coverage at the village level merging it with a village-level panel dataset for rural Peru. The main findings suggest that mobile phone expansion has increased household real consumption by 11 per cent, reduced poverty incidence by 8 percentage points and decreased extreme poverty by 5.4 percentage points. Moreover, those benefits appear to be shared by all covered households regardless of mobile ownership.     

Short notes on some books received

China's rural enterprises are economic units established by local government in the countryside or by the peasants and they operate outside the planning system. Rural enterprises have grown twice as fast as the rest of the economy since 1984. The rural enterprise sector has so far challenged the urban economy, in both product markets and markets for raw materials. What are the prospects for their relationship ‐ competition or cooperation? To answer the question, we develop a well‐specified but simple model of the rural and urban economies. The rural enterprise boom was caused in this model by the presence of barriers to factor mobility within China, price distortions and the pool of available labour in the countryside. The origins of the boom imply that rural enterprise exports tend to be relatively labour intensive. The complementarities between rural and urban enterprises are likely to dominate their future economic relationship and lead to further growth in the rural enterprise sector.     

The Economics of Poverty Traps and Persistent Poverty: Empirical and Policy Implications

The moral and economic imperatives to intervene in poverty traps motivate the identification of poverty traps and their structural causes so as to inform the design of appropriate policy responses. However, empirical identification remains challenging because of poverty traps’ complexity. After reviewing mechanisms that can generate poverty traps, we focus on one – multiple financial market failures – emphasising its heretofore underappreciated testable implications, including specific behaviours that are rational only in the presence of a poverty trap. We therefore recommend tests for these behaviours rather than more econometrically challenged efforts to directly test for poverty traps in estimated asset dynamics.     

Urban bias in price risk: The geography of food price distributions in low‐income economies

The geography of agricultural marketing has important implications for the stochastic distribution of agricultural commodity prices. This article proposes that objective food price risk differs between rural and urban areas of infrastructure‐poor economies characterised by spatially concentrated patterns of foodgrains storage. This difference implies an urban bias having adverse welfare effects for peasants who seasonally switch between net food seller and net food buyer positions. Empirical analysis of rice price data from Madagascar suggests that price variability and skewness indeed differ between rural and urban areas in ways that adversely influence the relative welfare of rural peasants.     

The politics of hunger: Review article

Food Politics: the regional conflict. David Balaam & Michael J Carey, London: Croom Helm. 1981. 246pp. £16.95.

World Hunger: a guide to the economic and political dimensions. Nicole Ball, Oxford: Clio Press. 1981. 386pp. £27.95.

The Political Economy of Food Aid. John Cathie, Aldershot, England: Gower. 1982. 190pp. £14.50.

Food Security for Developing Countries. Edited by Alberto Valdes, Epping, England: Bowker. 1981. 351pp. £16.25.

Future Dimensions of World Food and Population. Edited by Richard G Woods, Epping, England: Bowker. 1981. 413pp. £16.25.     

“Communities of Practice” as an Analytical Construct: Implications for Theory and Practice

Abstract

The “community of practice” (CoP) has emerged as a potentially powerful unit of analysis linking the individual and the collective because it situates the role of learning, knowledge transfer, and participation among people as the central enterprise of collective action. The authors?uo; surface tensions and highlight unanswered questions regarding CoP theory, concluding that it relies on a largely normative and under-operationalized set of premises. Avenues for theory development and the empirical testing of assertions are provided.     

An Analysis of Perceptions of Western Corporate Governance Principles in Saudi Arabia

Managers working for multinational firms must evaluate the extent to which they should adapt corporate governance mechanisms to local markets or to pursue a one-size-fits-all approach. In 1999, the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance were endorsed by OECD ministers in an attempt to influence policymakers worldwide by setting global governance standards. Yet the level of approval and understanding of these principles in non-OECD nations is still unclear. In this study we develop and test a survey instrument in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to assess perceptions of OECD principles by 168 Saudi Arabian managers. Results suggest that Saudi Arabian perceptions of shareholder rights are positively related to

a) maintaining an effective corporate governance framework and

b) the effective monitoring of management by the board of directors.

Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed.     

Personality and Job Satisfaction: Evidence from a Sample of Street-Level Bureaucrats

Job satisfaction is an important component of bureaucratic success. In this article, we build on the emerging literature on the five-factor model of personality and argue that basic personality characteristics can help us understand why certain employees are more satisfied with their jobs than others. Multivariate analysis of personality and job satisfaction data from over 1,000 public servants supports this argument. We conclude with a discussion about how personality can add to our theoretical understanding of public personnel management, and help public managers identify applicants who are likely to be satisfied with work in the public sector.     

A review of the main determinants and characteristics of centre-local relations in Zimbabwe

This paper examines the main determinants shaping the ultimate nature of centre -local relations in the world' s countries with particular reference to Zimbabwe. These determinants are seen to result in two broad and generalist types of centre-local relations, namely, functional and territorial centre-local relations. Zimbabwe's colonial and post-colonial centre-local relations are then examined within the framework of the two broad models of centre-local relations, and are seen to be largely consisting of functional centre-local relations despite the post-colonial politicians's rhetoric in favour of more territorial relations. The Regional, Town and Country Planning Act (1976), the Urban Councils Act, the Rural Councils Act and the District Councils Act, all indicate a functional prevalence in the content of centre-local relations. The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe's 1984 Directive on decentralisation of administrative structures and the appointment of provincial governors equally indicates a functional preference by design or default in centre-local relations. The paper concludes by emphasizing the relationship between centre-local relations and planning systems at national, regional and local levels.