Networks of regulatory agencies as regional public goods: Improving infrastructure performance

Networks of sectoral regulatory agencies provide regional public goods (RPGs). In developed and developing countries, the telecommunications, energy, and water sectors have been re-structured (frequently liberalized) and reformed over the past two decades. Often with seed money from international organizations and donor countries, regulatory leaders at newly created commissions sought to learn from neighboring countries. Regional networks provided vehicles for sharing data and best-practice techniques, developing studies, providing training, distributing regulatory materials, and organizing meetings. Three properties of publicness of RPGs influence the provision of RPGs: non-rivalry of benefits, non-excludability of non-payers, and the aggregation technology. External donor funding and the mix of characteristics have influenced the pattern of network activities.     

Transport Policies and Development

This survey reviews the current state of the economic literature, assessing the impact of transport investments and policies on growth, inclusion, and sustainability in a developing country context. It also discusses the specific implementation challenges of transport interventions in developing countries.     

Perceptions of nursing home workers, police chiefs, and college students regarding crime against the elderly: An exploratory study

The growing elderly population means that crime will play a larger role in future quality of life issues. Even so, few criminal justice endeavors have examined how different actors perceive various aspects of elderly victimization. This paper examines the way four distinct groups—nursing home directors, nursing home employees, police chiefs, and university students—perceive crime against the elderly. Results show nursing home professionals perceive aspects of elderly victimization differently than do police chiefs and college students. Implications are provided.     

Small-Scale irrigation and income distribution in Ethiopia

Abstract

Irrigation stimulates agricultural productivity and economic growth, but this may come at the cost of growing inequality. Using data at community and household level, this paper analyzes the distributional impacts of irrigation in Ethiopia. Regression analyses reveal the direct effects of irrigation on expenditures and labour demand, and the indirect effects of irrigation on food prices and expenditures of non-irrigation households. The results indicate that past development of irrigation stimulated growth without deepening inequality, and that irrigation decreased dependence on food-for-work programs. Thus, irrigation has played a positive role in the development of Ethiopia.     

Notes on contributors

This article looks at co-ordination within humanitarian mine action (hma), and co-ordination between hma and other humanitarian and development initiatives. The discussion focuses specifically on the role of UN-led Mine Action Centres (macs) and the analysis draws on case studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Afghanistan. A contention throughout is that macs often employ a rigid approach to co-ordination. This constricts the flexibility of mine action organisations, limits the development of creative initiatives and poses a barrier to co-ordination between hma and other humanitarian initiatives. A second point pursued is that co-ordination arrangements are embedded in a broader institutional context, and this context has in turn the potential to impact on co-ordination. The analysis presented here suggests a number of implications for hma in general, together with a number of policy considerations. The article concludes by offering some thoughts for the future on the importance of effective co-ordination arrangements both within hma as a sector and between hma and other sectors of humanitarian assistance.