Portfolio models and planning for export diversification: Malawi,Tanzania and Zimbabwe

Evidence is presented regarding strengths and limitations of portfolio approaches as applied to diversifying export earnings. An empirical application using data from Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe is used to demonstrate these strengths and limitations. Modifications of the typical portfolio approach to export diversification are presented; these modifications help make the approach more plausible for use in developing countries. The modified approach is shown to provide guidance to policymakers who seek simultaneously to increase export earnings and reduce their instability.     

Regional councils of governments at the crossroads: implications for intergovernmental management and networks

Councils of governments (COGS) have been subjected to powerful forces of change in the 1980s, due principally to drastic reductions in federal financial support. To survive, the councils have had to become more entrepreneural, to extend themselves in new directions They have scanned their local and regional task environments intensively for opportunities to form and/or join new networks and to provide more services in traditional and in new areas. The new style of council is described in this paper, using a market model. The model emphasizes opportunistic scanning of the regional task environment, and the assessment of issue networks as an iterative process in COG direction setting and implementation efforts.     

Maquiladora Mortality: Manufacturing Plant Closure in Mexico

Manufacturing plant closure has been the subject of much national concern, and an extensive literature principally focused on the developed world. This study extends the findings on plant closure with an analysis of export-oriented manufacturers (maquiladoras) in Mexico, 1996–2006. The foci of this research are hypothesised variables of maquiladora closure: product manufactured (value-added), size of plant, plant location, and size of urban place. The results of a logistical regression model indicate that plant size and value-added are highly probable determinants of plant closure; large, high value-added product maquiladoras have low rates of plant closure. Maquiladoras manufacturing low value-added products have high rates of closure; however, these manufacturers also have significant numbers of surviving plants. This suggests that multiple manufacturing platforms are viable among Mexico’s export-oriented industry. The findings also suggest that much plant closure is a result of exogenous factors,exiting plants in a global search for cheap labour. Mexico, however, has a geographic comparative advantage that, for many maquiladoras, trumps wages in more distant locations.     

The county administrator and productivity improvement: An examination of contrasting styles

The study examines productivity improvement efforts among a sample of United States County Administrators. Administrators' actions were divided into “tough” and “soft” approaches which were then examined in light of external and internal environment, governmental actors, duties of the office, management and policy actions and roles, and personal and demographic characteristics. Strong correlates were found in the areas of external environment, managerial role, and personal characteristics.     

Neighborhood challenges to economic development

This article analyzes neighborhood-based development challenges. The article examines six explanations for such challenges: use value, social status, growth, economic and fiscal, governmental structure, and suburban. Using data derived from several sources (survey, Census, I. C.M.A.), the results indicate that cities with higher housing values and reform government structures are more likely to have neighborhood-based development challenges. The analysis is extended to investigate successful neighborhood-based development challenges. These results indicate that a city's poverty rate depresses the potential for successful challenges and that challenges are more likely to be successful in central cities. Finally, the analysis indicates that those cities in which neighborhood groups are motivated by the desire to protect housing values are more likely have successful development challenges.