What Kinds of Trade Liberalization Agreements Do People in Developing Countries Want?

One of the most striking developments in the global economy in the past decades is the rapid proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs), with many of them concluded among or with participation of developing countries. On the presumption that current popular debates on trade policy are not so much about whether citizens want free trade but rather what kinds of trade liberalization they want, we examine individual trade policy preferences with regard to PTAs that can vary in content along several dimensions. To that end we carried out conjoint choice experiments embedded in representative surveys in three developing countries that differ strongly in income levels, political system, and trade liberalization history: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Vietnam. We conceptualize trade policy preferences as preferences over the scale and scope of trade liberalization, environmental and labor standards, and labor market access (migration). Two main findings emerge. First, non-economic considerations, such as sympathy/antipathy toward particular countries and environmental and labor rights concerns influence citizens’ preferences at least as much as factors based on standard economic logic. Second, preferences over particular facets (attributes) of trade liberalization, that is PTA content, are surprisingly consistent across countries, despite strong differences in macro-economic and political context.     

Analyzing the impact of terrorism on tourism in Sri Lanka

While terrorism brings fear and chaos, tourism is the epitome of peace and happiness. Sri Lanka has always attracted international tourists due to tropical climate and beautiful tourist destinations. However, terrorism and the recent debt crisis have led to chaos and economic failure; in this study, the impact of terrorism, external debt, and military expenditure on international tourism in Sri Lanka have been empirically studied to unravel the dynamics. Dynamic ARDL simulation and cumulative fourier frequency causality results highlight the presence of an inverted N-shaped association between terrorism and tourism, as well as external debt and tourism. The phenomenal results from this analysis provide essential policy suggestions for Sri Lanka for economic recovery through the promotion of international tourism.     

Euthanasia: why it doesn't matter (much) what the doctor thinks and why there is no suggestion that doctors should have a duty to kill

A major reason that The Netherlands has taken a different approach to the rest of the world on such a fundamental moral issue is that the courts and legislature in that country have accorded the interests of doctors a cardinal role in the euthanasia debate. This article argues that the interests of doctors are of only incidental and peripheral relevance in relation to the moral status of euthanasia. The moral status of euthanasia has little to do with the preparedness of doctors to administer the lethal injection or their general attitude towards the practice. Euthanasia is principally about the interests of the patient and the impact that the practice may have on the community in general, not preserving the conscience or improving the working life of doctors.     

STR data for the Amp FlSTR Profiler Plus loci among 27 populations of different social hierarchy from southern part of Andhra Pradesh, India

Allele frequency for the 9 STR loci (D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820) were estimated from a total of 1096 individuals belonging to 27 endogamous populations from the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, covering the entire gamut of socio-economic variation of the linguistic region. These loci are found to be highly polymorphic within the populations with high levels of average heterozygosity (>0.80). However, the allele frequency distributions are fairly uniform across the populations in case of these loci suggesting relatively greater homogeneity among the populations. Regrouping populations into five broad socio-economic categories further reiterated the homogenous pattern of genetic diversity.     

Index and ring finger ratio--a new sex determinant in south Indian population

Identification of human remains is an imperative element of any medicolegal investigation, and a challenging task for forensic experts and physical anthropologists worldwide. Three hundred adult hands (150 males and 150 females) belonging to south Indian population were studied to investigate sexual dimorphism of the index and ring finger ratio. The index and ring finger ratio is derived by dividing the index finger length by ring finger length. The index and ring finger ratio is found to be higher in females. Index and ring finger ratio < or =0.9700 identified 80% of males for both hands, and ratio >0.9700 identified 74% females for the right hand and 78% for the left hand accurately. This study may prove useful to determine the sex of an isolated hand when it is subjected for medicolegal examination.     

Price dispersion across Indian states: A club convergence analysis

This study examines the price convergence across 28 Indian states and 7 union territories at an aggregate and subgroups level over the period 2011–12 to 2017–18. We employ a novel approach of Phillips and Sul panel convergence technique, which accounts for transitional dynamics and heterogeneity in the panel. The results suggest price divergence and evidence of clubs across Indian states at both aggregate and subgroup level. The outcomes of this study help policymakers in addressing the price dispersion across states, which in turn improves the market integration, allocation of resources, and standard of living.     

A situational theory of pork-barrel politics: The shifting logic of discretionary allocations in India

ABSTRACT

Despite the extensive literature on distributive politics, there is still is a lack of a theory of how political and fiscal institutions interact to shape the pork barreling ability of national leaders in a federal parliamentary democracy. This article examines how the party system types (dominant party versus coalition system) and particular attributes of discretionary grants (providing credit claiming opportunity or facilitating side payments) influence opportunities for pork-barrel politics. This article proposes a situational theory of distributive politics that states that incentives for exclusive targeting of affiliated states in one-party dominant systems drive national ruling parties toward particularism while the shrinking opportunity to indulge in such a policy in multiparty coalition systems creates a universalization effect. The disaggregated analysis of discretionary grants using Indian data for 14 states for the one-party dominant period (1972–89) and the coalition era (1996–2012) confirms the theoretical expectations. Additionally, the exercise brings to the fore the fact that the shift from particularism to universalism occurs for schematic grants that provide credit claiming opportunity. The ad hoc grants that are like side payments remain subject to particularism.     

Responding to Western Critiques of the Muslim World: Deconstructing the Cliché of Islamophobia and the Genealogies of Islamic Extremism

This paper is premised on the questions of whether Islam as a religion, spiritual domain, cultural practice and philosophy should be held responsible for whatever activities the Muslims choose to do in their personal capacity. Does the ascribed status of individuals being Muslims and their choice of declaring themselves as terrorists in the name of Islam entail that they are true followers of the religion and have been theologically and spiritually inspired by it? These questions have sprung up because Islam as a religion has constituted the fundamental component of western interpretation of the reasons for the rise of violent extremism involving Muslim radicals. In this context, the objective of this paper is to examine how the contemporary western interpretations, linking the actions of Muslim extremist groups with those of the ontology and epistemology of Islam, are predicated on a faulty cognition of the nature and the guiding principles of that religion itself. To accomplish this, the paper critiques Samuel Huntington's ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis and Bernard Lewis's version of the roots of Muslim extremism.