Fatal penetrating abdominal injury by a metallic projectile

Penetrating abdominal injury is often a life-threatening condition, which is mainly associated with inflicted injuries. Fatal self-inflicted sharp force abdominal injuries too have been reported in the literature. Inadvertent penetrating abdominal injuries are a rarity and are caused by sharp objects of low-velocity and often nonmissile-type. A 27-year-old male factory worker was brought dead to the emergency department with an alleged history of sustaining abdominal injury by a sharp metal projectile while working on a metal cutting grinder. Autopsy observations were consistent with the history of inadvertent penetrating injury. Our case reports a fatal missile-type inadvertent sharp force trauma over the abdomen with intestinal perforation, a relatively uncommon scenario in occupational/workplace settings. The present case report describes the significance of the death scene visit and corroborating the medical findings with investigating agencies. This case further emphasizes on the need for adopting proper safety measures at the workplace.     

Transparency Pays? Evaluating the Effects of the Freedom of Information Laws on Perceived Government Corruption

About 90 countries have adopted Freedom of Information (FOI) laws with the objective of facilitating citizens’ right to access information on government activities expeditiously. It is argued that FOI laws increase transparency and fix accountability of the government. We provide quantitative evidence on the impact of FOI laws on perceived government corruption. Using panel data for 132 countries over the 1990–2011 period, we find that adopting FOI laws after controlling for self-section bias, is associated with an increase in perceived government corruption driven by an increase in detection of corrupt acts. In fact, FOI laws appear to increase the perception of government corruption if combined with a higher degree of media freedom, presence of NGO activism and political competition. However, the perception of government corruption tends to decline with the duration of FOI law adoption. These findings are robust to controlling for endogeneity using instrumental variables, alternative samples and estimation methods.     

Corporate social responsibility movement in an emerging economy: an institutional and social movement explanation

This study explores the CSR movement in India from the perspective of institutional theory and social movement theory. The paper draws important theoretical framework in the field of CSR in emerging economies. The study takes entirely new theoretical perspective of social movement theory and combines it with institutionalization to give important insights to the adoption of CSR as a law in India. Propositions are developed by drawing on the role of organizational actors and their interactions with institutional forces; and also on the interaction among the different forces. First, these interactions are examined in dyadic form and then the overall effects of these interactions are proposed. It is examined how different actors interact differently with the institutional forces, and how the dominant or competing forces interact with each other to in turn influence the actors. Another set of propositions examine how the organizational strategies shaped the CSR movement in India and how they have been or are likely to be shaped by the CSR movement in India. Implications for public affairs and policy making are drawn for CSR.     

Do pro-market economic reforms drive human rights violations? An empirical assessment, 1981–2006

Liberals argue that economic policy reforms will benefit most in terms of better access to goods, less inflation and better economic opportunities. Critics of market reforms, among them Marxists, critical theorists, skeptics of globalization as well as a large portion of the NGO community, see the majority as losers from such reform, expecting resistance that would lead to political repression. They suggest that free-market policy reforms are analogous to “swallowing the bitter pill.” We make use of the change in the Index of Economic Freedom as a measure of market liberalizing reforms, employing data from a panel of 117 countries for the period from 1981–2006. Our results show a strong positive association between reforms towards more free markets with regard to governments’ respect for human rights, controlling for a host of relevant factors, including the possibility of endogeneity. The results are robust in relation to sample size, alternative data and methods, and a sample of only developing countries; and they are substantively quite large. Our results support those who argue that freer markets generate better economic conditions and higher levels of social harmony and peace, and it seems as if getting there is less problematic than people generally think—in fact, halfhearted measures and backsliding that prolong crises could be more dangerous to human rights.     

Does the IMF cause civil war? A comment

The global economic downturn has heightened concerns about intervention by global financial institutions and political stability. One prominently-published article purports to show that signing on to an IMF structural adjustment program (SAP) increases the risk of civil war, Hartzell et al. (International Organization 64:339–56, 2010). The authors claim that IMF SAPs push liberalization, which hurts people badly enough that they foment civil war. We advance the debate by critically examining their theoretical and empirical evidence, particularly questioning their crucial assumptions about the impact of IMF programs on the economic environment in terms of who actually wins and loses from liberalization and who might be in a position to rebel. Using their data, we find that signing on to an IMF program predicts the onset of a civil war negatively if one uses a lower threshold of 25 deaths when defining civil war. These results suggest that the operationalization of the IMF variable as well as the use of large-scale civil war (1,000 deaths and above) simply capture the effect of ongoing conflict rather than the effects of liberalization. After extending the time period under study and making only minor changes to operationalization, we find that at no time does IMF involvement successfully predict the onset of a civil war.     

Vulnerabilities of Institutional Checks in Indian Federalism: The Case of the Adarsh Society Scam in Mumbai

In developing countries, separation of powers coexists with corruption by the ruling elite. This can be attributed to informal institutions, which counter the formal checks and balances. We demonstrate, by studying the Adarsh scam, the vulnerabilities of checks and balances. Fourteen actors belonging to different tiers of the Indian federal setup who could have vetoed the project or certain permissions failed to do so.We find that 54 percent of the checks collapsed because of quid pro quo, 21 percent due to being overridden, 4 percent due to misrepresentation, 7 percent due to absorption, and 14 percent due to omissions in the process.     

Does the ICDS Improve Children’s Diets? Some Evidence from Rural Bihar

Although there are several studies documenting the impact of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) – the largest preschool intervention – in India, few have documented to what extent it improves the quantity and quality of food consumed by young children. This paper attempts to provide causal estimates of the impact of the ICDS on calories, protein, iron, and Vitamin A intakes of children. Using matching techniques to define an appropriate counterfactual, and a primary survey in four villages in rural Bihar, our results suggest that: (a) for older children three to six years who benefit from cooked meals, the ICDS did result in higher intakes of calories, protein, and iron, and no substantive evidence that as a consequence there was substitution away from food at home. However, there was no impact on vitamin A intake; (b) for younger children whose mothers are given take-home rations, there is no evidence the ICDS improved intakes of calories or any other nutrients. Thus, even though the monetary value of the transfer was the same across both age groups, there is evidence to suggest the mode of transfer does seem to matter to ICDS effectiveness, consistent with other literature.     

Aid curse with Chinese characteristics? Chinese development flows and economic reforms

Public Choice - The emergence of China as a major development partner requires a reassessment of traditional donor–recipient dynamics. In addition to adopting new rhetoric like...