The Political Economy of Border Checkpoints in Shadow Exchanges

ABSTRACT

This introductory article revisits cross-border shadow exchanges in a comparative perspective and reflects on their theoretical implications. It explores the diversities and complexities of shadow operations and critically examines the concept of informality that is commonly used to describe such non-state-sanctioned practices. It further underlines the key role played by checkpoint politics in border governance. Border checkpoints serve both as a state institution in regulating border crossings as well as a political site where material and power exchanges among state and non-state actors are negotiated. Such negotiation of selective passage through state-controlled gateways is often predicated upon the skilful manipulation of time and space by experienced traders and brokers.     

Moderated Commitment: Members’ Decisions Not to Give to Professional Associations

Abstract

Workers pay membership dues to professional associations, which mark their identification with a particular field. Professional associations invite additional voluntary contributions for new or expanded programs, but most members do not make these additional gifts. We advance and test a conceptual model of the forces that might interrupt an otherwise committed or engaged member’s decision to make such a voluntary contribution. We conclude that giving decisions can be displaced by member beliefs that their dues and fees are sufficient or that their disposable income is committed to other obligations. We also conclude that giving decisions intersect with weak association strategy, such as a failure to solicit gifts in ways that are informative or useful to prospective donors.     

Do Survey Spot-Check and Threat Improve Data Quality? Evidence from a Field Experiment

In this study, we examine the effect of interview observation on data quality of a large-scale individual survey in Vietnam. External spot-check teams were sent to randomly selected enumeration areas to attend and observe survey training courses and field interviews of interviewers. We find that interviewers have a lower number of item non-responses in collected data when being observed by the spot-check teams. The effect of a spot-check of field interviews appears to be higher than the effect of a spot-check of training courses. However, we do not find a significant effect of a spot-check threat: informing interviewers of a possible spot-check without actually visiting does not reduce item non-responses.     

Geographical indications outside the European Regulation on PGIs, and the rule of the free movement of goods: lessons from cases judged by the Court of Justice of the European Communities

Several recent cases judged by the Court of Justice of the European Communities (the Court) have raised interesting issues related to the possibility for operators of food chains to use national quality signs to indicate territory of origin, which are different from the regulatory European ??Protected Geographical Indications??. The various attempts by France (a list of quality signs), Germany (??Markenqualit?t aus deutschen Landen?? sign) and Belgium (??Walloon?? sign) have all been condemned as protectionist policies contradicting the free movement of goods in the European Market. These national quality signs can be seen as attempt to defend the viability of specific kinds of activities (involving small enterprises) in specific places (rural areas). These cases are a good illustration of the difficulties that a Member State of the European Communities (Member State) faces in trying to protect its traditional activities and/or rural areas in a way that is compatible with free markets. The paper analyses the recent court decisions underlining economic aspects such as information delivery and the cost of alternative protection mechanisms for these activities. We highlight in particular the collective trademarks and the kind of intellectual property right they form by the economic theory of clubs, and make some comparisons with protected geographical indications.     

Local Financial Development and Household Welfare in Vietnam: Evidence from a Panel Survey

We examine the impact of local financial development on household welfare in Vietnam. We employ household-level panel data for the periods 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2013 covering three provinces and measure local financial development at the district, sub-district and village levels. To account for potential endogeneity that could emanate from the fact that local economic development could spur local financial development, we employ a recently suggested method of identification through heteroscedasticity. Our results show that local financial development has a significantly positive effect on household annual income, consumption and consumption smoothing.     

Emission Standards,Public Transit,and Infant Health

Transit buses are an integral part of urban life. They reduce externalities generated from private vehicles and increase geographic mobility. However, unlike most private vehicles in the United States, they use diesel fuel and emit higher amounts of toxic pollutants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set emission standards for transit buses starting in 1988 that have been continually updated, but their public health and economic impacts are unclear due to scarce emissions data. I construct a novel panel dataset for the New York City (NYC) Transit bus fleet between 1990 and 2009 and examine the impact of bus pollution on infant health by using bus vintage as a proxy for emissions. I exploit the variation in vintage as older buses are retired and replaced with newer, lower‐emitting buses forced to adhere to stricter emission standards. I then assign maternal exposure to bus vintage at the census block level. Findings suggest that maternal exposure to the oldest, unregulated buses is associated with modest reductions in birth weight and gestational age relative to newer buses that abide by emissions policies. I then conduct a back‐of‐the‐envelope cost‐benefit calculation and find net economic benefits of $53.3 million resulting from improved emission standards for the 2009 birth cohort in NYC. Since the treatment in this study clearly maps to federal emissions policies, these results are the first to provide credible evidence that transit bus emission standards had a positive effect on infant health.     

Campaign‐Style Enforcement and Regulatory Compliance

This article examines the recoupling mechanism of campaign‐style enforcement and its effects on environmental regulatory compliance. Drawing on the policy implementation literature and institutional theory, the authors develop a conceptual model of campaign‐style enforcement in which both resource mobilization and power redistribution are theorized to address decoupling problems in regulatory compliance. The two‐pathway recoupling mechanism is evidenced by an empirical investigation of the implementation of China's energy conservation and emission reduction policy as part of that country's 11th Five‐Year Plan. Findings suggest that campaign‐style enforcement can effectively improve regulatory compliance when it addresses the efficiency/legitimacy conflict by providing policy incentives and reorganizing a clear hierarchy of political authority. The article concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of campaign‐style enforcement.     

Immigrants as future voters

Public Choice - Immigration policies in western democracies have often been contrary to the predictions of the mainstream theory of international economics. Political parties that are predicted to...     

Environmental management by law in China: The Guangzhou experience∗

Taking enviornmental management in Guangzhou as an example, this article explores the theory and practice of Communist China's idea of “environmental management by law.” Based on the Guangzhou experience, it argues that environmental management by law in China is mainly an administrative system of environmental management which takes law strictly as a tool for efficient and effective environmental protection. This system is operated on the principle of ‘rule by law’, and is the antithesis of the Maoist practice of “rule by person.” Contrary to its Western counterpart, China's environmental management system is built on a state‐centered conception of administrative law instead of a ‘right‐centered’ one which is the core of the ‘rule of law’ tradition.