ZEF Discussion Papers on Development Policy: Recent submissions
Now showing items 81-100 of 362
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Open borders, open regimes?: Testing causal direction between globalization and democracy, 1970-2000
(2003-04)Pessimists on globalization claim that liberalization of markets allows multinational corporations free reign, constraining local autonomy and precipitating a ‘race to the bottom’ that will endanger recent democratic gains. ... -
The rationale of bank lending in pre-crisis Thailand
(2003-04)A data set of 560 credit files from Thai commercial banks is compiled. The loans granted between 1992 and 1996 follow a pattern known from mature markets as a similar set of variables explains much of the variance in ... -
Power, institutions and moral entrepreneurs
(2003-03)This paper constitutes a component of a larger research project. The larger project attempts to address two issues in international relations—one substantive and theoretical, the second epistemological and ontological.<br ... -
Global inventory of wetlands and their role in the carbon cycle
(2003-03)Wetlands are among the most important natural resources on earth, as sources of biological, cultural and economic diversity. Conservation and management of wetlands have been identified as priority tasks for action in ... -
Design of incentives in community based health insurance schemes
(2003-03)Community based health insurance is an emerging and promising concept that has attracted the attention of policy makers as it addresses health care challenges faced by the poor. This paper discusses solutions to important ... -
Food security in transition countries: Conceptual issues and cross-country analyses
(2003-02)Most methodological materials and analyses of food security pertain to the classical developing countries of the world. In this paper we discuss the question what pattern of food insecurity has developed across the transition ... -
Political science tools for assessing feasibility and sustainability of reforms
(2003-02)We were asked by the Independent Evaluation Office to outline political science methods for assessing the chances of reform implementation in an ex-ante fashion. We agreed to illustrate how these tools ‘work’ by using ... -
Towards a resource-driven model of governance: Application to lower-income transition economies
(2003-02)Many developing market economies were strongly distorted during the 1960s and 1970s by fashionable policies to force industrialisation and they experienced growth collapses when exposed to the price shocks of the 1970s. ... -
Cooperation and wealth
(2003-01)We calculate the equilibrium fraction of cooperators in a population in which payoffs accrue from playing a single-shot prisoner’s dilemma game. Individuals who are hardwired as cooperators or defectors are randomly matched ... -
Clean Development Mechanism: Neue Potenziale für regenerative Energien?: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer verstärkten Nutzung von Bioenergieträgern in Entwicklungsländern
(2002-12)The agreement on the Clean Development Mechanism as a flexible instrument of emissions reduction within the Kyoto protocol opens up new perspectives for the implementation of regenerative energy projects in developing ... -
Towards a theory of self-segregation as a response to relative deprivation: Steady-state outcames and social welfare
(2004-12)We model group formation as a response to relative deprivation. We employ two measures of relative deprivation. We show that in the case of each of these measures the process of deprivation-induced self-selection into ... -
Agricultural policies in Vietnam: Producer support estimates, 1986-2002
(2004-12)Since 1986, Vietnam has moved from a centrally planned towards a market-oriented system through several major economic and trade reforms. First positive results of the reform process became visible in the early 1990s when ... -
Black-box frontiers and implications for development policy: Theoretical considerations
(2004-12)The availability of efficiency estimation software – freely distributed via the internet and relatively easy to use – recently inflated the number of corresponding applications. The resulting efficiency estimates are used ... -
Heuristic considerations on the typology of groups and minorities
(2004-12)Minority rights play a significant role in development policy, especially within inhomogeneous societies. The justification of minority rights is linked to the justification of human rights. The study develops elements of ... -
Exploiting common resources with capital-intensive technologies: The role of external forces
(2004-11)This paper focuses on the interactions between local communities having at least some degree of informal claims over natural resources and external agents, particularly firms interested in commercial resource exploitation. ... -
On the demand for grandchildren: Tied transfers and the demonstration effect
(2004-09)It is argued that parents provide help with housing downpayments in order to encourage the production of grandchildren, and that such a subsidization emanates from the “demonstration effect:” a child’s propensity to furnish ... -
The problem of court congestion: Evidence from Indian lower courts
(2004-07)This paper explores the problem of court congestion in Indian lower courts. We use several measures to capture court congestion. These include: caseloads per capita and per judge, the number of cases older than a year per ... -
Modeling the impact of fiscal decentralization on health outcomes: Empirical evidence from India
(2004-06)Over the last two decades, many countries around the world have been enthusiastically embarking on the path of decentralization. Decentralization has been advocated as a powerful means to improve the provision of health ... -
The impact of rural enterprises on household savings in China
(2004-05)In view of development policy, capital formation is crucial for economic growth in a country. Since the reform in 1978, China has enjoyed high saving rates. However, in the late 1990s the saving rates rose to such a high ... -
Do democracy and press freedom reduce corruption?: Evidence from a cross country study
(2004-03)This paper calls attention to the instrumental role of democracy and press freedom in combating corruption. As opposed to an autocracy with no or limited press freedom, a free press in a democracy can inform voters about ...
