Economic complexity can be defined as the level of interdependence between the component parts of an economy. In input-output systems intersectoral connectedness is a crucial feature of analysis, and there are many different methods of measuring it. Most of the measures, however, have important drawbacks to be used as a good indicator of economic complexity, because they were not explicitly made with this purpose in mind. In this paper, we present, discuss and compare empirically different indexes of economic complexity as sectoral connectedness, using the inter-industry tables of several OECD countries.

Western bean cutworm, Striacosta albicosta (Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a native pest of dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and corn (Zea mays L.). Historically, the western bean cutworm was distributed in the western United States, but since 1999 eastward expansion has been observed. In corn, economic impact is caused by larval ear feeding. Information on western bean cutworm biology, ecology, and economic impact is relatively limited, and the development of economic injury levels (EILs) and economic thresholds (ETs) is required for more effective management. Studies during 2008Ð2011, across three ecoregions of Nebraska, sought to characterize western bean cutworm survival and development of EILs and ETs. Calculations of EILs and ETs incorporated the dynamics of corn price, management cost, and pest survival. The results from the current study demonstrated low larval survival of this species (1.51Ð12.82%). The mean yield loss from one western bean cutworm larva per plant was 945.52 kg/ha (15.08 bu/acre), based on 74,100 plants per ha. Economic thresholds are expressed as a percentage of plants with at least one egg mass. This study is the Þrst study that explicitly incorporates variable management costs and crop values into western bean cutworm EIL calculations...

This report uses an analytical framework that take into account the effect of natural disasters as well as country size in measuring the serious implications macroeconomic or aggregate volatility (marked period-to-period variations in measures of macroeconomic performance, such as GDP growth) has for individuals and households in Caribbean countries. The report is organized as follows: Chapter 1 reviews the recent economic and social development of the Caribbean. Chapter 2 begins by characterizing volatility of aggregate income and consumption growth and by employing regression analysis to assess the relative importance of the different factors that would be expected to determine macroeconomic volatility in the Caribbean. The chapter also examines factors that might be expected to influence the extent to which macroeconomic volatility is absorbed or amplified-that is, the extent of financial market development, the behavior of remittances, and the size and volatility of external capital flows. Chapter 3 addresses the broad question of how macroeconomic volatility in the Caribbean affects households and their income and consumption...

(Bibliography) Includes bibliographical references.; Reuse of record except for individual research requires license from LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions.; Reuse of record except for individual research requires license from Congressional Information Service, Inc.; At head of title: 94th Congress, 2d session-95th Congress, Joint committee print.; CIS Microfiche Accession Numbers: CIS 76 J842-24 (v.1), CIS 77 J842-18 (v.10), CIS 77 J842-19 (v.11), CIS 77 J842-20 (v.12), CIS 76 J842-30 (v.2), CIS 76 J842-31 (v.3), CIS 76 J842-32 (v.4), CIS 76 J842-36 (v.5), CIS 76 J842-37 (v.6), CIS 76 J842-38 (v.7), CIS 76 J842-42 (v.8), CIS 77 J842-1 (v.9); Cover title.; (Statement of Responsibility) prepared for the use of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States.

(Bibliography) Includes bibliographical references.; Reuse of record except for individual research requires license from LexisNexis Academic & Library Solutions.; Reuse of record except for individual research requires license from Congressional Information Service, Inc.; At head of title: 94th Congress, 2d session-95th Congress, Joint committee print.; CIS Microfiche Accession Numbers: CIS 76 J842-24 (v.1), CIS 77 J842-18 (v.10), CIS 77 J842-19 (v.11), CIS 77 J842-20 (v.12), CIS 76 J842-30 (v.2), CIS 76 J842-31 (v.3), CIS 76 J842-32 (v.4), CIS 76 J842-36 (v.5), CIS 76 J842-37 (v.6), CIS 76 J842-38 (v.7), CIS 76 J842-42 (v.8), CIS 77 J842-1 (v.9); Cover title.; (Statement of Responsibility) prepared for the use of the Joint Economic Committee, Congress of the United States.

Two propositions appear to be gaining wide currency, given the revealed preference for preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in the East Asian region and elsewhere. The first is that economic integration is a good way to promote economic growth. The second is that PTAs, particularly ones that go beyond goods trade, are an effective way to promote economic integration. Yet both propositions are empirical questions. In this paper, a partial evaluation of the evidence suggests caution is called for. Current PTAs appear to be doing little to remove the important impediments to growth in the region. Far greater income gains would come from comprehensive reform of nondiscriminatory impediments to competition, as part of a thorough-going program of unilateral domestic regulatory reform. It may be time to rethink East Asian economic integration as a policy priority, or at least review the way in which it might be pursued.; no

Using panel data from US states over the period 1941-2002, I measure the impact of gubernatorial partisanship on a wide range of different policy settings and economic outcomes. Across 32 measures, there are surprisingly few differences in policy settings, social outcomes and economic outcomes under Democrat and Republican Governors. In terms of policies, Democratic Governors tend to prefer slightly higher minimum wages. Under Republican Governors, incarceration rates are higher, while welfare caseloads are higher under Democratic Governors. In terms of social and economic outcomes, Democratic Governors tend to preside over higher median post-tax income, lower posttax inequality, and lower unemployment rates. However, for 26 of the 32 dependent variables, gubernatorial partisanship does not have a statistically significant impact on policy outcomes and social welfare. I find no evidence of gubernatorial partisan differences in tax rates, welfare generosity, the number of government employees or their salaries, state revenue, incarceration rates, execution rates, pre-tax incomes and inequality, crime rates, suicide rates, and test scores. These results are robust to the use of regression discontinuity estimation, to take account of the possibility of reverse causality. Overall...

This volume analyzes the economic challenges confronting Turkey in its quest to accede to the European Union (EU). It focuses on the extent to which Turkey is ready to join the Single Market, comply with the EU's body of economic regulations and directives, the Acquis Communautaire, and meet the Maastricht criteria for fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies. This book also provides an assessment of Turkey's national program to meet the accession requirements. It describes briefly what Turkey needs to achieve on the economic policy front to satisfy the conditions for accession, the progress to date, and the likely consequences of implementing the full body of EU requirements. The book is divided into four parts: 1) An analysis of the macroeconomic policies for EU accession; 2) An analysis of the effects of integration on key sectors: agriculture; manufacturing; services industries, including banking, telecommunications, transportation, and natural gas; and network industries; 3) An exploration of key economic policy challenges...

The study of the Social Accounting Matrix, usually known as SAM, arises from the need to place sectors within the general context of the economy, as well as the need to find out more about the effects of macroeconomic policies at the sectoral level and sectoral policies at the macroeconomic level. Based on the principle that the study of a sector should be carried out under a general equilibrium approach, moving beyond the context of partial equilibrium, the SAM is one possibility for meeting such needs, in that it provides a complete account of the circular flow in the economy. After presenting the general characteristics of their framework, three SAMs (1997¬1999) will be constructed, with emphasis on the General Government sector. These will be created from the more recent data of the Portuguese System of National Accounts, the harmony between them both being demonstrated for the first year by identifying the identities and balances of the system's various internal accounts on the constructed matrix. The modelling of the constructed SAMs will begin with the deduction and decomposition of accounting multipliers, which will be used to study the impact of Economic Policy measures, namely Budget Policy, on the Portuguese economy. Tests will be performed to check the veracity of the SAMs...

This paper investigates very long run pre-industrial economic development. New annual GDP per capita data for six European countries over the last seven hundred years paint a clearer picture of the history of European economic development. First, the paper confirms that sustained growth has been a recent phenomenon, but rejects the argument that there was no long run growth in living standards before the Industrial Revolution. Instead, the evidence demonstrates the existence of numerous periods of economic growth before the nineteenth century - unsustained, but raising GDP per capita. It also shows that many of these economies experienced substantial economic decline. Thus, rather than being stagnant, pre-nineteenth century European economies experienced a great deal of change. Finally, it offers some evidence that, from the nineteenth century, these economies increased the likelihood of being in a phase of economic growth and reduced the risk of being in a phase of economic decline.

We develop a diagrammatic framework that can be used to study the economic linkages between regions or cities. Hitherto, such linkages have not been the primary focus of either the theoretical or empirical literatures. We show that our general framework can be used to interpret both the New Economic Geography and Urban Systems literatures to help us understand spatial economic linkages. We then extend the theoretical framework to allow us to consider a number of additional issues which may be particularly important for analyzing the impact of policy. Such policy analysis will also require empirical work to identify the nature of key relationships. In a final section, we consider what the existing empirical literature can tell us about these relationships.

This paper presents a model of social learning about the suitability of local conditions for new business ventures and explores its implications for the microeconomic patterns of economic development. I show that: i) firms tend to ‘rush’ into business ventures with which other firms have had surprising success thus causing development to be ‘lumpy’; ii) sufficient business confidence is crucial for fostering economic growth; iii) development may involve wave-like patterns of growth where successive business ventures are first pursued and then given up; iv) there is, nevertheless, no guarantee that firms pursue the best venture even in the long-run.

From 1983, Australia operated an Incomes Policy - the Accord. Senator Peter Cook, Australian Industrial Relations Minister, gave a Centre for Economic Performance-sponsored public lecture on the Accord in June 1991. In view of the considerable worldwide interest in the Accord, Senator Cook''s lecture is reprinted as a Centre for Economic Performance Occasional Paper to reach a wider audience. Peter Cook looks at the ways in which the Accord process facilitated a major assault on the impediments to economic growth and social equity in Australia in the 1980s, and argues that economic management should be achieved by consensus policies supported by social wage and industrial policy measures rather than economic and social confrontation.

This present paper focuses on the diffusion of wu-wei (an ancient Chinese concept of political economy) throughout Europe, between 1648 and 1848. It argues that at the core of this diffusion process were three major developments; firstly the importation and active transmission of wu-wei by the Low Countries, during the seventeenth century. It is revealed that the details of Chinese expertise entered Europe via the textual diffusion of Jesuit texts and the visual diffusion of million of so-called minben-images, during the ceramic boom of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thus, the hypothesis is advanced that the diffusion of wu-wei, co-evolved with the inner-European laissez-faire principle, the Libaniusian model. In the second part it is shown that the intellectual foundation of Europe’s first economic school, Physiocracy, is a direct replica of the imported Chinese economic, agrarian craftsmanship of wu-wei; subsequently it is denied that the indigenous European Libaniusian ideology can be considered the intellectual master-model of Physiocracy and his founder Quesnay. Thirdly, it is argued that Switzerland can be identified as the first European paradigm state of wu-wei. The crystallization process of wu-wei inside Europe ultimately ended with the economic-political reorganization of the new Eidgenossenschaft in 1848...

This paper examines the economic organization of the trans-Saharan slave trade between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries on those routes that moved slaves from Sudanic Africa via entrepôts in the Sahel and Sahara to the Maghrib. The commercial framework of this trade was integrated into ethnic, cultural, and religious systems, yet for its efficient operation could not rely solely on these social institutions. The paper considers temporary cooperation of itinerant slave traders and then projects them onto the broader patterns of commercial organization. It is shown that similar pressures resulted in comparable outcomes: partnerships were formed to take advantage of economies of scale in commercial services and to limit cooperation problems. This demonstrates that the organization of the trans-Saharan slave trade was economically rational and can be analysed in terms of cooperative and non-cooperative strategies. Moreover, it is argued that the trade was not restrained by social institutions but versatile in adapting its economic institutions to specific market imperfections. It is concluded that institutional economics and game theory are more useful in explaining the economic behaviour of those involved in the slave trade than standard neoclassical economics.

The paper sought to examine the impact of instability in primary commodity export earnings and the level of commodity dependence on economic growth in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Fixed effects panel data estimator was used in the empirical estimation. The findings of the study suggest that there is a negative relationship between instability in export earnings and economic growth. The results also indicate that the level of commodity dependence matter in determining economic growth in the region. The results of the paper have economic development policy implications for SSA economies and these are not farfetched. First, it appears the difficult growth experience of SSA is not solely due to instability in export receipts. The question of continued dependence on a narrow range of primary commodities is also matter of great importance.

ABSTRACT The core of South Africa tourism industry is based on wildlife tourism. Private game reserves and game farms which forms part of wildlife tourism constitute most of the wildlife products in South Africa. On these private reserves and game farms, hunting is one of the major income generators for product owners. The aim of this study is to analyse the economic impact of hunting on the regional economies of three of South Africa's most important hunting provinces. The study used economic multipliers, input-output analysis, and related modelling processes through input-output (supply-use) tables and social accounting matrices (SAM). The results differed significantly for the three provinces, with Limpopo receiving the biggest impact (R2.6 billion) and the Free State having the highest multiplier (2.08). The geographical location of the game farms, the number of farms per province and the species available all influenced the magnitude of the economic impact of hunters over and above the traditional determinants of economic impact analysis. The implication of the research is that it will help product owners in the development of game farms or hunting products, contribute to policy formulation, especially for government decisions on what products to offer where...

ABSTRACT Many countries, particularly those in the developing world, are under increasing pressure to improve their growth rates in order to tackle pressing economic problems at the domestic level. Increasing export volumes can make a positive contribution to a country's economic growth rate, but it can also endanger the environment. How to reconcile the often conflicting phenomena of increased export activity, stronger economic growth and a lower carbon footprint is the focus of this study. A core outcome of the study was the creation of a single list using a cross-section of international sources, of low-carbon environmental goods, and their ranking according to their inherent ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, South Africa's capacity to produce them, and their economic benefits, as reflected in the export opportunities they present. These export opportunities were revealed through the application of the Decision Support Model (DSM), an export market selection tool that incorporates a systematic filtering and screening system. The results of the analysis should help guide policymakers in their strategic deliberations on which export sectors to incentivise and support with a view to encouraging more 'green' growth in South Africa in the years ahead.

The main focus of this paper is to examine the impact of the real effective exchange rate on economic growth in Sierra Leone. First an analytical framework is developed to identify the determinants of the real effective exchange rate. Using quarterly data and employing recent econometric techniques, the relationship between the real effective exchange rate and economic growth is then investigated. A bivariate Granger causality test was also employed as part of the methodology to examine the causal relationship between the real exchange rate and economic growth. The empirical results suggest that the real effective exchange rate correlates positively with economic growth, with a statistically significant coefficient. The results also indicate that monetary policy is relatively more effective than fiscal policy in the long run, and evidence of the real effective exchange rate causing economic growth was profound. In addition, the results showed that terms of trade, exchange rate devaluation, investment to GDP ratio and an excessive supply of domestic credit were the main determinants of the real exchange rate in Sierra Leone.

In an international research climate of increasingly demanding ethical review, based on a biomedical model, reflection on best practices in social, behavioural and economic science research is necessary. It is widely believed that these sciences cannot be held to the same practical requirements as those for biomedical research, although the principles of ethical research are surely universal. This article considers the ethical requirements, principles and guidelines directing research in the social, behavioural and economic sciences, recognised in the national and international arena. By means of a systematic review of available best practices, it is anticipated that general guidelines for social, behavioural and economic science research could be developed and offered to researchers in these fields. Specific consideration is given to the unique characteristics of social, behavioural and economic science research.