Regional Competitiveness in Central European Countries: In Search of a Useful Conceptual Framework

The goal of this discussion paper is to examine the relevance of selected influential theoretical and conceptual approaches to regional competitiveness for specific geographical and institutional contexts of Central European (CE) regions. We argue that strategic documents and policies (both nation- and region-wide) in CE countries are based on un-critical applications of a few popular concepts of competitiveness that were originally proposed and mainly applied in Western European and US regions. Existing empirical evidence documents a strong role of exogenous factors of competitiveness in CE regions, the in-house character of firm innovations and weak demand for innovations, and other impediments of R&D collaboration. We suggest that these (and other factors) limit the applicability of concepts such as regional innovation systems and Porterian clusters in the context of many CE regions. On the other hand, we argue that some other concepts such as the global production networks perspective or related variety and economic complexity can provide some relevant and inspiring frameworks for analysing regional competitiveness in CE countries.     

Toward a Strategy to Deploy the Internet in Developing Countries

Internet access is highly concentrated in developed countries. Developing countries are interested in Internet applications in order to enter the global market and improve development plans. A strategy to deploy the Internet in developing countries must be viewed within the comprehensive economic development perspective. It should emphasize three goals: overcoming barriers to information; overcoming barriers to economic opportunities; and overcoming barriers to participation. To achieve these goals, two sets of plans are required: first, there must be plans to activate a research environment, using the requirements of Internet access; and second, priorities of Internet applications must be decided. According to the suggested strategy, applications follow this sequence: e‐government; e‐learning; and e‐commerce.     

Poverty Reduction and SAM Multipliers: An Evaluation of Public Policies in a Regional Framework

The objective of this paper is to obtain several poverty reduction effects by using multipliers based on social accounting matrices. Expressions relating them to Foster, Greer and Thorbecke poverty measures were derived, and two simulations were carried out for the Spanish region of Extremadura. In the first, we posited a per capita transfer equivalent to certain social policy instruments already existing in this region. Structural path analysis is also used to determine the paths by which poverty reduction effects are transmitted. In the second, we calculate the minimum government expenditure in transfers needed to reduce the regional poverty indices to the national values. The results confirmed that the main feature of poverty in Extremadura is incidence.     

Reassessing Fiscal Policy: Perspectives from Developing Countries

Over the last twenty‐five years an anti‐Keynesian orthodox approach has envisaged a prominent role for reductions in fiscal deficits in developing countries. Expansionary fiscal policies have been said to result in excessive expansion of aggregate demand leading to current account deficits and inflation, as well as displacing private investment, thereby inhibiting output stabilization and employment recovery. Moreover, chronic fiscal deficits are supposed to be associated with high and explosive debt/GDP ratios. The purpose of this article is to assess the theoretical adequacy of the orthodox approach in the context of developing countries. The author clarifies some common misunderstandings and finds that none of the conventional arguments against fiscal activism is wholly convincing. At the heart of the debate lies the question of assumptions, economic structure and causation mechanisms. The orthodox stories regarding the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy very often do not go beyond the simple monetarist assumptions or seek to verify the implications against the existing experiences and empirical data from developing countries.     

The Amenity Complex: Towards a Framework for Analysing and Predicting the Emergence of a Multifunctional Countryside in Australia

There is growing consensus among academics, regional development organisations and rural communities that the future growth and development of rural regions is increasingly dependent upon their ability to convey, to both established and prospective residents, the ‘amenity’ of their local physical, social and economic environments. However, little research to date has sought to identify exactly what comprises ‘amenity’ in the rural context, or has examined how this conceptually slippery quality is distributed across rural Australia, or how it influences local demographic, socio‐economic and land use change. This paper attempts a broad scale investigation of rural amenity in the south‐east Australian ecumene, identifying its core components in this context, mapping its distribution and assessing the nature of its influence over in‐migration rates over the past three decades. The paper finds that, at a macro‐scale, amenity tends to follow a general gradient from high to low according to distance from the coast, and that its relationship with in‐migration rates has increased substantially between 1976–1981 and 1996–2001.     

Delivering Microfinance in Developing Countries: Controversies and Policy Perspectives

The article reviews three major controversies in the microfinance field: vehicles, technologies, and performance assessments for financial service delivery. Then it proposes that these controversies be resolved by a perspective emphasizing institutional plurality and external and internal efficiencies for individual programs. Questions for further research are discussed in the conclusion.     

Land Use Transition and Deforestation in Developing Countries

Deforestation in developing countries frequently occurs when logging interests abandon cut plots to farmers, who then make use of the land by producing either cash or food crops. This paper presents a model of land use transition that reveals conditions under which logging interests abandon cut plots to follow-on farmers. The model incorporates key characteristics of forest utilization contracts so that the effects of particular contracts may be observed. Thus, the model serves as a basis for designing contracts that can help control deforestation.     

Urban Food Systems and the Poor in Developing Countries

In many cities in developing countries, hunger and malnutrition are common amongst the poor, even when food is relatively abundant. Over the past two decades, a considerable literature has accumulated on the problems associated with rapid urbanization in developing countries – a literature that for the most part has neglected the important dimension of urban food systems and how these link production and consumption networks at local, regional and global levels. Similarly, whilst there is a newly burgeoning literature on global food systems, the contextual role of the urbanization process is rarely addressed. This paper attempts to fuse these two major areas of geographical investigation to highlight the issues that need to be addressed in future research programmes so that improved diets become accessible to all urban dwellers.     

Structural Adjustment and Performance in Living Standards in Developing Countries

Over the years, the World Bank's structural adjustment programmes have been criticized on the grounds that they have adverse effects on the living standards of the people in developing countries. The main objective of this article is to test the hypothesis that the adjustment lending countries have had a superior (or inferior) performance to the non-adjustment lending countries during the 1980s. A new dummy variable regression model is used to test this hypothesis. The model controls for initial conditions, external shocks and other exogenous variables which affect different countries differently. The standard of living is measured by several socioeconomic variables including per capita income, lifeexpectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, and literacy rate.