Migration,Human Resource Transfers,and Development Contexts: A Logit Analysis of Venezuelan Data

This paper is concerned with the reciprocal relationship between migration and development in Third World settings. Using individual-level data for Venezuela, migration behavior is related to a person's age, educational attainment, gender, and characteristics of his/her place(s) of residence as an out-migrant, in-migrant, or stayer. Place characteristics are in terms of four groups based on employment patterns: the core, regional centers, resource frontiers, and traditional rural areas. Four questions are of concern. First, does development influence migration? All analyses indicate this is so. Second, does migration influence development? Findings are ambiguous in that places experiencing improvement in their mix of human capital lagged in the net number of persons obtained through migration whereas a gain in numbers was accompanied by deterioriation in human capital profiles. Third, was incipient polarization reversal occurring in Venezuela in the late 1960s, early 1970s? This paper departs from the usual approach by addressing this question in terms of human capital attributes instead of population aggregates. On this basis, polarization reversal is in evidence, particularly in regional centers. Finally, this study answers in the affirmative that places with different development characteristics generate migration streams differing in type, magnitude, explanation, and impact.     

From local economic initiatives to marriages a la mode?: Western Australia and Tasmania in comparative perspective

This paper presents a model of United Kingdom local economic development characterised by a grassroots orientation and partnership between public and private actors—marriages à la mode. It then offers research findings on the emergence of Local Economic Initiatives (LEIs) from Western Australia and Tasmania. Factors in the structure of their respective political economies appear to have made for a speedier adoption in Western Australia than Tasmania of such alternative policy characteristics as a grassroots participatory approach to policy design and implementation, which is underwritten to a considerable extent by non earmarked public funds. Over and above the structural factors, an Australia‐wide network of LEI enthusiasts, within and outside government, has encouraged imitation of the Western Australian policy innovation in Tasmania. The marriages a la mode model has not been fully replicated in Australia, however, by virtue of the relatively low profile of business organisations in LEIs.