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Browsing by Subject "Developing countries"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Essays in macroeconomics.
    (2010-08) Rothert, Jacek
    In the first chapter of the thesis I develop a model of switching between good and bad policy regimes where transition probabilities are endogenous. A politician chooses a policy regime that affects its own and households' payoffs. Households face a sequence of politicians, observe regime with noise, and decide whether or not to change the government. The decision to switch depends on the expectation of choices of future politicians, which in turn depend on households switching decisions. I characterize equilibria and show how switching probabilities depend on fundamentals (preferences and technology). Model implications about output volatility in a cross-section of countries are supported by the data. The second chapter of the thesis is co-authored with Jacob Short. We address the puzzle that the developing countries experiencing rapid TFP growth tend to run current account surpluses. This finding is puzzling in the context of the neoclassical growth model, which predicts that these countries should be net borrowers (Gourinchas and Jeanne, 2009). We account for this puzzle by introducing a non-tradable sector to an otherwise standard growth model. We propose that complementarity between tradable and non-tradable goods is key. With an initially underdeveloped non-tradable sector, a representative household is willing to trade a portion of current tradable output in exchange for tradable goods in the future when its production of non-tradable goods increases. A drawback of the simplest version of the model is that faster growing countries experience a reduction in the relative price of non-tradable goods.
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    Institution building in an emerging industry: lessons from the carbon offset industry.
    (2012-05) Rawhouser, Hans Nikolas
    Industry creation requires the building of institutions that support and enable economic exchange. Among the many actors involved in building these institutions are firms. The three papers of this dissertation investigate how firms are involved in the process of building these institutions in the context of the global carbon offset industry from 2003 to 2011. In the first paper I draw on the innovation management literature to contrast two ways in which the public and private sector can interact in the rulemaking process. I illustrate these differences by comparing the development of rules in two different carbon offset systems: the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Climate Action Reserve. In the second paper, I test whether the 152 firms among the population of 1599 firms operating in the CDM benefit from choosing to help build the rules that are needed for all firms to operate in the CDM. I find that, in addition to providing a collective good for the entire industry, these institution-building activities provide firms visibility among potential customers. In the final paper, I find that institution-building actions in the CDM tend to signal the presence of potential competitors, which deters local industry growth among the 91 developing countries which host carbon offset projects. Prior commitment and capabilities of local country governments positively moderate this relationship. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the important role of firms in shaping the institutions that support industry emergence and influence industry evolution.
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    Linking urban transport and land use in developing countries
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2013) Cervero, Robert
    The mobility challenges of the developing world are considerably different than those in wealthier, advanced countries, and so are the challenges of coordinating transportation and land use. Rapid population growth, poverty and income disparities, overcrowded urban cores, poorly designed road networks, spatial mismatches between housing and jobs, deteriorating environmental conditions, and economic losses from extreme traffic by congestion are among the more vexing challenges faced by developing cities that could be assuaged through improved coordination of transportation and urban development. This is underscored by examples reviewed in this paper from South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, India, Africa, and South America. It is concluded that whatever is done to improve transportation and land-use integration must be pro-poor. The cardinal features of integrated and sustainable transport and urbanism everywhere---accessible urban activities and safe, attractive walking and cycling environs---are particularly vital to the welfare and prosperity of urbanites in the world's poorest countries.