世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

\"What are your assumptions (implicit as well as explicit) about the most effective way to manage people?\" So began Douglas McGregor in this 1960 management classic. It was a seemingly simple question he asked, yet it led to a fundamental revolution in management. Today, with the rise of the global economy, the information revolution, and the growth of knowledge-driven work, McGregor's simple but provocative question continues to resonate-perhaps more powerfully than ever before. Heralded as one of the most important pieces of management literature ever written, a touchstone for scholars and a handbook for practitioners, The Human Side of Enterprise continues to receive the highest accolades nearly half a century after its initial publication. Influencing such major management gurus such as Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, McGregor's revolutionary Theory Y-which contends that individuals are self-motivated and self-directed-and Theory X-in which employees must be commanded and controlled-has been widely taught in business schools, industrial relations schools, psychology departments, and professional development seminars for over four decades. In this special annotated edition of the worldwide management classic, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Senior Research Scientist in MIT's Sloan School of Management and Engineering Systems Division, shows us how today's leaders have successfully incorporated McGregor's methods into modern management styles and practices. The added quotes and commentary bring the content right into today's debates and business models. Now more than ever, the timeless wisdom of Douglas McGregor can light the path towards a management style that nurtures leadership capability, creates effective teams, ensures internal alignment, achieves high performance, and cultivates an authentic, value-driven workplace--lessons we all need to learn as we make our way in this brave new world of the 21st century.

The Human Side of Enterprise.

https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/download/14795/13847

Men and Women of the Corporation

Oil revenues and economic growth in oil-producing countries: The role of domestic financial markets

This article investigates the dynamic and bi-causal link between monetary policy and financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa using a panel VAR framework. The researcher obtained data from...

Monetary Policy and Financial Inclusion in Sub-Sahara Africa: A Panel VAR Approach

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic link between financial inclusion and financial sector development (FSD) in Sub-Saharan Africa.,This paper employs a panel vector autoregressive framework to examine the dynamic link between financial inclusion and FSD in Sub-Saharan Africa.,The findings indicate that there is a reverse causality between FSD and financial inclusion in both the Sub-Saharan Africa countries sample and the full sample. It is evident that financial inclusion is a driver of FSD and vice versa.,The practical implication of this study is that financial inclusion should not only be pursued as a policy objective but it could also be an outcome variable of FSD and vice versa. This implies that African economies and governments in their effort to enhance financial inclusion, FSD can serve as a policy tool. This means that policies aimed at promoting financial inclusion will not impede FSD because the two are complementary. This suggests that we can achieve financial inclusion without sacrificing FSD and vice versa.,This paper provides first empirical evidence of the link between financial inclusion and FSD from the Sub-Saharan Africa perspective using data sourced from World Development Indicators spanning from 1990 to 2014 for 48 Sub-Saharan African economies and 217 economies in the world for the full sample.

Financial inclusion and financial sector development in Sub-Saharan Africa: a panel VAR approach

The agency theory suggests that the separation of ownership and control in firms creates conflicts of interest between the firm’s shareholders and managers. This is mainly because managers have the opportunity to use the resources of the firm in ways that benefit themselves personally to the detriment of shareholders’ wealth maximisation. This study examines the relationship between agency factors and the capital structure decisions of Small and Medium Enterprises quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The results indicate that firms with one major institutional blockholder are able to monitor the opportunistic behaviour of management more effectively than those with more than one institutional blockholders. Effective monitoring could result in more debt being used by management to increase shareholder value. Also firms with high growth potentials tend to exhibit high debt ratio than those with low growth opportunities. With the exception of the number of institutional blockholders and growth opportun...

An empirical test of the agency problems and capital structure of South African quoted SMEs

In the last couple of years, the quest for aid alignment and harmonisation is increasingly putting pressure on development partners to change funding modalities from sectoral pool funding and programme or project support to some form of budget support modality. In Ghana, where donor funds constituted about 13.8% and 14.33% of the health sector budget in 2006 and 2008 respectively (Ministry of Health, 2006, 2008), such changes could result in difficulties with respect to funds flow to the sector. The aim of this paper is to review the budget planning, execution and disbursement processes of the Ministry of Health in Ghana to draw some conclusions on whether a move from pool funding to a form of budget support modality will affect the flow of funds, especially to service providers. The findings of this study exhibit improved national and sectoral level procedures as well as some weaknesses in the budgeting process of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and cashflow difficulties which can be traced to both ministries. The study also identifies opportunities to improve the levels of dialogue between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. It is believed that the current state of the budget planning, execution and disbursement process in the health sector is unlikely to have an adverse effect on the flow of funds to service providers irrespective of the funding modality used.

Joshua Abor

Papers

Oil revenues and economic growth in oil-producing countries: The role of domestic financial markets

Monetary Policy and Financial Inclusion in Sub-Sahara Africa: A Panel VAR Approach

Financial inclusion and financial sector development in Sub-Saharan Africa: a panel VAR approach

An empirical test of the agency problems and capital structure of South African quoted SMEs

Financing the health sector in Ghana: A review of the budgetary process