World Institute for Development Economics Research

About: World Institute for Development Economics Research is a facility organization based out in Helsinki, Finland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Poverty & Population. The organization has 110 authors who have published 525 publications receiving 17316 citations.

Ethnic leftists, populist ethnics : the new politics of identity

Abstract: Group identifications -- in particular, those based on ethnicity and class -- are central to political mobilization during elections. This dissertation asks: when and why does the salience of ethnic and class categories vary across elections in emerging democracies? It argues that which categories are politicized has less to do with which categories are most salient to voters and more to do with which are most useful to politicians. The strategies of politicians, however, are contrained in a particular ways, by opportunity, which is provided by party system crises, and by the political space, which is given by the structure of existing social identity categories, particularly their sizes and degrees of overlap with traditionally-politicized categories. Given the institutional rules, size and overlap affect which identity groups have the numbers to win and which describe similar constituencies that could be switched between for political expediency. The project nests the theory within an explanatory framework describing four key factors that drive variation in identification: voter preferences, political institutions, party institutions, and elite manipulation. The dissertation presents data from three sources: a fieldwork-based study of Bolivian party politics, focusing on the democratic period from 1982 to 2005; data from the "Constructivist Dataset on Ethnicity and Institutions (CDEI)" on political parties and elections in Latin America in the early 1990s; and four shadow cases from the Andean region (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela). These data are used to map variation in identification across countries and over time; to illustrate the plausibility of the argument and to test it against predictions drawn from alternative hypotheses; and to explore the generalizability of the argument.

Does Gender Influence the Provision of Fringe Benefits? Evidence From Vietnamese SMEs

Abstract: This contribution studies the provision of fringe benefits using a unique survey of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. Analysis of the survey reveals that women who own SMEs are more likely than men who own similar firms to provide employees with fringe benefits such as annual leave, social benefits, and health insurance. This gender effect exists especially with regard to mandatory social insurance and is robust to the inclusion of standard determinants of wage compensation. The study also explores whether this finding is linked to gender differences in social networks and workforce structure, worker recruitment mechanisms, and the degree of unionization. However, these factors cannot fully account for the observed differences in fringe benefits along the “gender of owner” dimension. There remains a sizable and unexplained fringe benefits premium paid to employees in women-owned firms.

The transition's population crisis: An econometric investigation of nuptiality, fertility and mortality in severely distressed economies

Abstract: In most of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (hereafter referred to in brief as `Eastern Europe) the economic and political reforms of the last six years have been accompanied by an unprecedented fall in output a rapid impoverishment of large sections of society increasing uncertainty about the future and an exceptional population crisis....Neither fashionable explanations nor major demographic and household behaviour models seem to be able to explain the transition population crisis of Eastern Europe....This paper aims at debunking the traditional approach and at testing the hypothesis that the current transition population crisis is the result of growing economic instability social stress unfavourable expectations about the future and inadequate policy action. If this hypothesis is verified the most suitable solution to the current mortality and fertility crisis of Eastern Europe would require not only stronger measures in the field of health and family policy but also more aggressive initiatives to support employment minimum wages and social transfers enhance tax collection and control inflation. (EXCERPT)