Showing papers on "Developing country published in 2005"

The Worldwide Expansion of Higher Education in the Twentieth Century

Abstract: The authors analyze the rapid worldwide expansion of higher educational enrollments over the twentieth century using pooled panel regressions. Expansion is higher in economically developed countries (in some but not all analyses) as classic theories would have it. Growth is greater where secondary enrollments are high and where state control over education is low, consistent with conflict and competition theories. Institutional theories get strong support. growth patterns are similar in all types of countries, are especially high in countries more linked to world society, and sharply accelerate in virtually all countries after 1960. The authors theorize and operationalize the institutional processes involved, which include scientization, democratization and the expansion of human rights, the rise of development planning, and the structuration of the world polity. With these changes, a new model of society became institutionalized globally-one in which schooled knowledge and personnel were seen as appropriate for a wide variety of social positions, and in which many more young people were seen as appropriate candidates for higher education. An older vision of education as contributing to a more closed society and occupational system-with associated fears of "over-education "-was replaced by an open-system picture of education as useful "human capital "for unlimited progress. The global trends are so strong that developing countries now have higher enrollment rates than European countries did only afew decades ago, and currently about one-fifth of the world cohort is now enrolled in higher education.

Counting the dead and what they died from: an assessment of the global status of cause of death data

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess the current status of global data on death registration and to examine several indicators of data completeness and quality. METHODS: We summarized the availability of death registration data by year and country. Indicators of data quality were assessed for each country and included the timeliness, completeness and coverage of registration and the proportion of deaths assigned to ill-defined causes. FINDINGS: At the end of 2003 data on death registration were available from 115 countries, although they were essentially complete for only 64 countries. Coverage of death registration varies from close to 100% in the WHO European Region to less than 10% in the African Region. Only 23 countries have data that are more than 90% complete, where ill-defined causes account for less than 10% of total of causes of death, and where ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes are used. There are 28 countries where less than 70% of the data are complete or where ill-defined codes are assigned to more than 20% of deaths. Twelve high-income countries in western Europe are included among the 55 countries with intermediate-quality data. CONCLUSION: Few countries have good-quality data on mortality that can be used to adequately support policy development and implementation. There is an urgent need for countries to implement death registration systems, even if only through sample registration, or enhance their existing systems in order to rapidly improve knowledge about the most basic of health statistics: who dies from what?

Strategies that fit emerging markets.

Abstract: It's no easy task to identify strategies for entering new international markets or to decide which countries to do business with. Many firms simply go with what they know-and fall far short of their goals. Part of the problem is that emerging markets have "institutional voids": They lack specialized intermediaries, regulatory systems, and contract-enforcing methods. These gaps have made it difficult for multinationals to succeed in developing nations; thus, many companies have resisted investing there. That may be a mistake. If Western companies don't come up with good strategies for engaging with emerging markets, they are unlikely to remain competitive. Many firms choose their markets and strategies for the wrong reasons, relying on everything from senior managers' gut feelings to the behaviors of rivals. Corporations also depend on composite indexes for help making decisions. But these analyses can be misleading; they don't account for vital information about the soft infrastructures in developing nations. A better approach is to understand institutional variations between countries. The best way to do this, the authors have found, is by using the five contexts framework. The five contexts are a country's political and social systems, its degree of openness, its product markets, its labor markets, and its capital markets. By asking a series of questions that pertain to each ofthe five areas, executives can map the institutional contexts of any nation. When companies match their strategies to each country's contexts, they can take advantage of a location's unique strengths. But first firms should weigh the benefits against the costs. If they find that the risks of adaptation are too great, they should try to change the contexts in which they operate or simply stay away.

Nascent Entrepreneurship and the Level of Economic Development

Abstract: Based upon two strands of literature, this paper hypothesizes a U-shaped relationship between a country’s rate of entrepreneurial dynamics and its level of economic development. This would imply a different scope for entrepreneurship policy across subsequent stages of development. Regressing GEM’s 2002 data for nascent entrepreneurship in 36 countries on the level of economic development as measured either by per capita income or by an index for innovative capacity, we find support for a U-shaped relationship. Testing our results against several control variables, evidence is again found for this relationship with economic development, in addition to significant effects of the business ownership rate (+), social security expenditure (-), aggregate taxes (+) and population growth (+). The results suggest that a ‘natural rate’ of nascent entrepreneurship is to some extent governed by ‘laws’ related to the level of economic development. For the most advanced nations, improving incentive structures for business start-ups and promoting the commercial exploitation of scientific findings offer the most promising approach for public policy. Developing nations, however, may be better off pursuing the exploitation of scale economies, fostering foreign direct investment and promoting management education.

The metrics of the physician brain drain.

Abstract: methods Data on the countries of origin, based on countries of medical education, of international medical graduates practicing in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia were obtained from sources in the respective countries and analyzed separately and in aggregate. With the use of World Health Organization data, I computed an emigration factor for the countries of origin of the immigrant physicians to provide a relative measure of the number of physicians lost by emigration. results International medical graduates constitute between 23 and 28 percent of physicians in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, and lower-income countries supply between 40 and 75 percent of these international medical graduates. India, the Philippines, and Pakistan are the leading sources of international medical graduates. The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia draw a substantial number of physicians from South Africa, and the United States draws very heavily from the Philippines. Nine of the 20 countries with the highest emigration factors are in sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean. conclusions Reliance on international medical graduates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia is reducing the supply of physicians in many lower-income countries.

International Migration, Remittances, and the Brain Drain

Abstract: Knowledge of the economic effects of migration, especially its impact on economic development, is rather limited. In order to expand knowledge on migration, and identify policies and reforms that would lead to superior development outcomes, this volume presents the results of a first set of studies carried out on the subject. Current demographic trends in both developed and developing countries are pointing toward significant, potential economic gains from migration. The labor forces in many developed countries are expected to peak around 2010, and decline by around 5 percent in the following two decades, accompanied by a rapid increase in dependency ratios. Conversely, the labor forces in many developing countries are expanding rapidly, resulting in declines in dependency ratios. This imbalance is likely to create strong demand for workers in developed countries' labor markets, especially for numerous service sectors that can only be supplied locally. There are large north-south wage gaps, however, especially for unskilled and semiskilled labor. Part 1 of this book, Migration and Remittances, examines the determinants of migration, and the impact of migration and remittances on various development indicators, and measures of welfare. Among these are poverty and inequality; investments in education, health, housing and other productive activities; entrepreneurship; and child labor and education. It focuses on different source countries, use data collected via different methodologies, and employ different econometric tools. Their results, however, are surprisingly consistent. Part 2, Brain Drain, Brain Gain, Brain Waste, focuses on issues related to the migration of skilled workers, that is, the brain drain. It presents the most extensive database on bilateral skilled migration to date, and also examines a number of issues associated with the brain drain, that have not been emphasized in the literature so far, uncovers a number of interesting and unexpected patterns, and, provides answers to some of the debates. This volume deals essentially with economically motivated south-north migration, whose principal cause is, in most cases, the difference in (the present value of) expected real wages, adjusted for migration costs.

Does foreign direct investment promote development

Abstract: What is the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on development? The answer is important for the lives of millions - if not billions - of workers, families, and communities in the developing world. The answer is crucial for policymakers in developing and developed countries, and in multilateral agencies. This volume gathers together the cutting edge of new research on FDI and host country economic performance and presents the most sophisticated critiques of current and past inquiries. It probes the limits of what can be determined from available evidence and from innovative investigative techniques. In addition, the book presents new results, concludes with an analysis of the implications for contemporary policy debates, and proposed new avenues for future research.

Investment Climate and Firm Performance in Developing Economies

Abstract: Drawing on recently completed firm‐level surveys in Bangladesh, China, India, and Pakistan, this article investigates the relationship between the investment climate and firm performance These standardized surveys of large, random samples of firms in common sectors reveal that objective measures of the investment climate vary significantly across countries and across locations within these countries We focus primarily on measures of the time or monetary cost of different bottlenecks (eg, days to clear goods through customs, days to get a telephone line, and sales lost to power outages) For many of these costs, the obstacles are lower in China than in Bangladesh or India, which in turn are higher than in Pakistan There is also systematic variation across cities within countries We estimate a production function for garment firms and show that total factor productivity is systematically related to the investment climate indicators Factor returns (wages for a given quality of human capital a

An Empirical Investigation of Annual Reporting Trends of Intellectual Capital in Sri Lanka

Abstract: This study examines the annual reports of each of the top 30 firms listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in the period 1998/1999 to 1999/2000, using the ‘content analysis’ method. The findings indicate that the most reported accounting category during this period was external capital and the second most reported was human capital. There was an increase in the frequency of intellectual capital reporting over the 2 years, which this paper explains using political economy of accounting theory. Interestingly, the individual intellectual capital items of each capital category reported by firms in Sri Lanka differed from those found in other countries. It is hoped that the findings of this pioneering study can be used as a benchmark for future studies in Sri Lanka and in other developing countries.

Explaining the Global Digital Divide: Economic, Political and Sociological Drivers of Cross-National Internet Use

Abstract: We argue that the global digital divide, as measured by cross-national differences in Internet use, is the result of the economic, regulatory and sociopolitical characteristics of countries and their evolution over time. We predict Internet use to increase with worldsystem status, privatization and competition in the telecommunications sector, democracy and cosmopolitanism. Using data on 118 countries from 1997 through 2001, we find relatively robust support for each of our hypotheses. We conclude by exploring the implications of this new, powerful communication medium for the global political economy and for the spread of democracy around the world. The Internet has developed unevenly throughout the world, creating what has become known as the “global digital divide” (Castells 2001; Kirkman et al. 2002; Mosaic Group 1998; Norris 2001; Rogers 2001). The number of Internet users is one of the most widely used indicators of development of this emerging medium of communication. Less than 10 percent of the world’s population uses the Internet, and the gap between developed and developing countries has continued to widen since the early 1990s (see Figure 1). Differences by country are remarkable. Statistics compiled by the International Telecommunication Union as of the end of 2002 indicate that Internet use as a proportion of the population ranges from less than one percent in many underdeveloped African, Central American, and South Asian countries to between 50 and 60 percent in Iceland, the United States, Scandinavia, Singapore or South Korea (ITU 2003).1 The growth of the Internet has captured the imagination of users, policymakers, entrepreneurs, corporate managers, military strategists, social commentators, scholars, and journalists. Some early optimistic analyses envisioned the Internet as a “decentralizing, globalizing, harmonizing, and empowering” medium (Negroponte 1995:229), as a new communication technology that would bring about a “smaller, more open world.” (Tapscott and Caston 1993:313) The most enthusiastic visionaries have argued that the Internet means the “triumph over time and space,” the rise of the “netizen,” and the crowning of the “customer as sovereign” (Gilder 2000). According to the cyber-optimists, the Internet can create a public sphere in Habermas’s (1989) sense, one that is not regulated by the state or by commercial interests but rather owned and controlled by the participants themselves (Schneider 1996). While some of the cyber-optimists recognized the looming issue of inequality in access to the Internet (e.g. Tapscott and Caston 1993:312), it was not until the late 1990s that international organizations, governments, think tanks, and universities started to warn about the existence of a yawning digital divide, both within and across countries (e.g., U.S.

Perceived E-Readiness Factors in E-Commerce Adoption: An Empirical Investigation in a Developing Country

Abstract: This study explores the factors that affect e-commerce adoption in a developing country. It proposes a research model, based on perceived organizational e-readiness (POER) and perceived environmental e-readiness (PEER), that encompasses innovational, managerial, organizational, and environmental characteristics as determinants of e-commerce adoption and institutionalization. Based on survey data from 150 businesses in South Africa, it finds that initial e-commerce adoption is explained more by POER than by PEER, but PEER factors and POER commitment and governance variables explain the extent of institutionalization of e-commerce. The model links e-readiness to e-commerce adoption and suggests that a combination of PEER and POER factors affect e-commerce adoption. By implication, a multilevel model is essential to explicate the diffusion of e-commerce in developing countries. The results indicate that firms in developing countries should pay attention to both organizational and environmental considerations when making e-commerce adoption decisions. They also imply that investment in infrastructure development by governments and other agencies should go hand-in-hand with schemes for business development and managerial improvement at the organizational level.

The resource curse

Abstract: Countries that possess rich mineral deposits, it is widely assumed, are fortunate. Such deposits are assets, part of a country’s natural capital. Mining is the key that converts dormant mineral wealth into schools, homes, ports, and other forms of capital that directly contribute to economic development. Over the past two decades, however, a more negative view of mining has emerged that questions the positive relationship between mineral extraction and economic development. The impetus for the alternative view came from empirical studies suggesting that countries where mining is important have not grown as rapidly as other countries. More recent studies have explored the possible reasons behind the disappointing performance of many mineral producing countries. While the central point of contention between the conventional and alternative views — namely, whether or not mining usually promotes economic development — remains unresolved, there is widespread agreement that rich mineral deposits provide developing countries with opportunities, which in some instances have been used wisely to promote development, and in other instances have been misused, hurting development. The consensus on this issue is important, for it means that one uniform policy toward all mining in the developing world is not desirable, despite the recent suggestions by some to the contrary. The appropriate public policy question is not should we or should we not promote mining in the developing countries, but rather where should we encourage it and how can we ensure that it contributes as much as possible to economic development and poverty alleviation.

National policies that connect ICT-based education reform to economic and social development

Abstract: Information and communication technology (ICT) is a principal driver of economic development and social change, worldwide. In many countries, the need for economic and social development is used to justify investments in educational reform and in educational ICT. Yet the connections between national development goals and ICT-based education reform are often more rhetorical than programmatic. This paper identifies the factors that influence economic growth and shows how they supported economic and social development in three national case studies: Singapore, Finland, and Egypt. It describes a systemic framework of growth factors and types of development that can be used to analyze national policies and connect ICT-based education reform to national economic and social development goals. And it discusses how the coordination of policies within and across ministries can support a nation’s efforts to improve economic and social conditions. The paper highlights special concerns and challenges of developing countries.

Internet banking adoption strategies for a developing country: the case of Thailand

Abstract: Purpose – The objective of the paper is to identify the factors that encourage consumers to adopt internet banking services in Thailand and to use the study's findings to develop strategies for banks on how to maximize the rate of adoption.Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative research with a sample size of 600 achieved by sending questionnaires to 15 people in each of 40 large companies in Bangkok. The study is based on the Decomposed Planned Behaviour.Findings – The attitudinal factors that appear to encourage the adoption of internet banking in Thailand most are “Features of the web site” and “Perceived usefulness”, while the most significant impediment to adoption is a perceived behavioural control, namely “External environment”. The significant moderating factors are gender, educational level, income, internet experience and internet banking experience, but not age.Research limitations/implications – In this study, encouragement factors are those that are able to be controlled by banks, while im...

Wider income gaps, wider waistbands? An ecological study of obesity and income inequality

Abstract: Objectives: To see if obesity, deaths from diabetes, and daily calorie intake are associated with income inequality among developed countries. Design: Ecological study of 21 developed countries. Countries: Countries were eligible for inclusion if they were among the top 50 countries with the highest gross national income per capita by purchasing power parity in 2002, had a population over 3 million, and had available data on income inequality and outcome measures. Main outcome measures: Percentage of obese (body mass index >30) adult men and women, diabetes mortality rates, and calorie consumption per capita per day. Results: Adjusting for gross national per capita income, income inequality was positively correlated with the percentage of obese men (r = 0.48, p = 0.03), the percentage of obese women (r = 0.62, p = 0.003), diabetes mortality rates per 1 million people (r = 0.46, p = 0.04), and average calories per capita per day (r = 0.50, p = 0.02). Correlations were stronger if analyses were weighted for population size. The effect of income inequality on female obesity was independent of average calorie intake. Conclusions: Obesity, diabetes mortality, and calorie consumption were associated with income inequality in developed countries. Increased nutritional problems may be a consequence of the psychosocial impact of living in a more hierarchical society.

Counting Immigrants and Expatriates in OECD Countries: A New Perspective

Abstract: Results presented in this paper based on the new database on immigrants and expatriates in OECD countries, show that (i) the percentage of the foreign-born in European OECD countries is generally higher than the percentage of foreigners; (ii) international migration is quite selective towards highly skilled migrants; (iii) in most OECD countries, the number of immigrants with tertiary education exceeds the number of highly qualified expatriates to other OECD countries; (iv) among non-member countries the impact of the international mobility of the highly skilled is diverse: the largest developing countries seem not be significantly affected and indeed may benefit from indirect effects associated with this mobility while some of the smallest countries, especially in the Caribbean and in Africa, face significant ‘emigration rates’ of their elites.

Dimensions of service quality in developed and developing economies: multi‐country cross‐cultural comparisons

Abstract: Post print uploaded as per publisher's request. Link to publisher's version with doi must be available.http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/doi/full/10.1108/02651330510602204

Analysis and implications

Abstract: Country ownership is widely seen as crucial to the success of national development strategies, but a robust operational framework to assess it has been elusive. The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) initiative underpinned by the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) principles, introduced in 1999, take the question of country ownership to a new level by ensuring an opportunity for a country to take the initiative in defining its own strategy, and take charge of its development. This study offers a common operational approach to assessing country ownership of PRSs. It builds on the findings of the Bank's 2003 CDF Progress Report, which reviewed experience in 48 countries, on PRS reviews prepared by other organizations, and other units within the Bank, and on detailed case studies of the PRS process carried out for the purposes of this study in four countries that have made strong progress in developing nationally, owned development strategies: Bolivia, Ghana, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Senegal. Experience in the case study countries shows that to develop country ownership of PRSs, it is essential to integrate PRS formulation, and implementation into a country's broader decision making processes and systems. The indicators point to increasing institutionalization of the PRS process: to the extent that these elements are in place, country ownership of the PRS is stronger. However, all indicators are unlikely to be equally important in all countries. Countries with weaker governance and institutions like Low-Income Countries Under Stress (LICUS) face considerable challenges in fostering country ownership of the PRS, and are likely to make slower progress than those with stronger institutions.

Entrepreneurship Selection and Performance: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Education in Developing Economies

Abstract: This meta-analytical review of empirical studies of the impact of schooling on entrepreneurship in selection and performance in developing economies looks at variations impact across specific characteristics of the studies. A marginal year of schooling in developing economies raises enterprise income by an average of 5.5 percent, which is close to the average return in industrial countries. The return varies, however, by gender, rural or urban residence, and the share of agriculture in the economy. Furthermore, more educated workers typically end up in wage employment and prefer nonfarm entrepreneurship to farming. The education effect that separates workers into self-employment and wage employment is stronger for women, possibly stronger in urban areas, and also stronger in the least developed economies, where agriculture is more dominant and literacy rates are lower.

Corruption and Development: New Initiatives in Economic Openness and Strengthened Rule of Law

Abstract: Corruption is a major problem in many of the world’s developing economies today. World Bank studies put bribery at over $1 trillion per year accounting for up to 12 of the GDP of nations like Nigeria, Kenya and Venezuela. Though largely ignored for many years, interest in world wide corruption has been rekindled by recent corporate scandals in the US and Europe. Corruption in the developing nations is said to result from a number of factors. Mass poverty has been cited as a facilitating condition for corruption just as an inability to manage a sudden upsurge in mineral revenues has been credited with breeding corruption and adventurous government procurement among public officials in countries like Nigeria and Venezuela. Virtually all developing nations that have serious corruption problems also have very limited economic freedom and a very weak enforcement of the rule of law. In such nations, corruption represents a regressive taxation that bears hard on the poor. It has a dampening effect on development and it could result in the production of inferior goods as companies find ways to accommodate under-the-table payments. Finally, corruption is a dangerous threat to the legitimacy of the governments of some of the developing nations themselves. It is suggested that new urgent initiatives are needed to deal with the dangers posed by corruption in the developing economies. They include making the economies of these nations more open by the withdrawal of the government from the productive sector and by the abolition of unnecessarily stringent restrictions on business conduct. The rule of law needs to be strengthened in these nations and those countries like Nigeria and Venezuela should ignore scruples over sovereignty and seek foreign assistance in the management of their oil wealth. Finally, multinationals should be made to disclose all the payments they make in developing nations to such organizations like International Chamber of Commerce or Transparency International where they can be reviewed by anyone interested.

Intensive Groundwater Use: Silent Revolution and Potential Source of Social Conflicts

Abstract: Many papers, including a recent editorial of this journal Stakhiv 2003 , have advocated the need for a paradigm shift toward adaptive, integrated water resources management as a means to attain a rationalization in water use. There is, however, one significant element of water policy that has received less attention by most experts and water decision-makers: intensive groundwater use for irrigation in arid and semiarid regions more significantly in developing countries . This editorial provides an overview of this phenomenon and its main pros and cons, aiming to contribute to the current debate over adaptive integrated water resources management. Assessing the implications might not only shed some new light upon some pervasive world water visions, but also help to avoid or mitigate potential social conflicts. Groundwater development has for a long time provided drinking water to urban and rural populations of developed and developing countries. Currently, groundwater is estimated to provide about 50% of the world’s drinking-water supplies United Nations 2003 p. 78 . Moreover, groundwater is arguably the cheapest and fastest way to achieve the United Nations Millennium Declaration goal of halving the number of people worldwide without affordable drinking water and/or malnourished by 2015 Llamas and Martinez Cortina 2002 . In addition, groundwater abstraction by simplified mechanisms, such as the treadle pump, together with cheap drip irrigation systems, also constitutes a plausible alternative for developing countries to overcome the poverty threshold one dollar/person and day per capita income Polak 2004 . While the human and political relevance of these figures is obvious, it cannot be overlooked that urban and rural domestic supply for human consumption amounts to less than 15% of global water use. Thus, this editorial is concerned solely with irrigation, which is generally acknowledged to be about 70% of the world’s freshwater withdrawal United Nations 2003 . Note that this percentage might increase to about 90% if consumptive uses were considered.

A critical analysis of the Brazilian response to HIV/AIDS: lessons learned for controlling and mitigating the epidemic in developing countries.

Abstract: The Brazilian National AIDS Program is widely recognized as the leading example of an integrated HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment program in a developing country. We critically analyze the Brazilian experience, distinguishing those elements that are unique to Brazil from the programmatic and policy decisions that can aid the development of similar programs in other low- and middle-income and developing countries.Among the critical issues that are discussed are human rights and solidarity, the interface of politics and public health, sexuality and culture, the integration of prevention and treatment, the transition from an epidemic rooted among men who have sex with men to one that increasingly affects women, and special prevention and treatment programs for injection drug users.

Revisiting Carroll's CSR Pyramid: An African Perspective

Abstract: Nevertheless, Africa remains a marginal region in global terms: With 12% of the world’s population (around 750 million people) in 53 countries, Africa accounts for less than 2% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and FDI, and less than 10% of FDI to all developing countries. Of the 81 poorest countries prioritised by the International Development Association, almost half are in Africa. And even within Africa, there is highly skewed development, with the largest ten economies accounting for 75% of the continent’s GDP. The extent of the challenge for CSR in Africa becomes even clearer when we are reminded of the scale of social needs that still exist, despite decades of aid and development effort: Life expectancy in Africa is still only 50 years on average (and as low as 38 years in some countries), Gross National Income per capita averages $650 (and drops as low as $90 in some countries) and the adult literacy rate is less than 20% in some countries. At the current pace of development, Sub-Saharan Africa would not reach the Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction until 2147 and for child mortality until 2165; and as for HIV/Aids and hunger, trends in the region are heading up, not down. The Role of Business The track record of big business in Africa is mixed at best. There is certainly no shortage of examples of corporate complicity in political corruption, environmental destruction, labour exploitation and social disruption, stretching back more than 100 years. Equally, however, there is voluminous evidence of the benefits of business bringing capital investment, job creation, skills transfer, infrastructure development, knowledge sharing and social responsibility programmes to countries throughout Africa.

Nurses on the Move: Migration and the Global Health Care Economy

Abstract: South African nurses care for patients in London, hospitals recruit Filipino nurses to Los Angeles, and Chinese nurses practice their profession in Ireland. In every industrialized country of the world, patients today increasingly find that the nurses who care for them come from a vast array of countries. In the first book on international nurse migration, Mireille Kingma investigates one of today's most important health care trends. The personal stories of migrant nurses that fill this book contrast the nightmarish existences of some with the successes of others. Health systems in industrialized countries now depend on nurses from the developing world to address their nursing shortages. This situation raises a host of thorny questions. What causes nurses to decide to migrate? Is this migration voluntary or in some way coerced? When developing countries are faced with nurse vacancy rates of more than 40 percent, is recruitment by industrialized countries fair play in a competitive market or a new form of colonialization? What happens to these workers-and the patients left behind-when they migrate? What safeguards will protect nurses and the patients they find in their new workplaces? Highlighting the complexity of the international rules and regulations now being constructed to facilitate the lucrative trade in human services, Kingma presents a new way to think about the migration of skilled health-sector labor as well as the strategies needed to make migration work for individuals, patients, and the health systems on which they depend.