Showing papers on "Negative relationship published in 1980"

Conflict and Trade

Abstract: This article applies microeconomic theory to illustrate the plausibility of a relationship between international trade and conflict. It is argued that the mutual dependence established between two trading partners (dyads) is sufficient to raise the costs of conflict, there-by diminishing levels of dyadic dispute. This hypothesis of a negative relationship between conflict and trade is tested using a ten-year thirty-country cross section merged from four separate data sources. It is found that ceteris paribus countries with the greatest levels of economic trade engage in the least amounts of hostility. In fact, a doubling of trade on average leads to a 20% diminution of belligerence. This relationship appears robust, holding even more strongly when statistical adjustments are made for causality.

Specific Training and Inter-Industry Wage Differentials in U.S. Manufacturing

Abstract: H UMAN capital theory posits that individuals invest in the acquisition of productive skills in order to derive higher future earnings. While the dichotomy between investments in "general" and "specific" skills has long been recognised,t empirical tests of the theory do not usually distinguish between the two earnings components.2 In this paper the conventional earnings model is expanded to incorporate worker-financed specific training. The inclusion of tenure allows a segregation of estimates of returns to general and specific human capital. This disaggregation permits an examination of the relationship between worker-financing of specific training and interindustry wage differentials. Cross-section investigations typically report the importance of industry of employment as a wage determinant, even controlling for a myriad of individual characteristics.3 This result has been taken, perhaps prematurely, as evidence of pervasive labor market imperfections. If interindustry differences in skill specificity are important, we should expect systematic wage differentials. Increased acquisition of worker-financed specific training will be associated with lower initial wages and subsequent higher rates of wage increase. In section I we consider the implications of using alternative specifications of the earnings model. The distinction is drawn between general and specific human capital, allowing a relaxation of the assumption constraining the returns from these mix of skills to be equal across individuals. In the process of this exposition the specific training prediction of a negative relationship between industry standing wages and subsequent rates of wage growth is derived. This hypothesis is subjected to test using individual data from the 1971 National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men, and the results are reported in section II. The complication is raised that workers remain longer in jobs paying higher wages independently of specific training. A simultaneous equations model treating tenure and wage as endogenous variables is tested revealing little bias in the single equation specification. A concluding section summarizes the main findings and offers suggestions for future research in this area.

Reconsidering the Aggregate Relationship between Size, Economic Development, and Some Types of Foreign Policy Behavior

Abstract: In a reexamination of the relationship between the size of a nation-state and its foreign policy behavior, two sets of hypotheses which relate size to verbal/nonverbal and conflictual/cooperative dimensions of foreign policy activity are retested, after a discussion of previous problems of definitions, data, and method. Contrary to the findings of East (1973), the proportion of verbal or nonverbal behavior is found to be unrelated to size. The conflict/cooperation hypothesis is also not supported; however, a weak negative relationship between economic development and the proportion of conflictual activity is observed. In conclusion, the utility of the large state/small state dichotomy in studying the behavior of small states is called into question.

Expended Effort and Academic Performance

Abstract: With effort defined from student reports, this study shows a negative relationship, even with other variables partialed out.

A note on the association between population growth and economic development in low-income countries.

Abstract: The controversial hypothesized inverse relationship between population growth and economic development was examined in a statistical study. Annual population growth rates and real changes in per capita gross domestic product during the 1970s were compared for 31 of the 65 countries in the world which had per capita incomes of less than $600/year. Ideally the analysis should have included all 65 countries; however trend data on population growth and per capita income was available for only 31 of the countries. Price changes were controlled for and changes in per capita income reflected real changes. Analysis revealed that the significant relationship observed between the 2 variables during the 1950s in previous studies had declined in magnitude and was no longer significant during the 1970s. Only in Africa was a large negative correlation observed but even in this region the relationship was not significant. Furthermore the African data was totally responsible for the negative relationship observed for the total group of 31 countries. However there was a significant inverse relationship between fertility and per capita income. When birth rates instead of population growth rates were compared with changes in per capita gross domestic product for the 1970s for the 31 countries a negative relationship was observed and the relationship was significant at the .05 level. When the relationship was examined at the regional level it was found to be weak and non-significant for Africa but it was strong and significant for Asia and for Latin America. There findings indicated that efforts to decrease birth rates can make a positive contribution toward improving the economic conditions in developing countries. Tables depicted the major findings.

Foreign capital inflows, domestic savings and the price of political stability in the sudan: Weisskopf revisited

Abstract: This paper reworks Weisskopf's estimates of the effect of foreign capital inflow on domestic savings for a later time period The Sudan is presented as an example of a public sector dominated economy, dependent on one major export crop and politically unstable While Weisskopf's savings function had an indication of a negative relationship between public sector savings and official foreign capital inflow, problems of collinearity between the independent variables cast doubt on its utility for analysis of economies dependent on limited primary exports The negative relationship between public sector savings and official is explained in terms of the expansion of the state's bureaucracy and military