Suchergebnisse

"Das Committee for Development Policy (CDP) der Vereinten Nationen hat sich in seinem Jahresbericht 2000 damit befaßt, die Kriterien der Unterentwicklung neu zu definieren und die Liste der am wenigsten entwickelten Länder (Least Developed Countries) neu zu bestimmen. In diesem Beitrag werden die wichtigsten methodischen Überlegungen und die sich daraus ergebenden empirischen Folgerungen präsentiert. Insbesondere wird darauf eingegangen, wie die Verletzbarkeit (vulnerability) der am wenigsten entwickelten Länder statistisch ermittelt und politisch bestimmt werden kann." (Autorenreferat)

This article aims to add to knowledge on self-initiated expatriates and their rationale for leaving their host countries to repatriate to their countries of origin or permanent residency. Drawing on a sample of 42 repatriates, it reports on the role of government influence or assistance in the decision to repatriate and the repatriation process itself. Findings indicate governments only have limited influence in the decision process, however, they do appear to be able to somewhat incentivize the return or at least ease the repatriation process. Governments concerned about brain drain therefore have several options to incentivize repatriation, the practical implications of which are presented in this article, yet their influence remains limited as the key roles of career and family in the decision to repatriate remain crucial.

The idea of industrial policy is to cure perceived market failures of various sorts. This also has been the meat of development economics for decades. Moreover, strong similarities exist between the specific goals of industrial policy advocates for developed countries and goals of governments in less developed countries. Both groups seek to pick industrial winners, deal with externalities, improve the balance of trade, and attract high‐tech industries. Given that markets appear not to operate as well in developing countries as in their developed counterparts, we would expect industrial policy to work particularly well in LDCs since many important market failures should be relatively easy to identify and the gains from correcting them should be great. Moreover, because LDCs tend to intervene more than their developed counterparts, we would expect them to exhibit particularly strong effects of this intervention. Thus, the experiences of LDCs constitute a well endowed laboratory to study the effects of industrial policies in practice, and to yield lessons relevant for both industrial and developing countries. This paper explores these experiences, and closes with some lessons for the design of sensible industrial strategy.

Helen Ladd takes a comparative look at policies that the world's industrialized countries are using to assure a supply of high-quality teachers. Her survey puts U.S. educational policies and practices into international perspective. Ladd begins by examining teacher salaries—an obvious, but costly, policy tool. She finds, perhaps surprisingly, that students in countries with high teacher salaries do not in general perform better on international tests than those in countries with lower salaries. Ladd does find, however, that the share of underqualified teachers in a country is closely related to salary. In high-salary countries like Germany, Japan, and Korea, for example, only 4 percent of teachers are underqualified, as against more than 10 percent in the United States, where teacher salaries, Ladd notes, are low relative to those in other industrialized countries. Teacher shortages also appear to stem from policies that make salaries uniform across academic subject areas and across geographic regions. Shortages are especially common in math and science, in large cities, and in rural areas. Among the policy strategies proposed to deal with such shortages is to pay teachers different salaries according to their subject area. Many countries are also experimenting with financial incentive packages, including bonuses and loans, for teachers in specific subjects or geographic areas. Ladd notes that many developed countries are trying to attract teachers by providing alternative routes into teaching, often through special programs in traditional teacher training institutions and through adult education or distance learning programs. To reduce attrition among new teachers, many developed countries have also been using formal induction or mentoring programs as a way to improve new teachers' chances of success. Ladd highlights the need to look beyond a single policy, such as higher salaries, in favor of broad packages that address teacher preparation and certification, working conditions, the challenges facing new teachers, and the distribution of teachers across geographic areas.