"Over the past two decades, there has been growing interest in understanding the drivers of rapid growth rates of countries in Central, East and South Asia. For example, countries such as China, Lao PDR, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Mongolia were in the list of most rapid growing countries in the period of 2000-2020. As a result, these countries have considerably increased quality of life, standards of living and life satisfaction. For example, Uzbekistan is consistently ranked among one of the happiest developing countries in the world. The present book attempts to build up on existing empirical research to offer all-encompassing evidence on some of the drivers and correlates of economic growth and quality of life in the Belt and Road Initiative countries. It explores the relationships between renewable energy and CO2 emissions, financial development and economic growth, institutional and life satisfaction, among others."
Purpose The purpose of this study is to extend related literature on life satisfaction. In particular, the author explores the link between tolerance, governance and life satisfaction inequality in a sample of 81 countries. While studies have shown that tolerance and governance are separately linked to subjective well-being, no study has shown their mutual relationship to life satisfaction inequality.
Design/methodology/approach Considering the existing link between tolerance and quality of institutions, in this study, the author explores the relationship between tolerance and life satisfaction inequality and the mediating role of governance. This research could be embedded in the framework of ballooning research exploring the effect of societal values on institutions and life satisfaction.
Findings The empirical findings suggest more tolerant societies are more likely to have more even levels of life satisfaction, but this correlation is completely mediated by governance. Quality of institutions thus seem to be one of the core channels by which societies that value tolerance achieve more equal distribution of happiness. The author also finds that while GDP per capita evens out happiness, income inequality increases the gap in life satisfaction within society.
Originality/value To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is the first that relies on most up-to-date cross-country data to explore a novel channel through which tolerance may be linked to subjective well-being. In particular, in this study, the author posits that tolerance may have been linked to subjective well-being indirectly via its impact on quality of institutions (governance).
The notion of over-education has drawn considerable research attention since the work of Freeman (1976). This study provides evidence that education match matters for labor market outcomes. Using data from the REFLEX survey, we find that over-education and over-skilling has a significant negative impact on wages and job satisfaction in the Czech labor market. Secondly, we find that the wage penalty is stronger for female respondents. In contrast, overskilled and overeducated men are more dissatisfied than women.
IntroductionThe relationship between gender equality and economic growth has attracted considerable attention in scholarly research. While existing literature has evaluated the significance of gender inequality in education and employment, the impact of gender disparity in public service on economic growth remains an under examined area of scholarly inquiry. The main aim of this study is to assess the effect of female empowerment in public service on economic growth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the relationship between female political empowerment and economic growth at a regional level.MethodsWe rely on several econometric techniques to obtain robust empirical results and resolve various problems encountered when using panel data. We start with the random and fixed effects model to obtain the baseline results. The fixed effects model generates unbiased estimates by reducing the impact of time omitted variables. The core empirical technique used in this study is the twostep system GMM estimator.ResultsThe empirical results suggest that female participation in parliament has a positive and significant effect on economic progress. In particular, a 10%-point increase in women's representation in parliament leads to a 0.74%-point increase in GDP growth.DiscussionThus, it is essential to further promote female empowerment programmes in developing countries and continue to adopt new measures aimed at increasing the participation of women in public service. Future studies could explore the relationship between female empowerment and economic growth at subnational levels and test whether female empowerment moderates the relationship between financial development, innovation, trade and economic growth.
PurposeRelated literature finds that human capital proxied by cognitive abilities is an important antecedent of numerous specific life outcomes. The purpose of this study is to extend existing evidence by investigating the link between cognitive skills and income in Tajikistan. Tajikistan is a landlocked low-income country situated in Central Asia. Its population is 9.1 million people and gross domestic product per capita of US$822. According to the World Bank, Tajikistan has made significant progress in decreasing poverty levels from 83% in 2000 to 29.5% in 2017.Design/methodology/approachThe data for this study comes from the 2013 Jobs, Skills and Migration Survey conducted by the World Bank and the German Society for International Cooperation. The main explanatory variable of the study is the cognitive abilities index of the respondents. The survey used item response theory (IRT) approach to estimate the ability of respondents. IRT is a method or a set of statistical frameworks, used to explore assessment item data, such as cognitive abilities assessment data. The wage function was estimated using the ordinary least squares method because the results are easier to interpret (Jencks, 1979; Bowleset al., 2001; Groves, 2006).FindingsThe baseline results are reported in Table 2. The results in Column 1 demonstrated the link between cognitive abilities and income without control variables (unconditional model). As expected, cognitive abilities are positively and significantly related to income (a1 = 0.0715,p< 0.01). The results from the unconditional model suggest that one standard deviation increase in cognitive abilities is associated with a nearly 17% increase in income.Research limitations/implicationsHowever, the study has a number of limitations. First, the dependent variable measures the overall income of the respondent, which includes the profit from other businesses. The survey does not provide data on monthly wages of respondents. Second, the sample may not perfectly represent the overall population of Tajikistan. To partially resolve this issue, this paper re-estimated out results for various sub-samples. Another important limitation of this study is the lack of respondent's family background, which is an important correlate of human capital and income.Practical implicationsThe results in the study offer preliminary evidence on the link between cognitive abilities and income in Tajikistan. However, the results of the study also suggest that both measures of human capital are positively related to income. Therefore, policymakers in Tajikistan should invest greater resources to health care, education and training programs as cognitive skills can be built in particular in the early stages of the life cycle. Indeed, Tajikistan has a significant potential for economic growth model driven by human capital. According to the World Bank, the adult literacy rate in Tajikistan is 100%, which is significantly above of what is observed in other developing countries. This may imply that the human potential in this country is considerable, and further investment in soft and hard skills would have a positive impact on economic growth.Originality/valueThis paper offers new evidence on the link between cognitive abilities and income, using data from Tajikistan. First, this paper finds that cognitive abilities are positively and significantly correlated with income. Second, this paper finds that this link remains robust even when this paper control for a large set of personal and job-related characteristics. The results from the unconditional model suggest that one standard deviation increase in cognitive abilities is associated with nearly a 17% increase in income.
AbstractThis study explores the link between height and earnings, using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for the year 2015 (24th wave). The dependent variable was average monthly income and the key independent variable was self-reported height, measured in centimetres. The empirical model also included a rich vector of personal and job-related factors that have been shown to be associated with earnings in the relevant literature. Sequential multiple regression and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the data. The results suggest that height is a significant predictor of earnings in Russia. The results were found to be robust for a set of controls and tests.
SummaryPast studies suggest that, across nations, the average cognitive ability of a population is negatively associated with income inequality; societies with higher average cognitive ability tend to have lower levels of income inequality. However, it is not clearwhy. This paper proposes that social transfers from the wealthy to the poor may be a major mechanism by which some societies achieve lower income inequality than others, because more intelligent individuals may be more likely to have a preference for such transfers. Publicly available societal-level data were analysed in a series of multiple regression models. The empirical results in this study replicate the earlier finding that societies with higher cognitive ability have lower levels of income inequality, but the association isentirelymediated by social transfers. Social transfers therefore appear to be the primary mechanism by which societies with higher levels of cognitive ability achieve lower income inequality.
SummaryIt is widely believed that economic institutions such as competitive markets, the banking system, and the structure of property rights are essential for economic development. But why economic institutions vary across countries and what are their deep origins is still a question that is widely debated in the developmental economics literature. In this study, we provide an empirical test for the provocative hypothesis that the prevalence of infectious diseases influenced the formation of personality traits, cultural values, and even morality at the regional level (the so called Parasite‐ Stress Theory of Values and Sociality), which then shaped economic institutions across countries. Using the prevalence of pathogens as an instrument for cultural traits such as individualism, we show in a two‐stage least squares analysis that various economic institutions, measured by different areas of the index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation, have their deep origins in the historical prevalence of infectious diseases across countries. Our causal identification strategy suggests that cultural values affect economic institutions even after controlling for a number of confounding variables, geographic controls, and for different sub‐samples of countries. We further show that the results are robust to four alternative measures of economic and political institutions.
