Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This paper assesses Brazil's real convergence (1822–2019) through unit root tests and Markov Regime-Switching (MS) models in three different scenarios: towards (i) other six Latin American countries (LA6); (ii) Portugal; and (iii) the technological frontier country, the US. The extended unit root test results favour Brazil's very long-run real convergence towards LA6 and Portugal, but not the US. The estimated MS models, involving two different regimes, real convergence and real non-convergence/divergence, capture institutional quality's positive effect in promoting Brazil's real convergence.

ABSTRACT The reconstruction of the economic history of Brazil since independence from Portugal (1822) may lead to a new understanding of its economic growth. The deep-rooted idea that Brazil could have done better means there is a need to delve into each phase of its development. In this paper, we provide a very long-run perspective (1822-2019) of Brazil's economic growth and process of real convergence. On the one hand, this review indicates that structural changes observed in the middle of the 20th century were crucial in promoting the country's growth and real convergence with technologically advanced countries. On the other hand, poor institutional conditions and deficient human capital formation have emerged since colonial times as critical factors underlying Brazil's inability to establish robust and sustainable economic growth.

Purpose
This study aims to understand why young people are interested in buying frugal innovations.


Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected with a survey administered to 534 university students enrolled in various fields of study (e.g. sciences, technology, economics and fine arts). Using the Tata Nano car as an example of frugal innovation, a model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology was developed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.


Findings
The model's results reveal that effort expectancy, performance expectancy and facilitating conditions are critical factors that explain university students' intention to buy Tata Nano.


Originality/value
Although frugal innovations are often introduced first in developing countries, frugal innovations could be highly relevant to users in developed nations as these innovations can provide market opportunities in terms of cost-conscious, relatively low-income and sustainability-conscious consumers.

Scientific publications tend to influence policymakers significantly. Despite the scientific and social importance of poverty today, the attention the top economic journals (American Economic Review;Econometrica;International Economic Review;Journal of Economic Theory;Journal of Political Economy;Quarterly Journal of Economics;Review of Economic Studies)pay to the matter is not clear, particularly in the so‐called "Blue Ribbon" journals (andReview of Economics and Statistics). On the basis of bibliometric techniques, we analyzed all 27,322 articles published in the "Blue Ribbon" journals from 1970 to 2018. This is the first study on the scientific attention paid to poverty by the most influential journals in the field of economics. Two main findings can be highlighted: (i) the scientific attention paid to poverty in the Blue Ribbon journals is relatively meager, but it has observed a positive trend, increasing from a modest 0.36 percent of the total articles published in the 1970s to 1.92 percent of total publications in the 2010s; and (ii) the relative weight of specific poverty subtopics has significantly changed over the last 50 years, shifting from a focus on defining and measuring poverty in the earlier decades to policy‐related issues in the most recent period (2000 onward).

O empreendedorismo é frequentemente visto como um mecanismo capaz de impulsionar a atividade económica, com vista à convergência e ao desenvolvimento das regiões. A expetativa é a de que a criação de novos negócios ao estimular o desenvolvimento das regiões conduzirá a baixos níveis de pobreza regional. No entanto, a evidência empírica sobre este tópico é escassa, principalmente tendo como objeto de análise regiões de países desenvolvidos. Tendo por base os 278 municípios de Portugal Continental, recorrendo a uma análise estatística descritiva e estimações de regressão multivariáveis, concluímos que as regiões (sobretudo rurais) mais empreendedoras são regiões, em média, mais pobres. Tal resultado lança sérias dúvidas sobre a capacidade e eficácia de políticas recentes no domínio da criação de empresas, nomeadamente nas áreas rurais, para dinamizar economicamente essas regiões e quebrar o ciclo de pobreza que as caracterizam.

The research on indicators on the state of child well-being is a growing field and one that has experienced several changes through time. Due to the growing supply of data on children, and in order to facilitate conclusions and tracking trends, researchers have been led to develop child well-being summary indexes. Several proposals have already been presented. In the present work, we critically review the most prominent summary child well-being indexes recently constructed, the Index of Child and Youth Well-Being in the United States, the Child Well-being Index for the European Union, the Microdata Child Well-Being Index, and the Deprivation Index. The examination is carried out according to the contributions and innovations the indexes have brought to the field. A critical assessment of the methods used in the construction of the indexes is made and their main limitations identified. Accordingly, some future lines of research to improve child well-being measurement through summary indexes are put forward. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The present study assesses the perceptions of female entrepreneurs in Tanzania regarding the access to bank loans and the difficulties experienced in the process of financing their businesses. Focusing on small-scale businesses, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 75 female entrepreneurs from the Dar es Salaam area. Resorting to double-hurdle estimation models, we conclude that: 1) women who perceive higher discrimination and/or inequality in accessing bank loans, but who also recognize that female entrepreneurs often lack relevant business skills, tend to apply more often for bank loans; 2) women running larger business, operating in the tailoring industry, face fewer difficulties; 3) although highly educated female entrepreneurs apply less for bank loans, formal education acts as a shield to the difficulties faced by women when applying to bank loans; 4) more autonomous and money seeking female entrepreneurs are less likely to report difficulties during the bank loan application process.

AbstractEntrepreneurship has become a dynamic field of research in the last two decades. However, 'rural entrepreneurship' has been largely overlooked. It seems therefore timely to present a quantitative survey of the literature in this particular area. Based on 181 articles on rural entrepreneurship published in journals indexed inScopus, we found that rural entrepreneurship is an essentiallyEuropean concern, whose most prolific authors are affiliated with institutions in theUKandSpain. Organisational characteristics, policy measures and institutional frameworks and governance have attracted considerable attention in recent years, being considered emergent topics of research. In contrast, theory building has not attracted much research over the period in analysis, which suggests that the theoretical body of rural entrepreneurship is still incipient, hindering the establishment of its boundaries and of a suitable research agenda. Empirical literature on rural entrepreneurship has focused mainly on developed countries, most notably, theUK, theUSA,Spain,Finland andGreece. Given the potential rural entrepreneurship represents for less developed and underdeveloped countries, more research on the topic targeting these countries is an imperative.