Journal of International Development最新文献

This study examines the impact of entrepreneur attributes on financing channels of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as the moderating role of firm age on this relationship. It examines a comprehensive dataset of 4139 firm-year observations operating in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region observed over the 2013–2019 period. The results are four-fold. First, our overall findings reveal that experienced entrepreneurs tend to use internal funds. Second, the university education of entrepreneurs positively correlates with debt financing. Third, female entrepreneurs are more eager to use internal funds and less debt. Fourth, firm age is found to moderate these relationships. Indeed, in young SMEs, experienced entrepreneurs are shown to rely on debt, graduated entrepreneurs on internal funds, and in older SMEs, female entrepreneurs use debt. Our results bear on the proposals of upper echelons and organizational lifecycle theories.

The effects of marketization on crop diversity and dietary diversity is very contested. Therefore, more empirical work is needed to unpack the multidimensional factors that underpin these processes. This article expands the analytical understanding of the linkages between these dimensions by looking at the case of Uzbekistan. First, it uses quantitative methods to assess the hypotheses that (a) wealth leads to higher dietary diversity; (b) agricultural marketization leads to lower dietary diversity; and (c) crop diversity leads to higher dietary diversity. Regression analysis shows that only wealth is an independent determinant of dietary diversity. Second, the article uses qualitative data to argue that state policies and social norms, by influencing food availability, knowledge and nutritional values, are key to unpacking the relationships between marketization, crop diversity and dietary diversity.

This research explores the channels through which migrant remittances can promote private investment. The research method favours a dynamic simultaneous equation model estimated using a combination of the bootstrap method and the three-stage least squares estimator to account for the interdependence between remittances and private investment. The study area is Burkina Faso, and the period of analysis covers the period 1985–2021. One of the main findings is that the level of corruption risk and the demographic dependency ratio are important transmission channels. Findings suggest creating an institutional framework that enhances the level of transparency and accountability and accelerates the demographic transition process.

In the Global South, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) face criticism; staff employ strategies to mitigate it. What happens when NGO staff express different levels of awareness about such criticism? How are these differences shaped by whether staff identify themselves as ‘community’ members the NGO serves or ‘non-community’ members whose work serves the community? How do these identities impact NGOs? Through an 18-month ethnographic study at a large NGO in Bangalore, India, I show that NGO staff members' identification as ‘community’ or ‘non-community’ members shapes their perceptions of the NGO, their work and the NGO's work. I trace these differing perceptions to mission creep.

We review the secular stagnation hypothesis, first postulated by Hansen in 1939, to describe the current macroeconomic dynamics faced by developed economies. We argue that these economies are experiencing secular stagnation and that demographic factors play a significant role in this macroeconomic environment. Using a panel data analysis covering the period 1965–2020 for 15 European Union economies, our paper suggests that immigration should be considered as a potential solution to this problem. Our results show that demographic factors do indeed play a significant role in secular stagnation and that immigration has a positive impact in this macroeconomic context.

Labour migration is one of many strategies adopted by developing countries to achieve economic growth, but its success varies across countries. Migrant workers often face issues related to their welfare and protection at their workplace due to information asymmetries and power imbalances in the labour market. This study compares the policies and initiatives of the Philippines and Nepal, aligning them with the Decent Work agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals. The study's findings underscore the importance of considering various factors that impact the welfare and protection of migrant workers to achieve sustainable socio-economic growth in labour sending countries.

We investigate the critical interplay between economic institutions and political institutions and assess their influence on venture capital market development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To address endogeneity concern in our model specification, the two-step system generalised method of moments was employed on a sample of 34 SSA countries from 2007 to 2018. The findings reveal that strengthening disaggregated measures of economic institutions, comprising legal system and property rights, size of government, sound money, regulations, and freedom to trade internationally spur venture capital market development in SSA. Finally, the evidence indicates that political institutions condition the influence of economic institutions on venture capital market development. The implications for policy are further discussed.

This paper investigates digital inequalities in usage within African informal sectors. In particular, we examine whether the uneven digital diffusion is embedded in pre-existing socio-economic inequalities. After identifying three segments of informal firms, we rely on multivariate and decomposition analyses to identify predictors of usage of digital technologies for business purposes and explain usage gaps between segments. Our findings suggest that digital inequalities are rooted in the vertical heterogeneity of informal sectors, with some firm characteristics significantly predicting professional use of digital technologies. In addition, we find that there are both common and segment-specific levers for addressing digital inequalities between informal firms.

In empirical studies, the disparity between financial development and environmental quality has prompted us to examine the impact of credit growth on environmental quality in ASEAN countries. These countries have experienced phenomenal credit growth over the past three decades due to their adoption of financial liberalisation, integration and innovation. In this study, we investigated the role of credit growth on environmental quality while controlling for several macroeconomic variables, including regulatory quality, natural resources, foreign direct investment, globalisation and per capita gross domestic product growth. Using static models (ordinary least square [OLS], random effect model, Panel Corrected Standard Error and partial spatial cross correlation) and dynamic models (dynamic OLS, dynamic random effect and two-step system generalised methods of moments (GMM) on data spanning from 1984 to 2019, we observed a nonlinear association between credit growth and environmental quality. The findings suggest that credit growth may simultaneously have favourable and detrimental effects on environmental quality. High credit growth can lead to increased emissions and environmental degradation through the promotion of fossil fuel-driven energy consumption, production and distribution of economic resources. However, if the government promotes regulatory quality and encourages lenders to invest more in green technologies and renewable and sustainable energy sources, credit growth may contribute to improved environmental quality. These results carry important policy implications.