Search results

This paper aims to provide new insights regarding the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs on income inequality.

The paper uses a novel methodological approach proposed by Acemoglu et al. (2019), using (1) the regression adjustment, (2) the inverse probability weighting and (3) the doubly robust estimator, which combines (1) and (2), and a sample of annual data for 135 developing countries over the time period 1970 to 2015.

The findings show that IMF programs are associated with greater income inequality for up to five years. By differentiating the effect of IMF programs, the authors find that only IMF non-concessional programs have a significant detrimental effect on income inequality, while IMF concessional programs do not have a consistent effect on income inequality. In addition, the authors find that only IMF programs with a higher number of conditions have a detrimental and statistically significant effect on income inequality, compared to IMF programs with a smaller number of conditions, where their effect on income inequality is found to be insignificant.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the analysis developed in this paper contributes to the existing literature by applying the most methodologically sound identification strategy, which does not rely on the linearity assumption, the selection of instruments or matching variables and additionally takes into account the selection bias related to IMF program participation.

A SPLENDID conference, I thought. True, there were those who complained, those who thought some of the papers were elementary and those who thought that we had come a long way to learn very little. I don't agree at all. Some of the papers did, I admit, deal with basic considerations but it does nothing but good to re‐examine the framework of our services from time to time. In any case other papers were erudite, and for the first time I have seen an audience of librarians and authority members stunned, almost, into silence.

In this chapter, the author analyses the education situation of Sinti and Roma in Germany and calls for a ‘Dawn of Learning!’ The author asks: Who is learning (from whom and for whom)? What is learned? What has to be learned? To answer these questions firstly the author describes the social and legal situation of the Roma minority in Germany then analyses their attainment in the German education system. With the help of two studies (Hundsalz, 1982; Strauss, 2011) the author demonstrates that educational attainments of German Sinti and Roma had significantly increased over time. Then the author emphasises the importance of mentoring programmes – involving Sinti and Roma as educational mentors – especially for their important role in the integration process. Lastly, the author shows the results of her own study aimed at revealing correlations of education and integration opportunities of Roma youth, with or without a limited residence permit in Germany (Hofmann, 2011). The question: What has been learned – so far? The author answers as followed: A dawn of learning for mutual respect and appreciation can be seen. The question: What has to be learned? The author’s answer: she wishes for a common aim of our learning processes to be a conscious and respectful handling of diversity which allows differences but focuses on common ground as a starting point for social negotiation to shape the society in which we want to live – on regional, national and European grounds.

SYD and the disabled ‐ Do you remember the International Year of Disabled People? I know we have had Information Technology Year since then and are now in Beautiful Britain Year (which we shall be able to appreciate as soon as the weather lets us), but the good work started during IYDP in 1981 didn't end there. I was reminded of this recently when I received a copy of a remarkable document called the SYD squad report published by Nottinghamshire County Council's Leisure Services. SYD squads (SYD means Survey for the Year of the Disabled) were composed of equal numbers of physically handicapped and able‐bodied young people, engaged under the government backed Youth Training Opportunities Programme, to take a long hard look at everything that affects the lives of disabled people in Nottinghamshire, from personal relationships and access to buildings to leisure, education, employment and welfare. Using questionnaires, disabled ‘guinea‐pigs’ and incognito researchers, the youngsters set out to survey the current ‘state of play’ for the disabled. Their report takes opinion and fact to paint a complete picture of disabled living and prospects for improvement in Nottinghamshire—though its findings are likely to have a much wider impact. Libraries on the whole come out well, though there were difficulties with heavy doors, high counters and use of card catalogues. The height of bookshelves was also mentioned but it was recognised that there was no easy solution to this problem. The report, which is excellently produced and illustrated with photographs and cartoons, is a mine of sensible and practical information that should be of benefit to all whose services are used by the disabled. Copies cost £5.50 from Nottinghamshire County Council, Leisure Services Department, Trent Bridge House, Fox Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 6BJ.

THERE are no motions of ultimate importance to be submitted to the Library Association Annual General Meeting this year. That which, if passed, is to provide that the President shall be installed in office at the opening of the Annual Conference in itself is merely a domestic or internal Association matter. As we have argued in THE LIBRARY WORLD such an arrangement would give a more dramatic and dignified opening to the President's year; he would be installed by the outgoing President in the presence of the largest assembly that the members can make in body; indeed on the only occasion in a normal year in which he sees and is seen by a full meeting; instead as now rising to take charge of us and to make his most important address as unobtrusively as an ordinary member at a time when his term is almost over. It is a better entry for him and for us, as a spectacle and demonstration, than a small January induction on a cold and usually wet evening at Chaucer House attended at best by not more than a hundred members.

LOCAL history achieved academic respectability in 1947 with the establishment of the Department of Local History at the University of Leicester. No longer need the local historian feel ashamed of his craft or regard himself as a writer of footnotes to another's history.