Wei Li, Tianran Ni, Yi Zhang, Daan Wang and Salvador Parrado
This study aims to examine the effects of vocational training programs for people with disabilities on their income.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of vocational training programs for people with disabilities on their income.
Design/methodology/approach
It conducted a multinomial regression analysis of 10,469 survey responses from 31 provincial administrative areas in mainland China.
Findings
It finds the following antecedents all influence the trainees’ self-reported income, including their perception of the quality of the program, the training subject, the degree of consistency between their current job and this subject, their employment sector, their motivation and access to training resources and the geographical location of the program.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are not representative of people with disabilities across mainland China because the respondents were not randomly sampled.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that to increase the income of people with disabilities, the training can be designed according to the needs of employers by teaching subjects relevant to the needs of the labor market, reaching out to motivated trainees and enhancing the quality of training. Training institutions, employers and governments are recommended to work together to integrate class-based learning with workplace-based learning and practices. More training resources can be devoted to the self-employed people with disabilities or those who operate in the informal sector and are in less-developed areas.
Social implications
The improvement of employment opportunities and income of people with disabilities supports the safeguarding of their social economic rights and the building of an inclusive society.
Originality/value
Few studies have empirically explored and explained the effects of vocational training programs on people with disabilities’ income. This article fills this gap by assessing the performance of China's vocational training programs funded by the Federation of Disabled Persons at all levels.
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This paper aims to show that the Spanish central administration, as a representative of the Napoleonic tradition, has undergone considerable managerial changes in non‐autonomous…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show that the Spanish central administration, as a representative of the Napoleonic tradition, has undergone considerable managerial changes in non‐autonomous and semi‐autonomous agencies characterised by their direct involvement in service delivery in spite of the failure of macro‐changes and radical reforms of public administration.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides case studies of “paths” of changes in three organisations.
Findings
Through “layering” and “diffusion” of institutions as social mechanisms included in the historical new institutionalism account for innovation, specific organisations like the tax agency, social security and property registry have become more managerial in a state dominated by public law.
Research limitations/implications
More in‐depth case studies would make possible generalisation of how small changes can produce similar impacts or results than reform efforts at the macro‐level.
Originality/value
The use of historical neo‐institutionalism and the exam of mechanisms as “layering” and “diffusion” for explaining change is presented.
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André Vaz Lopes and Diego Mota Vieira
The purpose of this article is to explain the dynamics of public appointments and present new possibilities for research in this field.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to explain the dynamics of public appointments and present new possibilities for research in this field.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on a systematic literature review from 2012 to 2021, identified in Web of Science, Scopus and SciELO, in English, Spanish or Portuguese. To explain the dynamics of public appointments, the following were analyzed: the nomination process; the motivations, objectives and criteria used; the results and impacts of appointments; and the profile of the nominees. The study focused only on discretionary appointments to fully public bodies and agencies.
Findings
The literature offers a limited explanation for the dynamics of appointments, by focusing on the dichotomy between loyalty and competence. Despite this, studies suggest that different contextual factors, such as administrative tradition or strategic choices, for example, determine the dynamics of appointments, indicating that it is a complex process that goes beyond the simple discussion of merit or clientelism.
Originality/value
The article presents an unprecedented analysis of the literature on the dynamics of public appointments and proposes an explanatory model that indicates that other factors, in addition to merit and loyalty, should be considered relevant for the selection criteria, the nomination process and the profile of who will be appointed. This model is useful both for the practical management of appointments and for the advancement of theory in this field and should receive improvements and future empirical evaluations.
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This paper aims to outline the contents of the special issue on public management reform in countries in the Napoleonic administrative tradition, discussing alternative…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to outline the contents of the special issue on public management reform in countries in the Napoleonic administrative tradition, discussing alternative explanatory frameworks, and proposing paths for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
This article provides reviews of the papers in the special issue.
Findings
Some broad sets of factor affecting implementation of public management reform in Napoleonic countries are outlined, schematised in a specific table, and discussed in the light of potential alternative frameworks, like cultural analysis.
Research limitations/implications
Research limitations include the availability of empirical evidence given the width of the phenomenon under investigation (public management reform in five countries). Implications for the development of a broader comparative research agenda on countries in the Napoleonic administrative tradition (and others) are proposed.
Originality/value
The special issue, of which this paper provides an overview, fills a gap in the literature by providing systematic and comparative analysis of public management reform in five under‐investigated countries in the Napoleonic administrative tradition, arguably an important contribution to the widening of the comparative research agenda in public management.
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Ramon A. Castillo‐Ponce, Victor Hugo Torres‐Preciado and Jose Luis Manzanares‐Rivera
Traditionally, remittances have been analyzed in the context of their socioeconomic impact on the receiving communities. Consequently, little is known about the macroeconomic…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditionally, remittances have been analyzed in the context of their socioeconomic impact on the receiving communities. Consequently, little is known about the macroeconomic factors that influence their behavior. This paper aims to evaluate the importance of several macroeconomic indicators on the flow of remittances from the USA to El Salvador.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis considers cointegration and common cycle tests. It includes as explanatory variables gross domestic product (GDP) and the interest rates differential in El Salvador, employment in California, and M2 as a measure of the stance of US monetary policy. These variables are intended to capture macroeconomic conditions in the host and home countries.
Findings
The study finds that all variables share a common trend and a common cycle with remittances; though the association with the interest rates differential in the short‐run is weak. That is, remittances respond significantly to transitory and permanent changes in macroeconomic conditions. El Salvador's GDP is negatively associated with remittances, while employment, the interest rates differential, and M2 exhibit a direct relationship at both time horizons.
Practical implications
Understanding how macroeconomic conditions influence the supply of US dollars via remittances is fundamental for policy makers in a dollarized economy. In the absence of tools to implement discretionary monetary policy, officials in El Salvador can benefit from learning how the flows of US dollars to the economy respond to macroeconomic shocks.
Originality/value
Analyzing the macroeconomic determinants of remittances for a dollarized economy is a novel exercise. Furthermore, the combined long‐ and short‐run approach allows recognizing how macroeconomic conditions influence this capital flow in the steady state and during transitory episodes.
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Political economy research recognizes that the inflows of external financial resources help the governments enact market-oriented reforms. Since remittances have outpaced other…
Abstract
Purpose
Political economy research recognizes that the inflows of external financial resources help the governments enact market-oriented reforms. Since remittances have outpaced other types of financial inflows in many countries, they can potentially increase the government’s incentive to implement regulatory reform that can contribute to business-friendly environment. This issue has long been overlooked by the literature on remittances. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether remittances promote business regulatory reform in the recipient countries.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses balance of payments data on remittances for 114 countries during 2004-2012 period. Since remittances could be endogenous to business regulation, the identification strategy follows an instrumental variable approach. The author assesses the general stability of linear model estimates by fitting the beta regression model.
Findings
The results show that, while the increase in remittance inflows is associated with lower regulatory requirements for starting a business in the recipient economy, this association is stronger in developing countries than in high-income nations. Various sensitivity tests reinforce the robustness of these findings.
Originality/value
One of the most important yet overlooked aspects of remittances is that they can potentially shape the political will to enact regulatory reform for businesses. The incentives for the government to relax burdensome entry regulations tend to stem from potential gains associated with the formalization of remittances. This paper makes a first attempt at studying the link between remittances and the quality of entry regulation.
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The paper aims at developing a theoretical model for de facto dollarized small open economies focusing on currency substitution and nominal wages indexation to the exchange rate.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims at developing a theoretical model for de facto dollarized small open economies focusing on currency substitution and nominal wages indexation to the exchange rate.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is performed in a general equilibrium “New Open Economy Macroeconomics” framework with nominal rigidities and imperfect competition in the nontraded good sector.
Findings
The paper finds that a dollar‐indexed economy with low degrees of payments/financial dollarization could experience higher costs in terms of exchange rate and output fluctuations when nominal shocks dominate real shocks, making stabilization programs more difficult to achieve in a rapid and less costly way.
Practical implications
The speed of adjustment of macro variables is faster in the highly dollarized economy as a response to a higher and more volatile inflation rate. A higher level of financial dollarization increases the frequency of domestic prices and wages revisions to nominal exchange rate shocks. This might explain, in turn, why nominal disturbances are shorter lived in the higher dollarized economies, and the asymmetry between financial and real dollarization
Originality/value
Contrary to the “conventional wisdom” that predicts a positive relationship between the degrees of dollarization and the exchange rate pass‐through, our model shows that the degree of dollarization and the degree of dollar indexation are not necessarily the same or even correlated.
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Recent discussions of how members of the middle classes define themselves have focused on cultural patterns, following Bourdieu's (1984) influential work on how occupational…
Abstract
Recent discussions of how members of the middle classes define themselves have focused on cultural patterns, following Bourdieu's (1984) influential work on how occupational, educational, and cultural fields combine to configure classes. Researchers have extended this approach to studies of the emerging middle classes in the global South, adapting these concepts to the specific circumstances of postcolonial settings in a globalizing world. This chapter explores these processes among urban middle-class Chileans. I show how members of the middle classes seek meaningful identities while engaging in symbolic combat with other groups in a society historically marked by an aristocratic elite, a recent military dictatorship, and free market policies that have reconfigured the possibilities for upward and downward mobility while integrating Chile more firmly within global commodity and image circuits. The principal foci of conflict are cultural consumption, childrearing and education, as well as electronic media use. Members of Chile's middle classes are locked in an unresolved conflict over who they are, who they should be, and where they fit in the global cultural economy.
Sandra Milena Santamaria-Alvarez and Martyna Śliwa
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the transnational entrepreneurial activities of Colombian emigrants to the USA in the context of the Colombian government’s policies and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the transnational entrepreneurial activities of Colombian emigrants to the USA in the context of the Colombian government’s policies and initiatives aimed at encouraging and facilitating emigrants’ transnational entrepreneurship. It examines the profile of Colombian emigrants, the entrepreneurial transnational activities they pursue and the actual and potential role of the government in instigating and shaping these activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyzes data obtained from focus groups with migrant families and interviews with governmental officials and an expert researcher. It also evaluates secondary data sources relevant to the subject of the paper.
Findings
The impact of transnational activities of Colombian migrants upon Colombian economy and society is much lower compared with the activities of migrants in other countries and with the potential these activities could have for contributing to the economic development of Colombia. Possible causes of this include: the specific characteristics of the Colombian emigrant and entrepreneur profile, the fragmentation of transnational networks of the migrants and the lack of governmental strategies to support the development of transnational activities of migrants.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the debates on emigrant–state relation through offering an analysis of migrant entrepreneurship, technology and knowledge transfer and investment activities of Colombian emigrants in the home country. It also provides recommendations for policy action and concrete government programs that might encourage greater involvement of Colombian migrants in high value-adding activities that could benefit the country’s development.