New Publications

New Publications

New Publications

  • 06-03-2024

    A Book on Bio, Circular and Green Growth and Eco-Innovation in Developing and Structurally Strained Areas

    Book_MDPI.png

    The book project on Bio, Circular and Green Growth in Developing Countries that has been co-edited by IEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Dr. Andrea Gatto from Kean University has been recently published.

    Frontiers and Best Practices in Bio, Circular, and Green Growth and Eco-Innovation

    This book project accommodates contributions on the novel business models, technology advances and public regulations that are favorable for the development of a circular economy and green economic growth in the developing economies, and in the structurally challenged areas within the industrialized world. The positive examples make clear that the frontiers of circular and bio-economy development, and green growth are by no means confined to economically advanced countries. This means that developing economies do not have to repeat the inverted U-shaped income–environment relationship and enter the carbon-saving sustainable growth and development track commencing from the initial phases of economic modernization. The positive examples in this book project show that the pathways to sustainable development in the Global South are real. There is, however, no guarantee that developing countries would join them. To assure this, advanced countries must rethink their international development cooperation and enhanced development policies in the realm of international climate action.

    The publication is available under the following link: https://doi.org/10.3390/books978-3-0365-7565-0 

  • 23-01-2024

    The effect of South African wine certifications on price premiums and marginal costs: A two-stage hedonic approach

    economic modelling journal Britta

    A new paNiklasper has been published by IEE-Member Britta Niklas
    -The effect of South African wine certifications on price premiums and marginal costs: A two-stage hedonic approach- Economic Modelling Volume 132, March 2024, 106650, ISSN 0264-9993



    This paper analyses whether there are price premiums for certified and black economic empowerment (BEE) South African wines in the domestic market and the major export markets (Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium) and estimates what (marginal) costs are related to supplying these certifications. The results suggest price premiums for BEE wines, while for certified wines price premiums only apply in some markets and especially for those certifications that focus on the environment and organic production, but not for those that focus on fair trade or labor. The results for marginal costs suggest that subsidized BEE wines sell lower quantities but gain access to higher price segments, while the opposite holds true for certified wines. Additionally, for certified wines (except Fairtrade), younger and private producers have a comparative cost advantage.
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999324000063?via%3Dihub

  • 06-02-2024

    A New Article on the Perspectives on Nuclear Fusion in the Decarbonization of Power Systems

    Sadik ZadaENERGYA paper on the perspectives of nuclear fusion in energy transition has been co-authored by IEE-Member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada in Energy.


    Back to the future: Revisiting the perspectives on nuclear fusion and juxtaposition to existing energy sources 

    This article reviews and launches perspectives on the progress of nuclear fusion research and development. To this end, the current state of nuclear fusion technology, the recent breakthroughs in nuclear fusion research occurred in the US, Japan, and China, the role of private companies and investments in nuclear fusion research and development are investigated for both advanced and emerging economies. The survey draws upon academic sources and media contributions from experts in the field of nuclear fusion. While nuclear fusion has reached the break-even point in the generation of nuclear fusion electricity, there are still serious challenges that will obviate the market alignment of nuclear fusion energy until the early 2030s – and more realistically the mid-2050s. Nonetheless, never in history, the level of public support and private engagement for nuclear fusion energy research and development has been as high as now. Furthermore, the study shows that there is a steadily increasing accumulation of scholarly knowledge on nuclear fusion and a broad consensus among the leading experts that nuclear fusion is the “holy grail” of the transition toward a post-resource, and hence, fully circular energy system.

    Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A., Weißnicht, Y. (2024). Back to the Future: Revisiting the Perspectives on nuclear fusion and juxtaposition to existing energy sources. Energy, Volume 290, 129150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2023.129150

  • 09-01-2024

    New paper published by Evelyn Yohana Tique Calderón

    New paper has been published by IEE-Student Evelyn Yohana Tique Calderón                                            Tique_Calderon.png
    Determinantes de crédito agropecuario entre productores de leche en Colombia

    Economía Agraria y Recursos Naturales. ISSN: 1578-0732.e-ISSN: 2174-7350. Vol. 23,2. (2023). pp. 61-90 

    Abstract: Associated milk producers in the Province of Ubaté (Colombia) exclude themselves from agricultural credit mainly because there are too many requirements, paperwork, and fear of not being able to pay the credit or lose the guarantee. Through decision trees, the determinants of the need, request and approval of agricultural credit are analyzed. The results indicate that the sex of the producers is the criterion that best separates the data and determines the other factors related to agricultural credit decisions: land tenure and area, productivity, educational level, and perceived difficulty.

    https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/EARN/article/view/17658/16304

  • 11-09-2023

    A New Article on the Effects of Renewables in Rural Sierra Leone in The Electricity Journal


    The ElectrLoewensteinW.jpgSadik Zada1660638245327.jpg

    Modernization through Solar Off-Grid Electrification?A Mixed Picture for Rural Sierra Leone
    Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein, Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada and MADM-Alumni Foday Sheku Dumbuya have just published an article in The Electricity Journal. The study addresses the relationship between solar off-grid electrification and the socio-economic development of rural Sierra Leone. The empirical investigation is based on the field survey data from the recently electrified Mobai and non-electrified Pendembu - two rural communities in Kailahun district of the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. We find that electrification is associated with a move of the household income to a higher income bracket and an increase of daily learning hours of the primary and low-secondary school-age children by 42 minutes a day. Furthermore, the clean electricity access in Mobai has not resulted in the replacement of carbon-intensive fuels such as firewood or charcoal with electric cooking. This is attributed to the lack of affordability of electricity and electric stoves, and also the taste preferences.

    Available online at https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hk9D3ic--DcJ%7E or https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2023.107316







  • 04-07-2023

    New Journal Article in Resources, Conservation and Recycling

    Sadik ZadaRCRA paper on the significance of the mesopelagic zone in the global biological carbon pump and its potential role in the assurance of global food security has been co-authored by IEE-Member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada in Resources, Conservation and Recycling 

    Deep-sea fisheries as resilient bioeconomic systems for food and nutrition security and sustainable development

    The paper reviews the major risks and opportunities related to the exploitation of mesopelagic fisheries. The authors advocate for the enhancement of sustainable small-sized deep-sea fishery practices on the one hand side and a global moratorium on large-scale mesopelagic fishing on the other hand. Deep seas could provide substantial resources for combating global food insecurity and facilitate a substantial improvement of the nutritional status in the regions plagued by a high incidence of infant mortality and disproportional poverty headcount ratios. For the sake of global and regional food and nutrition security, the exploitation of the biological resources of the mesopelagic zone is a legitimate target, whereby environmental sustainability is the major precondition for the rollout of these kinds of fishing activities.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2023.106907

  • 12-06-2023

    New paper published by Ricardo G. Paris

    showCoverImage Paris

    A new paParisper has been published by IEE-Member Ricardo G. Paris - Using geospatial data to identify land grabbing. Detecting spatial reconfigurations during the implementation of the Nacala Development Corridor in Mozambique with remote sensing and land conflicts databases
    European Journal of Remote SensingVolume 56, 2023 - Issue 1



    The contemporary food system pushes agriculture to a globalized value-chain, affecting landscapes, resource access, and institutional arrangements. Institutions operating in Africa adopt development corridors to integrate multisector investments and induce export-driven primary sector, leading to massive land deals, also known as land-grabbing. Organizations struggle to monitor land deals accurately, lacking spatial precision and contextual information for affected communities. This research examines Mozambique's Nacala Corridor, using geospatial data as a tool to detect spatial (re)configurations due to exported-oriented policies and infrastructure. Data from land conflicts databases (Land Matrix and Environmental Justice) were analyzed with remote sensing Landsat and MODIS imagery using multiple indexes, an EVI time series, and the application of the LandTrendr algorithm. The results show that the temporal and spatial analysis of remote-sensing data is in line with the major political and economic dynamics of the region. Hotspots of land cover changes were detected in the same areas where land grabbing were reported; however, reported and detected land areas did not coincide. Temporal analysis showed that institutional changes played a greater role in triggering land use changes than infrastructure implementation. We conclude that land cover modifications, conflicts, and spatial development initiatives follows policies and institutional arrangements targeting international investments.
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22797254.2023.2223751

  • 12-06-2023

    New Book Chapter Co-Authored by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada

    Book ShahA book chapter co-authored by IEE-Member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada has been published in a newly published book project - Economic Growth and Environmental Quality in a Post-Pandemic World: New Directions in the Econometrics of the Environmental Kuznets Curve.

    Addressing the Nexus between Economic Growth and Environmental Pollution in a Small Petroleum-Exporting Transition Economy

    The book chapter addresses the income–environment nexus in a small fossil fuel-abundant transition economy. To address this research question, the authors analyze the case study of Azerbaijan. Besides delving into the reports and official documents on economic development and environmental degradation, the authors investigate also quantitatively the relationship between income and environmental pollution. The study rejects the inverted U-shaped relationship between the level of per capita income and atmospheric pollution. The autoregressive distributed lag model indicates that Azerbaijan experienced a rather carbon-saving economic growth over the last two decades. A 1% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) leads to a 0.01% decrease in the per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the long term perspective. There is no short-term effect of economic growth on the level of average per capita emissions. Furthermore, the study establishes a positive long-term relationship between the level of gross GDP and gross greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Contradicting at first glance, the results could be reconciled as follows: a greater level of income leads to more significant emissions. We make this conclusion because of the positive long-term gross GDP and total GHG nexus. However, an increase in income leads to decreasing marginal increases in emissions. This result emanates from the negative GDP growth and per capita emissions nexus. Hence, the empirical analyses also indicate that the growing Azeri economy has transformed into a more climate-friendly economy.

    Sadik-Zada, Elkhan Richard, Gatto, Andrea, Mammadli, Mübariz. 2023. Addressing the Nexus between Economic Growth and Environmental Pollution in a Small Petroleum-Exporting Transition Economy. In: Muhammad Shahbaz, Daniel Balsalobre Lorente, Rajesh Sharma (eds.). Economic Growth and Environmental  Quality in a Post-Pandemic World. New Directions in the Econometrics of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. London and New York: Routlege. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003336563-10/addressing-nexus-economic-growth-environmental-pollution-small-petroleum-exporting-transition-economy-elkhan-richard-sadik-zada-andrea-gatto-mubariz-mammadli

  • 01-03-2023

    New Journal Article by PhD candidate Darina Pellowska

    Darina Pellowska, PhD IDS candidate, just published an article

    Facilitating equitable partnership in humanitarian project management
    in:Centre for Humanitarian Action e.V. (CHA eV)

    available online

    International humanitarian actors are increasingly committed to conducting humanitarian action “as local as possible”. But local actors continue to criticise the slow realisation of this so-called localisation commitment into practice. Especially the area of equitable partnership still lags behind.

    Based on literature reviews and consultations with international and local organisations in Germany, Bangladesh, and South Sudan, CHA research fellow Darina Pellowska addresses in this paper humanitarian Project Cycle Management (PCM) as one of the structural barriers that hinder the realisation of equitable partnership. She discusses agile management models that involve management structures more capable to facilitate equitable partnerships and presents practical recommendations on how to implement equitable partnership and agile management.

  • 23-02-2023

    Grow First, Clean Up Later? - An Editorial for a Special Issue

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    An editorial for a special issue "Frontiers and Best Practices in Bio, Circular, and Green Growth and Innovation" co-authored by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada has been published in Sustainability.

    Grow First, Clean Up Later? Dropping Old Paradigms and Opening Up New Horizons of Sustainable Development 

    The central feature of this Special Issue, which accomodates 19 scholarly contributions, is its focus on the best practices and challenges in terms of green growth and eco-innovation in developing and structurally challenged areas. By doing this, the collection shows that the empirically established environmental Kuznets curve — i.e., the inverted U-shaped income-environment nexus—can and must be critically questioned. Hence, the geographic frontiers of environmental upgrading, carbon-saving bioeconomic development, and green growth are by no means limited to the economically advanced areas. 

    Sadik-Zada, Elkhan Richard, and Andrea Gatto. 2023. "Grow First, Clean Up Later? Dropping Old Paradigms and Opening Up New Horizons of Sustainable Development" Sustainability 15, no. 4: 3595. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043595

  • 01-03-2023

    New Journal Article by PhD candidate Biswaranjan Tripura

    Tripura BBiswaranjan Tripura, PhD IDS candidate, just published an article

    Decolonizing ethnography and Tribes in India: Toward an alternative methodology
    in: Front. Polit. Sci.
    available online

    This article unravels the many ways of doing ethnography within the area of Tribal studies in India. Historically (methodologically), studies concerning Tribes in India were dominated by colonial ethnographers and explorers. Subsequently, in post-colonial India, such studies became the field of a dominant male caste. From a similar perspective of dominance, these studies on Tribes in India viewed them as either backward or from the point of view that “civilization” could be achieved only through bringing them into the mainstream. Scholars who followed such frames of reference failed to reflect on their own dominant social positions in engaging in research projects with their Tribal subjects. Moreover, some of them even stated to have been inspired by the studies of Malinowski, whose methodology is considered to be uncritical, non-sensitive, and non-reflexive, especially while relating to Tribal studies. The Tribal people in India, therefore, continued to be framed within such a dominant caste perspective, without the slightest effort to treat them as non-caste societies or as equals within caste societies. Methodologically, by positioning myself against such frames of reference while engaging in research within the context of Tribes in India, I draw my research frameworks from those of indigenous methodologies to explore the possibilities of decolonizing ethnography by recognizing many ways of doing. Empirically, I base my engagement with a specific Tribal group (Tripura Tribe) in Tripura, Northeast India. As an indigenous community within the Indian state of Tripura, Tripura people's epistemology/worldviews differ from that of the majoritarian Savarna caste society. With an intent to decolonize ethnography from an indigenous context, in this article, I demonstrate the many ways of doing ethnography by innovatively engaging with three related methods, namely, the conversational method, engaged observation, and sitting around the fire. This article argues that for any researcher, when engaging in research within the context of Tribes, the methods and frame of reference employed must be congruent with indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing. Furthermore, it also insists that critical reflexivity, responsibility, and sensitivity are keys to Tribal studies in India.

  • 01-03-2023

    New Journal Article by PhD candidate Biswaranjan Tripura

    Tripura BBiswaranjan Tripura, PhD IDS candidate, just published an article

    Tribal Identity and Governance in Northeast India: Tripura Tribal Areas
    in:The Indian Journal of Social Work

    available online

    The Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) was established in 1982 and was further upgraded to the Sixth Schedule in 1984 as a constitutional response to historical experiences of tribes since the merger of the Princely state of Tripura with the Indian Union. The authors state that the opportunity offered for empowerment to Indigenous tribal people through the District Council cannot be materialised without addressing the ‘tribal question’. This paper foregrounds  context specific historical challenges confronting the District Council. It argues for strengthening the political agency of the TTAADC and enhancing its decision-making and administrative capabilities for tribal areas. The authors suggest a negotiated integrated framework for envisioning the TTAADC within an asymmetrical federal structure.

  • 15-02-2023

    New Journal Article in Resources Policy

    mein fotoA new journal article authored by IEE-member Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada,  has been published in Resources Policy

    Resource rents, savings behavior, and scenarios of economic development

    The paper revisits the nexus between natural resources and economic growth from the lens of the theory of economic development. It augments the traditional dual-sector economy model by the assumption that in addition to capitalists, also workers contribute to capital accumulation through private savings out of their wage income. The proposed differential game theory model of the interaction between the public and the elites identifies two realistic open-loop Nash and three Stackelberg scenarios for the management of the commodity-driven budget surplus. Based on the conventional transversality conditions, the model detects a progressing decay of social cohesion and institutional quality. It shows that at the early stages of the exploitation of natural resource riches, both the public and elites enable rather modernization-friendly scenarios. At the rather advanced stages of the exploitation of natural resources both groups try to maximize their short-term private benefits and by doing so protract or even inhibit the process of economic modernization. The study finds that the savings behavior of the workers has a positive modernization effect. Nevertheless, workers’ savings cannot fully offset the negative modernization effects of the inferior management of natural resource revenues.

    Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Resource rents, savings behavior, and scenarios of economic development, Resources Policy, Volume 81, 2023, 103258, ISSN 0301-4207,
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.103258.

     

  • 31-01-2023

    New Journal Article in Renewable Energy

    mein foto1-s2.0-S0960148122X00207-cov200h.gifA new journal article co-authored by IEE-Member Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Ernesto DR Sabatinez Gonzalez (University of Talca), Andrea Gatto (Wenzhou Kean University), Thomasz Althaus (P3 Gruppe GmbH) and Fuad Guliyev (ASIOU) has been published in Renewable Energy

    Pathways to the hydrogen mobility futures in German public transportation: A scenario analysis

    The study elaborates on the perspectives of fuel cell electric buses in German public transportation from a purely economic point of view and formulates recommendations for policies in public transportation in Germany. To this end, the study proposes nine valid scenarios and embeds diesel and fuel-cell bus operations into them. The total cost of ownership-based scenario analysis shows that beginning from 2035 fuel cell electric buses will be economically more attractive than diesel buses. The study identifies carbon pricing and subsidization of solar and wind power generation as the central drivers of fuel cell-based public transportation. 

    Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Ernesto DR Santibanez Gonzalez, Andrea Gatto, Tomasz Althaus, Fuad Quliyev, Pathways to the hydrogen mobility futures in German public transportation: A scenario analysis, Renewable Energy, Volume 205, 2023, Pages 384-392, ISSN 0960-1481, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2022.12.087.

  • 04-01-2023

    New Research Article by PhD candidate Bablu Chakma

    ChakmaBablu Chakma, PhD IDS candidate, just published an article

    Encountering the state: situated strategies and perspectives of Tanchangya villagers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh
    in: Journal of Contemporary South Asia
    available online

    Building on anthropological developments in the study of the state that highlight its margins, informal connections, and everyday dynamics, this paper examines the diverse strategies that Tanchangya villagers employ while negotiating peace and ‘development’ processes with local state actors in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. It shows that the state is manifested in various forms at the local level. In a myriad of forms of encounters with state actors, Tanchangya villagers employ situated strategies of avoidance, engagement, and resistance. The paper claims that these strategies ultimately contribute to challenge the dominant processes that confine Tanchangya villagers to a state of marginalisation, and aim to aid in the struggle to create greater spaces for the social, economic, and political dimensions of their lives. Thus, this paper offers an analysis of micro-power struggles that take place in the CHT’s rural spaces vis-à-vis the complex matrix of peace, citizenship, and ‘development’ in the region.

  • 05-01-2023

    Book Chapter Co-Authored by Bablu Chakma

    Chakmablob 1A new book with a chapter co-authored by Bablu Chakma and Prof. Dr. Eva Gerharz has just been published:

    Samaj as a Form of Self-Organisation among Village Communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

    Bangladesh has a strong tradition of self-help during natural disasters, a remarkable amount of social movement activism, and a large number of non-governmental organisations supporting people in micro-credit schemes. In this article, we shed light on the hitherto neglected field of self-organisation initiatives among the indigenous population in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh. We critically evaluate organisational types initiated and formed by community members themselves and analyse one particular form, the samaj organisation among the Tanchangya. Based on an analysis of samaj’s defining characteristics and features, and its significance for self-regulation in indigenous communities, we compare our findings with writings on samajes of Bengali Muslims and Hindus. In our case, the local Buddhist temple and social events are major arenas where the duties and responsibilities associated with samaj membership become apparent. Rather than constituting the ‘traditional’ counterpart to ‘modern’ institutions, samaj continues to represent a specific and informal mode of community-formation which continues to take over important social, ritual, and political functions within the contemporary society shaped by nationalist state-formation. We conclude by arguing that samaj among the Tanchangya is constituted by reciprocative and redistributive practices which strengthen a collective sense of belonging.

    Chakma, B., Gerharz, E. (2022). Samaj as a Form of Self-Organisation among Village Communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. In: Neubert, D., Lauth, HJ., Mohamad-Klotzbach, C. (eds) Local Self-Governance and Varieties of Statehood. Contributions to Political Science. Springer, Cham. Print ISBN 978-3-031-14995-5, Online ISBN 978-3-031-14996-2 Samaj as a Form of Self-Organisation among Village Communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh | SpringerLink

  • 04-01-2023

    New Journal Article by PhD candidate Bablu Chakma

    ChakmaBablu Chakma, PhD IDS candidate, just published an article

    Everyday Politics of Dadan Contracts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh
    in: Journal of Development and Change
    available online

    This article analyses processes of dadan contract negotiations between Bengali intermediaries and indigenous Tanchangya peasants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, in the culantro sector. The research extends the debates on the dadan system and interlocked market relationships by highlighting everyday dynamics of dadan and the issue of ‘just price’ that arises from such contracts. The article argues that the dadan loan system leads to greater spaces for exploitation. While it facilitates peasants’ access to credit for agricultural and social reproduction and the supply of culantro to wider national markets, it also creates a dependency of Tanchangya peasants on Bengali moneylending traders. Such an analysis reveals the limitations of existing studies on dadan in accounting for the social, cultural and political aspects of dadan contracts, alongside their economic aspects. The article concludes that contested moralities associated with the pursuit of familial subsistence and contractual obligations shape peasants’ decisions and strategies concerning such contracts.

  • 07-11-2022

    New Publication in Technological Forecasting and Social Change

    A new journal article co-authored by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada (IEE), Manuel Scharfenstein (RUB) and Prof. Dr. Andrea Gatto (Wenzhou-Kean University) has been published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change

    Sustainable management of lithium and green hydrogen and long-run perspectives of electromobility

    The paper critically addresses the prospective role of lithium in the long-run development of electromobility from the lens of strong sustainability. The  study shows that the geographical concentration of global lithium riches and rather an oligopolistic market structure of the worldwide primary supply makes the global lithium supply vulnerable to unexpected shocks. Furthermore, the work finds that the current transition to lithium-based electromobility does not exhibit traits of strong or long-term sustainability. This is attributed to the limits of lithium endowments, the negligible recycling capabilities of lithium-ion batteries, and environmental degradation induced by the transition to lithium-ion battery-based electromobility. We conclude that lithium-ion battery-based electromobility is rather a meaningful bridging technology until the time when lithium-ion batteries could be reliably replaced by the green hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.

    Sadik-Zada, E.R., Gatto, A. and Scharfenstein. M. 2023. Sustainable management of lithium and green hydrogen and long-run perspectives of electromobility, Technology Forecasting and Social Change 186, Part A, 121992. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121992

  • 04-10-2022

    A New Article in Heliyon Co-Authored by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada

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    A new journal article co-authored by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Prof. Dr. Andrea Gatto from Wenzhou-Kean University has been published in Heliyon

    Access to microfinance as a resilience policy to address sustainable development goals: A content analysis

    This research paper aims to address the problem of financial inclusion and resilience in the current sustainable development framework. The development agenda designs access to finance a human right and a prior strategy to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Microfinance can play a decisive role in smoothing the risk of adverse events. It acts as resilience policy, tackling vulnerability and poverty, empowering people and vulnerable categories and improving and enlarging their capabilities. This work explores the existing connections between the development agenda and microfinance as a strategy to foster financial access. To this end, summative content analysis is performed on the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/69/315 – fulfilling a research gap. This inquiry handles 6 selected SDGs, ascribable to 3 dimensions, detecting 5 sub-dimensions and 16 domains. Analysing Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals, the study also finds increased importance attributed to the topic, key issues and policy strengths and limitations. Importantly, the analysis shows that the environmental dimension is still neglected in the analysed corpus, not appearing in any of the examined SDGs. The findings suggest investing in these channels, drafting governance patterns and modelling resilience and development policy to vehiculate improved ecological and institutional results and concerns.

    Gatto, A., Sadik-Zada, E.R., 2022. Access to microfinance as a resilience policy to address sustainable development goals: A content analysis, HELIYON (Journal Pre-proof), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240584402202148X?via%3Dihub

  • 31-08-2022

    New Journal Article by PhD candidate Biswaranjan Tripura

    Tripura BBiswaranjan Tripura, PhD IDS candidate, just published an article

    Negotiating the Everyday State in Contemporary Tripura, Northeast India
    in: Journal of Asian and African Studies
    available online

    In this article, he examines the complex question of evading the state or negotiating the everyday state from the perspective of the lived experiences of the highland people of Tripura, Northeast India. From dominant perspectives, the highland people are perceived as living in isolation or being inclined to want to keep the state at distance. Contrary to such perceptions, anthropologists now posit that people imagine and perceive the state differently, what they refer to as local manifestations of the state. Building on such literature, this paper unravels how highland people of Tripura perceive and negotiate the (everyday) state for their own advantage. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it argues that despite knowing that the everyday state is frustrating, the highland people of Tripura nevertheless regard it as their resource and, as active citizens, create strategies in negotiating what best they can extract from it.

  • 04-08-2022

    IEE member Dr. Anne Siebert published her Doctoral Thesis

    Siebert Thesis cover

    Anne Siebert:
    Food Sovereignty and Urban Agriculture.
    Concepts, Politics, and Practice in South AfricaSiebert

    Routledge, 2022, 174 S. - ISBN 9781032022697

    This book analyses the interplay of urban agriculture and food sovereignty through the innovative lens of the "critical urban food perspective". It focuses on the mobilisation of urban food producers as a powerful response to highly exclusionary dynamics in the agri-food system including insufficient food access and disastrous land dispossessions.
    This volume particularly aims to fill the gap in the current literature by engaging with food sovereignty discourses and movements in urban areas. Related activism of urban food producers in the Global South remains underrepresented in practice and in literature. Therefore, this book engages with the lived realities of an urban agriculture initiative in George, South Africa. Building on theoretical notions of the "right to the city" and "everyday forms of resistance", the book illuminates how deprived food producers expose inequalities and propose alternatives. The findings of in-depth empirical research reveal that dwellers perceive farming as a mean to overcome historical segregation, high food prices, and unhealthy nutrition. Hence, they breathe life into food sovereignty in practice and suggest further alliances beyond the city.
    The book will be of interest to scholars and students of alternative food politics, agrarian transformation, and food movements as well as rural-urban intersections.

    See info at Routledge

  • 04-08-2022

    New UA Ruhr Studies Publication by Dr. Mariana Vilmondes

    uar studies 75 cover

    PhD IDS graduate from Brazil, Dr. Mariana Vilmondes, has just published a new book as volume 75 of our series UA Ruhr Studies on Development and Global Governance:

    Accountability Relations in Social Housing Programs. A comparative legal analysis of Brazilian and Chilean case studies.

    Institutional crises the Latin America are seldom not rooted in the lack of accountability. uman rights’ violations both increase and are increased by those institutional weaknesses. This research evidenced that vicious cycle: despite impressive social housing programs in size and goals, the lack of adequate housing particularly affects the most-poor because of weak legal and institutional structures. The comparison of legal accountability relations in the urban social housing ownership models Minha Casa, Minha Vida, from Brazil, and D.S. 49, D.S. 1, and D.S. 19, from Chile, revealed several of those inconsistencies, but also advised on concrete solutions to their accountability relations inspired by the rights-based approach. Policies fall short on the delegation of responsibilities to duty-bearers, whose weak obligations to inform, justify or respond neutralizes concrete chances of enforcing redress or grievance. Victims of discrimination and without access to the minimum existencial, the most-vulnerable remain marginalized by the system that oughts to care for them. The solution is obvious: the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights must be used as means and goals of those or any other policies and institutional structures.

    more info

  • 27-06-2022

    Book Chapter Co-Authored by Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada

    mein fotoUHIA new book with a chapter co-authored by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Andrea Gatto has just been published:

    Vulnerability to the urban heat islands effect in the Global North and the Global South: assessment of the drivers and mitigation strategies

    Modern cities all over the world are increasingly facing global urban heat islands (UHIs). The issue calls for sound urban development and planning policies and requires measuring, monitoring, and adapting to major climate change shocks in the cities, as well as environmental and socioeconomic impact mitigation. The most affected people are recurrently those living in tropical and subtropical, low-income countries—especially the poor and the vulnerable categories. A peculiar role is attributed to resource and commons governance, for which a tailored sustainability action became a priority. Major notable consequences of UHI are, indeed, impacting energy consumption, water and air quality, and climate change, as well as environmental and public health. These societal problems are directly intertwined with grand challenges—above all climate justice and resilience policies formulation for the vulnerable. The former requires prompt multidimensional solutions to disentangle complex systems conundrums. This book chapter aims to furnish a comparative global picture of some key features related to the UHI phenomenon and trends, making use of the CIESIN's Satellite-Derived Environmental Indicators on Global Urban Heat Island. These data are corroborated by additional datasets analyses. For this scope, selected cities located in different world regions pertaining to both the Global North and Global South are used as case studies. Statistical and econometrics tests are performed—including OLS and multilevel multivariate regression analysis. These pieces of evidence are examined with respect to their latitude, population, and mean day and night temperature differences. The work finds that the Global South countries are more exposed to UHI vulnerability. Lastly, possible resilience policies, mitigation strategies, and practical actions to address the discussed issues are eventually inquired.

    Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Andrea Gatto: Chapter 2 - Vulnerability to the urban heat islands effect in the Global North and the Global South: assessment of the drivers and mitigation strategies. in: Ansar Khan, Hashem Akbari, Francesco Fiorito, Sk Mithun, Dev Niyogi (eds.): Global Urban Heat Island Mitigation. Elsevier 2022, Pages 29-45. ISBN 9780323855396, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-85539-6.00012-3. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323855396000123)

  • 30-05-2022

    New Journal Article Co-Authored by Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada

    SEPS coverA new journal article by IEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Andrea Gatto has just been published in "Socio-Economic Planning Sciences":

    Civic engagement and energy transition in the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region: Parametric and nonparametric inquiries

    The role of civic participation in issues directly or indirectly related to environmental quality is reputed to be on the rise globally. Bottom-up grassroots movements can be conducive to powering socially acceptable, smooth, and hence, more efficient transitions toward low-carbon energy futures. This factor can also unlock the potential of communities, improving the adaptation and social acceptability towards major changes and providing possible policy instruments. On contrary, bottom-up grassroots movements are unfavorable to the extension of renewable energy capacities, especially in the case of wind energy, if this causes costs for the local communities, which outweigh the corresponding benefits. Determining these dynamics is pivotal for addressing public ecological concerns and calls for quantitative regional studies. This paper addresses the nexus between civic engagement and energy transition in 11 countries of the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region. The study detects a strong positive relationship between civic engagement within environmental organizations and the share of renewable energy sources in the domestic electricity mixes of the countries of the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region. Nonparametric panel estimator with fixed effects reveals that the impact of civic engagement has been continuously rising – i.e. the significance of civic engagement as a factor in the energy transition has risen. Nevertheless, the study also finds that the magnitude of civic engagement over the years has been relatively stable in most countries of the region since 1981. In a few of them, civic engagement has been declining. The work argues that this decline could be attributed to the fact that politics, especially since 2005, deemed environmental issues as an important aspect of public policy – a factor that contributed to mainstreaming the phenomenon.

    Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Andrea Gatto: Civic engagement and energy transition in the Nordic-Baltic Sea Region: Parametric and nonparametric inquiries. in: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 2022, 101347 (open access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2022.101347)

  • 25-05-2022

    New Journal Article Co-Authored by Britta Niklas

    NiklasAgribusiness coverA new journal article by IEE member Britta Niklas, together with Jean-Marie Cardebat, Robin M. Back, Davide Gaeta ,Vicente Pinilla, João Rebelo, Roberto Jara-Rojas, and Guenter Schamel, has just been published in "Agribusiness":

    Wine industry perceptions and reactions to the COVID-19 crisis in the Old and New Worlds: Do business models make a difference?

    The COVID-19 crisis has severely impacted the wine industry, with producers in different countries affected differently and, therefore, differing in their perceptions toward it. These differing perceptions are assumed to be due to different business models, mainly linked to the distribution system adopted and resulting in varying distances of producers to distributors and consumers. While upstream integration characterizes the Old World, the New World applies a downstream business model, being more closely linked to distributors and consumers and, therefore, more vulnerable to shocks, which should lead to higher perceived impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. This study analyzes 542 surveys collected from wineries in nine countries, divided into New World, historical Old World, and emerging Old World. Econometric results show statistically significant differences in both the perceived impact of COVID-19 and wineries' responses in terms of planned investments, with the New World being more affected. A common desire by wineries to direct future investments towards direct-to-consumer sales and communication was found, to the detriment of investments in vineyards and cellars. This desire is particularly strong in the New World, in line with their focus on the downstream part of the value chain, underlying their greater reactivity to shocks and capacity to innovate.

    Niklas, B., Cardebat, J.-M., Back, R. M., Gaeta, D., Pinilla, V., Rebelo, J., Jara-Rojas, R., & Schamel, G. (2022). Wine industry perceptions and reactions to the COVID-19 crisis in the Old and New Worlds: Do business models make a difference? Agribusiness, 1– 22. (online first: https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21748)

  • 21-04-2022

    New Journal Article Co-Authored by Prof. Kaltenborn

    KaltenbornVSSAR 2A16 007A new article by Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn and Anna Büscher has just been published in the journal "Vierteljahresschrift für Sozial- und Arbeitsrecht (VSSAR)":

    Internationale Impfsolidarität oder Impfnationalismus? – Chronologie und rechtliche Einordnung der Maßnahmen zur globalen Verteilung von Impfstoffen in der COVID-19-Pandemie

    In vielen Niedrigeinkommensländern sind dringend benötigte Arzneimittel nicht auf dem Markt oder für die große Mehrheit der Bevölkerung nur zu unerschwinglichen Preisen erhältlich. Dieses schon seit langem bekannte und vielfach auf internationalen Konferenzen thematisierte Problem hat in der COVID-19-Pandemie noch einmal zusätzlich an Bedeutung gewonnen. Die zur Bekämpfung des Virus notwendige globale Impfstoffversorgung weist auch zwei Jahre nach Ausbruch der Pandemie immer noch eklatante Defizite auf – vom Zugang zu COVID-19-Vakzinen sind vor allem zahlreiche Menschen in den Ländern des Globalen Südens faktisch ausgeschlossen. Man schätzt, dass bereits 8,18 Mrd. Dosen eines COVID-19-Impfstoffs verabreicht worden sind und 56,8 % der Weltbevölkerung mindestens eine Dosis erhalten haben. Allerdings ist dieser Anteil in Ländern mit niedrigem Einkommen deutlich geringer: Dort beträgt er gerade einmal 7,6 %. Während reiche Staaten ihre Bürger inzwischen zu Auffrischungsimpfungen aufrufen und – trotz hoher Impfquoten – dafür auch über ausreichende Impfstoffvorräte verfügen, ist es nicht einmal gelungen, die vulnerabelsten Gruppen in Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländern (also etwa 20 % der Bevölkerung) zu impfen. (...)

    in: VSSAR 2022, 45 - 68 (Heft 1). 26 S. (online available)

  • 17-05-2022

    New Publication in Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

    Sadik Zadacover TASMA new journal article by IEE member Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada, together with Andrea Gatto and Ibrahim Niftiyev, has been published in Technology Analysis & Strategic Management:

    E-government and petty corruption in public sector service delivery

    The present study addresses the nexus between the development of e-government and petty corruption in the provision of public sector services in developing and transition economies.The augmented double superimposed principal-agent model serves as the theoretical framework of the present study and shows on the theoretical level how e-government could potentially limit petty corruption. To address the research question empirically, the study applies random tobit and linear random effects panel estimators to a dataset made of 121 countries, which covers the time period between 2008 and 2018. Estimations reveal that the adoption of electronic government in the delivery of public sector services has been the central factor that contributed to the reduction of petty corruption in developing and transition economies. The level of per capita income, political rights, civil liberties and share of natural resources in gross exports also correspond with less bribery in the public sector service delivery. Furthermore, the study finds that a lower level of socio-economic development corresponds with a greater level of petty corruption. Hence, e-government presents one of the utmost opportunities for socio-economic development and offers solutions for the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration.

    Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Andrea Gatto & Ibrahim Niftiyev: E-government and petty corruption in public sector service delivery, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2022 (available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2022.2067037)

  • 17-05-2022

    Britta Niklas Co-Authored New Journal Article

    Niklascover JDMMA new journal article by IEE member Britta Niklas, together with Alexandre Guedes, Robin M. Back, João Rebelo, and V. Felipe Laurie, has been published in the Journal of Destination Marketing & Management:

    How resilient are wine tourism destinations to health-related security threats? A winery perspective

    Previous studies have shown wine tourism destinations to remain resilient in the face of both natural and anthropogenic security threats. This has been attributed, especially in the case of the latter, to their low population density rural locations being perceived as safer than more densely populated urban areas. The outbreak of COVID19 in late 2019, which had become a global pandemic by early 2020, decimated the tourism industry and showed that previous perceptions of safety may no longer hold true. This research analyzes the influence of this health-related security threat, i.e., COVID-19, on wine tourism from a winery perspective. A sample of 228 wineries in wine-producing countries, surveyed during October 2020, were analyzed. Results show that wine tourism has been negatively affected by the pandemic, despite the relative ease of outdoor gathering and social distancing. Likewise, results exhibit geographically asymmetric effects, indicating that New World wineries, which generally have a more developed tourism infrastructure, were more likely to perceive COVID19's impact on wine tourism as more severe than Old World wineries. Managerial implications for wineries are also discussed.

    Britta Niklas, Alexandre Guedes, Robin M. Back, João Rebelo, V. Felipe Laurie: How resilient are wine tourism destinations to health-related security threats? A winery perspective. In: Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, Volume 24, 2022, 100707. (online first: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100707)

  • 21-04-2022

    New FES Paper Co-Authored by Prof. Kaltenborn

    Kaltenbornfes publication 19091 150An analysis paper by IEE Directory Board member Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn and Laura Kreft has just been published by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in their series "Labour and social justice":

    Governance principles for a global fund for social protection

    Building long-term and sustainably financed social protection systems can make an important contribution to combating extreme poverty and inequality which are two key demands of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. There is a strong case for setting up an international financing mechanism for this purpose - a "Global Fund for Social Protection". But its governance structure would need to be based on a partnership-based framework. In particular, it should be designed in such a way that recipient governments retain full ownership of their social protection systems.

    Markus Kaltenborn, Laura Kreft: Governance principles for a global fund for social protection. - Bonn ; Geneva : Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V. ; FES Geneva, March 2022. - 16 Seiten. - (Analysis). - (Labour and social justice)
    ISBN 978-3-98628-122-9

    Online available as PDF file

  • 20-04-2022

    New Journal Article Co-Authored by Britta Niklas

    Niklasthrb 22 2.coverIEE member Britta Niklas is co-author of a journal article just published in "Tourism and Hospitality Research" (together with Alexandre Guedes, Robin M. Back, and João Rebelo):

    Implications of an exogenous shock (COVID-19) on wine tourism business: A Portuguese winery perspective

    This study investigates the impact of an exogenous and unexpected shock (COVID-19) on the wine tourism business from the winery’s perspective. A sample of 146 Portuguese wineries was surveyed. The econometric results show that the share of wine tourism sales, the amount of dependence on exports and the assertiveness of brand recognition have a structural effect on direct-to-consumer tasting room wine sales, even when the winery’s business is disrupted by a shock that degrades the dynamics and flows of international trade. The research establishes a starting point that allows to understand the implications of an exogenous shock on the structure of the winery’s business, calling for further research on the firm’s economic performance as well as on the consumer’s behaviour in a post-pandemic context.

    in: Tourism and Hospitality Research. April 2022. Online first: https://doi.org/10.1177/14673584221085214

  • 25-03-2022

    Dr. Sadik-Zada Co-Author of a New Journal Article

    mein fotohorticulturaeA new journal article by IEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, written together with Manpreet Kaur, Anil Bhat, and Rakesh Sharma from India, has just been published in "Horticulturae":

    Productivity Analysis and Employment Effects of Marigold Cultivation in Jammu, India

    The study addresses the potential of marigold cultivation in terms of income and employment effects in the subtropical region of Jammu. Within the field research, the authors have surveyed 100 marigold farmers from Jammu and Kathua districts of Jammu Region. The region is of special interest because of the disproportional unemployment and poverty rates. The study finds that marigold cultivation exhibits strong employment and income linkages. Marigold cultivation generates employment opportunities of 124.84 man-days (MD) in a season in comparison to 85.37 MD of rice and 49.58 MDs of wheat. Hence, marigold farming could create more and better-paid rural employment possibilities for peasants and lead to a substantial reduction of the poverty headcount ratios. Farmyard manure (FYM), fertilizers, plant protection, and machine hours have a statistically significant positive effect on marigold yield. The replacement of subsistence farming with a focus on wheat and rice by marigold farming is an important source of the growing of marigold production. The findings show that by focusing on the cultivation of marigolds, more jobs and profits for the private farmers are possible. This is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1, no poverty, and SDG 8, decent work and economic growth. On the other hand, shifting from subsistence agriculture to cash crops that can be also exported to Europe and large cities could deteriorate food security in the rural developing areas. This kind of development could be in conflict with SDG 2, zero hunger. Hence, the agricultural and economic policies have to account for this trade-off and try to implement policies, which would facilitate the maximization of this kind of specialization without putting food security at risk. This finding is interesting both theoretically and in terms of applied development policies. In Jammu and Kathua, due to agricultural and food policies, marigold cultivation growth does not endanger food security. On the contrary, the growing level of income of the rural population enhance market demand for the local agri-food sector's output and assure a greater level of food security.

    In: Horticulturae 8, no. 3: 263. (online available: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8030263)

  • 03-03-2022

    New Journal Article by PhD Student Salam Alhaj Hasan

    AlhajhasanTrialog 140 141IEE PhD student Salam Alhaj Hasan has just published a new journal article in Trialog No. 140-141:

    Work and Education Outcomes of Syrian Refugees in Jordan: Differences between Zaatari camp and Amman

    Salam Alhaj investigates differences in work and education for Syrian refugees in Jordan between the Zaatari camp and the city of Amman. The author discusses the effect of residing in the camp on labour participation, engagement in formal work and having work permits, and the variations between Zaatari and Amman.

    in: Trialog 140-141, Vol. 1-2/2022: Cities and Displacement, pp. 38-43. (More information here)

  • 18-02-2022

    MADM Master Thesis published as Journal Article

    KhuranaBeierTRIALOG 139 coverFormer MADM student Nayani Khurana and her supervisor, former IEE member Dr. Raffael Beier worked together to publish her Master Thesis in an issue of TRIALOG:

    Towering Aspirations and a Loss of Social Space? Dwellers‘ Notions of (In)justice in Social Housing Redevelopment in Mumbai

    A study of social space is intrinsically about lived experiences – where people meet, engage and socialise in everyday life. These everyday experiences of space shape people‘s notion of (seeking) spatial justice. In this paper, we explore questions around spatial justice in the context of the Bombay Development Directorate chawl (a form of social housing) redevelopment project in Mumbai, India. Building on chawl residents‘ narratives from in-depth interviews and observations, this paper articulates people‘s subjective and frequently conflicting notions of justice in the project. The residents‘ notions further help us to understand the multi-dimensional nature of housing and different approaches to deliberating housing justice – grappling with questions on exclusion, aspirations and housing futures. We argue that chawl residents tend to appreciate the macro-level justice approach behind the redevelopment of their long-disregarded housing, yet the modes of implementation and potential changes in spatial practices pose various questions about justice at a micro-level of social space. The paper thus illustrates that justice claims are often antithetical to the lived experiences and spatial practices, hence implying that issues of spatial justice may be contradictory to an extent.

    In: TRIALOG 139, "Just Cities", pp. 24-31. (more information here)

  • 10-02-2022

    New Journal Article by New PhD Student

    ParisHabitat International coverAn article by our new PhD student Ricardo Paris, together with several other authors (Himanshu Shekhar, Malvika Rautela, Mehmooda Maqsood, Rafael Maximiliano Flores de León, María Fernanda Romero-Aguirre, Marygrace Balinos, Mariana Estrada Velázquez, Gita Salehi Amri, Tamanna Rahman, Augustine Yaw Asuah, Jilan Hosni, Md Shahinoor Rahman), has been published in the journal "Habitat International":

    Are leading urban centers predisposed to global risks - A analysis of the global south from COVID-19 perspective

    COVID-19 initially spread among prominent global cities and soon to the urban centers of countries across the globe. While cities are the hotbeds of activities, they also seem highly exposed to global risks including the pandemic. Using the case of COVID-19 and the World Risk Index framework, this paper examines if the leading cities from the global south are inherently vulnerable and exposed to global risks and can they exacerbate the overall risk of their respective nations. Compared against their respective national averages, most of the 20 cities from 10 countries analyzed in this paper, have higher exposure, lower adaptive capacity, higher coping capacity and varied susceptibility. As this relative understanding is based on respective national averages which are often lower than the global standards, even high performance on certain indicators may still result in elevated predisposition. This paper concludes that the leading urban centers from the global south are highly likely to be predisposed to global risks due to their inherent vulnerability and exposure, and many of the drivers of this predisposition are related to the process of urbanization itself. This predisposition can enhance the overall exposure and vulnerability of the nation in which they are located.

    in: Habitat International, Volume 121, March 2022, 102517 (online first: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102517)

  • 14-01-2022

    Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada Published New Journal Article

    mein fotoSustainabilityIEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada has just published a new journal article:

    Political Economy of Green Hydrogen Rollout: A Global Perspective

    The present article addresses the role of green hydrogen in the transition towards climate-neutral economies and reviews the central challenges for its emancipation as an economically viable source of energy. The study shows that countries with a substantial share of renewables in the energy mix, advanced natural gas pipeline infrastructure, and an advanced level of technological and economic development have a comparative advantage for the wider utilization of hydrogen in their national energy systems. The central conclusion of this review paper is that a green hydrogen rollout in the developed and oil-exporting developing and emerging countries is not a risk for the rest of the world in terms of the increasing technological disparities and conservation of underdevelopment and concomitant socio-economic problems of the Global South. The targets anchored in Paris Agreement, but even more in the EU Green Deal and the European Hydrogen Strategy will necessitate a substantial rollout of RESs in developing countries, and especially in the countries of the African Union because of the prioritization of the African continent within the energy cooperation frameworks of the EU Green Deal and the EU Hydrogen Strategy. Hence, the green hydrogen rollout will bridge the energy transition between Europe and Africa on the one hand, and climate and development targets on the other.

    in: Sustainability 2021, 13(23), 13464; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313464

  • 07-01-2022

    New Book Chapter by Anne Siebert (IEE) and Julian May (UWC)

    SiebertMayIEE member Dr. Anne Siebert and Prof. Julian May from the University of the Western Cape worked together for a chapter in a newly published book on public policy in Africa:

    Food and nutrition security policies in Africa

    Public policy for food and nutrition security has become a critical component of government strategies and development interventions, including food aid. It is also the subject of debate and contestation. Recent global dynamics, particularly in the unfolding responses to COVID-19, have shown that well-defined and timely food security policies are of utmost importance in the context of interlinked issues of hunger, volatile food prices, unstable food availability, and increasing prevalence of natural disasters. In this context, the Chapter starts with conceptualising Food and Nutrition Security Policies in Africa. The authors highlight moreover that COVID-19 redefined the ‘the poor’ by revealing the vulnerability of middle-class households. Many previously food secure households were confronted with difficulties in affording groceries, and women, in particular, have borne the brunt of the impact of the pandemic with reduced livelihood opportunities and more unpaid work. These recent experiences show that food insecurity issues are diverse, often remain hidden, and thus are not necessarily well integrated into public policy agendas. Thus, one of the tasks of this contribution is to provide a better understanding and sensitivity to these problems and related dire conditions. The authors underscore utmost importance to an engagement with peoples’ needs and ‘responses from below’, including supporting a vital informal food sector before citing recommendations for future food and nutrition security policies in Africa.

    In: Onyango, G. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in Africa. Routledge, pp. 477-487. 

  • 17-12-2021

    Book Chapter Co-Authored by Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada Just Published

    mein fotoSadik Zada Book Chapter 978 3 030 86304 3A new book with a chapter by IEE member Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada, Andrea Gatto and Nuwe Blick has just been published. Their chapter:

    Rural Electrification and Transition to Clean Cooking: The Case Study of Kanyegaramire and Kyamugarura Solar Mini-Grid Energy Cooperatives in the Kyenjojo District of Uganda

    Access to electricity is fundamental to ensure basic human activities and is a direct measure of energy poverty. In recent years, significant steps towards rural electrification have been fostered by intergovernmental organisations with the scope to ensure energy security to all - especially rural people, the poor and the vulnerable. Cooking is a basic daily household activity and is strictly related to energy security. Nevertheless, in most developing countries and the rural world, cooking is still done through polluting, ineffective and dangerous kerosene stove and animal manure and primordial tools. To tackle this issue, pushed-down energy policies calibrated to enhance environmental, social and economic performances of rural households have to face ancient habits. This book chapter aims to analyze the feasibility of environmental preservation policies within cooking activities in Kyenjojo District of Uganda in terms of sustainability performance. The study is predicated on the field survey data with 63 households. The performed analyses indicate that electrification has not substantially changed the cooking behaviors of the households. Furthermore, the study analyses the causes for the lagging transition to clean energy use in cooking. We find that besides behavioural and taste aspects affordability and level of education play an important role in the context of the household-level energy transition. This significance of education may be imputed to the fact that poor rural people have not been educated about environmental protection and paves the way for new research explorations, bottom-up projects, sustainable development policies and energy transition modeling.

    In: Leal Filho W., Vidal D.G., Dinis M.A.P., Dias R.C. (eds) Sustainable Policies and Practices in Energy, Environment and Health Research. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham., pp 547-562 (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86304-3_32)

  • 10-12-2021

    Dr. Mohammad Al Asadi's Thesis Was Published

    AlasadiDr. Mohammad Al Asadi published his dissertation:

    Financing Recovery in Conflict-Affected Countries - Financing Resources and Fiscal Sustainability

    It is widely agreed among scholars interested in post-conflict recovery that conflict-affected countries face tremendous challenges in finding resources to finance the reconstruction process in the aftermath of the conflict. However, previous research related to post-conflict economic recovery and finance dealt with countries affected by civil conflicts as a homogeneous group with regard to the economic intensity of the conflict. Although the nature and the intensity of the conflict could have a significant influence on the availability and the structure of the finance during this phase, this factor was underestimated in the previous research. Another aspect that was not covered by previous research is the sustainability of the fiscal position in post-conflict countries under the prevailing debt levels.

    Despite the consensus among most scholars in this field of research on the higher level of fiscal and debt risk experienced by conflict-affected countries compared to non-conflict countries, no previous research has analyzed the factors affecting the sustainability of the fiscal position in the former. Fiscal sustainability in countries emerging from armed conflict poses a serious problem in light of the huge reconstruction requirements and the limited financing resources available in the aftermath of conflict. Maintaining an unsustainable fiscal stance on the medium and long run might jeopardize the efforts of restoring the development track in countries emerging from conflict.

    With this background in mind, the objective of this thesis is to answer two main research questions:

    1.   How does conflict intensity affect the financing resources for reconstruction in post-conflict developing countries?
    2.   What are the main determinants of fiscal sustainability in conflict-affected developing countries?

    To answer the first research question, the thesis employs statistical analysis techniques to compare the reliance on external and domestic financing resources during the first post-conflict decade, between two conflict-affected countries groups with different conflict intensity. A new criterion to estimate conflict intensity that takes into consideration the economic severity of the conflict is developed. The heavy resort to one type of finance over the other could have significant consequences on the sustainability of the fiscal and debt position of the affected countries.

    To answer the second research question, the study develops a new theoretical model that relies on the sustainable primary surplus approach. Most available fiscal sustainability approaches were found to be inconsistent with the case of conflict-affected countries and with the type of data available for these countries. The research employs panel data techniques to evaluate the significance of the variables suggested by the theoretical model developed. The results obtained for post-conflict countries are then compared with those for conflict countries and non-conflict countries.

    You can find his dissertation here: https://hss-opus.ub.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/year/2021/docId/8106

  • 10-12-2021

    Journal Article Britta Niklas and Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada

    NiklasSadik ZadaIEE members Britta Niklas and Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada wrote an article for the Journal of Wine Economics:

    Business Cycles and Alcohol Consumption: Evidence form a Nonlinear Panel ARDL Approach

    This study revisits the relationship between economic variables and alcohol consumption from a macro-perspective. Focusing explicitly on the asymmetries of the responsiveness of alcohol consumption during the expansion and contraction phases of the business cycle, asymmetric panel estimators are employed. We employ a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model for a panel of 24 countries for the period 1961 to 2014. Findings show that expansion leads to a long-term increase in average alcohol consumption, while during contraction, the level of average alcohol consumption persists. Expansion, together with a pronounced reduction in the unemployment rate could, however, lead to a net reduction of gross alcohol and wine consumption. Nonetheless, if the recession corresponds with a surge in unemployment, this leads to a long-run increase in the level of total gross alcohol consumption, but a decrease in wine and beer consumption. Reduction in unemployment does not lead to a reduction in alcohol consumption, as pre-expansion levels of alcohol consumption persist.

    in: Journal of Wine Economics 16(4), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1017/jwe.2021.32

  • 22-11-2021

    Another New Journal Article by IEE PhD Student

    asian journal of international lawAdelAnother new journal article, written by Ihssan Adel Madbouh (one of our PhD students) and Mutaz M. Qafisheh, was recently published in the Asian Journal of International Law:

    Palestine's Accession to Geneva Convention III: Typology of Captives Incarcerated by Israel

    Upon the 2014 State of Palestine's accession to Geneva Convention III, captured Palestinians who took part in belligerent acts against the occupier should be treated as prisoners of war due to the fact that they belong to a party to an armed conflict. These individuals fall under three categories: members of security forces, affiliates of armed resistance groups, and uprisers who fight the occupant spontaneously on an individual basis. Contrary to established rules of IHL, Israel does not make any distinction regarding the status of these three types. Unilateral Israeli treatment of its captives does not hold water under international law. Such actions may trigger liability based on international criminal law, particularly as the ICC decided in 2021 that it possesses jurisdiction to investigate crimes occurring in the territory of Palestine. The mere fact of confining prisoners of war after the cessation of hostilities may constitute a ground for criminal prosecution.

    in: Asian Journal of International Law, 1-30. doi:10.1017/S2044251321000229

  • 19-11-2021

    New Journal Article by PhD Student Bablu Chakma

    AJoSSA journal article by our PhD student ChakmaBablu Chakma was published in the Asian Journal of Social Science:

    Subsistence, risk-taking, and reciprocity among the Tanchangya in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

    This paper examines livelihood strategies of Tanchangya culantro cultivators of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, in relation to their subsistence, risk-taking, and reciprocity practices, who have been embroiled in compulsive market participation due to paternalist state policies. It puts forward two propositions. First, the objectives of protecting subsistence and of improving familial situation drive Tanchangya peasants to employ flexible strategies in relation to risk management and income generation. Second, it proposes that reciprocity practices provide minimum security to village households in times of crises and exigencies, and work as a safeguard against the exploitation of capitalist Bengali traders. It concludes that subsistence struggles lead peasant families to choose most suitable crops and farming methods and remain open to diverse income sources. Village reciprocity practices, either as dynamic and evolving relationships between two actors or involving the larger community, having different forms, supplement this struggle of peasants for survival.

    in: Asian Journal of Social Science, 2021 (online 30 October 2021: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajss.2021.10.004)

  • 11-10-2021

    Several New Articles by Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn

    KaltenbornIEE member Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn has been publishing several new articles during recent months:

    Markus Kaltenborn / Nicola Wiebe: Crisis and Disaster Prevention through a Global Fund for Social Protection, in: Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft / Ruhr-Universität Bochum – Institut für Friedenssicherungsrecht und Humanitäres Völkerrecht (eds.), WorldRiskReport 2021, 17-21, https://weltrisikobericht.de/download/2723/

    Mira Bierbaum, Markus Kaltenborn, Valerie Schmitt and Nicola Wiebe: Financing universal social protection during COVID-19 and beyond: Investing more and better, in: Policy in Focus, 19/2 (2021), 36-38, https://www.ipcig.org/publication/30337?language_content_entity=en

    Markus Kaltenborn: Human Rights Approaches, in: Esther Schüring / Markus Loewe (eds.), Handbook of Social Protection Systems, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2021, 163-172, https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781839109102/9781839109102.xml

    Markus Kaltenborn: Social Protection Floors as an investment in the future, International Journal of Public Law and Policy (IJPLAP) vol. 6, no. 4 (2020), 312-325, https://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=114805

    Jan Tobias Polak, Markus Kaltenborn, Annika Engelbert, Lea Smidt, Lena Taube and Martin Bruder: Menschenrechte in der Praxis der deutschen Entwicklungspolitik: Empirische Befunde und theoretische Einordnung, in: Zeitschrift für Menschenrechte (zfmr) 1/2021, 46-63

    Markus Kaltenborn, Laura Kreft: Global Fund for Social Protection – Social security for all, in: Development and Cooperation (D+C) April 2021, 15-16, https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/global-fund-social-protection-help-low-income-countries-finance-basic-social-security

    Markus Kaltenborn: Social Protection, in: Koen De Feyter/Gamze Türkelli/Stéphanie De Moerloose (eds.), Law and Development Encyclopedia, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2021, https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/encyclopedia-of-law-and-development-9781788117968.html

  • 04-10-2021

    Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada Co-authored New Book Chapter

    mein foto2021 10 book coverIEE member Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada, together with Andrea Gatto, wrote a chapter of the newly-published book "Economic Growth and Financial Development":

    Revisiting the East Asian Financial Crises:
    Lessons from Ethics and Development Patterns

    This book chapter offers a conceptual contribution to the development economics and financial development literature by reviewing the East Asian development patterns through an ethical interpretation. The flight of foreign capital and the financial crises that affected some of the most successful East Asian economies led to a critique of their development pathways. However, Japan and the Asian Tigers displayed a lead role for ethics in both their economic and business historical process, as part of the Confucian capitalism. The Asian miracle carries a strong ethical message, to be kept for policy recommendations. These lessons can be useful for regulation purposes and to smooth the risk of upcoming financial crises.

    in: Shahbaz M., Soliman A., Ullah S. (eds): Economic Growth and Financial Development. Effects of Capital Flight in Developing Countries. Springer, Cham., pp 23-31. Online available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79003-5_2

  • 20-09-2021

    New UA Ruhr Studies Publication by Dr. Christina Seeger

    uar studies 74 coverSeegerIEE member Dr. Christina Seeger has just published a new book as volume 74 of our series UA Ruhr Studies on Development and Global Governance:

    Trust and consumers' willingness to pay for safe and certified safe vegetables in West African cities: a comparative analysis of Tamale, Ouagadougou, Bamenda and Bamako.

    Smallholder farmers cultivating in West African cities often lack access to irrigation water and may use wastewater to irrigate their fields, particularly in the dry season. Wastewater contaminates vegetables with pathogens so that local consumers are likely to be exposed to health risks. Market data on consumers' actual payments for safety improved (= pathogen reduced) vegetables are not available in West Africa as vegetables differing in safety levels are sold, due to an information deficit on the consumers' side, at a uniform market price. Certification and repeated purchase experience may reduce these information deficits.

    For both market signals to be effective, trust is required. This book analyses the role of trust in explaining consumers' maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for safe and certified safe food in a Hicksian framework. This theory is tested using household data (n = 2,662) generated from contingent valuation surveys undertaken in Tamale, Ouagadougou, Bamenda and Bamako. The findings show that local consumers are willing to pay substantially higher prices (+40% to +160%) for certified safe vegetables. They further suggest that trust in farmers and traders reduces WTP and trust in certifying institutions increases WTP for certified safe vegetables. Most WTPs were found to be construct valid. They are therefore taken as trustworthy expressions of consumers' preferences for safety improved vegetables. These results stress the need to introduce vegetable certification in West African cities.

    more info

  • 03-08-2021

    Another Forthcoming Article by Britta Niklas and Tobias Bidlingmaier

    NiklasBidlingmaierIEE member Britta Niklas, together with IEE alumni Dr. Tobias Bidlingmaier, wrote a book chapter on

    Chocolate made in Ghana: Socially responsible production and consumption through adding value locally

    (a) Situation faced:
    Ghanaian cocoa farmers barely earn a living wage, despite producing 19% of the world’s cocoa. With almost all processing of cocoa beans occurring outside Ghana, only 13% of the chocolate value creation remains there. Hendrik Reimers, founder of fairafric Ghana Ltd. (fairafric), had a vision to add value locally by producing chocolate in Ghana for export to Europe.
    (b) Action taken:
    This case study describes the story of fairafric, and how it overcame the challenges faced, by (1) establishing close relationships with farmers; (2) finding an investor that offers finance and expertise, while sharing a passion for the product; (3) fundraising at various levels; (4) constructing a chocolate factory in Ghana; and (5) distributing and marketing the chocolate in Europe.
    (c) Results achieved:
    fairafric succeeded in building the first state-of-the art chocolate factory in Ghana, thereby adding substantial value to cocoa production in that country.
    (d) Lessons learned:
    The need to find innovative solutions, to collaborate with relevant stakeholders for production and trading, to differentiate the brand and increase customer retention and brand loyalty through appropriate communication, to show commitment to employees and consumers by being transparent regarding social, ethical and environmental compliance, thereby attracting consumers willing to pay for a fair and sustainable product.

    Forthcoming in: Dealing with Socially Responsible Consumers – Studies in Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan (Springer Nature)

  • 03-08-2021

    Journal Article Co-authored by Britta Niklas

    NiklasWEP CoverA new journal article by IEE member Britta Niklas (together with Adeline Alonso Ugaglia, Wolfram Rinke, Daniel Moscovici, and Jeff Gow) has now been published in Wine Economics and Policy:

    Consumer preferences for Certified Wines in France: A Comparison of Sustainable Labels

    The wine industry has faced various environmental and social challenges. On the demand side, consumer demand for sustainable wines has been increasing but, to date, it is unknown whether consumers perceive wine companies’ efforts to obtain sustainable development (SD) certifications and labels as being valuable or how they differentiate them. On the supply side, sustainable wine production is increasing but producers report a lack of information to engage and select their SD strategy. This article uses a logistic regression and an artificial neural network model to show how French consumers differentiate and value different SD labels (Organic, Biodynamic, Sustainable, Fairtrade, Natural). Results show that consumers’ willingness to buy and willingness to pay are influenced by the importance each consumer gives to the certification. For all other drivers, consumers differentiate between labels, highlighting the importance of comparison between and knowledge about each of them, thereby aiding producers in choosing an appropriate marketing strategy.

    Adeline Alonso Ugaglia, Britta Niklas, Wolfram Rinke, Daniel Moscovici, Jeff Gow: Consumer preferences for Certified Wines in France: A Comparison of Sustainable Labels, in: Wine Economics and Policy 10(2): 75-86. (https://doi.org/10.36253/wep-10382)

  • 30-06-2021

    A New Article in the Atlantic Economic Journal

    AEJA new journal article by IEE member mein foto has just been published in the Atlantic Economic Journal:

    An Ode to ODA against all Odds? A Novel Game - Theoretical and Empirical Reappraisal of the Terrorism-Aid Nexus

    The present inquiry revisits the influence of the fourth religious wave of modern terrorism on the allocation of official development assistance (ODA). The theoretical framework is predicated first on comprehensive review of the pertinent literature on the nexus between political instability and foreign aid, augmented by the assessment of Central Intelligence Agency declassified documents and Congressional Service Reports. Based on the systematic review of the sources, the study puts forward a novel dynamic differential game theory model, which enables derivation of the scenarios for foreign aid allocation. The study finds that despite dominance of geopolitical and/or commercial interests in the allocation of aid, high incidence of terrorist attacks does not lead to less development aid, but rather catalyzes it. Subsequent empirical analysis of a dataset with 121 developing and transition economies spanning between 1970 and 2016 reveals that terrorism incidents, level of political rights, and the War on Terror had a statistically significant positive long-run and negative short-run effect on the level of foreign aid commitment of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development member states. The growth rate of foreign aid in the developing countries with a predominantly Muslim population has been systematically 0.1 to 0.85 percent greater than in non-Muslim countries. Subsequent assessment of the security bias in the allocation of aid indicates that re-securitization of aid since 1998 has led to weak diversion of aid commitment from areas with fewer terrorism incidents to jurisdictions with a greater frequency of terrorist attacks.

    in: Atlantic Economic Journal (2021). Online first: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-021-09710-9

  • 05-05-2021

    Dr. Sadik-Zada Published New Journal Article

    mein fotoSEPS coverIEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, together with Andrea Gatto, has just published a new journal article in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences:

    The puzzle of greenhouse gas footprints of oil abundance

    The present inquiry lays a groundwork for the analysis of the net greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint of oil in the oil-abundant settings. To address the research question, the study puts forward a three-sector decision model, which provides a common ground for the assessment of the interaction of the structuralist and institutional factors influencing environmental pollution in the oil-reliant economies. The study shows that fossil-fuel abundance triggers forces, which induce diametrically opposed effects concerning atmospheric pollution. These are the rising carbon-intensive oil extraction and processing and fossil-fueled power generation versus shrinkage of the carbon-intensive manufacturing and growth of the low-carbon tertiarization. The theoretical analysis enables compartmentalization of the essential factors, which determine GHG emissions in the respective countries. To assess the significance of the proposed theoretical framework, the study employs multivariate panel co-integration techniques and two-stage fixed effects estimations for a dataset of 38 oil-producing countries for the time period between 1960 and 2018. In contrast to the existing literature, this study drives apart from the black box approaches that employ just one omnibus variable, per capita income.

    in: Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Volume 75, 2021, 100936
    (URL providing 50 days' free access to the article: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1c~t18f9Ytaig)

  • 30-03-2021

    New Journal Article by IEE Member Dr. Raffael Beier

    BeierA new journal article by IEE member Dr. Raffael Beier has just been published in the "International Journal of Urban and Regional Research":

    From Visible Informality to Splintered Informalities. Reflections on the Production of ‘Formality’ in a Moroccan Housing Programme

    Increasingly, scholarly works challenge the formal/informal dichotomy, stressing the multiple political practices of producing informality which go beyond state incapacity. In contrast, this article addresses a lack of research concerning the production of ‘formal’ urban space through state‐led housing programmes. Deconstructing simplistic notions of state intentionality and incapacity, the article zooms in on competing interests and diverse resources, as well as the shifting power relations between multiple private, semi‐public and public actors which shape the production of ‘formality’. Focusing on a shantytown resettlement programme in Casablanca, the article differentiates between visible informality and splintered informalities. The former relates to the prevailing clear‐cut and stereotypical dichotomy between formal and informal urban space which underpins the state's objective of eliminating the visible informality attached to Morocco's shantytowns. The latter is the result of a messy process of ensuring housing affordability through the so‐called third‐party scheme—a sites‐and‐services project based on small‐scale private investment and land speculation—once this objective is achieved. Characterized by heterogeneous actor constellations, opportunism and flexible regulatory practices, the scheme has not only capitalized but also individualized urban space. Instead of building new formal housing, the scheme has produced splintered informalities and created new uncertainties and arbitrariness beyond the control of a single actor.

    in: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, online first: http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13001

  • 05-03-2021

    New Journal Article by IEE Members

    LoewensteinWmein fotoProf. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein and Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada, together with Andrea Gatto, have just published an article in the journal "Data in Brief":

    An extensive data set on energy, economy, environmental pollution and institutional quality in the petroleum-reliant developing and transition economies

    Petroleum-reliant developing and transition economies account for 15–20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This group of countries have a disproportionately high share of oil and natural gas in their energy mix and a relatively high carbon footprint over their petroleum value chains. The present data set is an extensive compilation of the essential indicators related to economy, energy, environmental pollution, and institutional quality of 37 oil and gas producing developing and transition economies in the time interval spanning between 1989 and 2019. The data set can serve as a basis for the macroeconomic analysis of energy, environment, social and institutional issues in this group of countries and draft further industry explorations as well as sustainable development policy analyses and recommendations. Furthermore, based on the mentioned data series, we propose three novel indexes – i.e. Energy Sector Development Indexes I, II, and III. Those indexes are developed in the context of fossil fuel abundant settings. Despite focusing on the fossil fuel abundant settings, the Energy Sector Development Indexes could be expanded for petroleum and coal scarce countries as well.

    in: Data in Brief, Volume 35, April 2021, 106766 - online first: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.106766

  • 18-02-2021

    Thesis by Diotima Chattoraj Now Available in Print

    ChattorajChattoraj ThesisThe doctoral thesis of former IEE PhD student Diotima Chattoraj is now available in print:

    Displacement among Sri Lankan Tamil Migrants
    The Diasporic Search for Home in the Aftermath of War

    This book focuses on the concept of ‘home’ or ‘place of origin’ (expressed in Tamil as ‘Ur’) and its various dimensions, in turn related to issues of belonging, attachment, detachment, and commonality among the war-affected population in the post-war era of Sri Lanka. Little research has been undertaken on displacement and forced migration since the end of the war, and so this book provides new insight into the intersections between externally and internally displaced people and notions of home in relation to gender, age, caste and class. It excavates the roots of the problem of not being able to return due to combinations of uncertainty, unemployment, and the loss of people and property. The author shows that notions of ‘home’ vary considerably depending on multiple variables, and this is particularly pronounced between the different generations. The book also confronts how the migration from Sri Lanka over the border to India has brought on discernible changes to the lives of women in particular, in transforming their identities in multiple re-invented cultural manifestations, and cultivating a new kind of attachment towards their new homes. Interdisciplinary in tenor, this book will be of interest to scholars in development studies with a focus on South Asia, as well as graduate students and researchers in the fields of migration, conflict studies, Sri Lanka studies, and sociology. It may also have an impact on policymakers owing to its comprehensive, empirically-based analysis of the consequences of the Sri Lankan civil war for Tamils.

    Please find more information here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-33-4769-4#about

  • 29-01-2021

    Blog Article by PhD Student Darina Pellowska

    2021 01 Pellowska BlogOn 28 January 2021, IEE's PhD Student Darina Pellowska published an article on the CHA (Centre for Humanitarian Action) blog (in German):

    Lokalisierung nach COVID-19 und Black Lives Matter"

    Trotz der Impulse aus der COVID-19-Response und der Black Lives Matter Bewegung geht die Lokalisierung der humanitären Hilfe weiterhin schleppend voran. Dieser Blog zeigt auf, wie agiles Management und eine Netzwerkperspektive helfen können, etablierte Governancestrukturen im humanitären Projektmanagement aufzubrechen und alle relevanten Akteursgruppen einzubinden.

    Link: https://www.chaberlin.org/blog/lokalisierung-nach-covid-19-und-black-lives-matter/

  • 17-12-2020

    New Journal Article by Dr. Raffael Beier

    sub/urbanBeierA new journal article by IEE member Dr. Raffael Beier has just been published in "sub/urban":

    Ganz gewöhnliche Viertel - Stigma und Realitäten in Casablancas Slum Er-Rhamna

    Slums gelten als das Symbol der vermeintlich unterentwickelten und unkontrolliert wachsenden Megastädte des Globalen Südens. Die damit einhergehende Stigmatisierung von Slums hat nicht nur alltägliche Folgen für die Bewohner*innen, sondern hat spätestens im Zuge der Millennium-Entwicklungsziele auch zu einer Renaissance von Massenwohnungsbauprojekten, Verdrängungen und Umsiedlungen an den Stadtrand geführt. In Bezug auf Marokko zeigt der Artikel, inwieweit ein global verbreitetes, negatives Bild von Slums zu repressiven Wohnungspolitiken geführt hat. Aufbauend auf einer Haushaltsbefragung und qualitativen Interviews in einem sogenannten Slum in Casablanca dekonstruiert der Artikel bestehende Slum-Stigmata und zeigt, dass sich Slums nicht zwingend strukturell von anderen, gewöhnlichen Vierteln unterscheiden und maßgeblich durch Heterogenität gekennzeichnet sind. Als Konsequenz plädiert der Artikel dafür, Slums – analog zu Jennifer Robinsons Konzept der ordinary cities – als gewöhnliche Viertel zu bezeichnen und somit eine postkoloniale, empirisch-fundierte und vergleichend-analytische Sichtweise einzunehmen.

    In: sub\urban. zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung, 8(3), S. 73–96. doi: 10.36900/suburban.v8i3.592. (full text via open access)

  • 30-11-2020

    Journal Article by PhD Student Om Ki

    OmAn article by IEE PhD student Om Ki was published in Myanmar Economic Bulletin:

    Agriculture Finance in Myanmar and Myanma Agricultural Development Bank Reform

    Notwithstanding enormous increases in agricultural loans to smallholder farmers by successive governments of Myanmar over the past decade, the cost of cultivating crops still significantly exceeds the subsidised loans granted by the State, and to which less than half of farm households have access. Exacerbating this State financing gap, is the lack of access to timely, affordable and dependable credit from formal financial institutions broadly, including private banks and microfinance institutions. As a consequence, Myanmar’s farmers are forced into borrowing (supplemental) loans from informal moneylenders at exorbitant rates of interest that range from 60 to 200 percent per annum, which (unsurprisingly) also chronically undermines the profitability, viability and sustainability of farm households.

    This study presents a short contextual background and concise investigation into agricultural finance in Myanmar through a historical perspective, followed by a brief analysis of lessons learned from international experience in reforming agricultural banks in Asia and Latin America. ...

    in: Myanmar Economic Bulletin, Vol.2, No.1, pp. 61-76 (full text online available)

  • 13-11-2020

    New Journal Article of PhD Student Biswaranjan Tripura

    SocialWorkWithGroups coverTripura BAn article of IEE PhD student Biswaranjan Tripura has just been published in the journal "Social Work with Groups" in their series "Group Work Stories on pandemic 2020":

    Forming an alumni association relief group to address the needs of Indigenous peoples in Tripura, India during the COVID-19 pandemic

    In this narrative essay, he reflects on the steps taken and challenges encountered in forming and meeting the goals of an alumni group aimed at supporting vulnerable indigenous communities in Tripura, India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    in: Social Work with Groups, published online 31 Oct 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1080/01609513.2020.1840191)

  • 03-11-2020

    New: Book Chapter by Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada

    mein fotoBookChapter Sadik ZadaIEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, together with Andrea Gatto, wrote a chapter for a new book:

    Energy Security Pathways in South East Europe:
    Diversification of the Natural Gas Supplies, Energy Transition,
    and Energy Futures

    This chapter explores the foreseeable repercussions of South East Europe (SEE) energy transition in terms of regional sustainability, resilience, vulnerability, and energy security. It examines enhancement of the natural gas pipelines in the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor, its broad ramifications for the SEE, as well as consequences for regional integration in energy security in the area. The chapter argues that natural gas will be relevant within the decarbonization pathway, coal-to-renewables transition, and energy security over the full transition toward a low-carbon economy. A moderate share of natural gas in the energy mix contributes to the robustness of the decarbonization strategy over the reduction of the growing electricity intermittency risk that emanates from the growing share of the renewables in the energy mix. Regardless of the undertaken landscape and energy mix, the decarbonization targets should not be subject to trade-offs with purely economic targets in the face of the short- to middle-term economic turmoils.

    in: Mišík M., Oravcová V. (eds) From Economic to Energy Transition. Energy, Climate and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. pp. 491-514
    (first online: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55085-1_17)

  • 27-08-2019

    UA Ruhr Study on Development and Global Governance Vol. 73 Published

    uar studies 73 cover73. Jurek Seifert:
    Power and Horizontality in South-South Development Cooperation. The Case of Brazil and Mozambique.

    The growing importance of new actors in the global political landscape is envisaged as a phenomenon that has led to shifts in international power relations. This is reflected in development cooperation. Countries like China, Brazil, India and South Africa have enhanced their cooperation programs and present their development cooperation as South-South Development cooperation (SSDC) which takes place between countries of the 'Global South'. Both practitioners and scholars ascribe a notion of solidarity and horizontality to South-South cooperation that allegedly distinguishes it from the relationship patterns commonly associated with North-South relations. However, power constellations between the emerging powers and most of their cooperation partners are often asymmetrical. ...

    Please find the full abstract and more information here

  • 30-09-2020

    New Article by Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada

    mein fotoIEE member Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada just published a new journal article:

    Natural resources, technological progress, and economic modernization

    The present inquiry focuses on the modernization perspectives of the commodity‐exporting countries through the lens of development economics. To this end, the study adopts the Kaldorian framework to address the modernization effects, epitomized in the absorption of surplus labor. To trace the process of economic modernization, the study augments Lewis’s dualistic economy model by the extractive sector. Three different scenarios for the management of resource revenues are scrutinized. An altruistic mode, which implies a pure redistribution of the revenues among the poor swaths of the population, protracts the process of economic modernization, requires a greater amount of capital stock, and harbors a greater risk of a poverty trap. This effect is less pronounced if the modern sector is more capital‐intensive. A productive mode, which elicits full reinvestment of the commodity revenues, in contrast, accelerates the pace of economic modernization. Further, predicated on the scrutiny of a more realistic scenario, a bargaining mode, the study derives the condition for a net positive (or negative) modernization effect. The study identifies technical progress alongside capital accumulation as a further important source of economic modernization.

    in: Review of Development Economics, online first (https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12716)

  • 06-08-2020

    Britta Niklas Published New Journal Article

    NiklasIEE member Britta Niklas, together with W. Rinke, published a new article in the "Journal of Wine Economics":

    Pricing Models for German Wine: Hedonic Regression vs. Machine Learning

    This article examines whether there are different hedonic price models for different German wines by grape variety, and identifies influential factors that focus on weather variables and direct and indirect quality measures for wine prices. A log linear regression model is first applied only for Riesling, and then machine learning is used to find hedonic price models for Riesling, Silvaner, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Noir. Machine learning exhibits slightly greater explanatory power, suggests adding additional variables, and allows for a more detailed interpretation of results. Gault&Millau points are shown to have a significant positive impact on German wine prices. The log linear approach suggests a huge effect of different quality categories on the wine prices for Riesling with the highest price premiums for Auslese and “Beerenauslese/Trockenbeerenauslese/Eiswein (Batbaice),” while the machine learning model shows, that additionally the alcohol level has a positive effect on wines in the quality categories “QbA,” “Kabinett,” and “Spätlese,” and a mostly negative one in the categories “Auslese” and “Batbaice.” Weather variables exert different affects per grape variety, but all grape varieties have problems coping with rising maximum temperatures in the winter and with rising minimum and maximum temperatures in the harvest season.

    In: Journal of Wine Economics, 1-28. (online first: doi:10.1017/jwe.2020.16)

  • 04-08-2020

    New Journal Article by IEE Members

    mein fotoLoewensteinWIEE members Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein published a new article in the journal "Energies":

    Drivers of CO2-Emissions in Fossil Fuel Abundant Settings: (Pooled) Mean Group and Nonparametric Panel Analyses

    The present inquiry addresses the income-environment relationship in oil-producing countries and scrutinizes the further drivers of atmospheric pollution in the respective settings. The existing literature that tests the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis within the framework of the black-box approaches provides only a bird’s-eye perspective on the long-run income-environment relationship. The aspiration behind this study is making the first step toward the disentanglement of the sources of carbon dioxide emissions, which could be employed in the pollution mitigation policies of this group of countries. Based on the combination of two strands of literature, the environmental Kuznets curve conjecture and the resource curse, the paper at hand proposes an augmented theoretical framework of this inquiry. To approach the research questions empirically, the study employs advanced panel cointegration techniques. To avoid econometric misspecification, the study also employs for the first time a nonparametric time-varying coefficient panel data estimator with fixed effects (NPFE) for the dataset of 37 oil-producing countries in the time interval spanning between 1989 and 2019. The empirical analysis identifies the level of per capita income, the magnitude of oil rents, the share of fossil fuel-based electricity generation in the energy mix, and the share of the manufacturing sector in GDP as essential drivers of carbon dioxide emissions in the oil-rich countries. Tertiarization, on the contrary, leads to a substantial reduction of emissions. Another striking result of this study is that level of political rights and civil liberties are negatively associated with per capita carbon emissions in this group of countries. Furthermore, the study decisively rejects an inverted U-shaped income-emission relationship and validates the monotonically or exponentially increasing impact of average income on carbon dioxide emissions.

    in: Energies 2020, 13, 3956. (Full text available here)

  • 15-07-2020

    New Book Article by Dr. Raffael Beier

    TheEverydayLifeOfUrbanInequalityBeierIEE member Dr. Raffael Beier, together with Cristiana Strava, published a new article:

    Losing or Gaining Home? Experiences of Resettlement from Casablanca’s Slums

    In 2004, Morocco’s king Mohammed VI launched the country-wide program Cities without Slums with the aim of eradicating all informal housing in the country and resettling slum dwellers into apartment blocks. In Casablanca’s working-class neighborhood Hay Mohammadi, the government evicted around 30,000 residents from Morocco’s oldest shantytown called Karyan Central and moved them to the new town Nouvelle Lahraouiyine, ten kilometers away. Treated with a uniform resettlement solution, affected shantytown dwellers have experienced very much individualized notions of displacement. By portraying different pathways to the new town, the authors argue that different life trajectories, local networks, and social status lead to varying perceptions of and expectations towards resettlement. Hence, standardized solutions in heterogeneous urban settings are likely to re-produce and re-frame urban inequalities.

    Raffael Beier and Cristiana Strava (2020) Losing or Gaining Home? Experiences of Resettlement from Casablanca’s Slums. In Angela D. Storey, Megan Sheehan & Jessica Bodoh-Creed (eds.) The Everyday Life of Urban Inequality: Ethnographic Case Studies of Global Cities, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, pp. 3-22.

    More information about the book here: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793610645/The-Everyday-Life-of-Urban-Inequality-Ethnographic-Case-Studies-of-Global-Cities

  • 15-06-2020

    Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada Published an Article in Post-Communist Economies

    PCEmein fotoIEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada published an article in the journal "Post-Communist Economies":

    Addressing the growth and employment effects of the extractive industries: white and black box illustrations from Kazakhstan

    This survey addresses production and employment effects, which emanate from the extractive industries of Kazakhstan. To this end, the study employs static input-output models (IOMs) of Kazakhstan for the years 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2017 and dynamic nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) models for the period 1995–2018. IOMs show that extractives in Kazakhstan exhibit relatively strong links to domestic manufacturing. NARDL estimators reveal a positive relationship between commodity revenues and manufacturing value added in the commodity revenue boom phase and a high level of resilience of Kazakh manufacturing to the downward movements of the commodity revenues. Commodity revenues have a statistically significant positive impact on the aggregate employment rate. The study does not detect asymmetries concerning the job creation effects of extractives in the manufacturing sector.

    First available online

  • 18-05-2020

    New Journal Article by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada

    SustainabilitySadik ZadaIEE member Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, together with Mattia Ferrari, published an article in the journal "Sustainability":

    Environmental Policy Stringency, Technical Progress and Pollution Haven Hypothesis

    The present inquiry provides a common ground for the analysis of two strands of literature, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH). To this end, the study sets out a simple variational model, which identifies the structural composition of the economy and the level of economic development as the primary determinants of the magnitude of the domestic environmental degradation. The juxtaposition of the mentioned literature strands undermines the optimistic view that economic growth, in the long run, leads to the reduction of atmospheric pollution. To assess the empirical validity of the pollution haven conjecture, the study employs the OECD Environmental Policy Stringency Index and the refined data on carbon emissions embodied in imports for the dataset of 26 OECD countries in the time interval between 1995 and 2011. By employing pooled mean group (PMG) estimators, the study, for the first time, accounts for a number of issues mentioned in the literature as factors that confine the inferential power of existing empirical studies on the EKC. The strong and robust confirmation of the pollution haven conjecture indicates that at least in the context of global common pool resources, a purely national perspective of the EKC is not satisfactory.

    More information and full text here: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3880

  • 15-05-2020

    Dr. Raffael Beier Co-edited and Published in New Trialog Issue

    TRIALOG 135 cover 400x566Dr. Raffael Beier co-edited a special issue of "TRIALOG - A Journal for Planning and Building in a Global Context":

    TRIALOG 135 "Housing and Urban Redevelopment in the Maghreb",
    edited by Raffael Beier, Gerhard Kienast, Yassine Moustandiji and Sonja Nebel

    Since the turn of the millennium, Maghreb countries have experienced scores of ambitious housing and urban redevelopment projects of national as well as international scope. Housing programmes which attempted to address the chronic housing shortage through the construction of new towns and the implementation of resettlement and upgrading projects have exacerbated an urban sprawl that continues to put pressure on urban and peri-urban land. These dynamics have also triggered an aggressive competition for land between 'world-class' urban redevelopment projects and the politically undesired populations threatened by forced eviction. Thus, the relationship between the city centre and the periphery is shifting. While city centres are being beautified and renewed following global ‘world-class’ aspirations, thousands of citizens are being pushed to spatially disconnected new towns at the urban peripheries. In this issue of TRIALOG, we focus on these urban contrasts as evident in the Maghreb, and particularly visible in Morocco. They are representative of new urban realities in a region that struggles to cope with a volatile economic, political, and social context.

    More information here: https://www.trialog-journal.de/en/journals/trialog-135-housing-and-urban-redevelopment-in-the-maghreb/


    He also published a new article in this journal:

    Resettlement and Persisting Informality in Casablanca.
    TRIALOG 135, 27-33.

    Based on a black-and-white understanding of formality/informality, many resettlement projects targeting dwellers of informal settlements include the issuing of formal ownership rights as a central element. While the state aims at integrating residents into formal property markets, residents themselves may consider access to housing with de jure security of tenure as a long-awaited recognition of citizenship. However, this paper provides empirical evidence questioning the implicit dichotomy of formality and informality behind such resettlement programmes. Discussing a specific sites-and-services project in Casablanca, Morocco, this paper shows how informality of tenure persists after resettlement and the related attempt to grant formal property rights to relocated residents. Being primarily concerned with the eradication of undesired, visible forms of informality, authorities have kept people in a legal limbo – an urban grey space that denies the full recognition of citizenship.

    You can find his full article text here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341286716_Resettlement_and_Persisting_Informality_in_ Casablanca

  • 11-12-2019

    IEE Member Co-Author of New Journal Article

    BeierDr. Raffael Beier and Amina Nolte (Justus-Liebig University, Giessen) just published a new journal article in Political Geography:

    Global aspirations and local (dis-)connections: A critical comparative perspective on tramway projects in Casablanca and Jerusalem

    This article puts emphasis on the political representation of tramway projects in Casablanca, Morocco, and Jerusalem, Israel/the Palestinian territories. In this paper, we discuss both tramway projects as flagships of national worlding strategies that try to promote the respective city on global markets of attention, competing for international investors and tourists. As such, they are majorly driven by national political interests, fostering the hegemonic position of the central state in cooperation with private actors. The tramways are aimed at portraying modernity as well as political and economic stability, while aspiring to a supposed international urban world-class. At the same time, governments frame tramways as tools to promote socio-urban integration and to improve local transport systems. However, the paper shows that although governments are eager to stress the integrative role of tramways, they continue with violent politics of urban exclusion at the same time. Thus, the integrative wording behind tramway planning has to be understood against political (and economic) pressures to regain political legitimacy in a moment of crisis - both domestically and internationally. Consequently, the paper uses interview data and applies methods of discourse analysis to shed light on the worlding of tramways and its ambivalent practices of symbolic inclusion and exclusion.

    in: Political Geography, Volume 78, April 2020, 102123 (doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2019.102123)

    More information here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0962629818301124

  • 09-12-2019

    "SDGs - Human Rights" Conference Proceedings Now Published

    2019 12 SDG HumanRightsProf. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn, member of the IEE directory board, just co-published (together with Markus Krajewski and Heike Kuhn) the conference proceedings:

    Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights

    This open access book analyses the interplay of sustainable development and human rights from different perspectives including fight against poverty, health, gender equality, working conditions, climate change and the role of private actors. Each aspect is addressed from a more human rights-focused angle and a development-policy angle. This allows comparisons between the different approaches but also seeks to close gaps which would remain if only one perspective would be at the center of the discussions.

    Specifically, the book shows the strong connections between human rights and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. Already the preamble of this document explicitly states that “the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ... seek to realise the human rights of all”. Moreover, several goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda correspond to already existing individual human rights obligations. The contributions of this volume therefore also address how the implementation of human rights and SDGs can reinforce each other, but also point to critical shortcomings of the different approaches.

    More information and open access available here.

    You can read also read a conference report in one of our former newsletters.

  • 29-11-2019

    New Journal Article by Britta Niklas and Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada

    NiklasSadik ZadaIEE members Britta Niklas and Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada worked together for the newly published journal article:

    Income Inequality and Status Symbols:
    The Case of Fine Wine Imports

    This survey investigates the inequality-fine wine imports nexus. To this end, the study employs cointegration techniques to analyze two panel datasets, one of which will analyze data from 12 countries between 1871 and 2018, and another that analyzes data from 66 countries between 1995 and 2017. Estimations indicate that income inequality leads to more fine wine imports in the long run. Changes in income have only a short-term effect on fine wine imports. Nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) estimators reveal an asymmetric long-run relationship between income inequality and fine wine imports in the cases of Argentina and the United States.

    in: Journal of Wine Economics 14(4), 365-372. doi:10.1017/jwe.2019.33 

  • 25-11-2019

    New Journal Article by PhD Student Britta Holzberg

    HolzbergBritta Holzberg, PhD student of the IEE, just published an article on Emerald Insight:

    Crossvergence of socially (ir)responsible employment practices in supplier firms: critical perspectives on international business

    The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of crossvergence from international human resource management (IHRM) as a conceptual lens for understanding and analyzing the formation of socially (ir)responsible employment practices in supplier firms in global production networks (GPNs). The crossvergence perspective can particularly contribute to understanding how the agency of suppliers is influenced by the interaction of global–local dynamics.

    The paper illustrates how the formation of socially (ir)responsible employment practices can be understood as a process of crossvergence. Subsequently, it reviews and structures insights from GPN and IHRM literature to detail the process.

    The paper underscores the complicated role of suppliers in ensuring decent work in GPNs. Suppliers face a multitude of global and local interacting, and partially conflicting, demands. They process these demands as active agents and need to develop suitable employment practices in response.

    The paper supports the nascent discourse on supplier agency in forming socially responsible employment practices. It connects different streams of literature to illuminate the perspective of suppliers, introduces IHRM insights to the debate and offers conceptual guidance for analyzing interacting global and local pressures on suppliers.

    Online first: https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-11-2017-0076 (also here: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/120762)

  • 12-11-2019

    Just Published Journal Article by IEE Members

    2019 11 economiesElkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Wilhelm Loewenstein and Yadulla Hasanli:

    Commodity Revenues, Agricultural Sector and the Magnitude of Deindustrialization: A Novel Multisector Perspective

    This study puts forward a model of a multisector economy and embeds it in a novel theoretical framework to address the relationship between commodity revenues and manufacturing output with a special focus on the role of the agricultural sector. The three-sector model lays the groundwork for analyzing policy choices in more complex sectoral settings. Based on the theoretical analysis, the study identifies the weight of the individual economic sectors in the public revenue generation as a determinant of the magnitude of rent seeking epitomized in the crowding out effect of investments in manufacturing. We find that enclave agriculture contributes to the deindustrialization pressure in the face of natural resource windfalls. The central finding of the multisector analysis is the conclusion that not diversification per se but rather a diversification with the substantial domestic factor or market orientation has the capability to limit the magnitude of deindustrialization. For the empirical validation of the theoretical findings, the study employs fixed effects, fully modified OLS, dynamic common correlated effects estimators and dynamic fixed effects estimators for the dataset of 113 developing and transition economies for 1963–2014 period. The estimations reveal that natural resource revenues correspond with a higher level of the manufacturing sector output. In the economies with a low level of economic diversification, commodity bonanza leads however to the shrinkage of the manufacturing. In the commodity revenue dependent settings, nevertheless, agricultural sector exports have a negative impact on the performance of the manufacturing sector. These findings are in line with the predictions of the theoretical model.

    in: Economies 2019, 7(4), 113. Full text available as PDF file.

  • 30-10-2019

    Britta Niklas Contributing to AAWE Working Paper 244

    2019 10 AAWE wp244IEE staff member Britta Niklas contributed to the just published AAWE Working Paper 244:

    "Margins of Fair Trade Wines along the Supply Chain: Evidence from South African Wine on the U.S. Market" by Robin M. Back, Britta Niklas, Xinyang Liu, Karl Storchmann and Nick Vink.
    American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) 2019, 34 pages.

    Abstract: In this paper, we analyze profit margins and mark-ups of Fair Trade (FT) wines sold in the United States. We are particularly interested in whether and to what extent the FT cost impulse in production is passed on along the supply chain. We draw on a limited sample of about 470 South African wines sold in Connecticut and New Jersey in the fall of 2016; about 90 of them are certified FT. For these wines we have FOB export prices, wholesale prices, and retail prices, which allows us to compute wholesale and retail margins and analyze the FT treatment effect. We run OLS, 2SLS and Propensity Score Matching models and find evidence of asymmetrical pricing behavior. While wholesalers seem to fully pass-through the FT cost effect, retailers appear to amplify the cost effect. As a result, at the retail level, FT wines yield significantly higher margins than their non-FT counterparts.

    The working paper is available online.

  • 21-10-2019

    Book Review by IEE Member

    Knoblich1IEE's research fellow Ruth Knoblich published a book review of
    'Knowledge and Global Power: Making New Sciences in the South' by Fran Collyer, Raewyn Connell, João Maia and Robert Morrell.
    Johannesburg, South Africa: Wits University Press, 2019. First published by Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Australia, 2018, 217 pp.

    in: European Journal of Risk Regulation (EJRR), Cambridge University Press, published 18 October 2019 (https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2019.57)

  • 27-08-2019

    UA Ruhr Study on Development and Global Governance vol. 72 Published

    uar studies 72 cover72. Raffael Beier:
    From the City to the Desert – Analysing Shantytown Resettlement in Casablanca, Morocco, from Residents' Perspectives.

    In recent years, large-scale housing and resettlement projects have experienced a renaissance in many developing countries and are increasingly shaping new urban peripheries. One prominent example is Morocco's Villes Sans Bidonville (cities without shantytowns) programme that aims at eradicating all shantytowns in Morocco by resettling its population to apartment blocks at the urban peripheries. Analysing the specific resettlement project of Karyan Central, a 90-year-old shantytown in Casablanca, this book sheds light on both process and outcome of resettlement from the perspective of affected people. It draws on rich empirical data from a structure household survey (n=871), qualitative interviews with different stakeholder, document analysis, and non-participant observation gathered during four months of field research. ...

    Please find the full abstract and more information here

  • 13-08-2019

    IEE Working Paper vol. 213 just published

    Dr. Annika Engelbert and Prof. Dr. Markus Kaltenborn just published a new IEE Working Paper on

    Corruption and Social Rights Accountability

    Transnational criminal law treaties traditionally dominate the international anti-corruption regime; yet, corruption has not considerably decreased since their coming into force. It therefore seems appropriate to broaden the legal perspective: Corruption as a threat to welfare, safety, and physical integrity of the individual can be conceptualized as a human rights violation. This paper argues that it is possible indeed to establish causal links between the misallocation of public funds, including budget distortions and underfunding of anti-corruption institutions, and a structural infringement of social human rights. We present several human rights instruments suitable to combat corruption with regard to social rights realization. In particular, we assess the capacity of public interest litigation, as well as related contextual legal and political conditions for the case of Kenya. With its new Bill of Rights, Kenya has great potential to spearhead a progressive impact litigation strategy targeting corruption-induced social rights infringements.

    Download here

  • 02-08-2019

    New Journal Article by IEE Members

    2019 08 MineralEconomicsElkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, Wilhelm Loewenstein, and Yadulla Hasanli:

    Production linkages and dynamic fiscal employment effects of the extractive industries: input-output and nonlinear ARDL analyses of Azerbaijani economy

    In this paper, we address the production linkages and employment effects of the petroleum sector on the rest of the Azerbaijani economy. The availability of the input-output tables for the years 2006, 2008, and 2009 enables the assessment of the changes with regard to the multiplier effects of the extractive industries over the first 3 years of the oil boom. We find that despite advanced infrastructure, well-developed petrochemical complex, and local content policies, the degree of integration of the international oil and gas business into the domestic economy is rather weak. In addition, both production and job creation multipliers slightly decreased after 3 years of exponential growth rates of oil production. The assessment of the production multipliers indicates that additional investments in processing, construction, and network industries have the highest production linkages. Concerning employment multipliers agriculture, education, health care, and public sector have the greatest job creation effects. To assess the fiscal employment effects of the oil revenues, which cannot be captured over the static input-output analysis, we employ the cointegrating nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model. The model reveals a sustainable job creation effect of oil revenues in the case of Azerbaijan.

    In: Mineral Economics (first published online)

  • 26-07-2019

    New Publication by Dr. Raffael Beier

    BeierIEE member Dr. Raffael Beier has just published a new article:

    The world-class city comes by tramway: Reframing Casablanca’s urban peripheries through public transport

    Although framed as projects targeting the improvement of public transport, the reduction of traffic congestion and the integration of urban peripheries, tramways are often inscribed to political ambitions of modernisation and urban renewal. As such, Morocco’s tramway projects constitute a distinct feature of national urban worlding ambitions promoting ‘world-class’ cities. Likewise, Casablanca’s tramway is closely entangled with political discourses on the urban integration of politically marginalised working-class neighbourhoods. However, this article sees the tramway as a symbol and driving force of a new distinction of the urban peripheries of Casablanca – separating it into ‘old’ and ‘new’, desired and undesired population groups. On the one hand, the tramway has fostered the incorporation of the traditional working-class neighbourhoods – the old peripheries – into Casablanca’s urban ‘world-class’ project. On the other hand, the tramway is the flagship of urban renaissance policies that have pushed stigmatised street vendors and shantytown dwellers from the working-class neighbourhoods to isolated new towns – the emerging ‘new’ peripheries. Here they are kept – spatially and discursively – outside the ‘world-class’ city, largely dependent on inadequate, costly and insecure urban public transport. These dynamics not only conflict with the tramway’s objectives to decrease traffic congestion and to promote socio-spatial integration, they also show the power of urban worlding projects to reframe urban marginality and to define who does (and who does not) have access to the ‘world-class’ city.

    In: Urban Studies 57(9), 1827-1844. (more information)

  • 23-07-2019

    New UA Ruhr Study on Development and Global Governance

    uar studies 71 coverVol. 71: Casper Boongaling Agaton:
    A Real Options Approach to Renewable and Nuclear Energy Investments in the Philippines.
    This book presents the application of real options approach (ROA) to analyze investment decisions for switching energy sources from fossil fuels to alternative energy. Using the Philippines as a case, the ROA models presented here explore how uncertainties including fossil fuel prices, electricity prices, discount rates, externality, renewable energy (RE) costs, and RE investment growth affect investment decisions that focus on developing countries, particularly to fossil-importing countries. ...

    Please find the full abstract and more information here

  • 26-06-2019

    New Journal Article by Dr. Raffael Beier

    BeierIEE member Dr. Raffael Beier just published a journal article in Middle East - Topics & Arguments (META), 12 (2019), pp. 28 - 34:

    Worlding Cities in the Middle East and North Africa – Arguments for a Conceptual Turn

    This article suggest analyzing megaprojects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as worlding practices, hence, as a way to influence emerging countries’ own status of being in the world. This analytical lens differs from traditional perspectives that have tried to identify regional particularities such as the influence of Gulf countries and an authoritarian way of planning. Seeing megaprojects as worlding aspirations, instead, helps to see them embedded in a wider global context, stressing the post-colonial and developmental dimension of this significant planning trend. It further allows emphasizing interactions with other urban policies such as slum resettlement.

    More information and full text download here

  • 17-06-2019

    New Journal Article by Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada

    Sadik ZadaDistributional Bargaining and the Speed of Structural Change in the Petroleum Exporting Labor Surplus Economies
    by Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada
    in: The European Journal of Development Research, pp 1-48

    The paper embeds the distributional bargaining concept in the labor surplus economy setting. In the petroleum-abundant labor surplus economies, distributional bargaining comes into its own, mainly over the subsidization of the large swaths of the population working in the sectors with substantial amounts of disguised unemployment. These are primarily the subsistence agriculture and the public sector. The open-loop noncooperative differential game model yields three feasible bargaining equilibria, whereby only the antagonistic and the allocation modes are compatible with the setting of inferior institutional quality that dominates most natural-resource-dependent countries. Both modes have been scrutinized in the context of a developing dual economy model and show that political bargaining in the allocation mode unambiguously protracts the process of economic modernization. The outcome of the antagonistic mode for the process of structural change depends on the magnitude of the labor cost increase in this phase. To assess the bargaining–modernization nexus empirically, the author employs the (Pooled) Mean Group and Dynamic Fixed Effects estimators for panel datasets spanning the years 1990–2016 for 21 oil-producing countries and the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimators for a panel with 82 countries. We find that the revenues generated from exports of natural resources have a positive long-run impact on the economic modernization. Consistent with our theoretical model, the interaction of the authoritarian regime type with the natural resource wealth has a robust negative impact on the indicators of economic modernization.

    First online, full text here

  • 07-05-2019

    FEEM Working Paper by Dr. Elkhan R. Sadik-Zada and Andrea Gatto

    Sadik ZadaIEE member Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada and Andrea Gatto from the Department of Economic & Legal Studies (DISEG, Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope) collaborated for a working paper, published by Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in the Economic Theory series (ed. by Matteo Manera):

    Determinants of the Public Debt and the Role of the Natural Resources: A Cross-Country Analysis

    This paper investigates the major drivers of the public debt growth in 184 countries. The underlying cross-country survey is conducted on the basis of the improved compilation of datasets on the central government debt for 2013. The study finds that oil abundance, economic growth rate, the share of mineral rent in the total revenue and interest rate payments for foreign borrowings have statistically significant impact on the growth of the public debt. In contrast, defence spending, unemployment rate, and inflation rate do not have a statistically significant impact on the public debt rate. Being a developing country has a statistically significant negative impact on the level of the central government debt.

    FEEM Working Paper 4.2019, ET series, March 2019 (downloadable here)

  • 21-01-2019

    New Journal Article by Anne Siebert

    SiebertIEE member Anne Siebert just published a new journal artice:

    Transforming urban food systems in South Africa: unfolding food sovereignty in the city. In: The Journal of Peasant Studies (online first)

    This paper illuminates how urban food producers contribute to the construction of food sovereignty in less-expected urban settings in the Global South. In South Africa, jobless de-agrarianisation, apartheid legacy, and rapid food price inflation are shaping the realities of marginalised urban inhabitants. Urban food movements have been critically observing these developments and have begun to raise their voices against social inequality. In this way, they offer a fertile ground to put food sovereignty into practice. While food sovereignty has become a globalised vision, it has been adapted in specific contexts to address issues ranging from the struggle against corporate power to self-determination in the agri-food system. Drawing on research conducted on an urban agriculture movement in George, Western Cape, this contribution provides a sketch of the way people propose alternative visions about the organisation of food and land grounded in everyday life.

    More information here

  • 12-11-2018

    New Article by PhD Student Amr Khafagy

    KhafagyPhD student Amr Khafagy just published a new article in the Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics:

    Finance, Distribution and the Economic Objective of Financial Cooperative Institutions

    This paper proposes a model where the structure rather than the size of the financial sector explains its influence on income distribution. Because of information asymmetries, a financial sector dominated solely by profit‐maximizing financial intermediaries will increase income and wealth inequality as it gives preferential access to credit for high‐income agents, whereas a diversified inclusive financial sector with alternative models of finance, like cooperatives, will reduce the inequality gap. No full convergence in income distribution can be realized through finance only and there is still a need for redistribution policies. Accordingly, an objective function for cooperative financial institutions should define a desired pricing behaviour that can increase the income of members at a rate higher than the average growth rate of the economy.

    More information

  • 12-11-2018

    New Journal Article by PhD student Mariana Vilmondes Türke

    VilmondesIEE PhD student Mariana Vilmondes Türke just published a new journal article in Revista de Direito Internacional, v. 15, n. 2:

    Business and Human Rights in Brazil: Exploring Human Rights Due Diligence and Operational-Level Grievance Mechanisms in the Case of Kinross Paracatu Gold Mine

    This legal study explores the case of Kinross gold mine in Paracatu, Brazil, and the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. In the past decades, enterprises have been looking after more responsible social-environmental practices by designing their bylaws in compliance to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights and other national requirements. This paper sheds light specifically on the design of the firm’s due diligence practices and operational-level grievance mechanisms. If, on the one hand, Kinross shows policy commitment to applicable norms, on the other hand, local communities still claim to be impacted by health, infrastructural and environmental damages. In such a contentious situation, the biggest matter lies on the inability of affected stakeholders to seek redress and of the firm, to manage its own policy. Looking at the realization of human rights and at more respectful business-community relations, this article highlights means of improving the enterprise’s legal mechanisms and other possible causes of inefficacy that affect the firm’s ability to respect human rights.

    Full text downloadable here

  • 12-11-2018

    New Journal Article of Former PhD Student Themba Nyasulu

    NyasuluFormer PhD student Themba Nyasulu has just published a journal article in the International Journal of Economic Development (IJED), Vol. 12(1), pp. 82-107:

    Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in the Southern African Development Community (SADC): The Role of Human Capital

    The relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth has received considerable empirical attention in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) but the role that human capital plays in this nexus is not well-understood. This is despite economic theory firmly suggesting that human capital plays a pivotal role in fostering the adoption of superior foreign technologies and enhancing the spillover benefits (learning-by-doing) that emanate from inward FDI in host countries. Against this background, therefore, the paper utilizes the Mankiw-Romer-Weil growth model in examining linkages between human capital (in form of education), FDI and economic growth in 15 SADC countries. After running cross-country regressions on data covering the period 1990-2015, human capital is found to positively influence the size and significance of the FDI-effect on economic growth in SADC. This suggests that SADC countries should continue upgrading the quality and quantity of their education in order to maximize FDI-induced development.

    Full text for download

  • 18-10-2018

    Two IEE Members contributed to a New Urban Food Plus Publication

    DittrichNicole Dittrich and Christina Seeger contributed to a new publication for Urban Food Plus:

    Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Bamenda: A Policy Narrative
    by D. Bertrand Njoh, T. Feldt, C. Seeger, N. Dittrich, H. Karg, E. Gawum, A. Witte, R. van Veenhuizen.

    Increasingly people live in cities. Currently more than half of the population lives in urban areas, and it is predicted that by 2050, this will be over 75%. This urbanisation is a major driver of unsustainable transformation of urban rural relations and food systems.  Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) links and interlinks a wide variety of urban issues and development objectives. Different stakeholders (local assemblies, NGOs, the (formal and informal) private sector and urban farmers, traders, consumers) are involved, while a range of policies and regulations address urban farming directly or indirectly.

    This policy narrative provides information on the situation and role of UPA in Bamenda, in the North West region of Cameroon. It has been developed through the collaborative effort of researchers of the UrbanFoodPlus project and the project partner organisations SHUMAS and RUAF, together with the key stakeholders from Bamenda including Bamenda Central City Authority (BCCA), several ministries, universities, farmer cooperatives, civil society organisations and local media. (...)

    Please download the full text here

  • 10-09-2018

    New IEE Working Paper

    GerharzProf. Dr. Eva Gerharz, member of the IEE directory board, just published a new IEE Working Paper:

    The Interface Approach

    The interface approach is especially well suited to understanding the specific conditions and processes in  development cooperation. Therefore, it has been mainly adopted in development studies, particularly in the field of development sociology. In order to gain an understanding of this approach and the theories behind  it, the first part of this paper introduces the essential theoretical premises and their methodological significance. In the second part, a case from the author's fieldwork in Northern Sri Lanka is used to illustrate how a research design can be developed using the interface approach, and how one might analyse the collected data.

    The paper can be downloaded here.

  • 03-09-2018

    New Article by Raffael Beier in Welt-Sichten Dossier

    BeierIEE member Raffael Beier just published an article in Welt-Sichten Dossier 9-2018, pp. 16-17:

    Zwischen Rebellion und Global City: Stadtentwicklung in Marokko

    Im Königreich Marokko ist Nachhaltigkeit ein Modewort der Stadtplanung geworden - zumeist jedoch beschränkt auf Umweltaspekte. Wesentliche Stadtplanerische Leitlinien gibt König Mohammed VI. vor, Kommunen müssen umsetzen, Bürgerinnen und Bürgern bleibt bisher wenig Einfluss. (...)

    The whole article can be read in Welt-Sichten Dossier 9-2018, downloadable here

  • 28-08-2018

    New Journal Article by Two IEE Members

    FritzscheBeierJasmin Fritzsche-El Shewy and Raffael Beier just published an article in Z’Flucht – The German Journal for Refugee Studies 2(1), 128-142:

    UN-Habitat, the New Urban Agenda and Urban Refugees – A State of the Art.

    In recent years, policy documents of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have increasingly focused on urban refugees. We argue in this article that the discussion on urban refugees should not only draw on expertise in forced migration studies, but also systematically involve perspectives from urban studies. Therefore, we analyse the New Urban Agenda and the way the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has dealt with refugees based on their experience in urban development. Finally, we argue that an intensified discussion between urban and forced migration studies offers the opportunity to advance research and practices directed at refugees living in urban areas.

    More information here

  • 12-06-2018

    New Journal Article by Raffael Beier

    BeierIEE member Raffael Beier just published an article in "City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action", Vol. 22, No. 2, pages 220-235:

    Towards a New Perspective on the Role of the City in Social Movements. Urban Policy after the 'Arab Spring'

    Cities were at the centre of the ‘Arab Spring’, but did they play a decisive role or were they just the passive settings in which these uprisings took place? This paper develops a new way of understanding the role of the city in social movements by looking at changes and continuities in urban policy in North Africa after the ‘Arab Spring’. The paper’s main argument is that the role of the city in social movements can be understood through an analysis of governments’ urban policy responses to those movements. First, it shows that North African urban policy has always reacted sensitively to social unrest and that neoliberal planning schemes have even strengthened this sensitivity. Second, the paper provides an empirical comparative analysis of urban policy in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia after the ‘Arab Spring’. The study shows that public authorities give pivotal attention to public space and to informal settlements as they have been stigmatised as breeding grounds of social unrest and as a threat to the political establishment.

  • 25-04-2018

    New Journal Article by Diotima Chattoraj

    ChattorajFormer IEE PhD student Diotima Chattoraj recently published an article that was part of her PhD work in eTropic Vol. 17 No. 1 (2018):

    Experiences of Sri Lankan Tamils Displaced to Colombo: Three Narratives

    This paper focuses on the experiences, challenges and aspirations of three middle-aged Sri Lankan Tamil Displaced persons in Colombo who are reluctant to return to their places of origin in the northern provinces of Sri Lanka due to several personal and professional reasons. The paper aims to analyze the diverse experiences they faced due to displacement. It also uncovers strategies used to cope in a new city and portrays the differences they experience between the places they came from and the city they now live in. The empirical point of departure has been drawn from the stories of three middle-aged Sri Lankan Tamil Displaced persons in Colombo. The paper argues that they have adapted to their place of displacement and view the city as a more suitable place to live compared to their places of origin. In addition, they also identify displacement as a blessing in disguise as they believe integrating in Colombo helped them to aspire to a better future which would have never been possible in their places of origin. Thus, this paper provides a picture of how they have reconstructed their lives in Colombo and how this has led them to reconsider and renegotiate their relationship to their 'homes'.

    More info and full-text PDF here.

  • 19-04-2018

    New Blog Article by Ruth Knoblich and Dr. Tobias Schonwetter

    Knoblich12018 04 publ SchonwetterIEE member Ruth Knoblich and Dr. Tobias Schonwetter from the Intellectual Property (IP) Unit, University of Cape Town, South Africa, published together a blog article on the IP Unit's blog-website:

    Rising Middle-IP Powers dissolving the North/South polarization in the international IP system

    The post focuses on rising economies such as Brazil, India, China, and South Africa as middle-IP powers. These countries ermerge as a cross-cutting group of players in the international IP system that may help to dissolve the North/South polarisation in the international IP order. Huge investments in R&D, growing innovation capabilities and a strong dependency on cutting-edge technology and knowledge from foreign countries make them share some interests with developed countries on the one hand. On the other hand, there is a set of conditions they share with other developing countries in the global South. The rise of these 'middle-IP powers' is a major opportunity for developing and enhancing the international IP system as they can help recalibrate the balance between IP rights and their access-oriented limitations, or, put differently, between the private and the public interest.

    This article is the first in a series on rising middle-IP powers, particularly focusing on South Africa as a BRICS member country and a political and economic heavy weight on the African continent. It sheds light on the interests and mechanisms in protecting IP, mirrors current debates on IP reform, and traces the growing influence of these new actors in the realm of international IP law and policy making.

    Link to the article

  • 12-04-2018

    New Journal Article by Prof. Löwenstein and Dr. Sadik-Zada

    LoewensteinWSadik ZadaProf. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein and Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada published together an article in the International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Volume 8, No.2 (pp. 196-204):

    A Note on Revenue Distribution Patterns and Rent-Seeking Incentive

    This paper presents a simple model of rent-seeking incentive to explain the emergence and dominance of the rapacious rent-seeking policies in a number of oil abundant developing and transition economies. The Hubbertian distribution of the commodity exports over time, the magnitude of these revenues, and the availability of offshore havens for the illicitly appropriated rent explain the shift from productive public policies to rapacious rent-seeking. In addition, we show that the existence of the well-functioning democratic institutions prior to the revenue boom precludes the emergence of rapacious rent-seeking institutions due to prohibitively high costs of rent-seeking. The paper complements the existing literature by delivering a novel theoretical rationale for the predisposition of the oil-rich countries to the resource curse.

    Link: https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijeep/article/view/6078 (with full-text PDF)

  • 10-04-2018

    New Article by Raffael Beier

    BeierIEE member Raffael Beier published an article "Social Movements as Drivers of Urban Policy: The Case of the Arab Uprisings in North Africa" in "Schoch, Aline and Reto Bürgin (eds.), Urbane Widerstände – Urban Resistance. Peter Lang: Bern" (pp. 63-78).

    Inspired by the Arab Spring, a growing number of protest movements – from Occupy Wall Street to the Gezi-Park movement – have recently rediscovered the city. Although it is disputed in how far these urban resistances address the ‘urban’, they are likely to influence urban policy. With focus on the Arab uprisings, this paper puts emphasis on the nexus between resistance and control. It asks in how far and to which extent authorities in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have readjusted their urban policies in response to the Arab uprisings since 2011. By doing so, it underlines the historic importance of social movements as drivers of urban policy.

    More information on the book here.

  • 15-02-2018

    New Journal Article on Privatization in the Latin American Power Sector

    LoewensteinWSadik ZadaTwo IEE members, Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein, Dr. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada, and a former RUB student and currently European Investment Fund and CED fellow Mattia Ferrari published together an article in the International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Volume 8, No.1 (pp. 95-103):

    Privatization and the Role of Sub-National Governments in the Latin American Power Sector: A Plea for less Subsidiarity?

    In this paper, they explore the cross-national impact of privatization in the network industries on the access to network services. They focus on the assessment of the electricity sector in 20 Latin American countries and analyze the time series between 1985 and 2010. To control for the relevance of the subsidiarity (social commons) argument they assess the interaction between commodification and the role of the sub-national governments in the power sector. Privatization has a statistically significant positive effect on the level of electricity access. In the absence of federalism, privatization in the electricity sector has a greater impact on electrification than is the case with federalist government system. Federalism has a positive impact on the electricity access if electricity is generated and supplied mainly by the state-owned enterprises. Another interesting finding is the relationship between the degree of subsidiarity and electrification: A higher degree of subsidiarity has a negative effect on the electrification. This could be a result of the increasing transaction costs and rent-seeking behavior in the decentralized settings. The study complements the existing literature by analyzing the privatization reform from the subsidiarity perspective

    Link: https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/ijeep/article/view/5762 (with full-text PDF)

  • 12-01-2018

    Two New Journal Articles by Britta Niklas

    IEE member Britta Niklas published two articles (one as a co-author) in the Journal of Wine Economics, Volume 12/2017, No. 4:

    2018 01 JournalofWineEconomicsBritta Niklas: Impact of Annual Weather Fluctuations on Wine Production in Germany (pages 436 - 445):

    This paper analyzes the impact of annual weather fluctuations on the total output of wine and on the share of output of different wine-quality categories in Germany, using a set of wine data from all thirteen German wine regions and daily weather data taken from regional weather stations. The empirical analysis suggests that rising average temperatures have a significantly positive impact on the total output of wine as well as on the output shares of wine in higher- quality categories. The number of freezing days appears to be detrimental to overall produc- tion; precipitation during the growing season impairs higher-quality wines in particular. (JEL Classifications: Q21, Q13)

    Britta Niklas, Karl Storchmann & Nick Vink: Fairtrade Wine Price Dispersion in the United Kingdom (pages 446 - 456):

    This paper analyzes wine price dispersion in the United Kingdom. In particular, we are inter- ested in examining whether Fairtrade wines are different from non-Fairtrade wines. Because Fairtrade wines serve an additional social purpose, one may think that consumers search less aggressively for the outlet with the lowest price, thus allowing for a larger price dispersion than for regular wines. We draw on data for about seven thousand wines from South Africa, Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade, sold in the United Kingdom between 2007 and 2012. In a first step, we run a hedonic regression model explaining the wine prices using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) Instrumental Variable (IV) approaches. In the next step, we regress the squared residuals from the first step on a Fairtrade 0-1 dummy-variable. When using the squared residuals from the OLS model, we find that Fairtrade is a negative determinant of price dispersion. Therefore, Fairtrade wines exhibit a sig- nificant lower price dispersion than the comparison group. When using the squared residuals from the IV model, we find mixed results and suspect the presence of a substantial bias due to weak instruments. Finally, in order to avoid IV pitfalls, we ran Fairtrade and Non- Fairtrade wines in separate equations. We find support for the OLS results, i.e., Fairtrade wines appear to exhibit lower price dispersion than their non-Fairtrade counterparts. Whether this is due to consumer search is a priori unclear. (JEL Classifications: L31, L81, Q11)

    more information

  • 04-10-2017

    New Journal Article by PhD student Amr Khafagy

    KhafagyAn article of IEE PhD student Amr Khafagy: "Regulation, supervision and deposit insurance for financial cooperatives: an empirical investigation" has been published in the Annals of Finance (online first)

    Abstract:
    This paper analyses the impact of different regulation and supervision approaches, as well as deposit insurance schemes, on the development of financial cooperatives in developing countries, using random and fixed effects estimators. Information on laws regulating financial cooperatives, the supervisory approaches adopted, and deposit insurance schemes in sixty-five developing countries were collected—mostly—from original legislations for the period 1995–2014. Key findings suggest that indicators of financial cooperative development are positively correlated with the existence of a specialized regulation; supervision under non-bank financial supervisory authorities; and the presence of deposit insurance schemes, while general cooperative society’s regulations and banking regulations are negatively correlated with financial cooperatives’ indicators. These results are robust after controlling for economic and institutional factors as well as potential endogeneity bias.

    Keywords: Financial regulations Financial supervision Financial cooperatives Deposit insurance

    Khafagy, Amr (2017) "Regulation, supervision and deposit insurance for financial cooperatives: an empirical investigation" In: Annals of Finance (online first)

  • 23-06-2017

    Paper on Refugees and the New Urban Agenda

    BeierFritzscheTwo Cluster 2 members, Raffael Beier and Jasmin Fritzsche, published together a short, peer-reviewed paper in the special issue "Shelter in Displacement" of Forced Migration Review (55, June 2017). The article is titled "Refugees and the city: UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda" and calls for special protection for refugees and displaced persons as part of countries’ housing policies (full text)

  • 02-05-2017

    New Journal Article by PhD student Themba Nyasulu

    An article of IEE Phd student Themba Nyasulu: "Harnessing Economic Impacts of Migrant Remittances for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Review of the Literature" has been published in the African Human Mobility Review (AHMR).

    Abstract:
    The recent rise in migrant remittances across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the important issues currently dominating economic policy discourse in the region. Given the large volume of remittance flows, it is obvious that they have important positive and negative economic effects on the individual families and economies that receive them. Therefore, this paper critically examines channels through which remittance transfers affect microeconomic and macroeconomic activity, and suggests policy options available to Sub-Saharan African countries in terms of harnessing their development potential. The paper affirms that prospects for remittances to facilitate economic development remain high provided that recipient countries put in place institutional frameworks capable of mitigating the malign effects and enhancing the benign effects of remittances.

    Keywords:  migrant remittances, microeconomic impacts, economic development, Sub-Saharan Africa

    Nyasulu, Themba (2017) "Harnessing Economic Impacts of Migrant Remittances for Development: A Critical Review of the Literature", African Human Mobility Review (AHMR) Vol. 3(1) 1 January-April, pp.645-670 (full text available at: http://sihma.org.za/online_journal/ahmr-vol-3-no1-january-april-2017/)

  • 28-04-2017

    Dr. Annika Engelbert Published Her Doctoral Thesis

    Engelbert ThesisAnnika Engelbert: Public Procurement Law in Sub-Saharan Africa. A Means to Curb Corruption?

    Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2017. - 289 S. - ISBN 978-3-8487-4026-0
    (Recht und Verfassung in Afrika – Law and Constitution in Africa, Vol. 31)

    Public procurement is a core government activity that is highly prone to corruption. Why, despite joint efforts of national governments and the international donor community to strengthen statutory frameworks, are public procurement systems in Sub-Saharan Africa still insufficiently equipped to prevent corruption? It is the purpose of the book to advance Law and Development research by (a) assessing the effectiveness of institutional means to curb procurement-related corruption in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda; (b) treating law as a means to foster development, and (c) applying qualitative research methods to establish causal mechanisms between law and the social phenomenon of corruption. The book shows that while procurement systems are on paper well suited to serve as anti-corruption instruments, implementation gaps are significant; thus, 'law in books' and 'law in action' differ to a large extent. The reasons are unearthed on the political, institutional, and individual level.

    See info at Nomos

  • 07-04-2017

    New Journal Article by Raffael Beier

    Raffael Beier: Tunis und Casablanca - Stadtentwicklungspolitiken zwischen "Worlding" und Sozialverträglichkeit, in: inamo 89, Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten, Jg. 23, Frühling 2017, S. 24-28

    2011 gerieten die arabischen Städte als Orte der Revolte in den Fokus der Weltöffentlichkeit. Dieser Artikel widmet sich dem engen Verhältnis von Stadt und Protest und fragt, inwiefern die Stadtentwicklungspolitik in Tunis und Casablanca auf den Arabischen Frühling reagiert hat. Neben Versuchen der strukturellen Erneuerung der Stadtentwicklungspolitik in Tunesien und steigender Bedeutung der sicherheits- und stabilitätspolitischen Dimension in der Stadtplanung sind zuletzt verstärkt Kontinuitäten, insbesondere im Hinblick auf den Bau von Großprojekten, zu beobachten.

  • 03-04-2017

    New Book published by Ruth Knoblich

    Ruth Knoblich, IEE research fellow, and current visiting researcher at the Intellectual Property (IP) Unit, University of Cape Town, published a book on global power shifts in the international IP regime, analyzing the interests, strategies, and influence of Brazil, India, and China.

    9783658037246"Die globale Regulierung geistiger Eigentumsrechte. Interessen, Strategien und Einfluss Brasiliens, Indiens und Chinas"

    Angesichts des Aufstiegs von Staaten wie Brasilien, Indien und China zu neuen Wissensmächten fragt das Buch nach den Konsequenzen, die diese Dynamik für die globale Regulierung geistiger Eigentumsrechte mit sich bringen könnte und prüft entlang des Fallbeispiels 'Zugangsregelungen zu genetischen Ressourcen und dem Schutz traditionellen Wissens' den Einfluss der BIC-Staaten auf das bestehende internationale Schutzsystem.


    The book can be found here, via Springer Link.

  • 30-01-2017

    New Article by Johannes Norpoth

    Johannes Norpoth: The Mutually Agreed Solution (MAS) between Indonesia and the United States (US) in US – Clove Cigarettes: A Case of Efficient Breach (or Power Politics)?

    The MAS to the US – Clove Cigarettes case between the US and Indonesia evokes the idea of the WTO dispute settlement system (DSS) allowing for efficient breach since the case was declared settled based on mutual commitments of the two parties, while the original violation by the US remains in place. The paper first discusses whether MAS are a means through which WTO law allows such flexibility, concluding that such a view is tenable despite valid objections. Then, it inquires whether the MAS found between Indonesia and the US can be considered as a situation of efficient breach. In this context, the paper analyses the mutual commitments of the US and Indonesia with specific attention to the potential role of power in the settlement. The paper argues that from a legal perspective the MAS between Indonesia and the US cannot be considered a case of efficient breach, although politically the situation established through the MAS resembles a situation of efficient breach. The paper finds that power imbalances played a role in the settlement and suggests that the case study of this specific MAS highlights systemic risks in the current handling of WTO dispute settlement through MAS.

    2017-01 NorpothJohannes Norpoth, The Mutually Agreed Solution (MAS) between Indonesia and the United States (US) in US – Clove Cigarettes: A Case of Efficient Breach (or Power Politics)?, in: Adinolfi, G., Baetens, F., Caiado, J., Lupone, A., Micara, A.G. (Eds.), International Economic Law - Contemporary Issues, Springer 2017, pp. 129-147

    available as E-Book (ISBN 978-3-319-44645-5) and Hardcover (ISBN 978-3-319-44644-8) - more info at http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319446448

  • 17-11-2016

    Three new UA Ruhr Studies on Development and Global Governance

    uar-studies-68 coverVol. 68: Annika Engelbert, Markus Kaltenborn, and Nina-Annette Reit-Born:
    Effective Corruption Ccontrol. Supplier remedies in public procurement in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - A comparative analysis of mechanisms and their implementation.
    This book presents the results of a three-year research project based at the Ruhr-University Bochum, financed by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Cologne. Corruption in public procurement is widespread and particularly damaging to development objectives, as it undermines any state's duty to maximize the social and economic welfare of its citizens. Yet, research on country-specific regulation meant to address this problem has remained scarce. ...

    uar-studies-69 coverVol. 69: Stefan Buchholz:
    Dimensionen und Bestimmungsfaktoren der HIV/AIDS-bezogenen Stigmatisierung in der Republik Südafrika: Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung unter Studenten in der Metropolregion Kapstadt.
    Stigmatisierungsprozesse gegenüber Menschen mit HIV/AIDS stellen ein elementares Hindernis im Kampf gegen die Immunschwächekrankheit dar. In Südafrika fielen diese in der Vergangenheit so drastisch aus, dass Betroffene das Bekanntwerden ihrer HIV-Infektion mit dem Leben bezahlt haben. Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt eine Ursachenanalyse HIV/AIDS-bezogener Stigmatisierungsprozesse in der südafrikanischen Gesellschaft dar. Basierend auf sozialwissenschaftlichen Theorien und empirischen Vorkenntnissen wird ein Erhebungsinstrument zur Erfassung stigmatisierender Einstellungen entwickelt. ...

    uar-studies-70 coverVol. 70: Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada:
    Oil Abundance and Economic Growth.
    This book deals with the role of oil abundance in economic growth. The major theoretical contribution of the analysis is the transformation of the rentier state theory into the language of mathematical economics. The mathematical formalization of the rentier state theory enables a more sophisticated analytical tool for the assessment of the role of nonrenewable resource revenues in economic growth and institutional dynamics. The embedding of the elements of a rentier state into the labor surplus economy framework leads to grave consequences as reflected in the quantitative part of the survey. The augmented labor surplus economy model shows that both the political economy and the purely economic causes of the resource curse can have similar effects on the resource allocation in the affected nation. ...

    Please find the full abstracts and more information here.

  • 14-11-2016

    Journal Article by Amr Khafagy

    Amr Khafagy, PhD IDS student at the IEE, published an article in the Journal of Institutional Economics:
    "Political institutions and financial cooperative development".

    Abstract:
    This paper analyses the influence of political institutions on the development of financial cooperatives. It proposes a political economy theory where autocratic regimes deliberately oppose the development of a well-functioning financial cooperative sector to maintain their political influence, and prevent the formation of strong pressure groups that can threaten the current political status quo and reduce the governing elites’ economic benefits from underdeveloped and exclusive financial sector. Using panel data from 65 developing countries from 1995–2014, the results show that democracy, political rights and civil liberties promote financial cooperative development. These results are robust in controlling for endogeneity as well as other economic and institutional factors.

    More info and the full text article: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-institutional-economics/article/political-institutions-and-financial-cooperative-development/2B84F65FB661B369CDB7D56F68F092F5

  • 15-08-2016

    New Publication by Davison Muchadenyika

    Davison Muchadenyika from Zimbabwe, PhD candidate at the South African - German Centre for Development Research, published a new paper titled 'Multi-Donor Trust Funds and Fragile States: Assessing the Aid Effectiveness of the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund'.

    Research for this paper was largely conducted during Davison worked on his Master thesis for the Bochum Programme of Development Management at the University of the Western Cape.