Arlene Garces-Ozanne

ESTIMATING QUARTERLY GDP DATA FOR THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND NATIONS

Time series analyses generally rely on having a relatively high frequency of consistent and reliable data to work with. However for many South Pacific Island Nations (SPINs), data on macroeconomic series, like GDP, are typically available only annually from the 1980s onwards. This paper empirically estimates quarterly GDP data from annual series using the modified Chow and Lin (1971) approach. We link available annual GDP series for select SPINs with GDP-related series that are available quarterly. We deem that our quarterly estimates of GDP are more consistent and reliable compared to estimates obtained through less sophisticated methods of univariate interpolation.

Emphasising the Problem or the Solution in Charitable Fundraising for International Development

abstract We conduct a laboratory experiment to test the effect on charitable donations to international development NGOs (INGOs) of emphasising current deprivation in a developing country, versus emphasising the potential good a donation can achieve. Using a double-blind dictator experiment with earned endowments, we find that varying the information/emphasis has no significant effect on total donations, nor on the probability of donating. We find suggestive evidence that an emphasis on current deprivation may raise the variance of donations, and thus the size of donations conditional on donating, but the effect is not significant in hurdle models that explicitly recognise this.

The Effect of Empowerment and Self-Determination on Health Outcomes.

There remains a persistent gap in health outcomes between wealthy and poor countries. Basic measures such as life expectancy and infant and under-five mortality remain divergent, with preventable deaths being unacceptably high, despite significant efforts to reduce these disparities. We examine the impact of empowerment, measured by Freedom House’s ratings of country’s political rights and civil liberties, while controlling for per capita gross domestic product, secondary school enrollment, and income inequality, on national health outcomes. Using data from 1970 to 2013 across 149 countries, our results suggest, quite strongly, that higher levels of empowerment have a significant positive association with life expectancy, particularly for females, and lower rates of infant and under-five mortality. Our results point to the need for efforts to stimulate economic growth be accompanied with reforms to increase the levels empowerment through increasing political rights and civil liberties.

Carousel and conveyor belt: the migration of doctors in New Zealand

This paper explores the issues surrounding the shortage, distribution and retention of medical practitioners in New Zealand. In particular, we examine different factors affecting the migration pattern: carousel (international) or conveyor belt (internal), of locally and foreign-trained doctors. Using administrative data from the New Zealand Medical Association, linked to census derived local socio-economic data we model mobility of doctors over the period 2000–2008. We find that doctors are becoming more mobile, especially doctors practicing in more affluent rural areas. We also find that foreign medical graduates tend to be more mobile than locally trained doctors. These findings could have important implications on developing retention policies for rural practice, not only within the New Zealand context, but also for other countries reliant on migrant health workers.