Mon-Chi Lio

Can the internet reduce corruption? A cross-country study based on dynamic panel data models

Abstract This study attempts to estimate the effects of internet adoption on reducing corruption by using a panel consisting of 70 countries covering the period from 1998 to 2005. The results of Granger causality tests reveal that, while causality running from internet adoption to corruption reduction can be established, the causality between internet adoption and corruption is bi-directional. To deal with the problem of endogeneity, the dynamic panel data (DPD) models are employed. The estimation results show that the effects of internet adoption on corruption reduction are statistically significant but not too substantial. Our findings suggest that the internet has shown a capacity for reducing corruption, but its potential has yet to be fully realized.

The impact of information and communication technology on public governance and corruption in China

A large number of studies have examined the impact of information and communication technology on governance and corruption. However, few studies have explored the situation in China. While the Chinese government is fully committed to the development of ICT, it has also invested a great amount of resources into controlling the dissemination of information. Therefore, it is worth exploring whether ICT has had a positive impact on governance and corruption in China as found in other countries in previous studies. We conducted empirical tests utilizing provincial data from 2004 to 2010 and a Dynamic Panel Data Model. The results showed that ICT had a positive impact on the governance of provincial governments in China. ICT had two different effects on corruption: ICT helped corruption cases come to light and ultimately helped reduce corruption.

Corruption costs lives: a cross-country study using an IV approach

This study quantitatively estimates the effects of corruption on five major health indicators by using recent cross-country panel data covering 119 countries for the period of 2005-2011. The corruption indicators provided by the World Bank and Transparency International are used, and both the two-way fixed effect and the two-stage least squares approaches are employed for our estimation. The estimation results show that, in general, corruption is negatively associated with a countrys health outcomes. A lower level of corruption or a better control of corruption in a country can lead to longer life expectancy, a lower infant mortality rate and a lower under-five mortality rate for citizens. However, our estimation finds no significant association between corruption and individual diseases including human immunodeficiency virus prevalence and tuberculosis incidence. The findings suggest that corruption reduction itself is an effective method to promote health. Copyright

THE DIVISION OF LABOR AND ROUNDABOUT PRODUCTION: ALLYN YOUNG REVISITED

This paper investigates Allyn Youngs two important doctrines concerning the division of labor and roundabout production: Apart from advancement in the state of knowledge, the progressive division of labor, which can take place within a given population, brings about the adoption of more specialized, differentiated intermediate goods in the production process; the level of division of labor and the extent of the market depend on each other. Using a general equilibrium model with increasing returns to specialization, economies of complementarity between intermediate goods, and transaction costs, we demonstrate that the level of division of labor and the number of intermediate goods increase concurrently as transaction conditions are improved.

An Empirical Study on the Division of Labour and Economic Structural Changes

It has long been recognized by economists that there is a systematic connection between the progress in economic productivity and the growth of cities. Yang and Rice (1994) develop a general equilibrium model to explain this intrinsic connection. Their model shows that in an economy, one of the functions of cities is to be able to improve transaction efficiency, and thus to expand the level of division of labour. People become more specialized as the division of labour evolves, and in this process labour productivity improves due to economies of specialization.

Can information and communication technology promote venture creation? A cross-country study using an instrument variable approach

This study employed cross-country data from the World Bank for the period from 2002 to 2014 and empirically examined the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on venture creation. The estimation strategies include a fixed effect model and an instrument variable specification. The estimation results show that the impact of ICT development on venture creation was negative among low/middle-income countries but was positive among middle/high-income countries. We attribute this result to the richer complementary inputs to ICT and fairer environments for business competition in high income countries.

CAN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IMPROVE STOCK MARKET EFFICIENCY? A CROSS-COUNTRY STUDY: Can Information and Communication Technology Improve Stock Market Efficiency?

The rapid advance of information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized the dissemination of stock market information. Based on the noise trading theory, this study discusses whether the changes brought by ICT have promoted the transparency of stock market information or instead flooded the stock market with misinformation. A cross‐country panel dataset of 71 countries from 2002 to 2014 was established. The empirical methodologies include panel unit root tests, panel variance ratio tests, and panel multiple regressions. The results of panel unit root tests and panel variance ratio tests show that stock markets in countries with high ICT diffusion are efficient while stock markets in countries with low or medium ICT diffusion are not all efficient. The results of panel regressions further show that the effect of ICT diffusion in reducing market noises was more significant than its effect in magnifying the noises.

The Division of Labour and the Allocation of Time

Compared to a typical family several decades ago, a contemporary family spends significantly less time on work, has more time for leisure, and consumes a wider variety of goods and services of better quality and in larger quantities. Most conventional theories explaining this phenomenon emphasize that improvements in technology and the accumulation of capital are the most important factors for this prominent feature in economic development. In this chapter, we will provide a supplemental explanation by focusing on how changes in economic organization affect time allocation and productivity, with special attention being paid to the extent of the market and the level of division of labour.