William E. James

Migration and the evolution of tenure contracts in newly settled regions

Abstract Different forms of agricultural tenancy can facilitate migration and upward mobility by matching migrant characteristics with labor demands. Potential migrants face a menu of alternative arrangements in newly settled areas. If they have sufficient resources, they can establish themselves as independent settlers and earn high rates of return. If not, they can work as share tenants until they have developed their own homesteads. In an intermediate arrangement, the migrant borrows land, which he uses to provide subsistence for his household and repays the land, plus improvements as interest. By linking credit with labor arrangements land borrowing and share tenancy facilitate development in an environment where transaction costs inhibit specialized lending operations.

The Rise of Anti‐dumping: Does Regionalism Promote Administered Protection?

Miranda, Torres and Ruiz (1998) and Finger (1993) have documented the increased incidence of anti-dumping in recent years and its spread beyond developed to developing and transitional economies. The countries that have been the most prolific in launching anti-dumping cases have largely been members of discriminatory trading arrangements such as NAFTA while the affected (accused) countries have often been outside regional trading blocs. This study documents and analyses the asymmetry in anti-dumping actions, focusing on the propensity of members of regional trading blocs to use anti-dumping actions against developing countries in East Asia.

Globalization’s Implications for Indonesia: Trade Policy, Multinationals, and Competition

Indonesia has become increasingly outward-oriented in its growth strategy since the early 1980s. This chapter examines the role of private domestic and multinational enterprises in the growth of non-oil manufacturing value-added and exports in Indonesia based on compilations of establishment-level survey data. Foreign multinationals and private domestic firms alike have responded to trade liberalization in a manner consistent with Indonesia’s comparative advantage. The composition of exports is gradually shining towards more sophisticated electrical and non-electrical machinery and it appears that multinationals are playing a significant, if not dominant, role in this process.

Exports, Manufacturing Linkages, and Employment in the Philippines, 1961 to 1983

Three resource-rich Southeast Asian nations-Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailandhave demonstrated strong economic growth for the last 30 years. In the 1960s real growth of GDP ranged from 4% for Indonesia to nearly 8% for Thailand. These GDP growth rates, though lower than those of the Asian NIEs, were much higher than the average for LDCs. Southeast Asia’s per capita income growth of 4 to 5% annually has been impressive. The lone exception has been the Philippines. The assassination of Senator Aquino, of course, triggered a serious political crisis, but the Philippine problem began much earlier than 1983. Economic growth has slowed since the late 1970s. Per capita income growth over the period from 1965 to 1985 averaged less than 2%, comparable to that of South Asian countries. l The weakness in the growth record is reflected in the long-term unsustainability of industrial growth rates and the poor record of labor absorption. The central purpose of this article is to examine, using input-output techniques, how trade policies may have affected patterns of industrial growth in the Philippines. Moreover, since one of the important objectives of the developing countries is to minimize their unemployment (especially in urban areas), the relationship between industrial growth and employment will also be examined. An unbroken string of studies on the Philippine industrial and trade policy regime (Golay, 1961; Power and Sicat, 1971; Sicat, 1974; Baldwin, 1975; Bautista and Power, 1979; Sicat, 1984; Hooley, 1985; Shepherd and Alburo, 1991) provide a running commentary on the Philippine development experience. The recurring