Japanese
IDE Research Columns
Institute of Developing Economies>IDE Research Columns>Columns>2024

IDE Research Columns

Columns

2024

photo

‘Don’t Hurry, Haste Makes Waste’ But Why Do We Still Do? A Case from a Behavioural Analysis of Birth Spacing in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published on 03/26/24

Birth spacing is essential for the physical health and socioeconomic outcomes of children and mothers. This study demonstrates that an experience of pregnancy loss, including miscarriage and stillbirth, can affect fertility behaviour and significantly shorten spacing intervals throughout the reproductive period. This study hypothesises that such a behavioural response is caused by a change in the probabilistic belief—how likely the mother perceives she is to lose a pregnancy—based on her fertility history and finds consistent results with the theoretical predictions. This study builds on a unique combination of several strands of literature to develop analytical frameworks. The results suggest that pregnancy loss can be a behavioural risk factor for maternal and infant health in high-fertility settings such as sub-Saharan Africa.

photo

How Does Trust Affect Life Satisfaction in Transition Countries?

Published on 02/29/24

Researchers have recently become interested in the close associations between trust and subjective well-being (SWB) and the unique trends characterizing such connections. However, these relationships remain insufficiently understood in transition countries. The present study investigated the nuanced affiliations between trust and life satisfaction in transition countries. The analysis revealed that community-level trust enhances life satisfaction. Thus, the present study highlighted that trustworthy societies were important for superior SWB. Moreover, interpersonal trust was found to exert a greater influence on life satisfaction than institutional trust, and both effects were found to be higher in the former Soviet Union nations than in Central and Eastern European countries. These results indicate that regional characteristics could govern the effects of trust on life satisfaction. They also underscore the significance of understanding SWB and its determinants in specific contexts.

photo

How Does Trade Affect Formal and Informal Jobs?

Published on 02/19/24

How does trade affect formal and informal jobs in developing economies? We estimate the impact of exports on employment in the formal and informal sectors by exploiting the European Union (EU)’s reform in rules of origin for duty-free market access, which produced a large positive shock to Cambodia’s garment exports to the EU (Tanaka and Greaney 2024). We find that the export shock caused large employment growth in formal garment establishments but had little effect on employment in informal garment establishments. The positive effect is pronounced for incumbent establishments and female workers. Thus, trade promotes employment disproportionately in the formal sector.

photo

Who Are Professional Judges in China? Understanding the “Rule of Law” under the Chinese Communist Party

Published on 02/16/24

Xi Jinping’s administration strongly encourages judges to be professionalized under the political slogan of the “rule of law.” Thus, the question arises, are judges in China professionalized in the context of political science? Naito (2020) argues that the aim of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as the CCP is the most highly-educated organization with a meritocratic political system, behind professionalization is the unification of the judges’ quality and their integration with the CCP. However, despite the CCP's promotion of legal professionalization, this study revealed that judges and the local people's court controversially maintained conservative behavior. More precisely, they prefer to maintain the status quo, whereas the CCP's policy and the law attempt to change the interest structure in which they participate.

photo

Pandemic-induced De-urbanization in Indonesia

Published on 01/31/24

Our recent study provides evidence based on economic modeling that in Indonesia, the negative economic impact of COVID-19 fell more heavily on rural households than is generally supposed. After the pandemic’s initial negative impact on urban employment, a second-round impact involved the temporary relocation of urban-based workers to rural areas in search of agricultural employment. We call this de-urbanization. It depressed agricultural wages and thereby harmed rural households, especially the poorest. These conclusions are supported by recent labor market data.

photo

Changes to Intellectual Property Rights and Their Challenges in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar

Published on 01/29/24

Many nations, especially the least developed countries, have taken significant efforts to align their legislation with the Intellectual Property (IP) rules set by the World Trade Organization under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This Agreement establishes the minimum standards for protecting creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and musical works, designs, and trademarks. Following these rules can increase the innovation, economic growth, and foreign investment. This article reviews how Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are making changes to their IP systems to meet the TRIPS requirements. It focuses on recent developments and challenges associated with the TRIPS compliance.