We investigate whether TV watching at ages 6-7 and 8-9 affects cognitive development measured by math and reading scores at ages 8-9 using a rich childhood longitudinal sample from NLSY79. Dynamic panel data models are estimated to handle the unobserved child-specific factor, endogeneity of TV...

This paper presents a coherent and systematic analysis of the collapse and subsequent revival of the Central Asian Republics (CARs) since 1990. The focus is on the pattern of growth and structural change during the cycle of decline and subsequent revival in the CARs which have been inadequately...

Through the 1990s China was widely and often held up as a paragon of economic policy reform driven growth and an example for others to follow. We in India were not immune to the temptation to do the same. There is no doubt that China has lessons that India and many other countries can learn,...

The market oriented economic reform direction has been officially affirmed since the VI Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (1986) with the approval of the economic reform plan towards doi moi. This direction was then legalized in the Constitution (1992) and further developed in official...

For about twenty years of Doi Moi with the transition to a market based economy, oriented to socialism and consistent realization of multi-sector economic development policies in Vietnam, SMEs have witnessed significant steps in their development, increased very fast in terms of number. It can...

Recurrent large fiscal deficits and accumulating public debt frequently ring alarm bells around the world on the sustainability of U.S. federal fiscal policy. The present-value borrowing constraint, which states that, for the fiscal policy to be sustainable the current debt stock should match...

Does voter turnout affect policy outcomes? This long-standing question has been re-visited recently with close empirical scrutiny. These studies, however, commonly suffer from a problem of omitting variables correlated with both causal and outcome variables : specifically, immeasurable political...

With a declining birthrate and an aging population, Japan is increasingly finding itself in deeper financial difficulties. Recognizing these conditions, the government is now examining a framework for maintaining fiscal sustainability, mainly at the Council of Economic and Fiscal Policy. The...

Aided by strong economic growth the Singapore government has been able to keep both the tax rate and the government expenditure rate low and yet generate healthy budget surpluses year after year. Although the gap between the tax rate and the government expenditure rate is the obvious source of...

In this paper we assess the record of different post reform governments in meeting their targets and improving both delivery and finances. A variety of indices are constructed, and consistency checks devised to measure relative performance. No government has achieved its targets, but the...