"While providing the most reliable method of evaluating social programs, randomized experiments in industrial and developing countries alike are accompanied by political risks and ethical issues that jeopardize the chances of adopting them. Buddelmeyer and Skoufias use a unique data set from...

"The author analyzes regional labor market disparities in transition by presenting some data and summarizing existing literature. He finds that large and persistent regional labor market disparities developed in virtually all transition countries and that there is some evidence of polarization....

"Globalization brings opportunities and pressures for domestic firms in emerging markets to innovate and improve their competitive position. Using data on firms in 27 transition economies, the authors test for the effects of globalization through the impact of increased competition and foreign...

"This paper examines the impact of trade with Japan, North America, and the European Union on technology diffusion and total factor productivity growth in Korea, Mexico, and Jordan. Measures of foreign research and development are constructed based on industry-specific research and development...

"The author tests how the local economic structure-measured by a region's sector specialization, competition, and diversity-affects the technological growth of manufacturing sectors. Most of the empirical literature on this topic assumes that in the long run more productive regions will attract...

"The author discusses regional development patterns in China and examines effective ways of using development aid to attain regional balanced growth through optimizing growth spillover effects. Based on provincial panel data from 1978-99 she constructs an indicator "neighborhood performance" to...

"Javorcik, Saggi, and Spatareanu use a firm-level panel data set from Romania to examine whether the nationality of foreign investors affects the degree of vertical spillovers from foreign direct investment. Investors' country of origin may matter for spillovers to domestic producers in upstream...