Dependant

Abstract: "... households and whole communities are increasingly dependant on women fir their survival. [G]overnments too are dependent on their earnings as well as enterprises where profit making exists at the margins of the `licit' economy." The last decade has seen a growing presence of women in a variety of cross-border circuits that have become a source for livelihood, profit-making and the accrual of foreign currency. These circuits are enormously diverse but share one feature: they are profit- or revenue-making circuits developed on the backs of the truly disadvantaged. They include the illegal trafficking in people for the sex industry and for various types of formal and informal labor markets. They also include cross-border migrations, both documented and not, which have provided an important source of convertible currency for governments in home countries. The formation and strengthening of these circuits is largely a consequence of broader structural conditions. Among the key actors emerging in these particular circuits are the women themselves in search of work, but also, and increasingly so, illegal traffickers and contractors as well as the governments of home countries. I conceptualize these circuits as counter-geographies of globalization. They overlap with some of the major dynamics that compose globalization: the formation of global markets, the intensification of transnational and trans-local networks and the development of communication technologies, which easily escape conventional surveillance practices. The strengthening and, in some cases, formation of new global circuits is made possible by the existence of a global economic system and the associated development of various institutional supports for cross-border money flows and markets.(2) These counter-geographies are dynamic; to some extent they are part of the shadow economy, but they also use some of the institutional infrastructure of the formal economy.(3) This article maps some of the key features of these counter-geographies, particularly those involving foreign-born women. I focus on the possibility of systemic links between the growth of these alternative circuits for survival, profit-making and hard-currency earnings, on the one hand, and major conditions in developing countries that are associated with economic globalization, on the other. Among these conditions are growth in unemployment, the closing of a large number of typically small and medium-sized enterprises oriented to national rather than export markets, and high, and often increasing government debt. While these economies are frequently grouped under the label "developing," they are in some cases struggling, stagnant, even shrinking. In the interests of brevity, I will use the term "developing" as shorthand for all these situations. MAPPING A NEW CONCEPTUAL LANDSCAPE The various global circuits that incorporate growing numbers of women have strengthened at the same time as economic globalization has had a significant impact on developing economies. They have had to implement new policies and accommodate new conditions associated with globalization: Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), opening their economies to foreign firms, the elimination of multiple state subsidies, and, it seems almost inevitably, financial crises and the accompanying programs of the IMF. It is now clear that in most of the countries involved, these conditions have created enormous costs for certain sectors of the economy and population and have not fundamentally reduced government debt. Among these costs are the growth in unemployment, the closure of many firms in often traditional sectors oriented to the local or national market, the promotion of export-oriented cash crops which have increasingly replaced survival agriculture and food production for local or national markets and, finally, the heavy, ongoing burden of government debt in most of these economies. …

Abstract: Do other peoples’ incomes reduce the happiness which people in advanced countries experience from any given income? And does this help to explain why in the US, Germany and some other advanced countries, happiness has been constant for many decades? The answer to both questions is ‘Yes’ We provide 4 main pieces of evidence 1) In the US General Survey (repeated samples since 1972) comparator income has a negative effect on happiness equal in magnitude to the positive effect of own income 2) In the West German Socio-Economic Panel since 1984 the same is true but with life satisfaction as the dependant variable We also use the Panel to compare the effect of income comparisons and of adaptation as factors explaining the stable level of life-satisfaction: income comparisons emerge as much the more important 3) When in our US analysis we introduce “perceived” relative income as a potential explanatory variable, its effect is as large as the effect of actual relative income - further supporting the view that comparisons matter 4) Finally, for a panel of European countries since 1973 we estimate the effect of average income upon average lifesatisfaction, splitting income into two components: trend and cycle The effect of trend income is small and illdefined Our conclusions relate to time series and to advanced countries only They differ from those drawn in recent studies by Deaton and Stevenson/Wolfers, but those studies are largely cross-sectional and mostly include non-advanced as well as advanced countries

Abstract: This study explores the validation of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for Pakistan using time series yearly data 1980-2011 We have taken deforestation as the dependant variable for environmental degradation and four independent variables ie income, energy consumption, trade openness, and population to test the link between these underlying variables We employed ARDL bound testing approach to cointegration and VECM-Granger causality test The results confirmed cointegration among the variables both in short-run and long-run path However, the diminishing negative impact of income on deforestation in long run path confirms the EKC hypothesis for deforestation in Pakistan There is unidirectional causality from income and energy consumption to deforestation and the bidirectional causal effect is detected between income and energy consumption Whereas, in long run income and trade openness granger causes energy consumption The diagnostic test also supported the results and model found stable during sensitivity analysis This study is uniquely designed with the number of significant tests that ensure reliability of results for policy use and contribute future research direction on environment-growth-energy nexus

Abstract: Development policy increasingly focuses on building capacities to respond to change (adaptation), and to drive change (innovation). Few studies, however, focus specifically on the social and gender differentiation of capacities to adapt and innovate. We address this gap using a qualitative study in three communities in Solomon Islands; a developing country, where rural livelihoods and well-being are tightly tied to agriculture and fisheries. We find the five dimensions of capacity to adapt and to innovate (i.e. assets, flexibility, learning, social organisation, agency) to be mutually dependant. For example, limits to education, physical mobility and agency meant that women and youth, particularly, felt it was difficult to establish relations with external agencies to access technical support or new information important for innovating or adapting. Willingness to bear risk and to challenge social norms hindered both women’s and men’s capacity to innovate, albeit to differing degrees. Our findings are of value to those aspiring for equitable improvements to well-being within dynamic and diverse social–ecological systems.