Journal of Global Economics

This paper focuses on the problem of how to design optimal fiscal equalization with different fiscal needs among regions with asymmetric information. In the full information condition, our results suggest that an efficient transfer scheme should not simply fully equalize the fiscal need among regions by redistributing among regions. Instead, it should equalize the marginal cost of public funds across regions, in which the social cost of raising tax revenues can be minimized. In the asymmetric information condition, in order to eliminate the incentive of rich regions mimicking poor regions, the second best policies designed for poor regions are distorted while policies for rich regions remain the first best condition. Thus, rich regions get some informational rents.

The Japanese Government reports that the health of Japanese employees deteriorated in the 1990s - 2000s during the Japanese recession. This paper examines the relationship between overtime work and health of employees. We present a theoretical model showing that overtime work causes an individual’s health to deteriorate. This is based on the hypothesis that overtime work is implicitly built into a firm’s promotion system. Using the data of 6,985 individuals from the first National Family Research in 1998 (NFR98) provided by the Social Science Japan Data Archive, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, our empirical results support our hypothesis and show strong associations among overtime work, health and socio-economic characteristics of individuals, as well as labor market conditions.

This study mainly focused on Maharashtra’s onion growth and instability. Erratic weather, volatile market price and lack of adequate storage and market infrastructure caused instability in production through preventing the farmers in taking the optimal decision on allocation of area and raising farm productivity. Study categorized period as follows; Period I: 1980-81 to 1989-90, Period II: 1990-91 to 1999-00 and Period III: 2000-01 to 2010-11 and revealed that onion production in Maharashtra is mainly driven by acreage allocation. But in the long-run increasing area under onion may not be feasible without reducing the area of other important crops. Hence, solution lies in by bridging the yield gap or increasing the yield potential. The major reason for the instability of onion production after period II was mainly due to area instability and partly due to yield instability.

Knowledge, opinions and attitudes of youth towards HIV/AIDS are very important for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support. Botswana is one of the countries in sub Saharan Africa which has long struggled with HIV/ AIDS epidemic and several program efforts aimed at enhancing knowledge about HIV/AIDS have been developed and implemented. The current paper utilizes data derived from Botswana Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance survey conducted in Botswana in 2009 which is a nationally representative survey of school going leaner’s aged 10 to 19 years. The main objective of the survey was to assess and monitor the prevalence of key youth health risk Behaviors and related risk factors in a random sample of learners aged 10 to 19 years, in 15 Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) districts of Botswana. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to analyze data in SPSS version 21 program and results were presented as odds ratios and percentages. Bivariate analyses results indicate that 10.5% of students reported that HIV transmission cannot be prevented, 13.6% thought it can be prevented by not having sex if you suspect the person has HIV/AIDS, 5.8% thought that by having only a few partners at a time would prevent transmission of HIV, 11.3% were of the view that serial monogamy would help prevent transmission, and use of condom when one feels it is important to do so score highest with 14.0%. Multivariate analyses show that young children aged 10-13(OR=0.689) who are at primary school level (OR=0.235) are less likely to have correct knowledge about the relationship between HIV and AIDS and also about HIV transmission and prevention than their older counterparts. Females were more likely to show negative attitudes towards PLWA than males (OR=1.3).

Cebu Normal University has a robust approach to its extension services. Eight extension projects were subjected to ex post facto evaluation to determine whether they have achieved their goals vis-a-vis the UNDP governance framework. The main objective of the evaluation was to construct a nature-focus paradigm for the extension services function of Philippine state universities and colleges to optimize the use of their limited resources. The current naturefocus of all eight extension projects point to a non-optimal pedagogy, andragogy - community service combination because it reflects a specification-led and output-driven type of extension project. Future extension projects have to incorporate the UNDP governance framework that optimizes relationships between their nature and focus with lesser actual time spent in the field and more community empowerment by catalyzing change.