Institutions Count


Book Description

What leads to national progress? The growing consensus in the social sciences is that neither capital flows, nor the savings rate, nor diffuse values are the key, but that it lies in the quality of a nation’s institutions. This book is the first comparative study of how real institutions affect national development. It seeks to examine and deepen this insight through a systematic study of institutions in five Latin American countries and how they differ within and across nations. Postal systems, stock exchanges, public health services and others were included in the sample, all studied with the same methodology. The country chapters present detailed results of this empirical exercise for each individual country. The introductory chapters present the theoretical framework and research methodology for the full study. The summary results of this ambitious study presented in the concluding chapter draw comparisons across countries and discuss what these results mean for national development in Latin America.




Schools Count


Book Description

World Bank Technical Paper No. 303.Reviews the design of 26 projects in Sub-Saharan Africa that were prepared by African governments and the World Bank for Bank funding. The report concludes that school-level factors need more attention in program design.




Making Votes Count


Book Description

Popular elections are at the heart of representative democracy. Thus, understanding the laws and practices that govern such elections is essential to understanding modern democracy. In this book, Cox views electoral laws as posing a variety of coordination problems that political forces must solve. Coordination problems - and with them the necessity of negotiating withdrawals, strategic voting, and other species of strategic coordination - arise in all electoral systems. This book employs a unified game-theoretic model to study strategic coordination worldwide and that relies primarily on constituency-level rather than national aggregate data in testing theoretical propositions about the effects of electoral laws. This book also considers not just what happens when political forces succeed in solving the coordination problems inherent in the electoral system they face but also what happens when they fail.




FDIC Quarterly


Book Description




FDIC Statistics on Banking


Book Description

A statistical profile of the United States banking industry.




Women's Colleges in the United States


Book Description

This book examines the role of women's colleges in the United States from the early 1800s to the present. It reviews how they began, how they changed as more colleges became coeducational, and the legality of publically supported single-sex colleges. The book also looks at what women's colleges are like today and examines differences in institutional effects for students who choose to attend women's colleges versus those who attend coeducational institutions. The four chapters, written by different authors, are titled: (1) "Women's Colleges in the United States, A Historical Context" (Elizabeth DeBra); (2) "Women's Colleges in the United States, Recent Issues and Challenges" (Irene Harwarth and Florence Fasanelli); (3) "Women's Colleges in the United States, A Statistical Portrait" (Irene Harwarth); and (4) "Women's Colleges in the United States, An Overview of Research and Questions for the Future" (Mindi Maline). An appendix contains 18 tables with data on enrollment by size and type of institution, by geographic region, and for selected years; degrees awarded; staffing at private 4-year colleges by occupational category, sex, and Carnegie classification; and average salary of full-time faculty at women's colleges by sex and Carnegie classification. (Contains 100 references.) (CH)







Prison Puzzle Pieces 2


Book Description

PRISON PUZZLE PIECES 2 (the second of a three volume series) is a non-fiction account of a corrections officer working in Stillwater Prison in Minnesota after he stopped traveling the country performing standup comedy and improv. Through examples, explanations and experiences, he explains how the entire system works, piece by piece, by presenting hundreds of events that occurred in that dysfunctional little city contained within those walls and razor ribbon. His unique perspectives earned him the respect of inmates and officers; on the other hand his life was in constant danger from other inmates and officers for him doing his job ethically. These books are presented from the author’s unique perspective. They contain some historic background and events pertaining to that prison; such as the infamous Younger Brothers. There is no way to explain every aspect of this restricted society, but these books come close. Many of the things that go on in the prison that have life and death consequences and are shocking can also have a very humorous side. Background on the officer is given to help you to understand how he made his decisions, whether you agree with them or not. Officers are gradually educated through strange and bizarre experiences on the job that can’t be imagined. Letters from the inmates to the officer give insight to their various states of mind. You will learn of the different areas of the prison such as visiting, shakedown, dining hall, cell blocks, segregation, etc., how it all works and what goes on there that can be inspiring or downright disgusting. Many strange relationship dynamics exist like the officers best mentor being a convicted mass murderer, inmates that break their code and have his back, the institutions most feared inmate becoming his friend, corrupt officers harassing him and deliberately placing him in dangerous situations, and inmate relationships of all sorts. Nothing is embellished. Nothing need be embellished.




State Institutions, Private Incentives, Global Capital


Book Description

The growth of global finance since 1960 constitutes one of the most important transformations in social relations during the twentieth century. Using historical, statistical, and graphical techniques, State Institutions, Private Incentives, and Global Capital examines three important aspects of this phenomenal shift in the international political economy. First, Andrew Sobel explores the reawakening of the international financial markets, mapping their extraordinary transformation since the early 1960s and discussing the role of politics in that metamorphosis. The author then offers a fresh understanding of the systematic differences in access for borrowers in this rapidly transforming and expanding global capital pool. He then demonstrates the influence of political factors in producing differential access to the global capital pool. Showing how the character and stability of a country's political system affects investors's decisions to invest in that country, Sobel breaks new ground in understanding the basis for the frequent admonitions by the World Bank and others that a stable political and legal system are essential for states to attract significant foreign investment. With the growing debate about the effect of financial interdependence on the ability of states to conduct economic policy and indeed to preserve their independence in the face of unprecedented economic linkages, this book will be of interest to political scientists and economists as well as policy makers concerned with the impact of financial globalization and the causes of differentials in access to capital. Andrew C. Sobel is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Resident Fellow, Center in Political Economy, Washington University, St. Louis. He is the author of Domestic Choices, International Markets: Dismantling National Barriers and Liberalizing Securities Markets.