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A recent study of house price behavior in U.S. cities by Gyourko, Mayer, and Sinai (2006) raises questions about so-called superstar cities in which housing is so inelastically supplied that it becomes unaffordable, as higher-income families outbid residents. We consider the case of Accra, Ghana, in this light, estimating the elasticity of housing supply and discussing the implications for growth and income distribution. There is not a great deal of data available to examine trends in Accra, so our method is indirect. First, we use a variant of the traditional monocentric city model to calculate the elasticity of Accra's housing supply relative to those of other similarly-sized African cities. This suggests that housing supply responsiveness is much higher elsewhere. This muted supply responsiveness is consistent with the observed higher housing prices. Second, we estimate a number of traditional housing demand equations and reduced form equations. Placing a number of restrictions on the equations allows us to infer Accra's housing supply elasticity. Taken together, our approaches suggest that lower-income families in Accra have such poor housing conditions because the market is extremely unresponsive to demand. Although the outcomes we have traced-high housing prices and low quality-are not unusual relative to the other developed country superstar cities, they are extreme. The welfare costs are considerable, so much so that in addition to direct housing market effects, these policies also appear to have potentially significant implications for the achievement of more equitable growth.

Adverse Effects --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Communities & Human Settlements --- Development Economics --- Economic Theory and Research --- Economics --- Elasticity --- Equations --- Gross Domestic Product --- Housing and Human Habitats --- Income --- Income Groups --- Inflation Rate --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Public Sector Management and Reform --- Underestimates

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A recent study of house price behavior in U.S. cities by Gyourko, Mayer, and Sinai (2006) raises questions about so-called superstar cities in which housing is so inelastically supplied that it becomes unaffordable, as higher-income families outbid residents. We consider the case of Accra, Ghana, in this light, estimating the elasticity of housing supply and discussing the implications for growth and income distribution. There is not a great deal of data available to examine trends in Accra, so our method is indirect. First, we use a variant of the traditional monocentric city model to calculate the elasticity of Accra's housing supply relative to those of other similarly-sized African cities. This suggests that housing supply responsiveness is much higher elsewhere. This muted supply responsiveness is consistent with the observed higher housing prices. Second, we estimate a number of traditional housing demand equations and reduced form equations. Placing a number of restrictions on the equations allows us to infer Accra's housing supply elasticity. Taken together, our approaches suggest that lower-income families in Accra have such poor housing conditions because the market is extremely unresponsive to demand. Although the outcomes we have traced-high housing prices and low quality-are not unusual relative to the other developed country superstar cities, they are extreme. The welfare costs are considerable, so much so that in addition to direct housing market effects, these policies also appear to have potentially significant implications for the achievement of more equitable growth.

Adverse Effects --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Communities & Human Settlements --- Development Economics --- Economic Theory and Research --- Economics --- Elasticity --- Equations --- Gross Domestic Product --- Housing and Human Habitats --- Income --- Income Groups --- Inflation Rate --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Public Sector Management and Reform --- Underestimates

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Successful export growth and diversification require not only entry into new export products and markets, but also the survival and growth of export flows. This paper uses a detailed, cross-country dataset of product level bilateral export flows to illustrate that exporting is an extremely perilous activity and especially so in low-income countries. The authors find that unobserved individual heterogeneity in product-level export flow data prevails despite controlling for a wide range of observed country and product characteristics. This questions previous studies that have used the Cox proportional hazards model to model export survival. The authors estimate a Prentice-Gloeckler model, amended with a gamma mixture distribution summarizing unobserved individual heterogeneity. The empirical results confirm the significance of a range of products as well as country-specific factors in determining the survival of export flows. From a policy perspective, an interesting finding is the importance of learning-by-doing for export survival: experience with exporting the same product to other markets or different products to the same market are found to strongly increase the chance of export survival. A better understanding of such learning effects could substantially improve the effectiveness of export promotion strategies.

Adverse impacts --- Bilateral trade --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Debt Markets --- Econometric analysis --- Economic size --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Export growth --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Fixed costs --- Free Trade --- Income --- Income groups --- Income levels --- Inequality --- International Economics and Trade --- International trade --- Law and Justice --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Overvaluation --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Product differentiation --- Production costs --- Purchasing power --- Tax Law --- Technical assistance --- Trade Law --- Trade Policy --- Trade policy --- Transition economies --- Unemployment --- Wealth

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July 2000 - Public spending on tertiary education in Mexico is strongly regressive, benefiting mainly the nonpoor in urban areas. To give the poor a chance at higher education, student loan programs or means-tested financial aid and scholarship programs (though rarely devoid of subsidy) are preferable to free education services, because loan and aid programs target the students who suffer from the financial market's failure to provide long-term loans for higher education. Research shows that education has played a crucial role in raising levels of earnings and that returns to education in Mexico have increased, particularly in higher education and in the upper tail of the conditional earnings distribution. Lopez-Acevedo and Salinas examine patterns of public spending on education in the face of further increases in earnings inequality. They analyze the incidence of benefits using two sets of data: data on unit costs per student by state and by education level, and data from surveys on household income and spending. Among their findings: Nationally, the poorest income groups get most of the national and state subsidy for primary education. At higher education levels the poor get progressively smaller subsidies; For all Mexico, government spending on primary education is very progressive. In lower secondary education it is neutral. And in upper secondary education it benefits mainly the middle and upper classes. Tertiary education is strongly regressive, benefiting mainly the richest deciles and mainly in urban areas; But those government patterns vary by region. In the central region average total spending is more uniformly distributed than the national pattern. In the northern region the subsidy is progressive. Primary education is neutral and higher levels of instruction are moderately regressive. In the central region primary schooling is very progressive, while lower secondary schooling is almost neutral. Upper secondary and tertiary instruction strongly benefit the richest income deciles. In the southern region basic (primary and lower secondary) education is very progressive, upper secondary education is neutral, and tertiary education is highly regressive. In Mexico City all levels of education except primary are strongly regressive. Lopez-Acevedo and Salinas show that public spending at the tertiary level is more regressive than household spending. So much of public spending on tertiary education favors nonpoor families in urban areas that to reallocate the spending so that poor students have a chance to participate would require developing credit markets for higher education. The government's role should be to help overcome market failures in the financial sector, which limit the availability of long-term financing for higher education. These failures can be corrected through student loan programs or means-tested financial aid and scholarship programs. Such programs are rarely devoid of subsidy but are preferable to the direct, cost-free provision of services because the subsidy is targeted more closely to the source of market failure. This paper-a product of the Economic Policy Sector Unit and Mexico Country Office, Latin America and the Caribbean Region-is part of a strategy to reduce poverty and inequality in Mexico. The study was part of the research project Earnings Inequality after Mexico's Economic Reforms. The authors may be contacted at gacevedo@worldbank.org or asalinas@worldbank.org.

Access and Equity in Basic Education --- Cred Earnings --- Debt Markets --- Education --- Education for All --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Finance --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Literacy --- Financial Sector --- Gender --- Gender and Education --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Household Expenditure --- Income --- Income Groups --- Information --- Investments --- Level Of Education --- Loan Programs --- Population Policies --- Primary Education --- Public Expenditures --- Public Sector Expenditure Analysis and Management --- Spending --- Student --- Student Loan --- Students --- Subsidies --- Subsidy --- Tertiary Education

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In current times, highly complex and urgent policy problems—e.g., climate change, rapid urbanization, equitable access to key services, land rights, and massive human resettlement—challenge citizens, NGOs, private corporations, and governments at all levels. These policy problems, often called ‘wicked’, involve multiple causal factors, anticipated and unanticipated effects, as well as high levels of disagreement among stakeholders about the nature of the problem and the appropriateness of solutions. Given the wickedness of such policy problems, interdisciplinary and longitudinal research is required, integrating and harnessing the diverse skills and knowledge of urban planners, anthropologists, geographers, geo-information scientists, economists, and others. This Special Issue promotes innovative concepts, methods, and tools, as well as the role of geo-information, to help (1) analyze alternative policy solutions, (2) facilitate stakeholder dialogue, and (3) explore possibilities for tackling wicked problems related to climate change, rapid urbanization, equitable access to key services (such as water and health), land rights, and human resettlements in high-, middle-, and low-income countries in the North and South. Such integrative approaches can deepen our understanding of how different levels of government and governance reach consensus, despite diverging beliefs and preferences. Due to the particularly complex spatiotemporal characteristics of wicked policy problems, innovative concepts, alternative methods, and new geo-information tools play a significant role.

spatial data infrastructures --- n/a --- water point mapping --- complex adaptive systems --- FCM (Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping) --- spatial data infrastructure (SDI) --- Danube region --- longitudinal analysis --- geospatial data --- administrative technologies --- data gaps --- SDI development --- functionality --- key services --- interactive mapping tools --- the Netherlands --- coordination --- New York City --- renewable energy --- energy governance --- social acceptance --- large-scale base map --- Citizen Science --- self-organisation --- European Union Strategy for the Danube Region --- dashboard --- climate change --- Flanders --- information communication technologies (ICTs) --- heat wave --- Tanzania --- vulnerability --- rural water supply --- ICT4D --- income groups --- water points --- e-services --- information infrastructure --- Belgium --- mobile phone --- maptable --- climate governance --- governance --- rural water governance