Labour Market Effects of Trade Liberalisation: The Case of Mauritius

This article uses a partial equilibrium approach to measure the impact of trade liberalisation on the demand elasticity of labour in the apparel industry in Mauritius, a sector where, in general, those in the work force are poor. The findings reveal that there is no evidence that trade liberalisation has increased the overall labour demand elasticity with respect to wages, though it has increased the demand elasticity for female workers. We further examine the relationship between trade liberalisation measures and characteristics of poor households and find that the overall results are mixed and inconclusive, probably due to the high level of data aggregation. Keywords: trade liberalisation, poverty alleviationtrade liberalisation, poverty alleviation, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Financial Economics, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy,

The role of Internal Marketing (IM) in sustainable destination management: A case study of Grand Bay, Mauritius

This paper investigates about internal marketing (IM) at a tourism destination. Research reveals considerable work in the area, but, it is observed that the concept has always been examined within a confined setting. Tourists experience a medley of services at a destination so that satisfaction is measured through the evaluation of each service element separately. As such, marketing a tourist destination is a challenging task as many stakeholders are involved. The absence of IM in the overall marketing program at a destination confirms the gap in literature and calls for a re-examination of the concept. The host community, as a co-creator of the tourism offer has always been overlooked in the process of marketing. Therein lies the contribution of this paper. The study therefore seeks to address two gaps in literature – first to provide a renewed definition of IM at a tourism destination and second, it gauges into IM implications in the sustainability context. Using semi-structured interviews to cover all segments at the destination, the findings reveal that all the stakeholders know about marketing, but most people do not understand the term IM. The lack of communication between destination stakeholders and the loose connection that exist in the motives of individual co-creators of the tourism product confirms a missing IM in the overall marketing program which in turn impedes in sustaining the tourism destination

The impact of foreign aid on growth and savings in developing countries

Developing countries have received foreign aid and other forms of capital flows for a long time, although they have been subject to some fluctuations. The key question is whether these flows have helped them in achieving their objectives? Aid has been evaluated at two levels: micro and macro. While micro evaluations have found that in most cases aid 'works' (for example Cassen et al., 1986), those at the macro-level are ambiguous. This thesis is predominantly concerned with the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. There have been considerable efforts to improve both the theoretical and empirical literature on aid effectiveness, both suffer from serious weaknesses and shortcomings. At the theoretical level, there are not many models which capture the full potential of foreign aid within a consistent, fully specified, growth framework, while existing empirical studies are flawed by model mispecification, questionable sample composition and size, and inappropriate econometric techniques. This has led to inconclusive and often misleading results in assessing the effectiveness of foreign aid. This thesis attempts to address some of these deficiencies. The impact of aid is mainly assessed on growth and savings in developing countries. Before testing its impact, aid is introduced into some growth models. Cases are analysed where an economy, after initial aid flows, can become independent of aid and experience sustained growth through its ability to raise labour efficiency. On the empirical front, two techniques are used: a preliminary statistical analysis is performed, followed by an econometric analysis. The former allows a better understanding of the geographical distribution of aid, the link and any correlation between the macro variables: aid, growth, savings and investment. Since aid flows have been influenced by major international shocks (e. g. oil price shocks, debt crises, etc.), a simple taxonomy is used to indicate how these events have influenced the effectiveness of aid. Using a macroeconometric model from Fischer-Easterly to control for the recipients' macroeconomic environment (previously overlooked in the literature), a positive and significant impact of foreign aid on growth is found. This result is confirmed using both cross-section and panel data for the period of 1970-1993. We make use of Hall's (1978) life cycle/permanent income hypothesis, but do not find evidence that current aid flows leak into consumption, hence rejecting the fungibility hypothesis. Although much further work concerning the developmental effectiveness of aid remains to be carried out, it is hoped that this study will stimulate improved techniques and methods used in testing the effectiveness of aid in future work

Furthering Lifelong Learning to Navigate through the New Normal – A Small Island State Perspective

PCF10 Sub-theme: Fostering Lifelong Learning // The Covid-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to Higher Education Systems worldwide and Mauritius, a small island state, had to ensure that its people continue learning to navigate through the new normal. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology entered into an agreement with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) to secure scholarships under the ‘COL_Skills for Work Scholarship’, over the next 3 years. This timely initiative aims to close the skills gap of in-demand and high-demand jobs. Data from the first cohort reveals more than 50 % of learners completed their courses. A survey is underway to gauge the benefits accrued through the scheme by 1500 learners in terms of unlocking their potential to face changes in their workplace, building employability skills and personal development as well as to investigate its impact on the livelihood of people in the island. The study will be used as a basis to create strategic directions towards lifelong learning in a small island state and will also give invaluable insights into how education can be tailored made to create a talent economy, assisting higher education institutions to reinvent their learnings to meet the new needs of the economy. // Paper ID 794

Local perceptions of the relative contributions of enclave tourism and agritourism to community well-being: The case of Mauritius

To date, limited attention has been paid to the contribution of tourism to the well-being of island residents in general and to whether such well-being varies according to the nature of tourism development in particular. Specifically, island tourism is frequently manifested in resort-based enclave development, a form of tourism that is often criticised for its assumed limited benefits to the wider community. As a consequence, alternative approaches such as agritourism, are increasingly proposed as a means of enhancing community development and well-being yet the relative merits of enclave and agritourism have not been explored within an island tourism context. This paper addresses this notable gap in the literature. Drawing on a questionnaire-based survey in Mauritius, it considers and compares the perceptions of local people of the extent to which enclave tourism and agritourism contribute to their well-being. The results reveal that both types of tourism development contribute both positively and negatively to community well-being although enclave tourism is perceived to have fewer positive outcomes. On the one hand, enclave tourism provides valuable cultural opportunities but damages the environment, restricts entrepreneurship and favours local elites; on the other hand, agritourism, although not yet well-established in Mauritius, is perceived to positively enhance the cultural and social spheres of community life whilst supporting entrepreneurship

Arabidopsis DUO POLLEN3 Is a Key Regulator of Male Germline Development and Embryogenesis

Male germline development in angiosperms produces the pair of sperm cells required for double fertilization. A key regulator of this process in Arabidopsis thaliana is the male germline-specific transcription factor DUO POLLEN1 (DUO1) that coordinates germ cell division and gamete specification. Here, we uncover the role of DUO3, a nuclear protein that has a distinct, but overlapping role with DUO1 in male germline development. DUO3 is a conserved protein in land plants and is related to GON-4, a cell lineage regulator of gonadogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans. Mutant duo3-1 germ cells either fail to divide or show a delay in division, and we show that, unlike DUO1, DUO3 promotes entry into mitosis independent of the G2/M regulator CYCB1;1. We also show that DUO3 is required for the expression of a subset of germline genes under DUO1 control and that like DUO1, DUO3 is essential for sperm cell specification and fertilization. Furthermore, we demonstrate an essential sporophytic role for DUO3 in cell division and embryo patterning. Our findings demonstrate essential developmental roles for DUO3 in cell cycle progression and cell specification in both gametophytic and sporophytic tissues

Comprehensive prediction of novel microRNA targets in Arabidopsis thaliana

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 20–24 nt long endogenous non-coding RNAs that act as post-transcriptional regulators in metazoa and plants. Plant miRNA targets typically contain a single sequence motif with near-perfect complementarity to the miRNA. Here, we extended and applied the program RNAhybrid to identify novel miRNA targets in the complete annotated Arabidopsis thaliana transcriptome. RNAhybrid predicts the energetically most favorable miRNA:mRNA hybrids that are consistent with user-defined structural constraints. These were: (i) perfect base pairing of the duplex from nucleotide 8 to 12 counting from the 5′-end of the miRNA; (ii) loops with a maximum length of one nucleotide in either strand; (iii) bulges with no more than one nucleotide in size; and (iv) unpaired end overhangs not longer than two nucleotides. G:U base pairs are not treated as mismatches, but contribute less favorable to the overall free energy. The resulting hybrids were filtered according to their minimum free energy, resulting in an overall prediction of more than 600 novel miRNA targets. The specificity and signal-to-noise ratio of the prediction was assessed with either randomized miRNAs or randomized target sequences as negative controls. Our results are in line with recent observations that the majority of miRNA targets are not transcription factors