Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment and Its Impact on Economic Growth in Developing Countries

By bridging the gap between domestic savings and investment and bringing the latest technology and management know-how from developed countries, foreign direct investment (FDI) can play important role in achieving rapid economic growth in the developing countries. The fact is that FDI mostly flows towards the developed countries and only a small portion of FDI flows to a limited number of developing countries. Thus, most of the developing nations almost fail to attract a handsome amount of FDI. Using panel data from 60 low-income and lower-middle income countries, this paper firstly identifies the influential factors that determine FDI inflow in the developing countries and secondly empirically demonstrates the relationship between economic growth and FDI. It is found that countries with larger GDP and high GDP growth rate and maintain business friendly environment with abundant modern infrastructural facilities, such as internet can successfully attract FDI and FDI on the other hand, significantly affect economic growth of a country.foreign direct investment, determinants, developing countries, economic growth

Rural Craftsmanship, Employment Creation and Poverty Alleviation: The Case of the Bamboo Craftsmanship in Bangladesh

Abstract: More than 30 percent of total population in Bangladesh is extremely poor. Halving the existing poverty level as per the millennium development goals of the UN by 2015 is the major challenge of the country. The question arises as to how to eradicate extreme poverty quickly? Successful experience of the East Asian countries reveals that creation of employment opportunities in the non-farm industrial sector for the rural poor is instrumental to eradicate poverty. Due to stagnant large and medium scales industrial sector and sole dependence on agriculture sector for employment and income, Bangladesh suffers from huge unemployment and disguised unemployment, which has been further worsening due to high population growth rate. Since the long past, rural informal income generating activities, such as traditional bamboo craftsmanship, however, has created enormous employment and income opportunities in the country especially for the rural poor and distress women. Empirical studies though recognize the contribution of rural informal activities to poverty alleviation, seldom focuses on who are the craftsmen, how they produce and market their products. Using primary data collected from more than 200 bamboo craftsmen from four districts in Bangladesh, this study tries to examine the role of rural informal activities and characterizes who are the craftsmen. The study finds that bamboo craftsmen are mostly uneducated and inherited the skills and businesses from their parents. The study also finds that all of the workers in the bamboo industry are family members and nearly 50 percent of total workers in the bamboo sector are female. Thus, the traditional bamboo sector contributes enormously to the creation of employment opportunities for the rural women. Finally, based on the opinions of the craftsmen, the study recommends some suggestions for the development of the bamboo industry in Bangladesh.industrial cluster, industrial development, craftsmanship, bamboo

Exact Analytical Formula for the Excess Noise Factor for Mixed Carrier Injection Avalanche Photodiodes

The well-known analytical formula for the excess noise factor associated with avalanche photodiodes (APDs), developed by R. J. McIntyre in 1966, assumes the injection of either an electron or a hole at the edge of the APD\u27s avalanche region. This formula is based on the statistics of the probabilities of carriers gaining and losing energy subject to high electric fields. However, this analytical formula, is not applicable in cases when photons are absorbed inside the avalanche region (even though the physics of the high field transport remains the same), and its use may severely underestimate or overestimate the actual excess noise factor depending on the absorption profile and the hole-to-electron ionization coefficient ratio, k. Here, an easy-to-use exact analytical formula is derived for the excess noise factor of APDs while taking into account a mixed-carrier initiated avalanche multiplication process, which is triggered by a parent electron-hole pair at an arbitrarily specified location within the multiplication region. The derivation relies on analytically solving a special case of a previously reported recursive integral equations [Hayat et al., IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 546-552, Mar. 1992.], and the result matches the formula reported by McIntyre in 1999 using a different and limited technique. In addition, an expression for the excess noise factor is presented in the case when the location of the parent electron-hole pair within the multiplication region obeys an arbitrary exponential distribution. The results show that in contrast to the case of edge parent-electron injection, when mixed injection is allowed even a small level of hole ionization (e.g., small k ~ 0.0001) causes the excess noise factor to increase dramatically, depending on the absorption profile as it ranges from narrow to flat within the multiplication region. The theoretical results are validated against experimental results for Si APDs

人的資本と産業発展: バングラデシュのニットウェア産業の事例

公共政策プログラム / Public Policy Program政策研究大学院大学 / National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies論文審査委員: 園部 哲史（主査）, 大塚 啓二郎, 山野 峰, 山形 辰史（日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所）, 大山 達

A Scalable Algorithm for Image Retrieval by Color

To deal with large databases, we present a clustering based indexing technique, where the images in the database are grouped into clusters of images with similar color content using a hierarchical clustering algorithm. At search time the query image is not compared with all the images in the database, but only with a small subset. Thus the retrieval is scalable to large databases. Experiments show that this clustering based approach offers a superior response time without sacrificing the retrieval accuracy, which is crucial for large databases. 1

Study of wavelength-shifting chemicals for use in large-scale water Cherenkov detectors

Cherenkov detectors employ various methods to maximize light collection at the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). These generally involve the use of highly reflective materials lining the interior of the detector, reflective materials around the PMTs, or wavelength-shifting sheets around the PMTs. Recently, the use of water-soluble wavelength-shifters has been explored to increase the measurable light yield of Cherenkov radiation in water. These wave-shifting chemicals are capable of absorbing light in the ultravoilet and re-emitting the light in a range detectable by PMTs. Using a 250 L water Cherenkov detector, we have characterized the increase in light yield from three compounds in water: 4-Methylumbelliferone, Carbostyril-124, and Amino-G Salt. We report the gain in PMT response at a concentration of 1 ppm as: 1.88 $\pm$ 0.02 for 4-Methylumbelliferone, stable to within 0.5% over 50 days, 1.37 $\pm$ 0.03 for Carbostyril-124, and 1.20 $\pm$ 0.02 for Amino-G Salt. The response of 4-Methylumbelliferone was modeled, resulting in a simulated gain within 9% of the experimental gain at 1 ppm concentration. Finally, we report an increase in neutron detection performance of a large-scale (3.5 kL) gadolinium-doped water Cherenkov detector at a 4-Methylumbelliferone concentration of 1 ppm.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods

A forgácsképzés paramétereinek optimalizációja egyiptine nezőgazdasági hulladékanyagok feldolgozásakor

A szántóföldi hulladékanyagok az egyiptomi mezőgazdaság egyik legkritikusabb problémáját jelentik. E probléma megoldásának első lépése apríték és forgács képzése ezekből a lignocellulóz alapú hulladé - kokból, melyet több termék gyártására is fel lehet használni. A forgácsképzés paramétereinek optimali\ud - zálása céljából egy helyi kalapácsos malom vizsgálatára került sor, különböző mezőgazdasági hulladékok (kukoricaszár – Zea mays L., rizsszalma – Oriza glaberrima, és gyapotszár – Gossypium spp.) feldol - gozása folyamán. A berendezés termelékenységét, energiafelvételét, valamint a forgácshalmaz méret - eloszlását a kerületi sebesség, a szitaméret és az alapanyag nedvességtartalma függvényében vizsgáltuk. A kísérleti eredmények alapján a berendezés működése a vizsgált tartományon belül a legalacso - nyabb nedvességtartalom és a legmagasabb kerületi sebesség esetén volt optimális. A vártnak meg - felelően a legkisebb szitaméret esetén megnőtt a finomfrakció mennyisége, de megnövekedett az energiafelvétel és csökkent a termelékenység. Ezek az eredmények mindhárom mezőgazdasági hulladékanyag esetében hasonlók voltak

Climate change adaptation in agriculture: Ex ante analysis of promising and alternative crop technologies using DSSAT and IMPACT

Achieving and maintaining global food security is challenged by changes in population, income, and climate, among other drivers. Assessing these challenges and possible solutions over the coming decades requires a rigorous multidisciplinary approach. To answer this challenge, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has developed a system of linked simulation models of global agriculture to do long-run scenario analysis of the effects of climate change and various adaptation strategies. This system includes the core International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT), which is linked to water models (global hydrology, water basin management, and water stress on crops) and crop simulation models. The Global Futures and Strategic Foresight program, a CGIAR initiative led by IFPRI in collaboration with other CGIAR research centers, is working to improve these tools and conducting ex ante assessments of promising technologies, investments, and policies under alternative global futures. Baseline projections from IMPACT set the foundation with the latest outlook on long-term trends in food demand and agricultural production based on projected changes in population, income, technology, and climate. On top of the baseline, scenarios are developed for assessing the impacts of promising climate-adapted technologies for maize, wheat, rice, potatoes, sorghum, groundnut, and cassava on yields, area, production, trade, and prices in 2050 at a variety of scales. Yield gains from adoption of the selected technologies vary by technology and region, but are found to be generally comparable in scale to (and thus able to offset) the adverse effects of climate change under a high-emissions representative concentration pathway (RCP 8.5). Even more important in this long-term climate change scenario are effects of growth in population, income, and investments in overall technological change, highlighting the importance of linked assessment of biophysical and socioeconomic drivers to better understand climate impacts and responses. For all crops in the selected countries, climate change impacts are negative with the baseline technology. All new technologies have beneficial effects on yields under climate change, with combined traits (drought and heat tolerance) showing the greatest benefi

Hydrothermal Preparation of Gd+3 -Doped Titanate Nanotubes: Magnetic Properties and Photovoltaic Performance

Pure and Gd+3 -doped titanate nanotubes (TNTs) materials were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Their morphology, optical properties, thermal stability, and magnetic properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and magnetic measurements. It was found that doping renders Gd+3-TNT visible light active and results in smaller crystallite size and larger surface area as well as higher thermal stability compared to pure titanate nanotubes. The estimated magnetic moments point to presence of weak antiferromagnetic interaction. Application of the prepared Gd+3-TNT for modifying conventional photoanodes in polymer solar cells was attempted. Preliminary results show slightly improved photovoltaic energy conversion efficiency in the devices containing the newly designed Gd+3 -doped nanotubes

An Inquiry into the Rapid Growth of the Garment Industry in Bangladesh

経済学 / EconomicsThe export-oriented garment industry in Bangladesh has grown rapidly for the last three decades and now ranks among the largest garment exporters in the world. While its　early success is attributed to the initial technology transfer from South Korea, such a one-time infusion of knowledge alone is insufficient to explain the sustained growth for three decades. This paper uses primary data collected from knitwear manufacturers and garment traders to explore the process of the continuous learning of advanced skills and know-how. It finds, among other things, that the high profitability of garment manufacturing due to the initial infusion of specific human capital attracted a number of highly educated entrepreneurs to the industry, that the division of labor between manufacturers and traders has facilitated the expansion of the industry, and that enterprise growth has lasted long because of the continuous learning from abroad by the highly educated entrepreneurs.http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/sonobe_tetsushi