Communities around the world have distinctive ways of representing language use across space and ... more Communities around the world have distinctive ways of representing language use across space and territory. The approach to and method of mapping languages that began with nineteenth-century European dialectology and colonial boundary making is one such way. Though practiced by relatively few linguists today, language mapping has developed considerably from its roots yet remains stymied by problems of ideology, representation, and data quality. In this paper, we argue that digital language mapping in hyperdiverse cities can both contribute to overcoming these problems and bring visibility and resources to communities using Indigenous, minority, and primarily oral languages. For these communities, official surveys like the census are often inadequate, leaving a gap that communities, linguists, and mapping experts working in partnership can address. Urban language mapping as a field should make space for Indigenous, minority, and primarily oral languages through geospatial visualizati...
This article analyzes the audio diaries of a Tibetan physician, originally from Amdo (Qinghai Pro... more This article analyzes the audio diaries of a Tibetan physician, originally from Amdo (Qinghai Province, China), now living in New York City. Dr. Kunchog Tseten describes his experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring and summer 2020, when Queens, New York—the location where he lives and works—was the "epicenter of the epicenter" of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States. The collaborative research project of which this diary is a part combines innovative methodological approaches to qualitative, ethnographic study during this era of social distancing with an attunement to the relationship between language, culture, and health care. Dr. Kunchog's diary and our analysis of its contents illustrate the ways that Tibetan medicine and Tibetan cultural practices, including those emergent from Buddhism, have helped members of the Himalayan and Tibetan communities in New York City navigate this unprecedented moment with care and compassion.
The last decade has seen great advances in the development of electronic tools for automated inte... more The last decade has seen great advances in the development of electronic tools for automated interlinearization, corpus creation and lexicon building (e.g. Fieldworks Explorer [FLEx]), as well as tools for creating time-aligned annotations (e.g. ELAN). However, methods for sharing these new data formats online lag far behind. While good options exist for lexical data (e.g. Webonary, Lexique Pro), there is no tool for turning a project created in the FLEx software into an online interlinearized corpus. We present here a tool in development which does precisely that. FLEx databases can be searched using regular expressions and individual lines from a text can be linked to audio and video media. The tool can furthermore bring together linguistic data in diverse formats (from ELAN, Praat, Fieldworks, Toolbox, Shoebox) for a single query and allow for queries over multiple language projects. We discuss the benefits of this program in relation to several ongoing fieldwork projects that ar...
Fieldwork with immigrant communities in urban centers has played an important historical role in ... more Fieldwork with immigrant communities in urban centers has played an important historical role in linguistics despite scarce mention of this practice in the growing literature on language description and fieldwork. Bowern and Warner (2015, 63), in a rare exception, explicitly identify diaspora fieldwork as a distinct scenario among seven different possible relations between linguists and a language community:
Infixation phenomena in a variety of languages has provided important evidence in support of an O... more Infixation phenomena in a variety of languages has provided important evidence in support of an Optimality Theoretic approach to morphophonology (Prince and Smolensky 1993; McCarthy and Prince 1993a; b). Within this approach, the category of infixes is not taken to be underlyingly specified as such, but rather their infixal status is seen to arise from the interaction of ALIGN with higher ranked markedness constraints. Hence, all affixes are taken to be primitively prefixes or suffixes with infixes being a derived category. Recently, evidence has been adduced against such a strong claim. Blevins (1999) and Yu (2002) have made arguments for specifying the precise attachment site of all affixes within the lexicon. Counter-evidence against the OT analysis of infixation can be classified into two types: (a) cases where infixation seems prosodically unmotivated and (b) cases where infixation is motivated but nonetheless does not occur (within a language already possessing infixes). This ...
The Ross Sea is a region characterized by high primary productivity in comparison to other Antarc... more The Ross Sea is a region characterized by high primary productivity in comparison to other Antarctic coastal regions, and its productivity is marked by considerable variability both spatially (1–50 km) and temporally (days to weeks). This variability presents a challenge for inferring phytoplankton dynamics from observations that are limited in time or space, which is often the case due to logistical limitations of sampling. To better understand the spatiotemporal variability of Ross Sea phytoplankton dynamics and determine how restricted sampling may skew dynamical interpretations, high-resolution bio-optical glider measurements were assimilated into a one-dimensional biogeochemical model adapted for the Ross Sea. Assimilation of glider data using the micro-genetic and local search algorithms in the Marine Model Optimization Testbed improves model-data fit by ~ 50 %, generating rates of integrated primary production of 104 g C m<su...
Philippine-type languages are often cited as exemplifying a cross-linguistically unique voice sys... more Philippine-type languages are often cited as exemplifying a cross-linguistically unique voice system, in which verb morphology can select not only an agent or patient, but also locative, instrumental and other adjunct type relations as the nominative argument. In this paper, we examine three approaches to this typologically remarkable system: the ergative analysis, the case agreement analysis and the nominalization analysis, arguing for the latter based on strong parallels between verbal and nominal predication from the root level to the clause level. The morphologically symmetric nature of Philippine-type languages is argued to stem from their nominal roots. The historical development of verbal roots leads to a more fixed argument structure in which canonical ergative languages develop. Mamuju, an Austronesian language of West Sulawesi, Indonesia, is offered as an example of a classically ergative language, in contrast to Philippine-type systems.
Two functions commonly fulilled by nominalization are exclamative formation and temporal subordin... more Two functions commonly fulilled by nominalization are exclamative formation and temporal subordination. his article examines the morphology and syntax of these types of nominalizations across a wide range of Austronesian languages. I argue that the commonality between these two functions is found in the presuppositionality (both real and accommodated) involved in their interpretation. Special attention is paid to the mixed nominal-verbal properties of these constructions while ofering evidence that nominalization can be a process which applies at several levels within the syntax. (2) a. ma-ganda si Maria. -beauty . M. 'Maria is beautful. ' b. kay ganda ni Maria! beauty . M. 'How beautiful Maria is!' (3) a. *ma-ganda ni Maria. -beauty . M. 'Maria is beautful. ' b. *kay ganda si Maria! beauty . M. 'How beautiful Maria is!' Looking now at temporal adjuncts, in (4a) we ind a canonical intransitive sentence with an actor voice predicate and in (4b) we ind its corresponding temporal adjunct. Again, we ind that the sole argument is expressed as a genitive/possessor rather than a subject. (4) a. <um>alis si Maria <.>leave . M. 'Maria let. ' b. pag-alis ni Maria… -leave . M. 'When Maria leaves/let…'
International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption
This paper describes an ongoing project to measure governance using crosscountry perceptions data... more This paper describes an ongoing project to measure governance using crosscountry perceptions data. The governance indicators measure six dimensions of governance and cover 209 countries and territories for 1996-2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 different organizations. We present the estimates of governance, and the margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. We show how these margins of error should be taken into account when considering crosscountry differences and changes over time in governance. We find that in a number of countries the quality of governance improved significantly in the short term. Yet deteriorations also took place in some other countries, while in many there was little change. There has been no worldwide improvement in governance on average. We argue that perceptions-based data provide valuable insights relative to objective data on governance, and that individual objective measures of governance provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. We also show that margins of error are not unique to perceptionsbased measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. We also empirically investigate the importance of ideological biases in expert assessments of corruption and find little evidence that they are present. Governance indicators and per capita incomes are highly correlated across countries. Recent research shows that this correlation captures an important causal effect running from measures of governance such as these to per capita incomes. Critics of this view argue that the correlation captures substantial reverse causation from incomes to governance, and is tainted by "halo effects" where rich countries receive good ratings simply because they are rich. We review available evidence on these two critiques and find it to be lacking. The data, as well as a web-based graphical interface, are available at www.
This paper presents the latest update of our aggregate governance indicators, together with new a... more This paper presents the latest update of our aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (i) voice and accountability; (ii) political Instability and violence; (iii) government effectiveness; (iv) regulatory quality; (v) rule of law, and, (vi) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. We present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, we provide examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. We also analyze in some detail changes over time in our estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for our aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While we find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), we also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, we interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.
Following Alan Winters' appointment as Director of the Research Group at the World Bank, Professo... more Following Alan Winters' appointment as Director of the Research Group at the World Bank, Professor Jaime de Alelo of the University of Geneva will become Editor of the Review. He will be responsible for volume 19 onwards. The World Bank Economic Review is a professional journal for the dissemination of World Bank-sponsored and outside research that may inform policy analyses and choices. It is directed to an international readership among economists and social scientists in government, business, and international agencies, as well as in universities and development research institutions. The Review emphasizes policy relevance and operational aspects of economics, rather than primarily theoretical and methodological issues. It is intended for readers familiar with economic theory and analysis but not necessarily proficient in advanced mathematical or econometric techniques. Articles will illustrate how professional research can shed light on policy choices. Inconsistency with Bank policy will not be grounds for rejection of an article. Articles will be drawn from work conducted by World Bank staff and consultants and from papers submitted by outside researchers. Before being accepted for publication, all articles will be reviewed by two referees who are not members of the Bank's staff and one World Bank staff member. Articles must also be recommended by a member of the Editorial Board. Non-Bank contributors are requested to submit a proposal of not more than two pages in length to the Editor or a member of the Editorial Board before sending in their paper. Comments or brief notes responding to Review articles are welcome and will be considered for publication to the extent that space permits.
We contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exp... more We contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exploration of determinants of performance of cities. We construct a preliminary worldwide database for cities, containing variables and indicators of globalization (at the country and city level), city governance, city performance (access and quality of infrastructure service delivery), as well as other relevant city characteristics. This city database, encompassing hundreds of cities worldwide, integrates existing data with new data gathered for this research project. We present a very simple conceptual framework and a set of hypotheses, and then test them econometrically. The findings suggest that good governance and globalization (at both the country as well as at the city level) do matter for city-level performance in terms of access and quality of delivery of infrastructure services. We also find that globalization and good city governance are significantly related with each other. There appear to be dynamic pressures from globalization and accountability that result in better performance at the city level. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that there are particular and complex interactions between technology choices, governance and city performance, as well as evidence of a non-linear (u-shaped) relationship between city size and performance, challenging the view that very large cities necessarily exhibit lower performance and pointing to potential agglomeration economies. Our framework also suggests a way of bridging two seemingly competing strands of the literature, namely viewing the city as a place or as an outcome. We conclude pointing to the need for expanding the database and the econometric framework, as well as to more general future research directions and policy implications emerging from this initial empirical investigation in the field of governance and the city.
Abstract: In recent years, the growing interest of academics and policymakers in governance has b... more Abstract: In recent years, the growing interest of academics and policymakers in governance has been reflected in the proliferation cross-country indices measuring various aspects of governance. In this paper we explain how a simple variant of an unobserved components model can be used to combine the information from these different sources into aggregate governance indicators. The main advantage of this method is that it allows us to quantify the precision of the both individual sources of governance data as well as the aggregate governance indicators. We illustrate the methodology by constructing aggregate indicators of bureaucratic quality, rule of law, and graft, for a large sample of 160 countries. Although these aggregate governance indicators are more informative about the level of governance than any individual indicator, the standard errors associated with estimates of governance are still large relative to the units in which governance is measured.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. Policy ReseaRch WoRking PaPeR 4370 Scholars, policymakers, aid donors, and aid recipients acknowledge the importance of good governance for development. This understanding has spurred an intense interest in more refined, nuanced, and policy-relevant indicators of governance. In this paper we review progress to date in the area of measuring governance, using a simple framework of analysis focusing on two key questions: (i) what do we measure? and, (ii) whose views do we rely on? For the former question, we distinguish between indicators measuring formal laws or rules 'on the books', and indicators that measure the practical application or outcomes of these rules 'on the ground', calling attention to the strengths and weaknesses of both types of indicators as well as the complementarities between them. For the latter question, we distinguish This paper-a joint product of the Global Governance Group, World Bank Institute, and the Macroeconomics and Growth Team, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the Bank to study governance.
The Austronesian languages comprise a vast family with some 1,268 members spanning half of the gl... more The Austronesian languages comprise a vast family with some 1,268 members spanning half of the globe, from Rapanui (Easter Island) on its Eastern boundary, to Malagasy (Madagascar) on its Western boundary, and from the Aboriginal languages of Taiwan (known as 'Formosan languages') on its Northern boundary to Maori (New Zealand) in the
The indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governa... more The indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance drawn from 25 data sources constructed by 18 organizations. These individual measures are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance. An unobserved-components model is used to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. Point estimates of the dimensions of governance are provided as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. Methodological issues are also addressed, including tests for potential biases, and the interpretation and use of the data, given the estimated margins of errors for the indicators. The data and a Web-based graphical interface are available online at www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/govdata2002/index.html. This article presents estimates of six dimensions of governance for 199 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002 developed in the context of an ongoing project to measure governance across countries. Section I describes the data used in developing this round of the governance indicators, which include several new sources. Data sources used in the earlier studies were updated forward to 2002 and backward to 1996, and previously estimated indicators for 1998 and 2000 were revised to reflect the new data. The aggregation procedure, described in section II, provides not only estimates of governance for each country but also measures of the precision or reliability of these estimates. Although the new data have improved the precision of the governance indicators, the margins of error remain large relative to the units in which governance is measured, so that comparisons across countries and especially over time should be made with caution. Measurement error is not unique to these indicators but is pervasive among all measures of governance and
The main objective of this study is to explore the realationship between a country's overall... more The main objective of this study is to explore the realationship between a country's overall economic policy environment and the performance of investment projects in the social sectors. The authors focus on the impact of economy-wide policies including a range of fiscal, monetary, exchange rate, trade, and pricing indicators. Particular emphasis is put on the analysis of projects in education, which comprise the large majority of the Bank's social projects. The methodology combines statistical analysis and case studies, with the latter based on a broad range of sectoral reports, Project Completion Reports, Project Performance Audit Reports, and sustainability analysis conducted by the Operation Evaluation Department (OED) of the World Bank. The statistical analysis draws on the OED project data as well as the country-level policy performance variables of the World Development Report 1991 data set. The paper also briefly reviews the literature, and examines some country an...
The overarching thesis of this essay is that despite the etymological relationship between the wo... more The overarching thesis of this essay is that despite the etymological relationship between the word ‘philosophy’ and wisdom—the word ‘philosophos’, in Greek, means ‘lover of wisdom’—and irrespective of the longstanding tradition of identifying philosophers with ‘wise men’—mainline philosophy, historically, has had little interest in wisdom and has been preoccupied primarily with knowledge. Philosophy, if we are speaking of the mainline tradition, has had and continues to have more in common with the natural and social sciences than it does with the humanities and liberal arts. In advancing this thesis, I divide the history of philosophy into three competing traditions: the mainline tradition of philosophy and two philosophical ‘countercultures,’ one conservative the other radical. At issue between these rival traditions is precisely the relative significance of knowledge and wisdom and their respective places in inquiry. I also provide an account of the distinction between knowledge...
is good reason to believe that both archaic and anatomically modern humans occupied southwest Asi... more is good reason to believe that both archaic and anatomically modern humans occupied southwest Asia at the same time. On the assumption that this was indeed the case, this paper attempts to draw comparisons between the Neanderthals and their modern contemporaries and to examine the possibilities of interaction between the two. Southwest Asia is the only region in the world where two biologically distinct hominids are associated with the Middle Palaeolithic. Thus, the region provides a unique opportunity to make direct comparisons between archaic hominids, notably the Neanderthals, and early representatives of anatomically modern humans. The primary question to be dealt with here is whether these two populations, defined on the basis of their morphological characteristics, also varied with regard to their cultural and behavioral adaptations. In addition, as will be seen, there is a strong possibility that both of the groups occupied the region simultaneously rather than in an alternating fashion, and this provides the opportunity to consider the question of possible interactions between them. In order to deal with these issues it is first necessary to present a brief overview of the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic with regard to assemblage types, chronology and hominid associations. ASSEMBLAGE TYPES The cave of Tabun on Mount Carmel, with its deeply stratified sequence, has long been used as the type site for classifying Mousterian assemblages. The terminology follows the stratigraphic nomenclature set out by Garrod (Garrod and Bate 1937) resulting in three types of Mousterian assemblages: Tabun D type Mousterian, Tabun C type Mousterian and Tabun B type Mousterian. Because these fall within a stratigraphic sequence from oldest (Layer D) to youngest (Layer B), they are often referred to as phases within the Mousterian (e.g. Copeland 1975 who proposed Phases 1 through 3 modeled on Tabun Layers D through B respectively). However, as will be outlined below, because some of them may actually overlap in time, there may be good reason to adhere to the view proposed some years ago (Hours et al. 1973) and use the term facies rather than phase for the different assemblage groups. Since there is a strong possibility that at least two of the groups represent separate, partially parallel traditions within the Mousterian, it is proposed here to refer to each of the three groups as distinct cultural entities.
ABSTRACT The contributions to this book concern the documentation, archiving and revitalization o... more ABSTRACT The contributions to this book concern the documentation, archiving and revitalization of endangered language materials. The anthology focuses mainly on endangered Oceanic languages, with articles on Vanuatu by Darrell Tryon and the Marquesas by Gabriele Cablitz, on situations of loss and gain by Ingjerd Hoem and on the Kilivila language of the Trobriands by the editor. Nick Thieberger, Peter Wittenburg and Paul Trilsbeek, and David Blundell and colleagues write about aspects of linguistic archiving. Under the rubric of revitalization, Margaret Florey and Michael Ewing write about Maluku, Jakelin Troy and Michael Walsh about Australian Aboriginal languages in southeastern Australia, whilst three articles, by Sophie Nock, Diana Johnson and Winifred Crombie concern the revitalization of Maori.
Communities around the world have distinctive ways of representing language use across space and ... more Communities around the world have distinctive ways of representing language use across space and territory. The approach to and method of mapping languages that began with nineteenth-century European dialectology and colonial boundary making is one such way. Though practiced by relatively few linguists today, language mapping has developed considerably from its roots yet remains stymied by problems of ideology, representation, and data quality. In this paper, we argue that digital language mapping in hyperdiverse cities can both contribute to overcoming these problems and bring visibility and resources to communities using Indigenous, minority, and primarily oral languages. For these communities, official surveys like the census are often inadequate, leaving a gap that communities, linguists, and mapping experts working in partnership can address. Urban language mapping as a field should make space for Indigenous, minority, and primarily oral languages through geospatial visualizati...
This article analyzes the audio diaries of a Tibetan physician, originally from Amdo (Qinghai Pro... more This article analyzes the audio diaries of a Tibetan physician, originally from Amdo (Qinghai Province, China), now living in New York City. Dr. Kunchog Tseten describes his experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring and summer 2020, when Queens, New York—the location where he lives and works—was the "epicenter of the epicenter" of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States. The collaborative research project of which this diary is a part combines innovative methodological approaches to qualitative, ethnographic study during this era of social distancing with an attunement to the relationship between language, culture, and health care. Dr. Kunchog's diary and our analysis of its contents illustrate the ways that Tibetan medicine and Tibetan cultural practices, including those emergent from Buddhism, have helped members of the Himalayan and Tibetan communities in New York City navigate this unprecedented moment with care and compassion.
The last decade has seen great advances in the development of electronic tools for automated inte... more The last decade has seen great advances in the development of electronic tools for automated interlinearization, corpus creation and lexicon building (e.g. Fieldworks Explorer [FLEx]), as well as tools for creating time-aligned annotations (e.g. ELAN). However, methods for sharing these new data formats online lag far behind. While good options exist for lexical data (e.g. Webonary, Lexique Pro), there is no tool for turning a project created in the FLEx software into an online interlinearized corpus. We present here a tool in development which does precisely that. FLEx databases can be searched using regular expressions and individual lines from a text can be linked to audio and video media. The tool can furthermore bring together linguistic data in diverse formats (from ELAN, Praat, Fieldworks, Toolbox, Shoebox) for a single query and allow for queries over multiple language projects. We discuss the benefits of this program in relation to several ongoing fieldwork projects that ar...
Fieldwork with immigrant communities in urban centers has played an important historical role in ... more Fieldwork with immigrant communities in urban centers has played an important historical role in linguistics despite scarce mention of this practice in the growing literature on language description and fieldwork. Bowern and Warner (2015, 63), in a rare exception, explicitly identify diaspora fieldwork as a distinct scenario among seven different possible relations between linguists and a language community:
Infixation phenomena in a variety of languages has provided important evidence in support of an O... more Infixation phenomena in a variety of languages has provided important evidence in support of an Optimality Theoretic approach to morphophonology (Prince and Smolensky 1993; McCarthy and Prince 1993a; b). Within this approach, the category of infixes is not taken to be underlyingly specified as such, but rather their infixal status is seen to arise from the interaction of ALIGN with higher ranked markedness constraints. Hence, all affixes are taken to be primitively prefixes or suffixes with infixes being a derived category. Recently, evidence has been adduced against such a strong claim. Blevins (1999) and Yu (2002) have made arguments for specifying the precise attachment site of all affixes within the lexicon. Counter-evidence against the OT analysis of infixation can be classified into two types: (a) cases where infixation seems prosodically unmotivated and (b) cases where infixation is motivated but nonetheless does not occur (within a language already possessing infixes). This ...
The Ross Sea is a region characterized by high primary productivity in comparison to other Antarc... more The Ross Sea is a region characterized by high primary productivity in comparison to other Antarctic coastal regions, and its productivity is marked by considerable variability both spatially (1–50 km) and temporally (days to weeks). This variability presents a challenge for inferring phytoplankton dynamics from observations that are limited in time or space, which is often the case due to logistical limitations of sampling. To better understand the spatiotemporal variability of Ross Sea phytoplankton dynamics and determine how restricted sampling may skew dynamical interpretations, high-resolution bio-optical glider measurements were assimilated into a one-dimensional biogeochemical model adapted for the Ross Sea. Assimilation of glider data using the micro-genetic and local search algorithms in the Marine Model Optimization Testbed improves model-data fit by ~ 50 %, generating rates of integrated primary production of 104 g C m<su...
Philippine-type languages are often cited as exemplifying a cross-linguistically unique voice sys... more Philippine-type languages are often cited as exemplifying a cross-linguistically unique voice system, in which verb morphology can select not only an agent or patient, but also locative, instrumental and other adjunct type relations as the nominative argument. In this paper, we examine three approaches to this typologically remarkable system: the ergative analysis, the case agreement analysis and the nominalization analysis, arguing for the latter based on strong parallels between verbal and nominal predication from the root level to the clause level. The morphologically symmetric nature of Philippine-type languages is argued to stem from their nominal roots. The historical development of verbal roots leads to a more fixed argument structure in which canonical ergative languages develop. Mamuju, an Austronesian language of West Sulawesi, Indonesia, is offered as an example of a classically ergative language, in contrast to Philippine-type systems.
Two functions commonly fulilled by nominalization are exclamative formation and temporal subordin... more Two functions commonly fulilled by nominalization are exclamative formation and temporal subordination. his article examines the morphology and syntax of these types of nominalizations across a wide range of Austronesian languages. I argue that the commonality between these two functions is found in the presuppositionality (both real and accommodated) involved in their interpretation. Special attention is paid to the mixed nominal-verbal properties of these constructions while ofering evidence that nominalization can be a process which applies at several levels within the syntax. (2) a. ma-ganda si Maria. -beauty . M. 'Maria is beautful. ' b. kay ganda ni Maria! beauty . M. 'How beautiful Maria is!' (3) a. *ma-ganda ni Maria. -beauty . M. 'Maria is beautful. ' b. *kay ganda si Maria! beauty . M. 'How beautiful Maria is!' Looking now at temporal adjuncts, in (4a) we ind a canonical intransitive sentence with an actor voice predicate and in (4b) we ind its corresponding temporal adjunct. Again, we ind that the sole argument is expressed as a genitive/possessor rather than a subject. (4) a. <um>alis si Maria <.>leave . M. 'Maria let. ' b. pag-alis ni Maria… -leave . M. 'When Maria leaves/let…'
International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption
This paper describes an ongoing project to measure governance using crosscountry perceptions data... more This paper describes an ongoing project to measure governance using crosscountry perceptions data. The governance indicators measure six dimensions of governance and cover 209 countries and territories for 1996-2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 different organizations. We present the estimates of governance, and the margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. We show how these margins of error should be taken into account when considering crosscountry differences and changes over time in governance. We find that in a number of countries the quality of governance improved significantly in the short term. Yet deteriorations also took place in some other countries, while in many there was little change. There has been no worldwide improvement in governance on average. We argue that perceptions-based data provide valuable insights relative to objective data on governance, and that individual objective measures of governance provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. We also show that margins of error are not unique to perceptionsbased measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. We also empirically investigate the importance of ideological biases in expert assessments of corruption and find little evidence that they are present. Governance indicators and per capita incomes are highly correlated across countries. Recent research shows that this correlation captures an important causal effect running from measures of governance such as these to per capita incomes. Critics of this view argue that the correlation captures substantial reverse causation from incomes to governance, and is tainted by "halo effects" where rich countries receive good ratings simply because they are rich. We review available evidence on these two critiques and find it to be lacking. The data, as well as a web-based graphical interface, are available at www.
This paper presents the latest update of our aggregate governance indicators, together with new a... more This paper presents the latest update of our aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (i) voice and accountability; (ii) political Instability and violence; (iii) government effectiveness; (iv) regulatory quality; (v) rule of law, and, (vi) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. We present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, we provide examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. We also analyze in some detail changes over time in our estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for our aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While we find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), we also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, we interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.
Following Alan Winters' appointment as Director of the Research Group at the World Bank, Professo... more Following Alan Winters' appointment as Director of the Research Group at the World Bank, Professor Jaime de Alelo of the University of Geneva will become Editor of the Review. He will be responsible for volume 19 onwards. The World Bank Economic Review is a professional journal for the dissemination of World Bank-sponsored and outside research that may inform policy analyses and choices. It is directed to an international readership among economists and social scientists in government, business, and international agencies, as well as in universities and development research institutions. The Review emphasizes policy relevance and operational aspects of economics, rather than primarily theoretical and methodological issues. It is intended for readers familiar with economic theory and analysis but not necessarily proficient in advanced mathematical or econometric techniques. Articles will illustrate how professional research can shed light on policy choices. Inconsistency with Bank policy will not be grounds for rejection of an article. Articles will be drawn from work conducted by World Bank staff and consultants and from papers submitted by outside researchers. Before being accepted for publication, all articles will be reviewed by two referees who are not members of the Bank's staff and one World Bank staff member. Articles must also be recommended by a member of the Editorial Board. Non-Bank contributors are requested to submit a proposal of not more than two pages in length to the Editor or a member of the Editorial Board before sending in their paper. Comments or brief notes responding to Review articles are welcome and will be considered for publication to the extent that space permits.
We contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exp... more We contribute to the field of urban governance and globalization through an empirically-based exploration of determinants of performance of cities. We construct a preliminary worldwide database for cities, containing variables and indicators of globalization (at the country and city level), city governance, city performance (access and quality of infrastructure service delivery), as well as other relevant city characteristics. This city database, encompassing hundreds of cities worldwide, integrates existing data with new data gathered for this research project. We present a very simple conceptual framework and a set of hypotheses, and then test them econometrically. The findings suggest that good governance and globalization (at both the country as well as at the city level) do matter for city-level performance in terms of access and quality of delivery of infrastructure services. We also find that globalization and good city governance are significantly related with each other. There appear to be dynamic pressures from globalization and accountability that result in better performance at the city level. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that there are particular and complex interactions between technology choices, governance and city performance, as well as evidence of a non-linear (u-shaped) relationship between city size and performance, challenging the view that very large cities necessarily exhibit lower performance and pointing to potential agglomeration economies. Our framework also suggests a way of bridging two seemingly competing strands of the literature, namely viewing the city as a place or as an outcome. We conclude pointing to the need for expanding the database and the econometric framework, as well as to more general future research directions and policy implications emerging from this initial empirical investigation in the field of governance and the city.
Abstract: In recent years, the growing interest of academics and policymakers in governance has b... more Abstract: In recent years, the growing interest of academics and policymakers in governance has been reflected in the proliferation cross-country indices measuring various aspects of governance. In this paper we explain how a simple variant of an unobserved components model can be used to combine the information from these different sources into aggregate governance indicators. The main advantage of this method is that it allows us to quantify the precision of the both individual sources of governance data as well as the aggregate governance indicators. We illustrate the methodology by constructing aggregate indicators of bureaucratic quality, rule of law, and graft, for a large sample of 160 countries. Although these aggregate governance indicators are more informative about the level of governance than any individual indicator, the standard errors associated with estimates of governance are still large relative to the units in which governance is measured.
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. Policy ReseaRch WoRking PaPeR 4370 Scholars, policymakers, aid donors, and aid recipients acknowledge the importance of good governance for development. This understanding has spurred an intense interest in more refined, nuanced, and policy-relevant indicators of governance. In this paper we review progress to date in the area of measuring governance, using a simple framework of analysis focusing on two key questions: (i) what do we measure? and, (ii) whose views do we rely on? For the former question, we distinguish between indicators measuring formal laws or rules 'on the books', and indicators that measure the practical application or outcomes of these rules 'on the ground', calling attention to the strengths and weaknesses of both types of indicators as well as the complementarities between them. For the latter question, we distinguish This paper-a joint product of the Global Governance Group, World Bank Institute, and the Macroeconomics and Growth Team, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the Bank to study governance.
The Austronesian languages comprise a vast family with some 1,268 members spanning half of the gl... more The Austronesian languages comprise a vast family with some 1,268 members spanning half of the globe, from Rapanui (Easter Island) on its Eastern boundary, to Malagasy (Madagascar) on its Western boundary, and from the Aboriginal languages of Taiwan (known as 'Formosan languages') on its Northern boundary to Maori (New Zealand) in the
The indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governa... more The indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance drawn from 25 data sources constructed by 18 organizations. These individual measures are assigned to categories capturing key dimensions of governance. An unobserved-components model is used to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. Point estimates of the dimensions of governance are provided as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. Methodological issues are also addressed, including tests for potential biases, and the interpretation and use of the data, given the estimated margins of errors for the indicators. The data and a Web-based graphical interface are available online at www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/govdata2002/index.html. This article presents estimates of six dimensions of governance for 199 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002 developed in the context of an ongoing project to measure governance across countries. Section I describes the data used in developing this round of the governance indicators, which include several new sources. Data sources used in the earlier studies were updated forward to 2002 and backward to 1996, and previously estimated indicators for 1998 and 2000 were revised to reflect the new data. The aggregation procedure, described in section II, provides not only estimates of governance for each country but also measures of the precision or reliability of these estimates. Although the new data have improved the precision of the governance indicators, the margins of error remain large relative to the units in which governance is measured, so that comparisons across countries and especially over time should be made with caution. Measurement error is not unique to these indicators but is pervasive among all measures of governance and
The main objective of this study is to explore the realationship between a country's overall... more The main objective of this study is to explore the realationship between a country's overall economic policy environment and the performance of investment projects in the social sectors. The authors focus on the impact of economy-wide policies including a range of fiscal, monetary, exchange rate, trade, and pricing indicators. Particular emphasis is put on the analysis of projects in education, which comprise the large majority of the Bank's social projects. The methodology combines statistical analysis and case studies, with the latter based on a broad range of sectoral reports, Project Completion Reports, Project Performance Audit Reports, and sustainability analysis conducted by the Operation Evaluation Department (OED) of the World Bank. The statistical analysis draws on the OED project data as well as the country-level policy performance variables of the World Development Report 1991 data set. The paper also briefly reviews the literature, and examines some country an...
The overarching thesis of this essay is that despite the etymological relationship between the wo... more The overarching thesis of this essay is that despite the etymological relationship between the word ‘philosophy’ and wisdom—the word ‘philosophos’, in Greek, means ‘lover of wisdom’—and irrespective of the longstanding tradition of identifying philosophers with ‘wise men’—mainline philosophy, historically, has had little interest in wisdom and has been preoccupied primarily with knowledge. Philosophy, if we are speaking of the mainline tradition, has had and continues to have more in common with the natural and social sciences than it does with the humanities and liberal arts. In advancing this thesis, I divide the history of philosophy into three competing traditions: the mainline tradition of philosophy and two philosophical ‘countercultures,’ one conservative the other radical. At issue between these rival traditions is precisely the relative significance of knowledge and wisdom and their respective places in inquiry. I also provide an account of the distinction between knowledge...
is good reason to believe that both archaic and anatomically modern humans occupied southwest Asi... more is good reason to believe that both archaic and anatomically modern humans occupied southwest Asia at the same time. On the assumption that this was indeed the case, this paper attempts to draw comparisons between the Neanderthals and their modern contemporaries and to examine the possibilities of interaction between the two. Southwest Asia is the only region in the world where two biologically distinct hominids are associated with the Middle Palaeolithic. Thus, the region provides a unique opportunity to make direct comparisons between archaic hominids, notably the Neanderthals, and early representatives of anatomically modern humans. The primary question to be dealt with here is whether these two populations, defined on the basis of their morphological characteristics, also varied with regard to their cultural and behavioral adaptations. In addition, as will be seen, there is a strong possibility that both of the groups occupied the region simultaneously rather than in an alternating fashion, and this provides the opportunity to consider the question of possible interactions between them. In order to deal with these issues it is first necessary to present a brief overview of the Levantine Middle Palaeolithic with regard to assemblage types, chronology and hominid associations. ASSEMBLAGE TYPES The cave of Tabun on Mount Carmel, with its deeply stratified sequence, has long been used as the type site for classifying Mousterian assemblages. The terminology follows the stratigraphic nomenclature set out by Garrod (Garrod and Bate 1937) resulting in three types of Mousterian assemblages: Tabun D type Mousterian, Tabun C type Mousterian and Tabun B type Mousterian. Because these fall within a stratigraphic sequence from oldest (Layer D) to youngest (Layer B), they are often referred to as phases within the Mousterian (e.g. Copeland 1975 who proposed Phases 1 through 3 modeled on Tabun Layers D through B respectively). However, as will be outlined below, because some of them may actually overlap in time, there may be good reason to adhere to the view proposed some years ago (Hours et al. 1973) and use the term facies rather than phase for the different assemblage groups. Since there is a strong possibility that at least two of the groups represent separate, partially parallel traditions within the Mousterian, it is proposed here to refer to each of the three groups as distinct cultural entities.
ABSTRACT The contributions to this book concern the documentation, archiving and revitalization o... more ABSTRACT The contributions to this book concern the documentation, archiving and revitalization of endangered language materials. The anthology focuses mainly on endangered Oceanic languages, with articles on Vanuatu by Darrell Tryon and the Marquesas by Gabriele Cablitz, on situations of loss and gain by Ingjerd Hoem and on the Kilivila language of the Trobriands by the editor. Nick Thieberger, Peter Wittenburg and Paul Trilsbeek, and David Blundell and colleagues write about aspects of linguistic archiving. Under the rubric of revitalization, Margaret Florey and Michael Ewing write about Maluku, Jakelin Troy and Michael Walsh about Australian Aboriginal languages in southeastern Australia, whilst three articles, by Sophie Nock, Diana Johnson and Winifred Crombie concern the revitalization of Maori.
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Papers by Daniel Kaufman