UNLV Political Science Faculty Publications: Tuman

Recent studies have hypothesized that the Chinese state has sought to use outward flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Latin America and Africa in order to promote broad national interests, including securing China's access to oil and other natural resources, and pressuring states to abandon diplomatic ties with Taiwan. To date, however, there has been little systematic empirical study of the influence of these factors on Chinese FDI. In this study, we attempt to fill this gap in the literature. Utilizing a cross-sectional time-series data set for 66 countries for the period of 2003–2010, we investigate the effects of various economic and political variables on Chinese FDI in Latin America and Africa. We find that Chinese FDI is influenced by trade flows and natural resources in host economies, including oil resources and ores and metals, while also being directed to markets with lower per capita income. In addition, the study adds to the prior literature by demonstrating empirically that Chinese FDI flows are negatively associated with recipients who maintain diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. The analysis also suggests that, with the exception of natural resources (oil), there is little overlap in the determinants of Chinese and US FDI.

We seek to explain variation in attitudes toward legal abortion in Mexico, a nation in which the abortion issue has become quite salient.

Objective: We seek to explain variation in attitudes toward legal abortion in Mexico, a nation in which the abortion issue has become quite salient. Methods: Using data from the 2005 World Values Survey, we estimate an ordered logistic model to analyze the effects of different demographic and attitudinal variables on Mexican abortion attitudes. Results: In general, the attitudinal and demographic predictors of abortion attitudes in Mexico are similar to those found in other Western democracies, such as the United States. In two areas, Mexican attitudes seem distinctive. First, contrary to expectations, opposition to legal abortion is not related to strong identification with the National Action Party (PAN), but support for legal abortion is positively related to strong support for the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Second, opposition to abortion is strongest among residents of the northern region, which we attribute to the region's proximity to the United States. Conclusion: The effects of party identification and region on Mexican abortion attitudes provide distinctive national sources of abortion attitudes in Mexico. In other respects, the correlates of abortion attitudes closely resemble those of other nations.

This study examines the relationship between Japanese foreign aid disbursement and recipient state membership and voting in the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Focusing on 104 countries for the period 1994–2005, we investigate whether Japan gives more aid to IWC members that vote with Japan. The effects of the independent variables are estimated with a linear mixed regression model. Controlling for other possible influences on official development assistance (ODA) disbursements, and employing different measures of dyadic voting similarity, the study finds Japanese aid concentrates in members of the IWC that are microstates. The findings of the paper also indicate that microstate members of the IWC who align their votes with Japan are more likely to receive Japanese ODA. By demonstrating that Japan’s strategy is focused on microstates, the study provides a more refined understanding of the mechanisms Japan employs to end the IWC’s moratorium on commercial whaling.

Three perspectives on the determinants of Japan's official development assistance (ODA) program are often represented as distinct, valid explanations of the aid program. Yet few studies have attempted to simultaneously test the hypotheses generated from all three perspectives in a global study of Japanese aid flows. This study seeks to improve the understanding of the Japanese ODA program by addressing some of the gaps in the existing literature. Providing a comprehensive analysis, the article investigates the effects of different political and economic variables on Japanese aid disbursement in eighty-six countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East from 1979 to 2002. The findings of the study make several contributions to the literature. First, the results provide strong support for the claim that humanitarian concerns, as measured by poverty and human rights conditions in recipient countries, are important determinants of aid allocation. Second, although much of the previous literature has hypothesized that Japan's aid program seeks to promote Japan's economic interests, little empirical support for this view is found in the present study. Likewise, the disbursement pattern of ODA was associated with only a limited number of US security interests; US economic interests are shown to have no effect on ODA.

In recent years, a great deal of scholarship has examined the adequacy of special education and other support services for children with disabilities in the U.S. and in other industrialized states. By contrast, there has been comparatively little study of services for children with disabilities in developing countries. In this paper, we attempt to bridge this gap in the literature. Focusing on the case of Mexico, we examine the provision of special education and other support services, and the availability and cost of private services. The focus of the analysis is on children with autism. Drawing upon a theoretical approach that combines modern political economy and comparative institutionalism, we also develop a tentative explanation of the politics of policymaking among parents and other stakeholders in the autism advocacy community.

Objective: To examine the administrative prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in all seventeen school districts in Nevada during the period of 1996 to 2004. Methods: Normalized administrative prevalence rates (per 1,000 children ages 6-17) for ASD, Mental Retardation (MR), Learning Disability (LD), and Speech and Language Impairment (SLI) were calculated. Covariates for board certified pediatricians per 1,000 students, real Federal special education funding per student, and other measures of school resources were employed. Models were estimated with pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with panel corrected standard errors. A separate analysis compared pooled OLS results to results from Latent Growth Curve models (LCGM). Results: The average administrative prevalence of ASD in Nevada school districts increased from .56 per 1,000 in 1996 to 2.37 per 1,000 in 2004. The upward trajectory of ASD prevalence during the time series was not associated with declines in MR, LD or SLI prevalence, suggesting that diagnostic substitution does not explain the upward trend in the administrative prevalence of ASD. Federal funds distributed partly for detection of disabilities was associated with ASD prevalence (p<0.01) (results were not due to endogeneity). The concentration of pediatricians in each school district, changes in the regulatory definition of ASD, and real salaries for school personnel were shown to have no effect on prevalence. The results of the pooled OLS models were robust when compared to the Latent Growth Curve models.

This article examines the variation in the post-privatisation pattern of labour and employment relations in the telecommunications sectors of Argentina and Mexico. The findings suggest that the initial mode of privatisation—negotiated vs. imposed reform—shaped changes in employment, subcontracting and work rules in the period following privatisation. The research also suggests, however, that negotiated reform is more likely to emerge only when certain political incentives are present.

The Asian economic crisis ravaged numerous economies in the late 1990s. Significant social and political disruption followed the fall in Asian currency prices. The newly industrialized states of Asia were particularly hard hit, yet some also experienced swift turnarounds, reaching pre-crisis currency rates and economic output. The enduring puzzle of the crisis is the role of bureaucratic-business ties as a background cause of the crisis and determinant of governmental policy responses. In this paper, we adapt Tsebelis' veto player model to include bureaucracy as a formal actor in the adjustment process. We argue that states that minimized the control of developmental bureaucracies over finance and direct managerial decision-making weakened the institutional capacity of bureaucrats to veto adjustment policies, both before and after the 1997 crisis. Moreover, we find that a tradition of strategic regulatory guidance is associated with favorable economic performance, provided that bureaucrats had subjected private firms or state-owned enterprises to competition (or even business failure) historically, and where the risks associated with financial decisions were not socialized by the state.

Previous studies have found that education and fertility are inversely related. However, the extant literature on the effects of education in Latin America has been limited by certain methodological problems. In particular, previous studies have used estimation methods that were prone to statistical bias, and they have frequently neglected to examine rural areas, where education is likely to have a large effect on fertility. In this paper, we attempt to improve upon our understanding of education and fertility in the region. Employing data from some of the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in Latin America, we test complementary hypotheses about the effects of education on fertility in Colombia and Peru. The effects of the independent variables are estimated using negative binomial regression. We also discuss the broader implications of the findings for family planning policies and regional public health governance in Latin America.

Objective . Three competing explanations for the distribution of Japan's ODA in Asia are empirically examined in this paper. The first explanation hypothesizes that Japan reacts to US pressure and interests as it formulates its foreign aid policy. The competing explanations argue that Japanese ODA is used to promote Japan's national economic interests or humanitarian goals. Methods . We examine the determinants of Japanese ODA in 14 Asian countries for the period of 1979–1998. The effects of the independent variables are estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) with panel-corrected standard errors. Results . US strategic interests were found to have no effect on aid disbursements for the period in question. Rather, we find that Japan's national economic interests have shaped Japanese aid decisions in Asia. The disbursement pattern of Japanese ODA is also influenced by poverty in the recipient country. Employing measures from the Political Terror Scale, Freedom House, and Polity IV, we find no effect for democracy or human rights.