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– Lessons from Index-Based Livestock Insurance
IN PRODUCTION: SCHEDULED FOR PUBLICATION IN JUNE 2024This study outlines the origins and evolution of an international award-winning development intervention, index-based livestock insurance (IBLI), which scaled from a small pilot project in Kenya to a design that underpins drought risk management...
– Ending Poverty While Protecting Nature
BOOK IN PRODUCTION: SCHEDULED PUBLICATION DECEMBER 2024Almost everything that is essential to modern society — transport and power systems, buildings, machinery, and medical devices — depends upon metals, minerals, and stone as well as oil and natural gas which provide the energy for households and...
– Impact, Recovery and the Future
A key challenge for the post-COVID global economy is whether the disproportionate impact of the crisis on informal workers, who form the majority of the world’s workforce, will be acknowledged. Or whether harmful and negative stereotypes will persist.Today, despite the role of these essential...
– Economic Transformation in a Climate-Conscious World
The pathways to economic development are changing. Environmental sustainability is no longer a choice but a necessity to maintain a competitive edge in the global economy. Just like in nature, where survival hinges on adaptation, this publication shows how nations adjust to, and take advantage of...
– A firm and household perspective
This book addresses performance and strategies adopted by firms and households in Tanzania to navigate shocks and achieve sustainability. How successful have firms and households been in building resilience to sustain their growth and development? Has the ability to navigate successfully through...
The focus of this study is the idea that choice is hierarchical so that there exists an order of acquisition of durable goods and assets as real incomes increase. Two main approaches to deriving such an order are presented, the so-called Paroush approach and Item Response Theory. An empirical...
– A Framework for Rethinking the Role of Finance in Serving the Real Economy
The study proposes an alternative framework for rethinking the role of finance in serving the real economy from the perspective of New Structural Financial Economics. It challenges conventional wisdom that developing countries should take the financial structure of developed countries as the...
– Interrogating the Present as History
This study highlights the monopolization and exclusion from high-value knowledge in analysing divergent and, recently, partially convergent income trends across 200-odd years of the global capitalist economy. A southern lens interrogates this history, in the process showing how developing command...
– Structural Transformation, High Inequality and Environmental Fragility
This publication examines the process of economic development of the last 50 years or so under the neoliberal model in terms of impacts on growth, inflation, income and wealth distribution and structural change. The analysis includes a historical perspective from the nineteenth century to the...
– The Institutional Diagnostic Project
Few countries have experienced as many political and economic changes as Mozambique. A vast and diverse country, it faced a particularly difficult start after a long period of colonial dominance followed by a deadly war that formally ended only in 1992. However, despite impressive growth after multi...
It is arguable that the most important event in the world economy in recent decades has been the rise of China, from being on a par with sub-Sahara Africa at the start of economic reform to being an economic superpower today. That rise remains under-researched. Moreover, the great structural changes...
– Patterns, Determinants, Consequences
One of the key features of modern economic growth is the process of structural transformation, which is the movement of workers from agriculture to manufacturing and services. In this study, the author identifies different routes to structural transformation that we see in the developing world. They...
– The Changing Nature of Work and Inequality
Developed countries have experienced a polarization in earnings and in employment, namely stronger growth in the earnings and jobs for the most and least skilled workers at the expense of those in the middle. This pattern has been attributed to differences in tasks—whether a given job is routine and...
– Intergenerational Mobility, Income Inequality, and Development
In the Global South economic mobility across generations or intergenerational economic mobility is in and of itself an important topic for research with consequences for policy. It concerns the 'stickiness' or otherwise of inequality because mobility is concerned with the extent to which children's...
– Transforming Informal Work and Livelihoods in Developing Countries
Using a range of countries from the Global South, this book examines heterogeneity within informal work by applying a common conceptual framework and empirical methodology. The country studies use panel data to study the dynamics of worker transitions between formal and heterogeneous informal work...
– Diversity in Development
NOW IN PAPERBACK WITH REVISED PREFACE | Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus Asian Drama, in 1968, to conclude that Asia's development prospects were gloomy. Since then, contrary to Myrdal's expectations Asia has been transformed beyond recognition, the development of nations and living standards...
This study reviews what we know about parental investments and children's human capital in low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). First, it presents definitions and a simple analytical framework. Then discusses determinants of children's human capital in the form of cognitive skills, socioemotional...
– A Retrospective in the Time of COVID-19
The pandemic of 1918–20 — commonly known as the Spanish flu — infected over a quarter of the world's population and killed over fifty million people. It is by far the greatest humanitarian disaster caused by an infectious disease in modern history. Epidemiologists and health scientists often draw on...
– Structural Transformation, Inequality Dynamics, and Inclusive Growth
The developer’s dilemma is thus: developing countries seek inclusive economic development — i.e., structural transformation — sufficiently broad-based to raise the income of the poor. Inclusive economic growth requires falling income inequality to maximise income growth at the lower end of the...
Book
Esta obra ofrece un análisis del sistema monetario internacional y de las reformas que es necesario emprender para que cumpla el papel activo en el siglo XXI. arte del diagnóstico según el cual no existe un sistema coherente, sino un ordenamiento ad hoc: el “no sistema” (término de viejas raíces)...
– Concepts, Methods, and Determinants
Social mobility — defined as the ability to move from a lower to a higher level of education or occupational status, or from a lower to a higher social class or income group — is the hope of economic development and the mantra of a good society. There are disagreements about what constitutes social...
– Framework and policy guidebook
This framework utilizes business interests and the distribution of political power to understand the episodic nature of economic growth in fragile and conflict-affected states. Conflict, state capacity, and legitimacy are analysed alongside the business environment and structural transformation to...
Inequality has emerged as a key development challenge. It holds implications for economic growth and redistribution and translates into power asymmetries that can endanger human rights, create conflict, and embed social exclusion and chronic poverty. For these reasons, it underpins intense public...
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Vietnam provides a comprehensive analytic contribution to a crucial topic within development economics. Based on fifteen years of continued data collection and research efforts it brings together nine up-to-date studies on micro, small, and medium enterprise...
– Natural Resources and Industry in Africa
For a growing number of countries in Africa the discovery and exploitation of natural resources is a great opportunity, but one accompanied by considerable risks. Countries dependent on oil, gas, and mining have tended to have weaker long-run growth, higher rates of poverty, and greater income...
The notion that social protection should be a key strategy for reducing poverty in developing countries has now been mainstreamed within international development policy and practice. Promoted as an integral dimension of the post-Washington Consensus all major international development agencies and...
– Diversity in Development
Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus Asian Drama, in 1968, to conclude that Asia's development prospects were gloomy. Since then, contrary to Myrdal's expectations Asia has been transformed beyond recognition, the development of nations and living standards of people revolutionized. These...
– An Inquiry into the Development of Nations
Gunnar Myrdal published his magnum opus, Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, in 1968. He was deeply pessimistic about development prospects in Asia. The fifty years since then have witnessed a remarkable social and economic transformation in Asia - even if it has been uneven across...
– Industrialization in Africa Reconsidered
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. By 2030 more than three quarters of the world's absolute poor are projected to live...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. As a result of widespread mistreatment and overt discrimination, women in the...
This collection examines the role that foreign aid can play in dealing with the severe global challenge of climate change, one of the most pressing international development issues of the 21st century. Addressing the key threats of rising temperatures, changes in precipitation, coastal erosion and...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. International financial crises have plagued the world in recent decades, including...
– Understanding Diverse Trajectories
Fragile states pose major development and security challenges. Considerable international resources are therefore devoted to state-building and institutional strengthening in fragile states, with generally mixed results. This volume explores how unpacking the concept of fragility and studying its...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at www.tandfebooks.com and offered as a free PDF download from Taylor & Francis Group and selected open access locations. Development assistance to fragile states and conflict-affected areas can...
Book
– Jump-Starting Developing Countries
How poor countries can ignite economic growth without waiting for global action or the creation of ideal local conditions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, countries that ignite a process of rapid economic growth almost always do so while lacking what experts say are the essential preconditions for...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This book examines the links between economic growth, changing employment...
– Government–Business Coordination in Africa and East Asia
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Much of the information relevant to policy formulation for industrial development...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The 21st Conference of the Parties (CoP21) to the United Nations Framework...
Book
This peer-reviewed research is available free of charge. UNU-WIDER believes that research is a global public good and supports Open Access.
– A Rising Dragon on the Move
Giới thiệu Việt Nam là một nước đông dân ở khu vực Đông Nam Á với lịch sử lâu đời và đặc trưng về kinh tế, chính trị và xã hội.2 Sau khi kết thúc chiến tranh với Hoa Kỳ năm 1975, Việt Nam đã có những tham vọng lớn về tương lai; song mặc dù có nhiều tiềm năng phát triển, Việt Nam thời gian đó vẫn...
– A Rising Dragon on the Move
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The household survey data used in this book is available here. Many developing...
– Evidence, Analysis, Action
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Governments play a major role in the development process, and constantly introduce...
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Detailed analyses of poverty and wellbeing in developing countries, based on...
– Growth Traps and Opportunities for Six African Economies
Examining the economic forces that will shape Africa’s future Africa’s Lions examines the economic growth experiences of six fast-growing and/or economically dominant African countries. Expert African researchers offer unique perspectives into the challenges and issues in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya...
– Comparative Studies of Industrial Development in Africa and Emerging Asia
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. While it is possible for economies to grow based on abundant land or natural...
This book is Open Access, click here to download. Includes 16 country case studies which collectively represent nearly three-quarters of the sub-Saharan African population Analyses welfare, living conditions, and poverty reduction Contributions from local and international experts who identify and...
– Learning to Compete in Industry
Over the past forty years, industry and business interests have moved increasingly from the developed to the developing world, yet Africa’s share of global manufacturing has fallen from about 3 percent in 1970 to less than 2 percent in 2014. Industry is important to low-income countries. It is good...
– Employment, politics, and prospects for change
The much heralded growth and transformation of many economies in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade continues to receive prominent attention in academic scholarship and among policy practitioners. An apparent feature about this transformation, however, is that Africa’s youth appear to have been...
Recent years have seen a sustained research effort exploring the African development experience. The extant literature has offered a large set of explanations as to why the African development record has lagged behind that of other regions of the developing world. This new volume brings...
Elites have a disproportionate impact on development outcomes. While a country's endowments constitute the deep determinates of growth, the trajectory they follow is shaped by the actions of elites. But what factors affect whether elites use their influence for individual gain or national welfare?To...
– A Political Economy Analysis
This book is Open Access and available here. Food price volatility is one of the major challenges facing current and future global food systems. Since 2006, global food prices have fluctuated greatly around an increasing trend and price spikes were observed for key food commodities such as rice...
– Policy Changes and Lessons
The book aims to document and explain the sizeable decline of income inequality that has taken place in Latin America during the 2000s. It does so through an exploration of inequality changes in six representative countries, and ten policy chapters dealing with macroeconomics, foreign trade...
– Historical Accounts from More Advanced Countries
What lessons can be learnt from 'developed' countries that might be useful for developing and emerging economies? With an emphasis on long-term growth and development, this book provides historical accounts of the development strategies of a select set of advanced countries. Each case study...
– Unravelling the Impact of Foreign Aid
Despite impressive economic growth rates over the last decade, foreign aid still plays a significant role in Africa's political economies.This book asks when, why, and how foreign aid has facilitated, or hindered, democratization in sub-Saharan Africa. Instead of looking at foreign aid as a...
– Strategies and Lessons from the Developing World
This book presents development strategies and lessons based on a large range of 'success' countries across the developing world. In addition to the country cases, it presents regional and overall syntheses that cover orthodox vs. heterodox policies; the importance of capability, primary exports...
– New Challenges and Emerging Paradigms
Over the last two centuries, the experiences of the first wave of industrialized countries in Europe and the US, and the more recent experiences of the East Asian Tigers, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, India, and Vietnam, have illustrated the transformative nature of industrialization. There...
– The Long-Run View
The twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has stimulated much reflection on the political, economic and social transitions that have taken place in the past two decades. Many Central European and Baltic countries initially appeared to epitomize a successful transition to markets and...
– Towards a Renewed Perspective on the City
According to UN-Habitat, Latin America is the most urbanized region in the world. Over three quarters of its population resided in cities at the turn of the twenty-first century, a proportion that is estimated will rise to almost 85 per cent by 2030. By comparison, just over 36 and 37 per cent of...
Elites have a disproportionate impact on development outcomes. While a country's endowments constitute the deep determinates of growth, the trajectory they follow is shaped by the actions of elites.But what factors affect whether elites use their influence for individual gain or national welfare? To...
– Multidimensional Perspectives
The 20th century was one of rapid urbanization—that is urbanization by urban growth, and by rural-to-urban migration. By the dawn of the 21st century, for the first time in human history, more than half of the world’s population was living in urban areas. Demographic forecasts for the decades ahead...
– Fragility and External Shocks
Small island developing states (SIDS) are characterised by high economic, geographical and social vulnerability. These states are perceived as economically vulnerable, exhibiting poor economic performance, and embedding low levels of achieved well-being on most criteria. SIDS, which occupy very...
– Causes, Costs, and Responses
Overcoming state fragility is one of the most important international development objectives of the 21st century. Many fragile states have turned into failed states, where millions of people are caught in deprivation and seemingly hopeless conditions. Fragile states lack the authority, legitimacy...
Entrepreneurship and innovation are two of the most pervasive concepts of our times, yet there are still gaps in our understanding of the interactions between entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly in developing countries. This book is an attempt to fill this gap. It focuses on the...
Promoting private sector development and entrepreneurship in particular, has become a defining feature of development policy in recent years. At a time when global development is being jeopardized by man-made and natural disasters, including financial crises and climate change, the need to integrate...
Across the world, while income inequality among countries is declining, there is clear evidence that health related inequities are on the increase. Health is a key component of an individual’s well being, having both intrinsic and instrumental value. It is therefore imperative to understand why...
– Impacts, Prospects and Implications
The rise of China and India is rapidly reshaping the world economy, with far-reaching implication for every national and regional government, business community, and individual citizen. Arising from the UNU-WIDER research project 'Southern Engines of Global growth', this volume explores the...
– Multidisciplinary Perspectives
This volume presents a significant new collection of multidisciplinary papers focused on urbanization and its implications for development. It raises four questions: What is so special about the urban context? Why is urbanization and urban growth important to development at the present conjuncture...
This volume presents thirteen studies selected from the three regional conferences organized under the auspices of UNU-WIDER. They illustrate the differential effects of globalization on growth, inequality, and poverty in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Distinct processes of institutional and socio...
China, India, Brazil, and South Africa are reshaping the world economy. These Southern Engines countries have experienced a dramatic transformation in their productive and trade capabilities, consequently turning into global super powers. The current age of globalization, in which the Southern...
– Issues, Challenges, and the New Agenda
Foreign aid is one of the few topics in the development discourse with such an uninterrupted, yet volatile history in terms of interest and attention from academics, policymakers, and practitioners alike. Does aid work in promoting growth and reducing poverty in the developing world? Will a new 'big...
– The Challenges of Social and Economic Reconstruction
Reconstruction from conflict is a complex and demanding task, and a major challenge for post-conflict countries as well as the international community. Countries and their donor partners face multiple priorities – rebuilding infrastructure, assisting war-damaged communities, and re-creating weakened...
More than a billion people live in extreme poverty. Many face the risk of never escaping from poverty. These risks are exacerbated by natural hazards, ill-health, and macroeconomic volatility. Consequently, vulnerability has become the defining challenge of our times. Despite this there is a need to...
– a Fresh Look
Donor countries are currently scaling up their aid programmes in response to strategies proposed through the Millennium Development Goals. Recent positive research on the impact of foreign development aid has led to increased expectations on the part of donor countries. Research suggests that per...
There is great media fascination in the activities and lifestyles of the super-rich. But personal wealth is also important for those of more modest means as a store of potential consumption, as a cushion against emergencies, and as collateral for business and investment loans. This book is the first...
This book provides cutting edge analytical insights into if and how the MDGs are likely to be achieved. The volume presents empirical analyses of key determinants of the MDG target variables, which recognise that most of the MDG targets are endogenously related. These inter-dependencies are crucial...
– The Road Ahead
For much of the last 30 years the global economy has had a limited impact on poverty alleviation. But there are now grounds for optimism. Presently, global liquidity is ample, pushing investors into parts of the world they previously avoided, and private investment is rising. A new and more positive...
This volume explores the various linkages between financial development, institutions, growth and poverty reduction in low-income and transition countries. It is the result of a two-year research project undertaken by UNU-WIDER, and the strong range of contributions present a significant variety of...
– Can Shared Growth be Sustained?
Asia is widely regarded as the region which has benefited most from the dynamic growth effect of the recent wave of globalization: poverty has been steadily declining over the last three decades in most Asian countries. The 'shared growth' model achieved through increased trade and foreign direct...
This volume provides comprehensive updated coverage of inequality and poverty issues in China. Some of the methodologies developed herein are published for the first time and may be used in other contexts and for other countries. The use of different data sources and state-of-art research techniques...
This significant and timely volume offers crucial insights into the constantly evolving debate within the international development community regarding the mobilization of domestic resources and the crucial role that financial development can and should play in this regard. This book explores...
– Methods and Applications
The ongoing campaign of 'western development' launched in 1999 and the recent Chinese government initiative of 'building a harmonious society' highlight the urgency and significance of analysing inequality and poverty. Prominent contributors from China and around the world explore trends of...
– Types, Causes, and Development Impact
Entrepreneurs, technical experts, professionals, international students, writers, and artists are among the most highly mobile people in the global economy today. These talented elite often originate from developing countries and migrate to industrial economies. Many return home with new ideas...
– Indicators, Measurement, and the Impact of Trade Openness
What are the implications of the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture for food security in poor countries? Are economic reforms and high growth rates in some countries protecting the well-being of the poor by improving the status of nutrition? Are we measuring hunger adequately? Do we need new tools and...
– Concept and Measurement
Human well-being is a core global issue. Achieving and sustaining higher levels of well-being is challenge for individual citizens, governments and international organisations world-wide. Measures of human well-being levels are an integral part of this process, being used increasingly to monitor and...
The issue of institutional development has come to prominence during the last decade or so. During this period, even the IMF and the World Bank, which used to treat institutions as mere 'details', have come to emphasize the role of institutions in economic development. However, there are still some...
Do we have a right to food? The significance of a human rights approach, and the way in which it translates to gender considerations, with links to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, agricultural productivity and the environment, adds a new dimension to the problem of world hunger. By exploring these approaches...
– Concepts and Policies
PAPERBACK: The concepts of formal and informal remain central to the theory and practice of development more than half a century after they were introduced into the debate. They help structure the way that statistical services collect data on the economies of developing countries, the development of...
– Core Themes in Global Economics
Leading scholars and policymakers reflect on current thinking in development economics and on what may happen during the next two decades. Covering the major themes in development in an accessible way, this original and authoritative contribution highlights new and emerging issues, and shows how...
– Transmission Mechanisms
Globalization and poverty epitomize two of the most pressing issues in international development today. While the process of globalization possesses an enormous potential capacity to accelerate economic growth and development, the depth of poverty found in many parts of the developing world is still...
With more than a billion people living on less than one dollar per day, human well-being is a core issue for both researchers and policy-makers. The Millennium Development Goals are a powerful reminder of this point. We now know more about human well-being and the related concepts of poverty and...
– ICT Opportunities and Challenges
Within the last three decades, industrialization, and manufacturing in particular, has decreased in importance as the principal driver of economic growth and development in the world economy. The expansion of the service sector in industrialized societies reflects the increasing significance of the...
– Concepts and Policies
The concepts of formal and informal remain central to the theory and practice of development more than half a century after they were introduced into the debate. They help structure the way that statistical services collect data on the economies of developing countries, the development of...
With more than a billion people living on less than one dollar per day, some evidence of increasing gaps in living conditions within and between countries and the clear evidence of substantial declines in life expectancy or other health outcomes in some parts of the world, the related topics of...
This book presents significant new research on the informal labour markets of developing countries. Examining the critical role of informal labour markets in allowing countries to adjust successfully to the forces of globalization, this volume also brings to the fore a number of problems associated...
– Poverty, Reconstruction and Growth
Fiscal policy is critical to the development of poor countries. Public spending on pro-poor services and public goods must be increased, tax revenues must be mobilized, and macro-economic stabilization must be achieved without inhibiting growth, poverty reduction and post-conflict reconstruction...
– Perspectives from Asia
What exactly is spatial inequality? Why does it matter? And what should be the policy response to it? These questions have become important in recent years as the spatial dimensions of inequality have begun to attract considerable policy interest. In China, Russia, India, Mexico, and South Africa...
Poor people in developing countries are often affected by droughts, floods, illness, crop failure, job loss, and economic downturns. Much of their energy goes into coping with these shocks and into day-to-day survival. While insurance and credit markets, combined with widespread social security...
This volume brings together some of the most influential scholars in development economics to explore how to improve the well-being of the poor, how to design effective structures and institutions for poverty reduction and what the role of economic, political and social dimensions are (and should be...
The fourteen members of the African CFA Franc Zone represent the largest monetary unions in the southern hemisphere, predating the European Monetary Union by decades. With monetary unions planned for other parts of Africa in the near future, this book focuses on some of the key challenges facing the...
This volume brings together some of the most influential scholars in development economics to explore how to improve the well-being of the poor, how to design effective structures and institutions for poverty reduction and what the role of economic, political and social dimensions are (and should be...
Within-country income inequality has risen since the early 1980s in most of the OECD, all transitional, and many developing countries. More recently, inequality has risen also in India and nations affected by the Asian crisis. Altogether, over the last twenty years, inequality worsened in 70 per...
This book examines the economic consequences of immigration and asylum migration. It focuses on the economic consequences of legal and illegal immigration as well as placing the study of immigration in a global context.
– Prospects for Pro-Poor Economic Development
The relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty lies at the heart of development economics. This volume draws together many of the most important recent contributions to the controversies surrounding this topic. Some of the chapters help explain why there is profound disagreement on crucial...
What exactly is spatial inequality? Why does it matter? And what should be the policy response to it? These questions have become important in recent years as the spatial dimensions of inequality have begun to attract considerable policy interest. In China, Russia, India, Mexico, and South Africa...
As their Millennium Development Goals, world leaders have pledged by 2015 to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, to achieve universal primary education, to reduce child mortality, to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to halve the number of people without safe drinking...
– Prospects and Challenges for Trade-led Growth
These are turbulent times for the international trading community, the WTO in particular. Although Cancun failed,Can the WTO still reassert its development-credibility by ensuring that Doha truly becomes the Development Round?What should the negotiating strategy of the developing countries be?Will...
After a massive international campaign calling attention to the development impact of foreign debt, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is now underway. But will the HIPC Initiative meet its high expectations? Will debt relief substantially raise growth? How do we make sure that...
– Poverty, Reconstruction and Growth
Fiscal policy is critical to the development of poor countries. Public spending on pro-poor services and public goods must be increased, tax revenues must be mobilized, and macro-economic stabilization must be achieved without inhibiting growth, poverty reduction and post-conflict reconstruction...
– Prospects for Pro-Poor Economic Development
The relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty lies at the heart of development economics. This volume draws together many of the most important recent contributions to the controversies surrounding this topic. Some of the chapters help explain why there is profound disagreement on crucial...
– Appraisals and Issues
Foreign assistance philosophy no longer favours channeling aid almost exclusively to recipients' public sector; 'a bottomless pit'. Increasing preference has been accorded by the donor multilateral development community to the private sector, regarded as the engine of growth, poverty reduction and...
Within-country income inequality has risen since the early 1980s in most of the OECD, all transitional, and many developing countries. More recently, inequality has risen also in India and nations affected by the Asian crisis. Altogether, over the last twenty years, inequality worsened in 70 per...
– Seeking Stability for Emerging Economies
This collection analyses the new trends in capital flows to emerging markets since the Asian crisis, their determinants and policy implications. It explains why such flows have declined so dramatically in recent years, emphasising both structural and cyclical factors. Senior bankers, regulators and...
– Recent Innovative Developments
Conventional wisdom recommends the superiority of private ownership of enterprises. The reality confronts it with a rich diversity in ownership and governance structures. This volume examines five types of unorthodox ownership and governance form emerging in the industrial sector across major...
The relationship between growth and poverty lies at the heart of development economics. While many see aggregate growth as both necessary and sufficient for reducing poverty, and consequently focus their efforts on achieving the desired macroeconomic outcomes, others stress that the benefits from...
– Ownership, Incentives, and Capabilities
There is not a single African country that did not attempt public sector reforms in the 1990s. Governments no longer see themselves as sole suppliers of social services, frequently opting for partnerships with the private sector. Efficiency and choice have entered the language of the planning and...
Research by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research shows that the small enterprise sector by itself will not create successful economic growth. Without supporting local-level institutions, a surrounding context of successful large enterprises and...
Social structures undergo transformation with the transition to a market economy. This collection examines the role of inequality in the formation of economic elites and middle classes, as well as in the rise of poverty in transitional societies. Based on comparative analysis of social...
– A Fair Deal for Consumers?
Latin American countries have now privatized a large number of their utility industries and make more use of market approaches to delivery through networks. Privatization has major consequences for efficiency, long-term growth, consumer welfare and income distribution but insufficient attention has...
Establishing peace and reconstructing Africa's war-damaged economies are urgent challenges. For Africa to recover, communities must reconstruct, private sectors must revitalize, and states must transform themselves. Thus, unless communities rebuild and strengthen their livelihoods, neither...
– Is the Market Destroying Cooperation?
This text focuses on group behaviour in developing countries. It includes studies of producer and community organizations, NGOs and some public sector groups. Some groups function well, from the perspectives of equity, efficiency and well-being, while others do not. This book explores why, examining...
– Is the Market Destroying Cooperation?
This text focuses on group behaviour in developing countries. It includes studies of producer and community organizations, NGOs and some public sector groups. Some groups function well, from the perspectives of equity, efficiency and well-being, while others do not. This book explores why, examining...
This excellent new book contains contributions from a number of leading experts and is the result of the UNU/WIDER project on globalization and low-income countries. The discussion focuses in on how to harness globalization for the benefit of present day marginalized countries and enhance their...
– Issues and Institutions
It is now more than fifty years since the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions were created. The world has changed since then, and so have its governance needs in terms of institutions and rules. It is time to think about the contours of institutions and governance that would...
The Asian road to the market has generally been seen as a model of success and the object of widespread admiration. This volume evaluates the actual experience and debunks some of the most widespread myths. It does so by identifying the link between alternative transition models, public policies and...
Since the end of the cold war, civil wars and state violence have escalated, resulting in thousands of deaths. This book provides a toolbox for donors, international agencies, and developing countries to prevent humanitarian emergencies. The emphasis is on long-term development policies rather than...
– Experience and Issues
The volume contains original essays by authors who have worked together to derive lessons for African export prospects from the experiences of some of the more successful developing countries in East Asia and Latin America. They present up-to-date data and analysis on non-traditional exporting...
– Implications for Global Development
Comparing Regionalisms summarizes the UNU/WIDER international research project on the formation of world regions, and what implications this process will have for the future world order, particularly as far as the important issues of peace and development are concerned. This last volume in a series...
Much has been written about EMU, mostly concerning its desirability and whether it will ever come to exist. Now it is here, and likely to stay. The 'next generation' of research on EMU is already under way, and this volume presents a significant sample of that research. The authors explore questions...
– The Experience of Gradual and Late Reformers
The gradual introduction of market reforms in China since 1978 and their subsequent massive and rapid adoption in the former Soviet bloc triggered an intense debate on the factors and policies which promote a smooth transition to a market economy. Particularly during its initial phase, such debate...
Since the 1960s the per capita incomes of the resource-poor countries have grown significantly faster than those of the resource-abundant countries. In fact, in recent years economic growth has been inversely proportional to the share of natural resource rents in GDP, so that the small mineral...
– New Patterns and Emerging Trends
During recent years, provision of key social services in low-income countries has been affected by adverse macroeconomic conditions and by radical changes in economic thinking. For example, the welfarist approach, which gives prominence to the state in delivering and financing social services, has...
– International Evidence and Implications for Economic Development
The often-advocated view that the information technology revolution will change the world must stem from the basic premiss that investment in IT has a visible impact on productivity and economic growth. But how can we measure this impact and how large is it? By surveying previous studies and by...
Land is a fundamental productive asset in agrarian economies. The rules that codify access to land and the way jurisdiction over land is distributed among members of a community have a powerful influence over how efficiently land is used, the incidence of poverty, and the level of inequality in the...
The currency crises that engulfed East Asian economies in 1997 and Mexico in 1994 - and their high development costs - raise a serious concern about the net benefits for developing countries of large flows of potentially reversible short-term international capital. Written by senior policy-makers...
– Volume 1
This text is the first of two volumes. Two and a half billion people are affected directly on a day-to-day basis by the allocation and use of local resources. Yet ‘official’ development economics has concentrated on headline international issues and only recently begun to take account of the...
– Volume 2
Two and a half billion people are affected directly on a day to day basis by the allocation and use of purely local resources. Yet `official' development economics has concentrated on headline international issues and only recently begun to take account of the dependence of poor countries on their...
– Theory, Measurement, and Policy
A large share of the population in many developing countries suffer from chronic undernutrition. In this book, Professor Svedberg provides a detailed comparative study of undernutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two worst affected areas, and provides crucial advice for all those...
– Weak States and Vulnerable Economies : Humanitarian Emergencies in Developing Countries
Since the end of the cold war, the number of civil wars in developing countries has escalated to the point where they are the most significant source of human suffering in the world today. Although there are many political analyses of these emergencies, this two-volume work is the first...
– Restructuring the Global Military Sector, Volume III
The first half of the 1990s was a period of great optimism about humanitarian intervention. In the aftermath of the Cold War, it was hoped that the international community could begin to act cohesively in defence of fundamental international principles and that a global security policy aimed at the...
– Restructuring the Global Military Sector, Volume III
The first half of the 1990s was a period of great optimism about humanitarian intervention. In the aftermath of the Cold War, it was hoped that the international community could begin to act cohesively in defence of fundamental international principles and that a global security policy aimed at the...
– The Origins of Humanitarian Emergencies : War and Displacement in Developing Countries
Civil wars in developing countries are amongst the most significant sources of human suffering in the world today. Although there are many political analyses of these emergencies, this two-volume work is the first comprehensive study of the economic, social, and political roots of humanitarian...
In spite of widespread expectations of improvements in living standards and health conditions, in most of the countries of the former Soviet bloc the transition to the market economy was accompanied by a sharp increase in (already high) death rates. Such an increase provoked an 'excess mortality' of...
This volume presents various national perspectives on the process of regionalization for a more concrete understanding of its dynamics. It is dedicated to country studies from the South and explores to what extent the New Regionalism can provide solutions to the challenges of globalization faced by...
This volume presents various national perspectives on the process of regionalization for a more concrete understanding of its dynamics. It is dedicated to country studies from the South and explores to what extent the New Regionalism can provide solutions to the challenges of globalization faced by...
This is the second of five volumes reporting on the UNU/WIDER project on New Regionalism. Whereas the first volume dealt with the two processes of globalization and regionalization in more general terms, this volume presents various national perspectives on the process of regionalization for a more...
This book is dedicated to the implications of the New Regionalism for global security and development. The fourth volume in the five-volume New Regionalism Series, it features contributions from the UNU/WIDER project on New Regionalism. Earlier volumes have dealt with the relationship between...
This is the second of five volumes reporting on the UNU/WIDER project on New Regionalism. Whereas the first volume dealt with the two processes of globalization and regionalization in more general terms, this volume presents various national perspectives on the process of regionalization for a more...
This book is dedicated to the implications of the New Regionalism for global security and development. The fourth volume in the five-volume New Regionalism Series, it features contributions from the UNU/WIDER project on New Regionalism. Earlier volumes have dealt with the relationship between...
– The Political Economy of Postsocialist Transformation
The great transformation undertaken by the countries of the former communist bloc exhibits immense diversity in terms of initial conditions, shifting target models, consistency, paths, speed, progress to date, and economic performance. This is the first comprehensive study of the economics and...
This is a study of the long-run evolution of the relationship between China and the world economy. The book presents an original interpretation of the country's socio-economic processes in the past 150 years, focusing on China's interaction with the expanding capitalist world economy. The author...
This is the first of five volumes reporting on the UNU-WIDER study on New Regionalism. It deals with the conceptions and meanings of two processes which probably will have a crucial influence on the shape of the 'new world order' - globalization and regionalization. These studies relate to each...
This is the first of five volumes reporting on the UNU-WIDER study on New Regionalism. It deals with the conceptions and meanings of two processes which probably will have a crucial influence on the shape of the 'new world order' - globalization and regionalization. These studies relate to each...
This book brings together papers written by representatives from UN agencies and academics who take a fresh look at the expanding role of transnational corporations and foreign direct investment in the world economy. These papers deal with such issues as the nature and extent of globalisation, the...
– Restructuring the Global Military Sector, Volume II
Since the mid-1980s there have been substantial cuts in military spending throughout the world, with the exception of Pacific Asia. The end of the Cold War, democratization in Africa and Latin America, structural adjustment programmes, debts and cuts in public spending are just some of the political...
– Its Global Trends, Economics and Governance
Small scale neighbourhoods - countryside and small towns are often seen as ideal living environments. Yet large cities all over the world are growing rapidly. A contradiction seems to exist between what people want and what, in fact, is evolving. The economics of urbanization - as described in this...
Transnational commons, cross-border areas without well-defined property rights, have long been ignored in 'official' development economics. This volume redresses the balance by adopting an environmental approach which stresses the importance of shared natural resources and the links between acute...
– Transition from Plan to Market in the World Economy
The transition of the former socialist and otherwise centrally planned economies into the world trading and financial system has become a major concern to both policymakers and social scientists. In this book experts from diverse economies address the principal issues raised by this transition. The...
– Restructuring the Global Military Sector, Volume I
Since the mid-1980s there have been substantial cuts in military spending everywhere except Pacific Asia. The reasons are both political, such as the end of the Cold War, democratization in Africa and Latin America, and economic, with structural adjustment programmes, debt and cuts in public...
– The Defence Sector in Transition
The European Rupture focuses on the consequences of the end of the Cold War for defence sectors in Europe. It offers a theoretical framework supported by country case studies from both Western Europe and formerly centrally planned economies.
– A Case-Study of the Tropical Beverage Crops
The collapse in commodity prices since 1980 has been a major cause of the economic crisis in a large number of developing countries. This book investigates whether the commodity-producing countries, by joint action, could have prevented the price collapse by appropriate supply management. The...
– Selected Regional Perspectives
India is a country of great diversity. The commonly used indicators of `quality of life'; (such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy) vary tremendously between the different states, rivaling international contrasts between very low performing countries and very high achieving ones...
– A Comparative Study of Capacity-Building With a Data Appendix : International Profiles of Changes since 1971
This book is a collection of systematically prepared case studies describing the environmental policy of thirteen countries in terms of capacity-building. Capacity for environmental policy and management, as the concept is used in this volume, has been defined broadly as a society's "ability (...)...
– Volume 2
Two and a half billion people are affected directly on a day to day basis by the allocation and use of purely local resources. Yet `official' development economics has concentrated on headline international issues and only recently begun to take account of the dependence of poor countries on their...
– Volume 1
Two and a half billion people are affected directly on a day to day basis by the allocation and use of primary local resources. Yet `official' development economics has concentrated on headline international issues and only recently begun to take account of the dependence of poor countries on their...
– Women's Positions at the End of the Twentieth Century
At the end of the twentieth century, after four world conferences on women, debates on the impact of economic development on the lives and status of women - including their life-options and opportunities for betterment - continue unresolved. Is patriarchy on the decline, or is it merely its form...
The collapse of central planning was hailed as evidence of the economic and moral superiority of capitalism over any possible alternative. The essays in this book challenge that claim. The case for more democratic forms of enterprise management is considered from a variety of viewpoints. One chapter...
– From Development to Dialogue
Development failures, environmental degradation and social fragmentation can no longer be regarded as side effects of `externalities'. They are the toxic consequences of pretensions that the modern Western view of knowledge is a universal neutral view, applicable to all people at all times. The very...
– Studies in Investment, Saving and Finance
The essays collected in this volume, written by well-known academics and policy analysts, discuss the impact of increased capital mobility on macroeconomic performance. The authors highlight the most adequate ways to manage the transition from a semi-closed economy to a semi-open one. Additionally...
The discussions in this book offer an informative & compelling account of the recent changes in development & the main political & economic trends shaping the international environment. It focuses on the changing global scene & its impact on different dimensions of the development process - economic...
The role of the state has occupied centre stage in the development of economics as an independent discipline and is one of the most contentious issues addressed by contemporary economists and political economists. The immediate post-war years saw a swing in economic theory towards interventionism...
– A Study of Human Capabilities
Women, a majority of the world's population, receive only a small proportion of its opportunities and benefits. According to the 1993 UN Human Development Report, there is no country in the world in which women's quality of life is equal to that of men. This examination of women's quality of life...
– Ecological Constraints and the Global Economy (paperback)
The essays in this study contribute to an analysis of the prospects for the world's economy in the face of environmental constraints. The contributors examine the implications of development in both northern and southern hemispheres, and the extreme differences between rich and poor nations in the...
– An International Investigation into the Future of Work
Employment has been adopted as a leading concern for the United Nations World Social Summit in March 1995. This important study, prepared for the Summit by the World Institute for Development Economics Research, comprises a wide-ranging set of investigations of the rapidly changing situation in the...
– The Historic Process : Volume 5
Offers information about how three developed countries have utilized technology in their advancement in the post-World War II period. Japan, Finland and Greece are assessed in terms of economic growth and structural factors, along with an examination of the dynamics of technological transformation.
– Problems and possibilities
Case studies of five countries uncover serious potential difficulties in maintaining the pace of manufacturing for export in the developing countries, and shows that there is no simple relationship between import liberalization and manufacturing for export.
– Patterns and Policies
This volume aims at remedying the relative dearth of studies addressing issues of women and development in Arab countries. One major concern of its authors is to improve the statistical information available by including the often omitted aspect of disaggregation by gender - an essential task if...
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