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On Planning for Development: development economics

178 OXFAM BRIEFING PAPER – SUMMARY - 20 January 2014

Working for the few
Political capture and economic inequality

In November 2013, the World Economic Forum released its ‘Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014’ in which it ranked widening income disparities as the second greatest worldwide risk in the coming 12 to 18 months. Based on those surveyed, inequality is ‘impacting social stability within countries and threatening security on a global scale.’ Oxfam shares its analysis, and wants to see the 2014 World Economic Forum make the commitments needed to counter the growing tide of inequality.
Some economic inequality is essential to drive growth and progress, rewarding those with talent, hard earned skills, and the ambition to innovate and take entrepreneurial risks. However, the extreme levels of wealth concentration occurring today threaten to exclude hundreds of millions of people from realizing the benefits of their talents and hard work.

...

Inequality, the Great Recession, and Slow Recovery

Barry Z. Cynamon (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) and Steven M. Fazzari (Washington University in St. Louis) - January 2014
Rising inequality reduced income growth for the bottom 95 percent of the income distribution beginning about 1980, but that group’s consumption growth did not fall proportionally. Instead, lower saving led to increasing balance sheet fragility for the bottom 95 percent, eventually triggering the Great Recession. We decompose consumption and saving across income groups. The consumption/income ratio of the bottom 95 percent fell sharply in the recession, consistent with tighter borrowing constraints. The top 5 percent ratio rose, consistent with consumption smoothing. The inability of the bottom 95 percent to generate adequate demand helps explain the slow recovery.

Published by The World Bank - October 2013

Dealing with the challenges of Macro Financial Linkages in emerging markets

Otaviano Canuto and Swati Ghosh (editors)
The 2008 financial crisis highlighted the challenges associated with global financial integration, emphasized the importance of macro financial linkages and challenged pre-crisis financial stability regimes. Policies in both the macroeconomic and financial sector arenas are now being debated and reviewed, but the debate is currently taking place largely, if not exclusively, in the context of the advanced industrial countries. This is unfortunate, as emerging markets not only face different conditions and have key structural features that can have a bearing on the relevance and efficacy of these policies, but also have had greater experiences with policies aimed at ensuring financial stability.
This volume provides a thorough overview of the evolving macroeconomic and financial stability framework, and the policy options that exist within it. In particular, the volume aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of macro prudential tools, which address systemic risk. This is done in the context of advanced economies as well as emerging markets.


From the World Bank Development Research Group - December 2013

Global Income Distribution
From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession

By Christopher Lakner and Branko Milanovic
The paper presents a newly compiled and improved database of national household surveys between 1988 and 2008. In 2008, the global Gini index is around 70.5 percent having declined by approximately 2 Gini points over this twenty year period. When it is adjusted for the likely under-reporting of top incomes in surveys by using the gap between national accounts consumption and survey means in combination with a Pareto-type imputation of the upper tail, the estimate is a much higher global Gini of almost 76 percent. With such an adjustment the downward trend in the Gini almost disappears. Tracking the evolution of individual countrydeciles shows the underlying elements that drive the changes in the global distribution: China has graduated from the bottom ranks, modifying the overall shape of the global income distribution in the process and creating an important global “median” class that has transformed a twin-peaked 1988 global distribution into an almost single-peaked one now. The “winners” were country-deciles that in 1988 were around the median of the global income distribution, 90 percent of whom in terms of population are from Asia. The “losers” were the country-deciles that in 1988 were around the 85th percentile of the global income distribution, almost 90 percent of whom in terms of population are from mature economies.



From United Nations Universidad - World Institute for Development Economics Research
Conference on
New Directions in Development Economics - 2010
36 papers

"This project acts as an instrument for UNU-WIDER to conduct small-scale projects or studies on topics of immediate policy importance that deserve a swift and critical response; to experiment with the application of new analytical techniques to development issues, and to build new research ideas that may then constitute the basis of larger projects in the main programme. Small projects may include empirical evaluation of development insights; trade reform and employment; development economics and public policy; poverty measurement and inequality."

Browse UNU WIDER conferences


World Bank, 1984, Pioneers in Development
(Public Disclosure Authorized - June 1984)

The "Pioneers in Development" are those whose articles, reports, and books came to dominate thinking about economic development in the late 1940s and 1950s. They shaped the subject by introducing concepts,deducing principles, and modeling the process of development This book recaptures the spirit and the economic thought of that pioneering period.
The pioneers listed on the front of the jacket were asked to reassess the main themes of their early work and to reconsider their assumptions, concepts, and policy prescriptions in relation to the way the course of development has proceeded since their pioneering days. Their individual chapters now recall the intellectual excitement, expectations, and activism of that unique period. Commentary is provided by economists of the succeeding generation, who reappraise their elder's ideas with the benefit of hindsight.
Not only do the chapters by the pioneers display autobiographical charm, but, taken as a set, they also offer an unusual opportunity for a retrospective view of what has happened to development economics. And the retrospective view naturally has implications for assessing the present and looking to the future. What are the strands of continuity in development? What are the recurrent issues? What are the unsettled questions?
An introductory historical chapter by Gerald M. Meier sets the stage, outlining some of the intellectual trends and institutional features that shaped the political and economic environment of the formative period for the pioneers. The final survey chapter by Paul P. Streeten synthesizes various issues in developmentthought and points toward the resolution of unsettled questions in the subject.

E. W. Nafziger - 2005
From Seers to Sen: the meaning of economic development

How has the meaning of economic development changed during the twenty years of WIDER’s existence? Two markers are Dudley Seers, “The Meaning of Development” (1967, 1979), for the earlier period and Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (1999), for the later. Here the meaning of development also encompasses measures and strategies of development and approaches to its study. Moreover, I examine works beyond these markers to provide more detail of the two men’s views.
Both men were critical of the development literature of their times. For Seers, neoclassical economics had a flawed paradigm and dependency theory a lack of policy realism. After the fall of state socialism in 1989-1991, the ideological struggles among economists diminished. Neoclassicism’s Washington Consensus of the World Bank, IMF, and the U.S. government reigned (Williamson 1993, pp. 1329-1336; 1994, pp. 26- 28). Sen did not focus on ideological issues but, according to the Nobel prize committee, “restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of economic problems” such as development.


E. W. Nafziger - 2006
From Seers to Sen: The Meaning of Economic Development
(PDF 90KB)

The paper compares perspectives on the meaning of development in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the contemporary period, with a focus on the works of Dudley Seers and Amartya Sen. Both men were critical of the development literature of their times. Seers was especially critical of neoclassicism’s universal claims and economic growth as the prime objective. For Sen, development involves reducing deprivation or broadening choice. One challenge for future work is for development economists, similar to Seers and Sen, to be more holistic, integrating economic development, human rights, and conflict reduction.
**This study is a revised version of the paper presented at the 17-18 June 2005 UNU-WIDER anniversary conference, ‘WIDER Thinking Ahead: The Future of Development Economics’, directed by George Mavrotas and Anthony Shorrocks.



From The World Bank Group - 2008
Development Economics through the Decades : A Critical Look at Thirty Years of the World Development Report
Shahid Yusuf

Since 1978, the World Bank’s annual World Development Report (WDR) has provided in-depth analysis and policy recommendations on a specific and important aspect of international development from agriculture, the role of the state, economic growth, and labor to infrastructure, health, the environment, and poverty. In the process, it has become a highly influential publication that is consulted by international organizations, national governments, scholars, and civil society networks to inform their decision-making processes.
In this essay, Shahid Yusuf examines the last 30 years of development economics, viewed through the WDRs. The essay begins with a brief background on the circumstances of newly independent developing countries and summarizes some of the main strands of the emerging field of development economics. It then provides a sweeping examination of the coverage of the WDRs, reflecting on the key development themes synthesized by these reports and assessing how the research they present has contributed to policy making and development thought. The book then looks ahead and points to some of the big challenges that the World Bank may explore through future WDRs. The essay is followed by five commentaries, each written by a distinguished economist or development practitioner, which further explore this terrain from different perspectives.
Together, the contents of this volume provide an extraordinary and remarkably compact tour of development economics through, around, and beyond the WDR. It will be invaluable to anyone interested in the evolution of development economics over the past three decades as well as for students, scholars, and policy makers in the field of development.



E. Thorbecke - 2005
The evolution of the development doctrine 1950-2005
The selection and adoption of a development strategy - i.e. a set of more or less interrelated and consistent policies - depend upon three building blocks:
(1) the prevailing development objectives which, in turn, are derived from the prevailing view and definition of the development process;
(2) the conceptual state of the art regarding the existing body of development theories, hypotheses, models, techniques, and empirical applications; and
(3) the underlying data system available to diagnose the existing situation, measure performance, and test hypotheses.
United Nations University
WIDER Jubilee Conference - Helsinki, Finland
17-18 June 2005

The Future of Development Economics
Papers on:
- Institutions and Governance
- Conflict and Human Rights
- Development Finance
- Development Economics in Retrospect
- Poverty and Vulnerability
- Foreign Aid
- Development Strategies
- China
- Globalization
- A New World Economic Order
- Behavioural Approaches
- Poverty
- Wellbeing and Human Development
- Trade and Development
- Migration and Employment
- Africa
- International Finance
- Pro-poor Policies
- Technology and Development
- Informal Sector
- Rural Development
- Achieving the MDGs
- Growth
- Country Strategies
- Cultural and Social Capital
Public Disclosure Authorized
Document 23244 - July 2001
Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 2000
On development strategies for the 21st Century
Edited by Boris Pleskovic and Nicholas Stern
The World Bank - Washington, D.C.

"The lesson of the 20th century is that successful development requires markets underpinned by solid public institutions-institutions that protect property rights, regulate market participants, maintain macroeconomic stability, provide social insurance, and manage conflict. A variety of institutional setups could serve these functions, but any imported blueprints should be filtered through local practice and needs. International rules and the loan conditionality imposed by international financial institutions ought to leave room for development policies to diverge from the dominant orthodoxies. Today's advanced industrial countries owe their success to having developed their own workable models of a mixed economy. Developing nations need to fashion their own brands. Economic development will ultimately derive from homegrown strategies, not imitation of U.S.-style capitalism..."

Public Disclosure Authorized
Document 61894 - July 2011
Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics Global 2010
Lessons from East Asia and the Global Financial Crisis
Edited by Justin Yifu Lin and Boris Pleskovic
The World Bank - Washington, D.C.

"We are being called on to overcome the economic turmoil facing us and to prepare for the new world that will emerge from the crisis. Today, I would like to talk about how we should deal with the challenges facing the global economy and what we should do to prepare for sustainable growth once the crisis has passed. The world economy is undergoing the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Some economists say that the Great Depression was a tragedy that could have been avoided. Had there been appropriate measures and cooperative efforts at the international level such as expending fiscal stimulus and recapitalizing banks, the Great Depression might not have been so prolonged and so painful; it might have been a passing event in world history."

RP2006/14 Lance Taylor:
Development Questions for 25 Years
Recent growth experience in developing countries is reviewed, with an emphasis on structural change and sources of effective demand. How policy influences such outcomes is analyzed in light of historical experience. Options are discussed for macro and industrial/commercial policy, and how they may influence the growth process. The recent ‘institutional turn’ in development theory may obfuscate serious policy analysis.


RP2006/13 Álvaro García Hurtado:
Development in Chile 1990-2005: Lessons from a Positive Experience
(PDF 137KB)

RP2006/12 Guillermo Rozenwurcel:
Why Have All Development Strategies Failed in Latin America?
(PDF 198KB)

RP2006/74 Jonathan Di John:
The Political Economy of Taxation and Tax Reform in Developing Countries
(PDF 127KB)

RP2006/73 Julius Kiiza:
Institutions and Economic Performance in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Mauritius, Botswana and Uganda
(PDF 115KB)

RP2006/71 William Lazonick:

Corporate Governance, Innovative Enterprise, and Economic Development

(PDF 320KB)

RP2006/55 Nanak Kakwani and Hyun H. Son:
Evaluating Targeting Efficiency of Government Programmes: International Comparisons
(PDF 122KB)

RP2006/54 Gerald Epstein:
Central Banks as Agents of Economic Development
(PDF 135KB)

RP2006/49 Sukti Dasgupta and Ajit Singh:
Manufacturing, Services and Premature Deindustrialization in Developing Countries: A Kaldorian Analysis
(PDF 105KB)

RP2006/47 François Bourguignon and Mark Sundberg:
Absorptive Capacity and Achieving the MDGs
(PDF758KB)

RP2006/36 Frances Stewart:
Do We Need a New ‘Great Transformation’? Is One Likely?
(PDF 171KB)
Karl Polanyi wrote The Great Transformation in 1944 which analysed the double movement Europe experienced, from a situation where the market was heavily regulated and controlled in the eighteenth century to a virtually unregulated market in the nineteenth century, and the huge transformation in which the market was once more brought under control as a reaction to the poverty, unemployment and insecurity brought about by the unregulated market. Yet in both developed and developing countries there has since been a reaction with a new move towards the market. This paper analyses such processes in contemporary developing countries, and considers whether, in the light of the consequences of the unregulated market, a new Great Transformation is needed. It also considers whether such a transformation is likely, reviewing moves towards increased regulation of the market, and also the challenges faced by any contemporary great transformation arising from globalization and the nature of politics.

RP2006/27 Lakhwinder Singh:
Innovations, High-Tech Trade and Industrial Development: Theory, Evidence and Policy
(PDF 107KB)

RP2006/26 Pertti Haaparanta and Heli Virta:
Decomposing Growth: Do Low-Income and HIPCs Differ from High-Income Countries? Growth, Technological Catch-up, Technological Change and Human and Physical Capital Deepening
(PDF 447KB)

RP2006/25 Stephen Knowles:
Is Social Capital Part of the Institutions Continuum and is it a Deep Determinant of Development?
(PDF 142KB)

RP2006/24 C. Leigh Anderson and Kostas Stamoulis:
Applying Behavioural Economics to International Development Policy
(PDF 123KB)

RP2006/21 Grzegorz W. Kolodko:
Institutions, Policies and Economic Development
(PDF 161KB)

Institutions are not only created and built, but also, and especially, need to be learnt. It is a process which takes place in all economies, but acquires a special importance in less advanced countries. Not only theoretical arguments, but also the practical experience over the past 15 years demonstrates that faster economic growth, and hence also more broadly, socioeconomic development, is attained by those countries which take greater care to foster the institutional reinforcement of market economy. However, progress in market-economy institution building is not in itself sufficient to ensure sustained growth. Another indispensable component is an appropriately designed and implemented economic policy which must not confuse the means with the aims.

DP2004/08 James B. Davies:
Microsimulation, CGE and Macro Modelling for Transition and Developing Economies
(PDF 254KB)


B. Cimbleris (1990s)
Economy and Thermodynamics

An elementary definition of energy is "capacity of producing work". A rough definition of money is "the ability to make other people work". Money and its equivalents are the motive power of human action. This is admittedly cheap philosophy, but it works.
I believe in the usefulness of intuitive ideas in entering the tracks of precise concepts. In this paper I try to associate the ideas of classical, bona fide economists of the last two centuries, with the concepts of Thermodynamics.
In our material world we deal with fluxes of matter and energy, which are shaped by human action into economic phenomena. The economic phenomenon arises whenever we deal with finite resources. But what is infinite on this planet? And for the time being we have to deal only with this unique abode. The original endowment of Earth is in the form of reserves of matter and energy.
The transformable part of the reserves, duly identified, forms the resources. Part of these is transformable into consumable goods, which have a value. The value of things is conditioned by a complex of social, cultural and conceptual realities. It is beyond the scope of this review to consider the world as a whole.




Andre Gunder Frank (1995)
The Underdevelopment of Development
"I intend to undertake a political sociology of knowledge of the study of development based on my own experience and perspective. I review the three varieties of development economics; neo-classical (right), Keynesian (center) and Marxist (left) and autobiographically my own participation in all of them. Perhaps I can also clarify how on further reflection my choice for the study of development is now none of the above. I would not wish to find myself in any of these camps when H.W. Arndt (1987: 162-3) can write:..."

From P. Krugman website at MIT
The fall and rise of development economics

By Paul Krugman – 1994 This is not exactly a paper about Albert Hirschman. In the first place, I am unqualified to write such a paper. My acquaintance with Hirschman's works is very limited. In essence, the Hirschman I know is the author of The Strategy of Economic Development and little else.
So I am in no position to write about his larger vision. Furthermore, while I am a great admirer of The Strategy of Economic Development, I do not think that it was helpful to development economics. That may sound paradoxical, but I'll try to explain what I mean as I go along. To put it briefly, however, I regard the intellectual strategy that Hirschman adopted in writing that book as an understandable but wrong response to what had become a crisis in the field of economic development.
Perversely, the very brilliance and persuasiveness of the book made it all the more destructive.
If this paper is not about Hirschman, what is it about? It is some reflections on two intertwined themes. One is the strange history of development economics, or more specifically the linked set of ideas that I have elsewhere (Krugman 1993) called "high development theory". This set of ideas was and is highly persuasive as at least a partial explanation of what development is about, and for a stretch of about 15 years in the 1940s and 1950s it was deeply influential among both economists and policymakers. Yet in the late 1950s high development theory rapidly unravelled, to the point where by the time I studied economics in the 1970s it seemed not so much wrong as incomprehensible. Only in the 1980s and 1990s were economists able to look at high development theory with a fresh eye and see that it really does make a lot of sense, after all...

University of Conneticut
Department of Economics
EDIRC
Economic Departaments, Institutes and Research Centers in The World

World Bank :
Global Economic Prospects 2004
Realizing the Development Promise of the Doha Agenda

United Nations University
World Institute for Development Economics Research
Policy Briefs

06/2010
Amelia U. Santos-Paulino and Guanghua Wan
The Global Impact of the Southern Engines of Growth: China, India, Brazil and South Africa

The exceptional economic performances of China, India, Brazil, South Africa (CIBS), and other southern economies has altered the socio-economic landscape of the world, with profound implications for international development and global governance. These economies’ successes reflect, inter alia, their active roles in global markets, echoed in the rapidly growing flows of trade and capital. This has led to the evolution of the countries’ comparative advantages, through technical upgrading and the diversification of production and trade capabilities, although with diverse degrees of success.


05/2010
Amelia U. Santos-Paulino
Enhancing Development through Policy Coherence
04/2010
Wim Naudé 
Promoting Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Policy Challenges

03/2010
Machiko Nissanke and Erik Thorbecke
Linking the Globalization to Poverty in Asia, Latin America and Africa
03/2009
Augustin Kwasi Fosu and Wim Naudé
Policy Responses to the Global Economic Crisis in Africa
02/2009
Wim Naudé
The Global Economic Crisis after One Year: Is a New Paradigm for Recovery in Developing Countries Emerging?

One year into the global economic crisis, it has become clear that the paradigm for international development has changed irrevocably. With leadership, moral authority and the capacity of the West in international development diminishing, developing countries’ recovery and future growth will critically hinge on their own initiatives, solutions and leadership. This policy brief summarizes the global responses to the crisis over the past year, points to their shortcomings and argues that a new paradigm for recovery in developing countries is emerging.


04/2008
Guanghua Wan
Poverty Reduction in China: Is High Growth Enough?

The slowdown and in some years reversal of poverty reduction in China forcefully demonstrates that growth is not sufficient for combating poverty even if that growth is of unprecedented magnitude. Policy initiatives should take into consideration inequality, especially urban-rural disparity. This Policy Brief provides a summary of the research findings from UNU-WIDER’s project on Inequality and Poverty in China. It also offers policy recommendations for tackling the poverty-growth-inequality inter-relationships in the short- and long-run. In particular, it is suggested that the only long-run policy option for the Chinese government is to encourage urbanization.

04/2008
Guanghua Wan
万广华
中国的反贫困:仅有高经济增长够吗
? (Chinese)

03/2008
Wim Naudé, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, and Mark McGillivray
Fragile States

02/2008
Wim Naudé, Amelia U. Santos-Paulino, and Mark McGillivray
Vulnerability in Developing Countries

The first Millennium Development Goal aims to halve the number of people in the world living in extreme poverty. In this Research Brief, emanating from the UNU-WIDER project on ‘Fragility and Development’, the premise is that we should also be concerned about households who are vulnerable to poverty. This includes those who have little likelihood of escaping from poverty and who are at risk of falling into poverty in the future. Household vulnerability to poverty is affected by, and affects, vulnerability in other dimensions and levels, such as the vulnerability of a country or region to natural hazards and macro-economic shocks. To address household vulnerability in developing countries requires an understanding of the concept and nature of vulnerability, its measurement and its application. Therefore, this Research Brief asks: what is vulnerability? How can vulnerability be measured? How should households, governments and development agencies respond to vulnerability?


01/2008
Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis
Can We Eradicate Hunger?

World hunger is prevalent yet receives relatively less attention compared to poverty. The MDGs have taken a step to address this with the resolution of halving the number of starving people in the world by 2015. A substantial and sustainable reduction in hunger will also greatly improve the chances of meeting the MDGs related to poverty reduction, education, child mortality, maternal health, and disease. Hunger though is not a straightforward problem of producing enough to feed the world’s population; it has many cross-cutting dimensions. This study addresses a combination of economic, social, and political perspectives, drawing upon academic research of the economic factors and the experiences of international organizations and civil society.


06/2007
Ha-Joon Chang
Stranger than Fiction? Understanding Institutional Changes and Economic Development

05/2007
Wim Naudé and Marianne Matthee
The Significance of Transport Costs in Africa

03/2007
David Clark and Mark McGillivray
Measuring Human Well-being: Key Findings and Policy Lessons

02/2007
Machiko Nissanke and Erik Thorbecke
Linking Globalization to Poverty
07/2006
Andrés Solimano
Mobilizing Talent for Global Development
05/2006
Tony Addison, Alan Roe, and Matthew Smith
>Fiscal Policy for Poverty Reduction, Reconstruction, and Growth
04/2005
David Fielding
What can the European Central Bank learn from Africa?
03/2005
Ravi Kanbur and Anthony J. Venables
Rising Spatial Disparities and Development
01/2005
David Fielding
Zone franc : l'expérience africaine peut-elle inspirer la Banque centrale européenne? (French)

PB No. 10
New Sources of Development Finance: Funding the Millennium Development Goals
A. B. Atkinson - 2004

Mobilizing additional finance to meet the challenges of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is an urgent priority. Developing countries are mobilizing resources themselves to meet the MDG targets by 2015, but they will fall short without additional external flows. Increased private and public money is needed in order for the world’s poorest countries to invest in the basic services and infrastructure necessary for human development, and to improve livelihoods and employment for poor people.


PB No. 9
Sustainability of External Development Financing
to Developing Countries
(PDF 504KB)
Matthew Odedokun, March 2004
ISBN 92-9190-577-1

PB No. 8
Poverty, International Migration and Asylum (PDF 419KB)
Christina Boswell and Jeff Crisp, February 2004
ISBN 92-9190-575-5

PB No. 7
e-development? Development and the New Economy
(PDF 453KB)
Matthew Clarke, December 2003
ISBN 92-9190-573-9

PB No. 6
Africa's Recovery from Conflict: Making Peace Work for the Poor
(PDF 376KB)
Tony Addison, March 2003
ISBN 92-92-9190-399-X

Sínteses Sobre Política 6
A Recuperação de África após os Conflitos: Levar aos Pobres os Benefícios da Paz (PDF 717KB)
Tony Addison, Junho de 2003 (Translation in Portuguese of Policy Brief 6)

Cahiers de politique 6
L’Afrique de la guerre à la paix : garantir l’avenir des populations pauvres (PDF 736KB)
Tony Addison, juin 2003 (Translation in French of Policy Brief 6)


PB No. 5
Governing Globalization: Issues and Institutions(PDF 376KB)
Deepak Nayyar and Julius Court, June 2002
ISBN 92-9190-227-8
PB No. 4
Inequality, Growth and Poverty in the Era of Liberalization and Globalization (PDF 426KB)
Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Julius Court, November 2001
ISBN 92-9190-013-3

PB No. 3
Access to Land and Land Policy Reforms
(PDF 1630KB)
by Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet, April 2001
ISBN 952-455-125-X

PB No. 2
Social and Economic Policies to Prevent Complex Humanitarian Emergencies Lessons from Experience
(PDF 455KB)
by Jeni Klugman, 1999
ISBN 952-9520-70-4

PB No. 1
Forests in Global Warming
(PDF 757KB)
by Patrick Humphreys and Matti Palo, 1998
ISBN 952-9520-69-7


World Institute for Development Economics Research
Discussion Papers
:

DP2002/127 Machiko Nissanke:
Donors' Support for Microcredit as Social Enterprise: A Critial Reappraisal (PDF 255KB)


DP2002/126 Bernard Hoekman:
Developing Countries and the Political Economy of the Trading System(PDF 259KB)

This paper analyses a number of the challenges confronting developing countries seeking to use the WTO Doha negotiations to promote their economic growth and performance. A precondition for success is to have clear objectives and to take a proactive stance. But a key necessary condition for success will be to recognize the political economy of reform – both at home and in partner countries. Little progress will be made on key issues unless there are major stakeholders within countries that perceive the overall package to be beneficial. A number of possible focal points that could be used both as targets and as benchmarks for reciprocal negotiations are discussed, as is the need for mechanisms to increase the domestic ‘ownership’ of WTO agreements.



DP2002/125 Gautam Hazarika and Rafael Otero:
Foreign Trade and the Gender Earnings Differential in Urban Mexico (PDF187KB)


DP2002/124 Janine Aron:
Building Institutions in Post-Conflict African Economies (PDF 207KB)


DP2002/123 Jean-Claude Berthélemy and Ariane Tichit:
Bilateral Donors' Aid Allocation Decisions: A Three-dimentional Panel Analysis (PDF 323KB)


DP2002/122 A. V. Y. Mbelle:
HICP Relief: Too Little, Too Late? Perspectives from a New Qualifier, Tanzania (PDF 175KB)

DP2002/121 Cecilia Ugaz:
Consumer Participation and Pro-Poor Regulation in Latin America (PDF 180KB)


DP2002/120 Tony Addison and S. Mansoon Murshed:
Transnational Terrorism as a Spillover of Domestic Disputes in Other Countries (PDF 199KB)


DP2002/119 Sylvanus I. Ikhide:
Institutional Reforms and the Role of Multilateral Aid Agencies (PDF 256KB)


DP2002/118 George Mavrotas:
Multilateral Development Banks and Private Sector Financing: The Case of IFC (PDF 201KB)


DP2002/117 Ayodele Jimoh:
Bilateral Official Finance for Private Sector Development and the Role of Non-Government Organizations (PDF 295KB)


DP2002/116 Derrick L. Cogburn:
Emergent Global Information Infrastructure/Global Information Society (PDF 198KB)


DP2002/115 Sougata Poddar:
Network Externality and Software Piracy (PDF 182KB)


DP2002/114 Jennifer Mbabazi:
A CGE Analysis of the Short-run Welfare Effects of Tariff Liberalisation in Uganda (PDF 216KB)


DP2002/113 Jomo K. S. and Wee Chong Hui:
The Political Economy of Malaysian Federalism: Economic Development, Public Policy and Conflict Containment (PDF 343KB)


DP2002/112 Peter Gibbon and Lau Schulpen:
Comparative Appraisal of Multilateral and Bilateral Approaches to Financing Private Sector Development in Developing Countries(PDF 366KB)


DP2002/111 Jai-Joon Hur, Hwan-Joo Seo and Young Soo Lee:
ICT Diffusion and Skill Upgrading in Korean Industries (PDF 192KB)


DP2002/110 P. B. Anand:
Financing the Provision of Global Public Goods (PDF 340KB)


DP2002/109 Jonathan P. Thomas:
Bankruptcy Proceedings for Sovereign State Insolvency (PDF 182KB)


DP2002/108 Kandamuthan Subodh:
Market Concentration, Firm Size and Innovative Activity: A Firm-level Economic Analysis of Selected Indian Industries under Economic Liberalization (PDF 242KB)


DP2002/107 S. Mansoob Murshed:
Strategic Interaction and Donor Policy Determination in a Domestic Setting (PDF 202KB)


DP2002/106 Howard White:
Long-run Trends and Recent Developments in Official Assistance from Donor Countries (PDF 240KB)


DP2002/105 Oliver Morrissey:
Recipient Governments' Willingness and Ability to Meet Aid Conditionality: The Effectiveness of Aid Finance and Conditions (PDF 218KB)


DP2002/104 Guang Hua Wan:
Income Inequality and Growth in Transition Economies: Are Nonlinear Models Needed? (PDF 212KB)


DP2002/103 Ilham Haouas, Mahmoud Yagoubi and Almas Heshmati:
Labour-Use Efficiency in Tunisian Manufacturing Industries: A Flexible Adjustment Model (PDF 238KB)


DP2002/102 Ilham Haouas, Mahmoud Yagoubi and Almas Heshmati:
The Impacts of Trade Liberalization on Employment and Wages in Tunisian Industries (PDF 280KB)


DP2002/101 Guang Hua Wan:
Regression-based Inequality Decomposition: Pitfalls and a Solution Procedure (PDF 160KB)


DP2002/100 Fadle M. Naqib:
Economic Aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: The Collapse of the Oslo Accord (PDF 108KB)


DP2002/99 Niels Hermes, Robert Lensink, and Victor Murinde:
Flight Capital and its Reversal for Development Financing (PDF 223KB)

In this paper, we review the theoretical and empirical literature on capital flight. First, we discuss the measurement of capital flight. Next, we provide information on the magnitude as well as the ‘burden’ of capital flight for a selected set of developing countries in four regions of the world (South Asia, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America). Moreover, we review the literature on the determinants of capital flight and provide an overview of empirical studies that have analysed the determinants of capital flight. In the light of the discussion of these determinants, we assess the prospects for flight capital reversal. We conclude by proposing some policy measures to stem continued capital flight and induce capital flight reversal.



DP2002/98 Raghbendra Jha:
Innovative Sources of Development Finance: Global Cooperation in the Twenty-first Century (PDF 238KB)


DP2002/97 Léonce Ndikumana: Additionality of Debt Relief and Debt Forgiveness, and Implications for Future Volumes of Official Assistance (PDF 229KB)

DP2002/96 Eric Neumayer:
Arab-Related Bilateral and Multilateral Sources of Development Finance: Issues, Trends, and the Way Forward (PDF 197KB)


DP2002/95 Patrice Muller:
Internet Use in Transition Economies: Economic and Institutional Determinants (PDF 212KB)


DP2002/94 Stijn Claessens, Daniela Kingebiel, and Sergio L. Schmukler:
Explaining the Migration of Stocks from Exchanges in Emerging Economies to International Centres (PDF 158KB)


DP2002/93 Randall Dodd:
Derivatives, the Shape of International Capital Flows and the Virtues of Prudential Regulation (PDF 102KB)


DP2002/92 Daniel Chudnovsky and Andrés López:
The Software and Information Services Sector in Argentina: Pros and Cons of an Inward-Orientated Development Strategy (PDF 219KB)


DP2002/91 Mina. N. Baliamoune:
Assessing the Impact of One Aspect of Globalization on Economic Growth in Africa (PDF 116KB)


DP2002/90 Danny Cassimon and Peter-Jan Engelen:
Legal and Institutional Barriers to Optimal Financial Architecture for New Economy Firms in Developing Countries (PDF 131KB)


DP2002/89 Christopher Forman:
The Corporate Digital Divide: Determinants of Internet Adoption (PDF 144KB)


DP2002/88 Youngsoo Lee, Jeonghun Oh, and Hwanjoo Seo:
Digital Divideand Growth Gap: A Cumulative Relationship (PDF 194KB)


DP2002/87 Sumit Joshi and Stephen C. Smith:
An Endogenous Group Formation Theory of Co-operative Networks: The Economics of La Lega and Mondragón (PDF 378KB)


DP2002/86 Ethan Ligon and Laura Schechter:
Measuring Vulnerability: The Director's Cut (PDF 223KB)


DP2002/85 Stefan Dercon and Pramila Krishnan:
Risk Sharing and Public Transfers (PDF 246KB)


DP2002/84 Albertus Aochamub, Daniel Motinga, and Christoph Stork:
Economic Development Potential through IP Telephony for Namibia (PDF 733KB)


DP2002/83 Samia Satti O. M. Nour:
ICT Opportunities and Challenges for Development in the Arab World (PDF 167KB)


DP2002/82 José Antonio Ocampo:
Capital-Account and Counter-Cyclical Prudential Regulations in Developing Countries (PDF 381KB)


DP2002/81 Ricardo Ffrench-Davis:
Financial Crises and National Policy Issues: An Overview (PDF 410KB)

In this overview we try to explain, first, why funds continued to flow towards emerging economies while fundamentals in host countries had been deteriorating before the Asian crisis (rising external deficit, with a significant liquid component appreciating exchange rates; low capital formation, particularly in Latin America), and why funding remains dry for long since 1998; the role of the nature of the predominant agents and of a process of flows rather than one shot building of stock of foreign capital are stressed. Then, the analysis focuses on the interrelations of capital flows and fiscal, monetary, exchange-rate and bank regulation policies, building on the papers prepared by participants in this project and related recent references. Finally, some policy implications are presented for booms and bust stages of inflows-led cycles.



DP2002/80 Valpy FitzGerald:
The Instability of the Emerging Market Assets Demand Schedule (PDF 166KB)


DP2002/79 Sagren Moodley:
Competing in the Digital Economy?: The Dynamics and Impacts of B2B E-commerce on the South African Manufacturing Sector (PDF 321KB)


DP2002/78 K. J. Joseph:
Growth of ICT and ICT for Development: Realities of the Myths of the Indian Experience (PDF 409KB)


DP2002/77 Mina N. Baliamoune:
The New Economy and Developing Countries: Assessing the Role of ICT Diffusion (PDF 292KB)
A revised version of this paper was published in Information Technology for Development, Vol. 10, no. 3 (2003): 151-169.

DP2002/76 T. A. Bhavani:
Impact of Technology on the Competitiveness of the Indian Small Manufacturing Sector: A Case Study of the Automotive Component Industry (PDF 398KB)


DP2002/75 Charles Kenny:
The Internet and Economic Growth in Least Developed Countries (PDF 250KB)


DP2002/74 George R. G. Clarke:
Does Internet Connectivity Affect Export Performance? Evidence from Transition Economies (PDF 85KB)


DP2002/73 Sandeep Kapur:
Developing Countries in the New Economy: The Role of Demand-side Initiatives (PDF 178KB)


DP2002/72 Steve Onyeiwu:
Inter-Country Variations in Digital Technology in Africa: Evidence, Determinants, and Policy Applications (PDF 296KB)


DP2002/71 Shaun Hargreaves Heap and Ashok Parikh:
The Market Place for Ideas: An Analysis of Knowledge Diffusion in Academic Journals (PDF 140KB)


DP2002/70 Francesco Daveri:
The New Economy in Europe, 1992-2001(PDF 107KB)

Despite the fast catching-up in ICT diffusion experienced by most EU countries in the last few years, information technologies have so far delivered little productivity gains in Europe. In the second half of the past decade, growth contributions from ICT capital rose in six EU countries only (the UK, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland and Greece). Quite unlike the United States, this has not generally been associated to higher labour or total factor productivity growth rates, the only exceptions being Ireland and Greece. Particularly worrisome, the large countries in continental Europe (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) showed stagnating or mildly declining growth contributions from ICT capital, together with definite declines in TFP growth compared to the first half of the 1990s. It looks like that the celebrated ‘Solow paradox’ on the lack of correlation between ICT investment and productivity growth has fled the US to migrate to Europe.



DP2002/69 Poh-Kam Wong and Zi-Lin He:
The Impacts of Knowledge Interaction with Manufacturing Clients on KIBS Firms Innovation Behaviour (PDF 240KB)


DP2002/68 K. Lal:
E-business and Export Behaviour: Evidence from Indian Firms (PDF 83KB)


DP2002/67 Matti Pohjola:
New Economy in Growth and Development (PDF 303KB)


DP2002/66 Nancy N. Nafula:
Achieving Sustainable Universal Primary Education through Debt Relief: The Case of Kenya (PDF 255KB)


DP2002/65 Paul Kieti Kimalu:
Debt Relief and Health Care in Kenya (PDF 93KB)


DP2002/64 Gianni Vaggi:
Trade and Sustainable Finance for Development (PDF 344KB)


DP2002/63 Ashok Parikh:
Impact of Liberalization, Economic Growth and Trade Policies on Current Accounts of Developing Countries: An Econometric Study (PDF 158KB)


DP2002/62 Marcin Piatkowski:
The 'New Economy' and Economic Growth in Transition Economies (PDF 302KB)


DP2002/61 David Lubin:
Bank Lending to Emerging Markets: Crossing the Border (PDF 145KB)


DP2002/60 Inna Verbina and Abdur Chowdhury:
What Determines Public Education Expenditures in a Transition Economy? (PDF 189KB)


DP2002/59 Mohammed Omran:
Testing for a Significant Change in the Egyptian Economy under the Economic Reform Programme Era (PDF 279KB)


DP2002/57 Joachim De Weerdt:
Risk-Sharing and Endogenous Network Formation (PDF 303KB)


DP2002/56 Loïc Sadoulet:
Incorporating Insurance Provisions in Microfinance Contracts: Learning from Visa®? (PDF 579KB)


DP2002/55 Jonathan Morduch:
Consumption Smoothing Across Space: Testing Theories of Risk-Sharing in the ICRISAT Study Region of South India (PDF 427KB)


DP2002/54 Jane Kiringai:
Debt and PRSP Conditionality (PDF 243KB)


DP2002/51 Grzegorz W. Kolodko:
Globalization and Catching-up in Emerging Market Economies (PDF 516KB)


DP2002/50 Nancy Birdsall, Stijn Claessens and Ishac Diwan:
Will HIPC Matter? The Debt Game and Donor Behaviour in Africa (PDF 277KB)
A shorter version of this publication is available as Working Paper 17 from the Center for Global Development.

DP2002/49 Samuel Fambon:
Endettement du Cameroun: Problèmes et solutions (PDF 594KB)


DP2002/48 Tony Addison, Abdur R. Chowdhury and S. Mansoob Murshed:
By How Much Does Conflict Reduce Financial Development? (PDF 313KB)


DP2002/47 Stijn Claessens, Joseph P.H. Fan and Larry H.P. Lang:
The Benefits and Costs of Group Affiliation: Evidence from East Asia (PDF 414KB)


DP2002/46 Paul Collier:
The Macroeconomic Repercussions of Agricultural Shocks and their Implications for Insurance (PDF 81KB)


DP2002/45 Barbara Stallings and Rogerio Studart:
Financial Regulation and Supervision in Emerging Markets. The Experience of Latin America since the Tequila Crisis (PDF 282KB)


DP2002/44 Lisandro Abrego and Doris C. Ross:
Debt Relief under the HIPC Initiative. Context and Outlook for Debt Sustainability and Resource Flows (PDF 859KB)


DP2002/42 John Hawkins:
International Bank Lending. Water Flowing Uphill?
(PDF 292KB)


DP2002/41 Carlos Budnevich L.:
Countercyclical Fiscal Policy. A Review of the Literature, Empirical Evidence and some Policy Proposals (PDF 280KB)


DP2002/40 Simon Feeny and Mark McGillivray:
Aid, Public Sector Fiscal Behaviour and Developing Country Debt (PDF 216KB)


DP2002/39 Gabriel Demombynes, Chris Elbers, Jenny Lanjouw, Peter Lanjouw, Johan Mistiaen and Berk Özler:
Producing an Improved Geographic Profile of Poverty: Methodology and Evidence from Three Developing Countries (PDF 610KB)


DP2002/38 Danny Quah:
One Third of the World's Growth and Inequality (PDF 260KB)


DP2002/36 Stephany Griffith-Jones and Stephen Spratt:
The New Basle Capital Accord and Developing Countries: Issues, Implications and Policy Proposals (PDF 95KB)


DP2002/35 Alemayehu Geda:
Debt Issues in Africa: Thinking beyond the HIPC Initiative to Solving Structural Problems (PDF 468KB)


DP2002/34 Günther Rehme:
(Re)Distribution of Personal Incomes, Education and Economic Performance Across Countries (PDF 382KB)


DP2002/32 Sonia Bhalotra:
Welfare Implications of Fiscal Reform: The Case of Food Subsidies in India (PDF 370KB)


DP2002/31 Avinash Persaud:
Liquidity Black Holes: And Why Modern Financial Regulation in Developed Countries is making Short-Term Capital Flows to Developing Countries Even More Volatile (PDF 212KB)


DP2002/30 Graciela Moguillansky:
Non-Financial Corporate Risk Management and Exchange Rate Volatility in Latin America (PDF 459KB)


DP2002/29 Elisabetta Bertero and Laura Rondi:
Does a Switch of Budget Regimes Constrain Managerial Discretion? Evidence for Italian Public Enterprises' Investment (PDF 459KB)


DP2002/28 Jonathan Conning and Michael Kevane:
Why isn't there more Financial Intermediation in Developing Countries? (PDF 359KB)


DP2002/27 Clas Wihlborg:
Insolvency and Debt Recovery Procedures in Economic Development: An Overview of African Law (PDF 425KB)


DP2002/26 Jean-Philippe Platteau:
The Gradual Erosion of the Social Security Function of Customary Land Tenure Arrangements in Lineage-Based Societies (PDF 470KB)


DP2002/25 Markus Goldstein, Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet:
Is a Friend in Need a Friend Indeed? Inclusion and Exclusion in Mutual Insurance Networks in Southern Ghana (PDF 162K
)

DP2002/18 Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and Guillermo Larraín:
How Optimal are the Extremes? Latin American Exchange Rate Policies During the Asian Crisis (PDF 325KB)


DP2002/16 Elisabetta Bertero and Laura Rondi:
Hardening a Soft Budget Constraint Through 'Upward Devolution' to a Supranational Institution: The Case of Italian State-Owned Firms and the European Union (PDF 509KB)


DP2002/14 Leonce Yapo:
Déterminants de l'endettement extérieur des PPTE: Cas de la Côte d'Ivoire (PDF 187KB)


DP2002/12 Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa:
Privatization in sub-Saharan Africa: On Factors Affecting Implementation (PDF 341KB)


DP2002/11 Masahiko Aoki and Hirokazu Takizawa:
Understanding the Silicon Valley Phenomena (PDF 230KB)


DP2002/09 Stuart L. Gillan and Laura T. Starks:
Institutional Investors, Corporate Ownership, and Corporate Governance: Global Perspectives (PDF 310KB)


DP2002/08 Ethan Ligon:
Targeting and Informal Insurance Risk (PDF 619KB)


DP2002/07 Marcel Fafchamps:
Inequality and Risk (PDF 3017KB)


DP2002/06 Pedro Albarran and Orazio P. Attanasio:
Do Public Transfers Crowd Out Private Transfers? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Mexico (PDF 337KB)


DP2002/03 John Williamson:
Proposals for Curbing the Boom-Bust Cycle in the Supply of Capital to Emerging Markets (PDF 232KB)


DP2002/02 Helmut Reisen:
Ratings since the Asian Crisis (PDF 258KB)


DP2002/01 Youssoufou Congo:
Performance of Microfinance Institutions in Burkina Faso (PDF 247KB)


DP2004/08 James B. Davies:
Microsimulation, CGE and Macro Modelling for Transition and Developing Economies (PDF 254KB)

DP2004/03 Ernest Aryeetey:
A Development-focused Allocation of the Special Drawing Rights (PDF 231KB)

DP 2001/147 Ritva Reinikka and Jakob Svensson:
Explaining Leakage of Public Funds (PDF 541KB)


DP 2001/146 Henning Tarp Jensen and Finn Tarp:
On the Choice of Appropriate Development Strategy: Insights from CGE Modelling of the Mozambican Economy (PDF 407KB)


DP 2001/145 P. B. Anand:
Consumer Preferences for Water Supply? An Application of Choice Models to Urban India (PDF 552KB)


DP 2001/144 Karin Kronlid:
Household Welfare and Education in Urban Ethiopia (PDF 624KB)


DP 2001/143 Aleš Bulír and A. Javier Hamann:
How Volatile and Unpredictable are Aid Flows, and What are the Policy Implications? (PDF 732KB)


DP 2001/142 Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay:
Twin Peaks: Convergence Empirics of Economic Growth across Indian States (PDF 978KB)


DP 2001/141 Tony Addison:
Do Donors Matter for Institutional Reform in Africa? (PDF 256KB)


DP 2001/140 P.B. Anand:
Water 'Scarcity' in Chennai, India: Institutions, Entitlements and Aspects of Inequality in Access (PDF 608KB)


DP 2001/139 Machiko Nissanke and Benno Ferrarini:
Debt Dynamics and Contingency Financing: Theoretical Reappraisal of the HIPC Initiative (PDF 1724KB)


DP 2001/138 Justine Nannyonjo:
The HIPC Debt Relief Initiative: Uganda's Social Sector Reforms and Outcomes (PDF 318KB)


DP 2001/137 Erich Gundlach, José Navarro de Pablo and Natascha Weisert:
** Education Is Good for the Poor: A Note on Dollar and Kraay (2001) (PDF 197KB)


DP 2001/136 Syed M. Ahsan
Institutional Framework and Poverty: A Transition Economy Perspective (PDF 468KB)


DP 2001/135 Vadim Radaev
The Development of Small Entrepreneurship in Russia (PDF 309KB)


DP 2001/134 David Mayer-Foulkes
Convergence Clubs in Cross-Country Life Expectancy Dynamics (PDF 427KB)


DP 2001/133 Orlando San Martin
Reaching the Poor: Fine Tuning Poverty Targeting Using a 'Poverty Map'-The Case of Mozambique (PDF 669KB)


DP 2001/132 Jennifer Mbabazi, Oliver Morrissey and Chris Milner:
Are Inequality and Trade Liberalization Influences on Growth and Poverty? (PDF 291KB)


DP 2001/131 Arne Bigsten
Relevance of the Nordic Model for African Development (PDF 221KB)


DP 2001/130 Constantino J. Gode
Sovereign Debt and Uncertainty in the Mozambican Economy (PDF 634KB)


DP 2001/129 Arne Bigsten and Jörgen Levin
Growth, Income Distribution, and Poverty: A Review (PDF 324KB)


DP 2001/128 Stephen Knowles
Inequality and Economic Growth: The Empirical Relationship Reconsidered in the Light of Comparable Data (PDF 306KB)


DP 2001/127 Stijn Claessens, Simeon Djankov, Joseph Fan and Larry Lang
The Pattern and Valuation Effects of Corporate Diversification: A Comparison of the United States, Japan, and other East Asian Economies (PDF 347KB)


DP 2001/126 Abdalla Hamdok
Governance and Policy in Africa: Recent Experiences (PDF 168KB)


DP 2001/125 S. Mansoob Murshed
Transaction Cost Politics, Institutions for Commitment and Rent Seeking (PDF 213KB)


DP 2001/124 Ahmad Assadzadeh and Satya Paul
Poverty, Growth and Redistribution: A Case Study of Iran (PDF 365KB)


DP 2001/123 Neil McCulloch, Bob Baulch and Milasoa Cherel-Robson
Poverty, Inequality and Growth in Zambia during the 1990s (PDF 508KB)


DP 2001/122 Geske Dijkstra and Niels Hermes
The Uncertainty of Debt Service Payments and Economic Growth of HIPCs: Is there a Case for Debt Relief? (PDF 183KB)


DP 2001/121 David Booth
PRSP Processes in Eight African Countries: Initial Impacts and Potential for Institutionalization (PDF 234KB)


DP 2001/120 World Development Movement
Policies to Roll-back the State and Privatize? Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Investigated (PDF 582KB)


DP 2001/119 Robert Osei and Peter Quartey
The HIPC Initiative and Poverty Reduction in Ghana: An Assessment (PDF 268KB)


DP 2001/118 Marko Nokkala
Simulating the Effects of Debt Relief in Zambia (PDF 104KB)


DP 2001/117 Marko Nokkala**
Sector Investments as part of National Fiscal Policy: Experience from ASIP in Zambia (PDF 237KB)


DP 2001/116 Maureen Were
The Impact of External Debt on Economic Growth in Kenya: An Empirical Assessment (PDF 256KB)


DP 2001/115 Moses L. Golola**
Decentralization, Local Bureaucracies and Service Delivery in Uganda (PDF 254KB)


DP 2001/114 Rasmus Heltberg and Finn Tarp
Agricultural Supply Response and Poverty in Mozambique (PDF 262KB)


DP 2001/113 Kunibert Raffer
Debt Relief for Low-Income Countries: Arbitration as the Alternative to Present, Unsuccessful Debt Strategies (PDF 99KB)


DP 2001/112 Elaine Zuckerman
Why Engendering PRSPs Reduces Poverty, and the Case of Rwanda (PDF 310KB)


DP 2001/111 Stephen Browne
Waiving and Drowning? Debt and the Millennium Declaration Development Goals (PDF 115KB)


DP 2001/110 European Network on Debt and Development
Debt Reduction for Poverty Eradication in the Least Developed Countries: Analysis and Recommendations on LDC Debt (PDF 541KB)


DP 2001/109 Dick Durevall
Reform of the Malawian Public Sector: Incentives, Governance and Accountability (PDF 277KB)


DP 2001/108 Aili Mari Tripp
Non-formal Institutions, Informal Economies, and the Politics of Inclusion (PDF 236KB)


DP 2001/107 Adrian Fozzard and Mick Foster
Changing Approaches to Public Expenditure Management in Low-income Aid Dependent Countries (PDF 376KB)


DP 2001/106 Anders Danielson
Can HIPC Reduce Poverty in Tanzania? (PDF 192KB)


DP 2001/105 Jean-Claude Berthélemy
HIPC Debt Relief and Policy Reform Incentives (PDF 176KB)


DP 2001/104 Arne Bigsten, Jörgen Levin, and Håkan Persson
Debt Relief and Growth: A study of Zambia and Tanzania (PDF 275KB)


DP 2001/103 Matthew O. Odedokun and Jeffery I. Round
Determinants of Income Inequality and its Effects on Economic Growth: Evidence from African Countries (PDF 451KB)


DP 2001/102 William Easterly
The Effect of IMF and World Bank Programmes on Poverty (PDF 243KB)


DP 2001/101 S. Mansoob Murshed
Tax Competition, Globalization and Declining Social Protection (PDF 425KB)


DP 2001/100 Bernhard G. Gunter
Does the HIPC Initiative Achieve its Goal of Debt Sustainability? (PDF 379KB)


DP 2001/99 Craig Burnside and Domenico Fanizza
Hiccups for HIPCs? (PDF 362KB)


DP 2001/98 Ke-young Chu
Collective Values, Behavioural Norms, and Rules: Building Institutions for Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction (PDF 634KB)


DP 2001/97 Tony Addison and Robert Osei
Taxation and Fiscal Reform in Ghana (PDF 281KB)


DP 2001/96 Lisandro Abrego and Doris C. Ross
Debt Relief under the HIPC Initiative: Context and Outlook for Debt Sustainability and Resource Flows (PDF 239KB)


DP 2001/95 Abdur R. Chowdhury
External Debt and Growth in Developing Countries: A Sensitivity and Causal Analysis (PDF 236KB)


DP 2001/94 E. S. K. Muwanga-Zake and Stephen Ndhaye
The HIPC Debt Relief Initiative: Uganda's Experience (PDF 224KB)


DP 2001/93 Tony Addison and Giovanni Andrea Cornia
Income Distribution Policies For Faster Poverty Reduction (PDF 553KB)


DP 2001/92 S. Mansoob Murshed
Conditionality and Endogenous Policy Formation in a Political Setting (PDF 127KB)


DP 2001/91 Michael Grimm
A Decomposition of Inequality and Poverty Changes in the Context of Macroeconomic Adjustment: A Microsimulation Study for Côte d'Ivoire (PDF 554KB)


DP 2001/90 Tony Addison
Alemayehu Geda, Philippe Le Billon and S. Mansoob Murshed: Financial Reconstruction in Conflict and 'Post-Conflict' Economies (PDF 197KB)


DP 2001/89 Giovanni Andrea Cornia with Sampsa Kiiski:
Trends in Income Distribution in the Post-World War II Period Evidence and Interpretation (PDF 709KB)


DP 2001/88 Francisco H.G. Ferreira and Phillippe George Leite
The Effects of Expanding Education on the Distribution of Income in Ceará (PDF 848KB)


DP 2001/87 Hendrik Van der Heijden
Zambian Policy-making and the Donor Community in the 1990s (PDF 324KB)


DP 2001/86 Mohammed Salisu
Incentive Structure, Civil Service Efficiency and the Hidden Economy in Nigeria (PDF 349KB)


DP 2001/85 José A. Sulemane and Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa
The Mozambican Civil Service Incentives, Reforms and Performance (PDF 282KB)


DP 2001/84 Norman Gemmell
Fiscal Policy in a Growth Framework (PDF 388KB)


DP 2001/83 Kenneth L. Simons
Information Technology and the Dynamics of Firm and Industrial Structure (PDF 311KB)


DP 2001/82 Linda Cotton and Vijaya Ramachandran
Foreign Direct Investment in Emerging Economies: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa (PDF 302KB)


DP 2001/81 Christopher Heady
Taxation Policy in Low-Income Countries (PDF 221KB)


DP 2001/80 Jörgen Levin
Taxation in Tanzania (PDF 278KB)


DP 2001/79 José A. Cuesta: AIDS, Economic Growth and the HIPC Initiative in Honduras (PDF 139KB)

DP 2001/78 Abdur R. Chowdhury: The Impact of Financial Reform on Private Savings in Bangladesh (PDF 441KB)

DP 2001/77 Derrick L. Cogburn and Catherine Nyaki Adeya: Prospects for the Digital Economy in South Africa: Technology, Policy, People, and Strategies (PDF 258KB)

DP 2001/75 Omar O. Chisari, Antonio Estache, and Catherine Waddams Price: Access by the Poor in Latin America's Utility Reform Subsidies and Service Obligations (PDF 335KB)

DP 2001/74 José A. Delfino and Ariel A. Casarin: The Reform of the Utilities Sector in Argentina (PDF 399KB)

DP 2001/73 Rune Stenbacka: Microeconomic Policies in the New Economy (PDF 232KB)

DP 2001/72 Matthew O. Odedokun: Public Finance and Economic Growth Empirical Evidence from Developing Countries (PDF 359KB)

DP 2001/71 Raghbendra Jha: Macroeconomics of Fiscal Policy in Developing Countries (PDF 537KB)

DP 2001/70 Tony Killick:
Poverty-Reducing Institutional Change and PRSP Processes: The Ghana Case (PDF 522KB)
A slightly revised version of this paper, co-authored by Charles Abugre, is available electronically on request to t.killick@odi.org.uk

DP 2001/69 Robrecht Renard and Danny Cassimon: On the Pitfalls of Measuring Aid (PDF 367KB)

DP 2001/68 Peter Hjertholm: Debt Relief and the Rule of Thumb: Analytical History of HIPC Debt Sustainability Targets (PDF 367KB)

DP 2001/67 Christopher S. Adam and David L. Bevan: Fiscal Policy Design in Low-Income Countries (PDF 488KB)

DP 2001/66 Göte Hansson: Building New States: Lessons from Eritrea (PDF 223KB)

DP 2001/65 Philippe Le Billon: Fuelling War or Buying Peace: The Role of Corruption in Conflicts (PDF 309KB)

DP 2001/64 Carlos Castel-Branco, Christopher Cramer and Degol Hailu: Privatization and Economic Strategy in Mozambique (PDF 221KB)

DP 2001/63 Rasmus Heltberg, Kenneth Simler and Finn Tarp: Public Spending and Poverty in Mozambique (PDF 531KB)

DP 2001/62 Léonce Ndikumana: Fiscal Policy, Conflict, and Reconstruction in Burundi and Rwanda (PDF 647KB)

DP 2001/61 Mark McGillivray and Oliver Morrissey: Fiscal Effects of Aid (PDF 486KB)

DP 2001/60 S. Mansoob Murshed: Quantitative Restrictions on the Flow of Narcotics: Supply and Demand Restraints in a North-South Macro-model (PDF 191KB)

DP 2001/59 Robert Read: Growth, Economic Development and Structural Transition in Small Vulnerable States (PDF 414KB)

DP 2001/58 Janine R. Wedel: Clans, Cliques, and Captured States: Rethinking 'Transition' in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (PDF 270KB)

DP 2001/57 Tony Addison and S. Mansoob Murshed: Debt Relief and Civil War (PDF 205KB)

DP 2001/56 David L. Bevan: The Fiscal Dimensions of Ethiopia's Transition and Reconstruction (PDF 358KB)

DP 2001/55 Tony Addison and Alemayehu Geda: Ethiopia's New Financial Sector and Its Regulation (PDF 210KB)

DP 2001/54 Stergios Skaperdas: Warlord Competition (PDF 144KB)

DP 2001/53 Yvonne M. Tsikata: Owning Economic Reforms: A Comparative Study of Ghana and Tanzania (PDF 119KB)

DP 2001/52 Damiano Kulundu Manda: Incentive Structure and Efficiency in the Kenyan Civil Service (PDF 102KB)

DP 2001/51 Tony Addison, Philippe Le Billon, and S. Mansoob Murshed: Conflict In Africa: The Cost of Peaceful Behaviour (PDF 115KB)

DP 2001/50 David E. Bloom and S. Mansoob Murshed: Globalization, Global Public 'Bads', Rising Criminal Activity and Growth (PDF 122KB)

DP 2001/49 Tony Addison and S. Mansoob Murshed: The Fiscal Dimensions of Conflict and Reconstruction (PDF 126KB)

DP 2001/48 Tony Addison and S. Mansoob Murshed: From Conflict to Reconstruction: Reviving the Social Contract (PDF 117KB)

DP 2001/47 Renato Aguilar: Angola's Incomplete Transition (PDF 97KB)

DP 2001/46 Jean-Paul Azam and Anke Hoeffler: Violence Against Civilians in Civil Wars: Looting or Terror? (PDF 190KB)

DP 2001/45 Tony Addison and S. Mansoob Murshed: Credibility and Reputation in Peacemaking (PDF 108KB)

DP 2001/44 Tony Addison, Philippe Le Billon and S. Mansoob Murshed: Finance in Conflict and Reconstruction (PDF 87KB)

DP 2001/43 Jeffrey Herbst: The Politics of Revenue Sharing in Resource-Dependent States (PDF 43KB)

DP 2001/42 Indra de Soysa: Paradise is a Bazaar? Greed, Creed, Grievance and Governance (PDF 173KB)

DP 2001/41 Rukmani Gounder and V. Xayavong: Globalization and the Island Economies of the South Pacific (PDF 124KB)

DP 2001/40 Nick J. Freeman: The Challenges Posed by Globalization for Economic Liberalization in Two Asian Transitional Countries: Laos and Vietnam (PDF 92KB)

DP 2001/39 Jörg Mayer: Globalization, Technology Transfer, and Skill Accumulation in Low-Income Countries (PDF 138KB)
Also available from UNCTAD


DP 2001/38 Guy Mhone and Patrick Bond: Botswana and Zimbabwe: Relative Success and Comparative Failure (PDF 123KB)

DP 2001/37 Deborah Bräutigam and Michael Woolcock: Small States in a Global Economy: The Role of Institutions in Managing Vulnerability and Opportunity in Small Developing Countries (PDF 114KB)

DP 2001/36 Rolf J. Langhammer and Matthias Lücke: WTO Negotiation and Accession Issues for Vulnerable Economies (PDF 97KB)

DP 2001/35 Suthiphand Chirathivat and S. Mansoob Murshed: Globalization and Openness: Lessons from the Recent Crisis in Southeast Asia (PDF 91KB)

DP 2001/34 Gover Barja and Miguel Urquiola: Capitalization, Regulation and the Poor: Access to Basic Services in Bolivia (PDF 214KB)

DP 2001/33 Daniel A. Benitez, Omar O. Chisari and Antonio Estache: Can the Gains from Argentina's Utilities Reform Offset Credit Shocks? (PDF 127KB)

DP 2001/32 Niels Hermes and Robert Lensink: Fiscal Policy and Private Investment in Less Developed Countries (PDF 146KB)

DP 2001/31 Manuel R. Agosin: Global Integration and Growth in Honduras and Nicaragua (PDF 133KB)

DP 2001/30 Samarth Vaidya: Analyzing Corruption Possibilities in the Gaze of the Media (PDF 124KB)

DP 2001/29 Tony Addison and Aminur Rahman: Why is so Little Spent on Educating the Poor? (PDF 108KB)

DP 2001/28 Anders Danielson: Economic and Institutional Reforms in French-speaking West Africa Impact on Efficiency and Growth (PDF 144KB)

DP 2001/27 Stephen C. Smith: Blooming Together or Wilting Alone? Network Externalities and Mondragón and La Lega Co-operative Networks (PDF 326KB)

DP 2001/26 Halvor Mehlum, Karl Ove Moene and Ragnar Torvik: The Market for Extortions (PDF 169KB)

DP 2001/25 James C. Sesil, Douglas L. Kruse and Joseph R. Blasi: Sharing Ownership via Employee Stock Ownership (PDF 121KB)

DP 2001/23 Gaim Kibreab: Displaced Communities and the Reconstruction of Livelihoods in Eritrea (PDF 117KB)

DP 2001/22 Mário Adauta de Sousa, Tony Addison, Björn Ekman
and Åsa Stenman: From Humanitarian Assistance to Poverty Reduction in Angola (PDF 132KB)


DP2001/20 Ashish Arora and Suma Athreye: The Software Industry and India's Economic Development (PDF142KB)

DP2001/19 Ricardo Paredes M.: Redistributive Impact of Privatization and the Regulation of Utilities in Chile (PDF 202KB)

DP2001/18 Tony Addison: Reconstruction from War in Africa: Communities, Entrepreneurs, and States (PDF 174KB)

DP2001/17 Máximo Torero and Alberto Pascó-Font: The Social Impact of Privatization and the Regulation of Utilities in Peru (PDF 848KB)

DP2001/16 Tony Addison: From Conflict to Reconstruction (PDF 125KB)

DP 2001/15 Kristin Komives, Dale Whittington and Xun Wu: Access to Utilities by the Poor (PDF 390KB)

DP2001/14 Marc Wuyts: The Agrarian Question in Mozambique's Transition and Reconstruction (PDF 119KB)

DP2001/13 Pablo Arocena: The Reform of the Utilities Sector in Spain (PDF 174KB)

DP2001/12 Tony Addison and Léonce Ndikumana: Overcoming the Fiscal Crisis of the African State (PDF 215KB)

DP2001/11 Sampsa Kiiski and Matti Pohjola: Cross-country Diffusion of the Internet (PDF 179KB)

DP2001/10 Catherine Waddams Price and Alison Young: UK Utility Reforms. Distributional Implications and Government Response (PDF 138KB)

DP2001/9 Cecilia Ugaz: A Public Goods Approach to Regulation of Utilities (PDF 141KB)

DP2001/8 Poh-Kam Wong: ICT Production and Diffusion in Asia Digital Dividends or Digital Divide? (PDF 155KB)

DP2001/7 Pramila Krishnan: Culture and the Fertility Transition in India (PDF 192KB)

DP2001/6 Heli Koski, Petri Rouvinen and Pekka Ylä-Anttila: ICT Clusters in Europe. The Great Central Banana and the Small Nordic Potato (PDF 869KB)

DP2001/5 Jukka Jalava and Matti Pohjola: Economic Growth in the New Economy. Evidence from Advanced Economies (PDF 513KB)

DP2001/4 Colin Mayer: Financing the New Economy. Financial Institutions and Corporate Governance (PDF 296KB)

DP2001/3 Edward N. Wolff: The Impact of IT Investment on Income and Wealth Inequality in the Postwar US Economy (PDF 657KB)

DP2001/2 Jed Kolko: Silicon Mountains, Silicon Molehills. Geographic Concentration and Convergence of Internet Industries in the US (PDF 371KB)

DP2001/1 Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Sanjay Reddy
The Impact of Adjustment-Related Social Funds on Income Distribution and Poverty (PDF 566KB)


DP2003/89 Andrés Solimano:
Remittances by Emigrants: Issues and Evidence (PDF 231KB)


DP2003/88 A. B. Atkinson: Innovative Sources for Development Finance: Over-Arching Issues (PDF 200KB)

DP2003/87 Robin Boadway: National Taxation, Fiscal Federalism and Global Taxation (PDF 245KB)

DP2003/86 Agnar Sandmo: Environmental Taxation and Revenue for Development (PDF 235KB)

DP2003/84 Salvatore Capasso and George Mavrotas: Loan Processing Costs and Information Asymmetries—Implications for Financial Sector Development and Economic Growth (PDF 211KB)

DP2003/83 Ilene Grabel: The Revenue and Double Dividend Potential of Taxes on International Private Capital Flows and Securities Transactions (PDF 225KB)

DP2003/81 Machiko Nissanke: Revenue Potential of the Currency Transaction Tax for Development Finance: A Critical Appraisal (PDF 311KB)

DP2003/80 Tony Addison and Abdur R. Chowdhury
A Global Lottery and a Global Premium Bond

> The world lottery market now amounts to at least US$126 billion in sales. World market sales for all gaming products (public, charitable and commercial) total some US$1 trillion, of which Internet gambling accounts for US$32 billion. This paper assesses the prospects for harnessing this large and growing market for the purposes of development finance by means of a global lottery and a global premium bond (with the successful UK scheme providing a model for the latter). Each has different strengths: the global lottery can add to the supply of grant finance for development, while the global premium bond could be an attractive savings instrument for ethical investors. The paper concludes that global versions of both a lottery and a premium bond are viable and complementary in mobilizing more development finance.

DP2003/79 George Mavrotas: The International Finance Facility: The UK HM Treasury–DFID Proposal to Increase External Finance to Developing Countries (PDF 569KB)

DP2003/78 George J. Borjas: The Economic Integration of Immigrants in the United States: Lessons for Policy (PDF 158KB)

DP2003/77 Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay: Convergence Club Empirics: Some Dynamics and Explanations of Unequal Growth across Indian States (PDF 313KB)

DP2003/76 Tony Addison and Mina Baliamoune-Lutz: Institutional Quality, Reforms and Integration in the Maghreb (PDF 206KB)

DP2003/75 Jonathan P. Thomas: Bankruptcy Proceedings for Sovereign State Insolvency and their Effect on Capital Flows (PDF 280KB)

DP2003/73 Javier Escobal and Máximo Torero: Adverse Geography and Differences in Welfare in Peru (PDF 3120KB)

DP2003/72 Raimo Väyrynen: Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized Crime (PDF 227KB)

DP2003/69 Almas Heshmati: Measurement of a Multidimentional Index of Globalization and its Impact on Income Inequality (PDF 294KB)

DP2003/68 Matthew J. Gibney and Randall Hansen: Asylum Policy in the West: Past Trends, Future Possibilities (PDF 231KB)

DP2003/66 Dirk Willem te Velde and Oliver Morrissey: Spatial Inequality for Manufacturing Wages in Five African Countries (PDF 238KB)

DP2003/64 Riccardo Faini: Is the Brain Drain an Unmitigated Blessing? (PDF 200KB)

DP2003/63 Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis: Some Welfare Implications of ‘Who Goes First?’ in WTO Negotiations (PDF 230KB)

DP2003/62 Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis: Who Gains from Tariff Escalation? (PDF 155KB)
 
DP2003/60 Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Javier Sánchez-Reaza: Economic Polarization Through Trade: Trade Liberalization and Regional Growth in Mexico (PDF 329KB)

DP2003/59 Catherine Phuong: Controlling Asylum Migration to the Enlarged EU (PDF 217KB)

DP2003/58 André Decoster and Inna Verbina: Who Pays Indirect Taxes in Russia? (PDF 395KB)

DP2003/56 Carlos Azzoni, Naercio Menezes-Filho and Tatiane Menezes: Opening the Convergence Black Box: Measurement Problems and Demographic Aspects (PDF 198KB)

DP2003/55 Bettina Aten and Alan Heston: Regional Output Differences in International Perspective (PDF 259KB)

DP2003/53 Donald R. Davis and David E. Weinstein: Market Size, Linkages, and Productivity: A Study Of Japanese Regions (PDF 205KB)

DP2003/52 Chris Elbers, Peter Lanjouw, Johan Mistiaen, Berk Özler and Ken Simler: Are Neighbours Equal? Estimating Local Inequality in Three Developing Countries (PDF 340KB)

DP2003/51 Jaan Masso and Almas Heshmati: Optimality and Overuse of Labour in Estonian Manufacturing Enterprises (PDF 324KB)

DP2003/50 Nilabja Ghosh: Impact of Trade Liberalization on Returns from Land: A Regional Study of Indian Agriculture (PDF 279KB)

DP2003/48 Elizabeth Thomas-Hope: Irregular Migration and Asylum Seekers in the Caribbean (PDF 306KB)

DP2003/47 Lucian Cernat, Sam Laird, Luca Monge-Roffarello and Alessandro Turrini: The EU's Everything But Arms Initiative and the Least-developed Countries (PDF 460KB)

DP2003/46 Jon D. Haveman and Howard J. Shatz: Developed Country Trade Barriers and the Least Developed Countries: The Economic Results of Freeing Trade (PDF 234KB)

DP2003/45 Tony Addison and Almas Heshmati: The New Global Determinants of FDI Flows to Developing Countries: The Importance of ICT and Democratization (PDF 274KB)

DP2003/44 Mario Reyna-Cerecero and George Mavrotas: Inflation, Output and Perfectly Enforceable Price Controls in Orthodox and Heterodox Stabilization Programmes (PDF 245KB)

DP2003/43 Matthew Odedokun: The ‘Pull’ and ‘Push’ Factors in North-South Private Capital Flows: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Estimates (PDF 322KB)

DP2003/42 Jörg Mayer: Export Dynamism and Market Access (PDF 213KB)

DP2003/41 Jonathon W. Moses and Bjørn Letnes: If People were Money: Estimating the Potential Gains from Increased International Migration (PDF 215KB)

DP2003/40 Stéphane Gagnon: E-business Model Innovation and Capability Building (PDF 307KB)

DP2003/39 Inna Verbina: Inconsistency in Savings Pattern: Is there an Endogeneity Bias? (PDF 180KB)

DP2003/38 Maiju Perälä: ‘Looking at the Other Side of the Coin’: The Relationship between Classical Growth and Early Development Theories (PDF 229KB)

DP2003/37 Maiju Perälä: Persistence of Underdevelopment: Does the Type of Natural Resource Endowment Matter? (PDF 283KB)

DP2003/35 Philip Martin: Economic Integration and Migration: The Mexico-US Case (PDF 236KB)

DP2003/34 Géraldine Chatelard: Iraqi Forced Migrants in Jordan: Conditions, Religious Networks, and the Smuggling Process (PDF 230KB)

DP2003/32 Betina Dimaranan, Thomas Hertel and Roman Keeney: OECD Domestic Support and Developing Countries (PDF 249KB)

DP2003/31 Stephen Castles and Sean Loughna: Trends in Asylum Migration to Industrialized Countries: 1990-2001 (PDF 420KB)

DP2003/30 Roghieh Gholami, Sang-Yong Tom Lee and Almas Heshmati: The Causal Relationship between Information and Communication Technology and Foreign Direct Investment (PDF 215KB)

DP2003/29 Andrés Solimano: Development Cycles, Political Regimes and International Migration: Argentina in the Twentieth Century (PDF 405KB)

DP2003/28 Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Tony Addison with Sampsa Kiiski: Income Distribution Changes and their Impact in the Post-World War II Period (PDF 326KB)

DP2003/27 Ana María Iregui: Efficiency Gains from the Elimination of Global Restrictions on Labour Mobility: An Analysis using a Multiregional CGE Model (PDF 236KB)

DP2003/24 Susan F. Martin, Andrew I. Schoenholtz and David Fisher: Impact of Asylum on Receiving Countries (PDF 204KB)

DP2003/23 Timothy J. Hatton and Jeffrey G. Williamson: What Fundamentals Drive World Migration? (PDF 232KB)

DP2003/22 Birgitte Andersen and Marva Corley: The Theoretical, Conceptual and Empirical Impact of the Service Economy: A Critical Review (PDF 212KB)

DP2003/20: Khalid Koser and Nicholas Van Hear: Asylum Migration and Implications for Countries of Origin (PDF 197KB)

DP2003/19 Claudia Tazreiter: Asylum-seekers as Pariahs in the Australian State: Security Against the Few (PDF 195KB)

DP2003/18 Svetlana P. Glinkina and Dorothy J. Rosenberg: Social and Economic Decline as Factors in Conflict in the Caucasus (PDF 1023KB)

DP2003/16 Robbie Mochrie: Economic and Theological Approaches to Debt Cancellation (PDF 182KB)

DP2003/14 Roger Kelly and George Mavrotas: Financial Sector Development – Futile or Fruitful? An Examination of the Determinants of Savings in Sri Lanka (PDF 169KB)

DP2003/13 Samuel Munzele Maimbo and George Mavrotas: Financial Sector Reforms and Savings Mobilization in Zambia (PDF 242KB)

DP2003/12 Roger Kelly and George Mavrotas: Savings and Financial Sector Development: Panel Cointegration Evidence from Africa (PDF 211KB)

DP2003/10 Timothy M. Shaw: Conflict and Peace-building in Africa: The Regional Dimensions (PDF 590KB)

DP2003/08 Stefan Dercon and John Hoddinott: Health, Shocks and Poverty Persistence (PDF 156KB)

DP2003/07 Dietrich Domanski: Idiosyncratic Risk in the 1990s: Is It an IT Story? (PDF 255KB)

DP2003/06 Shyamal K. Chowdhury and Susanne Wolf: Use of ICTs and the Economic Performance of SMEs in East Africa (PDF 218KB)

DP2003/04 Matthew Odedokun: Economics and Politics of Official Loans versus Grants Panoramic Issues and Empirical Evidence (PDF 292KB)

DP2003/02 Oluyele Akinkugbe: Flow of Foreign Direct Investment to Hitherto Neglected Developing Countries (PDF 243KB)

DP2003/01 Matthew Odedokun
A Holistic Perception of Foreign Financing of Developing Countries’ Private Sectors: Analysis and Description of Structure and Trends (PDF 359KB)

______________________________________

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
30 papers prepared for the discussion at the UNRISD meeting on
The Need to Rethink Development Economics: 7-8 September 2001,
Cape Town, South Africa.

1.- A Brief Note on the Decline and Rise of Development Economics
By Jayati Ghosh - 2001
Economics as a discipline has always been concerned with development. The early economists, from the Physiocrats through Smith and Ricardo to Marx, were essentially concerned with understanding the processes of economic growth and structural change: how and why they occurred, what forms they took, what prevented or constrained them, and to what extent they actually led to greater material prosperity and more general human progress. And it was this broader set of "macro" questions which in turn defined both their focus and their approach to more specific issues relating to the functioning of capitalist economies. It is true that the marginalist revolution of the late 19th century led economists away from these larger evolutionary questions towards particularist investigations into the current, sans history. Nevertheless it might be fair to say that trying to understand the processes of growth and development have remained the basic motivating forces for the study of economics. To that extent, it would be misleading to treat it even as a branch of the subject, since the questions raised touch at the core of the discipline itself.

But of course, what is now generally thought of as development economics has a much more recent lineage, and is typically traced to the second half of the twentieth century, indeed, to the immediate postwar period of the 1950s and 1960s when there was a flowering of economic literature relating to both development and underdevelopment. While some of this became the basis for subsequent "structuralist" analysis, much of the standard literature of that time was still very much within the mainstream of the discipline, and retained the fundamentals of the mainstream approach even while altering some of the assumptions. Thus, the economic dualism depicted by Arthur Lewis, the co-ordination failures inherent in less developed economies described by Rosenstein-Rodan, the efficacy of unbalanced "big push" strategies for industrialisation advocated by Albert Hirschman, all in a sense dealt with development policy as a response to the market failures which were specific to latecomers

15.- On Rethinking Development Economics
By C.P.Chandrasekhar - 2001
Do we need to rethink ‘development economics’? An answer to that question must begin with a delineation of its subject matter, consisting of a specific set of stylised facts that are its starting point, leading to a set of assumptions and a mode of reasoning that help address and answer a range of questions.

In my view development economics starts from the fact that integration through the market does not ensure that the developed countries provide the developing an image of their own future. The transformation wrought through such integration, while triggering some capitalist development in the less developed world, also generated structures that rendered the process gradual, incomplete and adverse for growth and welfare. Development economics was concerned with understanding the specific structures, global and national, generated by the process of integration of economies with varying initial conditions into the world capitalist system, with analysing the mechanisms by which those structures constrained the process of development and with deriving from that analysis the policy options available to redress the adverse consequences of integration. In this sense it shared with the Keynesian tradition the project of making the abstract world constructed for economic analysis correspond more closely with the world as it exists, and of making the aim of economic analysis the generation of appropriate policies.

2.- An Agenda for the New Development Economics
By Joseph Stiglitz - 2001
The seeming disappearance of development economics as a separate discipline some quarter century ago could not have come at a more inopportune time. Some of the criticisms made by mainstream economists of development economics as it was often practiced at the time are valid: for instance, it underestimated the role of markets and rationality. But their argument that developing countries are just like more developed countries, only lacking as much physical (and later, it was emphasized, human) capital and their assumption that competitive equilibrium theorem can be applied in a straightforward way is, if anything, even more misguided.

In the last two decades, there has been a growing awareness of the limitations of the competitive paradigm, with its assumptions of perfect information, perfect competition, and complete markets, and with the correlate that distribution and institutions do not matter. Much of the theoretical and empirical work in developed countries has focused, for instance, on agency theory (how information imperfections affect firm behavior and labor markets), the new industrial organization (how imperfections of competition affect corporate behavior), finance (viewed as centering on the information problems associated with allocating capital and monitoring its usage), and R & D. Yet, in this same period, the reigning paradigm in development economics was the Washington consensus, which ignored these considerations, despite the fact that they are even more important to developing countries.


3.- Beyond Macroeconomic Concerns to Development Issues
By Delphin Rwegasira - 2001
This note, by outlining the research and capacity-building experience of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), argues that renewed interest in development economics can be assisted in part by the development of locally-based responsive and empirical knowledge. This process can be substantially aided by international networking and dissemination, which in turn would lead to a broader expansion of knowledge on development. The evolution of AERC beyond a macroeconomic network to embrace wider questions of development policy is seen as rooted in Africa’s own realities of searching for substantially higher growth and ways of reducing widespread poverty.

There is consensus based both on theory and on the development experiences of many countries that on the whole, macroeconomic stability is essential for long-term economic commitments that contribute to a healthy and sustained saving-investment process. The latter is in turn necessary, though by no means sufficient, for the sustained growth needed to underpin significant changes in average well-being. Thus, in situations where reasonable macroeconomic stability cannot be assumed to exist, such stability would be an important concern in respect of promoting development. The African economic crisis of the 1980s—that saw the United Nations General Assembly, for the first time, devoting considerable attention to the economic plight of a particular region, (Sub-Saharan Africa)—was in part reflected in clearly worsening macroeconomic conditions in many countries of the region.

4.- Challenges of Economic Development
By Alexandre R. Barros - 2001
In recent times, the world has experienced important changes, both ideologically and in relation to the economic environment. These changes have posed serious challenges to the analysis of economic development and to its policies proposals.

Some previously well settled conceptions have completely fallen apart. Historical evidences and empirical investigations made conceptions previously considered opposite to one another go to the same side of debates. Many ideas were placed upside down. Four theoretical developments have been quite important in promoting such changes in conceptions and in the analysis of economic development:
1.- the New Growth Theory, which reached conclusions on economic development that were reasonably different from those obtained from traditional Neoclassical Growth Theory.
2.- the idea of Rent Seeking.
3.- the idea of the role of clustering on efficiency.
4.- the new conceptions on social capital.

This paper summarises the major consequences of these theoretical developments to the ideas about economic development and the proper strategies to its promotion. The major hypothesis is that the best path to economic development, which all these notions point to, is in fact a combination of some recipes stressed by Structuralists and by Liberals in the early stages of economic development.

5.- Development Economics: A Call to Action
By Roy Culpeper - 2001
The primary challenge confronting development economists in the 21st century is not that of creating a new theoretical framework to understand, and respond to, the development problems and opportunities facing the world community. Rather, their challenge is to deploy their skills as applied economists, heeding the circumstances unique to each country, in order to help eradicate poverty, reduce inequities, and advance sustainable development. In other words, development economists should address the development policy agenda in the real world, in all its untidiness and diversity.

Democratization has opened up a political space in which this challenge must be met, but democracy is itself a work in progress. The frontier that development economists must explore and help to settle is that of democratizing economic policy-making. With greater inclusion and popular participation in economic policy-making, development economists will be called upon to work with their fellow-citizens, partly as experts, partly as educators and facilitators. Their tasks will include identifying the social welfare function, translating it into a series of social choices or possibilities constrained by available resources, and determining the set of fiscal, monetary, exchange-rate, trade and other policies that are both consistent and politically viable.

In other words, economic planning is on its way back, but this time it will be planning from below. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are a manifestation of the shape of things to come. An important question is what difference PRSPs will make to policies actually adopted and to real outcomes. An increasingly globalized economy limits (and, to some extent, also enhances) the choices and possibilities open to each society. Planners must take into account the mobility of factors of production, particularly that of capital and skilled labour, in determining what policies are consistent and politically viable.

6.- Development Economics: Coping with New Challenges, Especially Globalization
By Jomo K.Sundaraman - 2001
As is well-known, development economics fell into disrepute in the West, especially in the USA, with the rise of neo-liberalism from the late seventies. This coincided with the denunciation of Keynesian economics with the simultaneous occurrence of inflation and slow growth, seemingly contradicting the Philips’ curve trade-off associated with the ‘neoclassical synthesis’ or cooptation of Keynes. The eighties began with Carter appointee US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker’s sharp reversal of developing country growth of the seventies, with the UN promise of a New International Economic Order, following the 1973-5 oil price hike, subsequent commodity price booms and low real interest rates, thanks to Anglo-American commercial bank recycling of petroleum revenue to lend to developing country governments and high inflation.

Thus, the Reagan-Thatcher decade began with the debt crises of Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Korea and the Philippines, enabling the post-Bretton Woods International Monetary Fund (IMF) to take over macroeconomic policy with its stabilization policies and the World Bank to require indebted governments to abandon development policies in favour of economic liberalization through structural adjustment policies.
In the World Bank, the McNamara era associated with the intellectual leadership of Hollis Chenery gave way to the appointment of Anne Krueger as Chief Economist and Deepak Lal as head of research soon after the publication of his Poverty of Development Economics.

7.- Development Studies or Development Economics: Moving forward from TINA
By Gita Sen - 2001
Rethinking is not resuscitation. Too much breast-beating at this stage about the all too well known sins of commission and ommission of neo-liberalism and the Washington Consensus or, more broadly, of neoclassical economics, may divert attention from the actual weaknesses of development economics on the one hand, and on the other, the critical issues ahead that urgently call for understanding and action. So much intellectual energy has been spent on combatting the TINA syndrome with respect to SAPs and financial liberalization that, with a few exceptions, our analysis has not adequately recognized the changes in both the regimes of accumulation and the modes of regulation that underpin the neoliberal thrust. Understanding these changes as the basis of neoliberalism does not mean falling into the TINA trap; instead it should help to more precisely locate what is possible.

In my note, I would also like to shift focus from development economics (more narrowly understood) to development studies, because I believe that one of the weaknesses of development economics arises precisely from its inability to integrate the richer understanding based on development studies more broadly. And indeed, at quite the same time that traditional development economics was reeling from the onslaught of the neoliberals, our analysis and understanding of participatory approaches to rural development, the importance of sustainable livelihoods, and the need for a gendered analysis of development (to name only a few) have been growing and flourishing. It is important to remember that development studies is certainly not dead regardless of the obituaries that have been written for development economics over the last two decades.

8.- Economic Development and the Revival of the Classical Surplus Approach
By Franklin Serrano and Carlos Medeiros - 2001
In this note we describe how we have been trying to rethink development economics in our own research programme and teaching (both graduate and undergraduate) practice in the Instituto de Economia at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In our view, traditional development economics , in spite of its great achievements, suffered from two serious problems. First of all, development economists had a chronic tendency to jump too quickly to the normative dimension, to suggesting policy interventions while perhaps not having clarified sufficiently how the developing economies actually functioned. This tendency was so deeply entrenched that often some of the best development economists fell into the habit of treating the developing capitalist economies as if they were planned or socialist systems (witness Kalecki’s treatment of what he called “mixed economies” or the widespread use of “Say’s Law” in Latin American Structuralist literature).

The other, very much related, basic shortcoming of development economics was the fact that development economists did not in general engaged themselves into a detailed discussion of the normal operation of the market mechanism , of what it could or it could not realistically achieve. That often led to some underestimation of the difficulties of planning on the product markets and , more importantly, to enormous confusion and ambiguity concerning what happens in the markets for the so called factors of production (i.e. how distribution, labour employment and capital utilisation are actually determined).

 
10.- For an Emancipatory Socio-Economics
By Diane Elson - 2001
I would like to take as my starting point the need to rethink all of economics, not only the kind of analysis and policy that is applied to the ensemble of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that are often labelled ‘developing’. The problem is not that neoclassical economics works well for ‘developed’ countries while not fitting ‘developing’ countries, but that it does not work well for any country.

In rethinking what kind of economics is needed for ‘developing’ countries, it is important to make links with currents of thought that are also challenging the hegemony of neoclassical economics in ‘developed’ and ‘transition’ countries. If neoclassical economics is allowed to appear (even by default) as the appropriate economics for rich and powerful countries, then any reconstituted ‘development economics’ will continue to be marginalised, both in the policy arena and in the curriculum.

There are several currents of thought that contain challenges to the dominance of neoclassical economic thinking- structuralist, post-keynesian, evolutionary economics among them. My remarks draw in particular on two -the human development current and the feminist economics current . They reflect a belief in the importance of pluralism in thinking about economies.

Unlike the World Bank’s World Development Report, the UNDP Human Development Report examines issues of poverty, inequality and growth in all countries. The human development approach challenges the merely instrumental treatment of human beings as ‘factors of production’ in the service of economic growth no matter where it takes place. Similarly, feminist economics (as exemplified, for instance, in the journal Feminist Economics, and in special issues of World Development on gender, trade, and macroeconomics, Vol 23, No 11, 1995 and Vol 28, No.7, 2000) challenges the validity of ‘rational economic man’ for rich countries as well as for poor ones; and argues that unpaid time spent caring for family, friends and neighbours is an economic issue, not just a personal issue, all over the world. This does not mean that human development and feminist economics try to force all countries into a ‘one size fits all’ straitjacket. Rather they have rejected straitjackets as an appropriate way of dealing with intractable reality.

Of course, any social science has to engage in abstraction. The problem is to choose the forms appropriate to the question in hand. ‘Horses for courses’, as Joan Robinson was fond of saying. Rethinking cannot avoid some grappling with methodological issues.

There is a need for thought experiments at high levels of abstraction to think through possible regularities in interconnections and linkages; but in applied analysis, there has to be scope for investigating particularities that may subvert those generalities. The same set of stylised facts will not fit the whole world. This was indeed the premise of ‘development economics’. However, there is no longer, if indeed there ever was, a neat bifurcation between a set of stylised facts that fit ‘developed countries’ and a set that fit ‘developing countries’. A much richer typology is needed.

14.- Notes on Development Economics
By Lance Taylor - 2001
It has been accepted, even by the mainstream, that macroeconomics in "developing" and "transition" economies needs its own special treatment - witness the recent publication of new, fat textbooks by Agenor/Montiel and Jha (and for all I know, possibly others). In the mainstream fashion, they try to homogenize critical ideas into rational actor goo, but the fact that the books were written and sell indicates that a long effort on the part of people doing macro in non-industrialized countries to point out that they do have special features has in part paid off. I'll try to sketch below how this intellectual beachhead might be extended.

The point (based on non-formalized historical/institutional reasoning by people like Amsden, Wade, and Chang) that hands-on interventionist policies have played an essential role in supporting industrialization and growth in both now-rich and poor countries has also sunk in. This is not to say that analyses of industrial policy and sensible protectionism dominate mainstream discourse - of course they do not - but that conventional wisdom has been on the defensive at least since the Bank's East Asian Miracle report. Again, there is a beachhead to be expanded.

17.- Producing a New Generation of Practising Development Economists
By Susan Joekes - 2001
This note addresses a secondary question posed in Thandika Mkandawire’s scene setting paper -Thandika Mkandawire (2001) “The Need to Rethink Development Economics”, Geneva, UNRISD) - for this conference: How to produce a new generation of development economists. I choose this topic (rather than the primary one of the essentials for a new development economics per se because it is of particular concern to the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The IDRC’s mandate is to support the growth of expertise in development by supporting research and the generation of evidence based knowledge for development policy across many fields, including economic development. In this paper, I will present some ideas on the kind of economic development research that is needed for successful capacity building in research, making special reference to IDRC’s programme experience in international economic relations.

The IDRC has a remit to nurture the growth of expertise in economic development primarily among citizens of the developing world itself, working in the south. There are two main reasons for this mandate, which does not of course signify any inherent prejudice against the scholarship and insights of those based in the north. Channelling our resources in this way does something (on however small a scale) to redress biases in resource availabilities for research efforts as between the north and the south. More importantly perhaps, in a world governance perspective, it is intended to contribute toward the authenticity and autonomy of southern voices in development policy making. Just as local priorities should be determining in aid allocations, so the policy positions espoused by developing countries in international fora should be locally generated and informed by local research. When policy formulation is driven by outside forces and outside knowledge, the credibility of policy positions is always questionable and international agreements entered into may not be fully respected down the line.

The presumption that support for research translates into a better informed - and therefore more credible and effective - southern voice in international policy fora is of course questionable and certainly not something IDRC takes for granted. In recent years IDRC has tried to develop a better understanding of the relationship between research and policy, fuelled by consideration of, among other things, events and processes related to the international economic system. We are confident that, despite many complicating factors and the presence of other determinants, there often is positive relationship between research activity and policy, and that, moreover, there are practical ways of enhancing this relationship.

19.- Reflections on the Restoration of Development Economics
By Jeff Faux - 2001
The restoration of development economics is not solely an intellectual task. If this were the case, the world’s policy makers and their academic advisers would have acknowledged long ago the failure of neo-liberal policies to deliver on the acceleration of global growth promised by neo-liberal theory. And the animal spirits of careerist economists would have motivated a rush to new intellectual ground. Instead, the economics profession’s reaction to the accumulating evidence of failure has been, at best, to concede that progress along the neo-liberal path takes a little more time – and that there will, of course, be some casualties. (“Didn’t we mention it? Sorry about that!”) We are assured that there is no need for policies to promote social equity or democracy. Those will come as a by-product of more rapid sustained economic growth, which, if we are patient, will arrive in due course. Any renewed interest in the public sector and civil society institutions is limited to assigning them to the task of caring for the “losers” whom the deregulated market has left behind.

This reaction reminds us that the triumph of neo-liberalism in academic as well as policy circles was not entirely an intellectual exercise either. Its rise to hegemony is a part of a wider conservative political agenda. All economic theories, like all economic systems, come with a politics. Indeed, political science itself has been defined as the practice of “who gets what.” Neo-liberal economic thought is, as most of us know, connected to the multinational political and financial forces that currently dominate the post-Cold War global economy. This does not mean that all neo-liberal scholarship is politically motivated. It simply means that the rich and powerful typically support the scholarship that reinforces their view of the way the world should work. It would be odd if it were otherwise.
Over the years, these multinational interests have created a global “echo chamber” through which ideas that support their agenda resonate among the policy-making institutions, the media, universities, think tanks, and the larger literate public. They particularly targeted journalists and the media, who represent “gatekeepers” to the global policy debate.

The effect of this echo chamber on the policy debate is to drown out dissent based on empirical research with second-rate research and analysis rationalizing de-regulation, short-term investment horizons, and the increased commodification of human values. An examination of the economic motivations and behavior of those institutions (and their clients) that determine development policy needs to be part of any serious effort to resuscitate development economics. As Amartya Sen recently observed. “The whole power structure underlying the institutional architecture itself needs to be reassessed in the light of the new political reality.”

Another implication is that the arguments for a new development paradigm must be consciously organized. By itself, quality does not necessarily prevail in the marketplace for ideas.

20.- Reviving Development Economics: Eight Challenges and Dilemmas
By Kamal Malhotra - 2001
Reviving Development Economics is both crucial and full of challenges and dilemmas which are particularly acute in this era of economic neo-liberalism led globalisation. First and foremost, it implies reviving the developmental role of the state in leading economic and social policy making. This does not, however, mean a return to the total dominance of the role of the state to the exclusion of all other actors, especially civil society but also the market. In fact, quite the contrary, because it implies creating space for a plurality of organisations, each playing roles at which they are best. It does mean, however, that there should be a socially activist state that leads society’s development efforts---a state that creates an enabling environment both for civil society which is committed to a democratization and development project and for a vibrant market which is also committed to contributing to society’s overall developmental efforts.

The biggest obstacle to such a revival is the neo-liberal economic climate that has informed global economic policy making since the early 1980s----and in particular the policy prescriptions that the US and UK governments have championed both at home and overseas since then and the role of the international financial institutions (IFIs) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) which are heavily influenced by them. The United Nations system also appears increasingly constrained by the policies of these governments both for financial and other reasons.

Economic neo-liberalism has also unsurprisingly coincided with or even caused the death of development economics as a serious academic course of enquiry particularly in the US but also in the UK where it had traditionally had a much longer and vibrant history. Without a revival of development economics in both these centres of industrialized power, especially in the US, it is hard to imagine a global economic climate which will be conducive to a strong developmental socially activist state in the South or useful and relevant international financial and other multilateral institutions.

21.- Some Issues in Development Economics
By Gerry Helleiner - 2001
I suspect that it may not be productive to try to resurrect the "grand theorizing" of the early "greats" (Lewis, Nurkse, Rosenstein-Rodan, Hirschman, etc.) in development economics or to try to build upon the "new growth" literature. This material is far too general to have much policy influence. In my postgraduate development economics reading list I used to incorporate it all under a heading of "What every student of development economics should know but is most unlikely ever to use"! My instinct is to try to build greater respect for and competence in applied economics - in a variety of fields (public finance, money, trade, open-economy-macro, health, etc.) - with particular reference to developing economies, in all their institutional, cultural, political and historical variety.

Good "development economics", in practice, is good applied economics in a variety of different specialisations and contexts. And recognition of and allowance for the variety of contexts is what distinguishes the good development economist from the weak one.

It seems to me that one needs to attack the current problem at its root - which is the traditional mainstream postgraduate economics programmes, which train the teachers and practitioners of most development economics today. I believe we must try to reduce the relative importance assigned in current mainstream postgraduate economics programmes to purely abstract reasoning; rebalance the core economic theory courses so as to place the traditional neoclassical assumptions into their appropriate context; restore economic history and history of economic thought to the core curriculum; and insist upon greater relative emphasis upon empirical and policy analysis in these programmes.

No less important, there must be conscious effort to win back the socially motivated students who are at present completely "turned off" by current postgraduate programmes. Current screening mechanisms for postgraduate studies in economics discourage many of those that the profession now most requires and attracts instead those with a predilection for abstract reasoning, mathematics, and avoidance of political or "value" judgments. Obviously, one cannot attract the "right kind" of student with the "wrong kind" of programme. This effort is therefore inextricably bound with the previous one.

22.- Some Thoughts on the Agenda for Development Economics
By Brian van Arkadie - 2001
The meeting seems to be about three things: high theory (what should academic development economists write and think about), pedagogy (what should be taught in graduate school) and policy (what should governments do or be advised to do). These are inter-related but separate subjects.

This note is written from the standpoint of an ex-academic economist, who for some years has been working in the ambiguous milieu of advisory work for governments, typically funded by donor agencies, playing a role, which may be more part of the problem than the solution. As such, I am not very aware of what now gets taught in graduate school and only occasionally am able to touch base with academic literature. On the other hand, working in both Africa and Asia, I do get to see the impact of economics at the national level in a number of Third World countries. The following reflections respond to that experience.

The influence of neo-liberal economics on policymaking during the past two decades has extended not only to current orthodoxies regarding foreign exchange, trade and macroeconomic policy regimes, but also to views regarding social policy and social service delivery, and the dismantling of State owned enterprises.

The extent of this influence is, of course, based on the decisive neo-liberal victory in the Anglo-Saxon world during the 1970’s and, perhaps even as important, the euthanasia of social democracy in the industrialised world, as it has more or less co-opted the neo-liberal agenda. In Africa, the victory of neo-liberal thinking (the Berg Report and its impact) came as a result of the coincidence of political events in the First World and the deep and pervasive economic crisis in the region – fundamental issues to be faced by African development economics continue to include analyses of the origins of that crisis and of plausible alternatives to the neo-liberal response.

25.- The Need to Rethink Development Economics
By Thandika Mkandawire - 2001
Up until the 1970s, problems of welfare and unemployment in the developed countries, and those of poverty and underdevelopment in the developing ones, were interpreted through the lenses of the corpus of knowledge recognized as Keynesian economics and “development economics” respectively. But the oil crisis, “stagflation” and subsequent indebtedness of the developing countries severely put to test the models and the theories that had underpinned their welfare and development policies.

Although there was little in common between the actual analytical content of Keynesian doctrine and that of development economics, the two approaches shared critical views of neoclassical economic theory, and the related acceptance of state intervention. They also had in common the understanding that the economy described by neoclassical economists was a “special case”, and there were many other economies that could be “stylized” by entirely different models because they were characterized by different structural features. Furthermore, they shared the view that the state could play an important role in addressing these structural features, which often resulted in “market failures”. Both were induced by the need to solve policy problems and were not merely formal theoretical disciplines whose modelling was based on “real economies” trapped in a particular equilibrium (unemployment or underdevelopment) from which they had to be extricated. These positions opened them to attack from neoliberalism.

It is perhaps not surprising that the neoclassical counterrevolution and the ascendancy of monetarism in the advanced industrial countries during the late 1970s and early 1980s led to the rejection of development economics in the South. For the neoliberal economists, development economists falsely denied the universality of rational economic behaviour and, by their focus on perversions of standard economic theory, opened doors for dirigisme. For some, the whole enterprise of development economics was a futile one, and the dirigisme associated with it was blamed for poor economic performance.

For two decades, starting from the beginning of the mid-1970s, the status of development economics in both academia and policy circles was not enviable. The titles of some of the articles published in the 1970s and 1980s clearly suggest that all was not well with the discipline: “In Praise of Development Economics” (Thirwall, A.P. 1978), “The Birth, Life and Death of Development Economics” (Seers, Dudley 1979), “The Rise and Decline of Development Economics” (Hirschmann, Albert O. 1981), “The Poverty of Development Economics (Lal, Deepak 1983), “The State of Development Theory” (Lewis, Arthur 1984). The beleaguered discipline of development economics found itself hounded out of economics departments, development finance institutions and journals as what Albert Hirschman has called “monoeconomics” spread itself.

The “pioneers” of development economics were forced into a defensive posture as they fended off accusations of providing the intellectual scaffolding for dirigisme, which had failed, as well as of downplaying the role of the market. The “death” of development economics was not merely an academic “paradigm shift”. It was given official sanction by the United States government. The US representative to the Asian Development Bank is reported (Newsweek 13th May, 1985) to have announced that the “United States completely rejects the idea that there is such a thing as ‘development economics’” (cited in Toye, John 1987: page 73). Development economics became, as John Toye remarks, “an Orwellian un-thing” in the eyes of the most powerful nation. The Spartan certainty of the ascendant neoliberalism as to what was required left no room for specialized knowledge of the problems of development. Mrs. Thatcher’s strident “There is no alternative” was echoed in international financial organizations through a standardized set of policies that was applicable to all economies.

Aside from the attribution of the causes of the crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, and the ideological ascendance of neoliberalism in leading OECD countries and financial institutions, the demise of development economics had a lot to do with interpretation of the development experience of the postwar period. Up until 1997, the spectacular economic performance of the East Asian countries stood out sharply against the poor performance of most countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and the transition economies. As with all successes, these successes aroused many claims of paternity. From the mid-1970s, through a series of OECD studies (Little, I., T. Scitovsky, and M. Scott 1970), the “counter-revolution” of neoclassical economics claimed that success was evidence of the wisdom of relying on market forces. In contrast, the “lost decades” of much of Africa and Latin America were blamed on “development planning”, which distorted prices and led to slower growth. Indeed, the experiences of the quintessential development states were evoked as evidence against development economics.

27.- The "Washington Consensus" and Development Economics
By Mark Weisbrot - 2001
The disappearance of development economics, and replacement of economic development strategy with a simple code for liberalizing international trade and capital flows, has undoubtedly contributed to the economic failure experienced by the vast majority of low to middle income countries over the last two decades. Thandika Mkandawire and others have summarized some of the analytical capacity and tools that were lost in this neo-classical and neo-liberal resurgence. In many ways it is similar to the loss of knowledge in the natural sciences due to clerical influence during the Middle Ages; so it is a great thing that the UNRISD has taken up this project not only to recover lost knowledge but to lay the foundation for real progress in both practice and theory.
I would like to reverse the natural order of such a discussion and begin with the specific rather than the general, to focus first on the political and strategic aspects of reviving Development Economics. To move away from the extremist position that now dominates economic thinking and practice on these subjects will require simultaneous battles on a number of fronts. We will need to create the political, intellectual, and media space for a more honest discussion of very crucial economic issues - a discussion that barely exists, in the most prominent forums, at present. This could take a long time, but some of it can be done piece-by-piece: there are certain strategic reforms that may be winnable in the near future, that could bring us much closer to these goals.

28.- Thoughts and Proposals on Reviving Development Economics
By Joseph Y. Lim
There are three main factors that caused the decline of development economics, especially during the eighties and nineties. These reasons are:

1. As explained well in the other papers in this conference, the hegemony of the neoclassical non-interventionist and monetarist/rational expectations schools in mainstream economics during the seventies and eighties succeeded in removing from the mainstream literature developmental and interventionist approaches to economics. This included the almost successful attempt to kill Keynesian theory and to convert it into a theoretical oddity.

2. The core of development economic theories embodied in a) Lewis’, Ranis-Fei’s and the dependency theorists’ debates on the dual economy, b) works on ‘big push’, ‘balanced and unbalanced growth’ and ‘import-substitution strategy’ by Rosenstein-Rodan, Nurkse, Hirschman, etc. – all did not employ the ‘elegant’ ‘rational’, optimizing and comparative statics framework and methodology of neoclassical economics. It is interesting to note that the ‘big push’ and ‘learning by doing’ (or ‘picking winners’ in the technology and knowledge-intensive sectors) theories were able to become fashionable when presented in the neoclassical style of comparative dynamics in the endogenous growth models of Lucas, Romer, Schlifer and Vishny, etc. The methodology mattered, but we must remember that the historical conditions that brought about the rise of the endogenous growth models in the eighties and nineties precisely involved the lack of empirical validity of the traditional neoclassical growth model, especially with the rise of the East Asian ‘miracles’. (They had to turn to the disgraced theories of development economics to partly find the right answer.) Another point is that the ascendancy and dominance now of new Keynesian and new institutional theories that allow ‘market failures’, institutions and governance structures to enter the mainstream is their use of neoclassical models and tools as well as the increasingly fashionable game theory approach.

3. A third reason which we should not ignore is the entry in the sixties and seventies of so many other topics in the realm of development economics, which merely duplicated existing fields in economics but applying them in a ‘Third World’ context. Areas and topics in the fiscal, monetary, exchange rate arenas, labor economics, international trade, agricultural economics, education and social sector (population, health, etc.) – just take a quick look at the contents of Todaro’s textbook whatever edition – were all included as part of ‘development economics’. This ‘borrow from mainstream theory and apply to a Third World context’ scheme, plus the lack of an elegant neoclassical model (described in no. 2 above), naturally relegated development economics to a status of ‘soft’ economics indistinguishable from sociology, psychology and other social sciences, and unbefitting of true ‘hard-core’ scientific and analytical (neoclassical) economics.

30.- Women, Politics and a Development Economics Renaissance
By Ritu R. Sharma - 2001 I come to this discourse from the perspective of an advocate, a lobbyist to be more precise, working to open the minds of U.S. policy makers to alternative thinking on development, including the role of gender in development. I think there are roughly four steps required to mainstream a new development economics theory and policy—empirical research, theory formulation and testing, education of technical experts in the use of new theory, and the ultimate adoption of the new theory by policy decision makers.

Of these four steps, Women’s EDGE focuses its work on the last: to get U.S. policy makers to abandon the “Washington Consensus” and embrace a new formula for development, one which includes gender in its basic equation. Therefore, I will focus my contribution on how we might “close the loop” between researchers, economists, and decision-makers. And, as you have already gathered from the name of my organization, I will offer some thoughts on how the neo-liberal model has affected women and why any new thinking on development economics must ground itself in the most basic social organization humans have—male and female.

Róbinson Rojas: Sustainable development in a globalized economy? The odds. 1999
Róbinson Rojas: Sustainable development in a globalized economy. 1997
Róbinson Rojas: Making sense of development studies
Róbinson Rojas: Notes on the philosophy of the capitalist system
Róbinson Rojas: Notes on economics: assuming scarcity
Róbinson Rojas: Notes on economics: about obscenities, poverty and inequality
Róbinson Rojas: Notes on structural adjustment programmes
Róbinson Rojas: Agenda 21 revisited (notes)
Róbinson Rojas: 15 years of monetarism in Latin America: time to scream
Róbinson Rojas: Latin America: a failed industrial revolution
Róbinson Rojas: Latin America: the making of a fractured society
Róbinson Rojas: Latin America: a dependent mode of production
Róbinson Rojas: The 'adjustment' of the world economy
Róbinson Rojas:
The transnational corporate system in the late 1990s
Róbinson Rojas:
A market-friendly strategy for development
Róbinson Rojas:
Notes on agribusiness in the 1990s
Róbinson Rojas:
Transnational corporations in developing countries
Róbinson Rojas:
Latin America: blockages to development
Róbinson Rojas: Development Studies: Researching for the big bosses?
Róbinson Rojas: International capital and intellectual dishonesty
The New Economic Geography: effects and policy implications
A symposium sponsored by The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
August 24-26, 2006

- Shift in economic geography and their causes
- Consequences for production and prices, employment and wages
- Consequences for financial markets and global savings and investment
- Strategies for growth - Implications for monetary policy - Overview panel


From The Economist
On the hiking trail 
Globalisation is generating huge economic gains. That is no reason to ignore its costs
Aug 31st 2006

7 June 2005
Declaration
EuroMemorandum Group
European Economists  for an Alternative Economic Policy in Europe
June 2005
After the French and Dutch No to the Constitution:
The EU needs a new economic and social development strategy.

  "The French and Dutch No to the Constitution opens  the window for a thorough reflection and public discussion about the way in which the people want to live in Europe. The majority of voters have rejected the elitist project of a European construction, which subordinates the democratic lives and material well-being of the people to the rules of markets and competition. They perceived European policies in their real lives as a threat to their economic and social welfare, as source of increasing insecurity for their work and incomes, as mounting inequality and injustice and as an obstacle to relevant democratic participation possibilities in the process of shaping a society which allows them to lead a free and independent life...".
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2004: Miedos y miserias. Obstáculos a la seguridad humana
2003: Los pobres y el mercado
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Otras publicaciones

 

RP2006/20 E. Wayne Nafziger:
From Seers to Sen: The Meaning of Economic Development
(PDF 90KB)

The paper compares perspectives on the meaning of development in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the contemporary period, with a focus on the works of Dudley Seers and Amartya Sen. Both men were critical of the development literature of their times. Seers was especially critical of neoclassicism’s universal claims and economic growth as the prime objective. For Sen, development involves reducing deprivation or broadening choice. One challenge for future work is for development economists, similar to Seers and Sen, to be more holistic, integrating economic development, human rights, and conflict reduction.

 


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