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This special issue aims at advancing the debate about the interpretative power of evolutionary perspectives on economic development and institutional change. In the introduction, we argue that the interpretative power of the current evolutionary approach can be improved by elaborating an 'augmented' perspective to economic development, which explicitly integrates the role of institutions and the dynamics of natural resource sectors (e.g. agro-food) into the analysis. We maintain that such a theoretical and empirical advancement can help to define a conceptual framework that is more suitable to analyse innovation-driven change, differentiated development patterns, opportunities and constraints for developing countries in the globalised knowledge economy. A collection of papers that adopt this perspective are discussed in order to prove the interpretative power of this approach in a variety of development contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the economic literature, high-skilled emigration may either harm or benefit developing economies. Recent research highlighted several positive and negative channels through which the brain drain operates. This paper aims at evaluating the relative magnitudes of various brain drain channels and quantifying their global impact on migrants' sending countries. For this purpose, we develop a 10-region general equilibrium model of the world economy characterized by overlapping-generations dynamics. Our findings suggest that the short-run impact of brain drain on resident human capital is extremely crucial, as it affects not only the number of high-skilled workers available to domestic production, but also the sending economy's capacity to innovate/adopt modern technologies. This latter effect is particularly important in globalization, where capital investments are made in places with high production efficiencies. Hence, despite positive feedback effects, those countries facing prevalent high-skilled emigration are the most candid victims to brain drain. ( JEL F22, J24, O57) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to reconcile social and environmental goals for sustainable development still poses problems for policy makers in the richer parts of the world. Using the examples of domestic water and energy, this paper argues that the problems are reflected, and often magnified, in developing countries. They arise largely from conflicts between the short-term need to alleviate poverty and longer-term objectives for environmental sustainability. The dual nature of water and energy as both social and economic goods raises questions about the most appropriate forms of provision and allocation of the utilities. It is in no one's long-term interest for developing countries to repeat the environmentally damaging mistakes of the industrialized world. But an equitable distribution of the short-term costs attached to a more environmentally responsible use of resources demands new ways of thinking about global social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain internationalization is promoting a new cascade of agglomeration and dispersion. Headquarter tasks agglomerate in major cities in developed countries, whereas labour-intensive tasks are shed to developing countries where off-shored tasks are geographical concentrated. The entire international supply chain is productivity and welfare-enhancing, raising the efficiency of human resource use. An international supply chain can also be a route for inclusive globalization. Such benefits are offset by potential risk of volatility deriving from idiosyncratic supply shocks triggered by powerful natural disasters and other reasons and from final demand shocks. This case study of East Asia illustrates these points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]