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Provides an overview of the research on the implementation of the new public management in developing countries. Purpose of the research; Modes of organizational reform; List of papers published in the research program.

The link between gender inequality and economic growth is a topic that is of growing interest, both in the academic literature and the policy arena. In this paper, we survey the literature that analyses this relationship from a macroeconomic perspective. We argue that that the existing theories provide a wide range of mechanisms through which these two variables may affect each other but also that more work needs to be carried out to obtain quantitative predictions out of these models. In the empirical arena, we note the lack of connection between most studies and the existing theories described earlier. In both cases, we propose approaches to alleviate these problems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the effects of the impact of financial globalization on economic growth, examining its interaction with financial instability for a sample of 72 developing countries over the period 1972–2011, using dynamic panel estimator 'two‐step Generalized Method of Moments' (two‐step system GMM). The main results of the paper are the following: (i) financial instability and indebtedness‐globalization decrease growth; (ii) financial globalization and investment‐globalization increase growth; (iii) indebtedness‐globalization increases the effect of financial instability on growth; (iv) investment‐globalization decreases the effect of financial instability on growth; and (vi) financial globalization decreases the effect of financial instability on growth. These results are robust in a set of tests consisting of the insertion of alternative variables of financial instability, the inclusion of new control variables, inter alia an indicator of banking crises, using different time periods, and changing of the composition of the sample. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper bridges two related, but up to now, unconnected literatures: economic growth stability and population-economic growth. The paper differs from previous population-economic growth analyses by focusing on instability of economic growth in developing countries. This study contributes to a previous paper on the developing country growth collapse by adding important demographic variables. The paper provides an explanation for 'new' negative correlations of population and economic growth: because 1960s were a relatively smooth time for economic growth, youth dependency did not seem important; however, during turbulent 1970s and 1980s, countries with falling dependency burdens weathered economic shocks better. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developing world has experienced unprecedented effects of the Covid‐19 pandemic. The devastating effects of this major crisis are felt in all possible spheres of the developing world and with a serious impact on social and economic development in developing countries. The spread of Covid‐19, which has brought the world to a near standstill, has given rise to the question on the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic. The special issue on Covid‐19 at JID aims to bring together contemporary research on several aspects of how the devastating effects of the pandemic have panned out in different spheres of life, particularly, in the developing world. This special issue has 10 papers with a particular emphasis on evidence of the impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic in Sub‐Saharan Africa and South America. The volume documents studies on the effects of the pandemic at the macro‐level, for economy wide effects, the impact of the pandemic on firms and on its effects on households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan is one of the world's top 10 remittance receiving countries. This paper examines the potential for the use of remittances as a development strategy. Remittances to Pakistan do seem to promote growth and reduce economic inequality and poverty. However, they also cause the Dutch disease, are inflationary, and tend to be pro-cyclical. The paper describes the challenges in employing remittances as the cornerstone of the country's development model, particularly the loss in competitiveness, volatility and the development of a dependency mindset that high remittance inflows can foster. In the end, some steps are suggested that are needed to be taken in this regard. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major feature of the current 'mass migration' process is its strong linkages to countries of origin. Migrants belong to spatially extended families and play a crucial role in shaping economic development in home regions. This paper reviews the wide-ranging socio-economic literature on the nexus between labor migration, both domestic and international, and economic development at origin, with a special focus on out-migration from poor rural regions of developing countries. We disentangle direct effects on migrant-sending households from spillover effects on the rest of the economy, highlighting some key knowledge gaps and policy concerns related to the complex and intimate relation between rural labour mobility and economic behaviour of people left behind. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses several issues related to the relationship between finance and development. Link between financial development and economic growth; Role of finance in poverty reduction in developing countries; Stability of the financial system.

The paper returns to the question of what is the correct structural form for the relationship between aid, other financial flows, and economic growth rates, using a cross-section approach and -- for the first time -- data for the entire 1980s as well as the 1960s and 1970s. For the 1980s the aggregate partial regression coefficient of aid on growth emerges, for the first time, as positive and Gust) significant, although this result does not survive the partitioning of the sample into sub-groups. It remains obvious that the effect of aid on growth is country-specific, and in the later part of the paper we test a new approach under which aid effectiveness passes through a cycle, first increasing and then diminishing as a country's stage of economic development alters. If this approach is accepted (and the initial results, with an informal test, are promising) the overall cross-section relationship between aid and growth, abstracting from other influences, will be neutral in most periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Over the past two decades, there has been unprecedented attention to the promotion of human development via government spending in the social sectors as a conditio sine qua non for economic growth and improved aggregate welfare. Yet the existing evidence on the subject remains limited and contested. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the causal effect of government spending on the social sectors (health, education and social protection) on three measures of aggregate welfare: the Human Development Index, the Inequality‐adjusted Human Development Index and child mortality rates, using longitudinal data from 55 low‐income and middle‐income countries from 1990 to 2009. We find strong evidence to support the proposition that government social spending has played a significant role in improving aggregate welfare in the developing world. Our results are fairly robust to, inter alia, the method of estimation, the set of control variables and the use of alternative samples and instruments. © 2017 UNU‐WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the causality between remittances and economic growth in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. We employ the panel Granger causality testing approach that is based on seemingly unrelated regressions systems and Wald tests with country-specific bootstrap critical values. Using annual data over the period 1980-2007 for 20 SSA countries, we find that in any SSA country, there is no causality between remittances and growth. An explanation of why remittances do not increase growth in SSA countries is given by the causality test that shows that remittances do not increase physical capital investment. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the economic literature on the effects of food aid on recipient developing countries. It reviews the conceptual and empirical challenges associated with evaluating the impact of food aid and surveys the main analytical techniques that are used in such evaluations. It then summarises the available empirical evidence on the effect of food aid on national economic development, domestic agricultural production and markets, commercial trade and the nutritional status of recipients. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective relations between states and business have been increasingly identified as an important institution for sustaining economic development. This paper constructs quantitative indices measuring the quality of state-business relations (SBRs) across Indian states in the 1985-2008 period. It represents the first effort to systematically characterise SBRs across sub-national units within a country without resorting to subjective surveys. We discuss the possible sensitivity of the indices to minor and major definitional changes and examine the evolution of SBRs across Indian states and at the national level through the study of cross-sectional and secular trends in these indices. The results suggest that SBRs have improved over time in all states barring Bihar. Rankings of states in terms of the SBR index show varying time trends-stable and high ranks for states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, stable and low ranks for states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, rapidly improving ranks for states like Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and swift deterioration in ranks for states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous aid effectiveness research often claims that foreign aid has been unsuccessful in increasing growth rates. This result could be due either to methodological weaknesses, or to genuine aid efficiency losses. Empirically, the author finds that once the best available techniques are employed, aid has a significant but moderate average effect on growth over the period 1970–2001. A promising explanation of why the estimated returns to aid are not larger is that bilateral aid had no significant effect on growth during the Cold War (pre-1990), but had a significant and sizeable effect thereafter. In contrast, multilateral aid seems to have had sizeable and significant effects throughout. These results imply that the negative conclusions drawn by earlier research should be interpreted in their proper historical context, rather than as a necessary condemnation of current aid effectiveness. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the importance of international development targets and education in ending poverty in developing countries. Education targets that have been discussed in policy arenas in 2005; Importance of poverty reduction targets to developing countries; Advantages of International Development Education Targets and Millennium Development Goals which has been redefined in different arenas.

The initiation and implementation of development programmes in developing countries places demands on professional staff to acquire new skills and adopt new approaches to drive new development paradigms. It has been found that formal training plays a relatively small part in learning new skills in the workplace, compared with informal learning-by-doing within a supportive institutional environment. This paper describes and contrasts the ways in which two donor funded technical assistance projects in Namibia applied four learning support strategies identified in the literature. The experiences described suggest that resident technical assistance can offer types of support for workplace learning and institutional development through mentoring and backstopping, that alternative short term assistance or training course oriented projects lack. It is concluded therefore, that in seeking alternatives to capacity building through resident technical assistance, donors and recipient countries should assess the options not only in terms of skills transferred, but also in terms of building confidence to undertake new areas of work and the development of institutional processes supportive of workplace learning. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the politics of agenda setting in international health policy, for the issues of child health and adult health, along five political streams: organizational, symbolic, economic, scientific and politician politics. The approach is a modified version of Kingdon's 'garbage can model' of how public policy agendas are set. The analysis shows that the five political streams all favoured child health over adult health as an issue on the international health policy agenda, until recently. In the early 1990s, the World Bank has asserted greater influence on this agenda than previously, with a concerted effort to shift the focus from child health to adult health and to give greater attention to the preventive aspects of adult health in poor countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the standard 2 x 2 trade model to an inter-temporal context, to demonstrate that previous (macro) optimization models of international borrowing for LDCs are special cases of a more general (and more flexible) model of optimal borrowing. It demonstrates that previous models involve only inter-temporal consumption smoothing and prohibit inter-temporal specialization in production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper endeavours to sketch out the main implications of so-called 'new growth theory' for the study of economic development. New growth theory endogenizes the sources of growth by attributing growth in production to externalities created by investments in human capital and in technology; some versions also introduce policy variables. The empirical evidence on determinants of growth is reviewed. The new growth theories caution against excessive protection of intellectual property rights, but suggest that in an environment of wide and growing information asymmetries between developed and developing countries, some restrictions to free trade may be justified. In addition, autonomous increases in real wages may have a positive and permanent effect on real per capita income, echoing a conclusion of the 'under-consumptionist' literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years concern over environmental issues have moved high up the political agenda. This has accelerated particularly in the run up to the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. Two sets of concerns have dominated attention: the problem of degrading environments within developing countries and global issues such as climate change and ozone depletion. The prime focus of attention in the developing countries has traditionally been on the former. Concerns over the latter originated primarily in the industrialised world but the issue is now recognised to have important implications also for the developing countries. New aid mechanisms are being formed to assist these countries address global environmental issues. This paper discusses economic approaches to assessing environmental impacts and attempts to examine the trade-offs which developing countries face in addressing national as compared international environmental problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negotiations around Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 development agenda should go beyond just re-writing goals and targets that adhere to 'sustaining' the same old economic and social models. Instead, societies and governments should take this as an opportunity to advance more radical conceptual and practical approaches that challenge this reductive understanding of 'sustainability'. The paper argues that we should turn our attention to prosperity rather than to development per se, recognising the critical role political and social innovation should have in unleashing individuals' potential to flourishing in a context of finite resources. The interwoven, interdependent and ever-evolving nature of socio-ecological systems, together with the uncertainties and 'unknowns' that characterise contemporary reality, questions the relevance of one-size-fits-all goals. There is no single route to prosperity; diversity of objectives is essential and fundamental. Learning from initiatives in the Global South, such as the case of agroecology, might pave the way towards this paradigm shift. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of remittances on cross-country poverty using a panel data set from 65 developing counties over a long period 1970-2008. This study differs from the existing literature on poverty impact of remittances by explicitly noting the importance of financial development in shaping the link. This analysis shows that the effect of remittances on poverty depends on the level of financial development of a remittances receiving economy. Those economies that have a low level of financial development seem to acquire an unfavourable effect of remittances while economies with comparatively developed financial systems do not suffer from the adverse effects of remittances. In sum, remittances accentuate not ameliorate poverty in countries with the low level of financial development. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of foreign aid on poverty. The impact of aid on poverty is assessed using dynamic panel estimation techniques, which enable us to control for time-invariant country-specific effects and endogeneity of aid. The results suggest that aid has a significant poverty-reducing effect even after controlling for average income. Specifically, foreign aid is associated with a decline in poverty as measured by the poverty rate, poverty gap index and squared poverty gap index. We also find that the composition of aid matters-multilateral aid and grants do better in reducing poverty than bilateral aid and loans. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donors increasingly acknowledge that, without the participation of the private sector, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is unlikely. Up until recently, priority has been given to improving the business enabling environment in developing countries, so as to remove unnecessary impediments to profit-making activity. Whilst this approach has undoubted merit it does not yet seem to be stimulating change at the pace or scale required. This paper argues that there is now a clear case for directly engaging international business in the poverty reduction agenda. It argues that such efforts will have the greatest development impact where profit-making is the driving force, and considers how the impact of such initiatives might best be measured. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we empirically analyse the linkages amongst economic reforms, human capital, physical infrastructure, and growth for a panel of 44 developing countries over 1970–1980 to 1999. For this purpose, we generate aggregated reform indicators using principal component analysis. We show that the growth performance of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been disappointing because these economies have lagged behind in terms of economic reforms. However, our analysis also reveals that the growth dividend of some reforms has been small. This is the case when structural reforms are implemented in an unstable macroeconomic environment (which corresponds to the situation of the MENA countries in the 1980s), and when macroeconomic reforms are accompanied by a low level of structural reforms (as observed during the 1990s). Our result illustrates the complementarities between reforms as modelled by Mussa (1987) and Williamson (1994). Actually, after human capital and physical infrastructure, our analysis finds that macroeconomic and external stability are key variables for the reform process and for the growth prospects of the developing world. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market failures affecting economic growth in poor rural areas are firmly on the agenda but for goods and services with private good characteristics are generally not conceptualized and understood in ways that help policy analysis and formulation to recognize and address these failures. We need greater recognition and understanding of the causes and nature of coordination failures that lead to these market failures. This paper examines core features of poor rural areas, the nature of coordination problems faced by different potential economic actors, the impacts of these problems on markets and economic development and ways that these have been addressed or ignored in different policies and policy approaches in Asia and Africa. We conclude by drawing out the implications for policies seeking to promote pro-poor economic growth in poor rural areas today. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of India's reservation policy to help the small-scale enterprises. Empirical tests showed three main results. Firstly, reservation has increased the number of production units, per item produced. Secondly, the units that produce mainly reserved items have higher levels of installed capacities, than those making mainly unreserved items, but the former do not have higher levels of production, thereby resulting in significantly lower levels of capacity utilisation. Thirdly, reservation has not helped reduce the problem of closures of small units. The empirical results suggest that reservation may have brought little help to production and employment in the small-scale units nor to the consumers of their products, while at the same time it may have restricted production and employment in the large units. Thus reservation may have caused a loss in overall economic welfare. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article presents a synopsis of the contextual conditions, factors and challenges under which the recent evolution of tax systems has taken place, as an introduction to this United Nations University‐World Institute for Development Economics Research Special Issue. The article, as the studies in this collection, gives especial emphasis to the role natural endowments, political economy, social structure and history, and the interplay between politics and tax revenues. These are relevant issues, considering that the Millennium Development Goals and now the Sustainable Development Goals have placed fiscal policy, and tax policy and revenue mobilisation in particular, at the centre of national and international development efforts. Delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals will require a level of state revenue mobilisation capacity in many ways unprecedented in the history of development policy. © 2018 UNU‐WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the recent eclipse of various state forms in the Third World claiming the label 'socialist', with particular reference to Africa. Different variants are distinguished and their trajectories since the late 1980s are explained in terms of both internal and external factors. A comparison of economic and social data on (ex-)socialist and overtly capitalist Third World states shows that there is generally no clear basis for distinguishing between them within any broad income band. Finally, the nature and extent of politico-economic change in Africa's erstwhile socialist countries is traced, and is shown to be most marked in the former 'Marxist-Leninist' states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global Environmental Change is central to the debate on the relationship between environmental degradation and economic development. This paper examines the agreements signed at the Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992 and highlights some implications for developing countries. The interim mechanism for resource transfer under the Conventions is the Global Environmental Facility, but it appears that transfers on a scale necessary to bring about sustainable development as envisaged by Agenda 21 cannot be made through this mechanism alone. It is argued here that other mechanisms to promote development, such as debt relief, should not be ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of the external debts of less developed countries (LDCs) on their exports to the United States. Specifically, the effect that manifests as pressure on the 48 most indebted LDCs to export to the US is investigated. Cross-sectional regression analysis and data for 1984 are used in the estimation. The estimates show that the burden of external debts put significant pressure on LDCs to export. The estimates also suggest that the LDCs are conscious of their creditworthiness in the international financial market. Furthermore, the results highlight the inadequacy of the current General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations that focus on trade in goods and services to the exclusion of the LDCs' debt problem. GATT negotiations should give LDCs' market access to industrialized countries greater weight on its agenda as an attempt at tackling the LDCs' debt problem. This is necessary for the long-term growth of these LDCs, a concern to which enough attention has not been paid. In addition. Western donor countries and their banks should provide more debt relief to these debtor countries. This will enable LDCs to retain a substantial part of their export earnings. Uncertainty is reduced, thus providing the much-needed impetus for entrepreneurs in these poor economies to commit themselves to long-term investments. This will guarantee long-term economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balance of payments problems in many developing countries have created significant challenges to the IMF and World Bank; their response has been inadequate. While these institutions may not have outlived their usefulness, it is worth exploring modifications to the existing institutional structure designed to have a beneficial impact on economic development. If the traditional division of labour between the IMF and the World Bank has broken down in the context of their dealings with developing countries wherein lie the new comparative advantages? This paper proposes and analyses a reorganization of functions between the two institutions that it is claimed would assist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the roots of economic development. The debate about the predominance of institutions over geography is far from reaching a firm conclusion, and this analysis highlights the main difficulties that should be addressed in order to find out the real determinants of long-run economic growth. I argue that the institutional view is not as strong as it may appear: different specifications and different institutional indicators undermine the exclusive importance of institutions. Geographical factors, related to the health and sanitary conditions and to the accessibility to the sea of a country, play a role in economic development, that goes beyond the way in which they shape institutions. The empirical evidence implies that the development policies should be directed to improving not only the quality of governance, but also the sanitary conditions in the least developed countries. However, since there is a lack of accurate indicators and difficult problems of endogeneity, more reliable instruments and indicators of geography and institutions are needed in order to achieve a firm conclusion. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses state-guided provision of social security in developing countries. Background of a welfare provisioning system implemented in England during the seventeenth-century; Importance of income redistribution in economic development.

Considers the case of trade policy intervention aimed at export promotion in developing countries. Overview of the recent literature bearing on trade theory and policy intervention;Experience of government programs of assistance for the promotion of exports in developing countries;Alternative approach to assisting firms' export activities.

The mitigation of global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been the objective of successive negotiations and agreements between nations. At the same time, there is a consensus on the virtues of export diversification for the development of less advanced countries. This article investigates the effect of export diversification on CO2 emissions in the context of an environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in 98 developed and developing countries during the period 1995–2013. Using short‐run (system Generalized Method of Moments) and long‐run (Pooled Mean Group) estimation methods, we find that the environmental Kuznets curve is valid and that export diversification has a positive effect on CO2 emissions. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study uses the ICTD UNU‐WIDER Government Revenue Dataset in order to challenge and extend existing findings on the relationship between tax structures and economic growth, in a panel of 100 countries. The results suggest that, broadly, revenue‐neutral increases in income taxes are associated with lower long‐run GDP growth and that revenue‐neutral reductions in trade taxes have not always had positive effects. Crucially, many of the results presented differ according to income level, calling into question the validity of existing findings for developing countries and suggesting that policy advice on this issue in developing countries should be viewed through a more cautious lens. © 2018 UNU‐WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While several decades ago, discussions regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) were limited to a small group of academics and parts of the business sector; in the recent past, it has grown to become a complex concept with multiple effects and aspects. It is considered to be heavily influential in the decision making of multinational companies. Regarding extractive multinationals, the need for new areas for extraction of natural resources has predictably caused disputes between corporations and local communities, as well as a plethora of environmental considerations. This article contributes to this debate by addressing the issue of whether the CSR of extractive multinationals really contributes to the sustainable development of developing countries. In addition, reasons for CSR not attaining its potential regarding sustainable development are set out and evaluated. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the relation between corporate saving and economic growth during the period from 1995 to 2006 in 7 developing countries and 16 developed countries. The results show that corporate savings generally add to the economic growth of developing countries regardless of legal origins. On the contrary, corporate savings generally do not contribute to the economic growth of developed countries. Developed countries with common law and Scandinavian civil law legal origins particularly see the negative relation between corporate saving and economic growth, while countries with other legal origins observe no such relation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three challenges face development studies and development studies institutions—the three ‘C's’. The first ‘C’ is coverage: making sure that the sector has sufficient coverage of new topics. The second ‘C’ is capacities: recognising that growth in the number and strength of developing country institutions requires developed country institutions to re-think their role. The third ‘C’ is communications: using new technology to deliver policy messages faster and more effectively. With the geographical scope of the development studies ‘industry’ also changing, as more countries reach middle income status, change management becomes a high priority. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of forest resources in developing countries is often inefficient and this is particularly the case when forests are a public good managed by the state. These inefficiencies are generally the result of both externalities and free-riding behaviour. The solution usually considered is to change the property rights structure of the resource, that is, privatisation of forests. It appears, however, that privatisation also has inefficiencies of its own, particularly when it is imposed on local populations. The aim of our contribution is to go beyond the usual state management versus privatisation debate, and to propose instead a property rights structure and related co-ordination scheme which take into account the specific institutional circumstances of the economic setting in which the natural resources are being exploited. The purpose is to suggest solutions based on the need to attain coherence between the external institutional structure and the behaviour of local players. In others words, the challenge is to establish the conditions necessary for an induced—rather than imposed—institutional change. A property rights structure of a resource must consequently be analysed from two perspectives. The first, and more traditional one, sees property rights as an efficient institutional structure of production enabling a reduction in transaction costs. The second proposes to evaluate any given property rights structure from the standpoint of its ability to offer a solution to the issue of an effective link between the legal framework and the behaviour of the players. Our analysis will make use of our knowledge of the forest of Tiogo in Burkina Faso based on a survey organised in 12 riverside villages, and using a sample of 300 households. The case of the Tiogo Forest suggests that institutional change needs to follow an incremental and path-dependent process within which the state is invited to play a major role together with the local communities. Indeed the institutional choices of the Tiogo Forest households indicate that they favour an inclusion of the local population in resource management and co-administration of forestry resources with the state. Such an institutional structure favours a negotiated rather than an imposed scheduling of measures, and seeks a minimum of consensus to ensure the adhesion of actors and users to the new institutional arrangements, whilst limiting the number of bad players. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consistently held contention that export performance determines economic growth, particularly in the LDCs, is analysed empirically for the South Pacific island nations (SPINs). Given that there is reasonable evidence on export revenue/GDP linkages, this study is focused on the short-run relationships between exports and GDP, using the most consistent data set available for selected SPINs. Granger causality based on VAR models, forecast error decomposition analysis (FEDA) and impulse response analysis (IRA) were employed for the short-run investigations. Whilst Granger causality gave mixed results, those of FEDA and IRA were quite consistent. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the meaning of 'ideology' and 'development' and the relationship betwen them. It examines external constraints on development, including dependence on the industrialized West and the crippling burden of debt servicing, and the issue of privatization, which is seen as cutting across the ideological boundaries separating capitalist and socialist states. It also reviews internal constraints on development, such as the shortage of essential skills and the adoption of policies favouring the urban areas, and argues that they are largely independent of ideological considerations. It maintains that the apparent strength of the movement towards de-ideologization in Africa may not prove permanent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]