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This paper investigates digital inequalities in usage within African informal sectors. In particular, we examine whether the uneven digital diffusion is embedded in pre‐existing socio‐economic inequalities. After identifying three segments of informal firms, we rely on multivariate and decomposition analyses to identify predictors of usage of digital technologies for business purposes and explain usage gaps between segments. Our findings suggest that digital inequalities are rooted in the vertical heterogeneity of informal sectors, with some firm characteristics significantly predicting professional use of digital technologies. In addition, we find that there are both common and segment‐specific levers for addressing digital inequalities between informal firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the pattern of central policy agendas discussed in international development over the last three decades. It highlights the predominant countries and issues by examining the theme‐based periodicals of a leading international development agency. It analyses the visibility of countries and identifies main topics by examining the OECD Development Centre Working Papers. Findings indicate that certain topics (e.g., market, economy, finance, trade) have been consistently covered, while some policy issues have been highlighted in specific periods. This study also finds that the OECD's people‐ and planet‐centred approach has been reflected in its key reports and documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the dynamics of technological change and technical efficiency in the Indonesian pulp and paper industry are analysed. The industry is characterised by rapid growth of output and capacity, with some mills investing heavily in state-of-the-art machinery after 1984. Using stochastic frontier analysis, we distinguish between technological advances of best practice mills and the rate of technological inefficiency. We use a newly constructed micro-level dataset describing the complete population of Indonesian paper mills and paper machines from 1975 to 1997. We find an increasing divergence in technical efficiency over time, indicating that most plants have been not able to keep up with the technological leaders in the industry. Several of the plants operating the latest technologies have lower levels of efficiency than mills operating more outdated equipment. These outcomes qualify the common understanding of dualistic economic structures in developing countries, composed of less efficient traditional and more efficient modern capital intensive establishments. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of foreign aid in stimulating economic development is a topic of intense debate in the scientific community and among policy analysts. Numerous empirical studies are devoted to investigating the impact of foreign aid on the economic growth/development of recipient countries. This study reviews the literature relevant to this debate using the bibliometric data of scholarly papers in the Scopus database. Our intention is to identify the trends of publications, their geographical distribution and the most influential journals, authors and articles in this field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the bureaucratic processes required to establish and manage a single international capacity‐development project that brought together a funding council (AHRC), UK University (SOAS University of London) and universities and other research organisations in Myanmar and Ethiopia. Drawing from ethnographic critiques of the planning and audit practices employed in international development and in the UK University sector, we track the formal certification of partnership as enacted through due diligence and contracts, budgets and timeframes, and reconciliations and reporting. These practices point to pervasive assumptions about capacity transfer and the unequal basis of international research coalitions spanning the Global North and Global South. In this article, we challenge these assumptions by documenting how the allocation of capacity is constrained in hierarchies of time and space. For equitable partnership arrangements to be achieved, we recommend that capacity development be considered a long‐term exchange that flows from mutual reflection and learning from one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most aspects of the argument of the UK government's 2000 White Paper on globalization and development stand up reasonably well to the findings of subsequent research. But there is significant new evidence in two areas: the size of the contribution of institutions to growth; and the complexity of the effects of increased openness on poor people. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NGOs have, by and large, given a warm welcome to the new UK White Paper on International Development. But, after 20 years of political marginalization, is the development community too easily satisfied? This article argues that the White Paper does mark a welcome break from the previous Conservative approach with a number of commendable policy ideas. The document overall, however, still contains important flaws, particularly in areas where the Treasury will have inevitably played a critical role. If DFID and the new Secretary of State can take credit for the best of the White Paper's contents then her Cabinet colleagues are the obvious culprits for the worst. This article argues that NGOs can play a constructive role by recognizing the weaknesses of the Paper and undertaking to help in building the public constituency for further, and more fundamental, change. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the implications of the strong poverty focus in the new White Paper for advancing gender equality. Recognizing that there are efficiency arguments in its focus on poor women and some dangers in too rigid a link being made between gender and poverty, it is argued that an equity and empowerment focus nevertheless inform the gender and poverty nexus. This does not necessarily imply that women's subordination is adequately dealt with. Making gender a cross-cutting issue in human rights goes some way towards escaping an anti-poverty approach to women. However, this does not automatically address gender relations and there are some contradictions even within the human rights focus itself. Beyond the principles of the White Paper, the real potential for promoting women's empowerment and advancing gender equity lies in its practice. The commitment to building partnerships needs to be extended to gender equitable partnerships which imply developing skills and new forms of practice among all partners to accommodate the participation of poor women, and recognising that accountability is a two-way street. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Labour government's new White Paper promises great changes in the British aid programme: re-focusing aid on poverty reduction, partnerships replacing one-sided conditionalities, and policy coherence so that the broad gamut of British policies in areas as diverse as agriculture, trade and investment are in line with the needs of international development. However, the Paper is stronger on broad policy statements than detail as to how to implement these strategies. Moreover, an examination of the history of British aid shows continuity to have been greater than change. Both Labour and Conservative governments have presided over cuts in UK aid, and so instead pointed to the high quality of British aid. But efforts to improve aid quality have been impeded by the use of aid to achieve political and commercial objectives. Whether the White Paper represents a break with the past cannot be determined by the Paper's brave rhetoric, but only by the future actions of the Department for International Development. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the perspective of the Independent Group on British Aid (IGBA) 1997 White Paper on International Development. Measures for which the IGBA has been campaigning since the publication of "Real Aid: A Strategy for Britain," in 1982; Significance of the White Paper; Advice from the group regarding the White Paper on International Development.

The White Paper signals a clear, strong and comprehensive commitment by the British government to use its aid and influence to help poor people. It spells out a range of specific aims to benefit and empower the poor and especially women. It endorses a new powerful concept of partnership with its own commitments to partners and it specifies the implications of any lack of commitment by them to poverty reduction. Unfortunately there is no systematic exposition of the changes in policies required to achieve pro-poor growth; there are ambiguities about targeting and no lessons are drawn about what has worked well in its own past interventions. DFID appears to want to ‘go it alone’ with little indication of the collective efforts (including other donors) required to achieve these ambitious goals. Nevertheless, the agency has organizational strengths to achieve its new strategy which gives confidence that more precise operational strategies will be devised and pursued with conviction in the coming years. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the White Paper from the rural perspective. It notes that very little attention is paid in the text to natural resources spending. However the text does provide some indication of the direction in which rural development policy within DFID might evolve. In particular it can be expected that the scope of rural interventions will expand to embrace a more holistic concept of rural livelihoods. This has several implications which DFID must address in the near future if this important opportunity for reorientation is not to be lost. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1997 White Paper on international development is the first such policy statement since 1975. Comparison of the two thus gives us an opportunity for assessing how official thinking and politics in the UK have responded to the many changes that have occurred in the meantime. This article first compares the views of the two papers on the nature of development and of the poverty problem; and then compares the treatment of EC/EU issues. Neither Paper was just about aid. We conclude that WP75 appears comparatively narrow in focus and unsophisticated in its appreciation of the problems addressed, but is better at taking a strategic view and more forthcoming about specifics. What WP97 gains in the breadth and sophistication of its appreciation of problems it loses in detachment from reality and retreat from specifics. Its treatment of EU issues is surprisingly laconic. But overall WP97—in its various forms—is more accessible and decidedly more populist. It has already been disseminated to a far wider audience than WP75 ever reached. Its success is in simplifying a world which development officials know has grown more complex; its failing is that they seem unsure about specifically how their influence and modest resources can best be applied to improving it. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Government published a new White Paper on International Development in November 1997. The White Paper sets out the UK Government's vision and new policies for the elimination of international poverty; it explains the new objectives and strategy for the Department for International Development and details the new objective of ensuring that all UK Government policies take account of their impact on sustainable development. This article summarizes the content of the White Paper and discusses in detail some of the issues involved in operationalizing the policies. It looks particularly at the new proposals for partnership between UK Government and developing countries and explores some of the implications of policies to support pro-poor economic growth. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically models aid allocation to four African countries—Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Tanzania—using 1968–1999 time series data. The econometric method employed allows for the joint determination of aid to these countries and for recipient-specific coefficients. It is hypothesised that aid to these countries has been determined by a diverse set of determinants, ranging from their developmental needs or requirements through to donor commercial, political and strategic interests. A special interest of the paper is whether policy regimes have impacted on the amounts of aid received by these countries. Results indicate that they have for all four countries, although the direction of influence differs among them. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adrian Wood is right to note a significant shift in official thinking since the publication in 2000 of the DFID White Paper on globalization. This is confirmed by the 2004 White Paper on the same subject, published by the Department for Trade and Industry: there is more emphasis on the institutional pre-conditions for successful liberalization, more on the specificity of individual country experience, more on the plight of losers, and more on the need for social protection. These themes are important and require some re-thinking of aid policy. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social protection and equity are missing elements of the Millennium Development Goals. Both are essential to redress the situation of the most vulnerable. This study provides a comprehensive review of social protection packages in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and devises an index to evaluate the extent of a country’s level of social protection in its development strategy. The findings show that the social protection agenda in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers is more pronounced in countries with higher levels of income and lower levels of ethnic diversity and that social assistance packages are more aligned to higher levels of official development assistance and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies Marcel Mauss' Gift Theory in conjunction with Qin Yaqing's Relational Theory to Chinese foreign aid. It proposed that this approach allows to conceptualise Chinese aid to Africa as a continuous gift cycle initiated in Bandung and has been going uninterrupted till today. The paper argues through the language of reciprocity and relationality, China symbolically affords the recipient status in a way that Northern aid does not. The real existing power asymmetries between China and Africa do not per se translate into unlimited influence as China can never be sure of reciprocity and is obliged to keep giving continuously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) are currently at the centre of development assistance and planning in many countries and donor agencies. As such, they are potentially of enormous significance for children living in poverty. Based on a review of PRSP documents, authors' experiences and other evidence, the paper explores the main policies of economic growth and social sector investment laid out in PRSPs and some likely implications for children's lives and equitable development. It examines how far PRSPs recognize childhood poverty as a priority, and the strategies' often limited commitments to tackle it. The paper reflects on changes in policy planning, budgeting and review processes associated with PRSPs and examines their potential to contribute to effective poverty reduction. It concludes that, to date, changes in these processes are the most significant contribution of PRSPs; while the potential for more effective policy is strong, much work is required by all involved before they are a comprehensive or strategic approach to reducing childhood poverty or securing the wellbeing of future generations. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 paper examines the impacts of globalization on labour in South Africa. A framework is developed to link different aspects of the process of globalization with labour market outcomes in developing countries. This framework is then applied to the South African case focusing on trade, foreign direct investment, technology transfer, macro-economic policies and the impact on the bargaining power of labour. The paper concludes that although globalization is only one of the factors affecting the South African labour market in recent years, the outcomes for labour, particularly unskilled labour, have been unfavorable. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the decades of the 1980s and 90s many poverty alleviation programmes have been implemented in developing countries. Evaluations of such programmes have traditionally looked at their success in increasing the income levels of participants but less at the wider goals of human well-being. This paper looks at the poverty alleviation programme of BRAC, a large non-governmental organisation in Bangladesh, and, based on carefully designed studies, presents its impact on selected components of ‘human well-being’. This study found better child survival and nutritional status in households served by the programme. Simular impacts were also found in other areas such as expenditure patterns, family planning practices and children's education. The studies also looked at the impact on the rural power structure and found a substantial change in the networking relationship of health providers. The likely influence of ‘selectivity bias’ on the above results is also discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the main consequences and lessons of the WTO Agreement on Basic Telecommunications Services for economic reforms in developing countries. Our analysis emphasizes that the Agreement changed market and policy expectations about the supply, pricing, and demand growth of communications services. We show that WTO-enforced regulatory code in telecommunications (the ‘Reference Paper’) has considerably lowered the risks for domestic and foreign investors. One of the main conclusions of the paper is that an enforceable regulatory code can be an important tool for developing countries when reconciling the needs for policy consistency and flexibility during the introduction of competition in telecommunications. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the extent to which the fisheries sector has been mainstreamed into the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) published by fifty nations by the end of 2003. Applying content analysis techniques we find that there is little overt relationship between the extent of such mainstreaming and the significance of the sector (as either a contributor to food security, a generator of foreign exchange, a provider of employment or as a refuge of the poor). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delineates the characteristics of an emerging Southern multilateralism to argue against pessimistic narratives of anarchy and disorder as well as optimistic narratives that celebrate the resilience of the Liberal International Order (LIO). It does this by staging a conversation between a top‐down International Relations literature that explores the contours of global order and a bottom‐up international development literature that investigates the changing role of the Global South in world politics. By highlighting the continuities and discontinuities of Southern multilateralism with it, the paper illustrates the ways in which Southern Multilateralism both challenges the LIO and supports it. The perspective of Southern Multilateralism suggests that countries in the Global South insist on sharing global responsibility with prevailing institutions of liberal multilateralism, neither seeking to overthrow it nor to be co‐opted within it. A subsidiary argument of the paper is that Southern Multilateralism is not homogenous: To that end, it attends to the richness of Southern Multilateralism by directing attention to variations within it. In line with the theme of the Special Issue, this paper focuses on two cases that involve India's presence on the African continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African trading brokers in China buy knock‐off or copy goods and move them through customs via bribery to African ports; this trade, although illegal, brings desired global products to Africa. This paper, based on interviews with African trading brokers, examines how the internet and Covid‐19 have affected their trade. African customers can now find out the accurate prices of goods; computerized customs regimes make bribery difficult; and Covid‐19 has raised shipping costs. While the informal economic arrangements of these trading brokers will probably continue despite policymakers' efforts to eradicate them, China may no longer be the source of their goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faith‐based and non‐faith‐based non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) are significant service providers in the developing world, yet limited research has compared these organisations, especially in the context of Southeast Asia. This paper explores a theoretical concept related to why religious faith may distinguish Christian faith‐based organisations (FBOs) from non‐faith‐based NGOs. Qualitative data were analysed from 41 interviews across 13 Christian FBOs and 12 non‐faith‐based NGOs working with women and children in Cambodia who have been (or were at risk of being) sexually exploited, trafficked or involved in sex work. Faith was found to distinguish FBOs from non‐faith‐based NGOs in all four of the dimensions comparatively examined in the study: (1) goals and missions, (2) motivations, (3) approaches to care and (4) conceptions of success. It is argued that the contrasts between these two types of organisations, in terms of faith, are related to the combination of both the infusion of faith in FBOs and factors related to the development context in which these organisations worked, a theoretical concept posited as Context‐Infusion Convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become a recent rising power in global development cooperation in the past few years. This paper examines how the Global North, as represented by Japan, responds to the rising of the Global South, as represented by China, in infrastructure support. This paper positions itself in the context of Global‐North/South and triangular cooperation to compare Japan's Partnership for Quality Infrastructure with China's Belt and Road Initiative from the dimensions of policy rhetoric, finance mechanism, environmental sustainability and rule of law. This paper draws the conclusion on whether the North–South competition enhances the quality and sustainability of those initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing impact evaluation literature on antipoverty transfer programmes in low‐ and middle‐income countries measures changes in utilitarian terms, at their unit value. The paper argues that valuing antipoverty transfers is more appropriately done within a framework of prioritarian social welfare functions, as the very presence of these programmes indicates that polities place a greater value on gains and losses among the disadvantaged. The paper applies this framework to the Senior Citizen Grant in Uganda, including survey and experimental work throwing light on social preferences for redistribution. It finds that default utilitarian valuation significantly underestimates the social value of transfer programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses in testing the power of reciprocity and leadership as collective action incentive structures and cooperation economic benefits in explaining collective action initiation in the context of a post‐communist transition economy. The paper is based on a structured survey targeting Albanian export‐oriented farmers. Different from most previous studies, this paper uses both regression analysis and machine learning procedure which is better suited for analysing non‐linear relationships. The empirical findings are at odds with common sense that non‐cooperation is the dominant strategy, because the presence of tolerant reciprocators and leadership resources provide promising incentive structures for collective action development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing has the potential to drive economic growth, job creation and poverty reduction, but African manufacturers face challenges in competing with global markets. Agricultural machinery manufacturing may be one niche where African manufacturers can succeed. This paper examines the challenges and opportunities facing local agricultural manufacturers in Africa based on a survey of 386 manufacturers in four countries and qualitative methods. Results show that small, dedicated entrepreneurs have created vibrant local machinery markets. These manufacturers have several comparative advantages, in particular, the ability to develop machinery adapted to local agroecological conditions but face challenges related to financing, human resources, utilities, raw materials, production equipment and the regulatory environment. The paper offers recommendations on how to support local manufacturers to make "Made in Africa" the first choice for African farmers and agro‐food processors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks whether value chain integration increases smallholder resilience during shocks. Using a qualitative research study design and the test case of the 'sugar‐belt' in Zambia, the paper draws on interviews with participants from different stakeholder groups, including household case studies and group discussions. Results show sugarcane value chain integration enhances smallholder livelihood resilience during pandemics through its coordination arrangement, but more could be done. Indirect involvement in, and joint procurement processes of inputs between smallholders and the management company, existing ready and stable access to markets and access to Fairtrade relief funds that point to direct livelihood support proved crucial for strengthening smallholder livelihood resilience during the pandemic. There were COVID‐19‐related adjustments by the management company, which further increased smallholder support. However, in as much as coordination arrangements seemed to have worked well during COVID‐19, smallholder livelihoods remained narrow and risky, raising the need for diversification that could strengthen sustainable resilience. This paper sheds light on how value chains could be organised to enhance pandemic recovery and build livelihood resilience. It helps us to reflect on the '(in)effectiveness' of value chain institutions and the role and importance of smallholder coordination arrangements during pandemics. Ultimately, the result is a contribution to livelihood resilience thinking in value chains—one we hope is appropriate to our conjuncture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico still has more than 24 million of its inhabitants living in poverty, the bulk of these living in rural areas. Since 1982 Mexico has carried out a model programme of structural adjustment and economic liberalization. From 1988 onwards the previously protective and interventionist farm policy has been liberalized. This paper examines the state of rural poverty and the effect of recent policy changes through detailed studies of four villages in central Mexico carried out between 1996 and 1998. In these cases, households maintained a diverse portfolio of income-earning activities, based on farming, salaried and waged work, temporary migration and small-scale enterprises. Incomes varied little between communities, but were highly unequal within the villages—almost as unequal as income nationally. Most of the inequality arose through the concentration of earnings from larger-scale business and salaried work. On the other hand, any additional income from waged work was likely to reduce inequality. Thanks to uneven distribution of incomes, half the households lived in moderate poverty and one third in extreme poverty. The main determinants of incomes were education, access to capital and migration. The chance of being poor was greater for households that had few sources of income and had no migrants. Cluster analysis revealed three groups differentiated by the pattern of their livelihoods. One third had specialized in salaried work or larger-scale rural business, and were rarely living in poverty; just over one sixth of households specialized in farming, also mainly not poor; and the majority who, while farming small plots, depended heavily on wage labouring for their subsistence and who were usually poor. The main changes affecting the economies of the four villages since 1988 were first and foremost changes in macro and external variables—inflation, stagnation of domestic demand, changes in the world coffee price, and knowledge of international migration. Farm and rural policy change—seen in terms of lower real prices for maize, fewer input subsidies and less state assistance to farming—had been less significant. Most of the changes lowered returns to farming and other rural businesses, pushed down real wages, and raised the cost of living. The retreat of the state and economic liberalization had not led to any countervailing entry of private services or capital. Despite harder times for many households, the response was usually to adapt by tightening belts and looking for extra jobs, rather than abandoning peasant life in the villages. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread perception among academic researchers and aid practitioners alike that empirical cross-country analysis fails to find any significant link between aid flows and growth, and that aid is successful only when associated with good policies in the recipient countries. These positions do not stand up to careful scrutiny of existing studies. In this paper, we offer a re-examination of the literature on the aid–savings, aid–investment, and aid–growth relationships, and a comparative appraisal of more recent research contributions. Using an analytic framework for evaluating the empirical work, a coherent and positive picture of the aid–growth link emerges. There is a robust aid–growth link even in countries hampered by an unfavourable policy environment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a nationally representative household survey data collected from Ghana, this paper investigates the relationship between financial inclusion and household well‐being. The paper computes a comprehensive index for financial inclusion incorporating all its dimensions: availability, accessibility, usage and quality. Our econometric analyses employ both discrete and continuous models to produce robust results. The main result indicates that there are significant welfare gains from increased financial inclusion irrespective of its measure and control for endogeneity. The results also suggest that enhanced financial inclusion increases the likelihood of improving food consumption, medical treatment, cash income and school attendance outcomes. Thus, there is a clear policy implication: increasing financial inclusion will significantly contribute to the attainment of some key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether Ethiopia's rapid economic growth is transformative enough for the country to eventually catch up with high‐income countries. It does so by exploring the change and continuity of four elements of social capability from 1950 to 2020: structural transformation, economic inclusion and the state's autonomy and accountability. It finds that Ethiopia's social capability modestly strengthened until the mid‐1970s, then weakened until the early 2000s, and has since strengthened again. However, the level of inclusion has been persistently low. In conclusion, although there are grounds for optimism, limited economic inclusion is a key concern for future catch‐up growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper analyses what factors best explain foreign capital inflows into Hungary and China during the period 1978–92. The size of the host country markets is found to play a positive role, while the cost of capital variables and political instability are negatively correlated with investment inflows. It supports the hypothesis that low-cost labour and currency depreciation are important factors in explaining how much foreign capital inflows into a particular country. There is little evidence to support classical hypotheses concerning tariff barriers and imports variables. The OECD growth rates show significant positive correlation with foreign direct investment in Hungary. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a number of investigators, noatbly Aschauer (1988, 1989a, 1989b), Barro (1981, 1990), Barth and Cordes (1980), Blejer and Khan (1984), Calderon (1988), Cardoso (1993), Munnell (1990), Ram (1986), Ramirez (1991, 1993) and Riedel (1992), have investigated both conceptually and empirically the direct effects of public spending on private expenditures. This paper extends the scope of their analyses by explicitly showing how the inclusion of the government variable in the private consumption and investment functions changes the nature of fiscal policy in an open economy with variable domestic prices. Throughout the analysis, a systematic effort is made to compare the differing effects of fiscal policy in the standard and modified models under both fixed and flexible exchange rate regimes. This paper is organized as follows. First, a theoretical rationale for including the government sector as an argument in the private consumption and investment functions is provided. Next, the paper examines the impact of fiscal policy in the fixed rate case under both imperfect and perfect mobility. It is shown that when public and private spending are compliments, conventional policies for stabilizing the economy may lead to chronic stagflationary pressures. Under these conditions, it is expedient for policymakers to recognize that varying the compostion of public spending-independent of its amount-may lead to a stable assignment. Third, the paper examines the impact of changes in both the level and composition of government spending on relevant targets on the flexible rate case with perfect capital mobility. The paper is brought to a close by investigating the assignment problem in the modified model for the flexible rate case. It is shown that government officials may prescribe potentially destabilizing policies if they mistakenly believe that they are operating in the conventioanl model. The last section summarizes the major findings and offers some concluding observations. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether trust influences investment decisions. We analyse the 2015/2016 Nigeria General Household Survey data from 4582 households. We find that trust, risk and time preferences are important determinants of investment choice. A high trust decreases the chance of investing in low risk and low‐profit businesses. That is, more trusting individuals prefer riskier high return investments. In contrast, impatience and risk avoidance increase the chances of investing in low‐risk, low‐return businesses. This paper will be useful in planning an investment instrument that is both suitable for specific individuals and aligns with the expectations of financial institutions and government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International trade in commercial services is large and is growing as fast as merchandise trade. The liberalization of service sector activity, often characterized hitherto by incumbent monopolies, can produce major welfare gains. Reaching multilateral agreement in liberalizing services runs into problems of definition and quantification. The General Agreement on Trade in Services, though complex and partial in its coverage, has highlighted the importance of multilateral commitment in the pursuit of domestic reform. The agreement on basic telecommunications in particular has had a catalytic effect on domestic policy. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the consequences of climate change become better understood, there is growing agreement among development practitioners and academics on the need for mainstreaming climate adaptation into social protection. This review paper assesses the progress in mainstreaming efforts, revealing that there has been considerable progress made to date. However, a number of critical issues relating to the challenges of such mainstreaming in the context of developing countries and the conceptual framework needed to assess the outcomes of such developmental programmes are yet to be addressed. These issues are examined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]