Search

Considers the conceptual underpinnings, the objectives and instrument of regional social protection (SP) strategy used by the World Bank (WB) in its regional development projects. Activities covered by the lending and non-lending schemes by the WB in the SP area; Analysis of the risks arising from the globalization of trade in goods, services, and factors of production; Advantages to using social risk management as the analytical framework for SP; Reasons for the World Bank's concern with social risk management.

This article provides the theoretical and empirical context to the papers contained in this special issue. We provide background on the recent developed country financial crisis and perspective via a review of prior shocks and crises. The paper then considers the transmission mechanisms through which economic crises can affect economies and individuals in the developing world. The linkages centre on trade, capital flows and remittances. This section also critically surveys the literature concerning the macroeconomic and microeconomic impact of such crises on developing countries. Finally, we review the papers that comprise the special issue, before providing some policy conclusions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research has generally attributed the dismal performance of Africa's economic growth to country-specific socio-economic and geo-political factors. This paper shows that while country-specific issues matter for Africa's economic growth, common global economic factors do matter as well. The importance of common global economic factors has been augmented by increased globalization, the introduction of the World Trade Organization and the current global economic crisis. Using system GMM panel data techniques that extend previous literature on Africa's growth, the estimation results provide new insights into the positive relationship between the world business cycle and the growth rates of African countries. Copyright © 2010 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]

The objective of this paper is to quantify the potential gains in trade performance from the implementation of trade facilitation reform. The study applies a gravity model augmented with trade facilitation, regulatory quality and infrastructure indicators to assess the impact of trade facilitation and other trade-related constraints on export performance. Quantitatively, our results suggest that a 10 per cent improvement in trade facilitation would yield an increase in exports of about 5 per cent. Identical percentage improvements in the regulatory environment and in the quality of infrastructure provision would result in increases of 9–11 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. The results confirm that while trade facilitation can contribute to improved export performance, improvements in the quality of the regulatory environment and the basic transport and communications infrastructure are equally or more important, in facilitating export growth. The conclusion is that trade facilitation alone is unlikely to result in a significant improvement in export performance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an interpretation of China's nexus of foreign trade and economic growth that centres around technological development. Evidence, mainly related to the performance of the machinery sector, is presented indicating that the phenomenal export expansion is not reducible to a market-centred trade regime, and that the standard thesis of export-led growth would not apply—the contribution of trade to growth realises rather through imports. With an emphasis on the central importance of the production side, we present further evidence to substantiate the argument that the relatively successful aspects of the trade–growth nexus have been largely underpinned by a mix of the market mechanism and various non-market institutions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review recent empirical literature on the relationship between openness and the level of national income or, nearly equivalently, trade liberalisation and economic growth. Recent advances reinforce the presumption of a positive causal link from trade to income, especially by solving endogeneity issues more carefully than heretofore and by allowing for heterogeneity between countries. Heterogeneity suggests that low-income countries may benefit less from trade liberalisation than do other countries, but this is not completely settled. We also argue for analysing policy decisions on trade policy with tools from decision theory rather than those from hypothesis testing. © 2013 Crown copyright. Journal of International Development © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Policy Arena has two main objectives. First, it seeks to unravel how the partnership between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group has evolved since the adoption of the Cotonou Agreement in 2000, including its 2005 and 2010 reviews and the implementation of its three key pillars (development cooperation, trade and political dialogue). Second, it explores the prospects of EU-ACP relations in the medium to long term. In particular, it discusses whether the ACP-EU cooperation framework is still relevant in the light of a number of global changes and, more specifically, whether the ACP configuration is still useful to its members. To address these issues, both the EU and the ACP Group have established two working groups. Within the ACP, voices are critical of the EU-ACP partnership, but there appears to be more willingness to reform and renew it. Within the EU, the record of the Cotonou Agreement is seen more positively, but there seems to be less willingness to preserve it. The third review of the Cotonou Agreement to be finalised by 2015, and more generally its expiration in 2020, provides an opportunity - to which this Policy Arena seeks to contribute - to rethink the EU-ACP cooperation model. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mauritius has achieved sustained economic growth over the past three decades notwithstanding the limited liberalization of its foreign exchange and financial markets which took place even during the adjustment period of 1979–86. Reforms in these markets have in fact been introduced gradually and have been stepped up only as from the 1990s when they were considered to be sustainable. A policy of mild exchange rate depreciation has helped to boost exports and growth; the exchange rate is currently market determined and current and capital transfers have been completely liberalized. In the financial market, credit ceilings have been removed and interest rate controls have given way to open market operations. There has also been improved financial intermediation, in keeping with the McKinnon–Shaw hypothesis. Copyright © 1999 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]