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Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with falling than rising inequality over the past 20 years, as measured by Ginis of income or consumption inequality. At the global level, therefore, there are signs of inequality convergence, as inequality has been falling in countries with high inequality in the 1990s (particularly Latin America), and rising in historically low-inequality countries. We discuss the political and economic drivers of inequality decline in countries with a steady fall in the Gini. This suggests some common trends across the globe, including the role of democratisation, the rise of new social movements, and the expansion of education and social safety nets and favourable commodity prices, in reducing income disparities. This paper calls for more country-level comparisons of inequality trends, to highlight the multiplicity of paths in this latest phase of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the importance of using the regional innovation systems (RIS) approach as both an analytical framework and a policy tool for generating economic development in developing countries. The paper reconceptualizes the RIS-model to the context of developing countries. RIS is normally based on endogenous growth models; however, in this paper we extend it to rely on external capital, transnational knowledge sources and transnational corporations (TNCs). In particular we stress - the importance of developing firm and regional absorptive capacity; the importance of embedding TNCs in the region; and regional policies for attaining these goals. These factors, we argue, are important for achieving sustainable economic development, building on exogenous sources of capital and knowledge. Finally, we illustrate the relevance of RIS for analyzing as well as formulating regional development policies by referring to two of Asia's most significant cases: Shanghai's (China) and Bangalore's (India) regional innovation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural transformation is a key feature of economic development. Developed countries all followed the same process of structural transformation. This paper asks whether developing countries also follow a similar process. Three key findings emerge from the detailed analysis. First, developing countries are following different paths of structural transformation that deviate from those of developed countries in different ways. Second, the paths of the subcontinents of Africa, Asia, and Latin America are distinct, and there is great heterogeneity within each region. Third, many countries experience substantial structural transformation during periods of economic stagnation or even decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of mineral extraction in South East Asia, the rural poor are generally portrayed as victims of large, invading corporatized mining enterprises. However, this paper argues that local villagers have also shown considerable agency in taking advantage of the mineral resource boom by diversifying their livelihoods to include informal mining. In South East Asia, the growth of informal mining has occurred within the overall process of agrarian transition. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich valley in southern Laos to highlight the location-specific nature of such transitions. The valley's environmental transformation has both caused and accompanied a modification in the peasant ways of life, and the recent entry of transnational mining companies and the growing market price of tin have fundamentally altered the relationships of the peasants with place, while at the same time encouraging them to claim mineral resource rights in ways that are not accommodated in conventional mining legislation. To conclude, the paper notes the multiple interpretations and contradictions of the increasing mineral dependence among Lao peasants in a rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a geographical perspective to understand the conceptual and theoretical issues of resort morphology. Resort morphology refers to “the forms and associated functions of a destination area and their development”. Resort towns are differentiated from other urban areas in terms of morphology because of their functional emphasis on tourism. The literature reflects the significant interest of European geographers in the morphological study of coastal resort towns. However, limited attention has been given to resort morphology in developing countries, including those in Asia. It is argued that the complex of contextual factors that influence the morphological character of resorts needs to be considered and, furthermore, there is a great need to develop a systematic approach for investigating resort morphology. Although the morphological approach to the study of resorts is transferable, it is likely that Asian morphologies will differ from their western counterparts because of their time, scale and pace of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the Chinese government’s ‘belt and road’ initiative – the Silk Roads vision of land and maritime logistics and communications networks connecting Asia, Europe and Africa – has its roots in sub-national ideas and practices, and that it reflects their elevation to the national level more than the creation of substantially new policy content. Further, the spatial paradigms inherent in the Silk Roads vision reveal the reproduction of capitalist developmental ideas expressed particularly in the form of networks, which themselves have become a feature of contemporary global political economy. In other words, the Silk Roads vision is more of a ‘spatial fix’ than a geopolitical manoeuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In an attempt to resolve the existing controversy about the cause and effect relation- ship between external debt and economic slowdown, Granger causality tests are conducted with data on indebted developing countries of Asia and Pacific. The results of these tests indicate that the Bulow--Rogoff proposition that the external debts of developing countries are a symptom rather than a cause of economic slowdown is rejected. They also indicate that the Dornbusch--Krugman proposition that external debt leads to economic slowdown is also rejected. Moreover, a feedback-type relationship is not rejected for two countries. In view of the mixed results, this paper also estimates the nexus of inter-relationships between public and private external debt accumulation, capital accumulation and production within a simultaneous equation system. The estimation results indicate that the full effects of the public and private external debts on GNP are small and of an opposite sign, whereas an increase in the GNP level raises substantially the public and private external debts. These findings support Bulow--Rogoff's proposition that the external debts of developing countries are not a primary cause of economic slowdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is the intent of this paper to re-examine the export-led hypothesis using a causality technique recently proposed by White (1980). The test is applied on time-series data over the period 1955-82 in the case of the 'growth miracle' countries of Asia (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan) which are commonly referred to as the newly industrializing countries (NICs) in Asia. These countries, in particular, were selected here because they provide a good case study with which to assess the role of exports in the economic development process.[1] Several authors, for example, Lin (1973) and Findlay (1984), have stated that the success of these Asian countries gave birth to the export-led growth hypothesis in the first place. It is thus interesting to subject this hypothesis to empirical testing against time-series data from the NICs' economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing country debt has been a major preoccupation for development policy makers and practitioners since the debt crisis of 1982. It is a major obstacle to economic and social progress in developing countries. After the resolution of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the debt relief initiatives for low-income countries of 1997–2006 concerns about developing country debt seem to have receded. However, there are a growing number of problems that warrant concern, including the accumulation of domestic debt, short-term debt and private non-guaranteed debt, and increasing recourse by low-income countries to international capital markets. At the same time developing countries have strengthened their capacity to oversee and analyse their debt portfolios. Nonetheless, significant weaknesses remain in debt management capacity at the national level. Moreover, the activities of ‘vulture funds’ and the lack of a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism reveal major shortcomings in the international institutional architecture that need to be addressed urgently. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]