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International migration to developing countries has attracted increasing attention because of its growing volume in absolute terms and its potential contribution to development. However, conclusions about what is happening in these countries depend crucially on the way migration and development are measured and analysed. This article shows that whether migrant stocks appear to be increasing or decreasing in developing countries depends on three factors: whether a regional or an economic criterion of "development" is used, whether volume is expressed in absolute numbers or as a percentage of total population, and whether the data include refugees and asylum seekers. The policy implications of these findings, which – due to the shortcomings of available data – can only be regarded as provisional, are then discussed. Better quality migration data and analysis informed by the limitations of the data are needed to provide a sound evidence base for current debates about migration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donor agencies and foundations use grants to stimulate entrepreneurial growth in developing countries. However, some practitioners have asked whether these grants tend to flow to expatriate entrepreneurs with ties to developed countries (where most grants originate), rather than to local entrepreneurs. This article tackles this question using a data set of 3,434 nascent ventures from 92 developing countries. The authors find that ventures with ties to a developed country are significantly more likely to raise grant financing and in more substantial amounts. Ventures with a founder born in a developed country are the most likely to receive grants, with a weaker effect when considering prior work experience in a developed country. This "expat gap" cannot be explained by differences in education level, prior experience, or ties to other developing countries. Donors seeking to support local entrepreneurs in developing countries should consider ways to make their recruitment and selection processes more equitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the economic development of Turkey from a comparative global perspective. With the help of GDP per capita and other series, it shows that Turkey's record in economic growth and human development since 1820 has been close to world averages and a little above developing country averages. The early focus of the article is on the proximate causes—average rates of investment, below‐average rates of schooling, low rates of total productivity growth, and low technology content of production—which provide important insights into why GDP per capita increases were not any higher. For the deeper causes, the article emphasizes the role of institutions and institutional change. Turkey's formal economic institutions had been influenced by international rules since the nineteenth century, and these rules did not always support economic development. Turkey's elites also made extensive changes in formal political and economic institutions. Formal institutions were only part of the story, however. The direction of institutional change also depended on the political order and the degree of understanding between different groups and their elites. When the political system could not manage the recurring tensions and cleavages between the different elites, economic outcomes suffered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remittances have become an important source of external finance in many developing countries. This article examines the relationship between remittances, institutions and economic growth in a panel of 26 African countries over the period 1980–2014. We apply the fixed effects (FE) and the two‐step system generalized method‐of‐moments (GMM) estimation methods. Our results show that there is a positive relationship between remittances and growth. We also find that institutions are an important determinant of economic growth. The interaction terms have a positive and statistically significant effect on economic growth. Thus, the growth effect of remittances is enhanced in the presence of strong institutions. Strong institutions are therefore germane in attracting greater remittance inflows to African countries. A clearer understanding of the channels through which remittance flows will enhance growth in African economies may assist policymakers to craft appropriate policies. In particular, a policy environment that promotes strong institutions would serve to attract more remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries with more secure property rights, firms might allocate resources better and consequentially grow faster as the returns on different types of assets are more protected against competitor's actions. Using data on sectoral value added for a large number of countries, we find evidence consistent with better property rights leading to higher growth through improved asset allocation. Quantitatively, the growth effect is as large as that of improved access to financing due to greater financial development. Our results are robust using various samples and specifications, including controlling for growth opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that the limited financial development of emerging markets is a significant factor behind the large share of dollar-denominated external debt present in these markets. We show that when financial constraints affect borrowing and lending between domestic agents, agents undervalue insuring against an exchange rate depreciation. Since more of this insurance is present when external debt is denominated in domestic currency rather than in dollars, this result implies that domestic agents choose excessive dollar debt. We also show that limited financial development reduces the incentives for foreign lenders to enter emerging markets. The retarded entry reinforces the underinsurance problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses three main issues: why there is such a huge diversity of disposable income inequality across the world, why there is such a deterioration of market inequality among countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and why inequality seems to move in 'waves'. There are many underlying questions: does diversity reflect a variety of fundamentals, or a multiplicity of power structures and choice? Is rising market inequality the product of somehow 'exogenous' factors (e.g., r>g), or of complex interactions between political settlements and market failures? How do we get through the veils obscuring these interactions and distorting our vision of the often self‐constructed nature of inequality? Has neoliberal globalization broadened the scope for 'distributional failures' by, for example, triggering a process of 'reverse catching‐up' in the OECD, so that highly unequal middle‐income countries like those in Latin America now embody the shape of things to come? Are we all converging towards features such as mobile élites creaming off the rewards of economic growth, and 'magic realist' politics that lack self‐respect if not originality? Should I say, 'Welcome to the Third World'? In this paper I also develop a new approach for examining and measuring inequality (distance from distributive targets), and a new concept of 'distributional waves'. The article concludes that, to understand current distributive dynamics, what matters is to comprehend the forces determining the share of the rich — and, in terms of growth, what they choose to do with it (and how they are allowed do it). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While women's share of employment has risen in many countries over the last two decades, gender job segregation has worsened, with women increasingly excluded from 'good' jobs in the industrial sector. In this article, the determinants of gender job segregation are assessed using panel data for a broad set of developing countries covering the period 1991–2015. The effect of gender job segregation on all workers, via the labour share of income, is also analysed. The results identify two major contributors to gender job segregation — the rising capital/labour ratio and the ratio of female/male labour force participation rates — indicative of 'crowding' and exclusion as economies move up the industrial ladder. The analysis further indicates that the crowding of women into lower quality jobs has a negative effect on workers as a whole by dampening the labour share of income. Those processes are influenced by global and macroeconomic conditions and policies that have circumscribed the expansion of high‐quality jobs relative to labour supply, intensifying competition for 'good' jobs and weakening labour's bargaining power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional integration in Asia has been considerably enhanced over the past 20 years or so. Whether integration helps Asian countries reduce their vulnerability to external shocks or is a channel for spreading external shocks remains an open question. This paper assesses the spillovers from US monetary policy shocks to Asian countries while taking into account country‐specific characteristics in explaining differences in timing and magnitude of responses across Asian countries. The results indicate that policy interest rates in Asian countries generally respond to innovations in the Fed rate in the same direction, but typically with a lag of one quarter. However, the size of the responses varies across Asian countries with respect to country‐specific characteristics. These results suggest that an independent monetary policy may not be feasible for an Asian developing country that adopts a pegged rate regime while being extensively integrated into the world economy. However, the hypothesis of the impossible trinity may not be relevant in the case of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all economically disadvantaged—"less developed" or "lagging"—regions are the same. They are, however, often bundled together for the purposes of innovation policy design and implementation. This paper attempts to determine whether such bundling is warranted by conducting a regional level investigation for Canada, the United States, on the one hand, and Europe, on the other, to (a) identify the structural and socioeconomic factors that drive patenting in the less developed regions of North America and Europe, respectively; and (b) explore how these factors differ between the two contexts. The empirical analysis, estimated using a mixed‐model approach, reveals that, while there are similarities between the drivers of innovation in North America's and Europe's lagging regions, a number of important differences between the two continents prevail. The analysis also indicates that the territorial processes of innovation in North America's and Europe's less developed regions are more similar to those of their more developed counterparts than to one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To prepare an answer to the question of how a developing country can attract foreign direct investment (FDI), this paper explored the factors and policies that may help bring FDI into a developing country by utilising an extended version of the knowledge‐capital model. With a special focus on the effects of a free trade agreement (FTA) or an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between a pair of market and non‐market countries, simulations with the model revealed the following: (i) although FTA/EPA generally tends to increase FDI to a developing country, the possibility of improving welfare through increased demand for skilled and unskilled labour decreases as the size of the country grows; (ii) a developing country may suffer severe welfare losses through FTA/EPA if the availability of skilled labour is extremely limited; and (iii) a developing country can enhance welfare gains from a FTA, and it is even possible to recover the welfare effects from negative to positive, by making the arrangement an EPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the debate on the premature deindustrialization of developing countries by analysing the contribution of services to aggregate productivity and output growth within a Kaldorian framework. The article revisits Kaldor's Growth Laws and empirically tests them for a number of economic activities, including four service branches across 29 developing economies in Asia, Latin America and sub‐Saharan Africa over three decades (1975–2005). Panel data estimations are complemented by a shift‐share decomposition of labour productivity growth. The findings support the Kaldorian argument for both manufacturing and business services' contribution to aggregate productivity growth. Conversely, other services slow down aggregate productivity and output growth. The authors suggest qualifying and repositioning the debate on premature deindustrialization within a broader reflection on the opportunities for development linked to structural change. The analysis claims that these opportunities might include not only manufacturing sectors, but also business services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, agriculture has come to be seen as increasingly irrelevant to processes of industrialization and economic development in the Global South. The integration of developing economies into global capitalism and the continued advance of structural transformation would seem to indicate that there is no longer a classic “agrarian question” in the developing world. In other words, agriculture is no longer a major barrier to capitalist development in these countries. However, there is reason to doubt this growing consensus. This article argues for a rethinking of the agrarian question in the Global South and presents evidence that capitalist property relations have not penetrated agriculture throughout much of the developing world. Contrary to recent trends in the literature, I argue that not only is there still an agrarian question in the Global South but also that it remains central to explaining lower levels of industrialization in these countries and, thereby, their relative underdevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explains a technique for determining which developing countries have creditworthiness and which are likely to reschedule their debt by using historical precedent and a credit-scoring rule that classifies all observations as good risks. Other factors in the forecasting method include the individual country's per capita income and debt service ratio in its credit rating. The precedent-based approach reduces the error rate for predicting good risks. The ten explanatory variables, or debt-related characteristics, which are indicators of debt repayment prospects include the annual inflation rate, international reserves, and gross domestic product. The debt scores are given for 49 countries, which were calculated from 90 observations during the 1960 through 1975 period.

MNC-Third World business undertakings have often faced disappointing results. Partly because of this, the environmental forces in the developing nations have become more constraint-ridden for the operation of multinational firms. In this article, proposals are made on how the results of business co-operation between MNCs and Third World regions may be improved by attempting to structure appropriate linkages among product/market choices, types of business agreements and generic strategy considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several sets of results have been obtained which show the superiority of multinational diversification within an IU over investment in single countries, even if the portfolios are constrained to consist of equal proportions of stocks from each country. Although all the results reflect the difficulties of examining historical data to estimate future outcomes, their general agreement and consistency over time support the inference that an IU would result in considerable gains. The results of the multivariate analysis are especially important since they show that (1) substantial gains are likely to result from a wide range of investment strategies and that (2) the results are substantially the same for different time periods and can therefore be taken as predictions of the future with some confidence if interpreted in a general manner. The four countries chosen for this study probably do not form a viable grouping for an IU. However, the sample is sufficiently representative to show that, contrary to a common assumption, a great deal of diversification can take place among developing countries in a single geographical area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion of Arthur I. Bloomfield's research paper on a survey of central banking in developing countries. The reviewer said that his research was lucid and comprehensive and the author is in general agreement with Bloomfield on the various issues he discusses. The author adds to Bloomfield's paper by describing the various steps taken by the monetary authorities in India in the late 1940s and throughout most of the 1950s. The steps were taken to strengthen the banking and credit system.

The article focuses on some of the problems developing countries face as it pertains to central banking. This study will briefly survey the role, problems, and the latency of central banks in developing countries, with some discussion of the methodology and techniques of monetary policy that have been utilized. In order to keep the paper's content manageable, no attention will be given to foreign exchange and payment policies, although these are taken care of by the central bank and are a significant aspect of monetary theory.

The article focuses on the impact of deficit financing in developing countries. Deficit financing will be defined as a net increase in the supply of money in circulation, with such an increase resulting from a government policy designed to encourage economic development. Nations that qualify for the developing countries category are considered to have low per capita outputs and incomes, a slow increase in productive efficiency, and a low level of industrialization. The purpose of deficit financing is to cause rapid economic development, which by default would quickly change the economic structure.

The article examines financial problems in underdeveloped countries and various conflicts associated with financing development programs in these regions. Developing an economy is more complex than simply incorporating a few businesses using modern methods of production. If economic development is to be meaningful, it must also have a change in attitudes towards production, consumption, saving and investment. Economic development needs social values that encourage business and technological innovations, while simultaneously causing expansion and growth. The author states that a major conflict for improved development is sociological.

Abstract: Smallholder farmers in developing countries face a competitive disadvantage in modern agricultural supply chains. Joint marketing through cooperatives is a potential tool to mitigate these disadvantages; yet cooperatives’ success in these settings is uneven at best. We develop an analytical model to study a farmer's choice of selling to a private trader who pays cash on delivery but may exercise market power or a cooperative that promises a price premium but delays payment and carries a concomitant risk of default. In the presence of impatient and risk‐averse farmers, we show that these factors can severely limit smallholder patronage of a cooperative, despite a promised price premium. We then construct and parameterize a simulation model to fit a profile of heterogeneous farmers within a prototype developing‐country village, and study the optimal decisions of farmers regarding marketing through a cooperative versus a private trader. Results suggest that modest improvements in either timeliness of payment or probability of default can induce a substantial increase in a cooperative's market share and economic viability. Extending the simulation analysis to a dynamic setting shows how implementing reasonable policies to improve a cooperative's payment timeliness and default probability can markedly improve its growth trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article presents a pilot and baseline African Green Growth Index (AGGI). The work is premised on the importance of Africa implementing green growth strategies. Baseline indicators allow countries to monitor progress towards green growth transition. The AGGI incorporates 48 indicators applied to 22 countries that had the requisite data. What emerges is that 18 out of the 22 African countries sampled scored 50 percentage points and above. The countries scoring below this threshold were: Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa. The top five countries on the AGGI (as ranked from 1−5) were: Namibia, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania and Togo. The authors recommend that for wider acceptance across the continent, the AGGI should work towards incorporating all 54 nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are markets in developing and transition economies overregulated or under-regulated? This is a perennial question in the development discourse, but one for which answers appear to come more from preset ideology than from context- specific analysis and evidence. These issues become even more pressing when the debate turns to the links between regulation, deregulation and inequality. The recent experience of rising inequality in many countries has also brought to the fore predictable policy positions. A key aspect of labor regulation in developing countries, and one becoming more prominent in the era of rising inequality, is the minimum wage. The range of issues around regulation, minimum wage and informality was addressed by papers presented to a conference held in New Delhi on December 17-18, 2014. The conference was co-sponsored by the World Bank, UK Department for International Development, Cornell University and Columbia University. The organizers of the conference were Kaushik Basu, Stefan Dercon, Ravi Kanbur and Jan Svejnar. A selection of papers from the conference which passed the usual review procedures of the Review of Development Economics, and a further selection of papers from those submitted to the journal, form this symposium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the seminal work by W. A. Lewis, exports of primary products have been deemed the main or sole source of growth in tropical countries before the Great Depression. However, this conventional wisdom relies on very limited evidence. This article analyses the growth of exports with a constant market share analysis for 84 tropical polities. Exports grew a lot, but less than total trade, while relative prices of tropical products remained roughly constant. We thus tentatively infer that the decline in the tropical shares of world trade reflects an insufficient demand for tropical products. Asia dealt well with these headwinds throughout the whole period, while African polities blossomed after the First World War. The loser was (South) America, and most notably the Caribbean former slave colonies, especially before 1870. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "Wealth of Nations," by Adam Smith is presented. Topics discussed include how Smith acknowledged labor implications of the expansion of developing nations into manufacturing and commerce, factors associated with population structures such as fertility and mortality, and potential reasons behind the stagnation of agricultural societies.

This paper re-examines the relationship between inflation and economic growth in developing countries. Both the theoretical and the empirical literature are extremely divided on this issue. We apply a relatively new empirical technique - the continuous wavelet transform - to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is of interest because of its remarkable economic growth and poverty reduction during the last 30 years in combination with, for a developing country, a controlled inflation. The wavelet analysis is a contribution because it displays how the correlation and the lead-lag structure between variables change over timescales, taking into account that growth and inflation can follow several different cycles. Comovements between variables are generally studied in the time domain. Results from studies in the time-domain study can be sensitive to the frequency of observations. On the other hand, studies in the frequency domain are not easily translated into time domains that can be associated with economic policies. The wavelet methodology finds a balance between time and frequency domains. Our study finds that growth Granger causes inflation at all frequency scales, starting from the short run to the very long run. Inflation, on the other hand, Granger causes growth in the long run but not in the short run. This result has implications for Bangladesh, and as such for similar developing countries, where some policymakers believe that inflation must be kept at very low levels for sustained economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies relating ageing and countries' economic performance address mostly developed economies. However, extant studies demonstrate that less developed countries ( LDC) and emerging economies ( EE) are reaching the transition process faster than those from developed regions, which renders the speed of ageing, besides ageing, a critical variable to explore in this context. Comparing system dynamic panel data estimations for 40 LDC, 19 EE and 28 developed countries ( DC), between 1990 and 2013, we uncovered that ageing is detrimental to countries' economic growth, with noticeable nuances depending on countries' development level. The current level of ageing significantly and negatively impacts on DC's growth but not on that of LDC or EE. For these latter groups, the most relevant issue is the speed of ageing. The current annual growth of old age dependency ratio significantly diminishes EE's growth prospects whereas the lagged annual growth of the ageing index and the old age dependency ratio significantly curtails LDC's growth. Such results emphasize the need for urgent public policies that might mitigate the imbalance in LDCs' age structure before the speed of ageing leads LDCs to become even much poorer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how a country's degree of economic development affects the impact of banking crises on international trade. To this end, we estimate a gravity model of trade using a sample of 139 countries over the period 1975-2012. Our results show that middle income countries are generally the most negatively affected. In contrast, financial turmoil appears to have less impact on bilateral trade flows among high income countries and, more specially, among low income nations. The level of financial development, contract enforcement, as well as the extent of the use of banking credit within international trade all help to explain our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which trade barrier related to intermediate inputs forms a greater burden on the export performance of firms in developing countries? Using aggregated cross-country firm-level data covering 43 mostly developing economies, this paper estimates the marginal importance of the impact of various intermediate input trade cost barriers, namely tariffs, non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and services barriers, on firms' export behavior. In a cross-sectoral setting, this paper takes the firm's export performance in goods as a central focus to study the effects of these different trade barriers through the exporting firm's choice of use of intermediate inputs. The results show that the most significant trade barriers on inputs that impede export performance in developing countries are mainly NTBs and restrictions of services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the size of real exchange rate (RER) misalignment in seven developing Asian counties and Japan. An analytical framework is developed to estimate the equilibrium RERs, which are then used to derive the RER misalignments. The estimation results from the model indicate that RERs have been misaligned in most of the Asian countries during the sample period, although not to the extent claimed in some studies. The real exchange behaviour in these countries is mostly consistent with the economic fundamentals and the magnitude of measured RER misalignment is not alarming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A transnational feminist policy analysis of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act: Noyori-Corbett C., Moxley D.P. A transnational feminist policy analysis of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act Although originally the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) sought to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, and prevent trafficking, the most essential aim of the act involving prevention, especially in victims' countries of origin, has not been dominant in combating trafficking. The authors used a transnational feminist framework of policy analysis to reveal the TVPA's limitations in addressing the diminished status of poor women in the developing world. Using five key questions emanating from transnational feminism, the authors illuminate the extent to which the act is unresponsive to the economic realities that make women in developing countries vulnerable to human trafficking. Based on their analysis, the authors offer considerations for the future re-authorization of the Act, emphasizing a shift from a paradigm involving the criminalization of victims to one embodying prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed countries face the risk of a sustained lack of aggregate demand, that is, secular stagnation. Demand‐oriented growth models emphasising the balance‐of‐payments constraint raise concerns about attendant adverse growth impacts on developing countries from reduced export growth. These concerns are well‐founded, albeit less serious than the simplest versions of these models would imply. Relaxing their assumptions and emphasising cumulative causation forces from domestic‐demand growth and relative price effects indicates how developing countries can combine export and domestic‐demand based strategies and how changed policies can maintain rapid growth while reducing the income elasticity of import demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilateral investment treaties ( BITs) are legal instruments used by developing and transition countries to provide investor protection and, by extension, promote higher levels of inward foreign direct investment ( FDI). While the link between BITs and FDI has been extensively studied, little is known about the impact of the treaties on different forms of investment. Motivated by this observation, we examine the effects of BITs on vertical and horizontal FDI. We find that BITs are more positively related to vertical than to horizontal FDI. We also find that BITs tend to act as stronger substitutes for better institutions in the case of vertical relative to horizontal investments. The findings inform BIT strategies that are compatible with development objectives in developing and transition countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that oil prices impact food prices in developing countries. Yet rigorous evidence on this relationship is scarce. Using maize and petrol price data from east Africa, we show that global oil prices do affect food prices but primarily through transport costs, rather than through biofuel or production cost channels. We find that global oil prices transmit much more rapidly to the pump and then to local maize prices than do global maize prices, suggesting that the immediate effects of correlated commodity price shocks on local food prices are driven more by transport costs than by the prices of the grains themselves. Furthermore, we present suggestive evidence that, for markets furthest inland, changes in world oil prices have larger effects on local maize prices than do changes in world maize prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the life cycle energy consumption, emissions, and environmental impacts of flat plate and evacuated tube domestic solar hot water system manufactured and used in Thailand. The results presented in this article show that the life cycle energy consumption for the flat plate system is 5% lower than that of evacuated tube system. The application of flat plate system is useful over evacuated tube system for 8 out of 12 emissions are examined. The global warming potential is 3% lower for the flat plate system than that of evacuated tube system. The average reduction of energy consumption and environmental impact by reusing materials are 65 and 50%, respectively for the flat plate and evacuated tube system. A comparative study with other systems available in the literatures based on few performance indicators shows that the energetic and environmental performance of domestic solar hot water system in Thailand is quite attractive. This article is useful to enhance the local production in line with energy and environmental sustainability in home and Asian neighboring countries. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 271-283, 2016 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars debate whether states or markets drive economic policy in the context of internationalization. Unpacking the market-state dichotomy, liberal pluralists and institutionalists alike conduct sectoral analysis to examine economic policies and outcomes. They debate the relative importance of sectors versus factors and the impact of sectoral coalitions, structural characteristics, and institutional trajectories. Building on previous scholarship, this article argues that state imperatives, such as national security and technological advancement, are an important guide to understanding dominant patterns of economic policy, defined as state goals, government-business relations, and state methods. Beyond that, the organization of institutions and structural sectoral attributes influence the ways in which actual policy outcomes vary across sectors and time. Case studies of the liberalization and subsequent reregulation of foreign direct investment across subsectors of telecommunications in China substantiate this argument. Evidence from other industries further validates this explanatory model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of remittances on bank credit in developing countries. Understanding this link is important in view of the growing relevance of remittances as a source of external finance and of the beneficial impact that financial intermediation is likely to have on economic growth. Our contribution is twofold. First, we present a theoretical model of bank credit in a hypothetical remittances-receiving country where: (1) the banking sector is imperfectly competitive; and (2) bank rates change infrequently because of the presence of adjustment costs. We show that in equilibrium, the relationship between remittances and bank-credit is likely to be non-linear. Second, we look at the evidence using a panel data set for a large group of developing and emerging economies over the period 1970-2009. We find that at initially low levels of remittances, an increase in remittances reduces the volume of credit extended by banks. However, at sufficiently high levels of remittances, the effect becomes positive. The turning point of the relationship occurs at a level of remittances of about 2.5% of GDP, which would imply that approximately 50% of our sample lies to each side of this threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sandwiched between India in the south, east and west and the People's Republic of China in the north, Nepal is a small landlocked developing country. Its trade policy autonomy is constrained by land-lockedness and open border with India. Despite opening up the economy, it has not fully benefited from openness, perhaps partly due to poor governance and partly due to transit and customs-related problems. Although these are crucial issues for trade competitive, The Trade Policy Review of Nepal 2012 ( TPRN-2012) is either very polite or lacks a comprehensive analysis on most of these. Since transit-related costs faced by landlocked developing countries can be substantial, just evaluating the progress made in liberalising tariffs and nontariff barriers can provide a distorted picture of the overall business climate. The future WTO review reports on these countries should have a separate section on transit-related issues to contribute to policy debate on the problems of landlocked developing countries. Despite this, the publication of TPRN-2012 is very timely given the emphasis placed in the current policy debate in the WTO and other international forums on the problems of landlocked developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the debate on the role of agriculture in promoting economic growth in a selection of nine developing countries. We investigated the causal linkages between agriculture and gross domestic product growth with the aid of directed acyclic graphs, a recently developed algorithm of inductive causation. The results suggest that while agriculture could be an engine of economic growth, the impact varies across countries. In some cases, we found strong evidence in support of the agriculture-led growth hypothesis. In contrast, the results for some other countries indicate that having a vibrant aggregate economy is a prerequisite for agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is widespread evidence that pro-cyclical fiscal policies have been prevalent in developing countries and often in some industrial nations. It is therefore surprising that, in contrast to the wealth of studies on the sources of pro-cyclical policy, potential consequences of such seemingly suboptimal policies have been largely ignored in the existing literature. By utilising a comprehensive set of indicators from 114 countries for 1950-2010, we aim to address the following important question: does it matter whether a country adopts a pro-cyclical fiscal policy stance rather than a counter-cyclical one? Our results produce a resounding 'yes' to this question. We find that fiscally pro-cyclical countries have lower rates of economic growth, higher rates of output volatility and higher rates of inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the cross-country dispersion in fiscal outcomes during 2008-09. Controlling for output, we find that the declines in the overall and structural fiscal balances were larger for those countries experiencing larger increases in unemployment and where credit growth during the pre-crisis period was more rapid. However, controlling for output and unemployment, there is no systematic covariation between fiscal outcomes and a wider range of initial conditions and country characteristics that have been cited as possible drivers of fiscal outcomes during this episode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective One relatively neglected question raised by Amartya Sen's theory of human development is: Why do people and societies differ in their capacity to convert income and commodities into valuable human achievements ('functionings' in Sen's terminology)? I focus upon the degree to which people in developed and developing societies realize each of the six diverse types of valued functionings: long life, schooling, living in a society with less income inequality and less gender inequality, more political freedom, and greater life satisfaction. Methods Using data from all societies with a population of over 1 million ( N = 156), I first regress each type of functioning on societies' GDP per capita to obtain the residual scores. These scores indicate which societies do better than expected, as expected, or worse than expected on the basis of their level of economic development. Results and Conclusion To explain these differences, I then estimate an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model whose independent variables are economic growth rate, ethnolinguistic fractionalization, civil war fatalities, corruption, and several dummy variables for cultural regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One often-highlighted contemporary phenomenon in the pharmaceuticals industry is the use of 'tiered pricing', where essential medicines are sold more cheaply in low-income than high-income countries to widen access. With economists having for decades championed the applicability of such pricing to pharmaceuticals, this could be interpreted as a textbook case of 'economic performativity'-the economic world increasingly conforming to economic models. In reality, however, tiered pharmaceutical pricing remains rare. Yet this article nonetheless urges retention of the performativity concept, albeit suitably reworked. For, insofar as the industry demonstrates nominal commitment to the model and to the social principles associated with it, it performs valuable political work. Moreover, it does help perform the pharmaceutical economy, by reproducing it in its existing form: repeatedly questioning the model's workability, Western manufacturers are able to continue to avoid putting it widely into practice and, in the process, jeopardizing the profits generated by conventional pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide some new empirical evidence on the determinants of volatility of real exchange rates in emerging countries, focusing on the role of international financial integration in particular. A reduced-form model is estimated using the generalised method of moments for dynamic panels over the period 1979–2004 for a sample of 39 developing countries grouped into three regions (Latin America, Asia and MENA). Our findings suggest that different types of shocks (external, real and monetary) can account for the volatility of real exchange rates in emerging economies, with international financial integration being a major driving force. Therefore, financial liberalisation and integration should be pursued only gradually in emerging countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the validity of the conventional wisdom that, unlike in developed countries, exchange rate pass-through ( ERPT) should be 'complete' for developing economies. To test this hypothesis, we construct new variables as well as original data sets, which are not readily available in the literature, and employ an alternative error correction model technique for a typical small open developing economy- Bangladesh. The transmission of exchange rate movements to import prices is found to be 'complete'; however, the 'second stage pass-through' is 'partial' both in the short and long run. The response of traded goods prices to exchange rate shocks is found to be significant and larger in the long run compared with the short run. Trade liberalization is also a significant phenomenon for ERPT. The analysis has wider applicability to other small open economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the issue of trade reforms confronting many African Caribbean and Pacific countries such as Fiji, which are set to lose their European Union sugar price subsidy at the end of 2007. It was found that attempts to offset the adverse impacts of the subsidy removal by targeting to improve the performance of any particular sector are counterproductive. Although the optimal policy for Fiji is a broad-based diversification of exports, it is further argued that small developing economies need to address supply-side constraints so that structural reforms can effectively sustain the economy's competitiveness in an increasingly globalised world economy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is frequently touted as the biggest development challenge that faces humanity. Such rhetoric may be distracting from other development challenges which need to be addressed simultaneously with climate change. This paper uses the case study of small island developing states ( SIDS) affected by climate change to explore how focusing on climate change can depoliticise the challenges that they face. Three linked points of depoliticisation through climate change are exemplified: emphasising the hazard, avoiding other long-term development challenges, and shifting focus away from opportunities for reducing vulnerability, including during community reconstruction. Examples cover scientific and policy discussions, from inside and external to SIDS. Links are made with migration narratives, especially learning from the past and the importance of not rebuilding communities with the same vulnerabilities as before. The fundamental challenge is not so much addressing the hazard of climate change per se, but why SIDS peoples often do not have the resources or options to address climate change and other development challenges themselves. In this regard, climate change brings little that is new to SIDS which continue to be marginalised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the trade competitiveness of the new emerging Southern economies - China, India, Brazil and South Africa ( CIBS) - with respect to their main global partners. Starting from the commonly held view that countries with trade patterns similar to those of emerging countries are likely to suffer losses, we propose a multidimensional approach based on cluster analysis, both crisp and fuzzy, as an alternative strategy for assessing similarity in global trade patterns. On the basis of key trade characteristics drawn from the diverse strands of trade theory, we assess the relative position of CIBS within global trade patterns and their evolution over time. Unlike previous studies, our results do not support the hypothesis of the presence of a competitiveness threat from Southern emerging countries towards the main industrialised economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent spikes in commodity prices, the growing appetite for primary commodities among emerging economies, growing interest in biofuels and speculations over future returns to land and its products have led to a renewed interest in farmland in the global South. With highly publicized risks and polarized 'win-lose' narratives, so-called 'land grabbing' has become an important focus of transnational governance activity. In juxtaposition to those seeing large-scale land acquisitions as inherently risky or undesirable, some argue for the potential opportunities they engender-provided risks can be mitigated through improved governance. This paper explores this argument through a systematic analysis of the formal features of the multi-sited governance mechanisms in place to guide agricultural investment and govern its social and environmental effects. The intent is not to discount the importance of informal norms and practices or the so-called 'lived experience of governance,' nor the argument that such land acquisitions are inherently flawed irrespective of the 'discipline imposed on them.' Rather, the paper aims to explore the merits of the arguments advanced by the pro-investment camp, and to explore the extent to which the emerging global governance architecture is set up to deliver on the purported benefits of large-scale agricultural investment. Results suggest that serious weaknesses in the substantive scope, reach and/or implementation mechanisms in all of the reviewed governance mechanisms pose a serious risk to the likely effectiveness of the emerging governance architecture in minimizing risks and leveraging benefits. Addressing these weaknesses is an obvious first step for bolstering the credibility of those advocating that governance is the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]