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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]

Summary Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), we examine data from developed and developing countries to estimate the “growth penalty” over 2003–11 when a country’s entrepreneurship deviates from its optimal level. We account for heterogeneity among countries in the optimal entrepreneurship rate, in the growth penalty from deviating from that optimum, and in other factors affecting growth. Notwithstanding that developing countries have more of their population running nascent small firms than in developed countries, a marginal increase in the entrepreneurship rate in developing countries has a positive effect on growth. On the contrary, in developed countries, there is no evident growth penalty. Supplemental results suggest that is because in developed countries as a whole, entrepreneurship is now close to its optimal level, whereas in developing countries the optimal rates of entrepreneurship are much higher. We also explore how the growth penalty varies with characteristics of the country, allowing us to test theories regarding the relationship between entrepreneurship and growth. We show that higher levels of R&D capability decrease the growth penalty of having too few entrepreneurs, suggesting that entrepreneurship and R&D are substitutes. Availability of venture capital also increases the growth penalty, but only in developing countries, where our data on venture capital best proxy its availability to start-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates why some developing countries maintain weak and undervalued exchange rates while others do not. I argue that one key feature of the ‘developmental state’ – namely, state control over the financial system – contributes to an undervalued exchange rate. However, state control of finance promotes undervaluation under a narrower set of conditions than most developmental state theories suggest. State-owned banks increase support for exchange rate undervaluation from certain interest groups. When those interest groups are politically important, state-owned banks encourage policymakers to undervalue their exchange rates. Two sets of empirical analyses support the argument. Using time-series – cross-sectional data, I show that state-owned banks are associated with undervalued exchange rates, but only in developing countries with large manufacturing sectors. Second, analyses of firm-level survey data reveal that state-owned banks increase the manufacturing sector's support for an undervalued exchange rate. These findings suggest that state institutions influence exchange rate policy, though their effects are contingent upon the configuration of interests in society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the convergence hypothesis of tourism markets in seasonal unit roots framework by taking account of seasonal behaviours of tourist arrivals’ differential series. We use the seasonal unit roots test for monthly data and we handle the case of Turkey’s 20 major markets for the examination of the validity of tourism convergence hypothesis. The data belong to the seasonally unadjusted tourist arrivals’ differential series and cover the period from January 1996 to December 2014. Tourism markets are found to be converging in the long run and in the months of January, March, April, May, July, September, and October. On the other hand, the present tourism market strategies for encouraging visitor arrivals are not so effective in the months of February, June, August, and November. So, the current marketing policies should be rehandled and strategies such as cheaper holiday packages should be revised to increase the number of convergent tourism markets for these months. These results should be taken into consideration by policy makers in planning the tourism market strategies to provide for a sustained growth in tourism industry because the tourism industry is one of the prominent catalysts for economic growth in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:Worldwide, acute respiratory infections (ARI) are the leading cause of death of children under 5 years of age. Aim:To assess the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goal on under-5 mortality particularly related to ARI in developing countries, and to explore the associations between country characteristics and ARI in children under 5 taking into account child, mother and household attributes. Methods:The study included a representative sample of 354,633 children under 5 years from 40 developing nations. A multilevel analysis of data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and the World Bank was conducted. Results:The prevalence of ARI was 13%. Country inequalities were associated with the disease – GINI index (95% CI 1.01–1.04). The country’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) (95% CI 1.00–1.01) and health expenditure (95% CI 1.01–1.01) affected the relationship between immunization and ARI, while inequalities influenced the relationship between household wealth (95% CI 0.99–0.99) and the disease. Other factors positively associated with ARI were male gender, low birthweight, working mothers and a high-risk indoor environment. Factors associated with ARI reduction were older children, immunization, breastfeeding for more than 6 months, older maternal age, maternal education and planned pregnancy. Conclusions:In developing countries, public health campaigns to target ARI should consider the country’s macro characteristics. At country level, inequalities but not health expenditure or GDP were associated with the disease and were independent of child, family and household characteristics. The effect of immunization on reducing ARI is greater in countries with a higher GDP and health expenditure. The effect of household wealth on ARI is less in countries with fewer inequalities. Reduction of inequalities is an important measure to decrease ARI in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy documents and academic literature suggest that Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) finance could complement traditional ‘energy access’ (EA) funding in developing countries, including the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Yet these propositions have not been empirically tested. This study helps fill this gap by examining constraints to CDM project passage through five stages of an idealized project development cycle (PDC) in Tanzania, and their implications for the ability of the CDM to contribute to financing energy access in LDCs. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews and documentary material were analysed using an analytical framework developed for systematic investigation of constraints. Institutional constraints such as the under-performance of Tanzania's Designated National Authority were the most often mentioned obstacles for project development. Yet non-institutional constraints such as limited energy sector mitigation potential, indigenous skill shortages, and low carbon market prices also hinder project development. Institutional constraints buttress, rather than supersede, pre-existing non-institutional constraints, and together they prevent energy projects from completing the PDC and accessing CDM finance. The number and severity of constraints suggest that the situation is unlikely to change rapidly, and that the CDM sustains and exacerbates existing global inequalities. Since traditional energy access funding is insufficient to address these inequalities, new funding and policy mechanisms are required. Policy relevance The CDM fails to fill the EA financing gap in Tanzania. This is also true for other LDCs where comparable project development challenges prevail. The CDM therefore appears to sustain uneven development patterns overlooking those most in need. Claims about its potential to enhance EA are misplaced, and the situation is unlikely to change rapidly. CDM and carbon market projects more widely will have limited ability to help financing EA in LDCs, even if the institutional setting within which they are implemented were reformed in the future. Yet traditional energy funding will be inadequate on its own. The debate over extending the CDM post-2017, when the second Kyoto Protocol commitment period expires, should be informed by honest appraisal of its merits and defects. Policy makers should revisit lessons provided by this article and wider research to help ensure that new EA mechanisms are not hampered by constraints and can benefit those most in need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay undertakes to depict, in broad strokes, the evolution, obstacles and main junctures in the history of South–South cooperation. It also suggests some practical and feasible ways for overcoming difficulties, ways that could infuse this aspect of international development cooperation with greater dynamism, more fully tap its inherent and growing potential for the attainment of the practical and systemic objectives that developing countries have for decades been striving for in the North–South development dialogue and negotiations, and strengthen these countries’ influence and role in world affairs and global governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary There is growing concern with the weaknesses of economic statistics relating to developing countries, and the risks that poor data have generated misleading research findings and poor policy advice. Cross-country tax data offer a striking example, with existing datasets frequently highly incomplete, analytically imprecise, plagued by errors, and sharply lacking in transparency. This paper introduces the new Government Revenue Dataset from the International Centre for Tax and Development, which provides a more reliable, transparent, and comprehensive basis for cross-national research. This new dataset has initially been used to re-examine major questions about the relationships between tax and aid, elections, economic growth, and democratization. The results deepen some previous conclusions and call others seriously into question—notably the assertion that aid dependence consistently undermines domestic revenue efforts. Above all, the research demonstrates the value of the new dataset, the broader sensitivity of many results to changes in data quality and coverage, and the consequent importance of expanded attention to, and investments in, data quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry clusters have outperformed in economic development in most developing countries. The contributions of industrial clusters have been recognized as promotion of regional business and the alleviation of economic and social costs. It is no doubt globalization is rendering clusters in accelerating the competitiveness of economic activities. In accordance, many ideas and concepts involve in illustrating evolution tendency, stimulating the clusters development, meanwhile, avoiding industrial clusters recession. The term chaos theory is introduced to explain inherent relationship of features within industry clusters. A preferred life cycle approach is proposed for industrial cluster recessive theory analysis. Lyapunov exponents and Wolf model are presented for chaotic identification and examination. A case study of Tianjin, China has verified the model effectiveness. The investigations indicate that the approaches outperform in explaining chaos properties in industrial clusters, which demonstrates industrial clusters evolution, solves empirical issues and generates corresponding strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I trace two aspects of the thought on the “Third World” in early modern China: how to understand the world revolution, and how to create a new China. While focusing on two trendy notions at that time, i.e. “Chinese revolution” (Zhongguo geming), and “nongcountry” (nongguo), I argue that the thought on the “Third World” in early modern China breaks free of the shackle of fashionable theories and draws upon local circumstances and China’s own repertoire of power when exploring an ideal of a new world. While the difficulty in confronting the “Third World” consciousness in today’s China is still overwhelming, the fact that we now remember “the spirit of Bandong” signals some progress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a study on the empirical comparative analysis of the benefits of trade liberalization across developing countries (DCs) and least developed countries (LDC) between 1980 and 2014. Topics include the distribution of gains from liberalization across DCs and LDCs, the economic consequences of trade liberalization using several key metrics including per capita income, gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and inflation-adjusted net per capita income, and the practical and theoritical implications of the study.

Following the onset of the Asian Financial Crisis the world has witnessed a re-accommodation of the global financial system. In the particular case of middle-income countries they have disentangled themselves from the conditionality of the IMF and grown into more assertive actors in international forums, proposing new alternative mechanisms to become more financially independent and for the provision of development assistance. This article critically reviews the new reality by assessing the strategies deployed by developing countries to reduce the IMF’s influence, and explores the potential consequences of the rise of middle-income nations for Law and Development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to the modern theories of economic development -- the take-off, backwardness, convergence and balanced growth hypothesis - the new industrialized states from Asia seem to have noticed the advantages of backwardness from which low income countries benefited, namely the possibility to take advantage of the latest technological discoveries of advanced countries, thus achieving a faster growth than the latter which operated closer to the technological border. The assimilation of appropriate technologies, however, required the efficient mobilization and allocation of resources and the improvement of human and physical capital. While the Western countries were confronted with crises generated by inflationary shocks and movements of speculative capital, the relative isolation of countries whose economy was planned by the world economy sheltered them until 1990, unemployment being practically non-existent. Asia's exceptional economic success is not only due to borrowing Western practices, but also to the fact that Asian societies maintained certain traditional features of their own culture - such as a strong work ethic - and integrated them in the modern business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of knowledge accumulation and technological progress is well recognised in the growth literature. However, the developing countries have limited capacity for innovation and they mostly benefit from imitation and knowledge spill-over from the developed countries. Studies emphasized on the role of human capital in imitation and technological catch-up process of the developing countries. For empirical analysis of the catch-up hypothesis, existing literature generally considered USA as the technological leader to which other countries tend to catch up. However, it remains an open question whether USA is the only candidate to be the technology leader. The paper re-examines the human capital based technological catch-up hypothesis exclusively for the developing countries with alternative possibilities of technological leader. Our study investigates for the potential technology leader by estimating a structural growth equation suggested by Benhabib and Spiegel (1994) using panel data from 75 developing countries. Considering the possibility of endogenetiy problem of capital accumulation, the paper used an instrumental variable technique for estimation. Our results show that when USA is used as global technological leader, or different single countries are used as technological leader of the developing countries in different regions, the estimated structural equations fail to find any positive role of technological catch up in economic growth of the developing countries. However, when OECD countries collectively, or major trading partner of developing countries with higher income are considered as technological leader, we find a strong evidence of technological catch up. The findings have few policy implications for developing countries. As group of developed countries can serve better as a technological leader in the catch-up process of the developing countries, the latter should extend economic relations with many developed countries instead of relying on economic ties with one or few countries. Moreover, trading with developed countries may be more beneficial for developing countries in terms of potential dynamic gains of trade as it exposes the country to higher level of technology and creates a scope for imitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under developing-economy circumstances of small and mainly informal firms and a few official corporate conglomerates, an investigation of the developmental role of banking in such economies might be pursued analytically within the context of a bilateral monopsony for loans. Assuming away wage differences and trade between formal and informal sectors, a model is presented in which one firm borrows from one bank with a positive supply curve of loans. The bank monitors firm's output, which firm produces output underground too, in order to avoid this monitoring and minimize its marginal expenditure on loans by defaulting. The model incorporates also a laborer-consumer who allocates labor between the formal and informal sectors in a way preserving full employment. In this model, the following results obtain: There cannot be underground only economy even in the absence of government national-accounting induced output monitoring once part at least of the output has to be monitored by the bank. The capital employed officially is always more than that underground. Bank monopoly power induces lexicographic preferences towards underground economy income. The stability of the system depends on the relative size of the official to total capital ratio and the response of loan demand to the interest rate. The introduction of government and indirect taxation alter the optimal official to total capital ratio. Yet, the steady-state and stability of the system remain unchanged under a tax financed balanced budget. Government borrowing by a rent-seeking government or to cope with tax-evasion induced budget deficits lowers lending to the firm and leads thereby the system to equilibrium away from steady-state; but tax evasion increases such lending towards steady-state restoration. It is clear that the approach to development leading to these conclusions focuses not on development per se but on how it is shaped based on overt and covert resources and capabilities financed by concentrated banking. The mentality underlying such an approach abides by Hirschman's (1965) view of development rather than macroeconomic growth. Policy-wise, international trade and foreign direct investment should be encouraging the official economy at the expense of the unofficial one. Also, government borrowing from abroad is expected to be sooner or later recessionary if the money is not channeled to public investment. Special attention should be paid to the design of trade liberalization towards (i) the implementation of non-inflationary government finance means compensating for the subsequent loss of tariffs, and (ii) discouraging the profit shifting by multinationals abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several types of savings device, both formal and informal, available for households in Cotonou, Benin. Different savings mechanisms have very different features; some are more flexible whilst others act as commitment devices to ensure sufficient saving. There is evidence in the literature for a demand for both such devices, though each have their shortcomings. For example, a high degree of device flexibility may result in low overall saving whilst membership of commitment savings products may be difficult to sustain in the face of shocks. In this paper we consider the membership sustainability of savings devices with different levels of flexibility. The devices chosen are those most widely used in Benin's largest city, Cotonou. Our sample covers both formal and informal saving: the formal device considered is a bank account whilst tontiniers and roscas are the informal savings products studied. Using survey data for the years 2004 and 2006, we analyze the stability over time of the use of each device in the face of health and funeral shocks. We estimate the impact of these shocks on the probability of membership in the second wave of the survey given use of this particular device in the first wave, controlling for individual and device-specific characteristics. Our analysis helps us to isolate threats to the sustainability of membership rather than using panel regressions to simply measure the determinants of membership over time. We conclude that devices that offer flexibility to their clients are more resilient in the face of unexpected shocks. Rosca membership appears to be the most affected by negative income shocks for this reason. Furthermore, shocks that can be anticipated may increase the membership sustainability of more flexible devices since members may seek to put more money aside to prepare for such occurrences. Our results indicate that device flexibility can aid the sustained use of savings mechanisms in developing country contexts. A move from informal to more flexible formal devices could benefit individuals with a very varied income stream by allowing them to smooth their income in the face of shocks and to accumulate more savings in the long term through sustained membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The BRIC grouping's outstanding growth before the 2008 crisis, coupled with China's ascension to becoming the second largest economy in the world, has been hailed as the evidence that the developing world could counterpoise the West's economic and political clout. Even so, the business press in the West has always dismissed the BRIC grouping as a composite entity of dissimilar economies. Hence its conclusion that Brazil, Russia, India, and China could not complement one another, let alone result in a whole bigger than its parts through collective actions beneficial to each of them. This claim regarding the BRIC grouping is what this paper puts to the test. The test consists of evaluating the impact on each BRIC country of the following collective policies: 1) trade diversion from G7 countries, 2) policy alignment with China's interest and exchange rates, and 3) creation of a common reserve arrangement. The impact on each BRIC country is determined through simulating the aforementioned policies within an econometric model (OEF model) of the global economy from 2000 to 2009. The OEF model has the features of a new Keynesian model in its modeling of OECD countries. Its modeling of developing countries captures the fact that those countries must minimize their country risk to attract external financing and lessen the cost of servicing their external debts. This paper's main finding is that there is a collective action benefiting all BRIC countries. This collective action is the creation of a common reserve arrangement predicated on the idea that BRIC countries should stop accumulating foreign reserves and spend a fraction of their future reserves to boost their public consumptions, enlarge their public investments, and pay down their public debts. The other collective actions fail the test of being beneficial to all BRIC countries. Trade diversion from G7 countries is suicidal: it would depress the level of activity in each and every BRIC country. Alignment with China's interest and exchange rates is incompatible with the interests of Brazil, Russia, and India due to its depressive effects. In March 2013, the BRIC heads of State decided to create a $100 billion contingency reserve arrangement (CRA). This CRA should be used as much as possible, if not ramped up, to address the current problems (slowing GDP growth in China and recession in Brazil) of BRIC countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is some empirical evidence showing that remittances, on average, were about 0.5 percent of GDP in countries with a corruption index higher than the median level, compared to 1.9 percent in countries with a level of corruption lower than the median. It is also arguable, that an improvement in economic institutions would facilitate economic freedom and in turn, reduce the costs of transactions associated with remittances in recipient countries. The quality of institutions in developing countries therefore, could be an important determinant of remittances, which are now considered an essential source of external finance in these countries. Thus, this paper explores the role of institutions in driving the flow of remittances to developing countries. The study uses a sample of 90 countries, and data from the World development Indicators (WDI) and Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) indicators databases. The paper estimates both static and dynamic representations of a reduced form model for the determinants of remittances. The static panel models are estimated using the fixed effects estimator, whereas the dynamic models, represented by autoregressive-distributed lag models, are estimated using a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator. The results show that an improvement in the quality of institutions in charge of the conduct of monetary policy has a positive impact on remittances, and that this impact increases with the quality of such institutions. The estimates also show that an improvement in the operations of institutions of government leads to an increase in the inflow of remittances, which suggests that a decrease in direct government control or participation in the private sector has positive impact on remittances. Sound monetary policy and an effective government are critical to economic freedom, and these results seem to suggest that migrants tend to send remittances in order take advantage of macroeconomic environments that are favorable to better economic performance. Furthermore, the findings provide evidence, albeit a weak one, which suggests that an improvement in the legal system and property rights may be associated with an increase in remittances, but that the effect is lower for countries with an index value greater than the median level. Ergo, to the extent that remittances have become an important source of external finance, policies promoting sound and accountable local institutions should be a priority for policy makers in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are social protections evolving in the developing world, particularly as those nations confront the challenges of globalization? Scholars in this special issue examine the challenges, continuity, and changes in social protections across the developing world over the last few decades. The common theme that emerges from this informative group of papers is that developing nations are confronting unique politico-economic difficulties as well as opportunities for the development of their welfare programs. This is a vastly understudied topic. The studies in this issue tackle some of the unanswered questions of the globalization–social protection debate in developing economies, with a particular focus on how politics plays into the relationship. These articles hope to initiate a dialogue and offer suggestions for further research in this critical area of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aspiration to upscale their activities in the global South, development aid agencies have a tendency to design and implement generic models. These are often associated with desired characteristics and principles, such as participation or inclusion of the poorest. However, in the dynamic environment in which models are implemented, the design characteristics and principles are mitigated, adapted or reinforced by context-specific socially embedded institutions through a process of bricolage. This process is driven and shaped by power relations and, as a consequence, development interventions tend to reproduce local power structures, and benefits derived from the projects are likely to be captured by elites to the detriment of others. Models thus carry the danger of reproducing and even increasing existing inequalities. Similarly, initial claims of participation or inclusion of the poorest often fail to materialize. We develop these arguments by focusing on the Water Users Association model in Lilongwe, Malawi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Although Budget Support (BS) was not designed to push political reform in recipient countries, donors have nonetheless used it to sanction democratic regress. An econometric analysis of all BS suspensions by bilateral donors in the period 2000–11 finds that suspensions effectively do reflect downward tendencies in voice and accountability, and in level of democratic functioning. The larger the in-country BS donor group, the more suspensions. Interestingly, ideological alignment between donor and recipient and aid dependence decrease the likelihood for suspensions, while domestic donor economic growth increases it; and multilateral suspensions have the largest positive effect of all. [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]

Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is one of the highly pathogenic viral diseases of poultry. The disease poses a serious threat to the economy of many developing countries where agriculture serves as the primary source of national income. Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) belongs to the family Birnaviridae . The IBDV is well characterized to cause immunosuppression in poultry. The live attenuated vaccine is the only way to protect the chickens from IBDV infection. The ineffectiveness of vaccine is one of the major causes of IBDV outbreaks in field condition. In the present study, we discuss briefly about the biology of IBDV genome and its proteins under different conditions of temperature and pH in order to evaluate its infectivity under adverse physical conditions. Our results indicate that the IBDV is non-infective above 42 °C and unstable above 72 °C. However, the change in pH does not significantly contribute to the IBDV stability. The study will be useful in estimating an optimum storage condition for IBDV vaccines without causing any deterioration in its viability and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the recent years illicit financial flows have attracted increasing attention from researchers and policy makers because of their negative effects on poor countries. In 2013 the mostly rich countries' OECD acknowledged illicit flows as an issue of 'central importance'. Since 2003, the Center for Global Development has been publishing the Commitment to Development Index (CDI) which ranks rich countries on their policies which affect poor countries. This paper rationalizes the inclusion of indicators of policies affecting illicit financial flows in the CDI, in addition to the previously included policies of aid, trade, migration, environment, security, technology and investment. It provides a survey of existing approaches to measuring illicit financial flows, discusses possible metrics which could be included in the CDI, evaluates how such indicators might be incorporated into the CDI, and proposes changes to current CDI indicators. The qualitative indicators of the Financial Secrecy Index emerge as the best contribution to the newly renamed and updated finance component of the CDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct an overlapping generation model with human capital accumulation to analyze the effect of human capital level on foreign direct investment (FDI) in a small open developing country. In particular, we assume that manufactured goods have the human capital intensive technology and young agents choose whether to work or to educate themselves. When the human capital level in the developing country is sufficiently small, manufactured goods firms do not conduct FDI and the economy in the developing country is trapped in poverty. If the government of the developing country levies a tariff on the imports of manufactured goods, manufacturers conduct FDI, and the economy in the developing country can escape from the poverty trap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores strategies to promote technological innovation among developing nations, which is considered an important source of competitiveness among BRICS nations. Topics discussed include opportunities associated with and the state of knowledge economy in Russia, developing countries' need to understand the significant dependence between gross domestic product (GDP) growth and research and development (R&D) spending and the state of R&D in Russia as of 2015.

This paper attempts to investigate the extent to which trade openness has had an impact on the levels of income and rates of growth in a sample of 115 developing countries for the period 1970–2009. Additionally, to assess whether there is an income level threshold for a country to benefit from international trade, the sample is broken down into three mutually exclusive groups of countries: low-income, lower middle-income, and upper middle-income countries. The main novelty of the paper lies on the use, on the one hand, of a new and better trade openness measure and, on the other hand, of non-stationary heterogeneous panel cointegration techniques to cope with the problem of cross-sectional dependence. The results show a positive bi-directional relationship between trade openness and income level in the long run, thus suggesting that trade openness is both a cause and a consequence of the level of income. The results for the short run, that is, the link between openness growth and economic growth, go in the same direction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using dynamic panel models with data for 62 developing countries, this paper examines whether growth in agriculture elicits growth in manufacturing. For identification, I use population-weighted, average temperature as an instrument for growth in agriculture, exploring exogenous variation in land yields. I find large short-run effects: a one-percentage point increase in growth in agriculture is estimated to raise growth in manufacturing by 0.47–0.56 percentage point (baseline), and 0.28–0.47 percentage point (conservative). Extensions of the empirical model suggest that growth in agriculture benefits the manufacturing sector by improving its domestic terms of trade, by increasing the share of investment and saving in GDP, and by increasing the capacity to import industrial inputs. Together, these findings lend support to the notion that agriculture plays key macroeconomic roles in the industrialization of developing countries by relieving saving, aggregate demand, fiscal, and foreign exchange constraints on the industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, manufacturing has functioned as the main engine of economic growth and development. However, recent research raises questions concerning the continued importance of the manufacturing sector for economic development. We re-examine the role of manufacturing as a driver of growth in developed and developing countries in the period 1950–2005. We find a moderate positive impact of manufacturing on growth. We also find interesting interaction effects of manufacturing with education and income gaps. In a comparison of the subperiods, it seems that since 1990, manufacturing is becoming a more difficult route to growth than before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International child sponsorship typically involves the pairing of an individual, identifiable child, or young adult in a developing country with an individual donor or sponsor in a relatively wealthy country. Regular payments by sponsors, accompanied by the exchange of personal information, characterise a fundraising phenomenon which currently links sponsors to more than eight million children globally. Although child sponsorship underpins a multi-billion dollar flow of funds to developing countries, its origins have become obscured by the passing of time, to the point where many international NGOs utilising it as a fundraising mechanism are unaware of the aims and context of its early use. This article argues that the pairing of individual children with international donors was initiated by the UK-based Save the Children Fund and the Society of Friends Relief Mission in post-First World War Austria in 1919. Unlike the long-term support that would characterise later programmes, early sponsorship funded the short-term assistance of children and avoided the creation of dependency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Economic performance in many emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) improved substantially over the past 20 years. In the past decade EMDEs spent more time in expansion and had smaller downturns than advanced economies for the first time. We document the history of EMDEs’ resilience over the past 60 years, and investigate what factors have been associated with it. We find that their improved performance since the 2000s is accounted for by both good policies and a lower incidence of external and domestic shocks—better policies account for about three-fifths of their improved resilience, while less frequent shocks account for the remainder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unique dataset on bilateral investment treaties provides a novel source of evidence on the link between neoliberal globalisation and market transition. We argue that postsocialist countries of Europe and Eurasia, more than other developing regions in the world, signed such treaties to signal demand for foreign investment in the spirit of neoliberalism. We calculated the density of the whole BIT network since its inception in 1959 to 2009, and density and centrality of different regional blocks within it, and found strong support for our argument. Yet, even if bilateral investment treaties are designed to promote foreign direct investment, dynamic panel regression models show that signing them does not automatically translate into foreign direct investment inflows for postsocialist European and Eurasian countries in the 1990–2010 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is of growing economical importance to many nations, in particular for developing countries. Although tourism is an important economic vehicle for the host country, its continued growth has led to on-going concerns about its environmental sustainability. Coastal and marine tourism can directly affect the environment through direct and indirect tourist activities. For these reasons tourism sector needs practical actions of sustainability. Several studies have shown how education minimizes the impact on and is proactive for, preserving the natural resources. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a citizen science program to improve the environmental education of the volunteers, by means of questionnaires provided to participants to a volunteer-based Red Sea coral reef monitoring program (STEproject). Fifteen multiple-choice questions evaluated the level of knowledge on the basic coral reef biology and ecology and the awareness on the impact of human behaviour on the environment. Volunteers filled in questionnaires twice, once at the beginning, before being involved in the project and again at the end of their stay, after several days participation in the program. We found that the participation in STEproject significantly increased both the knowledge of coral reef biology and ecology and the awareness of human behavioural impacts on the environment, but was more effective on the former. We also detected that tourists with a higher education level have a higher initial level of environmental education than less educated people and that the project was more effective on divers than snorkelers. This study has emphasized that citizen science projects have an important and effective educational value and has suggested that tourism and diving stakeholders should increase their commitment and efforts to these programs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1984, the Band Aid charity single was produced, followed by the Live Aid concert in 1985, to raise awareness and funds to alleviate poverty in Ethiopia and its surrounds. In 2005, Live 8 was organised to address the continued issue of poverty. Although this movement emanated from benevolent intentions, through the choice of the Band Aid song-lyrics, the images displayed, and the comments and decisions made regarding the concert events, the movement served tootherpeople from the global south. Thus, Band Aid and Live Aid/8 contributed to, and compounded, problematic truths which suggest that the global north is superior to the south. Such truths were also evident during the colonial period, and were promoted through exhibitions that advocated that people from the north were superior to colonial natives, and that colonialism was beneficial to the colonies, i.e., aiding the natives to improve themselves. Consequently, Band Aid, Live Aid/8 and colonial exhibitions all proclaimed to aid the people of the global south while advocating problematic truths. It is important to recognise that such truths endure, albeit evolved, as these truths continue to disempower countries in the global south, embedding the truth that the south is incapable of forging its own successful future without help from the north. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article begins by reflecting on how the geopolitical configuration outlined in Edward Said'sCulture and imperialism(1993) has been radically altered both by the decline of the US empire and, in conjunction with it, by what Jean and John Comaroff describe, in the subtitle ofTheory from the south(2012), as Euro-America's evolution toward Africa. From there, the article turns toViva Riva!(2010) andDistrict 9(2009), two films that appropriate the conventions of Hollywood blockbusters to produce cinematic narratives set in contemporary African urban landscapes which lend themselves to be viewed through the lens of recent theoretical debates on the becoming global of the south. These films’ gazes produce an image of African cities that is legible as a dystopic vision of the global future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Can regional monetary cooperation shield developing regions from global volatility? The article argues that the main contribution of regional monetary cooperation to enhancing the shock-buffering ability of its member countries is to provide short-term liquidity and to increase regional trade and financial links. In contrast, traditional optimum currency area (OCA) theories formulate the advantages of regional monetary cooperation in terms of allocative efficiency gains and aim at a full currency union as final stage. As such, traditional theory widely ignores the shock-buffering capacity of regional monetary cooperation as well as their varieties. In contrast, the article argues that intermediate stages of regional monetary cooperation have their own rationales related to such shock-buffering capacity. This paper systematically examines the variety of regional cooperation arrangements in the developing world that range from regional payments systems over the pooling of reserves to exchange rate coordination. We propose that the potential for shock buffering is dependent on the chosen form of cooperation. Furthermore, in contrast to full monetary integration, which is highly demanding in terms of policy coordination, the requirements for regional policy coordination are significantly lower, depending on the form and aim of the arrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Income and wealth inequalities in most countries - in the West, the former communist economies and in the developing world -have been on the rise in the last three decades with some notable exceptions. Inequalities in the nineteenth century were much higher than before the Industrial Revolution. Following the rise of workers' movements in the West and the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, the growth of inequalities in the previous century was reversed for over half a century until the 1980s as the threat of the spread of communism inspired welfarist and redistributive reforms, giving capitalism a more human face. Such checks and balances have been greatly weakened in recent decades, even though improved economic performance in many developing countries, including sub-Saharan Africa in the last decade, contributed to some convergence of incomes between rich and poor countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research finds that human rights treaties fail to improve domestic practices unless governments are held accountable in some fashion. The implication is that noncompliance can be attributed to insincere commitments and willful disobedience. I challenge this claim for a core but overlooked treaty: the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Few analysts have studied the ICESCR because its terms are difficult to implement and suitable measures for judging compliance are hard to find. I analyze its association with income inequality, using data for more than 100 countries (1981 to 2005) and methods that account for the possibility of reverse causality. ICESCR membership reduces inequality in both developed and developing countries, although the relationship is stronger for developed countries—precisely those with the greatest capacity to implement their obligations. Other key determinants of income inequality and treaty compliance—left partisanship, union density, workers’ rights, and democracy—do not systematically condition the effects of ICESCR membership. The ICESCR is therefore quite effective in reducing inequality, an outcome likely explained by renewed global attention to socioeconomic rights during the neoliberal era. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Developing countries devote significant resources to lowering consumer prices for basic goods and services such as food and electricity. Theories of the welfare state only partially elucidate why consumer subsidy regimes grow so large and become entrenched. While the welfare state literature stresses how concentrated, organized beneficiary groups push for the expansion and protection of well-known programs such as pensions, the developing world's consumers are atomized, and subsidies themselves are of low visibility. The size and durability of consumer subsidy regimes stem primarily from political uncertainty and price shocks that provide politicians with strong incentives to avoid blame for repeal. Over time, environmental pressures and fears of political backlash against repeal reinforce one another, increasing the fiscal burden subsidies impose and dramatically raising the political cost of program exit. In this sense, consumer subsidy programs come to form 'policy traps'-initially modest policies that quickly grow and become entrenched, thereby greatly reducing politicians' maneuvering room. We utilize this framework to analyze the meteoric growth and entrenchment of utility subsidies in post-crisis Argentina. In Argentina, subsidies grew despite the private provision of subsidized services-making it difficult for the government to claim credit-even in sectors with weakly organized interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Commitment to Development Index has been developed to assess seven policy areas of rich countries that affect the development of poor countries and to rank the rich countries from this perspective. This article aims to analyze the environmental component of this index. The environmental dimension is a legitimate part of the concept behind the index because preserving global environmental resources is essential for the future development prospects of poorer countries. The operationalization of the dimension, however, gives rise to several issues, such as the combination of policy and practice indicators, data availability and credibility, and other specific aspects that affect the information value of individual indicators and the component as a whole. Acknowledging the difficulty of constructing such a component, we suggest several options for its modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]