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Cooperatives play important role in economic development via multiple channels, particularly, in developing countries' cases. Considering this fact, Nepal's constitution 2017 has incorporated the cooperative as one of the three pillars of her economy. This paper aims to analyze the role of cooperatives in the economic development of Nepal. For this, first, this paper documents the trend and pattern of Nepalese cooperatives' evolving structure, then moves to the econometric estimation to analyze the role of cooperatives in economic growth employing an advanced methodology. Looking at the properties of time series data for the period of 49 years from 1970 to 2018, the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach of cointegration is employed. The major finding is that the development of the cooperatives has a long‐run relationship with economic growth. However, the focus should be seen as on the involvement of many people in the cooperatives' activities rather than just on amassing the cooperatives' capital. The results also suggest that there is a need for the attention of policymakers so ensure that share capital contributes to economic growth. Therefore, the areas of priorities and scope of work of cooperatives need to be reconsidered when formulating new policies related to cooperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to examine the threshold impact of financial development and trade liberalization on income inequality as a measure of sustainable development in a sample of developed and developing countries using panel threshold analysis. Two major dimensions of financial development are considered: liquid liabilities and stock market capitalization. The empirical results revealed that financial development reduces income inequality only in countries where their GDP per capita is above ~US$11,000. It has no significant impact in reducing inequality in developing countries. This implies that institutional reforms in less developed and developing countries are necessary in order to reap the gains from financial development. Trade liberalization is found to have a positive impact on income inequality for both country groups—that is, trade benefits have worsened the income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between gender inequality and economic growth is a topic that is of growing interest, both in the academic literature and the policy arena. In this paper, we survey the literature that analyses this relationship from a macroeconomic perspective. We argue that that the existing theories provide a wide range of mechanisms through which these two variables may affect each other but also that more work needs to be carried out to obtain quantitative predictions out of these models. In the empirical arena, we note the lack of connection between most studies and the existing theories described earlier. In both cases, we propose approaches to alleviate these problems. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of economic growth in developing countries within the standard growth regression framework, with special attention being paid to the experience of landlocked developing countries ( LLDCs). The results confirm that the landlockedness hampers economic growth, but the magnitude of negative impact is sensitive to alternative estimation methods. However, the analysis suggests that good governance, trade openness and coordinating infrastructure development with neighbours explain the significant aspect of the inter-country differences in growth rates among LLDCs. The results also suggest that African landlocked countries are not different from the other LLDCs. Contrary to the 'resource curse' hypothesis, natural resources seem to contribute to economic growth of LLDCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the emergence of remittances studies, knowledge about their effect on economic development is still ambiguous. This paper investigates the impact of remittances at macroeconomic level in developing countries controlling for endogeneity problems with the use of panel vector autoregression (panel VAR). The findings suggest that remittances have a positive, albeit small, impact on economic growth even without considering the role of institutions. When institutions are included, the pattern of response remains unaltered. A distinction between low versus high remittances participation in economic activity evidences that, although the impact of remittances on growth is similar, appreciation of the exchange rate occurs in economies with high remittances participation. Finally, a distinction by geographical region reveals that Eastern European economies receive the greatest benefit from these flows, followed by the Americas and Asia; however, African economic growth does not appear to have a statistically significant impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of human capital and political development in determining the magnitude of the effects of foreign direct investment ( FDI) on growth for a panel of 61 transition and developing countries for the period 1989 to 2013. A baseline growth model incorporating these variables is tested and then extended to include FDI interaction effects with human capital (measured using secondary school enrollment data) and political development (based on Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index scores). These growth interaction effects between FDI and human capital vary according to regime type. Political development in conjunction with FDI appears to suppress the effects of FDI on growth in authoritarian countries while enhancing them in hybrid democracies. For more democratic countries, domestic investment is a more important driver of growth. The effects of FDI on growth in the ten transition economies included in the sample data set are found to be insignificant. Although this result might seem to differ from a priori expectations, it is in line with the findings of most earlier studies that cover the period up to 2004. The paper also provides no strong evidence that a critical threshold of human capital is required to generate beneficial spillover growth effects from inflows of FDI. The paper provides new and more detailed insights into the effects of FDI on growth with particular respect to human capital and political regime covering a large number of transition and developing countries based on an up-to-date data set covering a 25-year period to 2013. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The price surveys from the 2005 International Comparison Program (ICP) imply substantially lower levels of GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) for many developing countries than prior estimates. While some observers have questioned the data, this paper argues that the pattern of changes in PPPs between ICP rounds makes economic sense. Consistently with the original Balassa-Samuelson model, more rapidly growing economies experienced steeper increases in their PPPs relative to official exchange rates. This effect was even stronger for poor countries. Taking account of this effect would reduce the need for such large data revisions when new ICP data become available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous aid effectiveness research often claims that foreign aid has been unsuccessful in increasing growth rates. This result could be due either to methodological weaknesses, or to genuine aid efficiency losses. Empirically, the author finds that once the best available techniques are employed, aid has a significant but moderate average effect on growth over the period 1970–2001. A promising explanation of why the estimated returns to aid are not larger is that bilateral aid had no significant effect on growth during the Cold War (pre-1990), but had a significant and sizeable effect thereafter. In contrast, multilateral aid seems to have had sizeable and significant effects throughout. These results imply that the negative conclusions drawn by earlier research should be interpreted in their proper historical context, rather than as a necessary condemnation of current aid effectiveness. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines investment decisions in an economy with two financial markets: an official market, which is subject to rationing due to an interest rate ceiling, and an unrestricted market, with a higher interest rate. In this context, the long-run equilibrium aggregate capital stock is unambiguously higher than in the absence of the interest rate ceiling, even though its relationship with the ceiling is non-monotonic. Empirical results using aggregate panel data from 52 developing countries for the period 1974-1988 provide support for the model, particularly in economies that have some access to international capital markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of foreign aid on poverty. The impact of aid on poverty is assessed using dynamic panel estimation techniques, which enable us to control for time-invariant country-specific effects and endogeneity of aid. The results suggest that aid has a significant poverty-reducing effect even after controlling for average income. Specifically, foreign aid is associated with a decline in poverty as measured by the poverty rate, poverty gap index and squared poverty gap index. We also find that the composition of aid matters-multilateral aid and grants do better in reducing poverty than bilateral aid and loans. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes for the first time age-structured human capital data for economic growth forecasting. We concentrate on pooled cross-country data of 65 countries over six 5-year periods (1970-2000) and consider specifications chosen by model selection criteria, Bayesian model averaging methodologies based on in-sample and out-of-sample goodness of fit and on adaptive regression by mixing. The results indicate that forecast averaging and exploiting the demographic dimension of education data improve economic growth forecasts systematically. In particular, the results are very promising for improving economic growth predictions in developing countries. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we empirically analyse the linkages amongst economic reforms, human capital, physical infrastructure, and growth for a panel of 44 developing countries over 1970–1980 to 1999. For this purpose, we generate aggregated reform indicators using principal component analysis. We show that the growth performance of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been disappointing because these economies have lagged behind in terms of economic reforms. However, our analysis also reveals that the growth dividend of some reforms has been small. This is the case when structural reforms are implemented in an unstable macroeconomic environment (which corresponds to the situation of the MENA countries in the 1980s), and when macroeconomic reforms are accompanied by a low level of structural reforms (as observed during the 1990s). Our result illustrates the complementarities between reforms as modelled by Mussa (1987) and Williamson (1994). Actually, after human capital and physical infrastructure, our analysis finds that macroeconomic and external stability are key variables for the reform process and for the growth prospects of the developing world. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After over a quarter of a century of high economic growth, there is no sign that China will slow its pace of economic development. In the meantime, domestic energy security and international climate security have become of increasing concern given China's growth patterns. In this paper, the authors look at the future prospects of growth of the economy, energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. For China as a developing country, energy security constitutes a more immediate and challenging constraint for China in meeting its development target than the problem of emission reduction. Energy efficiency and diversification have been actively pursued for addressing energy security issue but with positive co-benefit of climate security. International cooperation can promote both securities for a health growth of the economy. (Edited by Xinyu Fan) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates whether differences in public sector management quality affect the link between public debt and economic growth in developing countries. For this purpose, we primarily use the World Bank's institutional indices of public sector management (PSM). Using PSM thresholds, we split our panel into country clusters and make comparisons. Our linear baseline regressions reveal a significant negative relationship between public debt and growth. The various robustness exercises that we perform also confirm these results. When we dissect our data set into 'weak' and 'strong' county clusters using public sector management scores, however, we find different results. While public debt still displayed a negative relationship with growth in countries with 'weak' public sector management quality, it generally displayed a positive relationship in the latter group. The tests for non-linearity shows evidence of an 'inverse-U'-shape relationship between public debt and economic growth. However, we fail to see a similar significant relationship on country clusters that account for PSM quality. Yet, countries with well-managed public sectors demonstrate a higher public debt sustainability threshold. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of exchange rate signals in an economy is very powerful and often pervasive. Moreover, sustained real exchange rate overvaluation will, by distorting resource allocation away from productive activities, eventually lead to drastic adjustments of relative prices and reduction of aggregate economic growth. However, the direct theoretical and empirical link between exchange rate misalignment and macroeconomic indicators still remains to be fully understood. Nonetheless, empirical studies continue to make attempts to understand this relationship by exploring relationships that incorporate different measures of exchange rate misalignment in traditional growth regression models. Based on a behavioural equilibrium exchange rate derived measure exchange rate misalignment, this paper presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between real gross domestic product growth and real exchange rate misalignment for Zimbabwe. After controlling for other structural and policy variables, the main findings demonstrate that exchange rate misalignment exerts a negative and highly statistically significant impact on growth. Overall, the results lend support to the hypothesis that chronic real exchange rate overvaluation was a key fundamental behind the post-2000 economic growth contraction in Zimbabwe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxing agriculture to mobilize resources for industrialization has been a widely used development strategy. Using novel cross-country time-series data sets with direct measures of agricultural taxation, we examine how a policy bias against agriculture affects the speed of convergence in income per capita, structural change, and economic growth. We find that distortionary agricultural policies in poor economies can account for the emergence of convergence clubs in our sample by significantly retarding their structural transformation and economic growth. Overall, we find no evidence suggesting that policies that discriminate against agriculture have been beneficial for long-term economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009 the European Union (EU) adopted a new migration policy instrument - the Blue Cards (BC) - for attracting highly skilled workers to the EU. The present paper examines the potential impacts, which BC may cause on the less developed sending countries (LDC). According to the adopted framework of innovative capital, the BC will reduce human capital in LDC. In addition, BC will also have a negative impact on knowledge capital. These findings suggest that the BC is not coherent with the EU's development policy. Without appropriate policy responses, BC fade the developing country growth prospects away. In order to address the skill drain issues, we propose and examine alternative migration policy options for the LDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underlying factors in the growth of agriculture as a sector and of rural incomes in developing countries are investigated, using data from 85 countries during 1960–2001. Hypotheses about growth are derived from both the general growth literature and the empirical literature on past agricultural growth in the United States and other industrial countries. The growth of agriculture as a sector is surprisingly independent of the growth of income per capita for those who work in that sector. Neither is necessary nor sufficient for the other. Agricultural economics is in many circumstances not the key discipline in understanding the economics of rural income and poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly two centuries of lagging behind the industrial countries, growth in many developing countries has surged since the early 1990s. This outperformance has major implications for almost all areas of agricultural economics and, if continued, will likely do so into the future. This article aims to identify the key ways in which the changes in rich and poor country growth rates matter for agricultural economists, as a basis for formulating better research agendas. A key impact arises through sharp increases in demand for agricultural resources as demand for livestock products increases. This changing structure of food demand has important implications for nutrition studies and policies, with the emergence of a double burden of malnutrition. On the supply side, growth in developing countries tends to increase domestic food supply, which is also boosted by increases in research and development spending. Growth in developing countries both stimulates and benefits from increases in infrastructure investment, evaluation of which requires new analytical tools. Negative impacts include the contribution of increased demand for livestock products to global greenhouse gas emissions. In terms of trade policy, growth in developing country is tending to lead to convergence of agricultural policies with the pattern of assistance seen in today's developed countries, raising concerns about the future need to deal with collective action problems, particularly those that increase the volatility of world prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigate the role of development assistance in reducing a hypothetically negative impact of terrorism on economic growth, using a panel of 78 developing nations with data for the period 1984–2008. The empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions. Domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorism dynamics are employed while development assistance measurements comprised bilateral and multilateral aid variables. With regard to the investigated hypothesis, we consistently confirm that: (i) In quantiles where terrorism is found to increase (decrease) economic growth, its interaction with foreign aid decreases (increases) economic growth. (ii) Comparing thresholds of the modifying aid variables for which the hypothesis is either rejected or accepted reveals that higher levels of multilateral (bilateral) aid are needed to reverse the negative effect of total (unclear) terrorism on growth, than the quantity needed to reverse the positive impact of transnational (domestic and total) terrorism(s) on growth. (iii) There is scant evidence of positive net effects. Overall the findings broadly indicate that foreign aid is a necessary but not a sufficient policy tool for completely dampening the effects of terrorism on economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study uses the ICTD UNU‐WIDER Government Revenue Dataset in order to challenge and extend existing findings on the relationship between tax structures and economic growth, in a panel of 100 countries. The results suggest that, broadly, revenue‐neutral increases in income taxes are associated with lower long‐run GDP growth and that revenue‐neutral reductions in trade taxes have not always had positive effects. Crucially, many of the results presented differ according to income level, calling into question the validity of existing findings for developing countries and suggesting that policy advice on this issue in developing countries should be viewed through a more cautious lens. © 2018 UNU‐WIDER. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using firm-level data from 2006 to 2013 for a set of developing countries, we examine the effects of financial development on innovation. Financial development boosts innovation by improving resource allocation and investment in strategic sectors as well as facilitating technology to promote growth. Using binary response models and instrumental variable techniques to correct for endogeneity, we find robust but puzzling results. Contrary to most of the existing literature, financial development has a negative effect on the probability of a firm to innovate in developing countries. This effect is conditional on firm size, and only larger firms benefit from financial development. These results are robust to different measures of financial development and econometric specifications. We argue that this is a result of the design of the financial system in regard to the lack of capital and institutional system. Consequently, developing countries should first generate appropriate institutional conditions if they want financial development to spur growth through innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the impact of the speed of transition reforms on economic growth in transition countries in the context of the debate on 'big-bang vs. gradualist approach'. It builds a new indicator for the speed of transition reforms based on a three-way principal component analysis. It shows that: (i) the speed of transition reforms Granger-causes economic growth and there is no reverse causation; (ii) the impact of contemporaneous speed of transition reforms on economic growth is negative, but becomes positive in the longer horizon; and (iii) other factors, such as initial conditions and macroeconomic stabilization programmes, also drive economic growth. Although the first two results are robust to different estimators, the impact of control variables depends on the econometric specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the relation between corporate saving and economic growth during the period from 1995 to 2006 in 7 developing countries and 16 developed countries. The results show that corporate savings generally add to the economic growth of developing countries regardless of legal origins. On the contrary, corporate savings generally do not contribute to the economic growth of developed countries. Developed countries with common law and Scandinavian civil law legal origins particularly see the negative relation between corporate saving and economic growth, while countries with other legal origins observe no such relation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Improve the investment climate!' is the dominant advice for governments wishing to achieve substantial increases in productive private investment. However, national-level investment-climate approaches have been criticised for not paying adequate attention to context and feasibility. This article experiments with a new approach which focuses on sectors and on relationships between policy-makers and investors, and shows how their common interest helped to overcome obstacles to investment and growth in Egypt. Such public-private relationships can be abused but they have provided effective transitional arrangements for enhancing investment and inducing a new growth dynamic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study investigates the role of project finance as a driver of economic growth. We hypothesize that project finance is beneficial to the least developed economies as it is able to compensate for a lack of domestic financial development. The contractual structure unique to project finance leads to better investment management and governance. Investigating 90 countries from 1991 to 2005, we find support for our hypothesis. Results show that project finance fosters economic growth and that its effect is strongest in low-income countries, where financial development and governance is weakest. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Because of the presumed guns vs. butter trade-off, defense expenditures in developing countries are coming under increased scrutiny from the international lending agencies as well as key donors. As a result, defense expenditure cuts have often taken place despite rising security concerns. Empirically we find that developing countries may have more options than previously believed in their quest for adequate security and sustained economic growth. Specifically the main finding of the study is that key combinations of reforms and governance measures are likely to exist and are capable of neutralizing many of the adverse economic effects often associated with defense expenditures. The key is to coordinate economic liberalization and governance reforms in the civilian sector with the requirements for improved security in the defense sector. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The pursuit of high economic growth is considered desirable as it generates an increase in a nation's wealth, income, employment and output. The rising income should enable consumers to purchase more goods and services, which in turn should result in enhanced utility and subjective happiness. Empirical studies suggest that higher income resulting from high rates of economic growth contribute to poverty alleviation and life satisfaction in low income countries. Higher income raises the happiness of the poor. In developed countries, higher income does not seem to “buy” higher happiness, once a threshold level of income is reached. This exploratory study seeks to examine the quantitative and qualitative sources of happiness. A higher absolute level of income is found to be significantly related to subjective happiness. Among the non-income factors, family togetherness, a good working environment and a higher level of education can contribute to making people happier. Happiness thus involves more than just economic growth and income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the contribution of agricultural exports to economic growth in less developed countries (LDCs). A sources-of-growth equation is developed from a dual economy model where agricultural and nonagricultural sectors are both divided into export and nonexport subsectors. This is then estimated using panel data for 62 LDCs for 1974–1995. Results provide evidence that there are significant structural differences in economic growth between low, lower-middle, and upper-income LDCs. Investment in the agricultural export subsector has a statistically identical impact on economic growth as investment in the nonagricultural export subsector. The marginal productivities in nonexport subsectors are over 30% lower than those in respective export subsectors. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that export-promotion policies should be balanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]