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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]

Despite the global financial and economic crisis, China has continued to experience strong export-driven growth and, indeed, became the world's largest exporting country in 2009. This rise of China in international markets presents African countries with growing competition in their home and export markets, but also with new opportunities. This paper focuses on the impacts of these developments on countries in North Africa, which are directly affected by the prominence of Chinese manufacturing. In particular, the analysis addresses two policy questions: First, is competition from China leading to substantial displacement of resources that incur significant adjustment costs while moving to new activities, or are there opportunities to exploit finer patterns of specialization that entail less disruption? And second, will policies that mitigate the impact of competition from China limit the longer-term capacity to exploit new opportunities in the global market? The findings from the empirical analysis suggest that policy makers can support North African producers in the increasingly fierce competition with China by reviewing the regulatory and incentives environment, reducing trade logistics costs, and broadening trade promotion efforts to non-traditional markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a long tradition in the development literature that what a country exports matters for its growth prospects. Recent work has refocused on this issue by attempting to produce numerical scores for different types of product to identify the complexity or sophistication of a country's export basket. Based on the insight that the type of product an economy exports can have important implications for its economic performance and that goods exported predominantly by rich countries will have different characteristics from those exported by poor countries, Lall et al. (2006) put forward a means of classifying commodities based on the income levels of a product's main exporters. At around the same time, Hausmann et al. (2006), following a similar approach, put forward a slightly different form of product classification and Rodrik (2006) applied this specifically to an analysis of China. This paper highlights the difference between the approaches and its implications for the analysis of China, which appears less 'special' using the approach of Lall et al. It argues that the classification of products at a disaggregate level is a helpful starting point for assessing issues of trade competitiveness and that further work using either or both forms of classification is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worker remittances constitute an increasingly important channel for the transfer of resources to developing countries. Behind foreign direct investment, remittances are the second-largest source of external funding for developing countries. Yet, literature on worker remittances has traditionally focused on the impact of remittances on income distribution within countries, on the determinants of remittances at a micro-level, or on the effects of migration and remittances for specific countries or regions. Macroeconomic determinants and effects of remittances have received more attention only recently. Hence, the focus of this paper is on the macroeconomic determinants of remittances and on differences in these determinants between remittances and other capital flows. We find that remittances respond more to demographic variables while private capital flows respond more to macroeconomic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether the impacts of financial development on growth convergence vary with the stage of real development. We implement this analysis through the instrumental variable threshold regression approach proposed by Caner and Hansen. Our empirical evidence shows that financial intermediary development leads to long-run convergence in growth of both economic activity and productivity. Moreover, such convergence-enhancing effects of financial intermediation are stronger for less-developed countries than for the more industrialized. In addition, the data reveal that stock market development assists growth convergence only in low-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering sustainability a matter of intergenerational welfare equity, this paper examines whether an optimal development path can also be sustainable. It argues that the general 'zero-net-aggregate-investment' condition for an optimal development path to be sustainable in the sense of the maximin criterion of intergenerational justice is too demanding to be practical, especially in the context of developing countries. It further argues that while the maximin criterion of sustainability may be appealing to the rich advanced industrial countries, for the poor developing countries it implies equalization of poverty across generations, and as such is too costly a moral obligation to be acceptable. The paper suggests that a compromise development policy that follows the optimal growth approach but adopts certain measures to mitigate both the intergenerational and intragenerational welfare inequalities may be more appropriate for these countries. Some of the principal elements of such a policy are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) increasingly receives attention from managers and researchers, especially in the area of consumer perception and response of CSR. However, most of this research was conducted in the context of developed countries. It shows that research on consumer perception towards CSR in developing countries needs to be developed. This paper will examine consumer perception in the developing country of Indonesia. This research produced mixed results, suggesting that CSR is still a concept waiting to be applied in the developing country. Consumers are often unaware and unsupportive towards CSR. This is the opposite finding of consumer perception in developed countries, where most consumers are willing to support CSR launched by corporations. Nevertheless, there is an interesting finding: When consumers have to buy similar products with the same price and quality, CSR could be the determining factor. They would buy from the firm that has a socially responsible reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work on good governance implies a one-best-way model of effective government. This has isomorphic influences on development, whereby governments are influenced to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to get things done. This article challenges whether such an approach exists, proposing that models actually do not hold even for the so-called effective governments. Governments look different, even if they are similarly called models of good government. This proposition is examined through a study of public financial management practices in a set of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries. The study shows that effective governments are not more likely to exhibit better practice characteristics implied in one-best-way models. Good public financial management means different things in different countries. The article concludes by suggesting that good governance models give way to menus and the development community invest more time in examining why different countries select different menu items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aid effectiveness literature (AEL) consists of empirical macroeconomic estimates of the effects of development aid. By the end of 2004, it comprised 97 econometric studies of three families of related effects. Each family has been analyzed in a separate meta-analysis. The AEL is an ideal subject for meta-analysis as it uses only a few formally similar models to estimate the same underlying effects. It is also an area with strong beliefs, often generated by altruism. When this whole literature is examined, a clear pattern emerges. After 40 years of development aid, the preponderance of the evidence indicates that aid has not been effective. We show that the distribution of results is significantly asymmetric reflecting the reluctance of the research community to publish negative results. The Dutch disease effect on exchange rates provides a plausible explanation for the observed aid ineffectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the working of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee and Regional Trade Agreements for economic growth. It mentions that growing numbers of agreements across regional groupings, as well as across developed and developing countries. It also mentions the implement of partnership agreements for goods and services.

In this paper, we examine the growth effects of government expenditure for a panel of 30 developing countries over the 1970s and 1980s, with a particular focus on disaggregated government expenditures. Our methodology improves on previous research on this topic by explicitly recognizing the role of the government budget constraint and the possible biases arising from omitted variables. Our primary results are twofold. First, the share of government capital expenditure in GDP is positively and significantly correlated with economic growth, but current expenditure is insignificant. Second, at the disaggregated level, government investment in education and total expenditures in education are the only outlays that are significantly associated with growth once the budget constraint and omitted variables are taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Donors increasingly acknowledge that, without the participation of the private sector, achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is unlikely. Up until recently, priority has been given to improving the business enabling environment in developing countries, so as to remove unnecessary impediments to profit-making activity. Whilst this approach has undoubted merit it does not yet seem to be stimulating change at the pace or scale required. This paper argues that there is now a clear case for directly engaging international business in the poverty reduction agenda. It argues that such efforts will have the greatest development impact where profit-making is the driving force, and considers how the impact of such initiatives might best be measured. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the optimal mode of public finance depends on the level of economic development. The theoretical analysis suggests that in the presence of capital market imperfection and liquidity shocks, the detrimental effect of inflation on growth is stronger (weaker) at lower (higher) levels of economic development. Consequently, income taxation (seigniorage) is a relatively less distortionary way of financing public expenditure for low-income (high-income) countries. We provide empirical support for our model’s predictions using a panel of 21 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries and 40 developing countries observed over the period 1972–1999. ( JEL E44, E6, H6, O42) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is to be achieved, Parties must commit themselves to meeting meaningful long-term targets that, based on current knowledge, would minimize the possibility of irreversible climate change. Current indications are that a global mean temperature rise in excess of 2–3 °C would enhance the risk of destabilizing the climate system as we know it, and possibly lead to catastrophic change such as a shutdown of the deep ocean circulation, and the disintegration of the West Arctic Ice Sheet. Observations have shown that for many small island developing States (SIDS), life-sustaining ecosystems such as coral reefs, already living near the limit of thermal tolerance, are highly climate-sensitive, and can suffer severe damage from exposure to sea temperatures as low as 1 °C above the seasonal maximum. Other natural systems (e.g., mangroves) are similarly susceptible to relatively low temperature increases, coupled with small increments of sea level rise. Economic and social sectors, including agriculture and human health, face similar challenges from the likely impacts of projected climate change. In light of known thresholds, this paper presents the view that SIDS should seek support for a temperature cap not exceeding 1.5–2.0 °C above the pre-industrial mean. It is argued that a less stringent post-Kyoto target would frustrate achievement of the UNFCCC objective. The view is expressed that all countries which emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases should commit to binding reduction targets in the second commitment period, but that targets for developing countries should be less stringent than those agreed for developed countries. Such an arrangement would be faithful to the principles of equity and would ensure that the right of Parties to attain developed country status would not be abrogated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa's economies have diverged from other developing regions: over the past three decades growth has been much slower. In this paper I relate this to the region's distinctive physical and political geography. These features not only make Africa different from other regions, they make some parts of Africa radically different from others. Understanding these differences is critical because they imply equally substantial differences in opportunities and hence in the strategies likely to be effective for growth. No pan-African growth strategy offers a realistic prospect of success, nor can Africa simply copy the strategies of successful regions that have fundamentally different physical or political geography. I propose three strategies each of which is likely to be appropriate for a part of the region. [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]

This paper addresses the question of how business organizations, civil society organizations and government agencies can engage one another for ‘boundary-spanning’ dialogue and develop mutually beneficial ‘working partnerships’ in resolving the challenges of sustainable development. Over the past decade the concept of sustainable development has expanded to include the simultaneous consideration of economic growth, environmental protection and social equity in business and decision making. An increasing number of businesses have responded by engaging in corporate citizenship programmes to promote sustainable development. Strategic partnerships between civil society organizations and businesses are widely promoted as important new strategies, which will bring significant sustainable development benefits especially to developing countries. This interaction arises from an understanding of the need for comprehensive and integrated approaches to business, environmental and social issues that involve increasingly broader participation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [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]

Jagdish Bhagwati's proposal for a ‘brains tax’ to be levied on the incomes of the diaspora from developing countries residing in the developed countries and the proceeds to be remitted to the countries of origin of the diaspora is well known. In recent years the voluntary contributions or remittances from the diaspora to their countries of origin have often been higher than the aid monies given to these countries. It is now increasingly recognised that the diaspora may have an active role to play in the development process of their countries of origin. They are not only a source of funds; they are also a rich source of skills and know-how. This paper analyses the potential of the diaspora as agents of change in their countries of origin and argues that the social rate of return to a unit of diaspora investments may be higher than that for a unit of foreign direct investment from non-diaspora sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent onslaught of corporate scandals has compelled the world to acknowledge the profound impact of corporate governance practices on the global economy. Corporate governance is of particular concern in developing economies, where the infusion of international investor capital and foreign aid is essential to economic stability and growth. This paper focuses attention on corporate governance initiatives in South Africa, given its significance as an emerging market, its potential leadership role on the African continent and the country’s notable corporate governance reform since the collapse of apartheid in 1994. The evolution of the country’s corporate structure and the forces driving corporate governance reform over the past decade will be examined, followed by a review of the most notable reform initiatives in place today. Finally, an assessment of those initiatives will be presented, along with recommendations concerning how South Africa’s initiatives can serve as models of enhanced corporate governance standards for the African continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of fiscal deficits on the current account deficits in the Indian economy. In many developing countries, fiscal deficits are mostly financed through monetization, causing crowding out of private investment expenditures. However, fiscal deficits in India are mostly financed through official borrowings from various external sources, leading to higher interest payments and outgoings on the external account. Such a policy could eventually precipitate balance of payments crises despite favorable trade account and real exchange rate. Data over three decades for the Indian economy show that, in addition to the real exchange rate and the ratio of private investment to GDP, fiscal deficits significantly contribute to the current account deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a dynamic panel model to explore whether the low-income countries ‘catch up’ with the rich ones by examining the threshold effects of per capita income on the convergence behavior of growth rates. Empirical evidence from 121 Penn World Table economies and 48 US states indicates that income levels have substantial impacts on the convergence behavior. First, convergence is insignificantly found in the lowest-income regimes, which is interpreted that these poor countries persist at their income levels, which cause possible income barriers-to-growth. That is, the poor countries may not be able to catch up with the rich ones easily, unless an income threshold is overcome. Second, convergence is significantly found beyond the lowest-income regime, implying that the low-income countries catch up with the rich. We conclude that when a certain income threshold is overcome, the poor countries catch up with the rich ones; hence a subsidiary income policy can be helpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in developing countries have encouraged private sector investment to meet the growing demand for infrastructure. According to institutional theory, the role of institutions is paramount in private sector development. A longitudinal dataset of 40 developing economies between 1990 and 2000 is used to test empirically how different institutional structures affect private investment in infrastructure, in particular its volume and frequency. The results indicate that property rights and bureaucratic quality play a significant role in promoting private infrastructure investment. Interestingly, they also suggest that countries with higher levels of corruption attract greater private participation in infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies technology adoption in an optimal growth model with embodied technical change. The economy consists of the final good sector, the capital sector, and the technology sector which role is the imitation of exogenous innovations. Scarce labor resources are allocated to the technology and final good sectors. The final good is allocated to consumption and to the capital sector. The authors analytically characterize the long run optimal allocations. Using a calibrated version of the model, they find that an acceleration in the rate of embodied technical change should not be responded by an immediate and strong adoption effort. Instead, adoption labor should decrease in the short run, and the optimal technological gap is shown to increase either in the short or in the long run. The state of the institutions and policies around the technology sector is key in the design of the optimal adoption timing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most international trade models fail to account for the fact that almost all goods must pass through the distribution sector. The authors compare different approaches to modeling distribution within an Applied General Equilibrium framework and find that such modeling may significantly affect trade opening simulations. They also predict large potential gains from streamlining distribution. For instance, a 10% reduction in Japan's final goods distribution margins would benefit it as much as worldwide free trade would. They also find that, compared to trade opening, reducing margins leads to smaller inter-sectoral production shifts and thus may engender less political opposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence on the incidence of tariffs on products of export interest to developing countries by investigating the relationship between per capita incomes of US trading partners and tariff rates. It constitutes the first attempt to assess the incidence of tariffs imposed by the US on countries that span the entire range of per capita incomes. Average tariff rates are lower for the poorest and richest countries and higher for countries in the middle of the income distribution. This finding is not consistent with the widely held view that tariffs used by industrial nations bear more heavily on products of export interest to poorer developing countries than on imports from industrial nations. It is consistent with the tariff escalation pattern reported in earlier studies if advanced countries account for most products at the high end of the fabrication scale. Results show that poorest countries will find it difficult to escape tariffs by attaining higher levels of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of globalisation's most visible dimensions, foreign direct investment (FDI) is central to the prospects for developing countries in the world economy. Key issues include the direction of causation between FDI and growth, the potential role of the new information and communication technologies in attracting FDI flows (as well as the role of FDI in building such infrastructure), the process of skill acquisition associated with FDI, and the specific problems that Africa faces in attracting more FDI. Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals requires very fast growth in output and employment if global poverty is to be halved, and FDI could play a very positive role if its development benefits are maximised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to cooperate in collective action problems – such as those relating to the use of common property resources or the provision of local public goods – is a key determinant of economic performance. In this paper we discuss two aspects of collective action problems in developing countries. First, which institutions discourage opportunistic behaviour and promote cooperation? Second, what are the characteristics of the individuals involved that determine the degree to which they cooperate? We first review the evidence from field studies, laboratory experiments, and cross community studies. We then present new results from an individual level panel dataset of rural workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the findings from a major international research project on the poverty impacts of a potential Doha Development Agenda. It draws on an intensive analysis of the DDA Framework Agreement and associated scenarios. The implications for world markets are established using a global modelling framework, the outputs of which form the basis for a dozen country case studies of the national poverty impacts of the DDA scenarios. Liberalisation targets under the DDA have to be quite ambitious if the round is to have a measurable impact on poverty. We expect the near-term poverty impacts to be mixed; some countries experience small poverty increases and others more substantial poverty declines. On balance, poverty is reduced under the core DDA scenario, and this reduction is more pronounced in the longer run. Deeper cuts in developing country tariffs are found to make the DDA more poverty friendly. It is also clear that, in order to generate significant poverty reductions in the near term, complementary domestic reforms are required to enable households to take advantage of the new market opportunities. Over the long run, sustained poverty reduction depends on stimulating economic growth, which suggests that trade reforms must go beyond tariffs and subsidies, also addressing barriers to services trade and investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market failures affecting economic growth in poor rural areas are firmly on the agenda but for goods and services with private good characteristics are generally not conceptualized and understood in ways that help policy analysis and formulation to recognize and address these failures. We need greater recognition and understanding of the causes and nature of coordination failures that lead to these market failures. This paper examines core features of poor rural areas, the nature of coordination problems faced by different potential economic actors, the impacts of these problems on markets and economic development and ways that these have been addressed or ignored in different policies and policy approaches in Asia and Africa. We conclude by drawing out the implications for policies seeking to promote pro-poor economic growth in poor rural areas today. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalation of political conflicts in many developing countries and their impact on economic development have been topical issues in recent development literature. The overwhelming emphasis on‘ethnic conflicts’ in the literature has, however, precluded analysts from looking at political conflicts beyond their ethnic dimension, in the wider context of the development process. In particular, because of the preoccupation with ethnic roots as the prime source of these conflicts, reverse causation, running from economic policy to political conflict, has been virtually ignored in the debate. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap through an in-depth case study of the‘twin political conflict’ in Sri Lanka– the Tamil separatist war in the North and the Sinhala youth uprising in the South– with emphasis on its economic roots. The findings suggest that fundamental contradictions in the national development policy in the restrictive trade regime of Sri Lanka were at the heart of the country's twin political conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of African Development Review / Revue Africaine de Développement is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Provides information on a study which explored the economic growth and financial market conditions of developing countries. Assessment of foreign debts; Levels and process of debt servicing; Analysis of gross domestic product.

The need to reconcile social and environmental goals for sustainable development still poses problems for policy makers in the richer parts of the world. Using the examples of domestic water and energy, this paper argues that the problems are reflected, and often magnified, in developing countries. They arise largely from conflicts between the short-term need to alleviate poverty and longer-term objectives for environmental sustainability. The dual nature of water and energy as both social and economic goods raises questions about the most appropriate forms of provision and allocation of the utilities. It is in no one's long-term interest for developing countries to repeat the environmentally damaging mistakes of the industrialized world. But an equitable distribution of the short-term costs attached to a more environmentally responsible use of resources demands new ways of thinking about global social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents abstracts of articles related to economic growth. The remarkable increase in FDI flows to developing countries over the last decade has focused attention on whether this source of financing enhances overall economic growth. We use a mixed fixed and random (MFR) panel data estimation method to allow for cross country heterogeneity in the causal relationship between FDI and growth and contrast our findings with those from traditional approaches. Quarterly estimates of consumption, capital and labour tax rates are provided for six major OECD countries. We then use the `stylized facts' methodology to evaluate the strength, sign and phase of cyclical comovements between tax rates and labour market variables. Estimates based on couples with dependent children in the first eight years of the British Household Panel Study (1991-98) indicate that changes in a couple's economic circumstances affect the probability that a partnership dissolves. In particular, unexpected improvements in finances substantially reduce the dissolution risk, which strongly supports the importance of new information in decisions concerning partnership dissolution.

We unbundle the effect of debt on economic growth using a new panel data set sourced from Vague (2014, The next economic disaster: Why it's coming and how to avoid it. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press) for 48 countries over the period 1961–2015. We distinguish between public, private, household and nonfinancial corporation (NFC) debt. We use the panel vector autoregressive approach, Granger causality tests and impulse response to establish causality. We also test the heterogeneity in the debt–growth relationship across developed and developing countries. In our full sample of countries, all types of debt appear to be harmful to economic growth. The negative effect of public debt appears to be uniform across developed and developing countries, although the impact is much stronger on developed countries. Household debt appears to be expansionary in developing countries whereas contractionary in developed countries. Nonfinancial corporation debt appears to have no impact on developing countries but negative impact on developed countries. Finally, total debt (i.e., the sum of public, household and NFC debt) has a negative impact on growth in developed countries, but no impact is detected in the case of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lists abstracts of journal articles published in the November 1998 issue of the periodical 'Asian-Pacific Economic Literature.' Learning-by-doing and trade policy in a developing economy; Rise of industrial Asia and its implications for the developing world; Geopolitics, global production and three paths of development in East Asia; Dutch disease and policy adjustments to the oil boom.

ABSTRACT. The international community is redoubling efforts to curb political corruption in the developing and transitional economies. The consensus now is that the abuse of public office stunts economic growth, replacing a formerly dominant view that the effect is neutral or positive. Corruption's political correlates, however, are seldom studied empirically. Using Transparency International's recently developed index of perceived corruption, this paper explores this issue by regression analysis in a sample of less-developed countries. Economic liberalization, political democratization, and administrative centralization are associated with lower degrees of political corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of India's reservation policy to help the small-scale enterprises. Empirical tests showed three main results. Firstly, reservation has increased the number of production units, per item produced. Secondly, the units that produce mainly reserved items have higher levels of installed capacities, than those making mainly unreserved items, but the former do not have higher levels of production, thereby resulting in significantly lower levels of capacity utilisation. Thirdly, reservation has not helped reduce the problem of closures of small units. The empirical results suggest that reservation may have brought little help to production and employment in the small-scale units nor to the consumers of their products, while at the same time it may have restricted production and employment in the large units. Thus reservation may have caused a loss in overall economic welfare. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits and empirically tests the conjecture that specialization in natural resource industries (NRI) might not necessarily be a 'curse' for developing countries if it generates opportunities for export diversification in backward‐linked sectors à la Hirschman. The article systematizes the evolution of the debate around the NRI 'curse'. Then it empirically tests whether NRI might represent a sufficient 'domestic representative demand' à la Linder to favour diversification into backward‐linked sectors such as knowledge‐intensive business services and high‐tech manufacturing. It focuses on the former and discusses the new opportunities for export diversification led by virtuous pathways of domestic structural change. It finds novel, quantitative empirical support for this conjecture, which complements extant qualitative literature and discusses implications that revisit the NRI curse debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development involves elemental processes of great complexity and scope and that those who would move from a traditional to a modern society must relate themselves differently to the environment, shifting from an organic to an inorganic energy base, they must alter their ontology, accepting a different cognitive base for their relief system, they must adopt new values, forsaking old ones or integrating them somehow with the new values, indeed, they must psychologically refashion traditional man and his energizing and motivational system. The encompassing task of development requires the involvement of all sectors of society and different types of social units. This paper examines the nature and position of voluntary associations in the historic process of modernization and development.

The article presents the author's comments on the paper titled "The Dialectics of Reason," by John Friedmann. The paper is a useful reminder of contemporary processes like the halt in economic growth and modernization, as the years of relatively rapid growth for underdeveloped countries are followed by those of stagnation and recession. There is the serious possibility that rapid growth will not return again, and will not provide a market alleviation of poverty through the trickling-down effect. Internal resources, as presently organized, are inadequate to sustain economic growth, while the industrialized countries and their capital, increasingly preoccupied with managing growth within and between their trading blocs, appear to be abandoning the underdeveloped world to its fate. Moreover, the author doubts the barrio economy itself. Friedmann tells that it does not include the small-scale workshop or the putting out process, anything that ties local people to the wider market economy. Essentially it is the economy of exchange and self-help in which people substitute their own labour and that of their neighbours for the market. But it is unlikely that such an economy will flourish in the face of recession.

This article discusses methods of integrating the "informal sector" in the national accounts of developing countries. This sector, defined generally as composed of producers who do not keep formal accounts is difficult to capture by usual statistical collection techniques, and therefore is often neglected. The paper develops the requirements for a direct inquiry approach to obtaining data for this sector, emphasizing the need for national, exhaustive, and periodic coverage. It then proceeds to propose methods of analysis for informal sector enterprises with and without fixed locations, tailored to the specific characteristics of each trade. The final section presents some results of application of the proposed methods in Tunisia and Niger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to model the role of trade dependency in determining the access of a developing economy to the international credit market, and its desirable growth strategy. With full integration of capital markets, the choice with respect to the inwardness of a technology is irrelevant; investment will be channeled to the more productive sectors, independently of their trade inwardness. With limited capital market integration, a given investment will generate two effects. The first is the standard, direct productivity effect that is associated with the change in future output. The second is the trade dependency externality, generated by the change in future bargaining outcomes arising from the change in the trade dependency of the nation. With partial integration, investment that increases trade dependency is desirable. If the credit markets are disjoint owing to partial defaults, greater trade dependency is disadvantageous. Thus, greater trade dependency generates a positive externality with partial integration of capital markets, and a negative externality with disjoint credit markets. We show that credit market integration is determined by the size of the indebtedness relative to the trade dependency, as reflected by the repayment burden that is supported by the bargaining outcome. The repayment bargaining outcome is determined by the sectoral composition of the economy and by the effective size of the developing and the developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the recent eclipse of various state forms in the Third World claiming the label 'socialist', with particular reference to Africa. Different variants are distinguished and their trajectories since the late 1980s are explained in terms of both internal and external factors. A comparison of economic and social data on (ex-)socialist and overtly capitalist Third World states shows that there is generally no clear basis for distinguishing between them within any broad income band. Finally, the nature and extent of politico-economic change in Africa's erstwhile socialist countries is traced, and is shown to be most marked in the former 'Marxist-Leninist' states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global Environmental Change is central to the debate on the relationship between environmental degradation and economic development. This paper examines the agreements signed at the Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992 and highlights some implications for developing countries. The interim mechanism for resource transfer under the Conventions is the Global Environmental Facility, but it appears that transfers on a scale necessary to bring about sustainable development as envisaged by Agenda 21 cannot be made through this mechanism alone. It is argued here that other mechanisms to promote development, such as debt relief, should not be ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balance of payments problems in many developing countries have created significant challenges to the IMF and World Bank; their response has been inadequate. While these institutions may not have outlived their usefulness, it is worth exploring modifications to the existing institutional structure designed to have a beneficial impact on economic development. If the traditional division of labour between the IMF and the World Bank has broken down in the context of their dealings with developing countries wherein lie the new comparative advantages? This paper proposes and analyses a reorganization of functions between the two institutions that it is claimed would assist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of the external debts of less developed countries (LDCs) on their exports to the United States. Specifically, the effect that manifests as pressure on the 48 most indebted LDCs to export to the US is investigated. Cross-sectional regression analysis and data for 1984 are used in the estimation. The estimates show that the burden of external debts put significant pressure on LDCs to export. The estimates also suggest that the LDCs are conscious of their creditworthiness in the international financial market. Furthermore, the results highlight the inadequacy of the current General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations that focus on trade in goods and services to the exclusion of the LDCs' debt problem. GATT negotiations should give LDCs' market access to industrialized countries greater weight on its agenda as an attempt at tackling the LDCs' debt problem. This is necessary for the long-term growth of these LDCs, a concern to which enough attention has not been paid. In addition. Western donor countries and their banks should provide more debt relief to these debtor countries. This will enable LDCs to retain a substantial part of their export earnings. Uncertainty is reduced, thus providing the much-needed impetus for entrepreneurs in these poor economies to commit themselves to long-term investments. This will guarantee long-term economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]