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The financial sector has always played a central role in economic development, but analysis of its precise role has been hampered by the emphasis on ‘real’ factors in the main stream of economic thought and the static nature of financial theory. Empirical studies confirm the importance of finance to economic development, but are indecisive on the efficaciousness of the widely advocated policies associated with financial liberalisation. To be successful, strategies for financial liberalisation must deal with problems generated by asymmetric information and have policies to promote competition, the disclosure of information and the maintenance of governmental integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key dilemmas and challenges for those involved in the shelter sector are described, based on issues that emerged from the extensive global consultative process undertaken to inform the revision of the Sphere handbook. The range of perspectives on the major themes is presented, with suggestions as to how these issues could be progressed. Themes include the poor definition of the sector and the lack of a consistent approach among the leading shelter actors; the absence of a common terminology; the conflict between ‘temporary’ versus ‘durable’ solutions; the disconnect between technical advisers and the field; the need for greater recognition of local coping strategies and the local context; the involvement of recipients and host governments in policy development; the need for better ‘how-to’ guidance; and the limited incorporation of the emerging themes of livelihoods etc. to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blinkered insistence upon formalistic modelling has prevented economics from developing in a way that helps us understand the world in which we live. There are alternative approaches to the study of economics that do not use the formal, often closed-form, models that contemporary mainstream academic economists rely upon. These provide a more promising avenue for future teaching and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial liberalization policies in the 1990s were intended to raise formal sector interest rates, enhance competition and expand access for users. This article investigates patterns of provision and use in a local financial market in Karatina, Kenya, at the end of the 1990s after a period of financial and economic liberalization. It takes a holistic approach, examining both formal and informal financial arrangements and microfinance interventions. This is because the role of the informal financial sector is particularly important for poor people and has received relatively little attention in the discussion of the consequences of reform. The author does this using a ‘real’ markets approach that sees markets as socially regulated and structured. Significant provision by the mutual sector (formal and informal), and poor lending performance by the banking sector is explained through an examination of the characteristics of the services on offer and their embeddedness in social relations, culture and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable development (SD) strategies of two successive French governments, led by Prime Ministers Jospin (1997–2002) and Raffarin (from 2002), are compared and analysed in relation to three debates: (i) the influence of institutional settings and levels of continuity between international, European and national policy frameworks; (ii) compatibility between SD policy frames, national policy style and institutional capacity and (iii) relationships between traditional political discourses and SD discourse. Difficulties in achieving a good ‘fit’ are identified in each of these areas, explanations are offered and implications for future developments outlined. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government policy has long linked resource production with economic development in surrounding rural communities. The purpose of this article is to examine how the 's (USFS) resource-based, rural development policies have shifted due to economic restructuring and environmental challenges to the “management” of nature. Historical data was gathered on USFS timber harvests and policies toward forest-dependent communities. Data was also gathered through interviews and participant-observation on a USFS-supported, locally planned ecotourism project. USFS rural development policies have shifted from predominantly providing federally determined, sustained timber harvests in the industrial era to increasingly emphasizing local, amenity-based entrepreneurship and economic diversification in the post-industrial era. USFS rural development policies and resource production have been de-coupled. However, amenity-based development may depend both on amenity migrants and sustained commitment from external sources to support local initiative, given limited entrepreneurship in rural areas long dependent on high-wage extraction and manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite being a relatively modest document that commits the government to little that is new, the PRSP is quite a significant innovation in the context of Tanzania. The PRSP approach has brought poverty reduction policy into line with the fiscal framework, promoted a more participatory approach to public policy–making and helped the government to adopt a policy of eliminating primary school fees. However, this article argues, the difference that this makes can be overstated. Much depends on the completion of complementary reforms in the management of the public services and local government. Expectations about the PRSP process therefore need to be carefully managed, keeping firmly in mind that commitment to poverty reduction is a political and not a technocratic issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the effect of rapid growth of Internet on the future industrial growth in China. According to the author the global economy has been profoundly affected by the use of the Internet. China's Internet is the fastest expanding market in Asia. The number of Internet users in China doubled every six months in the last two years. Studies show that most barriers to the wider distribution of network technology tend to fall into three broad categories, that are, government policies and regulations, technical impediments, and cultural factors. After a brief description of the background of Internet growth, a number of key factors facilitating this growth in China are examined. A key factor in China's fast Internet growth is the stimulating role played by the Chinese government in promoting the Internet in China. Believing that Internet and e-commerce would facilitate China's integration into the global information economy and enhance the government's administrative efficiency, the central government's first move was to launch the "Golden Projects" to build the national information infrastructure.

Surveys of social attitudes are revealing a perhaps unprecedented paradox: a booming economy but persistent community disquiet. The puzzling coincidence is fuelling interest in what is perhaps the ultimate public policy question: is life getting better - or worse? The relationship between economic growth and human development is not as clear-cut as conventional wisdom and government policy assume. Public opinion surveys suggest that the driving dynamic in Australia and other Western societies in the early decades of the new century will be a growing tension between values and lifestyles. How this tension is resolved will fundamentally determine national and global futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is a trade-off between the social benefits of regulation and the economic benefits of development inevitable? We argue that environmental regulation may deter economic growth in some contexts, however, in other contexts the benefits of regulation may be obtained with little or no economic loss. We develop an explanation of the economic impacts of state environmental policy based on a model of public influence on private resource allocation decisions. In this model, we assume utility-maximizing firms will make investment choices based upon the projected profits on their investments and their willingness to accept the risk associated with the investments. We assert that state policies and administrative institutions influence perceptions of risk by increasing or decreasing uncertainty over future environmental policy and influence return on investments at particular locations by affecting firm-level production costs. Our results confirm that certain administrative arrangements for environmental regulation may enhance, rather than impede, economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of a new millennium is a useful time to ponder the role of the state in human affairs, considering the gains and failures of the past as prologue to the future. In the twentieth century, state power acquired new capabilities for destruction but strong states also spurred economic growth, helped to increase living standards dramatically, and thus allowed citizens more comfort and leisure to pursue their own interests. In the context of these contrasts, a number of questions naturally arise. How much power should the leaders of states be allowed to exercise, and under what circumstances should do so? For countries as apparently diverse as Mexico, Argentina, and the United States, it turns out that a significant variation in party preference is determined by ideology, reaching as high as 42 per cent in the case of the United States. Carlos Elordi shows that people from high socio-economic status backgrounds generally vote for parties on the right, support a smaller state, resist government regulation, and oppose government policies designed to engineer greater economic and social equality.

The article focuses on rural sociological research and social policy. Rural sociologists, perhaps more than other social scientists, have a long tradition of belief that their work should be "applied," that is, their research should have an impact on social policy decisions relevant to pressing social problems. As recently as the 1972 annual meeting, this position was reiterated by the current president of the Rural Sociological Society Thomas Ford, who stated: "If there is anything that has set the Runt Sociological Society apart from organizations of other sociologists, it has been the deeply ingrained belief that sociology should be applied to the basic problems of rural society." In light of this belief, it is surprising to see that the most provoking and visible analysis of rural life comes from outside the social science academic community in general, and outside rural sociology in particular. Most sociological research is so trivial from a social policy perspective that art analysis of its impact would be meaningless. President Ford may also have been alluding to the problem of limited relevance when he made the following observation regarding the belief of rural sociologists in applied research. The failure to convert that belief into more effective action has at times made it appear more of a myth than a credo. Regardless of whether one accepts this particular characterization of rural sociology, few would deny that "Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times," has a visibility and therefore a potential for social policy impact shared by little if any rural sociological research.

The Multi-function Polis proposal has aroused a mixture of interest, enthusiasm, controversy and opposition. The nomination of Adelaide as the site for the polis represents an important threshold in the process of the city's development. A feasibility and consultation program is now under way to examine the proposal's practicality, viability and degree of support. This article examines why the Adelaide submission of May 1990 took the form it did. It places that account within constructs of planning and policy development processes dealing with strategic choices in conditions of considerable uncertainty. These are particularly appropriate where complex, iterative and interacting discussions take place between governments and other participants in such a forward-looking and ambiguous concept as the MFP. The Adelaide submission used the choice of a location suitable and sufficient for the MFP, together with the definition of some of the characteristics of the MFP settlement to focus its argument for the project. These were associated with the functions contained in the MFP concepts, and the developmental work that was going on in various areas concerning the future economy of Adelaide. In this way, the whole of Adelaide, a medium-sized metropolis characterised by easy access and communication, has been seen as the location within which a distinctive new suburb would be developed to focus the activities associated with the MFP. The South Australian government is now involved in a program to assess the physical, economic, social, and environmental impacts and associations of this new polis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of government in securing economic growth and national development through the education industry. The education industry is claimed to have been performing an important part in one country's growth because it provides the government with an additional avenue, and that of human resources. Because of this important part, the government is nevertheless obliged to increase the education industry's competitiveness, productivity and cost efficiency. It must introduce technology-related government policies and large-scale programs that are effective enough for the improvement of education. Better financial allocation for the said industry is also hinted.

The article focuses on the development of the policy analysis related to food and agricultural industry in the U.S. It is stated that policy analysis and science are in a symbiotic relationship as economics and politics attempt to define questions for study and for alternative solutions. It implies the relevance of educational institutions in producing the analysts of tomorrow and officials who attempt to demonstrate to their fellow citizens that government can be a competent, creative and even exciting place to work.

The article explores the role of the economist in the process of establishing public policy that regulates the food and agricultural industry in the U.S. According to Jim Shaffer, the economic regulation results from the attempt of citizens to articulate preferences about the physical and social environment they share. It is stated that economists must look for specific issues that will lead to useful and effective regulation policy research and education through identifying the production and marketing processes. The economists are advised to be active in developing and refining the public policy of regulation that needs careful empirical analysis of defined issues.

The article outlines a transition from active intervention to a more passive response by the British Government in its grain market of the seventeenth century. It is often easier to assess the reasons for government action than for government inaction, since action is frequently accompanied by justifications whilst inaction is cloaked in documentary silence. Much has always had to be inferred, but some inferences are perhaps more soundly based than others. It is wrong to think that the Privy Council was losing faith in intervention before the end of the sixteenth century; the early 1630s saw the most intensive (and last) attempt to intervene comprehensively. Nor, possibly, can one argue that the subsequent disappearance of the old-style dearth program can be explained in terms of the disappearance of the Privy Council. An opportunity for the latter to intervene was presented in 1637/8, before its abolition, and small executive councils never totally disappeared. There is not very convincing evidence for the view that changes in London's needs and role influenced directly the timing of the policy changes.

The article assesses the influence of government policy on the lack of economic success not only in tropical Africa but in most other colonies as well. It considers first the connexion between domestic British economic problems and the promotion of colonial economic development. It follows by an analysis of the work of the Colonial Development Advisory Committee, a body formed in 1929 to spend up to £1 million a year on colonial economic development. In the third section of the article, the author discusses the long-term economic policies of the local governments and the Colonia Office.

The effects that politics, government structure, and economic standards have upon federal water resources planning are examined. Water resources policy decisions are treated as a product of political demands which, in turn, are examined as a product of the direct or indirect stakes, or perception thereof, in a policy. Government structure also affects decisions, since it affects political access and, subsequently, power as well as the administrative capacity of government. Economic standards, such as a requirement that water projects contribute to national economic development, arise within a political context. Formulation of federal water resources policy is essentially a political process that is conditioned to some extent by government structure and planning standards such as economic requirements. Thus, recommendations to improve the product of this process must take into account its essential nature. Examples are drawn from the western reclamation and water pollution experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a review of five recent works on Scandinavian politics and public policy, it is shown that the basis for talking about a Scandinavian model is unfounded. Politics and policies diverge from country to country and within each country from sector to sector as a result of institutional variation. This variation is embedded in institutional history which accounts for strong national path dependency in public policies. However, the institutional set-up at a given point in time also provides political actors with incentives for change. Two of the works reviewed take up this lead as they argue for institutional reform, in one case to protect the welfare state against political erosion, in the other case to facilitate renewed economic growth and improved living standards. The review concludes by arguing for the positive prospects for systematic comparative analysis of Scandinavian politics, providing a mixture of institutional and political similarities combined with theoretically relevant variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between voters' support for the government and thirteen items tapping their evaluation of the economic situation is analyzed. One data set is collected under Conservative rule and another under Social Democratic rule. The answers are first aggregated into three factors. Two are egotropic: the economic situation of the family, and its unemployment situation. One is sociotropic: worry about the economic development in the country. The impact of the first is strongly significant, and greater than found in comparable studies. The impact of the second is mostly significant, while the impact of the third is the least reliable. We have thus found a clear case of pocketbook voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of the literature on the party-policy link suggests a weak, non-existent or even perverse relationship between parties in government and governmental policies in Belgium. It is argued that this weak relationship could be due to the methodology applied in this type of research, i.e. the treatment of the party variable on a much too high level of aggregation. The relative strength of the coalition parties, the parties' general ideological profile on a specific moment, the relative strength of the factions within the parliamentary party and in the Cabinet are not taken into account. On the other hand, several organisational factors with regard to the relation between parties, parliamentary groups, ministers and the administration tend to facilitate the impact of parties on policies in Belgium. Interview data with ministers suggest that the policy variable also needs further disaggregation. In particular, the qualitative aspects of policies should be more closely investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In concluding a recent analysis of the conditions for trade union wage restraint, Cohn Crouch asks 'what neocorporatist unions gain for their members in exchange for restraint'?. An attempt to answer this question is made, first by examining a range of policy outcome' which may be regarded as measures of possible union gains, and, second, by analyzing the problem in terms of indexes measuring possible trade-offs between union objectives. It is suggested that an analysis in these latter terms offers a far more cogent explanation of trade union wage restraint than can be provided by looking at policy outcome measures separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuing interest of governments around the world in privatizing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is making privatization policy an important instrument for promoting market-oriented approaches to economic development. Privatization has become an integral part of administrative reform in former centrally planned socialist economies, developing countries, and post-industrial societies. More than a decade of experience with privatization provides lessons that can help governments to plan, implement and manage the process more efficiently, effectively, and responsively. The framework for managing privatization described here draws from lessons of that experience to define the forms, scope and pace of privatization, choose organizational structures for management, identify macropolicy and institutional reforms necessary to facilitate privatization, and develop management procedures for implementing privatization programmes successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the administrative bottlenecks presented in this Special Issue appear obvious, perceptions of them are confused with unanswerable questions of organization, policy, procedure, and technology. This leads to contradictory conclusions and the so-called 'mysteries of development'. To separate out what we can generalize about from what we cannot, a 'political software' approach is suggested, using the common sense steps that a serious, enlightened, and experienced businessperson might take in facilitating a development project. Combining these steps or requirements into 'the theory of political elasticity', we can see why violations of them lead to the bottlenecks illustrated in this issue. While reform is difficult, the effort must be made, encouraged by examples of success. The World Bank can play a useful role, if it can insist and build upon the borrower's commitment to reform and use a learning process approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most contemporary states ethnic conflict provides the context in which public administration (PA) must operate, the intermediary between the state and economic development. These relationships -- hitherto neglected in most PA and economic development literature -- are manifested both in the internal structures of PA (recruitment practices to government and government-related positions) and by government policies and programs that allocate resources and services differentially among members of competing ethnic communities. As PA tends to reflect the interests of the dominant ethnic community, aggrieved communities mobilize to demand redress, in the form of self-determination or more equitable treatment, by civil or violent means. Inter-ethnic or ethnic-state relationships may be regulated through PA by systematic preferences, individual market-merit processes, or power sharing arrangements. These alternatives are complicated by differential perceptions of what constitutes fairness and by intra-ethnic tensions and divisions. How PA in pursuit of economic development influences and is influenced by ethnic politics calls for enhanced attention by scholars and analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pressing public policy question, particularly since the advent of intense international economic competition from Asian countries in the 1980's, has been whether the institutions of government play a necessary and special role in industrial development and technological innovation. This question has been debated at length since the early 1970's. The debate has grown more heated in recent years, with prominent economists arguing for and against government involvement and the creation of an industrial policy. It has also received increased attention in theoretical and empirical research by various scholars. In particular, empirical studies of the remarkable progress of Japan and other Pacific Rim countries have cited government policy as a major factor in that success. These arguments are compelling, but much remains to be done before the empirical case incontrovertibly linking industrial policy to economic growth is established. The article focuses on the question of economic development, government policy and technological innovation in a particular technological domain — computing technology — and in a particular region-the Asia-Pacific region. INSET: Variables and framework.;Data and analysis..

Copyright of Canadian Public Administration 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 Public Administration 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 Public Administration 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.)

Economic development policy has a long history in the U.S. cities. Nevertheless, the scope and pace of local government economic development activity has increased greatly in recent years. One of the explanations for the adoption of economic development policies by local government is a response to economic need. A second set of explanations link the adoption of economic development policies to the activity of a pro-growth coalition of city elites and business interests. Finally, a third set of explanations suggest that particular institutional arrangements may make a difference in determining whether cities will be likely to adopt particular economic development policies.

Newly emerging state level economic development plans have begun to place unprecedented emphasis on the support of small business. Such an emphasis constitutes a radical departure from previous policies, which tended to focus on enticing large manufacturing firms to locate a new plant within a particular state. Several state and local governments have recognized the need to form entrepreneurial networks and most state level industrial plans provide at least rhetorical support for the concept of coordinating a network of individuals interested in new ventures.

From the mid-1970s forward, the industrial heartland of the U.S. experienced economic decline. First one industry and then another has gone into a pattern of decline either as a result of the industrial life cycle or international competition. These processes have eroded the traditional Midwestern base of heavy and durable goods manufacture until regional unemployment levels have climbed well above national averages. Not surprisingly, this decline has stimulated state and local governments to seek means of reversing economic decline. In short, the purpose of this article is to assess the impact of a set of incentives in a manner different from the traditional approaches and to test whether previous conclusions might be methodologically bound.

This article uses data from 15 U. S. cities to explore the ways in which the use of subjective measures of service satisfaction can redirect distributional research from the question of who gets how much to the more policy-relevant question of who gets how much of what is needed. It suggests a useful approach to the use of subjective indicators to provide more valid and meaningful measures in distributional research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on a statutorily authorized economic floor related to the provision of physical necessities required for the attainment of individual welfare. Such a standard would provide with a rough idea of equality in that the material base of society would be put at a level agreed to be commensurate with the development and realization of the individual's potential. A national income and services policy would provide us with the basis for the realization of the foregoing ideal.

The article presents information on country planning, development policies and the future of rural areas. In the field of rural sociology, and even more so when it comes to defining national and regional policies, the concepts generally applied are vague and actions are undertaken on an empirical rather than a doctrinaire basis. In Europe since the beginning of the 1950s, rural areas have undergone a process of re-evaluation. After centuries of neglect, the countryside has started to occupy a much more positive place in the preoccupations and projects of the wider society. But this process has come up against obstacles which are structurally inherent to these areas and which can be summed up by the notion of low value and the dispersal of human and economic resources. From the geographical point of view, the very nature of these areas and their infrastructures is not congenial to the development of modern activities. All these factors might lead us to conclude that in reality, as well as in the way it is represented, the rural world remains stigmatized by its age-old inferiority.

This article presents information regarding the factors influencing development in the developing countries. Parallel to the characteristics of economic development and values, income and aspired levels of living will be considered as they are directly influenced by development and changes in values. But, beyond that, from the exposition of changes in agro-economy, income and values we shall turn to a discussion of some significant motivational and social integrational factors. The attitudes which show qualitative differences between modern societies and modernizing ones with feudal traditional bases are, taking initiative for a better future, and offering rational reasons for success and improvement of conditions of life instead of fatalism, resignation and submission to authority. In the area of expectations and recognition of need and desire for improving their condition, it is clear that both villages are positively future-oriented. In addition to rational and modern expectations and desires for the future, opinions concerning the ways to reach such goals are also nonfatalistic.

Several authors have presented data which they argue is indicative of the effects of economic development on demographic processes. Others have tended to equate the economic well-being of a population with economic development and argue that economic well-being has a positive effect on demographic processes. Such promulgations, we believe, have largely been responsible for the advancement of what has been called the myth of economic determinism with respect to demographic processes, particularly fertility and mortality. To counter the determinist myth several authors in the last few years have suggested that the level of economic development is only one aspect of a more general process which demographers, economists and sociologists have labeled modernization. While this concept appears to be intuitively appealing its meaning appears to remain quite nebulous. For instance, it has been noted that the concept has been applied to various units including international, societal, community and individual.

SUMMARY As a result of inadequacies in the traditional approach to location problems a new body of thought has emerged in recent years which centers on the notion of development poles (po̧les de croissance). This concept was first put forth systematically by F. PERROUX, though it now has come into use in many countries in both theoretical discussions and public policy programs.-The present article examines the often ambiguous uses which have been made of development pole theory and evaluates some of its principal strengths and weaknesses as a tool of economic analysis. Attention also is given to the related concepts of economic space and economic domination. Among the problems of development pole theory are its emphasis upon big industrial undertakings, its relationship to external economies of agglomeration, its relationship to public policy goals, and its need for semantic clarification. Nevertheless, the theory remains potentially valuable for conditional analysis of the process of regional development; moreover, it may be expected that French regional planning experience will provide data in the near future for refining the approach to rational spatial resource allocation to which French economists have so largely contributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the attention given to economic development recently, it is appropriate to re-examine the works of an early pioneer in the field, economist John R. Commons. As an economist of the Institutionalist School, he insisted that cultural forces, legal institutions, religious influences, social customs, and many other ever-changing factors now considered by modern developmental economists, be included in the field of economics. Commons would have the State, play the role of the wise and kindly father. It would jealously guard the welfare of its citizens by maintaining a healthy economic climate. By monetary means, it would keep the economy on an even keel. Through all types of trouble, it would protect the workers by providing them with security of incomes by means of a comprehensive social security program. Yet, like the wise father, the State would limit its interference with the activities of its citizens. It would refrain from imposing such direct controls as would seriously reduce the area of the citizen's freedom.

The article focuses on communist China's economic growth. The purpose of this article is to throw light on communist China's asserted economic growth by comparing it with that of the Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Japan. This is not to minimize in any way the Indian development, which has been rapid during the Nineteen Fifties and which has given very encouraging evidence to Asia of what can be accomplished with free institutions. It is merely an attempt to put Communist China's claimed economic progress back into focus. It should be emphasized that this article does not intend to analyze how effective the Chinese communists have been in improving their military potential even though this appears to be a primary aim of their economic policy. Instead this report intends to outline an approach for analyzing the relative effectiveness of the Chinese communist system in promoting economic growth; it is this latter question that appears to be most hotly debated. It appears that many analysts are convinced that just because a regime can hold down consumption, theoretically it should, therefore, be promoting a large volume of sound investment and a huge growth potential.

The article discusses the differential theory of rent, inseparably associated with the economist David Ricardo. This theory afforded Ricardo a tool for demonstrating the progressive redistribution of income in favor of the landlord in the process of economic development. This phenomenon he viewed with alarm since the capitalist class was considered the mainspring of economic progress. Concomitantly, Ricardo developed the now fundamental proposition that a tax on rent cannot be shifted. Yet he did not advocate such a tax. Instead he devoted his energies to repeal of the Corn Laws which he considered as raising rents unduly. Ricardo believed subjecting land-rent to taxation would misallocate resources as the tax would lower the price of land, and because of the indefinite nature and uncertain risk of this tax, land would thus become a fit choice for speculation, falling in the hands of those who possess more the qualities of a gambler, than the qualities of the sobers minded proprietor, who is likely to employ his land to the greatest advantage.

The article reflects on the timeliness of the topic of ecosystem services (ES) in the arena of agricultural policy in the U.S. According to the author, policies and programs founded in ES science and economics can provide genuine alternatives to decades of commodity-based federal farm policy. The evolution of agricultural policy as it transforms to incorporate ES measures and transactions is uncertain. It will be marked by analytic challenges and policy retreats to old ways. ES assessments will enable budget allocation, planning and priority setting on the part of public agencies.

Presents an overview of articles on economic policy agenda for the 21st century. Definition of the U.S. economic policy agenda; Analysis of the challenges of stimulating economic growth in Europe; Examination of the changes in European competition policy.

We use the data from World Bank Global Findex for the year 2011 , 2014 and 2017 to understand financial inclusion in India, at the same time we compare India's situation with the other BRICS nations. We fathom the fact that financial inclusion is definitely the way forward for an economy to achieve inclusive growth. Financial inclusion is just not an economic concept rather it is termed as a socio‐economic concept, as it helps people have a security for future life through access to education and health facility, a secure future and better standard of living. In India we see the barriers to inclusion are predominately caused by voluntary exclusion, and though policies will help to reach out but the ultimate goal of financial inclusion could be only achieved through improving awareness and financial literacy in India. Thus financial inclusion should be backed by financial literacy to get the best results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the East African Community (EAC) five heads have agreed to the creation of the East African Common Market to advance commerce. EAC Secretary General Juma Mwapachu says that the heads of the partner states of EAC have committed to the agreement as a gift to the residents in the region's 10th anniversary. To add, it cites that the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan plan to join the group in addressing common developmental concerns.

The article reports that Rwanda has a real, consistent growth of more than five percent between 1994 and 2004, which is the second highest in Africa. Rwanda's economic development vision is based on a philosophy that sees the establishment of security as a precondition for growth and shared economic growth as the only guarantor of long-term security. This vision extends beyond its borders, the Rwanda's integration into the East African Community, as well as its contributions to African Union and the United Nations efforts in Darfur and the Comoros have cemented this new direction.

The article reports that the government in Zimbabwe has been extending commandist economic measures in a bid to cut down inflation and assure there are goods to buy. To boost service deliveries by ministries, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe said that more money will be printed, repeating a new regular cycle by the central bank. It is stated that the government has set aside ZD30 billion to revive the defunct State Trading Corp. to run firms that have either collapsed or were seized. Moreover, the government has also raised the price of its major forex earner, gold, in a bid to curb smuggling and cover soaring production costs.