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Migration substantially results in economic benefits. The agricultural, manufacturing, and service sectors are increasingly reliant on low-wage migrant labour, according to both substantial studies and smaller-scale, on-the-ground assessments. Employers can more easily "hire and fire" migrants since they are the most adaptable labour category. As a result, many people travel to Kerala each year to work as seasonal labourers. They play a significant part in the growth and survival of Kerala's economy. Changes in the labour market, increased tax income for the government, and overall economic expansion are connected with worker movement. To examine the current pattern of worker migration and the availability of local workers in rural economies. The researcher selected a descriptive research technique that relied heavily on secondary sources to gain a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. Publications such as books, newspapers, journals, articles, and internet platforms such as blogs and wikis are examples of secondary sources. This article examines the frequency and relevance of migrant workers in the state's current labour market and the availability of local labour in Kerala's informal rural labour market. By segmenting the labour market in Kerala by industry, this study will assist in determining the extent to which migrants have affected the state's economy. The rural Indian labour market has shifted from agriculture to service and industrial industries. The number of persons employed in manufacturing and services is growing yearly, while employment in agriculture is deteriorating. The government is in trouble because poor people are willing to perform physical labour. There was a need for low-cost physical labour in Kerala; therefore, migrant workers from other countries arrived to fill the need. Without the assistance migrant workers give in areas with a severe shortage of local staff, firms would fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UK community finance institutions play an important role in deprived neighbourhoods by serving households and businesses unable to access mainstream finance. This paper analyses the short-term effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the activities and sustainability of the community finance sector by analysing longitudinal survey data for 40 providers and follow-up interviews with 25 organisations. COVID-19 resulted in an acceleration of the shift to online service delivery and temporary and permanent branch closures among community finance institutions. Further, the demand for, and volume and value of lending fell significantly during the first lockdown only recovering by the end of the summer 2020. This resulted in lower income, greater costs and lower regulatory ratios. Smaller providers in a weak financial position with more financially vulnerable customers were worst affected by the pandemic. We argue the pandemic may reduce access to finance for the financially excluded through the intensification of the shift to online services and by increasing the risk of providers serving the poorest folding or being merged with larger providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to measure the direction and magnitude of the influence of education levels, economic growth, allocation of government expenditure, and the number of poor people unemployed in Bali in 2017-2020. The analysis method used is the Panel Least Square (PLS) regression method with cross sections covering 8 regencies and 1 city in Bali province, namely: Jembrana Regency, Tabanan Regency, Badung Regency, Gianyar Regency, Klungkung Regency, Bangli Regency, Karangasem Regency, Buleleng Regency, Denpasar City. And this research uses a time series starting from 2017-2020. Independent variables used to explain the factors influencing the unemployment rate are the level of education, economic growth, goverment expenditure allocation, and the number of poor people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study provides a new conceptual framework to account for pro-poor economic development. • This is achieved by extending political settlements analysis with a critical investigation of growth–poverty linkages. • We apply this framework to the recent trajectories of Laos and Rwanda. • We show to what extent Laos and Rwanda have implemented pro-poor development strategies and how they have done so. • This is the first comparative study of the political economy of Laos and Rwanda. Political settlements analysis is a framework that helps us understand different development trajectories. While it has been used to study the politics of pro-poor growth, there has been little explicit engagement with the economic mechanisms that may alleviate or reproduce poverty. This article extends the political settlements approach to that effect and presents a new, integrated framework to account for pro-poor economic development by conceptualizing political conditions as well as key mechanisms – employment and social provision – linking growth and poverty. This framework is empirically applied to scrutinize two recent development 'success stories', those of Laos and Rwanda. Both countries have emerged from a violent past to record over two decades of fast economic growth. The paper assesses how they have done so and to what extent their development strategies have been pro-poor. We demonstrate that the combination of economic growth and of centralized and ideologically committed ruling coalitions has enabled large-scale investments in social service provision that have spearheaded significant reductions in multidimensional poverty in Laos and Rwanda. Moreover, key governance capabilities have enabled both countries to achieve a certain degree of structural change. Yet, this change has been misdirected to extractive industries and hydropower (Laos) and high-end services (Rwanda) with weak employment and limited forward and backward linkages, compounded by a relative lack of productivity growth in the historically more relevant agricultural and manufacturing sectors. This has intensified land pressures and vulnerability, leading to increased inequality in Laos and sustaining already high levels of inequality in Rwanda. Using the ambitious conception of pro-poor development that underpins our integrated framework, we problematize these growth trajectories and argue that neither of them has been pro-poor. We recommend that researchers advance political settlements analysis to examine and strengthen the possibilities for social justice-oriented and bottom-up pro-poor development strategies more systematically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's political economy and economic policies can no longer be understood in a purely domestic-oriented or closed economy framework. This paper offers an "India in the world" framework that analyzes how traditional borders of domestic political economy and international politics interact in shaping domestic policy and political economy. In contrast to existing political economy approaches on India, such a framework pays attention to the changing nature of domestic political economy but also how international factors affect and shape domestic imperatives and goals. Simultaneously, domestic developments have important global consequences in terms of increasing (or decreasing) global attention and external economic flows to India, which must be attended to in understanding India's domestic political economy. I also suggest that the global world is not only a set of exogenous structures and constraints, but rather, the changing global order is deployed and used by state actors to refurbish their political and state power to achieve both domestic and global aims. However, if state actors fail to renew the domestic sources of growth or contribute to crony capitalist or debt-laden domestic growth, then, even attending to global alliances may fail to renew the economic sources of state power and create serious contradictions in India's domestic and global strategies despite new realignments favoring India at the global level. These ideas help us understand Modi regime's political economy in a new way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze how India's climate change policy is framed, formulated and implemented and argue that it requires carefully balancing of domestic and international interests. Given the country's population size, composition and projected economic growth, India will, in the next few years, see its most significant energy demand upsurge along with a massive need for infrastructure. As projected by the International Energy Agency, "nearly 60% of its CO2 emissions in the late 2030s will be coming from infrastructure and machines that do not exist today". As a result, policy choices made today by India's decision-makers and international negotiators will have severe implications for the world. This paper analyzes global emission trends, climate change impacts and India's international and domestic climate policies—from Paris to Glasgow and New Delhi to rural India. Furthermore, we examine the core constraints that Indian policymakers face and draw attention to shortcomings in India's climate change policies, particularly concerning continued investment in coal despite the country's widely lauded efforts to embrace renewables. We argue that fossil fuel subsidies are a delicate political issue with significant implications for many election-determining poor citizens—hence accompanying "just transition" measures are essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, Congress created the Opportunity Zone ("OZ") program to stimulate economic growth in low-income communities. The program was characterized by its unprecedented scale relative to previous place-based development efforts and was described as "perhaps the most ambitious economic development tool to come out of Congress in a generation." However, the program was quickly criticized on numerous grounds, and its design flaws are so severe that several legislators have called for its reform or repeal. This Essay argues that the root of the OZ program's problems is a strong mismatch between its stated purpose and its actual terms. We discuss how the OZ program works and why the actual terms of its enabling legislation encourage investors to focus on real estate projects. We show that, contrary to common perceptions of the OZ program, its intended purpose was to promote entrepreneurship and startup activity. We conduct an empirical analysis to show that low-income tracts did not experience any increase in startup investment following OZ designation. Overall, our results suggest that OZ designation has generally failed to achieve its stated goal and that the serious concerns about its manipulability to favor specific investors are warranted. Finally, we consider various proposals to make the OZ program more consistent with its original goal and briefly note how the legislative process behind the OZ statute may have contributed to its shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty is a significant disease in economic development. Thus, the main objective of a country's economic development is to reduce the number of poor people by increasing gross regional domestic product, investment, regional spending, and infrastructure. The purpose of this study is to see and analyze the impact of an increase in gross regional domestic product, investment, regional spending, and infrastructure improvements on the number of poor people. This study uses panel data regression with path analysis. This method can explain the correlated variables by using a sequential model temporarily and identify the path of the cause of a particular variable to other variables that are influenced by it. Data sources come from the Central Bureau of Statistics and Bank Indonesia from 34 provinces in 2015-2019. The study results indicate that an increase in investment and regional spending indirectly affects the reduction of the number of poor people through an increase in the gross regional domestic product. Investment, exchange rates, road length, human development index, and regional spending affect economic growth. Regional expenditure and total population directly affect the number of poor people, while investment does not directly affect the number of poor people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of evidence suggests that support for a strong non-democratic leader is driven, in part, by low economic development and economic inequality at the country level, and low income and interpersonal trust at the individual level. In the current research, we tested the hypothesis that although such a pattern predicts support for a strong non-democratic leader in democracies, it should produce decreased support for a strong non-democratic leader in non-democracies (where the presence of such leaders is the political status quo). Using three waves of World Values Survey data (2005-2020), as predicted, we found that in democracies, low economic development, high inequality, and low interpersonal trust predicted support for a strong non-democratic leader. However, in non-democracies, support for a strong non-democratic leader was higher in more economically developed countries and among individuals with higher social trust. These results contradict modernization theory's proposition that development promotes support for democratic rule and suggest that economic development reinforces support for the existing political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As this article is less about charity per se than it is about the relationships between place and institutional policies of benevolence, my intention is to look at how practices and laws of public charity operated in a city whose economic and social geography was changing after 1700, when the streets were populated with vulnerable people driven into poverty and when the subjects of pauperism and poor laws "engaged the attention of the legislature with increasing frequency" (Purdy 287). This article looks at the modus operandi of private and public philanthropic societies in eighteenth-century London in order to observe how both religious- and secular-driven charitable societies were motivated by the same goal of social reform, whether prompted by the Enlightenment or religious values. While the notion of Pietas Londinensis indicated the existence of various operating charities and casual philanthropic acts in the London area, charitable institutions had not been set up until the eighteenth century. In late Stuart and Georgian Britain charitable, London was shaped both by economic forces and by the various cultural meanings people attached to its space, and this new paradigm transferred all matters concerning the poor from parochial obligation to civic responsibility. The article will focus on the mechanisms which made this transfer possible while considering acts of public charity and philanthropic societies that emerged in the long eighteenth century, from hospitals and infirmaries to almshouses and charity schools, with a view to observing the changes in English mentality as a result of charitable activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is facing a very strange situation whereby it wants to take the growth to higher level to cause prosperity so that revenue could affect the lives of the people trapped in the low income and poverty. But the fact the human development is lacking very badly. The economy is craving for structural reforms in agriculture and industrial sector. Enough has been done in the corporatization which is keeping the upper echelon in good conditions but could not do sufficient for who are not contributing towards the economic development as much as expected from them. Therefore inclusive development is called for changing the growth strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the effect of MSMEs on poverty reduction, both directly and indirectly, through labor absorption from 1997 to 2018. The poverty measurements used in this study comprise Head Count Index (P0), Poverty Gap Index (P1), and Poverty Severity Index (P2), while the MSMEs are classified based on their scales, which are small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro-small enterprises (MSEs). Control variables, such as economic growth, openness, government expenditure, and investment, are also covered in this model. In general, the results show that MSMEs statistically affect poverty reduction in Indonesia both directly and indirectly. Nevertheless, different business scales offer various implications for poverty reduction. SMEs play a bigger role in alleviating poverty than MSEs as they reduce not only the percentage of poor people but also the Poverty Gap and Severity Index. Furthermore, of the four control variables, only economic growth has a significant effect on poverty reduction, both direct and indirect. Hence, policymakers should support the market certainty of SMEs products to sustain the production cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars point to landholding inequality as a root cause of the ''Great Divergence'' between rich and poor countries over the last few centuries. Large landowners who fear being eclipsed by the masses or rival industrial elites and seek to preserve social and economic rents underinvest in public goods, block rural–urban migration, and keep peasants poor and subservient. By eliminating large landowners and enabling new policy initiatives, extensive land reform holds potential to vastly and directly improve peasant livelihoods, facilitate human capital formation, and enhance economic and social mobility. We demonstrate that this failed to occur in Peru despite a sweeping land reform that redistributed half of all private land to peasants. Using original localized land reform data and a geographic regression discontinuity design that exploits unevenness in reform implementation, we show that greater land reform intensity in Peru generated more poverty and stunted human development. This occurred because land reform encouraged rural demographic stasis, generated widespread land informality and property rights instability, and reduced political competitiveness. Although the government's distortionary management of post-reform cooperatives certainly did not maximize their development potential, evidence suggests that Peru's land reform failed to promote development because of broader inherent features of the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Espacios is the property of Talleres de Impresos Oma 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.)

It's been over two decades since Alan Gibson and his Springfield colleagues conducted the original research for the Donor Committee on Enterprise Development (DCED) which led to the development of the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach. Over the last decade, application of the approach has expanded significantly and has been widely adopted in the development industry. Today we see it used in many sectors and by all types of organizations. While now more often referred to as 'market systems development' (MSD) or the 'systemic approach' than perhaps M4P, the basic tenet remains the same: facilitating change in the way market systems work so that poor people are included in the benefits of growth and economic development. Despite broad embrace of the M4P approach and a diverse experience with its application, there is both concern for the consistency with which different development actors use the approach and relatively little documented evidence of its impact. This Crossfire brings together two development experts - Prudence Beignet, an independent consultant who has worked with M4P doughnuts for many years, and Gareth Davies of Tandem, who has applied the approach in numerous countries from Nigeria to Zambia - to discuss the following questions: Many organizations say they are doing M4P but are they really using the tools and implementing the approach to its full potential? Have we advanced our thinking and the efficacy of the approach in the past 10+ years? What are the big issues no one is talking about?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial inclusion through microfinance is found to promote resilience strategies of the poor as it has become more demand sensitive. Extant literature suggests that there have been perceptible changes in the living conditions of the rural poor mainly on the economic side and relatively on the social side owing to the role of self-help groups (SHGs). Further, it is widely believed that SHGs have had a positive impact on the poverty levels and standards of living of the poor and more particularly on the economic empowerment of women. Given this context, this study reviews the financial diaries of the poor and provides evidence of the impact of financial inclusion program on the poor beneficiary households in India. More specifically, this study answers the specific question: what is the impact of SHGs on the annual income of the participating poor households. Based on stratified random sampling this study uses the nearest-neighbor matching method to construct the control groups to estimate the program impact. Keeping in view the stabilization of the financial inclusion program, this study covers the financial inclusion beneficiaries in the Shimoga district of Karnataka state in India for the period 2010 - 2015. Using the Paired-Sample t-test and the difference-in-difference approach, the study notices a significant positive change in the income levels of the beneficiaries resulting in the resilience of the poor households. This study notices perceptible changes in the living conditions of the rural poor mainly on the economic side and relatively on the social side owing to the role of SHGs. Financial inclusion has a positive impact on the poverty levels and standards of living of the poor and more particularly on the economic empowerment of women. This approach has enhanced the resilience of the poor households as there has been an increase in the mean annual income to the extent of 72% from the pre-SHG situation to the after-SHG impact. The results suggest that the financial inclusion is more beneficial in strengthening the resilience of the poor households particularly that of the downtrodden classes in India. Further, these findings provide direction for policymakers and practitioners involved in building and measuring changes in household resilience. This study implies that effective implementation of financial inclusion program has greater benefits and a win-win situation for all the stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the challenges faced by the economic growth in the China. It discusses the role of the Noble Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus in helping the needy and the poor people in the China. It also mentions the phases of inclusive finance development in China, along with information on the progress and deficiencies of inclusive finance in China.

Modern developed economies have a material abundance beyond the imagination of people living two centuries ago, yet for many the guaranteed ability to access that material abundance is more tenuous than ever. In the United States, a job loss or an illness can strip the family of all assets faster than a drought could destroy the livelihood of a nineteenth-century farmer. As a reaction to this, many young adults are choosing to delay or forego having children. The largest age demographic in the United States who live in poverty are children. Social Security is politically popular and has been successful at dramatically lowering poverty amongst the elderly. A similar policy could be equally successful for children. This article uses Consumer Expenditure Survey data to explore how a universal child allowance could decrease the number of children living in poverty and help all U.S. families with children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ensayos de Economia is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia 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.)

Abstract: Assuming an inelastic labor supply, existing studies show that a larger country has a higher wage rate and a higher individual income. We reexamine these results using a model with an endogenous labor supply and variable markups. We find that these results can be reversed. Specifically, in the larger country, the wage rate is lower but the individual income is higher if the love for variety is strong and trade costs are high. In contrast, the wage rate is higher but the individual income may be lower if the love for variety is weak and trade costs are low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Historical & Cultural Studies an Academic Magazine is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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 proposes that the reason why low-income families in developing nations are hesitant to shop at large supermarkets is because they feel a social or cultural attachment to the smaller local shopping environment. The author points out how opening large supermarkets that sell food for cheaper prices than the small stores would improve the economy by allowing the low-income families to retain some of their money. However, many of these stores open in more affluent neighborhoods, and cater to more monetary-inclined consumers. The author looks at certain consumer behaviors that lead to low-outreach of supermarkets, and the implications of this phenomenon.

Education emerged as a nearly uncontested development strategy to tackle several forms of social, political, economic and geographic inequalities in low- and middle-income countries. When it comes to the case of Uganda, the country represents a striking paradox. Significant investments and policy reforms in education (such as Universal Primary and Secondary Education) since 1997, did not translate into the expected results with regards to poverty reduction through human capital investment. Progress in poverty alleviation is not only stagnant but the role of education therein can be described as ‘modest’ at best. Against this backdrop, this article assesses the following research question: Why did Uganda’s investments and policy reforms in education not uplift the poor? In examining the issue, this article introduces a theoretical framework that contrasts assimilative with transformative approaches in poverty alleviation through education. A rigorous review of Uganda’s education sector plans revealed that current strategies to reduce poverty revolve around a strong assimilation-based development agenda, thereby focusing on three main areas of intervention: (a) increased access to education and retention; (b) improved quality of education; and (c) employment generation through education. The article finds that these assimilative approaches do not have an impact on the political, economic and social structures that cause poverty in the first place. Hence, it concludes that assimilative models in education are highly dependent on transformative approaches. Concretely, change cannot emerge only at the very grassroots level, i.e. through educating society at large, but also has to arise from the systemic level, i.e. government institutions at the local, national and global levels. Methodologically, the analysis draws on qualitative data that was collected in the course of two extensive field research stays in 2015 and 2017. In addition, quantitative data in the form of statistical abstracts inform the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political trust is often considered as legitimacy enhancing, but whether political trust is well-being enhancing is still underexplored. Using micro data from the East Asian Social Survey 2012, this study investigates the association between province-level/aggregate political trust and individual happiness in China, and explores the role of economic development in influencing individual political trust after the period of rapid growth in 1990-2010. Results show a positive and significant contextual effect of political trust on individual happiness in China, with the endogeneity problem addressed by an instrument variables method. Currently in China, it is a higher provincial rate of GDP growth rather than GDP per capita that predicts a higher level of political trust. Economic growth still significantly reinforces the level of individual political trust and even helps to raise individual political trust among economically disadvantaged populations. The “critical citizens” phenomenon has not yet grown into a nationwide trend. Since the positive contextual effect of political trust on individual subjective well-being, policy makers are encouraged to maintain the stock of political trust through good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This ground-breaking research defines a new approach for engaging low income and disenfranchised communities in the creative economy. The authors propose that demystifying creativity and reframing it as an adaptive productive process can lead to a flourishing of aspiration and potential among target communities. Through research in a low income community and among disabled people in Northern England, the authors found that focusing on rubrics of exploration, play and ‘purposeful meandering’ tackled anxieties around creative production and a lack of confidence and self-belief. This emphasis on all people as cultural producers however needs to connect with clearer pathways into the creative industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at adaptation to climate change from the point of view of (poor) households. Since the development literature has firmly established the role of weather risk as a source of income volatility for the poor, and climate change is expected to increase this risk, we review the range of risk-coping mechanisms available to poorer households, with a focus on possible barriers to adaptation. We ask both how government interventions affect the set of options available for adaptation and risk coping, and also what these adaptive responses imply for the prospects of sustainable development. Support for adaptation can involve efforts to make existing locations, livelihoods and forms of production more resilient to climate risk ( in-situ adaptation), or reductions in vulnerability through the geographical and sectoral mobility of the poor ( transformational adaptation). Our review shows how successful adaptation will need to strike a balance between the two forms of adaptation, avoiding locking-in unsustainable practices in locations that are already marginal from an economic perspective, and taking account of broader socio-economic trends already taking place in many developing countries (such as population growth and urbanisation). We also highlight important considerations for policy-makers, which to date have been relatively neglected in the literature, in particular related to the dynamic interaction between adaptation and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the validity of trickle‐down effect by using unbalanced panel data analysis for 65 countries in the period of 1995–2011. The estimation results point out that an increase in the incomes of the rich raises the incomes of the poor and vice versa. Nevertheless, it can clearly be seen that the contribution of the income transfer of the poor to the rich is more dominant than vice versa. Therefore, the invalidity of trickle‐down effect can be stated for 65 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since the site of human subjects research has public health, regulatory, ethical, economic, and social implications, we sought to determine the global distribution and migration of clinical research using an open-access trial registry. Methods: We obtained individual clinical trial data including location of trial sites, dates of operation, funding source (United States government, pharmaceutical industry, or organization), and clinical study phase (1, 1/2, 2, 2/3, or 3) from ClinicalTrials.gov. We used the World Bank's classification of each country's economic development status ["High Income and a Member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)", "High Income and Non-Member of the OECD", "Upper-Middle Income", "Lower-Middle Income", or "Low Income"] and United Nations Populations Division data for country-specific population estimates. We analyzed data from calendar year 2006 through 2012 by number of clinical trial sites, cumulative trial site-years, trial density (trial site-years/106 population), and annual growth rate (%) for each country, and by development category, funding source, and clinical study phase. Results: Over a 7-year period, 89,647 clinical trials operated 784,585 trial sites in 175 countries, contributing 2,443,850 trial site-years. Among those, 652,200 trial sites (83%) were in 25 high-income OECD countries, while 37,195 sites (5%) were in 91 lower-middle or low-income countries. Trial density (trial site-years/106 population) was 540 in the United States, 202 among other high-income OECD countries (excluding the United States), 81 among high-income non-OECD countries, 41 among upper-middle income countries, 5 among lower-middle income countries, and 2 among low-income countries. Annual compound growth rate was positive (ranging from 0.8% among low-income countries to 14.7% among lower-middle income countries) among all economic groups, except the United States (-0.5%). Overall, 29,191 trials (33%) were funded by industry, 4,059 (5%) were funded by the United States government, and 56,397 (63%) were funded by organizations. Countries with emerging economies (low- and middle-income) operated 19% of phase 3 trial sites, as compared to only 6% of phase 1 trial sites. Conclusion: Human clinical research remains concentrated in high-income countries, but operational clinical trial sites, particularly for phase 3 trials, may be migrating to low- and middle-income countries with emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the stability in Thailand in 2017 despite a decade-long political struggle. Topics include the slow economic growth in the country and its negative impact to the citizens, particularly to the middle-class and the poor, the political crisis in the country since 2005 and the role of the military in politics, and the influence of the military in Thai politics.

Abstract: Financial crises have detrimental impacts on the economy via depressed economic growth and rising unemployment, however, their impact on the poorest in society is relatively under‐researched. This paper investigates the impact of three different types of financial crises on the income of the poor. Using a variety of estimation techniques and controlling for a lagged dependent variable, the results suggest that currency crises are the most harmful to the poor, followed by banking crises. Debt crises only have a statistically significant effect on the income of the poor in richer countries. © 2017 The Authors Journal of International Development Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines urban-rural welfare inequality in Tunisia. Founded on the recentred influence function and quantile regression based counterfactual decomposition, we dissect the gap between the two areas. Results of the present study suggest that the difference between rural poor households and urban poor households is due essentially to characteristic effects; while for wealthier households both characteristic and returns to these characteristic effects (for example, efficiency of educational system) are responsible for this gap. Additionally, the results demonstrate that this is an issue of value, and, more specifically, an economic development fairness conflict. It is suggested that policymakers should address a positive discrimination programme in favour of the marginalized region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an increasing amount of research going beyond income-based approaches to social and economic development. Drawing closely on Sen’s capability approach to welfare economics, this article investigates whether the access to, and use of, informal and formal credit is associated with a higher quality of life among the poor in Hong Kong. Specifically, a new survey is constructed, reflecting key theoretical concepts from Sen and Nussbaum’s framework, and regression models are used to estimate relationships between life quality and financial services. Key empirical findings of the article include the existence of the unhappy borrower, the lower level of capability that borrowers have at home relative to those that do not borrow money and how credit is used has an effect on objective well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finance has always been considered as one of the important parameter of the growth for any economic activity. The economic growth of a country can be enlarged by using financial inclusion as a bridge that would facilitate fuller participation by weaker sections of the country. Financial inclusion is a system through which a developing country like India can attain inclusive growth by connecting the contribution of weaker or rural population of the country with the main stream. If there is an easy access of weaker section to the financial system of the country, country can move towards higher economic growth. In the available literature, it has been found that one or the other indicator is absent for different reasons. However, since each of the indicator is important for calculating the more comprehensive financial inclusion index. The main objective of this paper is to introduce an index that allows for a general overview of India in terms of financial inclusion. The index is calculated using three dimensions related to the measurement of the levels of access and usage of financial services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic Growth has been volatile in Pakistan; so is the case with poverty and inequality. It is a matter of great intellectual concern to know why growth has been pro-poor at some occasions of history in some specific regions while anti-poor in other areas. This paper disaggregates Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR) at urban-rural sectors of Pakistan and across its provinces to measures growth pro-poorness in both relative and absolute terms from 2001 to 2012. Results show an overall counteracting effect of increased inequality on growth elasticity of poverty at national level but with significant regional contrast. Growth at urban level is found pro-poor (anti-poor) for all poverty measures in relative (absolute) term. This is contrary to the rural regions that experienced anti-poorness in both relative and absolute terms. Growth rate and degree of pro-poorness exhibited inverse relationship during different sub-periods. Sub-national PEGR analysis shows differential pattern of pro-poorness across regions and time. Growth proved relatively pro-poor in Balochistan and Sindh while it turned to be anti-poor in the Punjab and, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Though the relative pace of rural poverty reduction is found higher across different provinces, yet rural areas still markedly lagged behind their urban counterparts in terms of growth pro-poorness. This is suggesting relatively fewer growth gains to the rural poor across different regions of the country. A consistent doses of long term pro-poor and distributive policies through fiscal and monetary management can be a workable option to minimize the gap between the rich and the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social security policies often focus on replacement rates, which indicate retirement income or social security benefits in relation to preretirement income. The higher replacement rate among the pensioners would ensure that the ageing society would have sufficient income to lead a normal life after retirement. This study examined factors that influencing the income replacement rate of Malaysian Employee Provident Fund (EPF) retirees. The analysis was based on a nationwide survey conducted in 2013-2014 among EPF retiree. A logit model was used to evaluate the likelihood of selected socio-demographic and economic factors contributing to income of the retirees. The results indicated that around 62 % of elderly has lower retirement income compared to their preretirement income and it makes them more vulnerable to unpredictable events and financial conditions. The study suggested that the income replacement rate of elderly could be strengthened by investing in ageing workforce, raising retirement age, enhancing educational achievements of low income groups and restructuring employment. These may in turn increase the availability of skilled workers, enhancing the national productivity, increase the income security of retirees, reduce poverty, and develop economic growth of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates a practical theological approach to the challenge of poverty in post1994 South Africa by using Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) as a case study. It argues that while the Reconstruction Development Plan, the Growth Employment and Reconstruction strategy, Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, New Growth Path and the National Development Plan have achieved some level of economic growth, the majority of people in South Africa still live in poverty. To establish this argument, the article starts first by describing the challenge of poverty in post-1994 South Africa. The different economic approaches to the challenge of poverty in post-1994 South Africa are also explained in detail. Lastly, the article elaborates on the ways in which the AFM through its local assemblies can alleviate poverty. The article concludes that the AFM is a collaborator to the post-1994 South African government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the livelihoods and media uses of young men in rural, urban and peri-urban Kenya, enquiring into how these young men use digital technologies, mobile phones in particular, in the context of constantly and quite rapidly changing livelihoods. It is a media ethnographic case study offering a gendered perspective upon the lives of male youth in Kenya. Kenya is a country branded as being digitally innovative, disruptive, entrepreneurial and developing new opportunities for Kenyan economic development and for the citizens of Kenya (ICT Authority 2014). By unpacking the socio-economic organization of everyday life and the quotidian use of mobile phones amongst mainly low-income young men in Uasin Gishu County in Rift Valley, this study enquires into the strategies applied by these young men in pursuing their aspirations for a better life. How do they navigate in the context of a rapidly and profoundly changing society informed by policies and discourses of digital innovation? It is a context where mobile phones by government are considered spearheads of digital innovation, disruption and entrepreneurship, but where the everyday usage reveals deeper complexities and contradictions. From reviewing the experiences of 36 young men I have identified work-oriented profiles of three young men. Their profiles, albeit unique, resonate with many of the persistent features of all 36, in how they negotiate work opportunities and media uses in their aspirations for a good life. The three profiles I have identified are (1) the digital entrepreneur; (2) the urban casual worker; and (3) the university student and opinion leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a research report related to the design scope based on the capability approach (CA) from development economics and extended scope of design for complex design situations like the bottom of the (economic) pyramid (BoP). It mentions poverty is considered as a differentiating factor for the BoP and product design targets specific undesirability in a tangible problem, such as drudgery faced by rural women as a result of inefficient cook stoves. It also mentions the report of the United Nations related to people residing in slums and death of children as a result of preventable diseases.

We show that court enforcement uncertainty hinders economic development using sharp variation in judiciaries across Native American reservations in the United States. Congressional legislation passed in 1953 assigned state courts the authority to resolve civil disputes on a subset of reservations, while tribal courts retained authority on unaffected reservations. Although affected and unaffected reservations had similar economic conditions when the law passed, reservations under state courts experienced significantly greater long-run growth. When we examine the distribution of incomes across reservations, the average difference in development is due to the lower incomes of the most impoverished reservations with tribal courts. We show that the relative underdevelopment of reservations with tribal courts is driven by reservations with the most uncertainty in court enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a critical analysis of the innovation discourse, arguing that a more contextualised understanding of the challenges of innovation for development and poverty reduction in low-income economies will help the authors’ to unravel new development opportunities and provide alternatives to conventional capitalist paths to innovation.Design/methodology/approach The authors offer an integrative review of the literature addressing the topic of innovation emerging from within developing countries. Because existing innovation models are generally presented in ways that reflect practices and thought patterns inherent to the industrialised world, a literature review that offers an initial conceptualisation and synthesis of the literature to date on the theme of innovation from within developing countries provides for a more valuable contribution than a reconceptualization of existing models.Findings The paper highlights different narratives of innovation, how they emerge and what are their implications. The authors outline a research agenda for generating new knowledge about innovation capabilities in what is generally known as the developing world.Originality/value This paper shows that the recent evolution of the discourse of development is increasingly intertwined with elements that originated in other discursive worlds. The last three decades of innovation research have been characterised by a “cross-pollination” between different disciplines: development studies, science and technology studies, business management and organisation studies. By reviewing major research works conducted by scholars in these disciplines, this paper weds literature that heretofore have remained largely isolated from each other. The key innovation narratives that the study unveils – e.g. inclusive growth, bottom of the pyramid, grassroots innovation – address major questions of concern to these academic scholars around the political and socio-technical aspects that influence a firm’s capacity to innovate in the context of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En este artículo se analizan los efectos del crecimiento económico y la desigualdad de los ingresos en la pobreza del Brasil entre 1981 y 2013. Para ello se utiliza un modelo de panel dinámico, mediante el método generalizado de momentos de dos pasos desarrollado por Blundell y Bond (1998) para tres períodos. El primero, que comprende a los otros dos, va de 1981 a 2013, mientras que el segundo y el tercero corresponden a las etapas anterior y posterior a la implementación del Plan Real (1981-1994 y 1995-2013, respectivamente). Los resultados muestran que, para combatir la pobreza en el Brasil, las políticas de crecimiento económico que promueven simultáneamente el aumento de los ingresos y la reducción de las disparidades son preferibles a las que priorizan solo el aumento de los ingresos medios. Se observa también un crecimiento a favor de los pobres en el período posterior al Plan Real. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past 15 years have witnessed an exponential growth in business activities aimed at serving the needs and increasing the well-being of disenfranchised individuals in low-income communities. Thousands of new business initiatives, development institution programs, and innovative investment funds focused on poverty alleviation have emerged during this time. Similarly, since the late 1990s when Prahalad and Hart first coined the term Bottom of Pyramid (BoP), and suggested a new, enterprise-based approach to poverty alleviation, there has also been a steady rise in research on business and poverty. A whole new lexicon emerged to describe this phenomenon, including phrases like “inclusive business,” “subsistence market places,” “frugal innovation,” and “impact investing.” Unfortunately, management theory and research have not advanced at the same pace with the BoP business revolution, and consequently knowledge about parameters for successfully integrating business, poverty alleviation and sustainable development still remains ambiguous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the hierarchical structures of countries based on electricity consumption and economic growth by using the real amounts of their consumption over a certain time period. We use electricity consumption data to detect the topological properties of 64 countries from 1971 to 2008. These countries are divided into three clusters: low income group, middle income group and high income group countries. Firstly, a relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth is investigated by using the concept of hierarchical structure methods (minimal spanning tree (MST) and hierarchical tree (HT)). Secondly, we perform bootstrap techniques to investigate a value of the statistical reliability to the links of the MST. Finally, we use a clustering linkage procedure in order to observe the cluster structure more clearly. The results of the structural topologies of these trees are as follows: (i) we identified different clusters of countries according to their geographical location and economic growth, (ii) we found a strong relation between energy consumption and economic growth for all the income groups considered in this study and (iii) the results are in good agreement with the causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much development theory is based upon elite-led conceptions of social change. Elite development theory (EDT) conceptualises ‘the poor’ as human inputs into or, at best, junior partners within elite-led development processes. This elitism contributes to the continual (re)framing of the poor as passive beneficiaries of elite policy, and legitimates economic exploitation of the poor. These claims are illustrated by discussing a number of EDT traditions – the Washington/Post-Washington Consensus, statist political economy, modernisation Marxism and varieties of pro-poor growth. As an alternative to EDT the article argues for a conception and practice of ‘labour-centred development’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the impact of the financial and banking development in reducing poverty in Africa from 1990 to 2014. The study it shows that the banking sector is a useful tool to overcome poverty in African countries in terms of further development and activity according to the points made in the revised results achieved and literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs panel data for 58 countries from 1980-2010, to investigate the dynamic relationship between economic freedom and income inequality. Both linear and non-linear (Panel Smooth Threshold Regression) cointegration estimation methods are used to identify a long-run equilibrium relationship between the overall economic freedom index and its components, and income inequality. The linear long-run parameter estimates for the entire panel of countries show that the association is negative, while the non-linear long-run parameter estimates indicate that above a threshold point the association between economic freedom and income inequality is negative, while below this threshold point the association is positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The time it would take for urban and rural areas to exit poverty and the minimum economic growth rate to eradicate poverty in a predetermined period of time is estimated using the methodology developed by Chávez (2009). The results demonstrate that if there were an economic growth rate of seven percent beginning in 2010, the time it would take to get out of poverty for urban areas is more than 50 years, and 98 for the rural ones. The minimum rate of growth to eradicate poverty by 2050 is, for urban areas, nine percent and, for rural areas, 18.1 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uganda has experienced high economic growth rates over the past decade, averaging 5.4 % per year, while poverty rates have declined over 14 % points over 2002-2003 and 2009-2010. However, conventional wisdom is that the benefits of poverty reduction have not been distributed equally and some authors even question the large decline in poverty. This paper seeks to examine poverty trends across Uganda from 1995 to 2010 by using non-monetary indicators based on household assets, housing characteristics, and household size and composition. In a variation on poverty mapping methods, we select household characteristics that are available in four Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the 2005-2006 Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS). Using the UNHS data, we estimate household per capita expenditure as a function of these characteristics. Finally, these estimated equations are applied to the same characteristics from the DHS data to generate estimates of per capita expenditure, which are then converted to estimates of the incidence of poverty. The results confirm that the overall incidence of poverty has declined in Uganda over the past 15 years, but they show less progress than official expenditure-based estimates of poverty. We explore several explanations for this discrepancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]