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De-carbonization to restrict future global warming to 1.5 °C is technically feasible but may impose a "limit" or "planetary boundary" to economic growth, depending on whether or not human society can decouple growth from emissions. In this paper, we assess the viability of decoupling. First, we develop a prognosis of climate-constrained global growth for 2014–2050 using the transparent Kaya identity. Second, we use the Carbon-Kuznets-Curve framework to assess the effect of economic growth on emissions using measures of territorial and consumption-based emissions. We run fixed-effects regressions using OECD data for 58 countries during 2007–2015 and source alternative emissions data starting in 1992 from two other databases. While there is weak evidence suggesting a decoupling of emissions and growth at high-income levels, the main estimation sample indicates that emissions are monotonically increasing with per-capita GDP. We draw out the implications for climate policy and binding emission reduction obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses domestic market integration's (DMI's) dynamic influence on regional economic growth in China. The authors construct a matrix of annual DMI indices for 29 provinces for 1997–2015. They calculate the reciprocal matrix and combine it with the β-convergence model and spatial econometrics to analyse the relationships between DMI and regional economic growth. Their findings indicate that the relation between these two variables is not straightforward, and 2004 was a tipping-point year. Before 2004, the statistical relationship between DMI and regional economic growth was downward sloping, which suggests a trend of divergence and negative spillover effects across the 29 provinces. After 2004, the relationship between DMI and regional economic growth becomes positive: increased DMI now is strengthening (regional) economic growth. The authors provide the possible explanations for the unstable relationship combined with China's reality as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift in financial intermediation from banks to financial markets, and the introduction of financial market logic into areas and domains where it was previously absent, have not just led to negative developmental impacts, but also changed the 'rules of the game' and facilitated rent-seeking practices of a self-serving global elite. Establishment (financial) economics has helped to depoliticize and legitimize this financialized mode of social regulation by invoking Hayek's epistemological claim that (financial) markets are the only legitimate, reliably welfare-enhancing foundation for a stable social order and economic progress. This article forms the Introduction to a set of 10 articles which assess the logic and consequences of 'financialization' across a range of geographic, economic and social scales, and confront Hayek's grotesque claim--deep down, at the level of 'ideas', but also by providing 'knock-out evidence' on the social inefficiency of a capitalism 'without compulsions' for finance. The authors in the Debate challenge the 'ruling ideas' and expose how establishment economics has been hiding its reactionary political agenda behind the pretence of scientific neutrality. The financial emperor wears no clothes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) emphasize its prospective economic benefits, with economic growth increasing due to rising trade volumes and investment. Widely cited official projections suggest modest GDP gains after about a decade, varying from between 0.003% and 0.08% in the European Union and between 0.03% and 0.76% in Canada. However, all these quantitative projections stem from the same trade model, which assumes full employment and neutral (if not constant) income distribution in all countries, excluding from the outset any of the major risks of deeper liberalization. This lack of intellectual diversity and of realism shrouding the debate around CETA’s alleged economic benefits calls for an alternative assessment grounded in more realistic modeling premises. In this paper, we provide alternative projections of CETA’s economic effects using the United Nations Global Policy Model (GPM). Allowing for changes in employment and income distribution, we obtain very different results. In contrast to positive outcomes projected with full-employment models, we find CETA will lead to intra-EU trade diversion. More importantly, in the current context of tepid economic growth, competitive pressures induced by CETA will cause unemployment, inequality, and welfare losses. At a minimum, this shows that official studies do not offer a solid basis for an informed decision on CETA. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's transport infrastructure distribution and its economic activities have largely the same pattern of spatial clusters. This paper aims to determine whether causal linkages exist between transport infrastructure investment and economic growth in China at national and regional levels. We examine causality in a panel cointegration and a Granger causality framework using time series data throughout the 1978–2008 period. The empirical findings show that in the long run, at the national level, there is unidirectional Granger causality from economic growth to transport infrastructure; at the regional level, there exists bidirectional causality in the affluent eastern region while the low-income central and western regions exhibit unidirectional Granger causality from economic growth to transport infrastructure. These results imply that an improvement in transport infrastructure alone is not sufficient for stimulating economic growth in the underdeveloped areas of China. To better realize the economic benefits brought by transport infrastructure, the Chinese government should pay serious attention to the development of complementary factors in the central and western provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present empirical evidence for a cross section of twenty OECD countries (1984–2004) that a relatively regulated and coordinated (“rigid”) industrial relations system promotes long-run labor productivity growth. This conclusion is reinforced when we differentiate between (three) categories of OECD industrial relations systems and test for differences in productivity performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the development of productive capacities and technology in the least developed countries (LDCs) with commentary on "The Least Developed Countries Report 2006: Developing Productive Capacities," "The Least Developed Countries Report 2007: Knowledge, Technological Learning and Innovation for Development," and "World Investment Report 2007: Transnational Corporations, Extractive Industries and Development," published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). UNCTAD does not believe that the development policy approved by the U.S. government is benefiting LDCs and that productive capacities should be based on the production capacity of a country.

The article examines the development planning approach of intellectual Sukhamoy Chakravarty of India, which aims to integrate economic growth with social justice and ecological sustainability. It outlines Chakravarty's approach to planning theory and the major lessons he learned from his policy-related work in the country's Planning Commission. It discusses his views and perceptions concerning economic progress, agriculture-led growth and the main barriers to Indian growth. Moreover, the article analyzes whether Chakravarty's approach to development planning is still relevant despite changes in various aspects of the nation.

East Asia's newly industrializing economies are the paragon of successful industrialization. This article investigates what lies behind this success by identifying seven ‘stylized facts’, which concern the contributions to industrialization and growth of structural change and technological change; and the role played by investment, savings and exports. Based on these stylized facts, the authors offer a new formulation of East Asian growth in terms of a cumulative-causation growth model. They discuss the impact on industrial diversification and upgrading of industrial and trade policies (including import substitution), and labour-market policies in the context of East Asia's authoritarian political regimes. Important specific factors are highlighted and the particular kinds of policies and institutions used in East Asia to finance accumulation are reviewed, before briefly considering the transferability of the East Asian growth regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel cointegration techniques, this paper empirically estimates the long-run effect of inequality in educational attainment on economic growth during the period 1990–2010 in China. We identify a robust non-linear nexus between inequality in educational attainment and economic growth in Chinese provinces and find evidence pointing to differing effects of inequality in educational attainment on growth depending on the level of economic development of an area. Specifically, our results show that the inequality is more relevant for economic performance than educational attainment in the economically less developed Western region. Thus, given limited social resources for education investment, education policies that create more equal distribution of educational resources will promote higher growth, especially in less developed areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]