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This paper uses industrial level data from 21 developing and emerging economies over the period of 1995-2013, to analyze the impact of globalization, in particular, trade orientation of industries onto female employment share. The fractional probit estimation reveals that taking cumulative measures of export and import share often camouflages the impact of trade on female employment. The disintegration of export and import share according to their trading partners reveals that exports and imports from the developed world alone contribute to higher female employment. Moreover, it is the low-tech exports to developed countries and high-tech imports from developed countries which results in an increase in female employment. These findings call for the strengthening of trade ties with the developed world, especially when it comes to promoting low-tech exports and high-tech imports. Our results also reveal that the trading links with the developed world can further enhance female employment if developing country possesses a greater pool of educated female labor force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adjudicates between two competing perspectives regarding the importance of manufacturing employment for economic growth with the onset of the most recent round of economic globalization. Established economic theories link shifts toward industrial activities to higher growth due to increases in aggregate productivity. While some scholars argue that the global restructuring of manufacturing in the era of globalization presents novel opportunities for development in the South, others suggest that the importance of manufacturing employment for economic growth in less developed countries declines during this period as competitive pressures increase and barriers to entry decline. I use difference models and a broad sample of both developed and less developed countries in the time period 1970-2010 to examine the effects of manufacturing share of employment on economic growth and how these effects have changed over time. First, I find that manufacturing employment has strong positive effects on economic growth net of neoclassical controls for all countries. Second, I find that for less developed countries, the importance of manufacturing share of employment for growth has declined through the course of the time period studied, particularly after 1990. In contrast, my results do not show a similar decline for developed countries. These findings are robust across alternative estimation strategies. I conclude by considering the theoretical implications of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The determinants of non-life insurance expenditure in a panel data set covering 36 developed countries and 31 developing countries for the period 2000–2011 are analysed. Results of our instrumental variable analysis indicate that economic freedom, income, bank development, urbanization, culture and law systems are the key drivers of the non-life insurance expenditure across countries. However, their impacts differ significantly between the groups of developed and developing countries, suggesting that the heterogeneity among countries in terms of the level of development plays an important role. The global financial crisis is also found to influence the direction of those effects, especially in developed countries. The article yields useful policy and economic implications for governments and multinational non-life insurance companies with regard to the development of the non-life insurance sector, an important engine for economic growth and prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper conducts a qualitative narrative appraisal of the existing empirical literature on the key macroeconomic determinants of economic growth in developing and developed countries. Much as other empirical studies have investigated the determinants of economic growth using various econometric methods, the majority of these studies have not distinguished what drives or hinders economic growth in developing or developed countries. The study finds that the determinants of economic growth are different when this distinction is used. It reveals that in developing countries the key macroeconomic determinants of economic growth include foreign aid, foreign direct investment, fiscal policy, investment, trade, human capital development, demographics, monetary policy, natural resources, reforms and geographic, regional, political and financial factors. In developed countries, the study reveals that the key macroeconomic determinants that are associated with economic growth include physical capital, fiscal policy, human capital, trade, demographics, monetary policy and financial and technological factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), we examine data from developed and developing countries to estimate the “growth penalty” over 2003–11 when a country’s entrepreneurship deviates from its optimal level. We account for heterogeneity among countries in the optimal entrepreneurship rate, in the growth penalty from deviating from that optimum, and in other factors affecting growth. Notwithstanding that developing countries have more of their population running nascent small firms than in developed countries, a marginal increase in the entrepreneurship rate in developing countries has a positive effect on growth. On the contrary, in developed countries, there is no evident growth penalty. Supplemental results suggest that is because in developed countries as a whole, entrepreneurship is now close to its optimal level, whereas in developing countries the optimal rates of entrepreneurship are much higher. We also explore how the growth penalty varies with characteristics of the country, allowing us to test theories regarding the relationship between entrepreneurship and growth. We show that higher levels of R&D capability decrease the growth penalty of having too few entrepreneurs, suggesting that entrepreneurship and R&D are substitutes. Availability of venture capital also increases the growth penalty, but only in developing countries, where our data on venture capital best proxy its availability to start-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Commitment to Development Index has been developed to assess seven policy areas of rich countries that affect the development of poor countries and to rank the rich countries from this perspective. This article aims to analyze the environmental component of this index. The environmental dimension is a legitimate part of the concept behind the index because preserving global environmental resources is essential for the future development prospects of poorer countries. The operationalization of the dimension, however, gives rise to several issues, such as the combination of policy and practice indicators, data availability and credibility, and other specific aspects that affect the information value of individual indicators and the component as a whole. Acknowledging the difficulty of constructing such a component, we suggest several options for its modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the compositional changes that occur in economies experiencing current account reversals using sectoral-level data on output and employment growth around 55 reversal episodes. The experiences of developing and industrialized countries are compared, and the role of currency crises is also examined. Labor market adjustment following reversals in developing countries is shown to differ from that of industrialized economies. The possibility that this difference is related to labor market informality is briefly examined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using annual data, the paper studies the time-series evidence regarding the allocation of fluctuations in the exchange rate between demand components, real growth and price inflation in a sample of developing and advanced countries. Subsequently, cross-country correlations establish the relevance of fluctuations in imports to the pass-through channel of exchange rate fluctuations to economic activity. Further, the evidence evaluates the direct effects of fluctuations in the nominal values of imports on price inflation and real growth. Cross-country regressions evaluate the effects of variation in the average and variability of exchange rate fluctuations on import growth. Subsequently, variation in indicators of macroeconomic performance (real growth, price inflation and the growth of private consumption and investment) is evaluated with respect to variation in the exchange rate and/or import growth. In developing countries, the evidence indicates the relevance of fluctuations in import growth to the transmission mechanism of exchange rate fluctuations to the macroeconomy. Where this relationship dominates, fluctuations in the exchange rate are no longer significant to the difference in macroeconomic indicators, having controlled for variation in import growth across countries. In advanced countries, import fluctuations may be transmitted to economic activity, further to fluctuations in the exchange rate, in line with variations in terms of trade. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of emerging powers in the UN development system is undeniable, but their influence over the shape of the post-2015 agenda is less clear. This article examines recent survey data by the Future UN Development System (funds) Project in order to better gauge the perceptions of the world organisation’s problems and prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with the interaction between fictitious capital and the neoliberal model of growth and distribution, inspired by the classical economic tradition. Our renewed interest in this literature has a close connection with the recent international crisis in the capitalist economy. However, this discussion takes as its point of departure the fact that standard economic theory teaches that financial capital, in this world of increasing globalization, leads to new investment opportunities which improve levels of growth, employment, income distribution, and equilibrium. Accordingly, it is said that such financial resources expand the welfare of people and countries worldwide. Here we examine some illusions and paradoxes of such a paradigm. We show some theoretical and empirical consequences of this vision, which are quite different and have harmful constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different regulatory instruments have sought to promote sustainable development, most especially the integration of social and economic concerns in development activities. Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have taken it upon themselves to promote sustainable development practices by designing guidelines for their project financing activities and promoting sustainable financing practice through their clients. This approach ensures that the people affected by a project are better off as a result of its construction and operation. This article investigates the extent to which the International Finance Corporation (IFC) guidelines are ensuring the diffusion of sustainable development practices in developing countries. The article discusses the updated provisions contained in the IFC's 2012 Performance Standards in relation to the promotion of sustainable development and considers the critique and the impact of commercial bank project financing activities and their effect on promoting sustainable development. The article concludes that the guidelines of the IFC provide an important framework for promoting sustainable development practices in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I challenge an influential analysis (the 'participation account') that attributes human rights violations to the global economic system, and attributes complicity with those violations to citizens of affluent countries. The participation account is shown to rest on a faulty account of wrongful action. An alternative, and superior, account of wrongful action (the 'agency account') is proposed, and used to analyse the rules of the global economic order. These include the 'foreground rules' of trade agreements and the 'background rules' of state privileges. The agency account identifies wrongful action with unreasonably imposing losses/risks. The systemic bad effects of the economic system and its rules are shown not to be due to agents in the system acting unreasonably in this sense. The metaphor that the economic system 'violates rights' and that we act in complicity with this are thus shown not to stand up to analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1980 to 1992, emerging and developing countries grew by 3.4 percent per year. Their annual rate of growth increased to 5.4 percent between 1993 and 2012. No such increase occurred for advanced nations, whose average growth from 1980 to 2012 was roughly constant (excluding the impact of the 2008-2009 Recession). Developing nations turned themselves around by embracing discipline-sustained commitment to a pragmatic and flexible growth strategy. Three illustrations of discipline through the lens of trade, fiscal, and debt reforms in the developing world offer relevant, practical lessons for recovery in advanced economies and continued catch-up growth in developing nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The comparative political economy of developed countries has often neglected the growing interest in producing well-being indicators that go beyond GDP. This was largely due to lack of reliable and comparable data. In spite of this, Osberg and Sharpe have recently provided a time-series cross-section data set of the Index of Economic Well-Being (IEWB) for selected OECD countries. Accordingly, this article tries to plug the current gap between the comparative political economy and well-being literature by presenting an empirical study about the impact of partisanship and state intervention on the IEWB and its four domains (that is, consumption flows, stocks of wealth, economic equality, economic security). A main lesson can be drawn from the econometric analysis: left cabinets and their favorite policies increase stocks of wealth, economic equality and economic security, rather than consumption flows. This means that leftist governments do not promote the current prosperity of a typical citizen but the future and widespread well-being of most population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the linkages between the global business cycle and national cycles. We first analyse the evolution of the global business cycle and present its main properties during global recessions and recoveries. We then consider how the sensitivity of national cycles to the global cycle varies over different phases of the global cycle and depends on country-specific features. Our findings collectively portray an intricate liaison between the global business cycle and national cycles. National business cycles are tightly linked to the global cycle, but the sensitivity of national cycles to the global cycle is much higher during global recessions than expansions. There are significant differences across countries in how they respond to the global cycle as advanced economies appear to be more sensitive to global recessions than are developing economies. Moreover, countries tend to be more sensitive to the global cycle, the more integrated they are to the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the growth rate of developed countries in response to global financial crisis. It says that an appropriate rate of savings, high rate of productive capital investment and the availability of important natural resources have a vital role in economic development of a country. It tells that economic downturn can be avoided though balancing the budget and by creating a climate for enterprise that allows entrepreneurship to wake the engines of economic growth and prosperity.

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The main purpose of this article is to conduct a concise critical analysis of the division of the world into highly developed countries (the rich North) and underdeveloped countries (the poor South) at the beginning of the 21st century. The criteria used at the end of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries to define the boundary between the highly developed and the underdeveloped world, while valid in the past, are no longer applicable. The new criterion for this boundary is quality of life, which combines the socioeconomic element (constituted by such factors as consumption, level of health care and education) and the political (which is reflected in the degree to which political rights and civil liberties are observed). Therefore, the dividing line between the rich North and the poor South at the beginning of the 21st century differs from the well-known Brandt line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how globalization, government ideology, and their interaction have shaped income distribution in 59 developing countries from 1975 to 2005. Using pooled time-series data analysis, the results show that globalization, measured by trade flows and foreign direct investment, has significantly expanded income inequality in developing countries. However, countries with leftist government parties and chief executives have experienced significantly smaller income gaps and even moderated the income inequality from increasing world market integration. The results in this article suggest that the traditional role of government ideology for income redistribution, drawn from the experiences of advanced countries, is applicable to the developing world as well. Rather than being diminished by the integration of international markets, the influence of government ideology will continue to play a key role in shaping the outcomes of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the economic efficiency–oil consumption relationship in 42 countries during the period 1986–2006. In a first stage by using DEA window analysis countries' economic efficiencies are obtained. In a second stage an econometric analysis based on robust GMM estimators reveals an inverted ‘U’-shape relationship between oil consumption and economic efficiency. In order to capture heterogeneities among countries' development stages the analysis has been separated into two groups (advanced economies and developing/emerging economies). The results show that advanced economies have much higher turning points compared to emerging and developing economies. It appears that oil consumption increases countries' economic efficiency. In addition the consumption patterns of oil products and its derivatives have changed through years and among countries. The different turning points from the econometric analysis indicate the dependence of oil consumption in advanced economies (higher turning points) is driven mainly by household purchasing activities and their standards of living (transport, housing and water, food, etc.). Finally, it appears that oil consumption is the main driver behind the progress of industrialization and urbanization regardless of the country's development stage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An essay is presented on the class struggles of in the world with a focus on immigrants in developed countries. Topics include theories about class conflict with the bourgeosie and the proletariat by philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, mass migration in countries such as the U.S. and Canada, and the importance of immigration in solving problems such as the wealth gap and economic inequality between developed and developing countries in the world.

Using Global Commodity Chain (GCC) approach, the present study investigates the factors that influence the positions of developing nations within the governance structure of the international sex trafficking network. Previous research focuses on the influences of economic reforms or culture on countries' positions within the network, for both developing and developed nations. The present paper focuses on developing nations to avoid biasness, and to address contextual differences. We argue that in addition to economic reforms, other factors such as political conditions reflected in the level of corruption, and values pertaining to gender discrimination can influence a nation's position within the governance structure of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyber-crime's footprints across the developing world are getting bigger. The aim of this article is to examine the structure of cyber-crimes in developing economies. Its central idea is that economic and institutional factors facing cyber-criminals and potential victims in the developing world are different from those in the developed world. In economies characterised by low internet penetration rates and few resources devoted to fighting cyber-crimes, formal institutions related to such crimes tend to be thin and dysfunctional. A cyber-criminal is less likely to be stigmatised in such economies. Moreover, organisations' and individuals' technological and behavioural defence mechanisms are likely to be weaker. Many people in developing economies are also attracted into cyber-crime because of high unemployment and low wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development economics was the study of how to create the plumbing that would allow developing economies to become developed. The financial crisis leads us to question whether industrialized countries have the plumbing problem solved and thus leads us to question whether we need a development economics that is separate from macroeconomics. Indeed, it even leads us to question whether development economics should take as its goal the creation of the institutional plumbing that industrialized countries currently have. The consequence will be a blending of concerns that have been central in developing economies with the standard macro models. The blending can be seen as either the death of development economics or the hegemony of development economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the effectiveness and feasibility of two FDI policies, fiscal incentives and deregulation, aimed at improving the attractiveness of a country in the short run. Using disaggregated data on sales by US MNEs’ foreign affiliates in 43 developed and developing countries over the 1982–94 period, results show that the provision of fiscal incentives or the deregulation of the labour market would exert a positive impact on total FDI. Given the drawbacks frequently associated with the use of incentive packages, economy-wide policies which ease firing procedures and reduce severance payments would certainly be the best policy option. This paper also highlights the different aggregation and omitted variable biases that have affected results of previous studies and provides some support to recent theoretical models of FDI by showing that third-country effects and spatial interdependence influence respectively the location of export-platform FDI and vertical FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to identify the extent of inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide. A large number of countries were aggregated on a regional basis to examine their inward and outward stocks as a percentage of gross fixed capital formation for the period 1980-2006. Among the findings was that the annual increase for both inward and outward FDI was less than 1%. Also, countries grouped by the aggregates developed, Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, Asia and Oceania, and developing were found to differ significantly in their means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers historical economic data spanning approximately 200 years for 44 countries to consider the effects of increased public or government debt on economic growth. The article compares and contrasts economic models for both rich countries and emerging markets, or developing countries. Some of the countries considered include the U.S., Ireland, Norway, Chile, and India. Other subjects discussed include GDP (Gross Domestic Product), inflation, and government sponsored economic stimulus efforts to reduce the effect of the global financial crisis of 2007-2009.

Recently, we have witnessed a massive economic slow down with sever negative effects on the developing and developed economies. This development created a very inconvenient and impractical situation in accepting an adage of Neo-liberalism that the absence of state and the dominance of market would lead the human development in true sense, or civil society which is now connecting itself with the market thinking can provide remedial to the problem. Therefore, the hope of re-visit of state-led democratic governance with a hold on economic and human development gets fuel to sideline the neo-liberal posture. Paper presents a comparative analysis among all the paradigms of development i.e. state, market and civil society and discusses that which paradigm is best suitable for developing economies like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper explores how the choice of a country’s exchange rate regime may affect exchange rate misalignment for developing and developed countries. A measure of misalignment is obtained by using a panel cointegration vector estimator. This paper finds that for developing countries, an intermediate exchange rate regime (a regime falling somewhere between a pure float and a hard peg) is most effective in preventing exchange rate misalignment. Additionally, the choice of an exchange rate regime as a means to limit misalignment matters for developing countries, but does not seem to matter for developed countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Son pocos los países en desarrollo que han logrado reducir sostenidamente la brecha de ingresos con los países más ricos del mundo, sin una acción proactiva del gobierno que les permita avanzar en la transformación productiva con una inserción internacional dinámica. Al respecto, se observan dos factores clave: la formulación e implementación de una estrategia a mediano y largo plazo orientada a impulsar una transformación productiva acelerada y la alianza público-privada que la sustenta, construida mediante un proceso social adaptado a las circunstancias locales. Se analizan las modalidades de operación de este tipo de alianzas en 10 países extrarregionales exitosos, considerados como tales porque alcanzaron la convergencia con los países desarrollados o porque evolucionaron mejor que los de América Latina y el Caribe, pese a tener una dotación de recursos similar. En la región, la colaboración público-privada es un elemento faltante o solo incipiente. Así, el análisis apunta a promover una reflexión en torno a la formación de alianzas propias con miras a apoyar la adopción de estrategias encaminadas a la construcción de "tigres latinoamericanos". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some developed countries have sought to counteract what they see as unfair competition faced by their domestic industries arising from the employment of child labor in the production of consumer goods in developing countries by including a "social clause" in the World Trade Organization (WTO) charter, Many people and civil society organizations in developed countries are also genuinely concerned with child labor employment purely on humanitarian grounds. In this paper we have argued that a more appropriate approach to tackle the child labor problem would be to facilitate acceleration of growth in developing countries through greater, not less, integration of these countries into the world trading system. We have also argued that directing development assistance for improving institutions and social infrastructure would be more effective than trade sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of trade with Japan, North America and the EU on technology diffusion and TFP growth in Jordan, Korea and Mexico. The measures of foreign R&D are constructed on the basis of industry-specific R&D in the North, North-South trade patterns, and input-output relations in the South. We show that technology diffusion and productivity gains tend to be regional: Jordan (Korea) (Mexico) benefits mainly from trade with the EU (Japan) (North America). In other words, the dynamic version of the "natural trading partners" hypothesis seems to hold for these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing legalization of international institutions has divergent effects on member countries. Whereas legalization decreases uncertainty and increases convergence of countries’ expectations on international outcomes, it imposes costs on countries by increasing the complexity and difficulty of procedures for them to utilize. Countries with the administrative capacity to follow elaborate procedures reap the benefits of increased legalization. For countries without such capacity—primarily developing countries—the potential benefits are offset by their difficulty in following the procedures. I examine this argument against the institutional changes in dispute settlement procedures that occurred in the transition from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Compared to the GATT era, developed countries—ones with greater capacity—are much more likely to utilize dispute settlement in the WTO than developing countries. Gains from the institutional changes in dispute settlement procedures have accrued to benefit mostly developed member countries in the WTO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research which assesses the international efforts in fighting corruption and their implications for developing countries. It discusses the globalized character of corruption in the modern world together with methods applicable to combat the problem. It notes that the investigations focuses on the policies at the organizational level and by sector highlighting the money laundering and bribery, and two economic crimes that are widespread in the developing world. It identifies major trends in the international instruments to fight corruption and assess their efficiency.

This study presents a characterization of the unfolding socio-economic processes sustained by the hypothesis of the existence of circularities or accumulative causality processes that drive forward the hyper-developed countries and trap the hypo-developed countries, condemning the latter to situations of relative backwardness. At the same time, within the framework of this circular vision of development, we discuss the meaning of democratic governance in development processes at two levels: from the internal perspective of the hypo-developed countries themselves affected by situations of political instability or subjected to authoritarian regimes, and from the point of view of governance at a global scale in the current scenario of globalization dominated by market forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries have used sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as instruments through which to buy assets with their surplus foreign exchange since the 1950s when Norway and Singapore, and soon after Kuwait, sought new strategies to insulate themselves from exchange rate fluctuation. Central banks employed SWFs only as buffers for currency stabilization when countries had little or no international debt and large current account surpluses. Today, SWFs have become quite common. As of March 2007, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia had, respectively, the first and third largest SWFs internationally, and Kuwait ranked sixth.[1] Because of burgeoning oil prices, Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds have become the preferred investment vehicles of Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. As SWFs blur the line between public and private investment, however, Western nations worry about the security implications of foreign countries, including Persian Gulf states, acquiring important positions in key industries and companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Energy arguably plays a vital role in economic development. Hence many studies have attempted to test for causality between energy and economic growth; however, no consensus has emerged. This paper, therefore, tests for causality between energy and GDP using a consistent data set and methodology for over 100 countries. Causality from energy to GDP is found to be more prevalent in the developed OECD countries compared to the developing non-OECD countries; implying that a policy to reduce energy consumption aimed at reducing emissions is likely to have greater impact on the GDP of the developed rather than the developing world. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There is a debate on whether some forms of financial flows offer better protection against crises than others. Using a large panel data set that includes advanced, emerging, and developing economies during 1970-2003, this article analyzes the behavior of several types of flows: foreign direct investment (FDI), portfolio equity investment, portfolio debt investment, other flows to the official sector, other flows to banks, and other flows to the nonbank private sector. Differences across types of flows are limited with respect to volatility, persistence, cross-country comovement, and correlation with growth at home or in the world economy. However, consistent with conventional wisdom, FDI is the least volatile form of financial flow, when the average size of net or gross flows is taken into account. The differences are striking during "sudden stops" in financial flows (defined as drops in total net financial inflows of more than percentage points of GDP compared with the previous year). In such episodes, FDI is remarkably stable, and portfolio equity seems to play a limited role. Portfolio debt experiences a reversal, though it recovers relatively quickly, and other flows (including bank loans and trade credit) experience severe drops and often remain depressed for a few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to outline main features of the East Asian welfare model, to understand its past development and assess lessons that can be learned for other developing and developed countries. It describes the particular path of welfare state development in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, by focusing particularly on developmental and political aspects of welfare state development. In the final part of the study, particular features of the East Asian welfare model are outlined, and thus the existence of a distinct, ideal-typical welfare regime in East Asia substantiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Uruguay Round Agreement on agriculture attempted to lower distortions in global agricultural markets. However, the significant fall in commodity prices in the late 1990s may have reduced the incentives for both developed and developing countries to better integrate into world markets. This study analyzes price linkages and adjustment between developed and developing countries during the post–Uruguay Round period. Prices of two key commodities, long-grain rice and medium-hard wheat, are assembled for major exporters and producers. Results of multivariate cointegration analysis suggest partial market integration between developed and developing countries in the post–Uruguay Round period. Developed countries are found to be price leaders in these two markets, and in most cases, changes in their prices have relatively large impacts on those of the developing countries. Developing countries (e.g., Vietnam and Argentina) have faced considerable price adjustment due to changes in the developed countries' prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article carries out agricultural production function estimations, based on data for the period 1995–2000 on 81 countries, to present empirical evidence on the relationship between the adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) and agricultural productivity. It is found that new ICT has a significantly positive impact on agricultural productivity. The evidence suggests that the adoption of modern industrial inputs in agricultural production relies on the information and communication infrastructure. However, the empirical evidence from this study also suggests that new ICT could be a factor for the divergence between countries in terms of overall agricultural productivity. Not only do we find that the ICT adoption levels of the richer countries are much higher than those of the poorer countries, but also that returns from ICT in agricultural production of the richer countries are about two times higher than those of the poorer countries. A plausible explanation for the poorer countries' relatively low productivity elasticity of ICT is the lack of important complementary factors, such as a substantial base of human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an empirical study of the factors affecting burden sharing among OECD's 22 DAC members in ‘bankrolling’ the multilateral aid agencies. Annual data over 1970–2000, pooled across the donor countries, form the basis for the empirical estimation of each donor's share in the ODA aid receipts for each multilateral agency. Our findings suggest the existence of reverse exploitation, i.e., the financial burden of the agencies is disproportionally carried by the smaller donors. The study also finds that factors such as inherent donor generosity, donor concern for domestic egalitarianism, and the extent to which donors are pro-poor in their bilateral aid policies have an impact on their readiness to support multilateral agencies financially. Size of the donor government and its budgetary balance positively influence burden sharing of contributions to other multilateral agencies. But neither the phase of economic cycle nor the rate of economic growth affects the burden-sharing responsibility of donors. It was also observed that contributions by EU members to the EC do not appear to crowd-out their contributions to other multilateral aid agencies and that right-wing donor governments are generally more parsimonious with regard to financial assistance to multilateral aid agencies. The preferred alternative, particularly among EU member countries, appears to be the EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article criticizes the inverted-U hypothesis, advanced by U.S. economist Simon Kuznets, that higher wealth will be predictive of lower income inequality. The inverted-U hypothesis is frequently used to explain the fact that in most less developed countries, income inequality initially goes up after development is introduced, but rebounds to even greater equality after industrialization takes hold. Such factors as unions, mass political movements, urbanism, and the like emerge to improve the condition of the poor, while unrestrained opportunities to win large fortunes diminish for the rich. However, this traditional national and international linear pattern of high mean income and low-income inequality gets reversed within U.S. counties. Constant degree of urbanization and region revealed that the importance of the development curve in predicting income inequality varies widely between the South and the non-South. Within the South an inverted-U curve does exist among urban and metropolitan counties where large-scale economic growth has been taking place. There is actual reversal within non-southern urban counties.

El artículo presenta una evaluación de las garantías multilaterales, uno de los temas centrales del financiamiento del desarrollo. La necesidad de las garantías tienen que ver con la necesidad de financiamiento externo de los países en desarrollo. Este trabajo analiza varias garantías multilaterales, enfocando en una comparación de los efectos sobre la adicionalidad, los riesgos, los costos de los fondos y los ingresos en países en desarrollo y, también, desarrollados.

This article focuses on how all nations will benefit if the oil producers and the industrialized countries subsidize loans to the developing "Fourth World." The way in which the current energy situation is resolved will profoundly influence the world's evolution over the next quarter century. World economic development will be determined, in no small measure, by the price of energy. The international political structure will reflect the arrangements made between oil exporters and oil importers. Worldwide social development-as measured by such variables as the population growth rate and the distribution of income, will be greatly influenced by the means chosen to finance energy purchases over the next decade. More immediately, the world will have to find ways of living with oil at $10 per barrel if it is to escape from its current economic malaise. The developed world must prevent a situation in which oil-producing countries have more money than they know what to do with, or else the oil may stop flowing. Moreover, the problems of starvation and overpopulation in the low-income, less developed countries cannot be ignored.

This article reports on the slowing down of economic growth after 1973. For the past hundred years the rate of growth of output in the developing world has depended on the rate of growth of output in the developed world. When the developed grow fast, the developing grow fast, and when the developed slow down, the developing slow down. The world has just gone through two decades of unprecedented growth, with world trade growing twice as fast as ever before, at about 8 percent per annum in real terms, compared with 0.9 percent between 1913 and 1939. The extraordinary growth rates of the two decades before 1973 surprised everybody. Some people were even more surprised by the performance of the least developed countries. The fact that world trade was growing rapidly was not universally recognized until the second half of the 1960's. Then nearly every country discovered the virtues of exporting. Since 1973 the growth rate of world trade has halved, and nobody knows whether this is temporary or permanent. High levels of taxation may diminish initiative, enterprise, and the rate of growth.

Discusses productivity and unit labor costs in 12 industrial countries. Output per man-hour; Hourly compensation; Productivity trends since 1960.