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Numerous papers have shown that developing economies are more volatile. We show that, despite greater aggregate and industry stability, performance and size of individual firms in developed countries are more volatile. In developing countries, market imperfections insulate incumbent firms from competition. Consistent with this, firms in developing countries have higher profit, higher market concentration, and less capital raising. Cross-country differences in operating risk and competition intensity are greater in industries that are dependent on external finance, where we expect higher impacts of capital-market imperfections. We show the inverse relation between aggregate and firm-level volatilities has important implications for international studies of cash holding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the role of country characteristics on the competition-governance relation. We find that competition is associated with higher ratings in corporate governance, but only in developing countries. Further, corporate governance is associated with greater firm value, but only in less competitive industries from developed countries. For developing countries, the evidence suggests that corporate governance is valuable mostly in competitive industries. Additional tests show that corporate governance increases labor productivity and cost efficiency, mostly in less competitive industries in both developed and developing countries. Furthermore, in developing countries, corporate governance increases investment in capital, but primarily in competitive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the record of cross-country growth over the past fifty years and ask if developing countries have made progress on closing the income gap between their per capita incomes and those in the advanced economies. We conclude that, as a group, they have not and then survey the literature on absolute convergence with particular emphasis on that from the last decade or so. That literature supports our conclusion of a lack of progress in closing the income gap between countries. We close with a brief examination of the recent literature on cross-individual distribution of income, which finds that despite the lack of progress on cross country convergence, global inequality has tended to fall since 2000. (JEL E01, E13, O11, O47, F41, F62) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We scrutinize a global database of estimated returns to agricultural R&D investments. • Reported R&D returns differ substantially between developed and developing countries. There is widespread professional consensus that agricultural research and development (R&D) realizes high economic returns, though there are concerns as to whether the returns have been declining over the past few decades and are unevenly distributed among different regions in the world. This study examines both the time trend (i.e., increasing or decreasing) and regional developmental differences in the reported returns to agricultural R&D. Using a newly updated and expanded global database of estimated returns to agricultural R&D and a robust statistical methodology, we find that after accounting for methodological changes and other study attributes that have varied over time, the contemporary returns to agricultural R&D investments are as high as ever. We also conduct a Oaxaca decomposition to assess the relative importance of differences among countries in study attributes (e.g., what research was evaluated, by whom, and how) versus differences in how these attributes relate to the IRR (e.g., model parameter estimates). We find that the regional differences in study attributes tend to result in higher IRR estimates in developed countries, whereas developing versus developed country differences in the marginal effects of the attributes on the estimated IRRs tend to result in higher estimates in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of 272 meta-observations drawn from 48 primary studies, this paper conducts a meta-analysis of the empirical literature that examines the impact of military expenditure on economic growth. We find that existing studies indicate growth-retarding effects of military expenditure. The results from the meta-regression analysis suggest that the effect size estimate is strongly influenced by study variations. Specifically, we find that underlying theoretical models, econometric specifications, and data type as well as data period are relevant factors that explain the heterogeneity in the military expenditure-growth literature. Results also show that positive effects of military expenditure on growth are more pronounced for developed countries than less developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on economic growth in developing, emerging and developed countries. The main question is whether the gains from investments in ICT differ between developing, emerging and developed countries. The analysis is based on a high-quality sample of 59 countries for the period 1995–2010. Various panel data regressions confirm the previously reported positive relationship between ICT capital and GDP growth. For the combined sample of all 59 countries, the estimated output elasticity of ICT is larger than the ICT factor compensation share suggesting excess returns to ICT capital. The regressions for the subsamples of developing, emerging and developed countries do not reveal statistically significant differences in the output elasticity of ICT between these three groups of countries. Thus, the results indicate that developing and emerging countries are not gaining more from investments in ICT than developed economies, calling into question the argument that these countries are ‘leapfrogging’ through ICT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During recent years, the world has faced a growing anti-trade rhetoric, which has been translating in a strong appeal of domestic trade protectionist measures, situation that has been undermining trade multilateralization. The current paper examines the extent to which multilateral trade liberalization affects domestic trade policy liberalization. The analysis uses a panel dataset comprising 166 countries over the period 1995-2014. It suggests evidence that multilateral trade liberalization is strongly conducive to domestic trade policy liberalization. Moreover, as countries further develop, they experience a greater impact of multilateral trade liberalization on domestic trade policy liberalization. The take-home message of this analysis is that domestic protectionist trade policy measures would likely undermine the multilateralization of trade and prompt trading partners to react in the same way. This would ultimately result in trade wars, which would be damage for domestic economies and the world's economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how a country's degree of economic development affects the impact of banking crises on international trade. To this end, we estimate a gravity model of trade using a sample of 139 countries over the period 1975-2012. Our results show that middle income countries are generally the most negatively affected. In contrast, financial turmoil appears to have less impact on bilateral trade flows among high income countries and, more specially, among low income nations. The level of financial development, contract enforcement, as well as the extent of the use of banking credit within international trade all help to explain our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses various issues that are linked to global economic prospects including the divergences and the risks of various economies/countries associated with it. It makes an attempt to study major economies including both the advanced countries and the EMDEs (Emerging Markets and Developing Economies) and their global economic outlook, the divergences and the associated risks. The quantitative tools that have been used for this investigation are growth forecasts, kurtosis of real GDP growth, and exponential distribution of world growth output of major economies/countries. The study is based on data for 16 year, i.e., 2001 to 2016, which have been collected and collated from international published sources such as World Bank Global Economic Forecast Reports, UN/DESA etc. The concluding observations of the paper are that a complete assessment of global economic prospects requires baselines forecasts as well as an assessment of risks. Assessment of risks conveys the policy makers that a sense of uncertainty prevails at the time of forecasting which might vary with incoming data, past forecast performance and changing expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to fill an existing gap in the literature by constructing an index which attempts to assess the degree of a nation's immunity to economic risk by quantifying its level of economic independence and its ability to survive unilaterally. To do so, and following the conventional methodology of indices, the article first identifies the dimensions underlying economic independence and then selects the various indicators that best reflect each dimension. It then normalizes each indicator by using its highest and lowest historic goalposts. Finally, it averages the composite index using specific weights assigned first to each indicator and second to each dimension. The economic independence index, which was constructed for 112 countries, provides a gauge to such countries on where they stand in terms of economic resilience and how much risk they face if they were to stand alone economically, or pursue policies that are undesirable from the perspective of more economically powerful countries. This index thus provides a tool for governments to measure the direction and magnitude of government action needed to improve their respective nations' level of economic independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population ageing and its influence on the economic growth has long been the focus of major concern. Using bibliometric techniques we found that: (1) although ageing has increasingly attracted more researchers within economics literature, the relative weight of ageing and economic growth related papers does not evidence a clear positive trend; (2) recent studies reveal the willingness of researchers to evaluate less immediate mechanisms relating ageing and economic growth; (3) the increase in the use of empirical methods reflects a trend to test economic phenomena with real-world data against the theory; (4) very few studies focus on developing and less developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical change is a major driving force for economic growth and development, thus technological change and innovations could be a powerful process that opens up opportunities to increase social welfare and benefits for societies. Whether opportunities turn into real benefits and allow for broad participation depends on a number of factors. In this contribution we focus on three questions. First, what are the drivers of and the gains from technological change? Second, is there broad participation in the gains from technological change? Third, what mechanisms generate asymmetric participation or even non-participation? Reviewing the literature, we obtain two sets of answers, one set for developed countries (DCs) and one for less developed countries (LDCs). For DCs, technology is still the driving force for aggregate progress. Innovations are driven by a combination of private and public R&D investments and the diffusion of innovations is spurred by innovative competition. Due to various reasons - such as technical bias, educational attainment, new firm concepts, globalization and outsourcing, disempowerment of labor unions, decreasing labor share in aggregate income, or agglomeration effects - we identify major differences in participation in gains across different groups. Further, technology that originated in DCs is transferred to LDCs. We identify the channels of technological transfer that allow LDCs to potentially participate in the benefits. Here, the development of the modern sector with links to international value chains plays a major role. However, global diffusion of technology and its gains are very diverse. Reasons for this diverse participation in gains include power structures in global value chains combined with an excess supply of labor and the malfunctioning of local governments and institutions in LDCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the global social–economic impact of shale gas extraction, comparing the differing social and economic impacts shale gas extraction may have on communities in developed and developing countries. It argues that the benefits of fracking are more likely to be enjoyed by communities in highly and very highly developed countries rather than by those in countries with low or medium levels of development . Additionally, it shows that the potential risks and drawbacks of shale gas and its extraction are more likely to be experienced by communities in these latter countries than by those in highly or very highly developed countries. However, it also demonstrates that even communities in developed countries are vulnerable to environmental and health risks associated with shale gas extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Developed countries face the risk of a sustained lack of aggregate demand, that is, secular stagnation. Demand‐oriented growth models emphasising the balance‐of‐payments constraint raise concerns about attendant adverse growth impacts on developing countries from reduced export growth. These concerns are well‐founded, albeit less serious than the simplest versions of these models would imply. Relaxing their assumptions and emphasising cumulative causation forces from domestic‐demand growth and relative price effects indicates how developing countries can combine export and domestic‐demand based strategies and how changed policies can maintain rapid growth while reducing the income elasticity of import demand. [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]

This paper analyzes why the global financial crisis in 2008 severely affected Asia's trade. Asia has been suffering from the falls in export demand from developed countries. However the abrupt trade declines in Asia are not fully explained by reactions to this as in previous experiences. The question is why the financial crisis in 2008 brought about the abrupt and deep collapse in world trade, while other world-wide recessions had more moderate effects on world trade. This paper shows that the dynamic relationship between trade and trade finance is one important factor in explaining this question. This paper also applies the Granger (causality) test to uncover different relationships in the developed and developing economies and show different results for different countries in Asia. We employ a Markov-Switching FAVAR (Factor Augmented VAR) to show that global liquidity shocks are important factors in explaining the huge and abrupt trade drops in Asia. [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]

In this paper, we first compare house price cycles in advanced and emerging economies using a new quarterly house price data set covering the period 1990-2012. We find that house prices in emerging economies grow faster, are more volatile, less persistent, and less synchronized across countries than in advanced economies (AEs). We also find that they correlate with capital flows more closely than in AEs. We then condition the analysis on an exogenous change to a particular component of capital flows: global liquidity, broadly understood as a proxy for the international supply of credit. We identify this shock by aggregating bank-to-bank cross-border credit and by using the external instrumental variable approach introduced by Stock and Watson (2012) and Mertens and Ravn (2013). We find that in emerging markets (EMs) a global liquidity shock has a much stronger impact on house prices and consumption than in AEs. We finally show that holding house prices constant in response to this shock tends to dampen its effects on consumption in both AEs and EMs, but possibly through different channels: in AEs by boosting the value of housing collateral and hence supporting domestic borrowing; in EMs, by appreciating the exchange rate and hence supporting the international borrowing capacity of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the article “Global Liquidity, House Prices, and the Macroeconomy: Evidence from Advanced and Emerging Economies” by Ambrogio Cesa-Bianchi, Luis Felipe Cespedes, and Alessandro Rebucci, which appears in the current issue. He assesses the authors' analysis of the role of global bank credit levels in causing fluctuations in home prices. Topics include economic shocks and the challenge of explaining how house price trends and volatility differ between countries.

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]

Objective One relatively neglected question raised by Amartya Sen's theory of human development is: Why do people and societies differ in their capacity to convert income and commodities into valuable human achievements ('functionings' in Sen's terminology)? I focus upon the degree to which people in developed and developing societies realize each of the six diverse types of valued functionings: long life, schooling, living in a society with less income inequality and less gender inequality, more political freedom, and greater life satisfaction. Methods Using data from all societies with a population of over 1 million ( N = 156), I first regress each type of functioning on societies' GDP per capita to obtain the residual scores. These scores indicate which societies do better than expected, as expected, or worse than expected on the basis of their level of economic development. Results and Conclusion To explain these differences, I then estimate an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model whose independent variables are economic growth rate, ethnolinguistic fractionalization, civil war fatalities, corruption, and several dummy variables for cultural regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 financial crisis has served as a catalyst for re-examining the forces of systemic financial crisis, the leading of which was perceived to be the inaccurate credit ratings. Although sovereign credit ratings constitute a small part of the credit rating industry, the impact of unexpected downgrades or upgrades has a huge potential to distort a well-functioning financial system. There appeared plenty of researches in the literature that discussed the inaccuracy of sovereign credit ratings and argued that these measurements are negative biased toward developing countries. By using ordered response models, this paper investigates whether this bias stems partially from cross country variations in the quality of institutions. Measured by six different governance indicators namely "Control of Corruption", "Voice and Accountability", "Political Stability and No Violence", "Government Effectiveness", "Regulatory Quality", and "Rule of Law", institutional quality was found to have positive impact on the rating decisions. Although the simulation of the estimation results revealed that all the governance indicators reduce prediction errors significantly, "Government Effectiveness" and "Regulatory Quality" were predominantly responsible for low sovereign credit ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the article The aim of the paper is to analyze the global economic imbalances and factors that contributed to their deterioration in developed and emerging countries, primarily in the United States and China. The article assesses the main inevitable factors of the global economic imbalances that have driven the recent evolution of current account balances. In addition, the paper describes the theoretical framework of global imbalances and the relevant fundamental theories for better understanding in theoretical aspect of international economics and finance. Furthermore, provides overview of the fundamental causes and drivers of global imbalances, namely current account. Methodology/methods In relation to the subject and purpose of this paper have been used the logical methods of examination which mainly include analysis, correlation and regression analysis, abstraction, synthesis, induction and deduction, the methods of descriptive and mathematical statistics, comparative and empirical methods and the selected forecasting methods (causal prognosis methods). Scientific aim The global imbalances are considered as the most disputable and well known of the global current economic problem, which possibly explain the causes of the global financial crisis. The global financial imbalances were quite massive even before the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008. Therefore, the main scientific goal of this paper to analyse what is behind the current account imbalances in both countries, e.i. the USA and China. Findings The persistent current account imbalances reflected the imbalances in the world investment and savings ratios. Whereas the U.S. national savings rate kept falling, the Chinese savings rate rose. Current account imbalances will keep on growing due to a problem of insufficient global saving. Conclusions (limits, implications etc)The size of global imbalances has become narrow compared to the prior crisis's level, but it did not vanish due to the implementation of global rebalancing process. Putting the current account imbalance to cooperation of all participating countries is strongly necessary. The policy response will need to involve many more countries, even G20 process, and coordinating this response will require considerable efforts of every party members. [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]

Copyright of Journal of Social Security / SGD-Sosyal Güvenlik Dergisi is the property of Journal of Social Security / SGD-Sosyal Güvenlik Dergisi 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.)

This article extends the meta-analysis presented in Knell and Stix (2005, 2006) to investigate the possible sources of variations in empirical findings about the income elasticity of money demand in advanced and developing countries. In the case of advanced countries, we find that the income elasticities of money demand are significantly higher if broader definitions of the monetary aggregates are used. In addition, financial reforms and wealth seem to have significantly reduced the estimates of the income elasticity. However, we achieved quite different findings for the developing countries. It appears that the broader definitions of monetary aggregates seem to produce income elasticity estimates that are only marginally higher than the narrower aggregates. While the wealth (financial reform) impacts on income elasticity are statistically insignificant (weakly significant), both seems to have reduced the income elasticity estimates only marginally. Moreover, some contrasting results between advanced and developing countries are also attained with respect to the proxies of cost of holding money. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 great story of the last decade has been the 'rise of the rest'-emerging economies such as China, Brazil, Turkey and India-to a position rivaling that of the established, advanced economies. As the aftershocks of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 continue to ripple through the global system, will the rising rest stay or track or be derailed? Some of the world's top economists examine this question in the following section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the globalization in context of financial economy and economic morality across the world. It mentions gap in economic performance and social progress of developed and developing countries. It highlights the history of global financial depressions, attenuation of labor theory of value and gradual decline in employment opportunities due to mechanization, automation and computerization.

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego 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 agricultural and food sector is an ideal case for investigating the political economy of public policies. Many of the policy developments in this sector since the 1950s have been sudden and transformational, while others have been gradual but persistent. This article reviews and synthesizes the literature on trends and fluctuations in market distortions and the political-economy explanations that have been advanced. Based on a rich global data set covering a half-century of evidence on commodities, countries, and policy instruments, we identify hypotheses that have been explored in the literature on the extent of market distortions and the conditions under which reform may be feasible. (JEL F13, Q11, Q17, Q18) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies a Bayesian dynamic factor model to examine the relationship between fmancial development and economic growth from a new angle. We estimate the common, country, and idiosyncratic factors that drive the dynamics and co-movement of financial development and economic growth across 89 countries in three different income groups, namely industrial countries (INDs), emerging market economies (EMEs), and other developing countries (ODCs), over the period 1970 to 2009. The results indicate that the common factor plays a more significant role in explaining the variance of output growth in INDs and EMEs, but not in ODCs. In contrast, financial development variability is mainly driven by the country and idiosyncratic factors. We also analyze the relation between country characteristics and the relative importance of the factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the last two decades, the world has seen many financial crises which have spread around the globe and affected both developing and developed countries. Although each had its own particularities, there are some similar patters that stand out, most being related to an over evaluated asset in a country or region and a sharp withdrawal of funds that led to the burst of the crisis. Looking into each of them, there are some common causes and addressing these may help prevent any future financial shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies panel-data techniques to examine the Balassa-Samuelson hypothesis (BSH) for 33 countries. We introduce a new approach for classifying traded and non-traded industries which allows for country-specific heterogeneity over each industry and changes in classifications across periods. We find that in developed countries, productivity growth in traded goods leads to a real depreciation of the currency, inconsistent with the BSH; however, higher growth countries experience real appreciation. The results of developing countries support the BSH in that higher productivity growth in traded goods leads to real appreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Climate change-related food issues are key problems affecting the world today and into the future. This paper investigates how climate change is harming and is expected to harm food sources on land and in the sea, and how food production itself, especially industrialized agriculture and meat production, contributes to climate change. This article uses human rights discourse to frame the unequal contributions to and harms from climate change among developed and developing nations, and how these affect and are affected by involuntary and voluntary food frugality and dietary choices. [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]

Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) panel data analysis to examine the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), financial development and economic growth in a group of 70 developed and developing countries from 1988 to 2002, it is found that the impact of FDI on economic growth is ambiguous. FDI may either increase or decrease the growth rate of the economy, depending on the financial market development indicators used in the study. The findings, however, support the notion that a certain level of financial sector development is a significant prerequisite for FDI to have a positive effect on economic growth. Policy implications are clear that since it has been stated that the economic performance depends to some extent on the development of domestic financial sector, effort should be made to reform and improve the development of domestic financial and banking sector in order to benefit more from the presence of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

large literature explores the importance of entrepreneurship as the catalyst of economic progress. In contrast, this paper argues that entrepreneurs are the driver of economic stagnation. We analyze the non-productive entrepreneurial process and discuss three channels through which non-productive activities have a multiplier effect culminating in economic decline and stagnation. Drawing on examples of non-productive entrepreneurship from both underdeveloped and developed countries, we provide insight into why economic stagnation persists in the former and why economic decline can occur in the latter. [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]

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.