This book investigates Central America's political economy seen through the lens of its powerful business groups. It provides unique insight into their strategies when confronted with a globalized economy, their impact on development of the isthmus, and how they shape the political and economic institutions governing local varieties of capitalism.

All four authors of Building Bridges Among the BRICs take a close look at the national culture of their nations with their strengths and weaknesses for politics and business. They examine the origins of these cultures from the historical and geographical perspectives.

This volume examines the relationship between Nordic social policy and economic development from a comparative perspective. It identifies the driving forces behind the development of the Nordic welfare model and the problems and dilemmas the model is facing at present. The book also traces the link between democratization and social policy, drawing attention to the role of the state and non-governmental organizations. Social Policy and Economic Development in the Nordic Countries examines Nordic social policies on unemployment, social care, family, education and health care policies, and reviews future challenges of the welfare state in the information society.

The most successful economies have the best working financial markets. While causation obviously runs in both directions, current research has increasingly emphasized the role of finance in promoting growth. Here seven leading financial economists explore the links between financial development and growth. The book seeks to answer the question of the role of finance in promoting sustainable growth and in the reduction of poverty, for example via micro-financial institutions.

Asia has shown the world what success in economic development looks like. From the amazing transformations of Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the other 'tigers' in the early 70s, to the more recent takeoffs of the People's Republic of China (PRC), India, and the leading economies in Southeast Asia, the region has prospered at a startling pace. Technologies were adopted, productivity raised, and export markets conquered. Billions were lifted out of poverty. What was once a backwater is now a global engine of growth. That roaring progress was, however, fueled by a lesser-known factor: borrowing. Governments, corporations, and households financed their path to prosperity with debt-lots of debt. Today, the volume of debt hanging over Asian economies is huge, in both absolute and relative terms. It was growing fast before the pandemic and is projected to grow even faster because of it. Demography is bound to make matters worse in the long term. How sustainable is this? What should policy makers do to keep Asia's finances stable? Should markets worry? These are the core questions of this book. Through a collection of chapters by renowned experts, a diagnosis of Asia's debt accumulation is offered. The approach is both country- and issue-driven, so both idiosyncratic and common elements can be identified. Matters like Japan's social insurance promises, the PRC's state-owned enterprises, the Pacific islands' aid dependency, and the saving habits of households in the Republic of Korea are dissected. As are trends that are present across countries, such as population aging, shrinking fiscal space, and contingent liabilities. This allows for a deeper understanding of what makes borrowing sustainable-or not. And it leads directly into policy recommendations, especially those involving the use of new financial instruments. The final product is a book whose comprehensiveness and practicality are unprecedented in the field. It will be equally invaluable for governments, investors, and scholars in Asia and beyond.

There has been an increased awareness of the need to establish and maintain small-scale forestry in tropical countries. This is due to concerns over continued deforestation, as well as the long-term environmental and economic resources these plantations can contribute if managed successfully. This book examines the constraints that limit the development of small-scale forestry in tropical environments and how they can be overcome. The authors first explain the background to their research and demonstrate how, in contrast to industrial plantations, small-scale forestry has a wide variety of objectives, including the production of fuelwood and a wide variety of non-wood products, and the protection of degraded watersheds and wildlife habitats. They examine a broad range of socio-economic topics under the broad themes of policy development, market considerations, the evolution of small-scale forestry systems, and timber and non-wood benefits. In developing countries for example, small-scale forestry is often regarded as a means of facilitating sustainable regional development. As a result of seven years extensive research they have developed a strong policy line, examining measures such as tax provisions and the targeting of subsidy and extension programs that can help promote the growth of non-industrial forest industries. The authors present an integrated socio-economic analysis of the opportunities, impediments and challenges to small-scale forestry in the tropics. As such, this book will be required reading for scholars of environmental economics and science, land resource economists, and environmental, forestry and resource managers.

This volume studies the outcomes of the two-way flow of investments and people between China and India, and Southeast Asia. These cross-border flows have led to new settlements in Southeast Asia from which new outlooks have emerged among locally born generations that have given rise to new forms of solidarity and identification.The advent of new generations of ethnic Chinese and Indians in Southeast Asia, with no ties to China or India, has spawned important debates about identity shifts which have not been registered by government leaders in Southeast Asia, China and India, as reflected in policy statements and investment patterns. Identity changes are assessed in forms where they best manifest themselves: in social life and in business ventures forged, or unsuccessfully nurtured, through tie-ups involving foreign and domestic capital. A state-society distinction is employed to determine how the governments of these rapidly developing countries envision development, through state intervention as well as with the employment of highly entrepreneurial ethnic groups, and the outcomes of this on their societies and on their economies. The chapters were originally published as a special issue in The Round Table.

The authors explain why the discovery and development of natural resources is commonly associated with unstable and unequal development, and frequently with violence. They demonstrate the need for policies and institutions by reflecting on both successes and failures in case studies on Botswana, Nigeria and Niger as well as Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

This book on India's economic policies and performance is based on conversations with India's reputable economists. It covers a number of controversial issues relating to agriculture, industrialization, education, and financial policies. Each of the economists talk with candor about past policy mistakes and the future prospects for the economy.

In 'Competitiveness and Development', the author explains the confusion surrounding the concept of competitiveness in the context of developing countries; proposes policies for achieving competitiveness at a high level of development; examines its possibilities and constraints; and suggests policy changes necessary at the national and international levels. Shafaeddin illustrates how developed countries impose restrictive policies on developing countries through international financial institutions and the WTO, as well as regional and bilateral agreements, which limit their policy space for promoting dynamic comparative advantage in order to achieve competitiveness at a high level of development. Ultimately, such policies lock developing countries that are at early stages of development in specialization based on static comparative advantage and competitiveness at a low level of development.

This book reviews the latest methods of sustainable investing and financial profit making and describes how ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) analysis can identify future business opportunities and manage risk to achieve abnormal returns. Megatrends such as climate change, sustainable development and digitalisation increase uncertainty and information asymmetry and have an impact on the future returns on investments. From a profit perspective, it is largely about how ESG factors affect the long-term value added by companies and the valuation of companies in the financial markets. Although sustainability provides an opportunity for abnormal returns, this phenomenon must be considered in a critical light. The book describes the risks and limitations associated with the accountability and availability of ESG data and tools. This book provides both academic findings and practical models for assessing the sustainability of investees and introduces practical tools and methods to make ESG analysis practice. It focuses on the ESG analysis of equity investments and fund investments in institutional investment organizations and provides a handbook for all investment analysts who are involved with investment decisions. Readers will benefit from understanding the methods, opportunities and challenges that professionals use in their ESG analysis with cases, interviews and practical tools for both institutional and private investors.

Investment in Latin America is continuously developing in complex patterns due to the region's increasing role in the global economy. The Handbook of Research on Economic Growth and Technological Change in Latin America helps readers to better understand the importance of Latin America in today's global economy. The book discusses the developments of investments involving Latin American Multinational Corporations ("Multilatinas") within the region. This investment is having profound influences on the state of business, government, and technological development in Latin America, which are all explored in this reference publication for use by researchers, scholar-practitioners, business executives, students, and academicians.

As a result of the regional debt crisis, most governments of Latin America in the 1980s entered into a process of profound policy change, from an import substitution oriented strategy to a focus upon export-promotion, with an emphasis upon market liberalization. According to mainstream economic theory, the effect of this shift would be to favour agriculture. This book, with contributors from Latin America and Europe, surveys the results on agriculture of a decade of policy change.

World hunger is prevalent yet receives relatively less attention compared to poverty. The MDGs have taken a step to address this with the resolution of halving the number of starving people in the world by 2015. Hunger though is not a straightforward problem of producing enough to feed the world's population; it has many cross-cutting dimensions. This volume discusses the significance of human rights approaches to food and the way it relates to gender considerations, addressing links between hunger and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, agricultural productivity and the environment.

Savings Groups reach those rarely served by mainstream financial institutions. At weekly meetings, members deposit savings and take loans, and in the process build commitment, discipline and mutual assistance. Maximum transparency, a profitable structure for saving, access to small loans and an annual lump sum of capital are the hallmarks of the Savings Group methodology. The outcome: empowered groups, made up mostly of women, who manage themselves as tiny financial institutions. Today there are Savings Groups in 60 countries with more than 6 million members, the result of initiatives carried out by dozens of international and local NGOs."Savings Groups at the Frontier" explores the issues that will shape the future of Savings Groups. What are the costs, required inputs, and anticipated outreach of these groups? How does replication take place? How sustainable are the groups? Is it feasible to integrate financial and non-financial services? Are linkages to the formal system desirable? What is the impact of groups on members and their households? How can performance be managed? This book addresses issues, not from the perspective of the financial institution, but in support of group members and savers who are managing their own financial services. This book is essential reading for all those concerned with extending financial services to the poor: NGO and microfinance managers, bankers, policy makers, researchers and students.

As witness to one of the world's great crises in recent times, academics and students, business people, national and international government analysts, policy makers and political leaders worldwide have been pre-occupied by an effort to adequately unravel or sufficiently understand the factors that have brought about the so-called Asian financial, currency or economic crisis and hopefully to find plausible cures or solutions to it. This book examines the impact of economic globalization in developing economies and it applies empirical studies of all of the major countries to theoretical perspectives on the crisis.

This 72nd volume in the series discusses such topics as the influence of the environment, the effect of the type of regime, regional case studies, and generalizations.

The primary purpose of this edited collection is to evaluate critically the relationship between local government and national economic development. It focuses on how the relationship between local government and development is structured, and the specific institutional arrangements at national and subnational levels that might facilitate local government's assumption of the role of development agent. In light of the contradictory outcomes of development and implied experimentation with new modalities, post-development discourse provides a useful explanatory framework for the book. Schoburgh, Martin and Gatchair's central argument is that the pursuit of national developmental goals is given a sustainable foundation when development planning and strategies take into account elements that have the potential to determine the rate of social transformation. Their emphasis on localism establishes a clear link between local government and local economic development in the context of developing countries.

This book reviews the experience of 14 countries with external liberalization and related policies, based on papers written by national authors following a common 0000oeconomic methodology. The methodology, the papers' main results, and policy implications are summarized in the introductory chapter.
The book reports on a follow-on project to the country studies presented in Lance Taylor (ed.), External Liberalization, Economic Performance, and Social Policy, OUP, 2001. The new project represents a significant extension of the earlier work in that it focuses principally on formerly socialist European economies (Hungary, Poland, Russia), Asian economies (consistently growing China, India, Singapore, and Vietnam; the 1997-98 crisis victims Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand; and cyclically stagnant Philippines and Turkey). Brazil is also included as an important comparator. Macroeconomics has traditionally been less actively pursued in Asia and the transition economies than, say, in Latin America. The 1997-98 crisis awoke the Asians to the importance of macro, and the present book is in part a response to the development.
A distinguishing feature of the book is the common methodology, which focuses on the mechanisms via which effective demand is generated and the interactions of labor productivity, employment growth, and income distribution. The country papers show clearly how trade and capital account liberalization along with changes in the real exchange rate affected demand, productivity, and employment at the country level. They also trace through shifts in the overall income distribution and the incidence of poverty. The authors of the papers bring a wealth of insightinto their thick descriptions a la Clifford Geertz's famous Balinese cockfight about how diverse economies responded to rather similar reform packages and offer lessons about ongoing institutional change. They also suggest policy shifts that may help make economic performance better in the future than it has been in the past.

This book is the first comprehensive account of the numerous attempts made since the Second World War to provide food security for all. It provides a reference source for all those involved and interested in food security issues.

This book explores the complex relationship between social security and economic development, arguing that social security contributes positively to economic development by promoting social investments that not only foster economic growth but enhance social welfare for all. The contributors analyse the various forms of social security, and, through comprehensive analysis of country experiences, demonstrates that the relationship between social security and economic development defies the simplistic interpretations currently popular in literature on the subject. A variety of country case studies are explored including Britain, Chile, China, India, Korea, Norway, Singapore, South Africa and the United States. This topical volume is a vital companion for all interested in the dynamics of the relationship between social security and the economy.

For years economists have spoken of 'Africa rising', and despite the global financial crisis, Africa continues to host some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Africa's Shadow Rise however argues that the continent's apparent economic 'rise' is essentially a mirage, driven by developments elsewhere - most particularly the expansion in China's economy. While many African countries have experienced high rates of growth, much of this growth may prove to be unsustainable, and has contributed to environmental destruction and worsening inequality across the continent. Similarly, new economic relationships have produced new forms of dependency, as African nations increasingly find themselves tied to the fortunes of China and other emerging powers. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork in southern Africa, Africa's Shadow Rise reveals how the shifting balance of global power is transforming Africa's economy and politics, and what this means for the future of development efforts in the region.

Contemporary international aid consists of a wide range of various support programs, where the end-result in many cases not only reflects the needs of the recipient country, but also the interests of the donor country. In Science and Politics of Foreign Aid - Swedish Environmental Support to the Baltic States it is shown that this particular support has been directed primarily towards areas of joint concern, such as air pollution and effluents to the Baltic Sea. Environmental problems with primarily local effects have, to a large extent, been neglected in the Swedish support program. The requirement on the Baltic recipient countries to finance a specific fraction of each joint program with local resources has furthermore drained the local national environmental budgets from resources, making it very difficult for these countries to mitigate various local environmental hazards by themselves.

In contrast to many previous foreign aid studies where various donor country biases often are suggested but not empirically validated, this book gives an in-depth view of how a particular support program is influenced by specific and self-interested considerations.