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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Development economics
This six-volume set is divided into four sets of readings. The first set locates development as a critical concept within the social sciences. The second set examines the causes and consequences of development as a great transformation. Key topics include: the transformation of peasant economies; agribusiness; rural-urban relations; markets; industrialization; workers; trade; and aid and structural adjustment. The third set of readings considers the politics of development, looking in turn at states, civil societies, NGOs, corruption and resistance. The final readings looks at visions of development, including alternative visions of (post) development. It also considers four key challenges for development theory and practice: these relate to capabilities, ethics, sustainability and regulation.
The fallout from the crisis in Asia has been immense. Asia's position as the global economy's growth engine is now no longer tenable. As the political and economic regimes that defined "Asian capitalism" struggle to survive, it is by no means clear that free markets, transparent and accountable systems of governance and more vigorous civil societies will follow. The contributors to this book argue that processes of globalization are driven by complex political forces and that it is not enough to look at economic factors in isolation. Chapters focus on the different political and market institutions being forged in the wake of the crisis: from the highly ordered responses of China and Singapore to the chaos and disintergration in Indonesia; from the money politics of Thailand to the developmentalist juggernauts of Korea. They put the crisis in its global context, reassessing its impact on the configurations of power and interest shaping global markets and analyzing the major Western economies.
A History of Rwanda: From the Monarchy to Post-genocidal Justice provides a complete history of Rwanda, from the precolonial abanyiginya kingdom, through the German and Belgian colonial periods and subsequent independence, and then the devastating 1994 genocide and reconstruction, right up to the modern day. Based on extensive archival research, this book provides new insights and corrects many popular stereotypes about Rwanda, aiming to go beyond the polarized and heated debates focused on the genocide and the events that followed. Readers will get a clear and broad picture of Rwanda's history and the social and political contexts that have defined the county from the pre-colonial period onwards. Embedding Rwanda's history in the regional context, this book avoids simple moral judgements and instead shows where and when Rwanda differed from its neighbours and how the country's history fits into larger debates about colonialism, genocide, ethnicity, race and development. Offering a full and balanced exploration of Rwanda's rich and paradoxical history, this book will be an important read for researchers and students of African history, genocide studies, transitional justice, colonialism, and political and social anthropology.
This book examines the changing roles and functions of the soybean throughout world history and discusses how this reflects the complex processes of agrofood globalization. The book uses a historical lens to analyse the processes and features that brought us to the current global configuration of soy. From its origins as a peasant food in ancient China, today the protein-rich soybean is by far the most cultivated biotech crop on Earth, used to make a huge variety of food and industrial products, including animal feed, tofu, cooking oil, soy sauce, biodiesel and soap. While there is a burgeoning amount of literature on how the contemporary global soy web affects large tracts of our planet’s social and ecological systems, little attention has been given to the questions of how we got here and what alternative roles the soybean has played in the past. This book fills this gap and demonstrates that it is impossible to properly comprehend the contemporary global soybean chain, or the wider agrofood system of which it is a part, without looking at both their long and short historical development. However, a history of the soybean and its changing roles within equally changing agrofood systems is inexorably a history about globalization. Not only does this book map out where soybeans are produced, but also who governs, wields power and accumulates capital in the entire commodity chain from production to consumption, as well as identifying the institutional context the global commodity chain operates within. The book concludes by considering the soybean’s future role in a desirable agrofood system which improves human health, culture and livelihoods, and the provision of ecosystem services. This book is essential reading for students and scholars interested in agriculture and food systems, global commodity chains, globalization, environmental history, economic history and social-ecological systems.
This book provides a detailed account of the political economy around investment deal negotiations between African governments and private Chinese investors. The book draws on evidence from experiments and hundreds of interviews with policy makers and Chinese investors across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. It shows that governments of authoritarian or one-party dominant states, which are among the top-receivers of Chinese investments, are able to easily and successfully act collectively to impose human capital and technology transfer requirements. The book argues that, rather than treating African countries as "price-takers" in the face of increasing Chinese influence in the continent, we should instead recognise the significant bargaining leverage that many African governments have to influence deal conditions, especially with smaller private Chinese companies. It demonstrates that several African governments can instead act "as price-setters" and that the success of the rising Chinese presence in Africa, and whether this leads to positive or negative development outcomes, fundamentally depends on the development strategies that individual African governments decide on. In the context of an often-polarised debate, the original research presented in this book has important implications for the future economic development strategies of African countries. As such, it will be of interest to researchers working on Chinese and African investment, politics, institutions, business, economics, and international relations.
The demand for economic inclusion has increasingly intensified, as manifested by the growing movements of farmers, workers, and social activists. Therefore, the question of adequate social representation of marginalized and underprivileged communities has to be made pivotal in the discourse of inclusion. This book investigates selected aspects of labour market informality in India. It examines the key factors that have expedited labour informality- contractualisation - in the manufacturing sector since the early 1990s. It analyses the features of informality and inclusion from the perspective of not just class but also the caste hierarchy in Indian society, thus offering readers an exhaustive overview of economic inclusion following the economic reforms and providing fresh insights into labour market informality through the lens of the social divisions in Indian society. Developed on a wide canvas of multiple processes, policies and factors that have contributed to this phenomenon, the book offers an elaborate analysis of contractualisation within the industry from the perspectives of labour legislation and the labour market. In addition, it contextualizes the issue of job informality for the post economic reforms era, from 1991 onwards. It examines the impact of the policies of economic reform on contractualisation across industries and states. Further, the book discusses the dynamics of the labour market reforms in India, given that there is a higher incidence of labour informality in India. It also highlights how the policy quest for inclusive growth has remained unfulfilled. This book will be a useful guide for advanced students, academic researchers, scholars and policy makers that are engaged with the issue of informal sector employment.
• The volume explores the relationship between higher education, employment and economic development in India • It provides a platform to discuss, debate and exchange ideas and insights on various issues, challenges relating to employment generation and development. • This volume will be of interest to teachers, students, and researchers of education, anthropology, economics, and political economy across UK and US. It will also be useful for academicians, practitioners, policymakers, and those interested in humanities, social sciences, and policy agendas.
The innovation systems (IS) approach emerged as a theoretical framework in the industrialized world in the mid-1990s to explain innovation and growth in the developed world. This Handbook is the first attempt to adapt the IS approach to developing countries from a theoretical and empirical viewpoint. The Handbook brings eminent scholars in economics, innovation and development studies together with promising young researchers to review the literature and push theoretical boundaries. They critically review the IS approach and its adequacy for developing countries, discuss the relationship between IS and development, and address the question of how it should be adapted to the realities of developing nations. Spanning national, sectoral and regional innovation systems across Asia, Latin America and Africa, and written by the world's leading scholars within the field, this comprehensive Handbook will strongly appeal to academics, researchers and students with an interest in innovation and technology in developing countries.
First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
What I like most about Strategic Challenges for the Base of the Pyramid is the authors' clear understanding of what we have already learned about the BoP domain and their subsequent focus on creating new knowledge. The chapters in this book provide important insights into several important topics in the BoP domain, including trust, innovation, and scale. Congratulations to Patrick Vermeulen, Edgar Hutte and their colleagues in putting together this book.' - Ted London, William Davidson Institute and Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, USThis pioneering book addresses some of the key challenges that firms encounter when they enter low-income markets and offers solutions - based on empirical evidence - for those firms already operating in such a difficult arena. The Base of the Pyramid (BoP) has become a popular area for firms to search for new business potential. However, serving the BoP requires a fundamentally different approach to doing business and presents a new and unique set of organizational challenges. In this book, Patrick Vermeulen and Edgar Hutte discuss some of the key challenges firms are confronted with when operating in BoP markets. Based on empirical evidence from various companies across the globe, the authors provide valuable insights into how firms can deal with these challenges. With the rapid growth of developing countries, Western firms should be more aware of the potential problems when entering these markets; this book will help those making the crucial choices necessary to resolve these issues. This book will appeal to academics and students in international business or business administration. It will also prove an essential resource for practitioners that are active in, or are considering moving into, low-income markets. Contents: 1. Introduction 2. The Base of the Pyramid 3. Cross-sector Collaborations at the Base of the Pyramid 4. Building Trust at the Base of the Pyramid 5. Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid 6. Scaling Challenges at the Base of the Pyramid 7. Next steps in Base-of-the Pyramid Research and Practice Index
The World Bank is the key institution through which rich nations channel resources to poorer ones. Yet it was established over 50 years ago in a radically different international environment, and constantly re-invented itself in the intervening decades. What drives this evolution? This text considers the nature of change at the World Bank, exploring both the external impetous for change, and the impact of the Bank's internal organization and culture. The author's findings are supported by case studies of three of the Bank's most important new agendas: private sector development, participation, and governance. Michelle Miller-Adams finds that traditional international-relations based approaches, which focus on states and power, are inadequate for explaining institutional change at the World Bank. Attention must be paid to the Bank's internal processes, especially the technical and apolitical norms that form an intrinsic part of its identity. This identity, which dates from the Bank's earliest days, continues to shape its response to new demands and affect its ability to meet the needs of a changing world.
Books on innovation have proliferated in the last quarter of a century, during what the author describes as 'the Schumpeterian Renaissance'. This volume provides an authoritative account of many of these new developments and represents the foundation of much ongoing research on innovation. This superlative set of essays by Chris Freeman, founder of SPRU and one of the pioneers of innovation studies, will be of interest to anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding of technical and social change. The wide-scope lens of the author covers topics ranging from business cycles, through National Systems of Innovation to the information technology paradigm. Having this valuable material in a single volume will be welcomed by all those involved in the economics of innovation, be it in theory, policy or practice.
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), one of the most influential of
modern thinkers, is also one of the most misunderstood. Malthus'
"Essay on Population" is a work that everyone cites but typically
without having read it. This book offers a comprehensive and
accurate exposition of his thought, integrating his better-known
theory on population with his somewhat neglected analysis of
economic development and social structure.
In their exploration of more than one thousand years of institutional development, the chapters analyse and assess the development of political arrangements and governance, and economic institutions, from pre-Russian colonization through to the Soviet experiment, and then take a magnifying glass to developments in a post-Soviet, independent Kazakhstan. Using a broad range of sources and data across disciplines, this book is the first explicitly to survey Kazakhstan's transition as a function of its history, its people and its institutions. Breaking new ground in institutional economics, it provides readers with a comprehensive examination of the history and development of Kazakhstan, and points to where it may be heading in the 21st century.
This book weaves together current understanding around financial literacy and ageing, arguing for the relevance of financial literacy for old age security. Building upon on the experiences of ten developing Asian economies with a focus on India, the book enters new territory by developing frameworks that identify predictors of financial literacy and a mechanism for its internalization, as well as recognising the need for specialized training programs for the older population in order to establish a link between financial literacy and old age security. It thus makes a case about the centrality of financial literacy in creating an environment conducive to a dignified ageing experience in this world of shouldering one's own responsibility. Going forward, the book comprehends financial literacy for India as a skill which enables an individual to decide the suitable avenues to invest savings, utilize monetary resources and shape financial decisions aligned with their financial goals, in accordance with the dynamic financial & economic environment. This original volume is a first-time attempt to provide an in-depth account of financial literacy and its association with savings behavior, old age planning, wealth accumulation, healthcare and wellbeing in older age. It also provides a detailed account of various measurement tools used and policy initiatives undertaken across the globe for financial literacy. It is an indispensable reference guide for scholars and researchers, cutting across multiple disciplines particularly financial and development economics, gerontology, demography, social work, psychology and public policy.
The authors of this comprehensive book provide a detailed rationale and original theory for the study of leadership and institutional factors, including entrepreneurship, in the growth and development of cities and regions. They demonstrate why leadership, institutions and entrepreneurship can - and indeed do - play a crucial enhancing role as key elements in the process of regional endogenous growth. The so-called 'new growth theory' emphasizes endogenous processes. While some of the literature refers to leadership and institutional factors, there has been little analysis of the explicit roles these factors play in the growth and development of cities and regions. This book remedies that gap, beginning with a brief overview of the evolution of the 'new growth theory' in regional economic development, in which the emphasis is on endogenous factors. The book then discusses leadership and institutional factors in that context, creating a new path for understanding regional economic development processes. Multiple case studies from different parts of the world illustrate the theoretical concepts. Students and scholars in regional development, planning and public policy will find this volume invaluable.
"Zero Emissions" has become a definitive term in the debate on sustainable development. While considered a utopian target by some, the concept describes what business and industry of the future must aim to achieve: no pollution and no waste. This volume presents findings from the research work of over 2000 scientists undertaken under the banner of ZERI (Zero Emissions Research Initiative), a business foundation working jointly with UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in a number of developing countries. Gunter Pauli feels that if we are serious about creating jobs, generating more income and eliminating pollution, we have to build on the assets we have instead of continuing to analyze the problems we face. The volume examines how the adoption of Zero Emissions concepts not only reduces pollution and waste but can contribute significantly to the generation of income and jobs - specifically for those who need them most - the rural poor in less developed countries.
China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy has succeeded in producing more than a decade of phenomenal growth. Whilst similar reforms in countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have seen an initial downturn in production, usually with a significant rise in unemployment, the success of the approach taken by China has been remarkable. However, China embarked upon the process, without a well-designed blueprint at the outset. The resulting piecemeal, partial, incremental, and often experimental approach has proved complicated to implement - requiring a complex melding of politics and economics, internal and foreign affairs, government and market. How the difficult task of balancing the diverse array of often competing concerns has been achieved is the subject of this book, which examines the dismantling of the centrally planned system and the mechanism of institutional change in Chinese transition.
Featuring over 1900 references, drawings, and tables and drawing on disciplines as diverse as political economics, public management, and urban affairs, this versatile text offers comprehensive information on major policy and managerial issues important to local and national economic development. Pulling together the work of over 40 researchers, the book examines the role of government in economic advances and reform, provides a complete, up-to-date survey of the literature on local and national economic development, details local and regional economic progress in the US, adopts an innovative interdisciplinary approach to the study of economic expansion, and more.
This path-breaking book focuses on the theory and practice of economic development as viewed from the perspective of sustainability, and the implications of sustainability for development policy. It demonstrates how various indicators can be developed and used to determine whether or not an economy is on a sustainable path of development. The book is concerned with measuring sustainability in a macroeconomic context so that decision makers are more aware of the real trends in the economy and the way in which their policies may affect these trends. The discussion on such measurement includes: the physical indicators of sustainability, resource and environmental accounting, savings and the empirical measurement of sustainable development, international trade and unsustainable development, ecological indicators, income distribution and social needs, and the assessment of structural adjustment policies and their implications for sustainable development. The authors conclude that the first step towards sustainable development is for a greater awareness of the effects of development on the environment, and the environment on human well-being. Measuring Sustainable Development will be particularly welcomed by policymakers and practitioners as well as researchers, academics and students of development economics and environmental economics.
Exploring the thorny issues of industrial organisation, competition
policy and liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region, this book
examines the ways in which governments regulate business. Using
case studies from China, the USA, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia
and Japan, the authors take a comparative look at the evolution of
policies and their implementation on the ground.
This unique study from the OECD Development Centre presents a comprehensive review by independent experts of the relationships and division of responsibility between the 22 member governments of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), and NGOs from these donor countries, working in international development. Additional chapters cover the roles of the European Union and the World Bank. Among other themes, the book looks at two very significant issues. First, at the way in which an overemphasis on evaluation may be leading NGOs to focus purely on measuring their output, thus choosing activities which are easily accountable. Second, it examines the important impacts of the evolution in the funding relationship between governments and NGOs - from matching grants to contracts - where NGOs must increasingly compete for contracts. |
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