Innovation underpins competitiveness, is crucial to addressing societal challenges, and its support has become a major public policy goal. But what really works in innovation policy, and why? This Handbook, compiled by leading experts in the field, is the first comprehensive guide to understanding the logic and effects of innovation polices. The Handbook develops a conceptualization and typology of innovation policies, presents meta-evaluations for 16 key innovation policy instruments and analyses evidence on policy-mix. For each policy instrument, underlying rationales and examples are presented, along with a critical analysis of the available impact evidence. Providing access to primary sources of impact analysis, the book offers an insightful assessment of innovation policy practice and its evaluation. The Handbook's final chapter draws overall conclusions, reflects on the merits and limits of evaluation and impact analysis in innovation policy and suggests tangible improvements. This Handbook is an indispensable source for researchers, analysts, students and practitioners of innovation policy at all levels, as well as all those interested in policy analysis and evaluation more generally. Contributors include: K. Blind, J. Cassingena Harper, P. Cunningham, J. Edler, K. Flanagan, A. Goek, D. Grimshaw, B. Jones, C. Koehler, P. Laredo, R. Ramlogan, C. Rammer, J. Rigby, P. Shapira, E. Uyarra, J. Youtie

This text is about transformation in the framework of European integration. The Balkan countries have acquired particular importance since the 1990s due to their domestic destabilisation and have been looking for good examples and ideas to pursue development in ethnically complex and conflicting areas.

One of the early set of reforms that South Africa embarked on after emerging from apartheid was in the water sector, following a remarkable, consultative process. The policy and legal reforms were comprehensive and covered almost all aspects of water management including revolutionary changes in defining and allocating rights to water, radical reforms in water management and supply institutions, the introduction of the protection of environmental flows, and major shifts in charging for water use and in the provision of free basic water. Over ten years of implementation of these policy and legislative changes mean that valu-able lessons have already been learned and useful experiences gained in the challenge of effective water resources management and water services provision in a middle income country.

Scholars in the science and technology field have not collectively questioned, much less proposed, an agenda for policy makers. Now is an appropriate time for such an undertaking. First, there is a growing belief that the U.S. national research and development system, like that of many industrial nations, is changing due to global competitive pressures and advancements in information technology and electronic commerce. Second, industry's R&D relationship with the academic research community is changing not only because of the global competition but also because of alterations in the level of government support of fundamental research. As a result, policy makers will need to rethink their approaches to science and technology issues. This volume is a collection of essays by scholars about innovative policy in the knowledge-based economy. By knowledge-based economy we mean one for which economic growth is based on the creation, distribution, and use of technology. As such, innovation policy in such an economy must enhance the creation, distribution, and use of knowledge that leads to the creation, distribution, and use of technology. This volume considers elements of an innovation policy: innovation policy and academic research, innovation policy in electronic commerce, and innovation policy and globalization issues.

The Asia and the Pacific SDG Progress Report 2022 analyses regional and subregional progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. This publication applies a measurement framework developed by ESCAP to identify progress gaps and acceleration requirements at goal, target and indicator levels. On chapter 3 (Vulnerabilities and the pandemic: Risk of widening disparities), the report was developed in cooperation with UN agencies; ILO, IOM, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNODC, and UNWomen. The following topics are introduced in the report: Chapter 1 - Regional overview Chapter 2 - Around Asia-Pacific: Diverse progress across subregions Chapter 3 - Vulnerabilities and the pandemic: Risk of widening disparities Chapter 4 - Unpacking the SDG data gaps

This book investigates how environmental qualities can be managed through social capacity development in developing countries. To this end, the book proposes a concept of social capacity assessment (SCA) and presents empirical tools for the SCA which can be used for the analysis in developing countries. This book also presents applications of the SCA for other problems under scrutiny in developing countries, including poverty reduction, infrastructure management and protection of endangered species.

Every year, every Alaskan gets paid. They receive a small dividend financed by returns on a fund created from the state's resource revenues - what the authors have called the 'Alaska model.' This timely book examines how the model can be adapted for use elsewhere, examining issues of implementation and showing that this model can be employed even in resource-poor areas in the industrialized and in the industrializing world.

Dealing with economic issues related to income and wealth among individuals, regions and countries, this book presents a general theory with endogenous capital, knowledge and preference changes for an economic system with heterogeneous households, multiple sectors, multiple regions and multiple countries.

The book presents case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America addressing global development issues in the fields of health, energy, ICT and urbanism in an interdisciplinary way. The book illustrates key issues at the interface of technology, human, social, and economic development. Bringing together the best papers of the 2014 EPFL-UNESCO Conference on Technologies for Development, this book explores innovative technologies in the global South. It will be a valuable reference for researchers from engineering, natural sciences, information management, quantitative social sciences, and business faculties, as well as for development practitioners and policy makers. It shows the development potential of technologies, and discusses successful processes to develop and deploy them, as well how to evaluate their impact. The introduction to the book begins with a reflection on key issues regarding technologies for development. The following four sections focus on; (i) Innovative Technologies for Development, (ii) Open Source-Open Access-Open Innovation, (iii) Medical Technologies for the Global South, and (iv) Impact Assessment of Technologies for Development. Individual chapters explore issues such as a need for solid standards for newly developed technologies, how to successfully up-scale technology to a larger region, and how to involve private industry in the development of a technology.

"This book investigates issues related to health inequality with a particular interest on developing countries. It provides rigorous empirical work on both trends and causal factors behind health inequality, analyzes the implications of health deprivations on poverty traps and suggests practical policies which can be implemented"--

In the past, the science of ecology has frequently been excluded from the development agenda for various reasons. Increasingly however there has been a renewed interest in finding more ecologically sustainable means of development that have required a strong foundation in ecological knowledge (for example EcoAgriculture Partnerships, EcoHealth presented at ESA, and EcoNutrition proposed by Deckelbaum et al). Each of these examples has already taken the critical first step at integrating ecological knowledge with agriculture, health and nutrition, respectively. However, this is only the first step; more attention needs to be placed not only on the role that two fields can play towards poverty alleviation, but on the role of a truly integrated, interdisciplinary approach towards development goals that is firmly grounded in ecological understanding. We feel that a critical look at what ecology can and cannot provide to the development agenda, in light of the Millennium Development goals, is timely and crucial. The introduction and the final section of the book will then integrate the lessons and principles outlined in each of the chapters. All chapter authors will be heavily encouraged to focus on how their sub-discipline in ecology impacts overall human well-being and environmental sustainability.

Productivity growth is a keyword for sustainable economic growth in a knowledge-based society. There has been significant methodological development in the literature on productivity and efficiency analysis, e.g. SFA (Stochastic Frontier Analysis) and DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). All these methodological developments should be matched with applications in order to provide practical implications for private and public decision-makers. This volume provides a collection of up-to-date and new applications of productivity and efficiency analysis. In particular, the case studies cover various economic issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The authors analyze the performance of manufacturing firms, banks, venture capital, broadcasting firms, as well as the issues of efficiency in the education sector, regional development, and defense industry. These case studies will shed light on the potential contribution of productivity and efficiency analysis to the enhancement of economic performance.

This book examines India's new economy -- its strengths, weaknesses and potential. The book covers three key areas of growth in India's economy -- the IT (information technology) sector, export trade (with its externality effects) and the financial sector (in particular, banking reforms).

Challenging the Emerging Aid Paradigm critically examines central aspects of Western international aid policy, while at the same time exploring non-western especially Chinese aid and assesses to what extent these may be competitive or complementary.

The entrepreneurs of China are dynamic and contributing positively to economic development, but unlike Western entrepreneurs, they are uncertain and insecure about government policies and their position in society. This book shows that in the history of China and in the politics of the 1980s, all are influenced by culture and have created an entrepreneurial class that is ambiguous and fragile. Yet the entrepreneurs are moving China toward economic development, and this is giving rise to a new economic culture which honors profit-making ventures. The Chinese Communist Party is making room for entrepreneurs and consumers in the economic arena. The study supports the idea that entrepreneurship is the key to economic development, but it also shows that private entrepreneurship influences government policy and traditional values. It also points out the vital role of the consumer.

This book presents a comprehensive study of adoption and diffusion of technology in developing countries in a historical perspective. Combining the development of growth trajectories of the Indian economy in general and its manufacturing industry in particular, the book highlights the effective marriage between qualitative and quantitative methods for a better understanding and explaining of many hidden dynamic behaviors of adoption and diffusion trend in manufacturing industry. The use of various econometric methods is aimed to equip readers to make a judgement of the current state of diffusion pattern of new technologies in India and simulate a desirable future pattern in view of the various pro-industrial growth policies.

Infrastructure and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa analyzes the extent to which, how, and how fast the infrastructure needs of the poor have been met in Sub-Saharan Africa. Estache and Wodon explore the extent to which some key policies have hurt or helped progress in trying to speed the expansions of coverage so clearly needed in the region. They focus on electricity, water, sanitation, and other services at the core of the day-to-day needs of the population, examining the extent to which reforms of the last 15-20 years have managed to reduce the infrastructure gap. They anchor their analysis on the evidence available about the macroeconomic importance of infrastructure for the region, the policies that have been adopted to accelerate coverage, and a detailed assessment of the poverty dimensions of infrastructure.

Over the last thirty years, China has been reforming its economy at breakneck speed. However a surge in nationalism is threatening China's relations with its neighbours and its rise to regional leadership. This book addresses a wide range of factors influencing the development of China's model and its influence on the rest of the world.

Public debt has become a severe problem for a great many economies. While the effects of tax policies on the allocation of resources are readily derived, the mechanisms that make public deficits and debt influence the economy are not so easily understood. This book elaborates on the effects of public debt starting from the intertemporal budget constraint of the government. It is shown under which conditions a government can stick to the intertemporal budget constraint and then, demonstrated how public debt affects the growth process and welfare in market economies. The effects are derived for models with complete labor markets as well as taking into account labor market imperfections. The focus in this book is on fiscal policy issues, but it also deals with monetary policy aspects. The theoretical analysis is complemented with empirical time series analyses on debt sustainability and with panel studies dealing with the relationship between public debt and economic growth.

A decade after the implementation of the initial wave of economic reforms in India, the process of transforming the country into a fully developed market economy continues. A hallmark of the globalised economy is its ability to sustain competitive efficiency which, in turn, can lead to enhanced growth. This important new book gauges how far India has been successful in achieving this goal by implementing the correct economic reform measures. There is a severe lack of solid analytical evidence or rigorous scientific studies on the success of India's economic reforms. The expert authors attempt to redress this imbalance with a thorough analysis of key aspects of the state of the Indian economy since 1991. Keeping poverty reduction as the major objective, they comprehensively discuss and identify further reform measures which are vital in the monetary, fiscal and agriculture sectors in order to maintain and improve the momentum of growth. When compared with East Asian countries including China, India's lacklustre growth performance indicates that the task of reform is far from over. The authors argue that India needs to pursue its reform process much more vigorously at both the central and state levels in order to achieve its full growth potential. Providing a comprehensive assessment of the impact of economic reforms in India, this book will appeal to policymakers, researchers and students with an interest in developing economies. Political scientists as well as economists in the fields of liberalisation and international development will also find this an engaging and enlightening volume.

This timely Handbook collates a range of evidence from top scholars in the field to help readers understand who microfinance reaches, how it helps, and why clients come back. It offers updated views on important concepts that enable a broader framework for understanding poverty and the corresponding financial needs of poor households. Chapters cover recent findings on social impacts, the role of gender, fairness of interest rates, financial resilience in emergencies, and financial education, to provide a thorough coverage of key areas of the field. The Handbook focuses on delivery mechanisms for financial services including group liability lending, agent banking, and digital finance, as well as the special role of value chain finance and insurance for smallholder agriculture. The case studies from both developed and developing countries and regions, illustrating the novel aspects of the link between microfinance, financial inclusion and development will make this a critical read for economics and development studies scholars. The practitioner views on the role of microfinance included in the Handbook will also make this a relevant and useful read for policy makers and practitioners in the area

This book systematically explores the trade and environment interests of developing countries from a Southern perspective. The contributors write explicitly about both the fears and hopes in the South regarding trade and environment negotiations. Essays are from leading experts and thought leaders from various regions of the South and work to envision new, bold agendas and priorities for their region.

This study examines the relative successes and failures of reform programs in Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as the causes of these successes and failures. It provides a synthesized and comparative study of efforts to achieve systemic economic transformation. The work begins with the identification of background forces in these two countries--cultural, social, political, and economic--analyzing their impact on micro-responsiveness to reform policies. Then, within the framework of these forces, the author traces the causes of the two economies' reform failures during and since the Communist era. The central purpose of the work is to provide objective lessons for economies attempting systemic transformations or implementing development policies. This work will be of interest to scholars and policymakers in development economics and comparative economic systems and policies.

Trade Makes States highlights how trade and the circulation of goods are central to Somali societies, economies and politics. Drawing on multi-site research from across East Africa's Somali-inhabited economic space--which includes areas of Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda and Ethiopia--this volume highlights the interconnection between trade and state-building after state collapse. It scrutinises the 'politics of circulation' between competing public administrations, which seek to generate revenue and to control infrastructures along major trade corridors. Connecting classic debates on state formation with recent scholarship on logistics and cross-border trading, Trade Makes States argues that the facilitation and capture of commodity flows have been instrumental in making and unmaking states across the Somali territories. Aspiring state-builders are thus confronted with the challenge of governing the flow of goods in order to rule over lands and peoples. The contributors to this volume draw attention to the ingenuities of transnational Somali markets, which often appear to be self-governed. Their dynamism and everyday administration by a host of actors provide important insights into contemporary state formation on the margins of global supply-chain capitalism.