This primer on Clusters of Competitiveness provides a critical overview of competitiveness at many levels. Competitiveness is a broad subject with applications at the level of the firm, industry, region, nation, and global economy. Each one of these aspects has a rich literature drawn on by academics and policy makers over a long period. This book seeks to present a broad overview of the main ideas underlying competitiveness and its applications, highlighting and discussing in greater depth the topics that are of relevance currently. Specifically, the book draws out the experiences of and lessons for developing economies, and examines in detail the role for policy. Competition, competitiveness and growth are inherently linked and provide a compelling basis for policy analysis and recommendations. We begin by looking at competition and competition policy and the effects of these on economic growth. We concentrate on product market regulation and find that more stringent regulation is negatively associated with economic growth. Competition policy has an important role to play in promoting growth. We highlight the reasons why competition policy is critical for developing economies in the current era of globalization and liberalization. Moving on, we next provide an overview of competitiveness, highlighting its application to the firm, nation and global economy. We differentiate between price and non-price measures of competitiveness, examining the advantages and disadvantages of each and providing a clear guide to the non-price measures that have proliferated in the business literature in recent decades. We examine how the concept of national competitiveness has evolved. We classify this according to price and non- price measures. Data from the International Institute for Management Development, the World Economic Forum and the World Bank are discussed, illustrating competitiveness rankings across countries over time. We then turn to innovation emphasizing its relationship to economic growth and competitiveness. The modern, knowledge-driven globalized economy is a product of innovation and competitiveness. Drawing on this, we next examine the necessary elements of an effective innovation policy in meeting the economic and social challenges of the modern age. We conclude this primer with a critical overview of clusters and the stimulus for economic development at the local, regional and global level that arises from the connections between firms forming clusters. We look at cluster initiatives, which are organized efforts to increase growth and competitiveness within a region and are also a tool for government in pursuing policy reform"

The literature on growth and poverty is voluminous and still evolving. This title distills the most important lessons from developing countries' experience with growth and poverty. It provides a broad understanding of the impact of economic policies on growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. After describing basic economic relationships that summarize the workings and the measurement of the macroeconomy--and after confirming that growth is the most critical factor in alleviating poverty--the book turns to individual policy areas. These include the various roles of government, among them setting fiscal policy and maintaining an environment conducive to the effective operation of a market economy. Policies governing money supply, exchange rates, and the financial sector are also covered. After assessing several decades of experience with development assistance, the aim of which has been to place poor countries on a path of sustainable long-run growth, the study turns to a discussion of external debt. In the 1980s and 1990s, debt contracted by low-income countries from commercial and official sources became unsustainable, crippling their growth, keeping millions in poverty, and forcing an international reappraisal of lending policies, the centerpiece of which was a set of debt-forgiveness policies that was put forward with the launch of the Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign. The remainder of the volume examines problems that can keep the poor from moving out of poverty. Trade, institutional development, regulation, education, health, labor markets, land and agriculture, natural resources, urbanization, technology, and politics all are core components of public policy and need to be handled right if poverty is to be addressed effectively. Because many developing countries lack the capacity to mobilize resources administrative and financial to move the poor out of poverty, the international community must be actively involved. Looking ahead, rates of growth and poverty will be determined by how nations use knowledge, technology, and energy in firms and households, and by the effects of the warming climate on economic activities. Above all, the distribution of political and economic power within and among countries will determine the direction and dynamics of growth and development."

Mainstream economic analysis has traditionally overlooked gender. The individual the basic category of analysis was regarded as genderless. Neither gender discrimination nor segmentation and segregation within the labor market or within the household was present. Contributions from development theory, new household economics (NHE), labor economics, and feminist analysis have done much to change this. Focusing on gender equality by which we mean equality in opportunity, inputs, and outcome has yielded important insights for the growth and development of an economy. But we are still at the cusp. While there have been huge improvements in recognizing gender as an analytical category at the microeconomic level, the macroeconomic implications of gender equality remain undeveloped. Engendering macroeconomics is an important and valid research and policy area. Over the past three decades, economic development has generally affected women differently than men in the developing world. At the same time, gender relations have affected macroeconomic outcomes. This volume examines the research and policy implications of engendering macroeconomic policy."