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101. The Anti-Circumvention Instrument: Another Roadblock on the Investment Development Path?

Author:
Weihuan Zhou and Victor Crochet
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
Companies from emerging economies, and China in particular, have started internationalizing their production operations. In doing so, they are following the same path as that taken by American, European and East Asian corporations before them, by setting up factories in third countries to serve their export markets from closer locations and produce more efficiently. Thus, it is no longer only developed countries’ multinationals which are moving their operations to developing countries, but emerging market companies that are increasingly engaging in production abroad. This phenomenon is having beneficial effects in countries where these companies invest and might help them start their own industrialization process. Yet, it has attracted the ire of developed countries, in particular the European Union. They are now targeting these downstream production plants abroad by using the so-called anti-circumvention instrument, resulting in trade defence duties imposed on the parent companies being extended to their foreign subsidiaries. This application of the anti-circumvention instrument departs from its historic rationale and might hinder the development of countries in need of foreign investment. Therefore, affected governments should consider taking international legal action to bring developed countries to the negotiating table to put a halt to this abuse of the anti-circumvention instrument.
Topic:
Development, Industrial Policy, Investment, Trade, Internationalization, Production, Emerging Economies, and Anti-Circumvention Instrument
Political Geography:
China, Europe, Global Focus, and United States of America

102. Foreign Linkages, Innovation & Productivity: Evidence from Enterprise Surveys

Author:
Anmol Kaur Grewal
Publication Date:
09-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Trade and Economic Integration, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper estimates a three-stage structural model of how foreign linkages affect innovation which in turn affects firm productivity. Using harmonized firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, I construct a panel dataset for 47 developing countries spanning 2003 to 2019. I distinguish between four types of foreign linkages (exports, imports, inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and the use of foreign-licensed technology), and two types of innovation (product innovation and process innovation). To mitigate concerns regarding sample selection and endogeneity biases, I employ advanced panel data methods. In the first stage, I find that being an exporter, using foreign inputs, and using foreign-licensed technology makes firms more likely to invest in R&D, relative to other firms. I also find evidence of sample selection bias which is corrected by using a two-step Heckman selection model. In the second stage, I find that while increases in the R&D intensity increase the probability of product innovation, they have no statistically significant effect on the likelihood of process innovation. In the third stage, I find that product or process innovation is associated with increases in firm-level productivity. These results remain robust across alternative measures of innovation and firm productivity.
Topic:
Development, Foreign Direct Investment, Exports, Innovation, Imports, Productivity, and Foreign Linkages
Political Geography:
Global Focus

103. Development co-operation between Scylla and Charybdis

Author:
Lars Engberg-Pedersen
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
This DIIS Working Paper seeks to provide a basis for understanding aid management today internationally and in a Danish context. An evaluation of Danish aid management is underway and to help clarifying issues to address and to avoid, the paper discusses changes of international development co-operation in general and of Danish development policies in particular over the last 20 years. These contextual and policy changes constitute a decisive framework for the management of development co-operation. The paper also deals with recent international discussions of aid management as well as with pragmatic approaches sometimes employed in Danish development co-operation. While seeking to help identifying useful issues for the evaluation, the paper concludes that aid management often has to negotiate different and sometimes contradicting purposes. This makes the choice of criteria for assessing aid management very important, but also very difficult. Since the results of development co-operation in terms of poverty reduction, the promotion of human rights, the adaptation to climate change, etc. depend on how concrete development activities are managed, this discussion is important as criteria and indicators not only assess results, but also push activities in particular directions.
Topic:
Development, International Cooperation, Foreign Aid, and Donors
Political Geography:
Europe, Denmark, and Global Focus

104. Tropical rainforests and global warming

Author:
Mike Speirs
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
Disappearing tropical forests are high on the global climate change and biodiversity agendas. A survey of progress towards setting up a ‘results-based payments’ (rewards) scheme known as REDD+ explores international funding for forests, with evidence from Bolivia, Ghana and Indonesia. The need to tackle the drivers of deforestation is emphasised, including land use changes for crop cultivation and livestock. The roles of indigenous people and local communities in ensuring equitable and effective natural resource management and forest conservation are underlined in the survey.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Environment, Natural Resources, Food, Investment, Land Rights, and Carbon Emissions
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Ghana, Bolivia, and Global Focus

105. The World Needs a New Socialist Development Theory

Author:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Publication Date:
07-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Abstract:
Dossier no. 66 examines the historical and current thinking on the question of development and offers an outline for a new socialist development theory.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Neoliberalism, Economic Theory, and Socialism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

106. Gender Integration in Multilateral Development Banks’ COVID-19 Response Efforts

Author:
Shelby Bourgault, Megan O'Donnell, and Mia Griffin
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Research demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic has had differential effects by gender, with women experiencing higher job and income loss, increased rates of domestic violence, and mounting care burdens globally. While governments and civil society organizations were pivotal to mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, international institutions, and multilateral development banks (MDBs) in particular, also played a role in financing and informing the design and implementation of COVID-19 response programs. MDBs are institutions with significant financial resources and policy leverage, but relatively little is known about their impact on narrowing gender gaps in their partner countries, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. This paper examines the extent to which MDB COVID response projects incorporated gender elements. Using project data from the World Bank, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank, this paper presents descriptive statistics on the presence of gender-related indicators and gender-dedicated projects across MDBs in projects focused on health, social protection, and other areas of COVID response and recovery. We analyze data across institutions, geographies, and project sectors—and highlight the main gaps in MDB response efforts.
Topic:
Development, COVID-19, Gender, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), and Gender Integration
Political Geography:
Global Focus

107. Adaptive Management in Refugee Programming: Lessons from Re:Build

Author:
Helen Dempster and Nicol Herbert
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Humanitarian and development crises are increasingly protracted and complex, lacking clear solutions and paths to reach the most-affected individuals and communities. Those working in such crises must be creative, adaptive, and supported by frameworks that promote efficient and effective responses. Adaptive management is a learning-oriented project management approach that centralizes proactive and ongoing reflection on what is and is not working, adapting the program design or operational delivery based on this new information. This approach is being implemented by a five-year program—Refugees in East Africa: Boosting Urban Innovations for Livelihoods (Re:Build)—aiming to achieve economic self-reliance for urban refugees and other vulnerable residents of Kampala, Uganda and Nairobi, Kenya. The evidence for how to best support refugee economic self-reliance is limited; even less is known about what is effective for urban refugees specifically. Re:Build is utilizing adaptive management principles to navigate this uncertainty with the goal of achieving sustained outcomes for clients and more information about what works. While adaptive management offers a range of potential benefits, it requires implementers and donors to operate in new ways. After summarizing the existing adaptive management literature, this paper outlines lessons from the first two years of Re:Build’s attempts to implement an adaptive program. It concludes by sharing practical recommendations, for both implementers and donors, on how to better live out these principles.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Refugees, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa and Global Focus

108. What Counts as Climate? Preliminary Evidence from the World Bank’s Climate Portfolio

Author:
Guido Núñez-Mujica, Vijaya Ramachandran, and Scott Morris
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
The World Bank is one of the largest providers of development finance to poor countries. In recent years, it has been under immense public pressure, mostly from its richest shareholders, to expand its climate portfolio. We examine the World Bank’s climate portfolio at the project level for the period 2000-2022 and find that financing is skewed towards mitigation projects. These projects lack estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, and there is no standardized reporting on GHG estimates across the portfolio. Further, hundreds of projects tagged climate—many in poorer countries—appear to have little to do with climate change mitigation or adaptation. We recommend that projects labeled climate should be accompanied by a clear explanation of why they mitigate emissions (with estimates of GHG reductions) or how they help increase resilience to climate-related events. Likewise, the World Bank must do more to identify outputs and verify outcomes for climate projects.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, World Bank, and Sustainable Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

109. What Would the Ideal Development and Climate MDB Look Like?

Author:
Nancy Lee, Valerie Laxton, and Samuel Matthews
Publication Date:
06-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
If we could reinvent MDBs to respond to urgent development and climate needs and to benefit from 70 years of experience with the model, what would they look like? Many are focused on the scale of MDB finance. This paper focuses on how the model needs to change to effectively deploy more finance. A central question for the model is how country investment priorities are set. This paper advocates that countries should chart their own low-carbon climate resilient development and growth paths, with robust analytical support from MDBs that integrates climate and development challenges, including cross-border challenges, and helps countries set priorities for investments and policies. MDBs should work together as a coherent system to support one country-owned strategy, rather than individually creating their own separate strategies and policy conditions. This approach will help overcome fears by borrowing countries that rich shareholders are compelling them to abandon their own development priorities in favor of other countries’ climate priorities. It will also help break down the silos within and across MDBs that thwart collaboration and diminish their effectiveness. The country strategies should go deep rather than broad, aiming for transformative outcomes in a few priority sectors selected for their importance for achieving the country’s sustainable development and climate goals. Success should be measured based on achievement of targeted outcomes, not by the size of financial inputs. Governments, MDBs, and other development partners should all make finance and other commitments under the strategy and be held accountable for their performance. Governments that meet their policy and finance commitments should be assured of consistent, predictable budget support from MDBs, along with investment project and pay-for-results lending. Beyond their own lending, MDBs should focus on improving the terms of market borrowing for sustainable development, making more use of their guarantee and insurance products. And MDB boards should spend less time on individual project approvals and more on monitoring outcome progress at the country level and country contributions to cross-border goals. A second critical challenge is how to boost MDB performance in mobilizing private finance for climate and development goals. The paper advocates putting mobilization at the center of MDB institutional strategies, setting ambitious mobilization targets, and implementing institutional changes needed to achieve those targets. Two core changes are critical: (1) changing financial product offerings to better match instruments to private capital market gaps, which means less emphasis on senior loans and more deployment of subordinated financial products; and (2) focusing more on creating portfolios of sustainable finance assets to offer private investment opportunities at scale. Partnerships with institutional investors and more risk- tolerant investors are both essential to achieve scale and manage increased risk.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), and Sustainable Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

110. The Post-COVID Consensus

Author:
Shahid Yusuf
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
Development economics is turning a full circle with a difference. This paper addresses the circling back to the policies in vogue during the 1980s and earlier, including industrial policies, coupled with protectionism; accounts for the regression to earlier certitudes after an extended spell of globalization underpinned by market fundamentalism; and indicates how a transforming global environment has enlarged the policy agenda. There is a new policy consensus in the making, which borrows some elements of the Washington Consensus but goes beyond to encompass a broader policy agenda.
Topic:
Development, Markets, Poverty, Inequality, Economic Development, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus