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71. Good and Bad News on Global Development

Author:
Dani Rodrik
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Istart with some good news, because there is, I think, a lot of good news in the world of development. Then I want to present what I think is essentially a paradox. The paradox, to put it very crudely, is that while economic development is working, development policy is not. Let me start with the good news. If you look at the total number of people who live on below $1 a day and look at the trend, between 1981 and 2001, what you see is basically that there are now roughly 400 million fewer people who live below the $1-a-day line. So there actually has been not just a relative reduction in the number of the absolute poor; there has actually been an absolute reduction in the number of the absolute poor. This is in a period when, of course, the population of the developing world has increased quite significantly. In terms of the somewhat higher poverty line, which is the $2-a-day line, the number of poor people below that threshold has actually increased somewhat, but it is still the case that relative to the population of the developing world, it has come down. That is basically good news. In this period, there has been, in fact, significant poverty reduction around the world. But if you look at where that has come from, it is also the case that much of it has actu- ally been localized. China alone accounts for the full 400 million-person reduction in absolute poverty when measured by the $1-a-day line. If you take China out, basically, in the rest of the world, some countries have had an increased number of poor people, others have had a decline.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Inequality, and Population Growth
Political Geography:
Global Focus

72. Social Cohesion, Institutions

Author:
William Easterly, Michael Woolcock, and Jozef Ritzen
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:
We present evidence that measures of “social cohesion,” such as income inequality and ethnic fractionalization, endogenously determine institutional quality, which in turn casually determines growth.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Government, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Global Focus

73. Reducing Global Poverty: Encouraging Private Investment in Infrastructure

Author:
Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Conference Board
Abstract:
This paper builds on some of the findings and recommendations of the 2002 CED policy statement, A Shared Future: Reducing Global Poverty, which broadly examined the phenomenon known as globalization and offered a blueprint for how best to harness economic integration and political cooperation between developed and developing countries towards enhancing economic growth and combating global poverty. Encouraging Private Investment in Infrastructure evaluates various options for public-private partnerships and provides brief analyses of several successful projects in order to identify best practices.
Topic:
Globalization, Poverty, Infrastructure, and Investment
Political Geography:
Global Focus

74. Sustainability Values, Attitudes, and Behaviors: A Review of Multi-national and Global Trends

Author:
Anthony A. Leiserowitz, Robert W. Kates, and Thomas M. Parris
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
This review analyzes five efforts to define sustainability values, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Earth Charter, the UN Millennium Declaration, and the Global Scenario Group. It then summarizes empirical trends in sustainability values, attitudes, and behaviors, as measured by multi-national and global-scale surveys, related to human and economic development, the environment, and driving forces (population, affluence, technology, and entitlements). The review also summarizes empirical trends related to the values identified by the Millennium Declaration as essential to international relations (e.g., freedom and democracy, equality and shared responsibility), and broader contextual values (e.g., capitalism, globalization, institutional trust, and social change) that have sustainability implications. It then identifies several important attitude-behavior gaps and barriers. Finally this review draws several conclusions regarding future research needs and the value, attitude, and behavioral change needed to achieve sustainability.
Topic:
Environment, Poverty, Science and Technology, Population, Sustainable Development Goals, and Survey
Political Geography:
Global Focus

75. Reducing Global Poverty: The Role of Women in Development

Author:
Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Conference Board
Abstract:
In the developing world, women generally face greater difficulty than men in securing necessary resources and basic services—education, health, and nutritional services, physical and financial capital, and land—that would make them more productive and allow them to earn higher incomes. In this report, CED calls attention to the role women play in developing countries. This update expands on that recommendation and goes further to suggest specifically that U.S.-based businesses should support the equal status of women in all of their practices and programs in developing countries. They also should support U.S. ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Topic:
Development, Poverty, United Nations, Women, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

76. Reducing Global Poverty: Engaging the Global Enterprise

Author:
Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development
Publication Date:
07-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Conference Board
Abstract:
This report is the first update to the 2002 CED report A Shared Future: Reducing Global Poverty. In this report, CED recommends that U.S.-based enterprises strive to maintain the same high standards of corporate engagement in all countries in which they operate, making no distinction between operations in the United States and abroad, yet recognizing that specific actions need to take into account national customs and traditions.
Topic:
Poverty, Business, Economic Policy, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

77. Micro-Economic Approaches to Evaluating the Burden of Malaria

Author:
Pia Malaney
Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
The links between malaria and poverty are both obvious and subtle. While the correlation between the two is apparent, directions and mechanisms of causation are less so, and different methodological approaches to understanding the relationship provide widely divergent perspectives on the impact of the disease. Recent macroeconomic studies have suggested that in highly malarious countries the disease may be responsible for reducing economic growth by up to 1.3 percentage points a year. This methodology, however, functions independently of the chains of causation and cannot shed much light on underlying mechanisms. Micro-economic studies, which aggregate the cost per case to households, find a much smaller impact, generally less than one percent of per capita GDP. The traditional cost-of-illness methodology, which forms the basis of most of these studies, however, was designed to study illnesses that represent a far smaller disease burden. The pandemic nature of malaria presents economic costs that the traditional model is simply not able to capture. The paper explores the difference between the results of the different methodological approaches, examining some of the mechanisms through which malaria can affect long-term economic growth and development, and expands the cost-of-illness methodology to incorporate these effects.
Topic:
Economics, Health, Poverty, and Malaria
Political Geography:
Global Focus

78. Grants Vs . Investment Subsidies

Author:
Ashok S. Rai and Tomas Sjöström
Publication Date:
12-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
How should a government intervene to help the credit constrained poor? We study an economy where productivity and wealth are unobserved, and loans must be collateralized. We show that the e¢cient policy typically consists of o¤ering both a grant and an investment subsidy. Everybody will take the grant and only the relatively productive will take the subsidy. This policy reduces but does not eliminate investment distortions.
Topic:
Poverty, Investment, Collateral, Credit Constraints, Intervention, and Loan Subsidy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

79. The Political Economy of Distributional Equity in Comparative Perspective

Author:
Kwan S. Kim
Publication Date:
03-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Growing income inequality within a country is caused by socioeconomic factors and inadequate government policies and ultimately leads to social and political instabilities. The ideology of supply-side economics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 1980s, for instance, induced policies of inequality which were then perceived as a way to stimulate economic growth. The demise of East European socialism since the late 1980s also led many developing countries to pursue market reforms as a way to resuscitate their moribund economies. There is evidence, however, to indicate that the distribution of income in these countries is becoming more unequal with attendant and frequently grave social and political consequences.
Topic:
Development, Political Economy, Poverty, Inequality, and Economic Growth
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Global Focus, and United States of America

80. Changes in the International Distribution of Income

Author:
Herbert Stocker
Publication Date:
07-1996
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper attempts to assess the extent of income inequality among nations and the development of international inequality over the last three decades. After a brief introductory discussion of changes in the economic policies of industrialized countries towards poor countries and corresponding changes in the attitudes of economists, the author goes on to give an impression of the actual state of the international income distribution and mention some general problems of such comparisons. In the third section he computes an inequality index to describe the development of the international income distribution over time and presents some decompositions. The fourth section investigates the robustness of the results, and the fifth section presents an extension to world-wide inequality and reflects briefly on the significance of the results.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Labor Issues, Inequality, Economic Growth, and Income
Political Geography:
Global Focus