Number of results to display per page
Search Results
472. The World Bank: Toward a Global Club
- Author:
- Nancy Birdsall
- Publication Date:
- 05-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- In this Essay, CGD president Nancy Birds all describes the World Bank as a global club with a structure close to that of a credit union in which the members are nations. Its mission, as originally conceived—to promote broadly shared and sustainable global prosperity—serves the common interests of all its country members. In light of this, Birds all addresses the issues that arise with respect to its current governance structure and how these issues affect the Bank's legitimacy, effectiveness and relevance in the global system.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Political Economy, and Poverty
473. Generating Political Priority for Public Health Causes in Developing Countries: Implications From a Study on Maternal Mortality
- Author:
- Jeremy Shiffman
- Publication Date:
- 05-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Why do some serious health issues—such as HIV/AIDS—get considerable attention and others—such as malaria and collapsing health systems—get very little? Why and under what conditions do political leaders consider an issue worthy of sustained attention, and back up that attention with money and other resources? In this CGD Brief, visiting fellow Jeremy Shiffman, an associate professor of public administration at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, discusses nine factors that influenced the degree to which national leaders in five countries made one public health issue—maternal mortality—a political priority. Pregnancy-related complications are the leading cause of mortality globally among adult women of reproductive age, with more than half a million deaths annually. But in some countries maternal health has become a priority and maternal deaths have fallen, while in other countries this has not yet occurred. Drawing on his comparison of these countries, Shiffman offers recommendations for public health priority-setting in developing countries. His bottom line: attaining public health goals is as much a political as it is a medical or technical challenge; success requires not only appropriate technical interventions but also effective political strategies.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Health, Political Economy, and Third World
474. A Risky Business: Saving Money and Improving Global Health Through Better Demand Forecasts
- Publication Date:
- 05-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Today's global health programs will attain their objectives only if products appropriate to the health problems in low-and middle income countries are developed, manufactured and made available when and where they are needed. Achieving this requires mobilizing public and charitable money for more and better products to diagnose, prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, reproductive health problems and childhood killers. But more money is only one part of the story. Weak links in the global health value chain—from research and development (R) through service delivery—are constraining on-the ground access to essential products. The consequences of those weak links are many: supply shortages, inefficient use of scarce funding, reluctance to invest in R for developing country needs and, most important, the loss of life among those who need essential products.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Health, Political Economy, and Poverty
475. It's One World Out There: The Global Consensus on Selecting the World Bank's Next President
- Author:
- David Wheeler
- Publication Date:
- 06-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- In May 2007 CGD launched an online survey of the global development community on three issues: the selection process for the next World Bank president; criteria for rating the candidates; and actual ratings for nine candidates who had been named by the international media. Between May 22 and May 31, CGD received nearly 700 responses from people whose characteristics reflect the diversity of the international development community. Survey participants represent 71 nations; all world regions; high-, middle- and low-income countries; a variety of professional affiliations; and all adult age groups. About 30% of respondents are women.
- Topic:
- Globalization, Political Economy, and Third World
476. The Provision of Banking Services in Latin America: Obstacles and Recommendations
- Author:
- Liliana Rojas-Suarez
- Publication Date:
- 06-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The depth of and access to financial services provided by banks throughout Latin America are extremely low in spite of its recognized importance for economic activity, employment and poverty alleviation. Low financial depth and access hurts the poor the most and is due to a variety of obstacles that are presented in this paper in four categories, along with recommendations to overcome them. The first category groups socio-economic obstacles that undercut the demand for financial services of large segments of the population. The second category identifies problems in the operations of the banking sector that impedes the adequate provision of financial services to households and firms. The third category captures institutional deficiencies, with emphasis on the quality of the legal framework and the governability of the countries in the region. The fourth category identifies regulations that tend to distort the provision of banking services. Recommendations to confront these obstacles include innovative proposals that take into consideration the political constraints facing individual countries. Some of the policy recommendations include: public-private partnerships to improve financial literacy, the creation of juries specialized in commercial activities to support the rights of borrowers and creditors, and the approval of regulation to allow widespread usage of technological innovations to permit low-income families and small firms to gain access to financial services.
- Topic:
- Political Economy and Third World
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
477. A Short Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments
- Author:
- David Roodman
- Publication Date:
- 08-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The “difference” and “system” generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators for dynamic panel models are growing steadily in popularity. The estimators are designed for panels with short time dimensions (T), and by default they generate instruments sets whose number grows quadratically in T. The dangers associated with having many instruments relative to observations are documented in the applied literature. The instruments can overfit endogenous variables, failing to expunge their endogenous components and biasing coefficient estimates. Mean while they can vitiate the Hansen J test for joint validity of those instruments, as well as the difference-in-Sargan/Hansen test for subsets of instruments. The weakness of these specification tests is a particular concern for system GMM, whose distinctive instruments are only valid under a non-trivial assumption. Judging by current practice, many researchers do not fully appreciate that popular implementations of these estimators can by default generate results that simultaneously are invalid yet appear valid. The potential for type I errors—false positives—is therefore substantial, especially after amplification by publication bias. This paper explains the risks and illustrates them with reference to two early applications of the estimators to economic growth, Forbes (2000) on income inequality and Levine, Loayza, and Beck (LLB, 2000) on financial sector development. Endogenous causation proves hard to rule out in both papers. Going forward, for results from these GMM estimators to be credible, researchers must report the instrument count and aggressively test estimates and specification test results for robustness to reductions in that count.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Political Economy, and Third World
478. Pathways Out of Poverty During an Economic Crisis: An Empirical Assessment of Rural Indonesia
- Author:
- Peter Timmer and Neil McCulloch
- Publication Date:
- 03-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Most poor people in developing countries still live in rural areas and are primarily engaged in low productivity farming activities. Thus pathways out of poverty are likely to be strongly connected to productivity increases in the rural economy, whether they are realised in farming, rural non-farm enterprises or via rural-urban migration. We use cross-sectional data from the Central Statistical Board (BPS) for 1993 and 2002, as well as a panel data set from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) for 1993 and 2000, to show which pathways out of poverty were most successful over this period. Our findings suggest that increased engagement of farmers in rural non-farm enterprises is an important route out of rural poverty, but that most of the rural agricultural poor that exit poverty still do so while remaining rural and agricultural. Thus changes in agricultural prices, wages and productivity still play a critical role in moving people out of poverty.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia and Asia
479. What Have IMF Programs With Low-Income Countries Assumed About Aid Flows?
- Author:
- David Goldsbrough and Ben Elberger
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the nature of aid projections in IMF programs with low-income countries. On average, IMF projections of net aid increased sharply in the first year of programs but tapered off in subsequent years. Projections were also significantly more optimistic in countries with low initial levels of aid but differed little across regions. Most notably, projections of net aid to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa following the Gleneagles Summit are significantly more pessimistic than the path implied by commitments to double aid to Africa by 2010. This pattern is strong throughout the group with only two Sub-Saharan African countries showing increases in net aid consistent with the Gleneagles commitments.
- Topic:
- Development, Political Economy, Poverty, and International Monetary Fund
- Political Geography:
- Africa
480. Income Distribution: Effects on Growth and Development
- Author:
- Nancy Birdsall
- Publication Date:
- 04-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- I review the literature on the effects of inequality on growth and development in the developing world. Two stylized facts emerge from empirical studies: inequality is more likely to harm growth in countries at low levels of income (below about $3200 per capita in 2000 dollars); and it is at high levels of inequality (at or above a Gini coefficient of .45) that a negative association emerges. Between 15 and 40 percent of the developing world's population lives in countries with these characteristics, depending on the inclusion of China, whose level of inequality has recently been measured at almost .45. Theory and evidence suggest that high inequality affects growth: (1) through interaction with incomplete and underdeveloped markets for capital and information; (2) by discouraging the evolution of the economic and political institutions associated with accountable government (which in turn enable a market environment conducive to investment and growth); and (3) by undermining the civic and social life that sustains effective collective decision-making.
- Topic:
- Development, Humanitarian Aid, Political Economy, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- China