| Supplementary
Digital Study Packs----------------------------------- Palgrave Study Skills
|
Selected
texts by Manuel
Castells and Saskia Sassen
( this texts
are available
for my students in The Bartlett Development Planning Unit
(University College London) and Education for Sustainability Programme
(London South Bank University)
Róbinson
Rojas on
Managing
and Planning for
Development: International and National Dimensions (Part 1)
See Notes for lectures, Workshops, Slide presentations and
Seminars.
Basic notions on managing and planning for development,
the role of the state, markets and civil and military bureaucracy, NGOs
and other civil society
organizations in
the development process. It places national development in the context
of the international division of production and examines alternatives
to hegemonic development practices. It critically reviews the recent
history of international aid, particularly its implications for poverty
reduction, growth and equity.
|
|
From the World Bank Group
Policy Research Report:
Localizing Development: Does Participation Work? - 2011
Localizing Development: Does
Participation Work?, a new Policy Research Report analyzing community
development and decentralization projects, shows that such projects
often fail to be sensitive to complex contexts – including social,
political, historical and geographical realities – and fall short in
terms of monitoring and evaluation systems, which hampers learning.
Citing numerous examples, including projects and programs supported by
the World Bank, the authors demonstrate that participatory projects are
not a substitute for weak states, but instead require strong central
support to be effective.
|
I highly
recommend Eleven Basic Readings for "Globalization and the
New Economic Geography"
|
|
The
Economist - October 13th 2012
Special Report
World Economy
|
 |
The world economy
For
richer, for poorer
True Progressivism.- The new politics of capitalism and inequality
"Growing inequality is
one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges of our
time. But it is not inevitable," says Zanny Minton Beddoes |
|
- For richer,
for poorer
..."although
the modern global economy is leading to wider gaps between the more and
the less educated, a big driver of today’s income distributions is
government policy. Second, a lot of today’s inequality is inefficient,
particularly in the most unequal countries. It reflects market and
government failures that also reduce growth. And where this is
happening, bigger income gaps themselves are likely to reduce both
social mobility and future prosperity..."
- History: As
you were
"...there
was also a successful progressive prescription for reducing income gaps
and boosting mobility by attacking crony capitalism, investing in the
young (especially by broadening access to education) and creating a
safety net for the poorest (particularly through unemployment insurance
and pension schemes). Worryingly, governments in some of the countries
where inequality has risen most seem to have forgotten that..."
- Like a
piece of string
- Like
father, not like son
- The United
States: The rich and the rest
"...Since
disparities in income, education and social behaviour now strongly
reinforce each other, future mobility might be a lot lower still. A
study by Sean Reardon of Stanford University suggests that the gap in
standardised test scores between schoolchildren from high- and
low-income families is roughly 30-40% bigger today than it was 25 years
ago. Bob Putnam, of Harvard University, puts it starkly. Put away the
rear-view mirror and look at future social mobility, he says, and
“we’re about to go over a cliff...”
- Makers and
takers
- Asia: Crony
tigers, divided dragons
"...The
stakes are high. Yu Jiantuo of the China Development Research
Foundation argues that China’s inequality is now hurting its growth
prospects. Sustained cronyism could turn Asia’s big economies into
entrenched oligarchies rather than dynamic meritocracies. Ironically,
in that sense they might become more like Latin America just as that
continent appears to be moving in the opposite direction..."
- Lessons
from Palanpur
- Latin
America: Gini back in the bottle
"...If the
improvements in inequality are to be maintained, let alone continued,
tough choices will have to be made. Middle-class entitlements will need
to be squeezed. Much like the United States, many Latin countries will
have to decide whether to invest in poorer kids or continue to pay
generous pensions to richer old people. In both places the social
contract needs to be remade. For evidence that this is possible, turn
to Sweden..."
- Sweden: The
new model
"...All
these case studies indicate that the geography of contemporary
inequality has as much to do with government policy as with underlying
economic forces. But it has not been a simple tale of tax and
redistribution, nor is there a simple trade-off between efficiency and
inequality. Sweden’s economy has become much more efficient while still
keeping inequality low. America’s system of taxes and transfers is less
progressive than it was in the 1970s, yet the state is no smaller. That
suggests there is room for reforms that both counter inequality and
improve economies’ efficiency..."
- Trade-offs:
Having your cake
"...Less
inequality does not need to mean less efficiency..."
- Policy
prescriptions: A True Progressivism
"...in most
countries other than United States, government spending is a much more
important tool for combating inequality than the tax system..."
|
World Development Report 2013:
Jobs
Moving Jobs to the Center Stage
Recent world developments have put jobs at the center of the policy
debate. The global
financial crisis has resulted in massive job losses in both emerging
and industrial countries. In
the latter, there is concern about a jobless recovery; in the former, a
comeback cannot hide
workers’ vulnerability to shocks. Political upheavals in the Arab world
highlight the discontent
of educated youth whose employment opportunities fall far short of
expectations. The political
upheavals could boost transparency and accountability in the region,
but if jobs do not follow
they could lead to greater instability.
These developments create a sense of urgency, but they remind us that
jobs are the
cornerstone of economic and social development. Most development work
is related to jobs,
even if we, as development practitioners, do not always articulate it
in that way. We approach
jobs from different angles: infrastructure development, competition,
innovation policies, or skills
upgrading. But we tend to do so in silos.
|
From ECLAC 2012
Time for Equity: closing gaps,
opening trails
(2 July 2012) "Planning for development is back with a
renewed strength and complex challenges," said today the Deputy
Executive Secretary of ECLAC Antonio Prado, when opening the
commemorative seminar to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the
Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning
(ILPES) at the organization's headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
"Closing the multiple gaps in the region takes a long-term vision,
strategic planning and long-lasting persistence," highlighted Prado
at the international seminar that will conclude tomorrow. "The State
must be capable of providing strategic management for the long run,
looking ahead, and being involved in the design of strategies for
guiding national development," he emphasized.
The Feasibility of the Democratic
Developmental State in the South.
Edited by
Daniel A. Omoweh. Dakar, CODESRIA, 2012, 180 p., ISBN:
978-2-86978-512-0
The state has a role to play in any
economy, especially in the provision of public
goods. But the majority of the states in the South lack the capacity to
perform
such a minimal task. This is partly because the concept of state
capacity has not
been well articulated and understood in both scholarly and policy
circles; nor has
the politically-created process that will result in the transformation
of the state
from an ‘incapable’ state into a ‘capable’ one been underway.
From the Economic
Commission for Africa
Economic
Report on Africa 2011
Governing development in Africa. The role of the state in economic
transformation
The case for promoting developmental
states in Africa
largely rests on the inability of previous development
approaches to help Africa diversify and transform its
economies, generate steady and sustained high growth
rates or deliver adequate levels of social development. Developmental
states are constructed around a government
with the political will and legitimacy to perform specified
developmental functions, a professional bureaucracy that
implements established national development strategies
and policies, and interactive mechanisms allowing stakeholder
groups to be involved in designing and carrying
out policy.
|
Dueling Development
Visions: Shaping the World Bank for the Future
Submitted by Michael Woolcock on Fri, 2012-04-13 10:36
Blogs is here
..."One can easily oversimplify differences, or render
them more rigid that they often are, but answers to each of these
questions can be usefully juxtaposed. The key issue is both simple and
profound: What do we think ‘development’ actually is? Since the
inception of the Bretton Woods institutions in the aftermath of WWII,
answers to this question have steadily evolved, responding to and
driving significant changes in practice. Traditionally, however, and
for many still today, the core business of development is the
construction of systems – building the physical and institutional
infrastructure that defines a ‘modern’ economy and society.
Presidential
Address - The Profession and the Crisis
Paul Krugman (2011) - Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544-1013, USA.
UNDP
- 1993
Human Development Report 1993, “People’s
Participation”
The Report examines how and to what extent people
participate in the events and processes that shape their lives. It
looks at three major means of peoples' participation: people-friendly
markets, decentralised governance and community organisations,
especially non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and suggests concrete
policy measures to address the growing problems of increasing
unemployment.
How to
Outgrow an Export-Led Economy
6 October 2010
South China Morning Post
By Jong-Wha Lee, Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank
The region needs, in sum, to reset its economic
priorities. Government policies must be tailored to focus on trade,
human capital, infrastructure, and financial development to build the
foundation for developing Asia's next transformation - one toward
sustained economic growth. With economic rebound in advanced economies
likely to be gradual, developing Asia must transform itself once more
to become the mantle of global growth.
Tide barriers
Capital controls would work better if there were some international
norms
Oct 6th 2012 | from the print edition of The Economist
MAINSTREAM economists have had to rethink a lot as a
result of the financial crisis. The cross-border flow of capital is one
such area. Gyrations in money movements over the past five years (see
left-hand chart) have reinforced fears that sloshing tides of capital
can destabilise economies. No less an authority than the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), once an ardent foe of capital controls, is now
exploring when and how limits on cross-border investment might be
justified.
Linn, J.F.,
2006,
“State
versus Market: Forever a Struggle?”,
Brookings, 2006
Economic historians tell us that swings in dominance
between state and market go back many centuries. Over the last 200
years these swings seem to have gathered in speed. The
industrialization process of the West in the 19th century was
characterized by a dominant market and a small government sector. After
World War I the state took over, not only in the Soviet Union. Western
governments also assume growing roles after the Great Depression and
then during and after World War II, with the rise of socialist
ideology, the economic theory of "market failure" and the belief in
planning by government as a way to promote a stronger economy and a
better life for its citizens.
Summers, L.,
2011, “Three
ways to
combat rising inequality”,
The Washington Post, November 21, 2011
Schuman, M.,
2011,
“State
capitalism vs. the free market: which performs better?” ,
Time Business, September 20, 2011
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the debate over
the proper role of the state in a modern economy has been reopened. In
the U.S., Tea Partiers advocate their own version of “small government”
to promote economic recovery, while President Barack Obama promotes
more active government policy to create jobs. Others, meanwhile, wonder
if Washington needs an “industrial policy” to nurture new sectors, like
green energy, to help the U.S. compete with China. In Europe,
politicians are grappling with how to regain competitiveness through
liberalization while still maintaining the extensive social protection
of their welfare states.
|
University College London - Development
Planning Unit -
Development
Workshop -
Contemporary conditions and
debates on development and the global system (notes)
A survey and critical analysis of the way in which the development
discourse has been shaped by power relations within the global
system 2012 - 2011 - 2010 - 2009
Session 4:
Development Management: concepts
and context
(notes) |
Academic Year 2011/2012
4.--- Readers A, B and C for the final debate: |
(A) January
21st 2012 | The Economist | from the print edition - Special
Report
The Rise of
State Capitalism
The spread of a new sort of business in the emerging world will cause
increasing problems
OVER the past 15 years striking
corporate headquarters have transformed the great cities of the
emerging world. China Central Television’s building resembles a giant
alien marching across Beijing’s skyline; the 88-storey Petronas Towers,
home to Malaysia’s oil company, soar above Kuala Lumpur; the gleaming
office of VTB, a banking powerhouse, sits at the heart of Moscow’s new
financial district. These are all monuments to the rise of a new kind
of hybrid corporation, backed by the state but behaving like a
private-sector multinational.
State-directed capitalism is not a new idea: witness the East India
Company. But as our special
report this week points out, it has undergone a dramatic revival.
In the 1990s most state-owned companies were little more than
government departments in emerging markets; the assumption was that, as
the economy matured, the government would close or privatise them. Yet
they show no signs of relinquishing the commanding heights, whether in
major industries (the world’s ten biggest oil-and-gas firms, measured
by reserves, are all state-owned) or major markets (state-backed
companies account for 80% of the value of China’s stockmarket and 62%
of Russia’s). And they are on the offensive. Look at almost any new
industry and a giant is emerging: China Mobile, for example, has 600m
customers. State-backed firms accounted for a third of the emerging
world’s foreign direct investment in 2003-10.
PDF version of the special report
The special report by sections:
1) The visible hand
The crisis of Western liberal capitalism has coincided with the rise of
a powerful new form of state capitalism in emerging markets, says
Adrian Wooldridge
2) Something old, something new
A brief history of state capitalism and its variations
3) State capitalism's global reach
New masters of the universe. How state enterprise is spreading to
achieve global reach
4) A choice of models
Theme and variations. It's not all the same, there are themes and
variations within state capitalism
5) Pros and cons: Mixed bag
Pros and cons: SOEs are good at infrastructure projects, not so good at
innovation
6) Going abroad
The world in their hands. State capitalism can look outward as well as
inwards
7) The long view
And the winner is...For all its successes, state capitalism has fatal
flaws...
(B) From Foreign Policy
Niall Fergusson - February 9, 2012
We're All State
Capitalists Now
The debate about whether America or
China will ultimately triumph is a red herring that distracts us from
the real contest of our time.
(C)
From www.foreignaffairs.com
The
Great China Debate
Will Beijing Rule the World?
Derek Scissors and Arvind Subramanian - January/February 2012
China’s rise is overstated, and its
financial problems are massive, argues Derek Scissors. Arvind
Subramanian disagrees, claiming that Beijing already calls the shots in
the global economy.
|
Academic Year 2011/2012 |
| 3.--- These readers by Aldo
Ferrer and Raul Prebisch are an excellent guide to understand the
dynamics of globalization under the hegemonic leadership of capitalist
economic superpowers. I highly recommend them to my students in DA1 (
Management and Planning for Development ), especially for sessions 5
and 6.
From CEPAL
REVIEW 101 • August 2010
Raśl Prebisch and the
dilemma of development in the globalised world
Aldo Ferrer
Globalization poses both challenges and opportunities.
Prebisch confronted this development dilemma in the global world and
left three messages which form the great legacy of his work. Firstly,
central countries form visions of the world order that serve their own
interests; and peripheral countries need to rebel against this
theoretical framework to resolve the dilemma. Secondly, it is possible
to transform reality and achieve a symmetrical non-subordinate
relationship with the world’s power centres. Thirdly, the
transformation requires a fundamental change in productive structures
to incorporate knowledge into economic and social activity, since this
is the fundamental instrument of development. These messages remain
fully current to this day.
CEPAL Review
96 - December 2008
Towards a theory of
change
Raśl Prebisch
With the present article the author rounds off the series
he began with “A critique of peripheral capitalism” (published in
Review No. 1), and continued with “Socio-economic structure and crisis
of peripheral capitalism” (No. 6) and “The neoclassical theories of
economic liberalism” (No. 7). While in all the preceding articles his
main concern was to offer a critical interpretation of the functioning
of peripheral capitalism and to show the inability of neoclassical
theory to comprehend it in depth, in this one he seeks to trace the
lines along which that system should be changed.
After recalling the basic features of his critique of how capitalism
works in the periphery (chapter I), he sketches the criteria by which
the process of change should be guided and which, in toto, constitute a
synthesis of central values of socialism and liberalism (chapter II).
He then goes on to pose certain inevitable questions as to the
political conditions of change, through which he reaffirms the value of
democracy as the ideal foundation for a harmonious society (chapter
III). The next chapters (IV and V) are devoted to completing the
presentation of his ideas via the analysis of problems of change linked
to technique, demand, the structure of production, the specific
features of peripheral capitalism, etc. In the final chapters he
slightly shifts his angle of approach in order to deal, on the one
hand, with the role of centre-periphery relations in change (chapter
VI); and on the other hand, with the present crisis in the centres and
its repercussions on the periphery (chapter VII); ending with a few
reflections on ethics, rationality and foresight (chapter VIII).
His central ideas will give rise to controversy, not only because of
their provenance, but also because they pivot upon the vexed questions
of appropriation and social use of the surplus. But the writer is
convinced that the present crisis will not be overcome with superficial
measures; if it is to be surmounted and a developed, democratic and
equitable society is to be built up, the process of change will have to
strike at the very roots of the system.
|
| Academic
Year 2011/2012 |
2.--- For a better understanding of Gabriel Palma talk "Toxic
Assets and Toxic Ideology", as part of the DA2 sessions ( Birbeck
Building, Malet Street, Room 421, Level 4), on Thursday, 24th November
2011 at 16.00 hours, I propose reading the 3 texts below before
attending Palma's session
( Róbinson Rojas, 3 November 2011)
Wolpe Lecture – 10 September 2009
Global Financial Crisis – Toxic Assets, Toxic
Ideology
José Gabriel Palma
Economic theory has missed the
crisis and cannot explain and understand what is going on. In one of
the sections of the paper that accompany this talk, it deals with this
problem in economic theory,
but that part need only be read by economists, since it is only they
who have to be convinced that
the discipline of economics is useless.
What components of economics can assist us in understanding the current
crisis? The Keynesian
tradition is the only one that is helpful at this moment in time. Paul
Krugman had a long article in the
New York Times, which is a detailed self-criticism of his own
macro-economic theory and provides
the economic community with an opportunity to reflect on past
theoretical mistakes (New York
Times on 6 September 2009)( See below, P. Krugman, "How did
economists get
it so wrong?". Note by Róbinson Rojas).
To understand this crisis, we have to look at the political settlement
and the distribution in which it
operates – this is a crisis of the political economy not an economic
crisis focusing on interest rates,
the role of central banks or inflation targeting. Even further, it is a
neoliberal crisis, the ideology that
gained power since 1979 and which was rigorously pursued by US
President Regan and UK Prime
Minister Thatcher. It concerns how the global capitalist elite tried to
form capitalism into a rentier’s
paradise and how the capitalist elite tried to use the state to further
this process. How could
capitalism have its cake and eat it – the rentier’s wanted all the
benefits of capitalism without having
to have all of the competitive struggles (all the carrots without the
sticks)?
This was an attempt to transform capitalism into Gore Vidal’s idea of
‘socialism for the rich and
capitalism for the rest.’
Note – all graphs were taken from the paper which accompanied Palma’s
lecture entitled ‘Revenge of the
Market on the Rentiers’. See below, Palma, June 2009.
How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?
By Paul
Krugman
The New York Times: Published: September 2, 2009
It’s hard to believe now, but not
long ago economists were congratulating themselves over the success of
their field. Those successes — or so they believed — were both
theoretical and practical, leading to a golden era for the profession.
On the theoretical side, they thought that they had resolved their
internal disputes. Thus, in a 2008 paper titled “The State of Macro”
(that is, macroeconomics, the study of big-picture issues like
recessions), Olivier Blanchard of M.I.T.,
now the chief economist at the International
Monetary Fund, declared that “the state of macro is good.” The
battles of yesteryear, he said, were over, and there had been a “broad
convergence of vision.” And in the real world, economists believed they
had things under control: the “central problem of depression-prevention
has been solved,” declared Robert Lucas of the University
of Chicago in his 2003 presidential address to the American
Economic Association. In 2004, Ben
Bernanke, a former Princeton professor who is now the chairman of
the Federal
Reserve Board, celebrated the Great Moderation in economic
performance over the previous two decades, which he attributed in part
to improved economic policy making.
The Revenge of the Market on the Rentiers
Why neo-liberal reports of the end of
history turned out to be premature
José Gabriel Palma - Faculty of Economics - Cambridge University - June
2009
Abstract:
Starting from the perspective of heterodox
Keynesian-Minskyian-Kindlebergian financial
economics, this paper begins by highlighting a number of mechanisms
that contributed
to the current financial crisis. These include excess liquidity, income
polarisation,
conflicts between financial and productive capital, lack of intelligent
regulation,
asymmetric information, principal-agent dilemmas and bounded
rationalities. However,
the paper then proceeds to argue that perhaps more than ever the
‘macroeconomics’
that led to this crisis only makes analytical sense if examined within
the framework
the political settlements and distributional outcomes in which it had
operated. Taking
the perspective of critical social theories the paper concludes that,
ultimately, the
current financial crisis is the outcome of something much more
systemic, namely an
attempt to use neo-liberalism (or, in US terms, neo-conservatism) as a
new technology
of power to help transform capitalism into a rentiers’ delight. And in
particular, into
system without much ‘compulsion’ on big business; i.e., one that
imposes only minimal
pressures on big agents to engage in competitive struggles in the real
economy (while
inflicting exactly the opposite fate on workers and small firms). A key
component
effectiveness of this new technology of power was its ability to
transform the state
major facilitator of the ever-increasing rent-seeking practices of
oligopolistic capital.
architects of this experiment include some capitalist groups (in
particular rentiers from
the financial sector as well as capitalists from the ‘mature’ and most
polluting industries
of the preceding techno-economic paradigm), some political groups, as
well as
intellectual networks with their allies – including most economists and
the ‘new’ left.
Although rentiers did succeed in their attempt to get rid of
practically all fetters on
greed, in the end the crisis materialised when ‘markets’ took their
inevitable revenge
the rentiers by calling their (blatant) bluff.
|
| Academic
Year 2011/2012 |
1.--- Inequality, unemployment, and economic instability are
three major blockages for implementing
urban and national planning for socially and environmentally just
development. Texts below by Nouriel Roubini, UNCTAD Trade
and Development Report 2010, and Michael A. Lebowitz are excellent
critical analyses of those three
issues. I highly recommend reading them. (Róbinson Rojas, November
2011.)
From Project
Syndicate
The Instability of
Inequality
By Nouriel Rubini - 13 October 2011
The result is that free markets don’t generate enough final
demand. In the US, for example, slashing labor costs has sharply
reduced the share of labor income in GDP. With credit exhausted, the
effects on aggregate demand of decades of redistribution of income and
wealth – from labor to capital, from wages to profits, from poor to
rich, and from households to corporate firms – have become severe,
owing to the lower marginal propensity of firms/capital owners/rich
households to spend.
The problem is not new. Karl Marx oversold socialism, but he was right
in claiming that globalization, unfettered financial capitalism, and
redistribution of income and wealth from labor to capital could lead
capitalism to self-destruct. As he argued, unregulated capitalism can
lead to regular bouts of over-capacity, under-consumption, and the
recurrence of destructive financial crises, fueled by credit bubbles
and asset-price booms and busts.
UNCTAD - 14
September 2010
Trade and
Development Report, 2010 - Chapter III
Macroeconomic aspects
of job
creation and unemployment
Rising and persistent unemployment in many
countries has prompted a variety of explanations
based on new and old ideas concerning the rigidities
and malfunctioning of labour markets and the role of
the welfare state in generating such “inflexibilities”.
According to neoclassical employment theory, the
only explanation for high or rising unemployment
is that real wages are too high or are rising too fast
because strong labour unions or excessively high
legal minimum wages prevent
wages from falling sufficiently
to absorb an excess supply of
labour. This reasoning is based
on a microeconomic concept
that is transposed to the macroeconomic
level. However, for
prices to balance supply and
demand, the supply and demand
functions have to be independent of each other. This
holds for the microeconomic level, but is not valid
at the macroeconomic level.
From Monthly Review
- May 2004
Ideology and Economic
Development
Michael A. Lebowitz
Economic
theory is not neutral, and the results when it is applied owe much to
the implicit and explicit assumptions embedded in a particular theory.
That such assumptions reflect specific ideologies is most obvious in
the case of the neoclassical economics that underlies neoliberal
economic policies.
|
| Academic
Year 2010/2011 |
Readers on the "Golden Age of Capitalism":
1950s to 1970s
Full employment in the “golden age of
capitalism” In response to the experience of high unemployment during
the Great Depression in the 1930s and the subsequent long period of
instability and war, many major industrialized countries established
full employment as a goal in law, and committed themselves to
implementing proactive macroeconomic policies. In the post-war era up
to the mid-1970s, a period often referred to as the “golden age of
capitalism” (Marglin and Schor, 1990; Singh, 2009), unemployment in
developed countries was at historically low levels. In Japan as well as
several Western European countries that even absorbed a large number of
migrant workers from Southern Europe, it was a period of what is
considered full employment (table 5.1)...
...During the “golden age of capitalism” unemployment was historically
low, even though labour markets were more regulated than they are
today...
|
Review of African Political Economy, 35, 1, 23—42.
New African choices? The
politics of Chinese engagement in Africa and
the changing architecture of international development
Giles Mohan and Marcus Power
Abstract
The role of China must be understood in the context of competing and
intensified global energy politics, in which the US, India and China
are among the key players vying for security of supply. Contrary to
popular representation, China’s role in Africa is much more than this
however, opening up new choices for African development for the first
time since the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s. As such it is important
to start by disaggregating ‘China’ and ‘Africa’ since neither
represents a coherent and uniform set of motivations and opportunities.
This points to the need for, at minimum, a comparative case study
approach which highlights the different agendas operating in different
African states. It also requires taking a longue durée perspective
since China-Africa relations are long standing and recent intervention
builds on Cold War solidarities, in polemic at least. It also forces us
to consider Chinese involvement in Africa as ambivalent, but
contextual. We focus on the political dimensions of this engagement and
set out a research agenda that focuses on class and racial dynamics,
state restructuring, party politics, civil society responses and aid
effectiveness.
|
White Paper by the Government of People's Republic of China - 2010
China-Africa Economic
and Trade Cooperation
"China is the largest developing country in the world,
and Africa is home to the largest number of developing countries. The
combined population of China and Africa accounts for over one-third of
the world's total. Promoting economic development and social progress
is the common task China and Africa are facing.
During their years of development, China and Africa give full play to
the complementary advantages in each other's resources and economic
structures, abiding by the principles of equality, effectiveness,
mutual benefit and reciprocity, and mutual development, and keep
enhancing economic and trade cooperation to achieve mutual benefit and
progress. Practice proves that China-Africa economic and trade
cooperation serves the common interests of the two sides, helps Africa
to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals, and boosts common
prosperity and progress for China and Africa."
|
From The World Bank - 2008
Building Bridges
China’s Growing Role as Infrastructure
Financier for Africa
Vivien Foster, William Butterfield, Chuan Chen and Nataliya Pushak
In recent years, a number of emerging
economies have begun to play a growing role
in the finance of infrastructure in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Their combined resource flows are
now comparable in scale to traditional official
development assistance (ODA) from OECD
countries or to capital from private investors.
These non-OECD financiers include China,
India, and the Gulf states, with China being by
far the largest player.
This new trend reflects a much more positive
economic and political environment in Sub-
Saharan Africa. Real GDP growth in the
region has been sustained at 4 to 6 percent
now for a number of years, and has benefited
from an improved investment climate. The
rise of the Chinese and Indian economies has
fueled global demand for petroleum and other
commodities. Africa is richly endowed with
these and faces a historic opportunity to
harness its natural resources and invest the
proceeds to broaden its economic base for
supporting economic growth and poverty
reduction. In this context, south-south
cooperation provides a channel through which
the benefits of economic development in Asia
and the Middle East can be transferred to the
African continent, through a parallel
deepening of trade and investment relations.
Executive Summary
|
Read on Economic Inequality,
Poverty, Social Exclusion and Corruption in China
|
Real-World
Economics Review Blog
2 February 2010
Wither China?
from
Lewis L. Smith
The biggest “wild card in the oil deck” is no longer some
yet-to-be-commercialized technology. Nor is it a country harboring
nests of terrorists. Nor it is a producing country like Iraq, Iran,
Qatar or Saudi Arabia. It is China, a net consumer.
In part, this is because of China’s economic, energy, environmental,
military and political importance. However, the main reasons are two
— the uncertainty surrounding the country’s future
and the uncertainty as to future actions of its government in the
international sphere.
At $4.2 trillion [2008] , China’s economy is the third largest in the
world, after the USA and Japan. By 2020, it will be the second
largest. From 1988 to 2008, its gross domestic product grew at
extraordinary average annual rate compounded, almost 10%. It has the
second largest army in the world.
|
From Social
Watch
On Ghana and Structural Adjustment Programmes
Ghana’s dependence on foreign aid and
international financial institutions over the last three decades or
more
has led to mass unemployment, huge balance of payments deficits and low
manufacturing and agricultural
output. The 1992 constitution and other national, regional and
international instruments provide the legal basis
and specific policies to enhance the welfare and protection of women
and children. However, the Government’s
minimal investment in education, health, water resources and rural
development show the low priority it places
on these goals. The likelihood of achieving the Millennium Development
Goals by 2015 remains remote.
|
From the International Monetary Fund
World Economic Outlook
Databases
The World Economic Outlook (WEO)
database is created during the biannual WEO exercise, which begins in
January and June of each year and results in the April and September
WEO publication. Selected series from the publication are available in
a database format.
See also, the World Economic Outlook Reports.
From United Nations
Links to official
statistical organizations active in the UNECE region
United Nations regional commissions:
United Nations Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacific (ESCAP)
United Nations Economic Commission for Western Asia
(ESCWA)
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
|
World
Development Indicators (WDI) is the primary World Bank database for
development data from officially-recognized international sources.
Global Development Finance (GDF) provides external debt and financial
flows statistics for countries that report public and
publicly-guaranteed debt under the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System
(DRS).
|
From UNRISD - 2010
Combating Poverty and Inequality
Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics
Democracy needs not just free
and fair elections, but also organized citizens, special types of
state-citizen relations and social pacts to deliver on distribution
Towards Employment-Centred Structural Change
Income Inequality and Structural Change
Tackling Ethnic and Regional Inequalities
Gender Inequalities at Home and in the Market
Towards Universal Social Protection
Universal Provision of Social Services
Care and Well-Being in a Development Context
Financing Social Policy
Business, Power and
Poverty Reduction -
recommended
(R.R.)
Building State Capacity for Poverty Reduction
Democracy and the Politics of Poverty Reduction
Coordinating Social, Economic and Political Forces to Deliver for the
Poor
|
From the UK Office for National Statistics
Social Trends
Social Trend 40 - 6 July 2010 - full text
The Office for National Statistics
(ONS) is the executive office of the UK
Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports
directly
to Parliament. ONS is the UK government’s single largest statistical
producer. It compiles information about the UK’s society and economy,
and provides the evidence-base for policy and decision-making, the
allocation of resources, and public accountability. The Director
General
of ONS reports directly to the National Statistician who is the
Authority’s
Chief Executive and the Head of the Government Statistical Service.
|
|
Trade and Development Report 2010
Employment, Globalisation and
Development
See Chapter V:
"Revising the Policy
Framework for Sustained Growth, Employment Creation and Poverty
Reduction"
World
Economic Situation and Prospects 2010
The world economy is on the mend. After a sharp, broad and synchronized
global downturn in late 2008 and early 2009, an increasing number of
countries have registered positive quarterly growth of gross domestic
product (GDP), along with a notable recovery in international trade and
global industrial production. World equity markets have also rebounded
and risk premiums on borrowing have fallen… but recovery is fragile
World
Economic Situation and Prospects 2009
It was never meant to happen again, but the world economy is now mired
in the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. In
little over a year, the mid-2007 subprime mortgage debacle in the
United States of America has developed into a global financial crisis
and started to move the global economy into a recession. Aggressive
monetary policy action in the United States and massive liquidity
injections by the central banks of the major developed countries were
unable to avert this crisis. Several major financial institutions in
the United States and Europe have failed, and stock market and
commodity prices have collapsed and become highly volatile. Interbank
lending in most developed countries has come to a virtual standstill,
and the spread between the interest rate on interbank loans and
treasury bills has surged to the highest level in decades. Retail
businesses and industrial firms, both large and small, are finding it
increasingly difficult to obtain credit as banks have become reluctant
to lend, even to long-time customers. In October 2008, the financial
crisis escalated further with sharp falls on stock markets in both
developed and emerging economies. Many countries experienced their
worst ever weekly sell off in equity markets |
UN: World
Economic and Social Situation
|
Global
Economic Prospects 2010:
Crisis,Finance, and Growth
|
Report: The
Persistent Problem--Inequality, Difference, and the Challenge of
Development
Released on
July 10, 2008
Global levels of inequality today are at extremely high
levels even as conditions for alleviating deprivation are more
favorable than ever before. Inequities in the international
system and within developing countries threaten to halt progress toward
greater democratization and economic development for the poorest
countries in the world.
The report by the Task Force on Difference, Inequality, and Development
of the American
Political Science Association, entitled The Persistent
Problem: Inequality, Difference, and the Challenge of Development,
highlights how these problems threaten efforts to alleviate
deprivation such as the Millennium Development Goals. It shows
that in an increasingly interdependent world, international
institutions should be made more accountable to poor countries if
they are to maintain their legitimacy and effectiveness.
For democracy and capitalism to fulfill their promise of ending
deprivation in developing countries, they must be based on
institutions that reflect their distinctive histories and
cultures. Deepening democratic processes in
developing countries is essential for establishing political and
economic institutions to equitably reflect local experiences.
Effective change will be interactive, not imposed.
|
World Bank Working Paper - May 2008
Global Poverty and Inequality: A Review of the Evidence
Francisco H.G. Ferreira and Martin Ravallion
Drawing on a compilation of data from
household
surveys representing 130 countries, many over a period
of 25 years, this paper reviews the evidence on levels and
recent trends in global poverty and income inequality.
It documents the negative correlations between both
poverty and inequality indices, on the one hand, and
mean income per capita on the other.
It points to the
dominant role of Asia in accounting for the bulk of the
world’s poverty reduction since 1981. The evolution of
global inequality in the last decades is also described,
with special emphasis on the different trends of
inequality within and between countries. The statistical
relationships between growth, inequality and poverty are
discussed, as is the correlation between inequality and
the growth elasticity of poverty reduction. Some of the
recent literature on the drivers of distributional change in
developing countries is also reviewed
|
From International Labour Organization
Labour Shares - Technical Brief No. 01, 2007
In most regions of the world, the
share of national income that goes to labour has been declining over
the
past two or three decades.
This coincides with the advent of the latest wave of globalization, and
several
studies provide evidence that globalization has contributed to the
decline in labour shares.
Several
aspects of globalization, and in particular financial openness and
financial crises, have a detrimental
impact on labour incomes.
The downward trend indicates that either wages or employment creation
in
the formal sector have not kept pace with economic growth during
globalization, or that a combination of
both occurred.
A falling labour share is thus the mirror-image of slow wage growth and
low employment
elasticities. It is consistent with the finding that economic growth
does not create jobs at the rate it used
to, and that income gains for workers have often not kept pace with
growth.
Moreover, a shift of incomes
away from labour and towards capital has contributed to rising
inequality.
To make globalization fair, it is
important to reverse the shift of factor shares and to increase the
share of national incomes that accrues
to labour.
Measuring Labor's Share
- By Alan B. Krueger, 1999
Getting Income Shares Right - By
Douglas Gollin, 2002
Re-measuring Labor's Share - By Andrew T.
Young and Hernando Zuleta, 2008
Getting income shares right: a panel data investigation
for OECD countries - By Aamer S. Abu-Qarn and Suleiman
Abu-Bader, 2007
|
Globalization
Myths: some historical reflections on integration,
industrialization and growth in the world economy
Paul Bairoch and Richard Kozul-Wright - No. 113 - March 1996
This paper was prepared for the WIDER Conference on Transnational
Corporations and the Global
Economy, Kings College, Cambridge (UK), September 1995.
It has become popular to draw a parallel between current globalization
trends and the half
century of international economic integration before the First World
War. Indeed, some writers
suggest that current trends mark a return to this earlier period, from
which they draw strong
conclusions about growth prospects and convergence associated with
globalization. This
paper assesses this historical parallel. It accepts that many features
of today's international
economy are not unique. However, it is sceptical of efforts to make a
direct parallel with the
earlier period. In particular, the paper shows that the period before
1913 was not one of trade
liberalization, nor one of reduced expectations about the role of the
State, and suggests that
rapid industrial growth in some economies cannot be explained by
globalization pressures.
More generally, a description of this earlier period of globalization
as one of rapid growth and
convergence is questioned, and instead associated with uneven economic
development, during
which a very small group of countries were able to reinforce their
domestic growth efforts
through links to the international economy, while for others these same
links did little to alter
long-term growth prospects, and in some cases even hindered them.
|
UNESCAP:
Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific
Data Center
Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific
Statistical Yearbook
for Asia and the Pacific 2009
|
World Bank:
Africa
Development Indicators(ADI) (various years)
|
ILO:
Global
Employment Trends and Related Reports
- Economic
and Labour Market Analysis Department (EMP/ELM)
- Employment
Trends (EMP/TRENDS)
- Policy
Analysis and Research (EMP/ANALYSIS)
- Employment
Policy Department (EMP/POLICY)
- Country
Employment Policy (EMP/CEPOL)
- Employment-Intensive
Investment Programme (EIIP)
- Job
Creation and Enterprise Development Department (EMP/ENTERPRISE)
- Boosting
Employment through Small Enterprise Development (EMP/SEED)
- Cooperatives
(EMP/COOP)
- Multinational
Enterprises (EMP/MULTI)
- Skills
and Employability Department (EMP/SKILLS)
- ILO
Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction (ILO/CRISIS)
- Social
Finance
|
WTO:
International Trade
Statistics (ITS) (various years)
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
The crisis of capitalism and the periphery"
by Raul Prebisch, the first Secretary-General of UNCTAD (PREBISCH 1st
Lecture)
01/07/82, 9 Pages, 514 Kb
Also it is all too obvious that part of the big increase in
productivity in the post-war period which stimulated these various
forms of consumption was to some extent specious. It was an increase in
productivity achieved through irresponsible exploitation of
non-renewable natural resources; oil is an obvious example. In order to
remedy this situation, which is crucial for mankind, a greater
investment of capital is needed per unit of energy and therefore per
unit of output. We must also consider the capital which will be
required to counteract the degradation of the environment that results
from the ambivalent effects of production technology. Thus there is a
set of situations, created by the internal logic of the system, which
have brought about the crisis
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Peace and Development
by Shrimati Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India ( PREBISCH 2nd
Lecture)
01/06/83, 9 Pages, 320 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
The Emerging Prospects for Development and the
World Economy
by Dr. Saburo Okita (PREBISCH 3rd Lecture)
01/07/87, 13 Pages, 537 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Restructuring in the USSR and International
Economic Relation
by Abel G. Aganbegyan, one of the Principal Economic Advisers of the
Government of USSR (PREBISCH 4th Lecture)
01/07/89, 18 Pages, 760 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Economic Development: towards a new partnership
by Bernardo T.G. Chidzero, Enrique Iglesias, and Michel Rocard
(PREBISCH 5th Lecture)
01/02/92, 35 Pages, 1317 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Globalization, economic restructuring and
development
by Professor John H. Dunning, Professor of International Business State
University of New Jersey, Rutgers, United States (PREBISCH 6th Lecture)
01/04/94, 44 Pages, 1760 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
The Global Age: from a sceptical South to a
fearful North
by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati and Arthur Lehman, Professor of Economics
and Professor of Political Science, Columbia University (PREBISCH 7th
Lecture)
01/04/96, 37 Pages, 1620 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Globalization, Social Conflict and Economic
Growth
by Dany Rodrik, Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political
Economy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
(PREBISCH 8th Lecture)
24/10/97, 21 Pages, 433 Kb
I believe the development community has internalized the wrong lessons
from the
experience of countries that adopted the ISI strategy in Latin America
and elsewhere. The
correct interpretation, I think, goes something like this.
First, ISI worked rather well for a period of about two decades. It
brought unprecedented
economic growth to scores of countries in Latin America, the Middle
East, and North Africa,
and even to some in sub-Saharan Africa.
Second, when the economies of these same countries began to fail apart
in the second half of
the 1970s, the reasons had very little to do with ISI policies per se
or the extent of
government interventions. Countries that weathered the storm were those
in which
governments undertook the appropriate macroeconomic adjustments (in the
areas of fiscal,
monetary and exchange-rate policy) rapidly and decisively.
Third, and more fundamentally, success in adopting these macroeconomic
adjustments was
linked to deeper social determinants. It was the ability to manage the
domestic social
conflicts triggered by the turbulance of the world economy during the
1970s that made the
difference between continued growth and economic collapse. Countries
with deeper social
divisions and weaker institutions of conflict management experienced
greater economic
deterioration in response to the external shocks of the 1970s.
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Towards a New Paradigm for Development
by Dr. Joseph E. Stiglitz, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist,
The World Bank, by Dr. Joseph E. Stiglitz, Senior Vice President and
Chief Economist, The World Bank (PREBISCH 9th Lecture)
19/10/98, 34 Pages, 166 Kb
In today’s lecture, I want to go beyond these by now well-documented
failures of the
Washington consensus to begin providing the foundations of an
alternative paradigm, especially
one relevant to the least developing countries. It is based on a broad
conception of development,
with a noncomitantly broader vision of development strategies and a
quite different perspective
on the role of international assistance and the ways in which it should
be delivered. The
remainder of this lecture is organized around five parts.
First, I shall describe this broader vision.
Second, I shall explain why not only the Washington consensus but also
earlier development
paradigms failed: they viewed development too narrowly. I shall outline
briefly some of the key
factors B including recent events in East Asia and the Russian
Federation B that have helped us
realize the inadequacies of the old approaches.
Third, I shall outline what I refer to as the key
principles of a development strategy based on this broader vision of
development.
Fourth, I shall
outline the major components of these new development strategies. And
fifth, I shall conclude
with some general observations, focusing on the importance of trade and
the work of UNCTAD
in furthering development based on this new paradigm.
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Markets, Politics and Globalization: can the
global economy be civilized?
by Gerald Karl Helleiner, Centre for International Studies University
of Toronto, Canada (PREBISCH 10th Lecture)
11/12/00, 25 Pages, 118 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Tribute to Raśl Prebisch
by Fayza Aboulnaga, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Egypt;
Gamani Corea, former Secretary-General of UNCTAD; Javad Zarif, Deputy
Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Iran; member of
the Group of Eminent Persons for the UN Year of Dialogue among
Civilizations (PREBISCH 11th Lecture)
01/07/01, 23 Pages, 955 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
UNCTAD past and present: our next forty years
by Rubens Ricupero Secretary-General of UNCTAD (PREBISCH 12th Lecture)
14/09/04, 14 pages, 56 Kb
|
From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
South and East Asia: leading the world economy
by Professor Lawrence R. Klein, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
(PREBISCH 13th Lecture)
02/11/05, 8 Pages, 64 Kb
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From the Raśl Prebisch Lectures (UNCTAD)
Globalization in the era of Environmental
Crisis
by Mr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Earth Institute (PREBISCH 14th Lecture)
15/09/09, 38 Pages, 148 Kb
That is my central message: we face a dire and growing crisis. We are
in the age
where sustainable development is truly the fundamental challenge. I
tell my students
and my children that theirs will be the generation where sustainable
development is
not a back page issue. It will be the front and centre challenge of
their generation,
even if we, the older folks, have left them with a world that is
unstable and that is
unprepared for these challenges. They will have to solve these
challenges, and we
leave them a world of peril. We have to do better than what we’re doing
right now.
|
| International Trade Statistics 2009 - World Trade
Organization |
Structural Change in
the World Economy: Main Features and Trends - 2009
Olga Memedovic - Research and Statistics Branch
Programme Coordination and Field Operations Division
UNIDO - and Lelio Iapadre - Associate Professor of International
Economics
University of L’Aquila
Johns Hopkins University — SAIS Bologna Center
UNU Institute for Comparative Regional Integration Studies
This working paper presents a
quantitative analysis of sectoral trends in the global economy.
After surveying the relevant theoretical and empirical literature on
structural change, we discuss
the historical evolution of agriculture, industry and services in terms
of their share of world
value added. This analysis refers to six continental regions and covers
a period of 40 years.
Constant-market-shares (CMS) analysis is then used to investigate
changes in the contribution
of regional aggregates to world production. This is followed by an
analysis of the evolution of
the manufacturing industry and the intensity of structural change for a
sample of 30 countries
and 18 sub-sectors for which data are available in the UNIDO INDSTAT 2,
2009 database.
Three main findings resulted from the analysis. First, the long-term
rise in the share of services
in global value added has been slowing down in the last decade. Second,
the upward trend in the
global value added share of North America and Asia seems to be partly
reverted in favour of
other regions. Third, after a setback during the 1980s, structural
transformation in the
manufacturing sector has been accelerating in the last two decades. The
purpose of this paper is
to provide a starting point for more specific studies at sector,
national and regional level.
New Public Management. A market-friendly type
of public administration? A critique Seminar
topic.-Economic, social and political development require a new type of
administration and planning”. Discuss
-------------------------------------------------------
Equity and Development. The
struggle for reducing poverty. PRSPs and SWAPs.
Give an analytical overview of the main causes for poverty in
developing societies
Background readings on effects of the economic recession
2008-2009:
A.
Fosu and W. Naudé, 2009, The Global Economic Crisis. Towards
Syndrome-Free Recovery for Africa ,
UNU-WIDER, 2009, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/dp2009-03africa.pdf
African Center for Gender and
Social Development, 2009, African Perspectives of the global economic
and financial crisis, including the impact on health, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/ecanotes09.pdf
Impact
of the crisis on African economies - sustaining growth and poverty
reduction, Committee of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank
Governors, 2009, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/africacrisis09.pdf
Prof.
Chukwuma C. Soludo, CFR, Governor Central Bank of Nigeria , 2009, Global financial and
economic crisis: how vulnerable is Nigeria?, CBN, 2009, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/nigeria09.pdf"
Adamu, A., 2008,The effects
of global financial crisis on Nigerian economy, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/onnigeria09.pdf
IDB, 2009, Policy Trade-offs
for Unprecedented Times: Confronting the Global Crisis in Latin America
and the Caribbean , IDB, 2009,
available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/policylam09.pdf
UN, 2009, Conference on the
World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, UN,
2009, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/docunconfjun09.pdf
IMF, 2009, Contractionary
Forces Receding But Weak Recovery Ahead, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/imfweoupjul09.pdf
CGAP, 2009, Focus Note: The
Global Financial Crisis and Its Impact on Microfinance, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/microfinance09.pdf
UNCTAD, 2009, At inaugural
public symposium. "Voiceless" have strong words for global financial
crisis. Representatives of civil society, private sector tell UNCTAD
and officials of other agencies that global turmoil is taking a painful
toll, available at www.rrojasdatabank.info/crisisdb/UNCTADpress180509.pdf
Jenkins, R. (1992),
“Theoretical Perspectives”, in Hewitt, T., Johnson, H. and Wield, D., Industrialization and Development ( Oxford University
Press), Chapter 5, pp. 128 – 166.
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