Aid to developing-country agriculture

Asia's economic crisis continues to reverberate globally, demonstrating the pivotal place of developing countries in world trade. It is now well established, if counterintuitive, that broad-based agricultural growth in developing countries boosts their agricultural imports. Aid can play a catalytic role in agriculture-led growth, but developing-country governments bear primary responsibility. They must create and maintain rural infrastructure; facilitate small farmers' access to inputs and credit; invest in agricultural research, basic education, primary health care, and nutrition; and offer incentives to protect natural resources.Poverty alleviation Developing countries. ,Economic assistance. ,Exports Developing countries. ,

EXPORT CARTELS : A Developing Country Perspective

Export cartels are exempted from the competition laws of most countries. While some scholars and several WTO members have recently condemned such cartels, others have argued that they allow efficiency gains that actually promote competition and trade. This paper examines the various issues involved, with special reference to developing countries and to recent discussions on trade and competition policy. After summarising the contending views on export cartels, and also the scanty theoretical literature on the subject, it reviews the treatment of such cartels in various jurisdictions and the limited empirical evidence that is available on their prevalence, efficiency justifications, and effects on international trade. Insights from economic theory are then applied to the arguments for and against export cartels, suggesting criteria that could help to determine their validity and an importing country’s best response. The paper concludes that while importing countries should evaluate foreign export cartels under a “rule of reason”, most of them will be constrained by a lack of technical expertise and limited enforcement capacity. It suggests a novel approach, based on parallels with anti-dumping procedures, which would strengthen their hands.antitrust, competition policy, trade negotiations, WTO.

Developing Country Borrowing and Domestic Wealth

We show that across developing countries, external debt to private creditors rises more than proportionately with income. We then develop a simple theoretical model consistent with this phenomenon and also consistent with the well-documented relationship between capital market development and growth. Our framework stresses information asymmetries at the level of individual borrowers as the source of frictions in world capital markets. Because of moral hazard problems, marginal products of capital and borrowing-lending spreads are higher in poorer countries. In a two-country version of the model, we demonstrate the possibility of a siphoning effect which exacerbates the costs of transfers. Also because of the siphoning effect, increased wealth in the rich country can stunt investment in the poor country.

Developing country experience in trade reform

During the 1980's, many developing countries received financial and policy support for trade policy reform. There has been major reform in exchange rate policy, in the reduction of export restrictions, and in removing impediments to the imports of inputs needed by exporters. Import regimes in many countries have been improved by substituting tariffs for quantitative restrictions. The lowering of import protection has been more modest in the face of foreign exchange constraints. Through adjustment lending, the World Bank has supported trade reform in more than 40 countries. Considering this emphasis, one might expect stronger reforms. Four factors that have constrained reform action are: (a) macroeconomic instability; (b) inadequate conviction about the benefits of reform; (c) weak implementation capacity; and (d) conflicts in design. When considering the impact of policy reform on growth performance, the evidence supports the need for continued stronger efforts to reform trade regimes and complementary policies as part of adjustment lending.TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy,Economic Stabilization

Geographical Diversification of Developing Country Exports

This paper shows that export costs, tariffs, and international transport costs are all important determinants of geographical export diversification in a sample of 123 developing countries. A 10% reduction in any one of these factors produces a 5%-6% increase in the number of foreign markets entered. Moreover, there is evidence that these impacts differ significantly across countries and sectors: geographical export diversification is more sensitive to export costs and transport costs in more differentiated sectors, and to export costs in lower income countries. These results are generally robust to alternative specifications, and instrumental variables estimation.International trade; Trade policy; Trade and development; Extensive margin; Economic geography

PTSD Among Working Women in a Developing Country

https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/wrin_briefs/1004/thumbnail.jp

Social returns to education in a developing country

This paper estimates social returns to education in Turkey. Most evidence on spillovers from human capital comes mostly from developed countries, and estimates vary from country to country. The paper nds that social returns to education are around 3-4%, whereas private returns per year of education amount to 5% in Turkey. Moreover, the findings indicate that workers with lower skills, or working in sectors with lower average wages benet most from externalities. The results are robust to a series of checks, using a number of individual and regional controls, as well as instrumental variable estimation

The corporate social performance of developing country multinationals

In this paper, we explore the Corporate Social Performance (CSP) of Developing Country Multinationals (DMNCs). We argue that in competing internationally, DMNCs often face both reputation and legitimacy deficits, which they address by improving their CSP. We develop a series of hypotheses to explain the variation in CSP between DMNCs and domestic-only firms from developing countries and also examine variations in CSP between DMNCs depending on the extent of their multinationality and portfolio of host countries. Our findings support all our hypotheses, which suggest that DMNCs display enhanced levels of CSP compared to their domestic-only counterparts. CSP is also found to be positively related to the DMNCs’ degree of multinationality, but with a declining incremental impact, whereas entry into developed markets leads to a greater improvement in DMNCs’ CSP than expansion into developing markets. We highlight the implications of our findings for managers and researchers