Research for development : a World Bank perspective on future directions for research

This paper provides an overview of the history of development research at the World Bank and points to new future directions in both what we research and how we research. Six main messages emerge. First, research and data have long been essential elements of the Bank's country programs and its contributions to global public goods, and this will remain the case. Second, development thinking is in a state of flux and uncertainty; it is time to reconsider both the Bank's research priorities and how it does research. Third, a more open and strategic approach to research is needed -- an approach that is firmly grounded in the key knowledge gaps for development policy emerging from the experiences of developing countries, including the questions that policy makers in those countries ask. Fourth, four major sets of problems merit high priority for our future research: (i) securing economic transformation; (ii) broadening opportunities to participate in the benefits of, and contribute to, such transformation; (iii) dealing with emerging risks at all levels; and (iv) assessing the results of development efforts, including external assistance. Fifth, a new multi-polar world requires a new multi-polar approach to knowledge; the Bank must learn from, and collaborate with, developing-country researchers and institutes. Sixth, greater emphasis must be given to producing the data and analytic tools for others to do the research themselves and providing open access to those tools. And open data initiative needs to be extended to open knowledge. This will better inform development policy debates and allow for deeper engagement with the direct stakeholders in the outcomes of those debates.Banks&Banking Reform,ICT Policy and Strategies,Tertiary Education,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

Transnational education: global location, local innovation: a report produced for UUKi

Transnational education (TNE) is the delivery of an educational award in a country other than that in which the awarding body is based. It can include, but is not limited to, branch campuses, distance learning, joint and dual degree programmes, fly-in faculty, or a mix of these, often referred to as blended learning. The UK’s higher education TNE offer is growing in terms of both scale and strategic importance, and TNE is becoming a core component of many universities’ strategic approach to international growth. The large majority of UK universities (84%) now deliver TNE to over 700,000 students worldwide with this number having increased year on year since 2007/08. This means that the UK higher education sector now provides qualifications to more students overseas than to international students in the UK (approximately 450,000). The increasing scale of activity belies a huge variety in the types of TNE partnerships being developed by UK institutions. Drivers for engagement with international partners are diverse, relating to international strategies, to research priorities and to student and staff mobility. This publication aims to illustrate the breadth of engagement by highlighting 17 examples of TNE partnerships involving UK higher education institutions

Is bigger better for primary care groups and trusts?

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m01/16032 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Inflation in the 21st Century: Taking Down the Inflationary Straw Man of the 1970s

This overview of the history of, and future prospects for, undesirable levels of price inflation in the U.S. economy concludes that concerns raised in 2021 by several well-known economists and analysts – regarding the prospects for accelerating levels of inflation as a result of pandemic-era and post-pandemic fiscal and monetary policy (enacted and proposed) – is misplaced. The wisdom of continuing expanded fiscal policy from late 2021 onwards is supported by an analysis of the prospects for future inflation in terms of both (i) the shortfall in aggregate domestic demand relative to existing endogenous and exogenous supply; and (ii) the metrics of untapped existing sources of additional supply of labor, capital and resulting production to offset incremental demand. To eliminate the issue from comparative association, the paper draws a multi-pronged distinction between the conditions of the early 21st century and those of the latter half of the 20th century that yielded the painful inflation crises of the 1970s. The analysis also includes a comparison of earlier periods dominated by cyclical core goods inflation, to the 21st century history of below-target inflation being supported primarily by service sector inflation in contract rents related to capital assets and in service sectors heavily influenced by third-party payment systems. The conclusion reached is that the four decades of relative fiscal austerity in the United States, coupled with accelerating globalization and technological development, have produced a disinflationary-to-deflationary tendency – extending from prices to labor incomes – that only substantial amounts of targeted federal spending can restore to equilibrium. With sustained levels of accelerating inflation being very unlikely. The paper is written in a style designed to be accessible to those who are not necessarily practicing economists, avoids complex mathematics in favor of graphic explanations, and eschews (or explains) terms that are not familiar to those with only a basic understanding of macroeconomic issues

FAPRI-University of Pretoria Collaboration: Final Report for the University of Missouri South African Education Program

The aim of the collaboration is to facilitate academic exchange between the University of Pretoria and the University of Missouri in the area of agricultural economics. In particular, staff at the University of Pretoria Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension, and Rural Development wished to build agricultural sector modeling capacity similar to that employed for many years by the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). The models are used to provide projections of the main variables for the agriculture and food sector over a period of 10 years, with the ability to provide analysis of policy changes.The academic exchange described in this report was funded by the University of Missouri South African Education Program and in the University of Pretoria by ABSA, the Maize Trust and Wine Tech who fund the modelling project based there