Financial Development, Economic Growth, and Poverty Reduction

The frequent failure of financial liberalisation efforts in developing countries, and the serious damage which recent financial crises have imposed on these economies, have led to renewed attempts to understand the relationships between financial sector development, economic growth and poverty reduction, and to provide a more robust intellectual foundation on which to design efficient and pro-poor financial sector policies for developing countries. The paper examines the contribution that financial sector development can make to poverty reduction in developing countries. The linkages between financial and economic growth, and between economic growth and poverty reduction, are considered, and some preliminary empirical evidence is presented on these linkages. The paper goes on to argue that financial market imperfections are a key constraint on pro-poor growth, and that public policy directed at the correction of these financial market failures is needed to ensure that financial development contributes effectively to growth and poverty reduction. The final part of the paper examines in some detail the role of financial regulation and supervision policy as a key area for public intervention directed at enhancing the financial sector’s contribution to poverty reduction.

A Methodology for Assessing the Effectiveness of National Sustainable Development Strategies

At the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, governments undertook to develop and adopt national sustainable development strategies, as a key component of implementing the goals of Agenda 21. Only partial progress was reported at the 2002 World Summit in Johannesburg, with uncertainty in the effectiveness of those strategies which had been introduced. This paper describes a methodology for assessing the extent to which a country may be considered to have implemented an effective sustainable development strategy, with the prime aim of identifying weaknesses that need to be addressed. The methodology concentrates on evaluating those strategic planning processes that are operational in a country, taking into account any existing overall strategy document related to sustainable development, but not relying on it. It is intended to be used in three main ways: independent evaluation; evaluation by government as part of an improvement programme; and, ultimately, within an internationally agreed and verified mechanism for monitoring and accelerating the implementation of sustainable development strategies. To date, the methodology has been tested only in semi-independent evaluations, as described in a companion paper.Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development,

The Effect of Environmental Regulation on the Locational Choice of Japanese Foreign Direct Investment

This paper assesses the impact of environmental regulation in host countries on Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) decision-making. It tests the pollution haven hypothesis using data on national environmental regulation standards and Japanese inward FDI in five dirty industries (iron and steel industry, non-ferrous metals industry, chemicals industry, paper and pulp industry, non-metallic products industry). The results do not support the pollution hypothesis. On the contrary, inward Japanese FDI appears to be attracted to countries which have committed themselves to a transparent and stable environment regulatory environment, suggesting that the quality of the regulatory framework in terms of its certainty and transparency has a greater influence on foreign investors' choice of location than the level of the environmental regulatory measures.Environmental regulation, foreign direct investment, Japanese multinationals, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, Q56, F21,

Sustainability Impact Assessment of World Trade Negotiations: Current Practice and Lessons for Further Development

Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) is an increasingly accepted form of strategic impact assessment, and has recently been adopted, for example, as the preferred method of ex ante policy assessment in the European Community. A methodology for SIA for application to international trade policy measures was developed by IDPM in 1999, and since then has been used in conducting an ongoing SIA study of the WTO trade negotiations agenda. This paper will review the past four years' experience in carrying out SIA of trade policy, and will identify the main difficulties and challenges that have arisen in its application. The main lessons for the further development of the methodology will then be discussed.International Relations/Trade,

Infrastructure regulation and poverty reduction in developing countries: a review of the evidence and a research agenda

Poverty reduction is a primary goal of development policy. In large parts of the World people have to live on meagre incomes and have limited access to infrastructure services, such as mains water, safe sanitation, mains power supplies, maintained roads and telephones. In response, more and more infrastructure provision has been opened up to private investment over the last two decades and regulatory institutions have been introduced to protect the public interest in the absence of state ownership. In this paper the role of infrastructure regulation in poverty reduction is investigated drawing on the published evidence. The conclusion is that the evidence is both patchy and sometimes contradictory. There is mixed knowledge regarding the extent to which regulators address poverty issues and about the results of regulatory decisions. The paper concludes by proposing a future research agenda aimed at improving our understanding of the ways in which infrastructure regulation impacts on poverty, with the objective of improving actual regulatory policy in developing economies

The Role of the African Loan and Development Company in African Agriculture

A RJE discussion paper on agricultural finance to African farmers during the late 1060's of white ruled Rhodesia

A Methodology for Assessing National Sustainable Development Strategies

At the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, governments undertook to develop and adopt national sustainable development strategies as a key component of implementing the goals of Agenda 21. Only partial progress was reported at the 2002 World Summit in Johannesburg, with uncertainty as to the effectiveness of those strategies that had been introduced. This paper describes a methodology for assessing a country's progress in implementing a national sustainable development strategy for (NSDS) and for identifying potential areas for improvement. Five key principles of sustainable development and strategic planning are identified, and a set of assessment criteria are proposed for each principle. The results of applying the methodology in two Eastern European countries, Belarus and Slovakia, are reported. These case studies suggest that the proposed NSDS assessment methodology has considerable potential for strengthening sustainability planning at the national level. The effectiveness of the NSDS assessment methodology in strengthening national processes for sustainable development and strategic planning will also require greater transparency and accountability in governance practices. This suggests that progress in improving the quality of NSDS processes is likely to be conditional on broader considerations of institutional building and governance reform.sustainable development, strategic planning, national sustainable development strategies, transition countries, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development,

Creating the Conditions for International Business Expansion: The Impact of Regulation on Economic Growth in Developing Countries - A Cross-Country Analysis

The role of an effective regulatory regime in promoting economic growth and development and therefore international business has generated considerable interest among researchers and practitioners in recent years. In particular, building effective regulatory structures in developing countries is not simply an issue of the technical design of the most appropriate regulatory instruments, it is also concerned with the quality of supporting regulatory institutions and capacity. Many of the institutions that support markets are publicly provided and the effectiveness of these regulatory institutions can be expected to be an important determinant of how well markets function. This paper explores the role of regulation in affecting economic outcomes using an econometric model of the impact of regulatory governance. More precisely, it assesses through econometric modelling the impact of variations in the quality of regulatory governance on economic growth. Proxies for regulatory quality are included as determinants of economic growth. The results based on two different techniques of estimation suggest a strong causal link between regulatory quality and economic performance. The results confirm that "good" regulation is associated with higher economic growth, which in turn is conducive to the expansion of international business.economic growth, regulation, governance, institutions, economic performance, International Development, C23, I18, L33, L51, L98, O38, O50,

Enhancing the Contribution of Trade Liberalisation in Environmental Services to Sustainable Development

In the last decade, a fundamental phenomenon came to the fore in the business environment: more and more companies are offering total solutions to their customer instead of standardized products or services. Although this trend has already been studied extensively in literature, little has been said about the impact of this phenomenon on the supplier's channel management. This article develops propositions concerning the influence of a total solutions strategy on a company's channel management, rooted on an extensive literature review and case-based research in the Belgian industrial market.Total solutions, Channel management, Channel relationships, Relationship management, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade,

Assessing the Effects of Privatisation, Competition and Regulation on Economic Performance: The Case of Electricity Sector Reform

Over the last two decades electricity sectors in both developed and developing countries have been subject to restructuring to introduce private capital and increase competition. This has been accompanied by the introduction of new regulatory regimes. Although the effects of such reforms in a number of the developed economies are now well documented, apart from a few case studies the experience of developing countries is much less well researched. This is important because privatisation, competition and the reform of state regulation are key themes of donor aid programmes, notably those of the World Bank. This paper provides an econometric assessment of the effects of privatisation, competition and regulation on the performance of the electricity generation industry using panel data for 36 developing and transitional countries, over the period 1985 to 2003. The study identifies the impact of these reforms on generating capacity, electricity generated, labour productivity in the generating sector and capacity utilisation. The main conclusions are that on their own privatisation and regulation do not lead to obvious gains in economic performance, though there are some positive interaction effects. By contrast, introducing competition does seem to be effective in stimulating performance improvements.Privatisation, competition, regulation, developing economies, electricity sector.