1,575 research outputs found
Fallacies about the Global Financial Crisis Harms Recovery in the Poorest Countries
Finanzmarktkrise; Internationaler Finanzmarkt; Makroökonomischer Einfluss; Wirtschaftliche Anpassung; Vierte Welt; Afrika
Promoting Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Policy Challenges
This policy brief provides some fresh perspectives on the relationship between entrepreneurship and development, and considers policy design issues. It reports on the UNU-WIDER two-year research project âPromoting Entrepreneurial Capacityâ, which aimed to understand whether and how entrepreneurship matters for development, how it could derail development, how entrepreneurs function in high growth as well as in conflict environments, and how female entrepreneurship differs across countries at various stages of development.Entrepreneurship, development, policy design
Financial liberalisation and interest rate risk management in sub-Saharan Africa
The appropriateness of financial liberalisation in Africa - at least over the short-term - is in doubt. It has been suggested that the credit risks faced by financial institutions will be detrimental to the supply of credit. The contribution of this paper is to point out that financial liberalisation creates a significant interest rate risk. It is argued that this interest rate risk will bias African banksâ activities towards brokerage rather than maturity-transformation functions. Furthermore, it is stressed that the management of interest rate risk is in itself likely to lead to a reduction in the supply of credit. In this regard the usefulness of capital adequacy as defined by the Basle Committee is investigated.
New Challanges for Industrial Policy
This paper calls for a fresh look at industrial policies in the light of recent trends and developments in the global economy. In particular, five new challenges and their implications for industrial policies are discussed. These have been neglected in the debate on industrial policy and include (i) the increasing globalization of the world economy, most pertinently the rise of global production sharing, (ii) the recent crises in food, fuel and financial markets, (iii) climate change, (iv) the rise of China and India, and (v) the rise of the âentrepreneurial economyâ. Directions for further research are outlined. This paper is a follow-up to the earlier WIDER Working Paper entitled âIndustrial Policy: Old and New Issuesâ.industrial policy, structural transformation, development, financial crisis, climate change
Development Progress in sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa
Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa are sub-Saharan African countries that stand out for their development progress. Each of these countries has succeeded against the odds, against expectations. This paper synthesizes the common ingredients of these countriesâ success, and derives lessons. It concludes that smallness, landlockedness, tropical location, distance from world markets, racism, colonialism and other challenges can be overcome through appropriate institutions, governance and good economic policies.sub-Saharan Africa, development, success, country role models
Industrial Policy Old and New Issues
The debate on industrial policy (IP) has been characterized by a number of contractions over the concept of industrial policy, its merits, contents and application. The purpose of this exploratory paper is to review the debate on IP. Outlining the concept and instruments of industrial policy, the paper reviews the evolution of IP over time, and discusses the current tension between the theory and practice of IP. Contrasting âoldâ and ânewâ issues in the debate, a tentative conclusion is that a fragile consensus on IP is within reach. This implies that the future debateâthe ânewâ issuesâon IP will need to be increasingly concerned with (i) the âhowâ of IP rather than the âwhyâ, and (ii) with the new challenges and trends that will shape the content of IP.industrial policy, structural transformation, trade, development, least developed countries
Female Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries
Women, Entrepreneurship, Developing Countries
Entrepreneurship and Human Development: A Capability Approach
We provide a formal model of entrepreneurship in human development. The framework is provided by the capabilities approach (CA). Hence we extend not only the conceptualisation of entrepreneurship in development, but the reach of the CA into entrepreneurship. From a CA view, entrepreneurship is not only a production factor, or a means to an end, as is often taken to be the case by economists, but also an end in itself. Entrepreneurship can be a human functioning and can contribute towards expanding the set of human capabilities through being both a resource and a process. Our model shows, however, that entrepreneurship is not automatically a functioning. Where it is a necessity it stops being a valued functioning. The model also shows that even when entrepreneurship is valued, entrepreneurs may often not match their ideas with suitable opportunities. Policy implications are discussed.capability approach, entrepreneurship, human development
Technological Innovation and Inclusive Growth in Germany. Bertelsmann Stiftung Inclusive Growth for Germany|18
Economic growth in Germany is no longer as inclusive as it
used to be. Between 1990 and 2010 all measures of income
and wealth inequality rose considerably,1 which even led the
media to portray Germany as a âdivided nationâ.2 Income
inequality was relatively low before 1990, and even declined
over much of the 20th century, but changed direction after
German unification.
The rise in income inequality from 1990 onwards is
depicted in Figure 1 through various inequality indicators
and the âat-risk-of-poverty rateâ. It can be seen that
all measures of income inequality (before and after tax)
increased markedly after 1990 along with the âat-risk-ofpoverty
rateâ.3 Felbermayr et al. (2014) furthermore document
that the rise in wage inequality was faster in Germany
than in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada
between the mid-1990s and 2010. This rise in income
and wage inequality has been accompanied, and to a certain
extent occasioned, by a simultaneous increase in wealth
inequality. Using data from the Socio-Economic Panel
(SOEP), Frick and Grabka (2009) show, that the Gini coefficient
for wealth increased from 0.77 to 0.80 during this
period, and wealth grew particularly strongly at the top 1
percent of the wealth distribution
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