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. ,

DEVELOPING COUNTRY CONCERNS AND MULTILATERAL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS

International Relations/Trade,

Developing Country Business Cycles: Characterising the Cycle

Classical business cycles, following Burns and Mitchell (1946), can be defined as the sequential pattern of expansions and contractions in aggregate economic activity. Recently, Harding and Pagan (2002, 2006) have provided an econometric toolkit for the analysis of these cycles, and this has resulted in a recent surge in researchers using these methods to analyse developing country business cycles. However, the existing literature consists of diminutive samples and the majority fail to consider the statistical significance of the concordance statistics. To address this shortfall, this paper examines the business cycle characteristics and synchronicity for thirty-two developing countries. Furthermore, the US, the UK and Japan are included; this provides benchmarks upon which to compare the characteristics of the developing country cycles and also to examine the degree of synchronisation between developed and developing countries. Significantly, this research reveals that business cycles of developing countries are not, as previously believed, significantly shorter than those of the developed countries. However, the amplitude of both expansion and contraction phases tends to be greater in the developing countries. Furthermore a clear relationship between the timing of business cycle fluctuations and periods of significant regional crises, such as the Asian Financial Crisis, is exhibited. However, the more specific timing of the onset of these fluctuations appears to be determined by country-specific factors. Moreover, there are no clear patterns of concordance either within regions or between developed and developing country business cycles.Classical business cycle, Turning points, Synchronisation, Concordance, Contagion, Developing economies

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