The global economic crisis that broke out in 2008 has reawakened interest in fiscal policy. In the early stages of the crisis, there was a widespread turn to countercyclical fiscal stimulus. Furthermore...
The global financial roller coaster, with the Euro zone as its lead car, has hit economic prospects across the globe. The South African economy, with its close links to the world economy, has suffered...
Over the last century, the world has seen a sustained decline in the proportion of people living in poverty. However, there is an increasing concern that climate change could slow or possibly even reverse...
In the past two decades, there has been a growing engagement between development and human rights practitioners and thinkers. But are participants in this dialogue still mainly talking past each other?...
An energetic debate on the danger of a global currency war has flared up in recent months, stoked by a renewed move to 'quantitative easing' in the United States, resurgent capital flows to developing...
The generation, diffusion, absorption, and application of new technology, knowledge, or ideas are crucial drivers of development. The authors examine the exceptionally fast growth in domestic innovation...
This note looks at so-called Dutch disease, a phenomenon reflecting changes in the structure of production in the wake of a favorable shock (such as a large natural resource discovery, a rise in the international...
In this note the authors briefly review four questions: how dependent are developing countries on primary commodity exports? What is the outlook for primary commodity prices? Is there a natural resource...
Recent events have rekindled interest in the role of primary commodities in development. Was the boom in commodity prices from around 2003 through 2008 just a cyclical event, or does it suggests that prices...
A recent paper has highlighted some close correspondences between economic performance during the present world recession and that during the early months of the great depression that began in late 1929...
The world economy is entering a major downturn caused by the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s. Current World Bank growth projections for high income countries have been...
This PREM note provides some perspectives on the ongoing financial turmoil and the present complicated situation in the world economy. Two unifying themes can help to organize the discussion. First, the...
Large increases in international food prices in 2007 and early 2008 have become a key concern for policy makers in East Asia. The increases are likely to have a significant impact on the living standards...
Infectious disease outbreaks can exact a high human and economic cost through illness and death. But, as with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in East Asia in 2003, or the plague outbreak in Surat...
The generation, diffusion, absorption and application of new technology, knowledge or ideas are crucial drivers of development. This paper surveys the diverse approaches to innovation adopted by East Asian...
Growth in Emerging East Asia is expected to reach close to 8 percent in 2006, the second strongest pace in the five year long economic expansion underway in the region since 2001. Emerging East Asia comprises...
Economic growth in Emerging East Asia reached a cyclical peak of 7.2 percent in 2004 from which it is expected to slow only moderately to about 6 percent in 2005 and 2006. The tragic tsunami disaster...
The region had already begun a cyclical recovery in 2002, but this was partially side-tracked by SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - and other shocks in early 2003. East Asian growth fell to only...
This report contains many policy recommendations which are recognized by the Government, but they cannot all be implemented at once. While the Government has made progress in addressing a number of these...
This study reviews trends in the process of India's integration into the world economy in the context of the experience of developing countries as a whole, and evaluates the main factors which may hamper...