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This blog is maintained by the Growth and Crisis (GC ) Program of the World Bank Institute.

We bring you timely news, resources, tools, ideas and commentaries on issues related to the global economic crisis and growth.

June 2008

Development Marketplace for African Diaspora in Europe

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 06/30/2008 - 15:30

The first Development Marketplace for the African Diaspora in Europe (D-MADE) ended in Brussels last week, awarding close to a million dollars for sixteen investment projects in Africa. The winning projects will be implemented in 11 African countries, including Mali (4), Cote d'Ivoire (2) Benin (2) and one each for Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The winners were selected from a group of 68 finalists who presented projects that a 24-person jury deemed innovative, sustainable, replicable and based on sound business principles. The D-MADE initiative was launched in 2007 to allow entrepreneurs from the African Diaspora in Europe to participate in the development of their countries.

Fridays Academy: Gender and the Labor Market

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 12:29

As usual on Fridays, from  Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

Gender Inequality and the Labor Market

Specialization in work is thought to account for why gender inequality exists in the labor market. Tradition and custom dictate different jobs and/or types of work for men and women. In the industrialized world, certain professions, such as the nursing profession, are dominated by one sex, e.g. women (Anker, 1998). According to "Global Employment Trends, 2007", the sex segregationof occupations is changing, but slowly. Females are still overrepresented in the caring profession and in home-based workers. Changing these trends will rely on further and increased investment in women’s education and training. Furthermore, even when women migrate, they tend to be overrepresented among these stereotypical female occupations. The UNFPA in its study of global population estimate that there are 95 million female migrants, accounting for half of all migrants and contributing hugely to remittances. Migration for women takes place across all age groups and income groups. As migrants and women, they oftentimes face significant challenges in their chosen host country, especially if race, class and religion factors come into play. Oftentimes they lack the opportunities to migrate legally and safely and oftentimes they are unaware of their rights. The figure below shows the trends in female migration for three sample years between 1995 and 2005.

 

The Bottom Billion

Submitted by Raj on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 18:04

 The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it? By Paul Collier. Oxford University Press, 2007
 
 The main thesis of the book is that globalization has been beneficial to a majority of the people in the developed and developing world, except for a large group of small countries in Africa, Caribbean ad Pacific countries, which comprise of a billion people (out of the total world population of about 6.5 billion). These billion people are being increasingly marginalized by globalization. For example, average per capita GDP growth of the economies of the bottom billion was 0.5% in 1970s, 0.4% in 1980s and negative 0.50% in 1990s. In comparison, per capita GDP growth in other developing countries increased from 2.5% in 1970s to 4% each in 1980s and 1990s. So there is big time divergence in income between the bottom billion and rest of the world population.
 

Fridays Academy: Gender and the Labor Market

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:08

Like every Friday, from  Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

Fridays Academy: Gender and Economic Growth

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 06/13/2008 - 14:13

Like every Friday, from  Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

Economic growth and gender inequality

 Stotsky (2006) notes that a number of studies have examined the effect of growth on gender inequality. By aiming to explain gender inequality through economic growth or development, the studies bridge the gap between the economic growth theory approaches – neoclassical and endogenous growth theory – and the Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) approaches. In particular, the study by Forsythe, Korzeniewicz and Durrant (2000) illustrates the relevance of all three approaches to understanding the effect of economic growth on gender equality. 

Are there lessons for Africa from China's success against poverty ?

Submitted by Ignacio on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 17:25

 

Yes, according to Martin Ravallion's recent paper.

More resources here.

"While acknowledging that Africa faces constraints that China did not, and that context matters, two lessons stand out. The first is the importance of productivity growth in smallholder agriculture, which will require both market-based incentives and public support. The second is the role played by strong leadership and a capable public administration at all levels of government."

Business and Poverty: Opening markets to the poor

Submitted by Ignacio on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 15:39

The June issue of Development Outreach, the World Bank Institute's magazine, is out.

This issue addresses the question of how companies can operate profitably in emerging market economies, while enhancing the well-being of the poor by nurturing them as producers and consumers.

The whole issue is available on-line.

 

Fridays Academy: Gender and Economic Growth

Submitted by Ignacio on Fri, 06/06/2008 - 12:51

From  Raj Nallari and Breda Griffith's lecture notes.

Empirical studies of gender inequalities and economic growth (and 3)

 By focusing on differential school attainment as the measure of gender inequality, Dollar and Gatti (1999) estimate the growth equation mentioned before, i.e. :

[?y/y]it=δ+ψgit+Xπ+ui

Growth of Per Capita Income (OLS Regressions)

 

Source:  Dollar and Gatti (1999); p. 33

 

More on the Growth Report

Submitted by Ignacio on Wed, 06/04/2008 - 17:28

We mentioned yesterday the recently published Growth Report.  Willian Easterly and Martin Wolf give their views about it in the FT. Others joined the discussion at the FT's Economists' Forum.

(Via Dani Rodrik's blog)

The Growth Report

Submitted by Ignacio on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 16:47

The Commission on Growth and Development, an independent group of twenty-one leading practitioners from government, business and the policymaking arenas, released recently its final report The Growth Report: Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development,which looks at how developing countries can achieve fast sustained and equitable growth.

 

Since 1950, 13 economies have grown at an average rate of 7 percent a year or more for 25 years or longer. At that pace of expansion, an economy almost doubles in size every decade. This report is about sustained, high growth of this kind: its causes, consequences, and internal dynamics.  One might call it a report on “economic miracles,” except that we believe the term is a misnomer. Unlike miracles, sustained, high growth can be explained and, we hope, repeated.