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The way jurisdiction over land is distributed among members of a community has a powerful influence over how efficiently land is used, the incidence of poverty, and the level of inequality in the community. Yet much land in less developed countries is underutilized and/or misused from a sustainability standpoint: lack of access to land or unfavorable terms of access remain a fundamental cause of poverty. In addition, unmet demands for land can be a source of political destabilization. At the same time, there presently exist unusual opportunities to reopen the issue of access to land. They include an increasing concern with the efficiency costs of inequality in land distribution, devolution of common property resource management to users, large scale redefinitions of property rights in the context of transition economies in Eastern and central Europe and the end of white rule in South Africa, liberalization of land markets, mounting pressure to deal with environmental issues, the proliferation of civil society organizations voicing the demands of the rural poor, and more democratic forms of governance. Much attention has been given to state-led redistributive land reforms. Other channels include inheritance and inter-vivos transfers, intrahousehold and intracommunity land allocations, community titling of open access resources, the distribution of common property resources and the individualization of rights, decollectivization, land markets and land market-assisted land reforms, and land rental contracts. This book analyzes each of these channels of access to land, and recommends ways of making them more effective.

Whereas the emergence of the classical gold standard (1870‒1914) has attracted considerable attention in the economic literature, only very few authors have inquired into the protracted confidence crisis of silver. Building on the results of Calomiris, Oppers, and Flandreau, this book explores the evolution of management practice in exchange banks in Asia. Using ‘forensic accounting’, it attempts to show that contemporaries were aware of problems caused by the gyrations of the silver price after 1870, and that they sought to actively remedy their harmful effects on trade between gold and silver using countries. It describes how the experiment with financial instruments, although originally mishaps, eventually led to success. Next, and contrary to the commonly held belief that nineteenth-century bankers did not have a sophisticated understanding of hedging strategies, it shows, in a quantitative way, that hedging strategies existed, impacting banks’ operations in profound ways. More specifically, it uses the mostly unexplored accounting data and archives of the Yokohama Specie Bank (YSB; the world’s third largest exchange bank before World War II) to describe the bank’s wrought management history in the tumultuous years around the turn of the twentieth century. YSB had to come to grips with Japan’s effort at adopting the gold standard (1897), the difficult expansionary ‘postbellum administration’ after the Sino-Japanese War (1894‒5), and the consolidation of the country’s imperialism (after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904‒5)—all events shaping not only the bank’s operations and expansion in Asia, but also affecting the organization of its branch network and management of its flow-of-funds.

In the development literature, some countries are cited more often than others as examples of development success. These countries are understood to have policies and institutions in place that could be transferred, at least in part, to less successful countries both within their own regions, and elsewhere in the world. As such, they may constitute ‘role models of development’. This scholarly volume contains historical accounts of a select set of successful countries in the developing world; successful by virtue of their growth and development path—albeit at times in an uneven, non-linear, and patchy manner. Each unique case describes the fundamental ‘causes’ of success: initial conditions and resources; local, regional, and international factors shaping the national state of affairs; and contributions to the development process by internal and external actors and institutions. Each country has a story to tell from which useful lessons can be drawn. While other similar works have presented cases of successful development strategies, they tend to be region-specific or constitute a relatively small number of cases. This book takes a more wide-ranging perspective involving a large number of country studies, spanning world regions and development levels.

Adam Smith's thought was indebted to the classical training prevailing in the educational system of his day. A careful reading of all his writings can prove the extent of this debt. Classical influences are obviously more numerous and easily discernible in the philosophical works, but are not absent from the economic masterpiece. They have been described by the author without having recourse to conjectures or implications, rather by analysing the topics whose classical origin can be ascertained. The book has been divided into chapters devoted to the traditional branches of knowledge treated by Adam Smith: natural philosophy, ethics, jurisprudence, economics, literature; plus a postscript.

Smith was not only influenced by classical doctrines but he also selected from them arguments

suited to support his own ideas.

Adam Smith's System is a study in classical economic thought and methodology. It portrays Adam Smith as a Stoic philosopher who wanted virtue to be relevant to this life rather than to the next. His central purpose was to define a set of laws, a jurisprudence in the widest possible sense, which would permit economic and political liberalism to proceed without triggering long‐run moral degeneration. Smith argued that the conflict between morals and wealth was only apparent, because it was possible to synthesize the seeming contraries with better laws and moral rules.

All of Smith's writings are analysed, including his writings on morals and methodology, art and rhetoric, and his political and economic writings. The relevance of Wealth of Nations is analysed, and Smith's theories of free trade and economic growth are put into context. It is shown that Smith was primarily concerned with the very broad intellectual endeavour to replace the Aristotelian world‐view, the bulwark and inspiration of medieval Christian thought, with an outlook that was more consistent with Newtonian science.

Info-metrics is a framework for modeling, reasoning, and drawing inferences under conditions of noisy and insufficient information. It is an interdisciplinary framework situated at the intersection of information theory, statistical inference, and decision-making under uncertainty. In a recent book on the Foundations of Info-Metrics, Golan (OUP, 2018) provides the theoretical underpinning of info-metrics and the necessary tools and building blocks for using that framework. This volume complements Golan’s book and expands on the series of studies on the classical maximum entropy and Bayesian methods published in the different proceedings started with the seminal collection of Levine and Tribus (1979) and continuing annually. The objective of this volume is to expand the study of info-metrics, and information processing, across the sciences and to further explore the basis of information-theoretic inference and its mathematical and philosophical foundations. This volume is inherently interdisciplinary and applications oriented. It contains some of the recent developments in the field, as well as many new cross-disciplinary case studies and examples. The emphasis here is on the interrelationship between information and inference where we view the word ‘inference’ in its most general meaning – capturing all types of problem solving. That includes model building, theory creation, estimation, prediction, and decision making. The volume contains nineteen chapters in seven parts. Although chapters in each part are related, each chapter is self-contained; it provides the necessary tools for using the info-metrics framework for solving the problem confronted in that chapter. This volume is designed to be accessible for researchers, graduate students, and practitioners across the disciplines, requiring only some basic quantitative skills. The multidisciplinary nature and applications provide a hands-on experience for the reader.

The book provides a comprehensive account of the human development (HD) approach to development. It shows how it emerged as a consequence of defects in earlier strategies, especially growth maximization. The book investigates the determinants of success and failure in HD across developing countries over the past forty years. Cross-country investigations show broad determinants of success and failure, while country studies give detailed examples of the policies and politics of HD. HD is multidimensional, and the book points to the importance of social institutions and social capabilities as essential aspects which are often overlooked. Yet the widely cited Human Development Index does not measure these aspects nor many of the other important dimensions of HD. The book analyses political conditions which are critical factors underlying performance on HD. The final chapter surveys global progress on multiple dimensions over a forty-year period and shows that there has been marked and pervasive improvement in many of them, including basic HD—life expectancy and infant mortality, education and incomes—as well as political freedoms. But there has been deterioration on some dimensions—with rising inequality in many countries and worsening environmental conditions. The book concludes with challenges to the approach—in particular insufficient attention has been paid to the macroeconomic conditions and economic structure needed for sustained success; and social institutions and political conditions have also been neglected. But the biggest neglect is the environment—with worsening global environmental conditions potentially threatening future achievements on HD.

This book looks at the background to and causes of the global economic crisis that erupted in 2008 and is with us still. It does this by revisiting a classic book of the past, John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society. Each chapter takes a major theme of his book, distils Galbraith’s arguments and then discusses to what extent they cast light on current developments, both in the developed economies and in the economics discipline. The themes include: inequality, insecurity, inflation, debt, consumer behaviour, ‘financialisation’, the economic role of government (‘social balance’), the power of ideas, the role of power in the economy and the nature of the good society. These are enduring concerns for citizens, no more than now as governments, businesses and consumers seek to recover from the economic tsunami that washed over the major Western economies (and is yet to fully recede). As such, the book deals with the big current problems of capitalism and the huge challenges facing democratic governments in tackling them. The book argues that orthodox economic models and policy advice failed spectacularly to warn of impending crisis and has subsequently failed to help lift the struggling advanced economies back on the path to sustainable prosperity. It concludes that although much has happened, in the global economy and in the discipline of economics, since Galbraith wrote, many of the themes he raised and answers he provided remain relevant today.

This book reassesses the twin projects of structural reform and European integration in the wake of the Great Recession and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis. A brief introduction compares the pre-crises debate to the current situation, and highlights a number of ways in which both reform and further integration may have become more difficult, but also less complementary. The first chapter surveys the state of the structural-reform agenda, its successes, failures, and priorities for further action. The second chapter focuses on the fiscal-policy response to the crisis, advocating a greater balance between supply side reforms and demand side management. The third chapter focuses on the asymmetric shocks across economies in the monetary union, and discusses institutional mechanisms to reduce their frequency and impact. Chapter 4 examines the cyclical behaviour of output and financial indicators, as well as the counter-cyclical role of macro-financial policies, both at the national and the European level. The fifth chapter studies changes in Europeans’ attitudes, showing how the recent crises eroded public confidence in European institutions. The sixth chapter tackles the demographic challenges facing Europe, and particularly the way that demographic change may impact the reform agenda. Chapter 7 highlights the under-appreciated extent to which ‘Europe,’ taken as a whole, is characterized by a substantial amount of inequality and geographical income clustering, and the challenge these facts pose for further integration.

The Arab Spring constitutes perhaps the most far-reaching political and economic transition since the end of communism in Europe. For too long, the economic aspirations of the people in the region, especially young people, have been ignored by leaders in Arab countries and abroad. Competing views as to how best to meet these aspirations are now being debated in the region. The outcome will shape Arab societies for generations to come. This book argues that significant economic reforms must accompany the major political transitions that are underway. Although each country has a different economic structure and history and must make its own way forward, there are spill-overs from trade and investment linkages, the contagion of news cycles, interaction of people and sharing of expectations that are too great to ignore. Some common foundation of the new Arab economies is needed. Towards that end, this volume addresses four central challenges of economic reform in the Arab world. First, with two-thirds of the population under the age of thirty, the disproportionate burdens of unemployment and poor education can no longer be heaped on youth. Second, while some government policies may have improved the living standards of Arab citizens in the past, they have also entrenched cronies, enriched a small elite, and become unaffordable. Third, if Arab economies are to compete in the 21st century they cannot depend solely on oil and gas money, remittances, and tourism, but will require active, independent private sectors. And finally, the relative isolation of Arab economies—both from each other and from the world—must end. Rather than providing specific lists of recommendations, this book sets forth a set of guidelines and priorities for reformers who will begin creating new opportunities for youth, rebuilding the institutions of the state, diversifying the private sector, and cooperating with each other and integrating with the world economy.

South Korea’s economic development trajectory has been widely studied and is well understood. From an impoverished war-torn nation, the country has progressed on all fronts, including a ten-fold increase in per capita income over a forty-year period. It stands out internationally when it comes to education and politically it has moved away from authoritarianism to a more spirited democratic system. In short, it seems to have achieved it all. The question is, what does a country do after it has attained development? This volume addresses this question by examining Korea’s strategic engagement with Asia as a response to the limits of the home market. Access to new markets and resources in Asia through exports and foreign investment are critical. Additionally, with Korea’s ongoing demographic crisis, its engagement with foreign workers is also inevitable. This volume takes a collective look at how Korea is responding through regional integration, strategic industrial upgrading of exports, foreign markets and resources, and coping with migrants, including unskilled workers, students, and professionals. The transfer of Korean business and employment practices through investment to other countries and accommodating foreigners is not trouble-free. Further, prosperity imposes demands for increased social welfare, while the workings of contemporary global capitalism introduce new sources of inequality. Sharing that prosperity with small firms, irregular workers, and women becomes critical. This volume ends with a roundup of the key internal challenges facing Korean society and suggests the multiple ways to address them as a related response to Korea’s after-development prosperity.

The increase in life expectancy is arguably the most remarkable by‐product of modern economic growth. In the last 30 years we have been gaining roughly 2.5 years of longevity every decade both in Europe and in the United States. This progress has outpaced the most optimistic scenarios and documented that demographic projections are no more reliable than economic forecasts. This book looks closely into those challenges, raising a few fundamental issues at both the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. Among these: is it possible to turn the challenges faced by ageing and longevity into a long‐term productive opportunity? Can advanced economies engineer a healthy ageing scenario with long‐term spillovers in terms of enhanced technological progress and acceleration of long‐term growth? What is the microeconomic relationship between ageing and productivity, and how can specific policies postpone any age‐related decay in productivity at the firm and individual levels?

This book presents the report on the European economic system, which was submitted to the President of the European Commission in July 2003. The report is divided into three parts. The first contains an assessment of the economic performance in terms of growth, stability, and cohesion. The second explores the challenges facing the European Union. The third presents a series of policy recommendations for the future.

This book contains chapters that deal with the agricultural crisis in India. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the macroeconomic and micro-level issues associated with the crisis, as well as the underlying historical forces. It examines the factors contributing to the crisis, including environmental degradation, the decrease in landholding size, plateauing of crop yields from the present farm technology, and withdrawal of state support. The book shows that rapid growth of India's gross domestic product has not created enough opportunities for rural labour force to make the transition from agriculture to the rapidly growing sectors of the economy. Agricultural transformation has been slow due to low growth of farm productivity, low agricultural prices, inadequate employment opportunities outside agriculture, and low demand for agricultural products due to stagnation of per capita food consumption during 1993–2005. The book presents case studies on farmer suicides and provides insights into their underlying causes, arguing that suicides are symptomatic of a deep-rooted crisis in agriculture. The book claims that agriculture in India can be revived only by addressing two dimensions of the agricultural distress, namely, agricultural development crisis and agrarian crisis. It emphasizes the need to improve public investment in agricultural infrastructure and social overheads such as quality education and health facilities in rural areas.

There are many books about aid and development, but most of them either assume a good deal of prior knowledge about the subject, or are written to make the case for or against aid. This book sets aid and development in its historical context, and shows the strong linkages between aid and development priorities on the one hand, and political realities and shifts on the other. It looks at different ideas about development (and concepts of ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ countries) and how aid can support development. It makes it clear that, ultimately, development is about the well-being of everyone, and of the planet, and must be addressed as a global issue.

From an unpromising start as ‘the basket case’ to present-day plaudits for its human development achievements, Bangladesh plays an ideological role in the contemporary world order, offering proof that the neo-liberal development model works under the most testing conditions. How were such rapid gains possible in a context of chronically weak governance? The Aid Lab subjects this so-called ‘Bangladesh paradox’ to close scrutiny, evaluating public policies and their outcomes for poverty and development since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. Countering received wisdom that its gains owe to an early shift to market-oriented economic reform, it argues that a binding political settlement, a social contract to protect against the crises of subsistence and survival, united the elite, the masses, and their aid donors in the wake of the devastating famine of 1974. This laid resilient foundations for human development, fostering a focus on the poorest and most precarious, and in particular on the concerns of women. In chapters examining the environmental, political, and socioeconomic crisis of the 1970s, the book shows how the lessons of the famine led to a robustly pro-poor growth and social policy agenda, empowering the Bangladeshi state and its non-governmental organizations to protect and enable its population to thrive in its engagements in the global economy. Now a middle-income country, Bangladesh’s role as the world’s laboratory for aided development has generated lessons well beyond its borders, and Bangladesh continues to carve a pioneering pathway through the risks of global economic integration and climate change.

This book examines the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the social and economic context of poverty and economic crisis in developing and transition countries. It challenges the assumption — implicit in AIDS policy — that differences in sexual behavior are adequate to explain differences in HIV prevalence between populations. Using an epidemiological approach, the book shows how people who are malnourished, burdened with parasites and infectious diseases, and who lack access to medical care are more vulnerable to all diseases. It explains the specific mechanisms by which undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, malaria, soil-transmitted helminths, schistosomiasis, and other parasitic illnesses increase the risk of HIV transmission and epidemic spread of HIV/AIDS in poor populations. A theme throughout the book is that the sexual transmission of HIV diverts attention from the social and economic context of profound poverty. The distraction of sex is compounded by Western stereotypes of African sexuality, perpetuated through reliance on anecdotal evidence and the construction of a notion of fundamental dissimilarity among peoples of different world regions. The book evaluates current methods in epidemiology and health economics, which do not take account of the interactions among diseases that increase risk of transmission of HIV in poor populations. It criticizes HIV-prevention policies as narrow, shortsighted, and dead-end because they fail to address the economic and social context in which risky behaviors occur. Finally, the book offers pragmatic solutions to social, economic, and biological factors that promote disease transmission, including the spread of HIV.