Disasters, Vulnerability and the Global Economy: Implications for Less-Developed Countries and Poor Populations

Author(s):  
Charlotte Benson ◽  
Edward J. Clay
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Phoxai Inthaboualy

<p>The current literature focuses primarily on the national competitiveness of developed or developing economies. However, minimal research exists on understanding the national competitiveness of less developed countries (LDCs) whose strengths in factor endowments, government institutions and the extent of global integration are not the same as those of developed or developing countries. This study aims to fill this research gap by exploring factors contributing to the competitiveness of Laos. Laos is a small, poor and land-locked country in Southeast Asia with rich natural resources. To achieve the study objectives, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior government officials, industrial representatives, professors and NGOs in Laos. The findings suggest three key factors are critical for enhancing Lao competitiveness: factor endowments, the role of government, and global integration. Laos‘ factor endowments include hydropower, mining, agriculture, garment and textile industries, and services. Laos is interacting more with the global economy as it gets set to embrace membership of the World Trade Organisation after approximately 15 years of membership of ASEAN. The government is playing a critical role by developing Lao factor endowments and developing policies required for global integration. However, the country faces challenges of value addition to the existing natural resources, developing and leveraging human capital, and further improvement in rules and regulations.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Phoxai Inthaboualy

<p>The current literature focuses primarily on the national competitiveness of developed or developing economies. However, minimal research exists on understanding the national competitiveness of less developed countries (LDCs) whose strengths in factor endowments, government institutions and the extent of global integration are not the same as those of developed or developing countries. This study aims to fill this research gap by exploring factors contributing to the competitiveness of Laos. Laos is a small, poor and land-locked country in Southeast Asia with rich natural resources. To achieve the study objectives, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior government officials, industrial representatives, professors and NGOs in Laos. The findings suggest three key factors are critical for enhancing Lao competitiveness: factor endowments, the role of government, and global integration. Laos‘ factor endowments include hydropower, mining, agriculture, garment and textile industries, and services. Laos is interacting more with the global economy as it gets set to embrace membership of the World Trade Organisation after approximately 15 years of membership of ASEAN. The government is playing a critical role by developing Lao factor endowments and developing policies required for global integration. However, the country faces challenges of value addition to the existing natural resources, developing and leveraging human capital, and further improvement in rules and regulations.</p>


Author(s):  
Stanisław Sala

This article presents the role and the importance of Polish Transnational Corporations (TC) to global economy. Dynamic development of TC can be observed since the beginning of 70s of the 20thcentury. Nowadays TC have huge economic power which generates large profits. Many times incomes of TC are bigger than the value of GDP of less developed countries. Activity of TC is very controversial. On the one hand, present TC should be treated as an answer to qualitative changes which have taken place mainly in the sphere of telecommunication and means of transport, on the other hand, they are the motive power of these changes.Polish corporations are very small in comparison with the foreign ones. We have noticed a great disproportion of worth in comparison with corporations which are on the list of the global 1000 or 2000 biggest-worth corporations on the rising market. If Polish corporations want to catch up with the foreign ones, they must considerably increase the speed of their development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunyoung Ha ◽  
Melissa Rogers

Trade liberalization has reduced trade tax revenue in most less developed countries (LDCs). The options to replace this tax, which has historically been LDCs’ primary source of tax revenue, are limited by competitive pressures in the global economy. Using time-series error correction models, we assess how partisan politics shaped the reallocation of taxes in thirty-eight LDCs from 1975 to 2009. We argue that leftist governments have a vested interest in recovering lost revenue to fund spending that benefits their constituencies but they are highly constrained by the market signaling effects of increasing taxes. We find that leftist governments retained higher levels of falling tax revenue and offset trade tax losses with progressive personal income taxes (PITs). Nonetheless, leftist governments appeared reluctant to increase revenue from corporate income or social security taxes, which impose costs on business. To make up for the trade revenue loss, leftists instead relied more heavily on regressive consumption taxes, which are the most lucrative and market-friendly supplements to preferred PIT. Leftist parties in LDCs demonstrate redistributive concerns, but their tools and the lasting effects of their reforms are limited by strong market constraints.


1973 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-316
Author(s):  
G. M. Radhu

The report by the UNCTAD Secretariat, submitted to the third session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development held in Santiago (Chile) in April 1972, deals with the restrictive business practices of the multinational corporations with special reference to the export interests of the developing countries. Since the world war, there has been a tremendous growth in the size and activities of many international firms. They have grown from the national corporation to the multidivisional corporation and now to the multinational corporation. With each step they acquired greater financial power, better technology and know-how and more complex administrative structures. They have subsidiaries and branches all over the world. In the course of the sixties they became one of the dominant factors in determining the pattern of world trade. At the same time, their increasingly restrictive business practices, which tended to adversely affect world trade and the export interest of less developed countries, attracted the attention of the governments both in developed and less developed countries and serious concern was shown at the international level. It is against this background that the UNCTAD undertook the study on the question of restrictive business practices.


Author(s):  
Mahesh K. Joshi ◽  
J.R. Klein

The twenty-first century is being touted as the Asian century. With its stable economy, good governance, education system, and above all the abundant natural resources, will Australia to take its place in the global economy by becoming more entrepreneurial and accelerating its rate of growth, or will it get infected with the so-called Dutch disease? It has been successful in managing trade ties with fast-developing economies like China and India as well as developed countries like the United States. It has participated in the growth of China by providing iron ore and coal. Because it is a low-risk country, it has enabled inflow of large foreign capital investments. A lot will depend on its capability and willingness to invest the capital available in entrepreneurial ventures, its ability to capture the full value chain of natural resources, and to export the finished products instead of raw materials, while building a robust manufacturing sector.


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