The Role of Trade in Economic Development

1968 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaiah Frank

The key role of trade in the development process is widely accepted today. Two recent events, both relating to international organizations, underscore this acceptance. One was the convening in 1964 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and its establishment as a permanent organ of the UN system. Under UNCTAD's aegis a continuing examination is being conducted as to ways of reshaping world trade policies in the interests of the developing countries. The other event was the adoption early the following year of a new set of articles on trade and development in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In the new articles recognition of the role of exports in economic development was established for the first time in the text of the GATT itself, and a constitutional basis was provided for GATT's many activities designed to promote the exports of developing countries. Elsewhere in this volume are essays evaluating the contributions of UNCTAD and GATT toward the promotion of development in the world's poor countries. In this essay I will rather explore more generally the relation between international trade and economic development and discuss some of the problems that have arisen in the effort to make trade a more effective instrument of development.

1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond F. Hopkins

The principles and norms adopted by the regime governing food aid in the 1950s have changed substantially during the subsequent three decades. Explaining the changes necessarily includes analyzing the efforts of an international epistemic community consisting of economic development specialists, agricultural economists, and administrators of food aid. According to the initial regime principles, food aid should be provided from donors' own surplus stocks, should supplement the usual commercial food imports in recipient countries, should be given under short-term commitments sensitive to the political and economic goals of donors, and should directly feed hungry people. As a result of following these principles, the epistemic community and other critics argued, food aid often had the adverse effects of reducing local production of food in recipient countries and exacerbating rather than alleviating hunger. The epistemic community (1) developed and proposed ideas for more efficiently supplying food aid and avoiding “disincentive” effects and (2) pushed for reforms to make food aid serve as the basis for the recipients' economic development and to target it at addressing long-term food security problems. The ideas of the international epistemic community have increasingly received support from international organizations and the governments of donor and recipient nations. Most recently, they have led to revisions of the U.S. food aid program passed by Congress in October 1990 and signed into law two months later. As the analysis of food aid reform demonstrates, changes in the international regime have been incremental, rather than radical. Moreover, the locus for the change has shifted from an American-centered one in the 1950s to a more international one in recent decades.


Agriculture plays the role of providing employment, income, food, raw materials, and foreign exchange earnings for people. The ability and the inability of agriculture in playing the provisioning roles, in varying degrees, define the poverty status of those engaged in it. It is a paradox that a majority of those who are engaged in agriculture, especially in developing countries, tend to be associated with such poverty-linked characteristics as low income, hunger, deprivation, and vulnerabilities. There is therefore the need to refocus on defining the concept of agriculture with a view to bringing out its role in the development process and how the roles can be effectively achieved by the majority of those engaged in it. The objectives of the chapter include describing the expected roles of agriculture in the development process; highlighting the performance of the agriculture sector; describing the role of agricultural credit in agricultural development; defining the concept of extreme poverty; highlighting some of the strength and weaknesses of incometrics, highlighting vulnerability views of poverty; discussing measurement of extreme poverty; and highlighting feminization of formal agricultural finance. The chapter concludes with recommendations. The methodology is based on systematic reviews of relevant literature. The findings include how agriculture can play the roles expected of it and effectively empower those who are engaged in it. The chapter shares the view that majority of those engaged in agriculture in most developing countries are women, and that poverty has a feminine face and so advances the feminization of formal agricultural finance interventions. The chapter is concluded with relevant recommendations.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1382-1398
Author(s):  
Malek Jihene

Women plays a vital role in business and they are a major resource potential in entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, women entrepreneurs tend to face greater obstacles in access to credit, market knowledge, business needs and by the limits of trade agreements and the constraints of trade policies. Thus, there is a need for more efficient policies for the development of female entrepreneurship. The chapter offer analysis of state of the empowerment of women in the globalization. Then, the analysis of the theoretical foundations is for justifying the role of women as entrepreneur and promoter of gender equality and constraints that they are facing. Then, it is an opportunity to offer a brief overview about women in the socio-economic development in MENA region. Finally, the question is how to create policies for the business sector to promote their empowerment. A SWOT analysis is done to explore challenges and limits and offer some recommendations .This chapter is an opportunity to explore new area about the degree of adaptation of women's entrepreneur to the trade policies rules.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Yoshiko Naiki

Abstract The rise and proliferation of private standards have been recognized in international trade law, and various concerns have been raised. Existing literature analyses how the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly the SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) Committee and the TBT (Technical Barriers to Trade) Committee, have responded (or cannot respond) to the proliferation of private standards. This paper goes one step further by focusing specifically on the meta-regulatory function performed by regional and international organizations other than the WTO. This paper sheds light on three types of governance techniques that can serve as meta-regulatory activities in relation to private standards by regional and international organizations: (1) governance by delegation; (2) governance by information; and (3) governance by soft law. This paper analyses features of these governance techniques and considers the relation between these governance techniques and the WTO's approach.


2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Stiglitz ◽  
Andrew Charlton

Adjustment to a post‐Doha trading regime will be disproportionately costly and difficult for developing countries. Increased aid is vital for the poor countries if they are to grasp the opportunities provided through trade and meet transition costs. With aid‐for‐trade, for the first time, the developed countries have another bound and meaningful commitment that they can offer developing countries. Our proposal to provide new resources to meet adjustment needs, however, does not suggest that trade, when combined with aid, will be a panacea for developing countries. Interactions between trade, aid, and broader development policies and reforms are important.


Land ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Azadi ◽  
Eric Vanhaute

Land plays an important role in the economies of developing countries, and many theories connecting land inequality with different dimensions of economic development already exist. Even though efficacious land distribution allows societies to transition from poverty to a human capital-based developed economy, ongoing issues related to property rights, inequality, and the political economy of land distribution are unavoidable. The general objective of this paper is to explore the nexus between land distribution and economic development. The specific objectives are to: (i) identify which land distribution programs/activities contribute to economic development; (ii) investigate the role of stakeholders in land distribution programs that affect the growth of productivity; and (iii) assess the deficiencies of current land distribution policies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to explore how economic development theories contribute to decreasing income inequality. This paper provides an overview of land distribution history and the main economic development theories. It also highlights the links between land distribution and the main elements of economic development. Finally, it provides a comparative review of the most recent empirical works regarding the characteristics, limitations, and potential (mutual) effects of land distribution and economic development settings on developing countries worldwide.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Ouimet

The current study contrasts and compares the role of socioeconomic factors that explain variations in the homicide rate for 165 countries in 2010. Regression analyses demonstrate that economic development (GNI), inequality (Gini), and poverty (excess infant mortality) are significant predictors of the homicide rate for all countries. However, subsample analyses shows that income inequality, not economic development or poverty, predicts homicide for countries with a medium level of human development. Also, the variations in homicide for developing countries are inadequately explained by our model. To conclude, an analysis of the countries that exhibited significant discrepancies between their predicted and observed homicide rate is discussed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-409
Author(s):  
HANS MAHNCKE

Globalization, as evidenced in increased trade, economic development, and the emergence of new global powers, has meant that the world economy has undergone significant changes over the past two decades. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is more than a potent representation of these developments, it is often seen, along with its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), as having enabled the process of globalization. However, there are profound concerns about what lies ahead in an increasingly complex economic and regulatory setting, in particular for developing countries (DCs).


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