World Bank Directives, Domestic Interests, and the Politics of Human Capital Investment in Latin America

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
WENDY HUNTER ◽  
DAVID S. BROWN
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

Recent studies underscore the importance of international organizations in transmitting norms, ideas, and values to developing countries. But has this diffusion influenced government policy in less developed countries? During the past two decades, the World Bank has emphasized the need for Third World governments to increase the stock of human capital by investing in education and health. Specifically, it has encouraged developing countries to shift an increasing share of their resources toward primary education. The authors examine 13 Latin American countries between 1980 and 1992 to establish the relationship between World Bank project lending and government investment in human capital. They combine time-series cross-sectional analysis with field research to evaluate the World Bank's influence on government spending on education and health. Although the World Bank may be successful in convincing developing country technocrats to “invest in people,” this research suggests that it is less successful in convincing the politicians who control the purse strings.

On the Brain Drain of Africans to America: Some Methodological Observations

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Nii-Amoo Dodoo ◽  
Baffour Takyi ◽  
Jesse Mann
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Brain Drain ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Relative Comparisons ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

AbstractRecurring debates about the impact of the brain drain— the developing world's loss of human capital to more developed countries—has motivated estimation of the magnitude of the phenomenon, most recently by the World Bank. Although frequently cited as a key contributor to Africa's wanting development record, what constitutes the "brain-drain" is not always clearly defined. Today, in the absence of an accounting system, resolution of the definitional and measurement question depends on relative comparisons of measurement variants, which will identify definitional shortcomings by clarifying the merits and demerits of these variants, and thereby suggest corrective imputations. This paper compares the World Bank's approach to a chronological precedent (Dodoo 1997) to clarify the value of variant comparisons. The resultant implications for corrections are also discussed.

scholarly journals How to be an Asian Tiger

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-108
Author(s):  
Anis Alam
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Small Country ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Asian Tiger ◽  
The World ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Industrialised Countries

In 1995 the Republic of Korea (ROK) was officially admitted to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This organisation groups together industrially developed countries of the world. Recently, the World Bank has also released a study of China that predicts that China is going to become the second biggest economy in the next fifteen years if its economic growth follows the pattern of the last fifteen years. ROK is the only country from among the developing countries to join the ranks of the developed industrialised countries in the last thirty years. However, it is still a small country compared to China. Hence when China completes its transformation into an industrialised country the whole world will be affected.

John Cody, Helen Hughes and David Wall (eds.). Policies for Industrial Progressin Developing Countries - A Study jointly Sponsored by UNIDO and the World Bank. New York: Oxford University Press (for the World Bank). 1980. Paper Back Edition. ix + 316 pp.

1981 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-473
Author(s):  
Mir Annice Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Exchange Control

The book under review is a compendium of acticles by eminent economists including W. M. Corden, Amartya Sen, Ronald McKinnon, Deepak Lal and others. These economists who have had much experience with policy-making in developing countries evaluate the different policies undertaken by governments to facilitate industrial progress in the less developed countries. Of particular importance among these policies are those that deal with the balance of payments, exchange control, licensing, tariffs, quotas, etc. As noted by the editors the manufacturing sector has been largely responsible for industrial development; as such the subject matter of all the articles is related to this sector only.

scholarly journals Do Human Resources Run Economic Growth? Empirical Evidence From Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-213
Author(s):  
Bilal Alam ◽  
Muhammad Niamat Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Economic Survey ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Econometric Technique

This study analyzes the role of human capital in economic growth using data from 1981 to 2017. The data were taken from the World Bank (WDI) and the Economic Survey of Pakistan (Various Issues). It was scrutinized for stationarity of variables through ADF and an appropriate time series econometric technique of ARDL is applied for empirical analysis. The results suggest that both proxies of human capital, education, and health have positive impacts on the economic development of Pakistan. The study findings also suggest that government machinery may divert enough resources for the improvement of education and health services to accumulate human capital for achieving the desired goal of higher growth and development.

Conference on the Role of Industrialisation in Developing Countries

1964 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-442
Author(s):  
Ronald Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
United Nations ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Business Executives ◽  
Agricultural Revolution ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations

At the fourth Cambridge conference on development problems, the role of industry was discussed by ministers, senior officials, economic advisers, and business executives, from 22 African, Asian, and Caribbean countries, the United Nations, and the World Bank. Have some, if not all, of Africa's new nations now reached the stage when it would pay them to put their biggest bets on quick industrialisation? Or must they go on putting most of their money and brains into bringing about an agricultural revolution first, before striving for industrial take-off? These questions started the conference off on one of its big themes.

Major obstacles facing business enterprises in an emerging economy: the case of Ghana using the World Bank Enterprise Survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-487
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Mohammed ◽  
Alhassan Bunyaminu
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Business Enterprises ◽  
World Bank Enterprise Survey ◽  
Enterprise Survey

PurposeThis paper aims at identifying the major obstacles to business enterprise in an emerging economy and how these obstacles are associated with different characteristics of the enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe study relied on the World Bank Enterprise Survey data on Ghana and applied binary and ordinal probit regression techniques to estimate the associations between the characteristics of the enterprises and the identified obstacles. Significance testing of the associations is also conducted.FindingsThe five main obstacles perceived by most of the enterprises in the study are access to finance, electricity, access to land, customs and trade regulations and tax rates. These obstacles are associated in different ways to growth rate (high vs low growth), scale (small and medium vs large), age, size of employees, the experience of the top manager and ownership (wholly domestic vs foreign ownership).Research limitations/implicationsAs a cross-sectional study focusing on Ghana, the findings are informative about the major obstacles facing business enterprises in an emerging economy; however, the ecological validity of these findings may be limited to factors specific to Ghana.Originality/valueGiven the representativeness of the Enterprise Survey, policymakers can rely on these findings to formulate useful policies to promote the operations of business enterprises.

scholarly journals Development Aid - A Perspective on the Sustainability of World Bank Projects

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Dominik Schafer
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Project Delivery ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Asian Continent ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

This paper focuses on the evaluation of the World Bank (WB) performance in delivering development aid to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). For this purpose, an extensive research was performed to analyze a set of 790 Implementation Completion and Results reports for sustainability outcomes. Results of this research provide various insights on sustainability ratings of project delivery of the LDCs and the African and Asian continent, whereas overall satisfying sustainability ratings are disclosed.

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