Introduction: The Art of Engineering Prosperity in Unlikely Places

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Justin Yifu Lin ◽  
Célestin Monga
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Comparative Advantage ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Globalized World

This chapter provides a methodological approach that draws lessons and insights from economic history and theory and uses empirics from economic analysis and policy practice. It starts with an observation of the increasingly globalized world economy in which technological development allows the use of factors of production in locations that maximize returns and utility, and countries gain mutually by trading with each other if their strategies focus on revealed and latent comparative advantage. By following carefully selected lead countries, latecomers can emulate the leader–follower, flying-geese pattern that has well served economies since the eighteenth century. The prospects for sustained and inclusive growth are even greater for low-income economies that enjoy the benefits of backwardness. The chapter advocates implementing viable strategies to capture new opportunities for industrialization, which can enable low-income economies to set forth on a dynamic path of structural change and lead to poverty reduction and prosperity.

Beating the Odds

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Yifu Lin ◽  
Célestin Monga
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Rapid Economic Growth ◽  
Policy Frameworks ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Do So

Countries that ignite a process of rapid economic growth almost always do so while lacking what experts say are the essential preconditions for development, such as good infrastructure and institutions. This book uses this paradox to explain what is wrong with mainstream development thinking—and to offer a practical blueprint for moving poor countries out of the low-income trap regardless of their circumstances. The book begins with an observation of the increasingly globalized world economy in which technological development allows the use of factors of production in locations that maximize returns and utility, and countries gain mutually by trading with each other if their strategies focus on comparative advantage. The prospects for sustained and inclusive growth are even greater for low-income economies that enjoy the benefits of backwardness. The book advocates implementing viable strategies to capture new opportunities for industrialization, which can enable low-income economies to set forth on a dynamic path of structural change and lead to poverty reduction and prosperity. It concludes with an evaluation of lessons from development thinking and experience and identifies the main reasons why past intellectual and policy frameworks failed to yield the expected results. It then offers a pragmatic blueprint for allowing low-income countries to ignite and sustain economic growth without preconditions.

scholarly journals Freedom, self-interest and the urban: From political to post-political economy

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Urban Infrastructure ◽  
Economic Planning ◽  
Probability Models ◽  
The Past ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Probability And Statistics

The global financial crash of 2008 had many precipitating causes and has had massive repercussions over the past seven years on global economic activity as well as on how urban infrastructure, housing and services are financed and delivered. The crash was precipitated by the massive escalation in global derivatives trading, especially that related to low income housing mortgages. It was also precipitated by a failure of predictive measures, probability models and the calculability of market forecasts that have been the foundation to economic planning since the emergence of political economy at the end of the eighteenth century. This paper aims to do two things in relation to this recent episode in economic history. The first is to undertake a genealogy of the emergence of political economy and a State’s reliance on probability and statistics for its governance. This is primarily analysed through the writings of Michel Foucault on space, power and the aleatory. The second is to introduce the thinking of the economics philosopher, Elie Ayache, who wrote a book after the crash on the end of probability. The paper’s overall aim is to bring the work of Foucault and Ayache together in drawing out a radical thinking with respect to the urban of the relation between space, power, contingency, and writing.

Poverty-Reducing Growth Strategy in Poor Countries

2005 ◽  
pp. 103-134
Author(s):  
Rodney Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Growth Strategy ◽  
Poverty Traps ◽  
Income Poverty ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Land Redistribution ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
The North ◽  
Urban Rural

This paper synthesizes and develops research undertaken by participants in The North-South Institute project, "Macroeconomic policy choices for growth and poverty reduction" in low- income developing countries.1 The project analysed the features of poverty and growth in seven poor countries of varying circumstances and proposed macroeconomic and growth policies for poverty reduction for them. The research was guided by the question: "How does poverty inform growth strategy?" Our research provides evidence of the channels through which growth and distribution or poverty processes depend on each other and respond to policy together. We encapsulate the messages of these case studies in the following six propositions, discussed at length in the paper: i) macroeconomic stability reduces poverty; ii) land redistribution enhances growth; iii) income poverty traps constrain growth; iv) urban-rural growth disparities drive income inequality; v) regional poverty traps resist growth, and vi) ley growth policies can aggravate poverty gaps.  The propositions suggest growth policies that may be either of two types in terms of impact on growth and distribution. They have the potential to enhance both growth and distribution (win-win) or to enhance growth while aggravating income gaps or vice versa (win-lose).

scholarly journals Food Security and COVID-19: A Systematic Review of the First-Year Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5294
Author(s):  
Boglárka Anna Éliás ◽  
Attila Jámbor
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
First Year ◽  
Structural Problem ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
Global Food ◽  
Low Income Households

For decades, global food security has not been able to address the structural problem of economic access to food, resulting in a recent increase in the number of undernourished people from 2014. In addition, the FAO estimates that the number of undernourished people drastically increased by 82–132 million people in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To alleviate this dramatic growth in food insecurity, it is necessary to understand the nature of the increase in the number of malnourished during the pandemic. In order to address this, we gathered and synthesized food-security-related empirical results from the first year of the pandemic in a systematic review. The vast majority (78%) of the 51 included articles reported household food insecurity has increased (access, utilization) and/or disruption to food production (availability) was a result of households having persistently low income and not having an adequate amount of savings. These households could not afford the same quality and/or quantity of food, and a demand shortfall immediately appeared on the producer side. Producers thus had to deal not only with the direct consequences of government measures (disruption in labor flow, lack of demand of the catering sector, etc.) but also with a decline in consumption from low-income households. We conclude that the factor that most negatively affects food security during the COVID-19 pandemic is the same as the deepest structural problem of global food security: low income. Therefore, we argue that there is no need for new global food security objectives, but there is a need for an even stronger emphasis on poverty reduction and raising the wages of low-income households. This structural adjustment is the most fundamental step to recover from the COVID-19 food crises, and to avoid possible future food security crises.

scholarly journals Net-zero emission vehicles shift and equitable ownership in low-income households and communities: why responsible and circularity business models are essential

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana O. Bonsu
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Zero Emission ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThe UK Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution aims to ban petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Current business models for EV ownership and the transition to net-net zero emissions are not working for households in the lowest income brackets. However, low-income communities bear the brunt of environmental and health illnesses from transport air pollution caused by those living in relatively more affluent areas. Importantly, achieving equitable EV ownership amongst low-and middle-income households and driving policy goals towards environmental injustice of air pollution and net-zero emissions would require responsible and circular business models. Such consumer-focused business models address an EV subscription via low-income household tax rebates, an EV battery value-chain circularity, locally-driven new battery technological development, including EV manufacturing tax rebates and socially innovative mechanisms. This brief communication emphasises that consumer-led business models following net-zero emission vehicles shift and decisions must ensure positive-sum outcomes. And must focus not only on profits and competitiveness but also on people, planet, prosperity and partnership co-benefits.

Alfred Chandler and the Importance of Organization

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (03) ◽  
pp. 419-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Jones
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Business History ◽  
Professional Life ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
London School ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Strong Assumption ◽  
History Of ◽  
London School Of Economics

Alfred D. Chandler entered my professional life incrementally rather than dramatically.As a student of economic history at CambridgeUniversity in Britain in the early 1970s, I barely encountered his name. British universities had their own long traditions in business and economic history, including a strong interest in entrepreneurship and in government policies toward industry. Most British scholars were not especially enthusiastic about ideas from across the Atlantic, whether the methodological approach of the new economic history of Robert Fogel, or Chandler's organizational synthesis. Cambridge was an especially closed academic world, with a strong assumption that little that happened outside its delightful campus could be really important. It was not until 1979, when I was recruited by the Business History Unit at the London School of Economics (LSE), headed by Chandler's (then) acolyte Leslie Hannah, that I read Strategy and Structure, nearly two decades after it was published.

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