Sustaining Long-Run Growth and Macroeconomic Stability in Low-Income Countries—The Role of Structural Transformation and Diversification

Policy Papers ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (38) ◽  
Author(s):  

Diversification and structural transformation play important roles in influencing the macroeconomic performance of low-income countries (LICs). Increases in income per capita at early stages of development are typically accompanied by a transformation in a country’s production and export structure. This can include diversification into new products and trading partners as well as increases in the quality of existing products.

Author(s):  
Murphy Halliburton

The Movement for Global Mental Health has defined the person suffering psychopathology in low-income countries as an abused and suffering subject in need of saving by biomedical psychiatry. Based on fieldwork in Kerala, South India, carried out at psychiatric clinics and a psychosocial rehabilitation centre, this paper examines patients’ experiences of illness, the degree and quality of family support, and attributions made to the role of ‘sneham’, or love, in recovery. The role of love and family involvement may help explain the provocative finding by WHO epidemiological studies that ‘developing’ countries – and India in particular – showed better rates of recovery from severe mental illness when compared to developed countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Heo ◽  
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen ◽  
Nguyen Khanh Doanh

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the impacts of institutional quality on trade flows of NAFTA with a panel data set of 105 countries spanning the period 2006–2017.Design/methodology/approachWe applied the system generalized method of moment (GMM) estimator to investigate the impacts.FindingsThe results show that institutional quality is a positive and significant determinant of international trade flows of the NAFTA bloc and its trading partners. Our results also indicate that the impact of institutional quality depends on the level of economic development of NAFTA's trading partners. Specifically, the trade elasticity of institutional quality is the highest for NAFTA’s trade with middle-income countries and the lowest for NAFTA's trade with low-income countries. In the long run, the trade elasticity of institutional quality increased significantly, with the highest increase in the case of NAFTA's trade with medium-income countries and the lowest increase in the case of NAFTA's trade with low-income countries.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature in three different ways. First, we examine the differential impact of institutions on NAFTA's trade according to the level of economic development of NAFTA's trading partners. Second, we compare the differential trade elasticity of institutional quality in the long run. Finally, we support our findings through an improved research methodology by using the system GMM estimation. This method allows us to overcome the potential sample bias, omitted variable problems and endogeneity of explanatory variables.


2020 ◽  
pp. 097215092091844
Author(s):  
Ramesh Chandra Das ◽  
Soniya Chavan

In a globalized world, the financial sectors and the real sectors are interlinked. Although it is a common phenomenon to a developed economy in its national as well as provincial levels, it has hardly been tested for the low-income countries like India. It is further difficult to have such linkage effects at the provinces and district levels. This article aims to examine whether per capita commercial bank credit and per capita net district domestic product for the districts of West Bengal state in India have long-run associations for the period 1993–2014 in a panel data framework. Using the panel cointegration and Vector error correction mechanism (VECM) technique, the study reveals that both the financial and real sector indicators are cointegrated and the short-run errors are corrected significantly to establish that there is bilateral causality between credit and output in both long run and short run.


Author(s):  
Pratima Saravanan ◽  
Charity Hipple ◽  
Jingxin Wang ◽  
Christopher McComb ◽  
Jessica Menold

Abstract Prosthetists face a daunting number of decisions that directly affect an amputee’s ability to walk and indirectly affect the overall quality of life of that amputee. In addition, the lack of resources in low-income countries provides a barrier to receive care after an amputation, and approximately 80% of amputees in low-income countries lack appropriate prosthetic care. In this research, we are motivated to understand what factors affect the decision-making strategies of prosthetists and podiatrists when prescribing prosthetics and orthotics to partial foot amputees. This work establishes a decision-making framework as a step towards automated methods that may reduce the complexities and decision-making burden of prosthetic prescription, ultimately increasing the efficiency of prosthetic prescription in low-resourced areas. A decision-making model is proposed based on an extensive literature review of over 100 papers. The proposed model is compared to qualitative data regarding decision-making strategies during prosthetic or orthotic prescription collected from nine prosthetists, surgeons, and other healthcare professionals directly involved in amputee care. Changes to the proposed model are described and future work exploring the role of automated methods to support decision-making in the context of prosthetics is discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-144
Author(s):  
Filippo Bonanno

This paper represents an attempt to reconcile some general intuitions provided by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson in the book “Why Nations Fail” with the case of the deep regional disparities in the economic performances observed within the “Western” European Union during the period 2001-2015. By adopting an approach to growth analysis based on binary response models, this paper quantifies the extent to which the quality of government institutions has shaped regional economic performances in the European Union throughout the period comprising the Great Recession. Empirical results show that: 1) The higher is the quality of institutions, the higher is the probability that a region with high income per capita will grow above the levels of the European Union as a whole. 2) The higher is the quality of institutions, the lower is the probability that a low-income region will grow below the levels of European Union as a whole. 3) The higher is the quality of institutions, the higher (lower) is the probability that any region, regardless of its income per capita, will outperform (underperform) the European Union as a whole. 4) The higher is the quality of Institutions, the lower is the probability that a region will “fail” to grow.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-600
Author(s):  
Obiora Chinedu Okafor ◽  
Sanaa Ahmed ◽  
Sylvia Bawa ◽  
Ibironke Odumosu-Ayanu

AbstractThis study examines the African Human Rights Action Plan (AHRAP) through the lens of Upendra Baxi's germinal theory on the emergence in our time of a ‘trade-related, market-friendly human rights’ (TREMF) thesis that is challenging the specific understandings of ‘people-centric’ human rights that are predicated in the letter and spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDH). Baxi contends, instead, that the dominant strands of the contemporary understandings of human rights are – for the most part – designed to protect the interests of global capital. That said, human rights frameworks in low-income countries need to be studied with a view to what they say and don't say about global capital. Despite its attempt to facilitate a progressive realisation of human rights in Africa, the AHRAP does not rise far enough above the TREMF paradigm to re-locate itself within the UDH one. This is due to the AHRAP not adequately theorising and analysing the role of capital in the (non)realisation of human rights in Africa. By allowing trade and market practices to slip to a significant extent beyond its purview, the AHRAP privileges – to a significant degree – the needs/interests of capital over the human rights of ordinary Africans. That is, the victims of the excesses of capital in Africa are reincarnated in the AHRAP document by the fact of their exclusion from it.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atif Awad

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the long-run impact of selected foreign capital inflows, including aid, remittances, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and debt, on the economic growth of 21 low-income countries in the Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) region, during the period 1990–2018. Design/methodology/approach To obtain this objective and for robust analysis, a parametric approach, which was dynamic ordinary least squares, and a non-parametric technique, which was fully modified ordinary least squares, were used. Findings The results of both models confirmed that, in the long run, trade and aid affected the growth rate of the per capita income in these countries in a positive way. However, external debt seemed to have an adverse influence on such growth. Originality/value First, this is the initial study that has addressed this matter across a homogenous group of countries in the SSA region. Second, while most of the previous studies regarding capital inflows into the SSA region have focused on the impact of only one or two aspects of such foreign capital inflows on growth, the present study, instead, examined the impact of five types of foreign capital inflows (aid, remittances, FDI, trade and debt).


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Meaghan Lunney ◽  
Aminu K. Bello ◽  
Adeera Levin ◽  
Helen Tam-Tham ◽  
Chandra Thomas ◽  
...  

Background and objectivesPeople with kidney failure typically receive KRT in the form of dialysis or transplantation. However, studies have suggested that not all patients with kidney failure are best suited for KRT. Additionally, KRT is costly and not always accessible in resource-restricted settings. Conservative kidney management is an alternate kidney failure therapy that focuses on symptom management, psychologic health, spiritual care, and family and social support. Despite the importance of conservative kidney management in kidney failure care, several barriers exist that affect its uptake and quality.Design, setting, participants, & measurementsThe Global Kidney Health Atlas is an ongoing initiative of the International Society of Nephrology that aims to monitor and evaluate the status of global kidney care worldwide. This study reports on findings from the 2018 Global Kidney Health Atlas survey, specifically addressing the availability, accessibility, and quality of conservative kidney management.ResultsRespondents from 160 countries completed the survey, and 154 answered questions pertaining to conservative kidney management. Of these, 124 (81%) stated that conservative kidney management was available. Accessibility was low worldwide, particularly in low-income countries. Less than half of countries utilized multidisciplinary teams (46%); utilized shared decision making (32%); or provided psychologic, cultural, or spiritual support (36%). One-quarter provided relevant health care providers with training on conservative kidney management delivery.ConclusionsOverall, conservative kidney management is available in most countries; however, it is not optimally accessible or of the highest quality.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document