Fiscal policy is critical to the development of poor countries. This book provides both a comprehensive and balanced guide to the current policy debate and new results on the development impact of fiscal policies.

After a massive international campaign calling attention to the development impact of foreign debt, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is now underway. But will the HIPC Initiative meet its high expectations? Will debt relief substantially raise growth? How do we make sure that debt relief benefits poor people? And how can we ensure that poor countries do not become highly indebted again? These are some of the key policy issues covered in this rigorous and independent analysis of debt, development, and poverty.

The "development credibility" of the current trade regime in general, and the WTO in particular, is at stake. The Doha Round aims to reverse the brewing scepticism by providing a reliable engine of trade-led growth and development. The essays in this volume identify the key challenges in this regard, make an assessment of the current situation in agriculture and manufacturing market access and evaluate alternative policy options that will make the goal attainable.

The fourteen members of the African CFA Franc Zone represent the largest monetary unions in the southern hemisphere, predating the European Monetary Union by decades. This book analyzes the recent economic experiences of the Franc Zone's member states and of its economic institutions. It pays particular attention to the way this disparate group of countries exploit the advantages and manage the costs of adhering to a single currency. It also analyzes the impact Franc Zone institutions have on poverty.

This book examines inequality, poverty and well-being concepts and corresponding empirical measures. Attempting to push future research in new and important directions, the book has a strong analytical orientation, consisting of a mix of conceptual and empirical analyses that constitute new and innovative contributions to the research literature.

This book presents significant new research on the informal labour markets of developing countries. Examining the critical role of informal labour markets in allowing countries to adjust successfully to the forces of globalization, this volume also brings to the fore a number of problems associated with the expansion of informal employment, such as poor working conditions, the lack of worker protection and the proliferation of urban slums. Comprising theoretical and empirical case studies from Africa, Asia, Central Europe and Latin America, it facilitates comparisons across developing...

This volume brings together some of the most influential scholars in development economics to explore how to improve the well-being of the poor, how to design effective structures and institutions for poverty reduction and what the role of economic, political and social dimensions are (and should be) in global development. Issues addressed include globalization; both its governance and a historical perspective; inequality, of income, and the potential for conflict; trade and labour practises in a transitional and developing world, and; the natures and characteristics of institutions and...

This book explores trends of inequality and poverty in China, identifies their causes and assesses their consequences, analyzing in detail the regional/personal variation in incomes, measures of human wellbeing, the gap between the coastal regions and the interior regions, and urban-rural disparity.

Fiscal policy is critical to the development of poor countries. This book provides both a comprehensive and balanced guide to the current policy debate and new results on the development impact of fiscal policies.

This book addresses several gaps in knowledge of aid allocation and effectiveness and provides new analytical insights. Topics covered include the interface between aid allocation and perceptions of aid effectiveness, the year-on-year volatility of aid and evaluation of the country-level impacts of aid.