Development

China is entering a critical phase in its move to a market economy, in which it will establish the basic institutional foundations of a market economy, including legal frameworks that will govern property rights, competition, corporate governance, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and contracts. Ongoing debates and discussions will have a major effect in determining the kind of market economy into which China will evolve.

IPD’s Climate Change Task Force is dedicated to advancing the discourse on what would constitute the least unfair bargaining equilibrium on a climate change agreement, especially from the perspective of developing countries. In the past, self-interest and vested interest politics have often dominated the discussions of climate change, with little opportunity for a reasoned discourse based on or derived from commonly acceptable ethical principles and notions of economic efficiency. This Task Force brings experts from both developed and developing countries to the table to push the dialogue on a climate change agreement forward.

The economies of China and Latin America have become pillars of growth in today’s global economy. China’s lending to Latin America has reached $100 billion between 2005 and 2013. Now a key player in Latin America both in terms of trade and loan provision, China faces increasing challenges that are specific to the region’s political and economic situation.

IPD’s Poverty Task Force seeks to analyze the effects of economic policies on poverty, and examine alternative policies to promote poverty reduction. Poverty concerns are intertwined with virtually every aspect of development, however this project focuses on the impact of trade liberalization on the poor, the effect of commodity price volatility on the rural poor who produce export crops, the sequencing of reforms and the areas in which sequencing errors are likely to have a serious poverty impact, and the effect of different institutional frameworks on poverty.

Conventional wisdom has held that trade liberalization leads to increased economic growth, but this idea is often misleading. Liberalization has frequently failed to trigger economic growth when implemented in contexts without adequate institutional foundations. However, historical experience can provide some insight into when and how trade liberalization can best benefit developing countries, and when it is inadvisable altogether. IPD’s Trade Task Force lays out the crucial issues in trade policy for developing countries in a non-partisan, policy-relevant manner. The Task Force examines the successes and failures of trade liberalization in order to develop new knowledge and policy responses to this complex issue.

Migration is one of the most hotly debated topics in today’s globalized world. Whereas the movement of technology and capital has become increasingly more open, the movement of people across countries has not enjoyed such freedom. On the contrary, it is tightly controlled and often mismanaged. The effects of migration are multiple and sometimes opposing. Despite the complex effects of migration, few studies have analyzed this phenomenon comprehensively. Overall, the overlapping benefits and costs of migration remain an understudied and intensely disputed topic. IPD’s Migration Task Force gathers scholars from different disciplines, research interests and nationalities, to close this gap in research and policy.

The discovery of oil or other valuable resources has been associated with devastating political conflict and economic setbacks, particularly in the poorest countries where pre-existing institutions for transparency and accountability are often the weakest. Only a few countries have managed resource revenues in a way that promotes sustainable economic growth and poverty alleviation. IPD’s Resource Curse Task Force aims to create guidance for policymakers, policy analysts and activists concerned with the management of extractive industries in developing countries.