Structural Adjustment and Sustainable Development

This paper provides empirical evidence showing that the crowding out phenomenon is indeed relevant for most developing countries and evidence suggesting that under investment in public goods is in many countries a major distortion that at least in part explains the triple curse affecting the vast majority of the developing countries over recent decades: slow growth, massive social inequities and poverty, and environmental destruction.

Water Institutional Reforms in Developing Countries

This chapter is essentially an attempt to explain the anomaly of why institutional changes are not occurring even when the opportunity costs of status quo well exceed the transactions costs of these changes. While usual explanation relies on political economy arguments, this chapter shows the importance of the transaction cost implications of the institutional linkages that originate actually from the internal features and the external environment of institutions. This chapter has theoretically explained the origin of institutional linkages and described their implications for reform design and implementation principles.

Natural Capital, Resource Dependency and Poverty in Developing Countries

There are currently two types of “dualism” in patterns of resource use within developing countries that are very much relevant to the problem of resource degradation and poverty. The first “dualism” concerns aggregate resource use and dependency within the global economy. Most low and middle-income economies are highly dependent on the exploitation of natural resources. The second “dualism” concerns aggregate resource use and dependency within a developing economy.

Sustainable Development

This is an overview chapter from IPD’s Environmental Economics Task Force volume Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability: New Policy Options. Over the last few decades, economic growth in developing countries has been, with some exceptions, slow; social equity has either not improved or worsened; and environment degradation in many places has been significant.

Translate Website »