Development In Poor Countries Research Articles

Life cycle analysis of a network of small modular reactors

Abstract Small modular reactors are highly-touted as the next-generation nuclear reactors that can provide alternatives to baseload energy sources such as coal and gas. Lesser dependence on these energy resources may enable faster development in poorer countries. The small modular reactors’ modularity allows for faster construction times vis-à-vis large reactors. Together with this, as more of the same reactors are constructed, costs are expected to decrease with learnings made from the experience of producing the previous one. From a technological point of view, Small modular reactors are capable of generating energy at a lower cost compared to large reactors due to the lesser capital costs that arise from faster construction times. However, it is important to understand the overall environmental impact of small modular reactors when used as a network of reactors to generate energy. Life-cycle analysis is an accepted methodology to assess various environmental impacts of technology from cradle to grave. In this work, a case study of the development of a network of small modular reactors with a unique supply chain is presented. Since small modular reactors can be sited separately, and with its comparatively higher number of reactors and plants, the same network of small modular reactors has a higher carbon footprint than a single large reactor. However, this result should be carefully considered together with other criteria that affect the decision-making in the construction and development of small modular reactors or large reactors as these may outweigh marginally higher carbon footprints, such as economic, social, and political benefits.

Book Review: Migration as Economic Imperialism: How International Labour Mobility Undermines Economic Development in Poor Countries by Immanuel Ness

Book Review: <i>Migration as Economic Imperialism: How International Labour Mobility Undermines Economic Development in Poor Countries</i> by Immanuel Ness

The Return of Debt Crisis in Developing Countries: Shifting or Maintaining Dominant Development Paradigms?

ABSTRACTIn the aftermath of the COVID‐19 pandemic, much of the global South has been immersed in a debt crisis of a breadth and depth not seen since the early 1980s. The debt distress was apparent before the pandemic and the situation over the last decade is best described as a slow burn, which the pandemic and war in Ukraine ignited in often sudden and dramatic ways. However, what remains a surprising feature of the ongoing situation has been the avoidance so far of a generalized domino effect, unlike previous systemic Southern debt crises. This fact does not diminish the severity of the consequences given that the containment of crisis has been achieved by regular and persistent applications of austerity and adjustment programmes with deleterious impacts on development in poor countries. This article frames the Debate by exploring these aspects of the current Southern debt crisis, focusing on its deeper structural drivers versus the role of more proximate triggers of the crisis; the similarities or differences with past crises of recent decades; and the degree to which anything has in fact changed in orthodox responses to crisis management. A theme that emerges from the more heterodox scholarship profiled by this Debate is that the current crisis and its responses are maintaining the dominant development paradigm of the last 40 years, rather than eliciting a shift away from it. There is a continued adherence to neoliberal ideology in macroeconomic policy making and to the punitive subordination of developing countries in debt distress, through crisis responses, to the Northern and especially US‐centred international financial system. Ignoring the very strong similarities to the past, especially the 1982 debt crisis that ushered in this paradigm, risks repeating the lost decades to development that followed.

Potential side effects of climate change mitigation on poverty and countermeasures

Many countries have set ambitious long-term emissions reduction targets for reaching the goal in alignment with the Paris Agreement. However, large-scale emission reduction efforts may influence poverty by various economic channels. Here, we show the extent to which climate change mitigation, excluding climate change impacts, has the potential to increase poverty, and have identified its factors such as income, price changes, and direct and indirect carbon pricing impacts. We found that the global poverty headcount could increase by 69 million (19%) in 2030 relative to the baseline for climate change mitigation with global uniform carbon prices. Moreover, our decomposition analysis revealed that both price and income change effects were major factors that could increase the poverty headcount, which are 55% and 40%, respectively. This adverse side effect could be mitigated by various measures, such as emission regulations and an enhancement of energy efficiency standards beyond the typical simple carbon tax. Our results imply that global climate change mitigation policy should place more attention on economic development in poor countries.

Financial Development and Female Labor Income Share: Evidence from Global Data

While there has been sizable literature on the effect of financial development on growth, inequality, and poverty, there are fewer studies on its impact on female labor force participation or women’s wellbeing. Using a novel dataset, this paper investigates the association between the dimensions of financial development and female labor income share for 156 countries for the period of 1991-2019 to contribute to the literature on the role of financial development in improving women’s wellbeing. The findings show that financial development is positively associated with women’s income in high-income countries but not in low-income countries. The main implication of the study is that financial development in poor countries is not sufficiently inclusive enough to create economic opportunities for women.

Development, Citizenship, and the Bhakra–Nangal Dams in Postcolonial India, 1948–1952

AbstractHistorians have done much to unpick the image of development in poor countries after the Second World War as a technocratic phenomenon driven by centralizing planners and advocates of modernization. Yet scholars have done less to ask how development interacted with other major aspects of decolonization, notably the transformation of colonial subjecthood to postcolonial citizenship. Using the case of the Bhakra–Nangal dam complex, constructed in northern India during the late 1940s to early 1950s, this article argues that a major development project impacted not just on economic growth and the extension of state power, but significantly influenced the integration of postcolonial India's diverse political territories. At the same time, ideas about development and citizenship both offered resources that technocrats and dam-displaced people alike could use to make arguments about the relationship between people, territory. and the state. Development was not a rarefied space that escaped politics while extending state power, but was entangled in the broader processes through which subjects of an empire became citizens of a postcolonial state.

1 - Epic Battles in Radical Development Theory, Field Research and Praxis: A Celebration of Björn Beckman (1938–2019)

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; This article reviews the contribution of Björn Beckman, the Swedish political economist, in the study of development. It addresses three issues. The first is his engagement in theoretical debates on the political economy of development. These focus on the nature of the African state, capitalist development in poor countries, whether the military can act as a revolutionary vanguard in spearheading democratic and progressive social change, neoliberal theory of macro-economic adjustment, and the dynamics of state-civil society relations in advancing development and democracy. The second is his field research work in Ghana and Nigeria. This examines the role of organised farmers and the state in the production and marketing of cocoa in Ghana in the 1960s; the entrenchment of wheat import dependence and the failed project of wheat import-substitution in Nigeria; and the construction of a union-based labour regime in Nigeria’s textile industry that enhanced the bargaining power of unions even as a worsening macro-economic environment and industrial restructuring impacted adversely on employment and wages. The third deals with his collaborative work on a variety of organised interest groups, including labour movements, scholar activists, the Nigerian student movement, and organised informal sector groups. The last part of the article discusses the costs of Björn’s combative style of scholarship.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Yusuf Bangura, Formerly with the UN Research Institute for Social Development and Professor, Fourah Bay College (2013–2014), University of Sierra Leone, Nyon, Switzerland. Email: bangura.ym@gmail.com&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Unindustrialized Nations and Migration of Work Force: Evaluation of Human Capital during Globalization Era

Among four essential features of globalization, which have been identified by the International Monetary Fund, immigration and leaving fatherland, has an important place, because it is about the human capital, which is the basis for social motion, organization, and evolution. During the last three decades of the 20th century, and continuing through the first two decades of the 21st century, there has been an increasing inflow of immigration to the world’s most highly developed countries. Parallel to the said move, brain drain, as well, is defined as the migration of educated workers in search of higher salaries, better standard of living and quality of life, access to advanced technology and more stable political circumstances in different places around the world. Limited career structures, poor intellectual stimulation, lack of research funding, threats of violence; and absence of good schooling are among the well-known motives for migration. By the way, brain drain has long been regarded as a serious restraint on the development of poor countries. While early literature supports the view that skilled migration is definitely damaging for those left behind, there are several recent studies that suggest that migration may in fact foster human capital formation and growth in sending countries. Before globalization, psychological problems of immigrants, like acculturation, had already a specific place in psychiatry. Now, while with increasing number of migrants, new accommodations and programs for responding to psychosocial complications of this huge number of refugees, outcasts, or valid émigrés seems more mandatory than before, the move toward universal measures, diagnoses and treatments of mental illness is inconsistent with the belief that mental distress is culturally and socially mediated. In the present article, the aforesaid circumstances, with reference to developing societies, have been surveyed from different perspectives.

Does Foreign Aid Contribute to HDI Improvement?

Foreign aid is aimed at creating a favourable environment capable to foster economic growth and development in poorer countries. Accordingly, recipient countries might rely to a certain extent on external aid to attaint higher welfare levels. In principle, donour’s aid-allocation preference, aided country policies, its institutional background, and economic environment are decisive in the aid effectiveness. Should not the previous conditions be met, could the country fall into the poverty trap. Contrary to a large strand of the literature measuring the role external funding has with regards to its contribution to welfare and growth, we show that Human Development Index is positively driven by internal factors, whilst foreign aid, and private funding have no significant effect. This is coherent with a more recent strand of the literature, suggesting that on average, aid is ineffective in recipient countries. JEL classification numbers: F35, H20, H83, O1. Keywords: Foreign Aid, HDI improvement, Developing Countries.

Combining Wearable Devices and Mobile Surveys to Study Child and Youth Development in Malawi: Implementation Study of a Multimodal Approach.

BackgroundMultimodal approaches have been shown to be a promising way to collect data on child development at high frequency, combining different data inputs (from phone surveys to signals from noninvasive biomarkers) to understand children’s health and development outcomes more integrally from multiple perspectives.ObjectiveThe aim of this work was to describe an implementation study using a multimodal approach combining noninvasive biomarkers, social contact patterns, mobile surveying, and face-to-face interviews in order to validate technologies that help us better understand child development in poor countries at a high frequency.MethodsWe carried out a mixed study based on a transversal descriptive analysis and a longitudinal prospective analysis in Malawi. In each village, children were sampled to participate in weekly sessions in which data signals were collected through wearable devices (electrocardiography [ECG] hand pads and electroencephalography [EEG] headbands). Additionally, wearable proximity sensors to elicit the social network were deployed among children and their caregivers. Mobile surveys using interactive voice response calls were also used as an additional layer of data collection. An end-line face-to-face survey was conducted at the end of the study.ResultsDuring the implementation, 82 EEG/ECG data entry points were collected across four villages. The sampled children for EEG/ECG were 0 to 5 years old. EEG/ECG data were collected once a week. In every session, children wore the EEG headband for 5 minutes and the ECG hand pad for 3 minutes. In total, 3531 calls were sent over 5 weeks, with 2291 participants picking up the calls and 984 of those answering the consent question. In total, 585 people completed the surveys over the course of 5 weeks.ConclusionsThis study achieved its objective of demonstrating the feasibility of generating data through the unprecedented use of a multimodal approach for tracking child development in Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries in the world. Above and beyond its multiple dimensions, the dynamics of child development are complex. It is the case not only that no data stream in isolation can accurately characterize it, but also that even if combined, infrequent data might miss critical inflection points and interactions between different conditions and behaviors. In turn, combining different modes at a sufficiently high frequency allows researchers to make progress by considering contact patterns, reported symptoms and behaviors, and critical biomarkers all at once. This application showcases that even in developing countries facing multiple constraints, complementary technologies can leverage and accelerate the digitalization of health, bringing benefits to populations that lack new tools for understanding child well-being and development.

To Examine the Potential and Scope of Ecotourism in Kerala with a Special Focus on Tourists to Ecotourism Destinations in Trivandrum

Around the world, ecotourism has been hailed as a panacea: a way to fund conservation and research, protect fragile and pristine ecosystems, benefit rural communities, promote development in poor countries, enhance ecological and cultural sensitivity, instill environmental awareness and social conscience in the travel industry, and satisfy and educate the discriminating tourist. At the threshold of the new millennium, tourism has emerged as the biggest industry of the future. Tourism today is an economic activity of immense global importance. Perhaps there is hardly any other field of activity where so many people are involved directly or indirectly. Tourism has found a niche for itself as a very effective instrument for generating employment, earning foreign exchange, and thereby facilitating overall development. Kerala is popularly known as' God's Own Country'. Tourism is the fastest growing industry in Kerala and the State Government has been earnestly supporting the tourism sector and much of its growth is concentrated in natural areas. Changes in the market forces as well as move towards environmentally sensitive and sustainable forms of tourism offers the maximum potential for the promotion of ecotourism in Kerala. Kerala has excellent natural resources, several wildlife sanctuaries, and National parks. Major ecotourism resources of Kerala are 14 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 6 National parks, several scenic mountains, freshwater lakes, mangroves, etc. In Kerala 56 places have been identified for development as ecotourism destinations emphasizing conservation, ecological sustainability, environmental education, and local community benefits. Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala is one such destination. In this background, an attempt is made to study the potential and scope of ecotourism in Kerala with a special focus on Tourists to Ecotourism destinations in Trivandrum.

Illicit financial flows and the provision of child and maternal health services in low- and middle-income countries

BackgroundIllicit financial flows (IFFs) drain domestic resources with harmful social effects, especially in countries which are too poor to mobilise the revenues required to finance the provision of essential public goods and services. In this context, this article empirically examined the association between IFFs and the provision of essential health services in low- and middle-income countries.MethodsFirstly, a set of indicators was selected to represent the overall coverage of essential health services at the country level. Next, a linear multivariate regression model was specified and estimated for each indicator using cross-sectional data for 72 countries for the period 2008–2013.ResultsAfter controlling for other relevant factors, the main result of the regression analysis was that an annual 1 percentage point (p.p.) increase in the ratio of IFFs to total trade was associated with a 0.46 p.p. decrease in the level of family planning coverage, a 0.31 p.p. decrease in the percentage of women receiving antenatal care, and a 0.32 p.p. decrease in the level of child vaccination coverage rates.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that, for the whole sample of countries considered, at least 3.9 million women and 190,000 children may not receive these basic health care interventions in the future as a consequence of a 1 p.p. increase in the ratio of IFFs to total trade. Moreover, given that family planning, reproductive health, and child immunisation are foundational components of health and long-term development in poor countries, the findings show that IFFs could be undermining the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Identifying the Links Among Poverty, Hydroenergy and Water Use Using Data Mining Methods

Water is fundamental to human well-being, social development and the environment. Water development, particularly hydropower, provides an important source of renewable energy. Water development is strongly affected by poverty, but only few attempts have been made to understand the links between water development and poverty from a global water development point of view. In this work, this linkage was explored using reservoir construction, hydroenergy and water use data along with six derived indicators. We used association rule mining and classification and regression trees (CART) to identify the links. Random forests were employed to search for factors sensitive to poverty. This study shows that the reservoir density is significantly related to poverty, and reservoir densities are lower in countries with higher poverty rates. Countries with a higher use of small hydropower (SHP) systems are generally more prosperous as follows: an SHP utilization rate above 27% corresponds to a poverty rate below 4.9%. The ratio of water utilization, water availability per capita (WAPC) and reservoir density were essential for the prediction of the poverty class. All three ratios could be related to poverty alleviation as they enable the identification of the potential for water resource development and their constraints. This study concludes that water development in poor countries needs to receive more attention.

“Let Us Help Them at Home”: Policies and Misunderstandings on Migrant Flows Across the Mediterranean Border

Globalization means that a few borders disappear all over the world, and this both encourages and increases physical mobility of goods and people around the globe. But, at the same time, the increased mobility puts a strain on a few other borders. Europe has recently faced an emergency situation related to the massive arrival of refugees across the Mediterranean. It has been suggested that the problem can be addressed by strengthening international cooperation for development with the countries of origin of refugees and, more generally, of irregular migrants. The underlying idea is that the development of countries of origin will reduce the migration flow. This proposal seems consistent with the slogan, launched by various populist parties, “Let’s help them at home.” However, it conceals some possible misunderstandings, which this article aims to analyze. Firstly, the most intense flows of irregular migrants currently come from countries that either are at war or oppressed by dictatorial regimes. Hence, it would not be realistic to start development processes in these countries, which first require complex actions that are studied to promote pacification. Secondly, it should be noted that, as a result of the so-called migration hump, the development of poor countries is generally associated with an increase and not a decrease in emigration. However, if helping the countries of emigration to develop and establishing partnerships with them does not reduce migration flows, it will improve the management of these very flows.

Blockchain technology and the governance of foreign aid

AbstractBlockchain technology has been considered a vehicle to foster development in poor countries by promoting applications such as secure delivery of humanitarian aid, digital identity services, and proof of provenance. This article examines whether (and if so, how) blockchain technology can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of foreign aid governance, thereby moving beyond completely anonymous contexts. Foreign aid governance is plagued by lack of credible commitments among states, which are further exacerbated by information asymmetries and which often undermine aid effectiveness. In this context, blockchain technology holds two promises. First, through the guaranteed execution of smart contracts, it can strengthen the credibility of state commitments, for example collective burden-sharing rules among a group of donors or recipient country compliance with policy conditionality in return for aid. Second, through leveraging prediction markets, blockchain technology can allay information problems related to the verification of real-world events along the entire aid delivery chain.

Dependency Theory and Donor Aid: A Critical Analysis

This article is a theoretical interrogation and appreciation of the relationship that hitherto exists between the dependency theory and donor aid. A number of scholars have heaped aspersions on the relevance of the dependency theory. This article argues that dependency theory is still relevant and has flared in this current epoch. Donor aid has emerged as a symbol of dependency, supporting the argument on the relevance of dependency theory. Donor aid has emerged as a nuanced form of dependency on western countries. Dependency theory, which originated in the 1950s, has Singer and Prebisch as the progenitors— and emerged as a result of the growing dissatisfaction with modernity theories that had propounded that economic growth in developed countries was similarly going to lead to unabated growth and development in poorer countries. The theory is premised on resources being extracted from poorer countries to enrich wealthy nations. The continuation of this scenario has resulted in a situation where poverty has been exacerbated among the poorer nations, while the wealthy nations are becoming richer. . Donor aid has, in a plethora of ways, enriched the rich countries while dialectically impoverishing poor countries. It is not an exaggeration that donor money that is being extended to Third World countries, has created more employment, demand for goods and services in richer countries than in poorer countries, thus perpetuating underdevelopment in the latter. Donor aid has undoubtedly, been used as a rod to whip Third World countries at variance, with self-serving interests. On the other hand, the insatiable desire for aid has forced the poorer countries to submit to the dictates of the richer countries.

Is Rapid Urbanisation Exacerbating Wealth-Related Urban Inequalities in Child Nutritional Status? Evidence from Least Developed Countries

Limited evidence exists regarding the extent of wealth-related urban inequalities in nutritional outcomes presumably attributable to the rapid pace of urbanisation. The present study has four inter-related objectives. First, it investigates whether there is a difference in the extent of wealth-related urban inequalities between the most rapidly and less rapidly urbanising countries and whether and to what degree parents’ education exacerbates these inequalities. Furthermore, the study examines the nature and strength of the associations between mother’s socio-economic status and child nutrition and between low birth weight and child nutrition in the selected countries. Data are drawn from the recent Demographic and Health Surveys conducted during 2005–2011. The analysis considered inequality measures, such as concentration indices and concentration curves, and logistic regression modelling. Results show significant inequalities in children’s nutritional outcomes, and that these inequalities are greater in the most rapidly urbanising countries and exacerbated by parents’ poor education. The results further confirm that mother’s socio-economic status and child birth weight are significantly associated with child nutritional outcomes, albeit the former are particularly important in the most rapidly urbanising LDCs. The findings call for a renewed focus on inclusive urban development in poorest countries.

Geography versus institutions and sub-Saharan aid

This article sets out to review two opposing viewpoints in the literature, namely long-standing geographic versus institutionalist perspectives and their opposing predictions for development of poor countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa. A special focus is on the differing predictions of the effectiveness of aid of these two perspectives. On the basis of a consideration of different literatures and final Millenium Development Report, it is argued that ‘Big Push’ theory may still offer important theoretical and practical development contributions. Arguably, these contributions echo Keynes’s legacy in their consideration of the most vulnerable and marginalised. It is also argued that a global birth lottery allocates people to countries and regions with unequal opportunities and that a normative argument can be made to justify aid to mitigate birth lottery effects.

Optimum saving and growth: Harrod on dynamic welfare economics

In the 1960s and 1970s Harrod shifted the emphasis of his research in economic dynamics from the study of business cycles (instability principle) to the investigation of the growth process. As part of that, he restated his concept of the natural growth rate as an optimum welfare rate. This paper examines Harrod’s dynamic welfare economics, built around his concept of optimum saving developed as a reaction to Ramsey’s approach to capital accumulation. It is shown that, according to Harrod, the saving rate does not affect the long-run growth rate of per capita income, which is determined by technical progress. Moreover, the economy will grow at the natural (full employment) rate only if economic policy is able to bring saving to its ‘optimum’ level in macroeconomic equilibrium. Harrod’s interest in optimal growth was motivated by his double concern with growth policy in mature economies and economic development in poor countries.

Optimum Saving and Growth: Harrod on Dynamic Welfare Economics

In the 1960s and 1970s Harrod shifted the emphasis of his research in economic dynamics from the study of oscillations of the growth rate (“instability principle”) to the investigation of the determinants of the long-run growth path. As part of that shift, he restated his concept of the natural growth rate as an optimum welfare rate. The present paper provides an examination of Harrod’s dynamic welfare economics, including his concept of optimum saving and its relation with Ramsey’s approach to capital accumulation. It is shown that, contrary to the prevailing interpretation in the secondary literature, according to Harrod the saving rate does not affect the long-run growth rate of per capita income, which is determined by technical progress only. Harrod’s interest in economic growth in the postwar period was motivated by his double concern with growth policy in mature economies and economic development in poor countries.