Number Of Less Developed Countries Research Articles

ТЕОРЕТИЧНІ ТА ЕКОНОМЕТРИЧНІ АСПЕКТИ ЗВ'ЯЗКУ ВІЙСЬКОВИХ ВИТРАТ ТА ЕКОНОМІЧНОГО ЗРОСТАННЯ

The article examines the essence of the macroeconomic model "Guns versus Butter" (a compromise between military and other state expenditures) and determines the relevance of its application in the study of the impact of military burden on the economy of Ukraine. In the course of the study, the following indicators were singled out for studying the relationship between military expenditures (expenditure on national security and defense) and social security expenditures (non-defense sector goods that improve public welfare): total GDP, share of GDP on defense (military burden on economy) and other governmental programs, as well as the tax burden. The article segments the main indicators of the state budget of Ukraine for the period 2014–2021, which indicate the processes that develop over time, depending on military, political, economic, geopolitical factors, etc. The results of empirical studies conducted for a number of least developed countries, developing countries and developed countries in different regions of the world testify to "two sides of the same coin", the unity of opposites that ensures the development of the system and its balance. The leading role in this balance is played by the relationship between economic growth and military spending, as well as the methodology for assessing the causal relationship between them. It was found that, depending on the geopolitical situation, potential or existing armed conflicts, military spending can play a key role in the protection of national security and defense, and therefore in economic development and stabilization of public welfare, through investment attractiveness, free market relations, innovative activity etc. The conclusion indicates the need to conduct quantitative micro-, meso-, and macro-economic studies in Ukraine during the period of independence, using methods and models for substantiating economic decisions.

Corn Leaf Disease Detection with Pertinent Feature Selection Model Using Machine Learning Technique with Efficient Spot Tagging Model

Crop diseases constitute a substantial threat to food safety but, due to the lack of a critical basis, their rapid identification in many parts of the world is challenging. The development of accurate techniques in the field of image categorization based on leaves produced excellent results. Plant phenotyping for plant growth monitoring is an important aspect of plant characterization. Early detection of leaf diseases is crucial for efficient crop output in agriculture. Pests and diseases cause crop harm or destruction of a section of the plant, leading to lower food productivity. In addition, in a number of less-developed countries, awareness of pesticide management and control, as well as diseases, is limited. Some of the main reasons for decreasing food production are toxic diseases, poor disease control and extreme climate changes. The quality of farm crops may be influenced by bacterial spot, late blight, septoria and curved yellow leaf diseases. Because of automatic leaf disease classification systems, action is easy after leaf disease signs are detected. Applying image processing and machine learning methodologies, this research offers an efficient Spot Tagging Leaf Disease Detection with Pertinent Feature Selection Model using Machine Learning Technique (SPLDPFS-MLT). Different diseases deplete chlorophyll in leaves generating dark patches on the surface of the leaf. Machine learning algorithms can be used to identify image pre-processing, image segmentation, feature extraction and classification. Compared with traditional models, the proposed model shows that the model performance is better than those existing.

Targeting Aid for Trade for Impactful Capacity‐Building in the Least Developed Countries

For the least developed countries (LDCs) facing supply‐side constraints, the SDGs target of doubling the share of their global exports by 2020 is a chimera. Various mechanisms have been put in place to help LDCs to enhance their trade capacity, of which WTO Aid for Trade (AfT) is a notable one. Although the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) pre‐dates the AFT initiative, the EIF's focus on evidence based needs assessment, institutional and policy support and productive capacity building support have helped a number of LDCs overcome their binding constraints to trade expansion. Besides, country ownership principle, partnership approach and targeted nature of AfT support means that the chances of achieving success is much higher than other development interventions.

Corporate Social Responsibility in Pakistan: A Legal Perspective with Reference to MNEs

It is no secret that many multinational enterprises have annual revenues higher than that of the GDP of a significant number of less developed countries put together. This fact puts them in a position not only to influence the host country's policies and but also lives of the people. With the rise of Multi-National Enterprises and foreign investments, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, theoretically a self-regulatory mechanism to ensure the active participation of corporations for betterment of society in general, has gained importance in International Law. Given the fact that a huge capital is flowing in Pakistan, it is significant to understand and evaluate the extent to which the principles of CSR are being followed in Pakistan, with a special reference to foreign investment. High ratio of Foreign Direct Investment to the annual budget of Pakistan in recent years coupled with the fact that CSR is still relatively a new concept in Pakistan amplifies the importance of CSR in Pakistan in relation to Foreign Investments. Since CSR, as per OECD guidelines, requires the international corporations to take certain measures to ensure the betterment of the locality and community, the research shall attempt to find out whether the foreign companies working in Pakistan are complying with the norms of CSR and if they do, to what extent those principles are being followed. To do that, we shall try to understand the concept of CSR, to trace down its origins, and to study its elements and key drivers. Moreover, the impacts of compliance of CSR especially on the people, environment and goals of sustainable development shall also be taken into account. The study shall try to search relevant laws, rules, regulations and guidelines, both in international and domestic legal skeletons, which emphasize the significance of CSR and its implementation. We shall try to find out whether any legal recourse or remedies are available to the people and the State of Pakistan in case foreign MNEs do not implement the CSR regulations.

Functioning of Political Institutions, Marketss Operating Freedom and Growth in Less Developed Countries, 2001-2006: A Quantitative Analysis

This paper analyses a detailed dataset on various aspects of institutions relating to functioning of (a) political institutions and civil society, (b) market for goods and services, (c) capital market, and (d) labour market. Examining the correlations within and across these major aspects of institutions it identifies a set of independent institutional variables that can be regressed on income (GDP per capita) and growth of a large number of less developed countries over the period, 2001-06. We find a strong link (some positive and some negative) between all aspects of institutions considered here and GDP per capita but no link between institutions and growth.

The Least Developed Countries: Key Challenges and the Way Forward for Korea's Development Cooperation

The least developed countries (LDCs) are the poorest and the most disadvantaged members of the international community that face a broad range of socioeconomic, geographical, political, and environmental challenges. The United Nations defines LDCs based on three criteria: low gross national income, weak human development indices, and high level of economic vulnerability. Currently, 48 countries — 33 in Africa, 14 in Asia and the Pacific, and 1 in Latin America — are designated as LDCs by the United Nations. With only three countries having graduated from LDC status, the number of LDC countries has leaped from 24 in 1971 when the category was first officially established by the UN General Assembly to 49 in 2012. Amid the growing interdependency in the global economic system, international efforts to reverse the trend of socioeconomic marginalization of LDCs officially began at the first UN Conference on Least Developed Countries held in Paris in 1981. In the realm of development, the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 has led to major donors targeting LDCs as their key aid recipient groups. The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least De-veloped Countries (LDC-IV) pledged to reduce the number of LDCs by half in nine years. In order to achieve the agenda, it requires a sustainable long-term broad-based economic growth at the rate of 7% a year. Nevertheless, despite global efforts to support LDCs, there has been growing concern over the deepening vulnerability of LDCs as they were stricken by the impact of global economic recession, food crisis, and climate change in the last several years. The IMF predicts that only 10 countries will be able to graduate from LDC status by 2020. Entangled in a series of conflicts with LDCs’ geographical obstacles, socioeconomic factors, supply shock, and accumulated debt, the LDCs’ vicious cycle of poverty led further impoverishment. Although the continuing marked increases in the volume of the Korean ODA, due to relatively greater portion of concessional loan, Korea faces with the task of improving the lending conditions.

An Atypical Approach to Graduation from the LDC Category: The Case of Bangladesh

From the creation of the category in 1971, the number of least developed countries (LDCs) has almost doubled to account for 48 members by 2011. Only three countries have managed to exit from the category thus far, and two more are in the pipeline. The recognition of the difficulty of leaving the category is entrenched in the overarching goal of the Fourth UN Conference on LDCs, which specifically calls for halving the number of LDCs within the next decade. The existing asymmetries between the entrance and the graduation criteria have favoured inclusion. Of the three exit criteria, those countries that have graduated, or are in the process of doing so, have all met the low-income exit threshold. This study argues for a graduation path that is not linked to income performance, rather on human capital development. In so doing, it identifies a different, non-conventional route to graduation. Bangladesh makes a good example for it as it is through the development of its human capital assets that it could (a) stop being an LDC and (b) accelerate its rate of economic and income growth. If the appropriate human capital enforcement policies are implemented in the coming 22 years, Bangladesh could meet the graduation thresholds by 2027, graduate out of the LDC group in 2033 and keep all the benefits linked to the LDC status until 2036. At the domestic level, actions aimed at leaving the LDC category have to be framed by, and within, a national employment-generating strategy. The article concludes with specific policy recommendations, particularly related to human capital development, for nearing the estimated graduation date. JEL: O10, O29, O53

Tourism and development challenges in the least developed countries: the case of The Gambia

Although tourism has long been promoted on the basis of its potential contribution to development, attention has been focused more recently on the developmental role of tourism in least developed countries (LDCs). Not only are a number of LDCs currently achieving the world's highest growth rates in tourist arrivals, but it is claimed that tourism should be regarded as an integral element of their development policy. However, despite the apparently successful growth of tourism in many LDCs, wider economic growth and development has, in many cases, not occurred. Drawing on research in The Gambia, this paper explores the challenges to tourism-induced development in LDCs. It reveals that tourism is not immune to the factors that determine a county's LDC status but that, although claims of tourism's developmental role should be treated with caution, the economic contribution of tourism may be enhanced in a number of ways.

Post-privatization performance and organizational changes: Case studies from Ghana

Abstract A significant number of less developed countries (LDCs), including Ghana, have embraced the World Bank/IMF led economic reforms. Ghana has been implementing these reforms since the early 1980. One of the conditions of the reforms is the privatization of former state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Such privatization activities have however generated debates among academics, practitioners, and policy makers. Research findings so far have been mixed. This paper analyzes the performance of two large privatized companies in Ghana. Both companies have been paraded by the Ghanaian authorities and the international financial community as success stories of privatization. Our objective is to examine how and why these firms have been claimed to be successful. Drawing on the dimensions of the balanced scorecard, we examine the performance of the firms from five main perspectives—financial, customers, internal business process, learning and growth, and the community. The analysis is based on data gathered from diverse sources, namely, semi-structured interviews and discussions with managers of the selected companies and with personnel from key government departments, and analysis of internal and external documents. We conclude that, overall the performance of both organizations improved after privatization under all the performance dimensions examined. These improvements were also accompanied by certain organizational changes, including changes in the accounting and control systems. However we are not claiming that all privatization programs in Ghana have been successful. In fact there are stories in the Ghanaian media of several other privatization failures in the country. Instead what we have demonstrated is the need to explain the performance of privatized firms beyond the myopic macro-level and financial analysis which has been widely adopted by the international financial community and policy makers and we encourage other researchers to adopt such multidimensional approaches.

Particle therapy in clinical practice: Is there enough evidence to justify the current surge in interest?

Enthusiasm for particle therapy has never been as high as it is today throughout the world. There is not only a great interest in the subject but investments are also being made for setting up such facilities in different parts of the world, including in the US and Western Europe; a number of less developed countries are also expressing interest in it. In the US, the interest is largely focussed on proton therapy, whereas centers in Europe and other countries are planning for, and exploring the possibilities of, setting up facilities for both proton

Applying innovations and new technologies for international collaborative wheat improvement

Despite the successes of the Green Revolution, about a billion people are still undernourished and food security in the developing world faces new challenges in terms of population growth, reduced water resources, climate change and decreased public sector investment. It is also becoming widely recognized that poverty is a cause of environmental degradation, conflict and civil unrest. Internationally coordinated agricultural research can play a significant role in improving food security by deploying promising new technologies as well as adapting those with well-established impact.In addition to the genetic challenges of crop improvement, agriculturalists must also embrace the problems associated with a highly heterogeneous and unpredictable environment. Not only are new genetic tools becoming more accessible, but a new generation of quantitative tools are available to enable better definition of agro-ecosystems, of cultivar by environment interactions, and of socio-economic issues, while satellite imagery can help predict crop yields on large scales. Identifying areas of low genetic diversity – for example as found in large tracts of South Asia – is an important aspect of reducing vulnerability to disease epidemics. Global strategies for incorporating durable disease resistance genes into a wider genetic background, as well as participatory approaches that deliver a fuller range of options to farmers, are being implemented to increase cultivar diversity.The unpredictable effects of environment on productivity can be buffered somewhat by crop management practices that maintain healthy soils, while reversing the consequences of rapid agricultural intensification on soil degradation. Conservation agriculture is an alternative strategy that is especially pertinent for resource-poor farmers.The potential synergy between genetic improvement and innovative crop management practices has been referred to as the Doubly Green Revolution. The unique benefits and efficiency of the international collaborative platform are indisputable when considering the duplications that otherwise would have been required to achieve the same impacts through unilateral or even bilateral programmes. Furthermore, while the West takes for granted public support for crucial economic and social issues, this is not the case in a number of less-developed countries where the activities of International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) and other development assistance organizations can provide continuity in agricultural research and infrastructure.

Privatization Discontent and it's Determinants: Evidence from Latin America

The privatisation policy pursued in the UK by Mrs Thatcher's government (1979-1990) and subsequently by Mr Major's government (1990-1997) was the largest experiment in public divestitures among capitalist economies. It had a deep impact on economic policy-making world wide, and was vastly imitated, in Western Europe, in the former planned economies, in a number of less developed countries. In this paper we test the impact of privatisation on macroeconomic performance in the United Kingdom using quarterly data from 1979 to 1999. In the econometric model, we use privatisation proceeds as an explanatory variable and we control for several other variables. Testing for cointegration the results show that there is a long run equilibrium relationship between GDP growth and the variables used in the model. However, in our empirical analysis we find a weak evidence that privatisation generated an aggregate shock on output in the UK. This result is consistent with empirical literature on microeconomic evidence that shows that in the UK ownership change per se had little impact on long term productivity trends.

Informal Finance in Developing Economies

The financial systems and financial markets of developing countries have a common feature: the dualism. This means the co-existence and operation side by side of a formal or institutional financial sector and of an informal or non-institutional financial sector. The great diversity of informal financial activities makes difficult to evaluate the actual extent of informal finance in each economy, but empirical evidence in a number of less developed countries suggests that such extent is always relevant. Many examples bear witness of vitality of informal finance in filling the gaps left by operations of formal financial intermediaries: segments of the market neglected, credit rationing pursued through non-price allocation, exorbitant transaction costs shifted off to borrowers. The paper provides a comprehensive study of the role of informal finance in these economies, in rural as well as in urban areas, and of the main characters of the informal financial markets. Credit markets where heterogeneity of lenders faces heterogeneity of borrowers: different lenders may have different information about different borrowers. It investigates financial markets of developing countries highlighting crucial topics such as innovation capacity, effectiveness in personal savings mobilization, competition in funds rising and in credit supplying, personalistic relationship, interest rates charged, transaction costs inherent to financial intermediation, asymmetrical information, moral hazard, credit risk (arrears, delinquency, default), market interlinkage. Various types of operators of the informal financial sector, both individuals (moneylenders, pawnbrokers, indigenous bankers, traders, deposits collectors) and mutual associations (Roscas and Ascras), are listed and analised. Finally due attention is given to interlinks between formal and informal financial circuits: large financial flows can take place, in fact, between formal and informal sectors. Furthermore a pronounced complementarity of the two sectors emerges: in many instances informal finance should not be seen as a substitute of institutional finance, as it has been often done in the past, but rather as a complement.

The Itu, The WTO and Accounting Rates: Limited Prospects for the South?

AbtsractThe multi-lateral system of the ITU has been losing out steadily to a trade paradigm in telecommunication, culminating with the WTO agreement in February 1997. Against this background, this paper looks at the issue of the accounting rate system, how liberalisation is further undermining a main pillar of ITU activities, and the impact and options for less developed countries. The US has seen its international call settlement deficit grow to over 5 billion dollars in 1996, providing an essential net revenue for a number of less developed countries. The US is now threatening to greatly reduce payments, unilaterally overriding the current ITU bartered system. Analysis reveals that the growth in deficit is caused mainly by the call-back and refilling activities of US carriers. It is also likely that the introduction of loopholes by the US into the recent WTO agreement is at least partly motivated by a co-ordinated strategy at the WTO and ITU. Other developed countries, however, strongly oppose the US move, and are pursuing legal action to prevent the US implementing its threat. Yet in the long term, the accounting rate system is anyhow in decline, yielding to a number of trends. It will most likely be replaced by a trade based system, with a minimal multilateral element. From the point of view of less developed countries currently benefiting, the future thus looks bleak. The decline of multi-lateral determination of accounting rates, and its replacement by unilaterally or trade determined levels, will inevitably lead to significant loss of revenues. Their bargaining position in relation to ensuring that any new system will continue some transfer from wealthier to poorer countries is weak, and they have had little real support from UN organisations.

Anatomy of Poverty during Adjustment: The Case of the Philippines

Recent discussions of development policy have emphasized the need for macroeconomic adjustment programs that give attention to poverty and social concerns. Conventional adjustment programs applied in developing countries are considered to have no human face, as they focus almost exclusively on promoting economic efficiency and bringing an economy to a stable and sustainable growth path.' In particular, observers have claimed that the poor have disproportionately borne the pain of transitional costs of adjustment, especially when the transition has been longer than initially expected. Indeed, increases in poverty as well as sharp cuts in government expenditures on social services, including health, nutrition, education, and infrastructure programs benefiting the poor, have accompanied the implementation of adjustment policies in a number of less developed countries (LDCs). On the other hand, country cases where the transition apparently has not been antipoor, even in the short run, also exist. Indonesia's experience with adjustment in the 1980s, for example, appears to be one such case.2 In general, the available evidence indicates that changes in living conditions in the short run do not appear to be systematically related to the presence (or absence) of adjustment programs.3 The lack (or the poor quality) of data-especially on social and human development indicators-in LDCs hampers the analysis of the link between adjustment policies and poverty alleviation. Moreover, because the transition in many countries is an ongoing process, the impact of the adjustment is still in the making. Thus, available information gives only a partial, and possibly even misleading, picture of the full effects of adjustment policies on the poor's standard of living. Even when reliable data are available, the analysis has to move beyond simple correlations and establish counterfactual situations. Specifi-

Tin in the World Economy.

Tin is unusual among primary commodities in that a small number of less developed countries have been responsible for the bulk of world production aimed mainly at the Western market. This book traces the political economy of the tin industry from the mid-19th century to the present day. Placing the commodity within its historical context, it discusses attempts to cartelize the industry in the inter-war years and to control the price of tin by international agreement in the post-war period. It also includes an analysis of the development effects of tin exporting and an account of the great structural changes in the industry since the collapse of the International Tin Agreement in 1985. The book includes discussion of the industry in England (Cornwall), Bolivia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil and elsewhere. This guide is intended for businessmen in the mining sector and students of commodity economics and development economics, from higher undergraduate level upwards. John T. Thorburn is also the author of Primary Commodity Exports and Economic Development (Wiley) and Multinationals, Mining and Development (Gower).

Pakistan: energy development and economic growth in the 1980s

Abstract : For some time, economists have argued that a variety of factors can obstruct a rapid pace of economic development. Scarcities of capital, a skilled and disciplined labour force, entrepreneurial talent, foreign exchange and industrial raw materials have been mentioned, among the prominent obstacles to growth in undeveloped countries. Lack of adequate energy supply is now being added as a factor explaining the slow pace of growth in these countries. For a large number of less developed countries have to depend on imported sources of energy; the high foreign exchange bills, resulting from rapidly rising prices, are simply beyond their means. Pakistan is a good case in point. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether investment in energy and increased domestic production of energy increased the rate of economic growth in Pakistan during the 1980s.

International stratification and Third World military industries

Weapons production is increasing in the Third World, affecting the structure of the world arms transfer system. The quantitative and qualitative capabilities of Third World industries imply that the number of less developed countries (LDCs) producing major weapons will not increase dramatically in the future; that LDC defense production will remain a small fraction of the world's arms trade; and that military industries in the Third World will concentrate on defense items that are older and less complicated than technologies manufactured in the developed world. Various socioeconomic factors might explain the reasons for the disparities among arms producers. Factors of scale, particularly the existence of a large military to provide an adequate internal market, combined with financial resources and technically trained personnel to support the necessary industrial infrastructure, determine a state's comparative military-industrial capabilities. The inherent constraints of size and infrastructure will create a hierarchically stru tured world arms trade and production system as the military industries of states grow.

The epidemiologic transition theory. A preliminary update.

The theory of epidemiologic transition is an application of epidemiologic inference and interpretation to population dynamics. The theory focuses on the complex changes in the patterns of health and disease and their demographic socioeconomic and ecobiologic determinants and consequences in the various population groups. In so doing the theory identifies mortality as a fundamental force in population change particularly in the early and formative phases of the transition with fertility as a crucial co-variable becoming the eventual pacemaker of population change later on in the transition when mortality is on its way to virtual stabilization at low levels. Druing the transition a long-term shift and eventual decline occurs in mortality and disease patterns whereby pandemics of infection are progressively (but not entirely) displaced by degenerative and man-made diseases as the leading causes of death. Changes during epidemiologic transition have a great impact on population composition and the pattern of population growth. Distinctive variations in the pattern pace determinants and the consequences of population change differentiate 4 basic models of epidemiologic transition. Whereas the more developed countries belonging to the classical and accelerated models experienced only low to moderate rates of population growth during the transition the less developed countries in the delayed model are experiencing growth rates of 2.0-3.5%/year. At this rate the population of those countries will double in 20 to 30 years. In those countries who are in the transitional varient of the delayed model this growth has been slowed by the initial fertility decline. Fortunately China with upwards of 1 billion people is apparently a part of the transitional varient. Despite the promising indications of the onset of fertility decline in a growing number of less developed countries the large gap that has developed between fertility and mortality in countries that have recently experienced the 2nd stage of epidemiologic transition (the age of receding pandemics) indicates that the unprecedented growth of world population will continue for some time to come. Charts illustrating changes in birth and death patterns spanning the last 2 centuries are given for New York City Mauritius the US as a whole Denmark Japan and Mexico. Included are trends in major casues of death and data by race for selected countries.

Multinational companies and developing countries: A new relationship

In recent years, a rising number of less developed countries (LDCs) have introduced comprehensive regulations governing inflows of foreign direct investments (FDI). The emergence of such regulations has changed the operating relationship between LDCs and multinational companies (MNCs). The objectives of this study are to: (i) examine the emergence of such regulations and identify their common policies; (ii) discuss the important features of the 'new' operating relationship between LDCs and MNCs; and (iii) analyse the potential implications of this relationship both for adopting countries and multinationals.