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Information Technologies in Latin America' provides a collection of rigorous empirical studies that contributes to a better understanding of the role and impact of old and new information technologies on Latin American economic development. It provides evidence using randomized and quasi-experimental designed studies for different information and communication technologies interventions. In evaluating their development impact a critical concern has been to contribute to the little existing evidence. In fact, whereas many ICT projects in the developing world have been promoted by multilateral organizations, bilateral aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations in recent years, the extent to which these interventions and policies actually contribute to the development of the region is unclear. The book provides evidence on what works and what does not.

""Contents""; ""Foreword""; ""Abbreviations Used in Texts, Notes, and References""; ""PART ONE. Agricultural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Survey""; ""Chapter I. Introduction""; ""1. Scope of Review""; ""2. Standard References""; ""3. Overview of Agricultural Systems""; ""Chapter II. Historical and Theoretical Perspectives""; ""1. Historical Perspective""; ""2. Theoretical Perspectives""; ""Chapter III. Food and Agricultural Policy""; ""1. Agrarian Capitalism and Socialism""; ""2. Planning and Agricultural Sector Modeling""; ""3. Large versus Small Farms

This paper aims to account for varying economic performances and political stability under dictatorship. We argue that economic welfare and social order are the contemporary relevant factors of political regimes' stability. Societies with low natural level of social order tend to tolerate predatory behavior from dictators in exchange of a provision of civil peace. The fear of anarchy may explain why populations are locked in the worst dictatorships. In contrast, in societies enjoying a relative natural civil peace, dictatorship is less likely to be predatory because low economic welfare may destabilize it.

Arbitrarily designed borders have been identified by a recent literature as an important reason why sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the poorest regions on the globe. Accordingly, border changes may be a way to promote growth on the African continent. In this paper, we study the effect of subnational border reforms on local economic development (proxied by nighttime luminosity) by tracking provincial-level border changes in Africa during 1992-2013 with GIS techniques. Difference-in-difference regressions suggest that mergers have strong positive effects on economic development. Splits, too, have positive effects, but they are substantially smaller on average. To understand why the economic impact of splits and mergers differs in magnitude, we investigate transmission channels. We link border changes to geocoded conflict data and survey evidence on political attitudes. We find that the differences between splits and mergers are possibly due to different underlying motives for these two types of border reforms. Splits seem to affect development through higher political stability, i.e. a lower incidence of conflicts and more benign political attitudes of citizens, while mergers presumably work through an improvement in administrative efficiency. ; This version: 14/05/2019

Economic development theory needs to advance beyond the classical & monetarist capital-output models of growth. A prototype model of economic development is presented, in which development is defined more broadly than aggregative output growth in terms of the four objectives of income, consumption, distribution, & employment. This model is in keeping with the basic needs approach recently developed by the World Bank & other international organizations. Using supply side specifications, the model incorporates the role of education, health, & nutrition in economic development, & makes use of cross sectional data. In an illustration, the model simulated economic forecasts for Taiwan, the Philippines, & Korea for the period 1960-1970, & results were compared with actual data. Malthusian fears that increased health expenditure would cause massive unemployment & reduce the standard of living in LDCs are not supported. 1 Table, 1 Appendix, 23 References. Modified HA.