Suchergebnisse

Low growth and high unemployment have induced the European Union (EU) to outline an economic programme in which long-term effective growth and structural policy measures play a central role. Simultaneously, the German government adopted an "action programme aiming at more growth and employment", in which the efforts on the EU level play hardly any role. Is international coordination of growth and structural adjustment policy legitimated from an economic point of view or is competition between national policies more efficient?

This article is based on a research project which examines the gender specific effects of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in one low‐income settlement in Harare. Although ESAP was only initiated in 1991 and the research is still in progress, it is already clear that urban households have been extremely negatively affected by the programme, with women faring even worse than men. Current policy trends which emphasise the effectiveness of women's coping strategies over‐estimate the extent to which women can compensate for low wages, rising prices and declining employment opportunities. It is argued that existing class and gender inequalities are being further exacerbated by ESAP, a strategy for development which only serves the interests of international and national capital.

This paper investigates the impact of structural adjustment policies on deforestation taking place when the agricultural frontier advances into forest reserves in Nicaragua. A computable general equilibrium model incorporating deforestation by squatters is used for policy simulations. The opportunity cost of migrating to the frontier does not simply depend on wage income opportunity, but also on market prices of basic grain which determine the capacity to consume beyond subsistence food-level given a certain real wage. Reducing public expenditures both conserves forests and enhances economic growth, while showing positive distributional effects. On the other hand, a strong conservation trend following a sales tax increase is driven by increasing poverty in rural areas. Noticeably, there are policies which initially intensify deforestation, but turn out to ease the pressure on forests over time. Rapid economic growth does not ensure less pressure on forest reserves.

ABSTRACTStructural adjustment should go hand in hand with measures to diversify the economy to make it less vulnerable to future changes in the external environment. However, adjustment programmes tend to concentrate on expenditure reduction policies, thereby hampering the necessary diversification. This proposition is elaborated for the economy of Zambia, which is still as dependent on mineral exports as it was twenty‐five years ago at independence. During and after the minerals boom the country suffered from Dutch disease. The subsequent adjustment efforts, reinforced through IMF involvement, did not sufficiently change the bias against tradables production. The latter is taken as a yardstick for diversification. A balanced implementation of expenditure switching policies in a later stage became increasingly difficult when the country also had to adjust to debt repayments.

Politicians and economists in sub-Saharan Africa claim that the eighties were a lost decade for Africa. Statistics justify this statement and prospects for the future are uncertain. Will the structural changes presently taking place in the world economy have a positive influence on development in sub-Saharan Africa? Are there helpful lessons to be learned from the experiences of eastern Europe?