This book about the urban agenda in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is timely as the world economy embraces the region with accelerated growth. An important element of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community, the GMS is expected to catch up with the rest of Asia by 2050. With urbanization levels still averaging about 30%, gross domestic product contributions of towns and cities have moved ahead to 50%–60%. By 2050, when urban areas in the GMS reach 64%–74%, urban gross domestic product will grow to an estimated 70%–80%. The challenge lies in consolidating and deepening development along the existing corridors and improving the environmental conditions to prepare for future green growth developments.
GrEEEn Solutions for Livable Cities is a result of a 2-year innovative, exploratory, and reflective study of cities as unique urban spaces that support life, work, and play. It responds to major issues that affect the quality of life of urban residents. This publication offers practical ways on how urban managers, urban practitioners, businesspeople, and citizens can engage to make cities more livable by building on their distinctive physical, social, cultural, and economic characteristics. With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, the book comes at the right time to offer integrated urban development solutions that can translate global development commitments into urban-level actions to achieve livable cities.
The Lake Chad Climate resilience action plan outlines the concept that there is a need to turn Lake Chad into a rural hub for regional development in parallel to the restoration of peace and security. The Plan intends to contribute significantly to food security, employment, and the social inclusion of the youth by improving, in a sustainable way, the living conditions of populations settled on the Lake's banks and islands as well as the resilience of a system characterized by a strong demographic growth, high hydrological variability, and climate uncertainty. To achieve it, the Action Plan proposes actions in seven Priority Themes based on observations and knowledge currently available. The four riparian States plus the Central African Republic and Libya, local powers (local governments or customary authorities), Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), and the civil society will be responsible for implementing the proposed actions. The Plan includes enhancing the capacity of LCBC in terms of data collection, sharing of information, and carrying out analyses useful to governance of the basin`s shared natural resources. The success of this Plan requires continuing on-going efforts to strengthen the LCBC. The tentatively estimated cost of the Lake Chad Action Plan is about 916 million Euros.
About 25% of worldwide CO2 emissions are attributed to transport. Although India has the lowest rate of energy consumption per tonne-km for goods transported by rail, growths in population, GDP and electrification plans by the Indian Railways, will raise the figure. 71% of electricity is generated using coal currently, and hence increasing electrification of the railways will also add to the emissions due to Railways. It is envisaged that 80% of rail freight and 60% of passenger traffic will run on electric energy by 2031-32. The Indian Railways have already considered the importance of increasing the share of low-carbon renewable energy sources such as solar and wind in the total energy mix. The internal target is installing 1,000 MW of solar power and 150 MW of wind power by 2020; the Railways are even considering a long-term target of 10,000 MW of renewable energy by 2030. This study is in three phases. In the first, the feasibility of complete decarbonization is examined and attractive pathways under different scenarios examined for achieving this goal. This will be done by, 1) Estimating passenger and freight demand up to 2030-31 and identifying the potential gap in passenger and freight demand-supply, 2) Conversion of passenger and freight demand into energy demand. The CO2 emissions attributed to Indian Railways is also calculated. This report estimates the growth in passenger and freight demand in 2030-31, in three scenarios of GDP growth: optimistic, realistic and pessimistic. A four-step calculation was used to estimate energy required for passenger and freight transport. This involved estimation of in-vehicle electricity consumption, electricity energy consumed for hauling and electrical energy consumed in the hauling of non-suburban and suburban passenger transport. Estimation of future electrical traction in rail passenger and freight transport also included expected use of electric traction in hauling non-suburban passenger and freight transport. Based on these calculations, the electricity requirement of the Indian Railways has been projected till 2030-31: the first step in implementing the decarbonization process.
Many production firms use intermediary trading firms to export indirectly. This paper uses Chinese export data at the transaction level to investigate the tax evasion motive through indirect trade. The paper provides strong evidence that, under Chinas partial export value-added tax rebate policy, production firms can effectively evade value-added taxes by underreporting their selling prices to domestic intermediary trading firms, especially when they sell differentiated products. Even for a moderate level of underreporting, the revenue loss is close to one billion U.S. dollars. The paper also finds that such underreporting behavior through domestic intermediaries may be associated with cross-border evasion through underreporting export values to foreign partners. In addition, the results indicate that the evasion motive is stronger for larger transactions.
This paper views tariff-cutting formulas as a potential solution to the free-rider problem that arises when market opening is negotiated bilaterally and extended on a most-favored-nation basis. The negotiators in the Doha Agenda chose formulas that are ideal from an economic efficiency viewpoint in that they most sharply reduce the highest and most economically-costly tariffs. When the political support that gave rise to the original tariffs is considered, however, this approach appears to generate very high political costs per unit of gain in economic efficiency. The political costs associated with the formulas appear to have led to strong pressure for many, complex exceptions, which both lowered and increased uncertainty about members' market access gains. Where tariff cuts focus on applied rates, it seems likely that a proportional cut rule would reduce the political costs of securing agreements. However, detailed examination of the Doha proposals with their product exceptions suggests that negotiators are likely to find cuts with exceptions politically attractive but economically costly when cuts are based on bound tariffs with different degrees of binding overhang.
Climate change is a core development challenge in Tanzania, and the potential costs of inaction are significant. Current climate variability (including extreme events such as droughts and floods), already leads to major economic costs in mainland Tanzania and in Zanzibar. Individual annual events have economic costs in excess of 1 percent of GDP, and occur regularly, reducing long-term growth and affecting millions of people and livelihoods. Future climate change could lead to large economic costs, equivalent to a further 1 to 2 percent of GDP per year by 2030. Given this context, there is a clear need for strong and sustained effort by the government to help establish a growth pathway for the country that is resilient to climate variability and able to adapt to future change, as well as help Tanzania take advantage of external and domestic finance opportunities for sustained action on climate risks. This policy note responds to a request by the United Republic of Tanzania for technical assistance on next steps for implementing the National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) and Zanzibar Climate Change Strategy (ZCCS). With strategies in hand, both mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar are at a crossroads where strategic actions have been identified, yet not yet supported with resources or adequate frameworks for implementation. Development partners are active in financing and supporting climate change activities in general, but more than one year after its adoption, a unified approach in support of the NCCS has yet to materialize. Tanzania has requested guidance for mobilizing additional funds, using funding sources more strategically, and delivering results on the ground.
Megacity Dhaka encounters various kinds of natural disasters quite frequently owing to its geographical location and a number of other physical and environmental conditions including low topography, land characteristics, multiplicity of rivers and the monsoon climate. Climate and disaster resilience is not the same in all parts of a city. Spatial variations in resilience patterns result from differences in the strengths and weaknesses of the city's economic, social, physical, institutional or natural aspects across its various parts. Traditional frameworks to assess adaptive capacity at the local level have focused largely on assets and capitals as indicators. While useful in understanding the capacity of a system to cope with disasters and adapt to changing environments, asset-oriented approaches overlook the processes and functions of a system (for example, governance system, community participation in decision-making, knowledge dissemination and management, structure of institutions and entitlements etc.) that are important aspects influencing the capacity of a human system to respond to climate change events.
The use of the phrase, 'political economy' originates in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and is also found in the writings of David Ricardo and Karl Marx. What is presently understood as 'economics' was, at that time, termed 'political economy'. This was understood to mean 'conditions of production organization in nation-states' (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012, Beuran, Raballand and Kapoor, 2011). Venerable scholars such as Smith, Ricardo, Mills, Rosseau, Ruskin and de Tocqueville, took a consistently holistic view of the interaction between economics (technical means of production) and politics (relationships of production) in their debates on wealth, prosperity, and international trade, and explanations of development outcomes. However, subsequently, 'economics' and 'political science' developed along parallel tracks, constraining us from fully exploring their interactions and joint contribution to incomes, livelihoods and to economic development more generally. For the forestry sector too, when stakeholders' power and influence is uneven, vested interests get to control the resource, and institutions are weak (or deliberately weakened by the same vested interests) the result is resource plunder, institutional erosion and breakdown of the rule of law and concentration of wealth in a few hands. (In the next section of this chapter, specific examples from forestry will illustrate these challenges clearly). If we are to come to grips with the fundamentals determining sustainable forest management, there is a need to develop a good understanding of stakeholder interests and the complex balance of power relationships, via political economy analysis. Thus, the major objective of this report is to offer preliminary guidance to conduct a practical political economy analysis for the forest sector. The report provides this guidance by considering eight 'front-runner' political economy analysis approaches that have emerged over the last few years. In principle all are capable of being applied to address political economy challenges in forestry and the report develops a set of criteria, geared to political economy considerations for forestry, which would assist a practitioner in selecting among the available approaches.
Infrastructure is an important driving force for economic growth. It reduces trade and transaction costs and stimulates the productivity of the economy. Africa has been lagging behind in the global manufacturing market. Among others, infrastructure is an important constraint in many African countries. Using firm-level data for East Africa, the paper reexamines the relationship between firm performance and infrastructure. It is shown that labor costs are by far the most important to stimulate firm production. Among the infrastructure sectors, electricity costs have the highest output elasticity, followed by transport costs. In addition, the paper shows that the quality of infrastructure is important to increase firm production. In particular, quality transport infrastructure seems to be essential. The paper also finds that agglomeration economies can reduce firm costs. The agglomeration elasticity is estimated at 0.03–0.04.
This set of reports on manufacturing plans implementation in India includes the following: (1) A new agenda. Improving the competitiveness of the textiles and apparel value chain in India report is structured as follows: section one sets out the context, describing trends in global markets and in the textiles and apparel supply chain in India; section two analyzes in detail the choke points that are hindering the growth of the latter; section three sets out a reform agenda to address them; and section four concludes. (2) Fast tracking Indias electronics manufacturing industry. Business environment and industrial policy examines the prospects for India to meet its potential. Drawing on extensive survey questionnaires and interviews with key industry players (both domestic and foreign) and relevant government agencies, this study identifies major challenges India-based companies face in engaging in electronics manufacturing. The analysis culminates in detailed policy suggestions for regulatory reform and support policies needed to unblock barriers to investment in this industry and to fast-track it's upgrading through innovation. (3) Supply chain delays and uncertainty in India. The hidden constraint on manufacturing growth report provides the context of the freight and logistics industry in India; describes the headline impacts of its performance on manufacturing firms; explores variations in this impact and causes thereof; and concludes with a more detailed look at the reform agenda this motivates.
This report is part of a series aimed at monitoring economic developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The main objective of these reports is to provide regular updates on key macroeconomic developments and reform initiatives. The reports focus on macroeconomic developments and key structural reforms that have both significant short and medium term impacts. This report presents a broad overview of macroeconomic, political and structural developments in the DRC up to January 2011 and the outlook for the remainder of 2011. DRC's constitution adopted in 2006 has been revised in January 2011 by Parliament. The main changes to the original texts include the election of the president by a majority in a single round vote. The Congolese authorities have maintained prudent fiscal policies under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Credit Facility (ECF) program, which has achieved the main objectives of this program in 2010 with an inflation rate (end-of-period) below the target of 9.9 percent. The economy has registered, thanks to the dynamism of the mining sector, a solid growth rate of 7.2 percent compared to 2.8 percent in 2009. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2011 is projected to reach 6.5 percent. The country's external position has improved. The current account balance, including grants, improved from a deficit of 10.5 percent of GDP in 2009 to 6.8 percent in 2010. Favorable commodity prices on the world market contributed to this development.
This paper focuses on the political economy of United States (U.S.) farm policy since the Uruguay round trade negotiations concluded in 1994 and established the World Trade Organization (WTO). The continued ability of the powerful farm lobby in the U.S. to elicit support in the political arena is evident from this analysis. Yet there have been some substantial changes in policy that have reduced their distortionary effects, as well as some setbacks to liberalizing reform. New Doha round commitments could put further constraints on subsidies provided by some U.S. policy instruments. And despite the ability of the farm lobby to retain its support programs through 2012, there are several political uncertainties about the alignments that have allowed U.S. farm support to endure.
A limitation of most empirical cross-country studies that focus on determinants of gross domestic product (GDP) is that they fail to distinguish explicitly between inputs used in production and conditions that facilitate production. For example, physical capital, human capital, and labor are production inputs, whereas the quality of institutions, macroeconomic stability, and market quality are conditions that facilitate production. This article takes this distinction seriously and uses a stochastic frontier approach to study factors affecting economic performance. A panel data set of 71 countries for the 1980-98 periods is used to estimate a production frontier with physical capital, human capital, and labor as inputs. The article also analyzes what drives productive efficiency, using the institutional framework, macroeconomic stability, market quality, and urbanization as possible explanatory factors. Urbanization turns out to be an important determinant, with the rule of law, inflation rate, and market quality also affecting productive efficiency.
Vietnam's ethnic minorities, who tend to live mostly in remote rural areas, typically have lower living standards than the ethnic majority. How much is this because of differences in economic characteristics (such as education levels and land) rather than low returns to characteristics? Is there a self-reinforcing culture of poverty in the minority groups, reflecting patterns of past discrimination? The authors find that differences in levels of living are due in part to the fact that the minorities live in less productive areas characterized by difficult terrain, poor infrastructure, less access to off-farm work and the market economy, and inferior access to education. Geographic disparities tend to persist because of immobility and regional differences in living standards. But the authors also find large differences within geographical areas even after controlling for household characteristics. They find differences in returns to productive characteristics to be the most important explanation for ethnic inequality. But the minorities do not obtain lower returns to all characteristics. There is evidence of compensating behavior. For example, pure returns to location--even in remote, inhospitable areas--tend to be higher for minorities, though not high enough to overcome the large consumption difference with the majority. The majority ethnic groups' model of income generation is a poor guide on how to fight poverty among ethnic minority groups. Nor is it enough to target poor areas to redress ethnic inequality. Policies must be designed to reach minority households in poor areas and to explicitly recognize behavior patterns (including compensating behavior) that have served the minorities well in the short term but intensify ethnic inequalities in the longer term. It will be important to open up options for minority groups both by ensuring that they are not disadvantaged (in labor markets, for example), and by changing the conditions that have caused their isolation and social exclusion.
