Suchergebnisse

Since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, increasing attention has been paid to the problems of economic development and reconstruction in South-East Europe. In a context of limited resources, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have a key role to play in creating jobs and building a dynamic entrepreneurial economy. Small Enterprise Development In South-East Europe presents important findings from recent empirical research on key factors, which hinder sustainable SME growth in South-East Europe. Finance is identified as a critical barrier to growth, and the role of commercial banks, micro-finance institutions and credit cooperatives in assisting growth is addressed. Yet finance alone is not enough. A rebuilding of social capital, a reduction of the unofficial or grey economy, and the promotion of inter-firm networks and clusters are also of vital importance in promoting sustainable growth. The book concludes with critical analyses of SME policies in Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia, countries which hitherto have received little attention in the literature. Small Enterprise Development in South-East Europe will be of great interest to policy makers, business consultants, and academics and post-graduate students working on economic development and reconstruction in South-East Europe

SUMMARY
Financial technology, or simply 'fin-tech', is increasingly seen as one of the key tools to facilitate poverty reduction and local economic development. One article in particular by Tavneet Suri and William Jack published in the leading publication Science has played a hugely influential role in promoting the fin-tech model in the global South using the example of Kenya's iconic M-Pesa money transfer platform. The authors' central claim is that M-Pesa has been instrumental in facilitating a major episode of poverty reduction. Our analysis shows that their analysis and claims are extremely problematic.

This article examines the Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) «new paradigm» model of institutional support for local economic development (LED), a model of led that emerged in the 1990's as the neoliberal political project began its global ascendancy. The paper draws upon rich primary data from Latin America to demonstrate that the LEDA model has been almost entirely ineffective. Notwithstanding, UNDP has continued to support the leda model because it reflects core neoliberal imperatives – that all development institutions must be (re) structured as private sector-led and financially self-sustainable. In addition, a constituency of support emerged, composed of senior UNDP career officials and external consultants, that derived specific career and financial benefits from the continued operation of the leda model, and this constituency was able to conceal the ineffectiveness of the LEDA model. The article thus demonstrates that ineffective international development policies may be kept alive, Zombie-fashion, so long as they help to promote core neoliberal ideological objectives.