Suchergebnisse

This book provides a historical perspective of the Uruguay Round agreement and focuses on the interaction between the developed and developing countries on matters relating to the global trading system and its disciplines since the founding of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

This paper, begins with a discussion of the well-known issues
involved in defining and measuring total factor productivity (TFP) and
its contribution to growth (as well as the possible contribution of
growth to productivity), the economic theory underpinning productivity,
and policies that impact on and influence changes in productivity. It is
followed by, first, a selective discussion of the studies on
cross-country variation in productivity levels and growth, and then the
experience of South Asia and China in a comparative perspective across
the region and across the developing world. The share of South Asia in
global GDP and its growth has remained stagnant since the early
nineties. Disturbingly, except India, the rest of South Asia experienced
a decline in TFP growth between 1989-95 and 1995-2003. The paper
concludes that for achieving sustained productivity growth,
well-functioning social and economic institutions are important, since
through their incentive structure they influence, labour force
participation, savings and accumulation of human and physical capital,
risk-taking and innovation as well as efficiency of resource allocation.
Public policies, particularly macro-economic, foreign trade and
investment policies, matter a great deal.

Abstract  A comment on the article by William D. Nordhaus in this volume.

Privatisation has begun to accelerate in India and Pakistan.
However, it is not clear that a change in ownership per se will
contribute significantly to a more rapid, efficient, and equitable
growth unless policies that ensure competition for these enterprises and
remove distortions in factor markets also are undertaken at the same
time or prior to privatisation. After a brief discussion of the
transition from state-led development to more market-oriented policies
and gradual opening to world markets, this paper reviews some of the
analytical literature on privatisation and regulation. The translation
of these theories into concrete policy suggestions is difficult for
countries such as Pakistan and India, where many of the assumptions
behind the theories do not hold. However, the results of empirical
studies on past privatisations around the world do hold lessons for
South Asia. Similarly, theories of regulation offer only broad
recommendations, most notably (for South Asia) that regulation is not
the best way to redistribute resources. The final section of the paper
reviews India's and Pakistan's experience with privatisation thus far.
Attempted privatisation of electricity in India serves as an example of
the need for more attention to regulation, while the transfer of
ownership has led to better service at lower cost in the
telecommunications sector. Pakistan's privatisation programme appears to
have had similarly mixed results, though it is difficult to come to firm
conclusions with the evidence at hand.

The Fourth Session of the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001, launched a new round of multilateral trade negotiations (MTN) and a work programme (WP) for the WTO involving the negotiating agenda and steps for meeting the challenges facing the multilateral trading system. The paper evaluates the WP, in particular, whether it would redress the unfavourable balance between benefits and costs to developing countries DCs of the agreement that concluded the previous (Uruguay) round of MTN. It discusses the failure of the third session in Seattle to launch a new round in December 1999, and also documents the unfavourable balance. While concluding that with adequate preparation, the negotiators could reach an agreement in the new round yielding substantial gains to DCs, the paper also suggests possible negotiating points for DCs.