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Global economic trends and social development

Singh, Ajit
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Abstract
"This paper reviews the policy debate on development issues and examines the economic prospects for developing countries at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is specifically concerned with the question of whether developing countries will be able to meet the employment and poverty reduction goals set by the World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen in 1995. What policies at the national and international level will be most helpful in this respect? The introductory part of the paper notes that the Social Summit coincided with one of the worst financial crises up to that time in developing economies—Mexico’s “Tequila Crisis” in 1994 and 1995. It is suggested that, notwithstanding that crisis, the immediate economic prospects for developing countries in 1995 appeared much brighter than they do today in the wake of recent economic and financial crises in Asia, Latin America and Russia. The paper notes that, in contrast to the uneven economic performance of the economies of developing countries in the period since the Social Summit, the policy debate has in many ways taken a definite step forward. The main part of the paper provides a systematic investigation of the factors that determine whether or not developing countries will be able to eradicate poverty and achieve full employment with rising productivity and real wages. The paper looks specifically at the following aspects. First, it considers the economic record of developing countries and policy issues raised by this analysis. Second, it examines the complex interrelationships between economic growth, unemployment, poverty reduction and income inequality, both conceptually and empirically. This analysis gives attention to the notion of full employment, the relationship between technical change and unemployment, the economic significance of the information and communications technology revolution, and labour market theories of unemployment and inflation. Third, the paper looks at the changed historical conjuncture for economic development and for the development policy debate."(pg vii)
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Date
2000-06
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With permission of the license/copyright holder
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