Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

• Trends and Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in South Asia

  World Bank (Washington, DC, 2014-01-07)

  Like many other developing countries,
 South Asian nations have been experiencing increased Foreign
 Direct Investment (FDI) inflows over the past decade as
 developing countries get a larger share of cross-border
 investments once sent to developed countries. Nonetheless,
 South Asia's FDI inflows remain the lowest relative to
 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) among developing country
 regions. Over the next 20 years, more than one million new
 workers will be entering the South Asian labor market each
 month as the region's youth bulge matures and seeks
 employment. To absorb these workers and provide higher
 living standards and reduce poverty, South Asian countries
 will have to rely on more than just public investment. This
 report looks into the historical patterns of FDI in South
 Asia, examines its sectoral composition, and evaluates
 current policies and policy options that may help create an
 environment for increasing FDI flows. The launching point
 for this study is the substantial empirical literature that
 suggests that FDI is associated with growth, development,
 and productivity enhancement. The goal of the study is
 modest in that it does not seek to estimate the size of FDI
 spillovers on productivity growth, or address whether
 governments should actively subsidize FDI inflows over
 domestic investment as a means to enhance growth, but rather
 to understand whether the level of FDI flows as a share of
 GDP, its sectoral composition, and intra-regional flows are
 comparable to other developing regions and, if not, what
 might be some of the impediments to these flows. While FDI
 flows have increased over the past decade to South Asia,
 particularly from developed countries to South Asian service
 sectors, it has lagged in other sectors and remains
 relatively low overall. Overall, positive changes have taken
 place over the past few decades, while restrictions on FDI
 differ substantially among countries in South Asia.
 India's progress on FDI promoting policies has
 accelerated in recent years to make FDI policies more
 transparent, predictable, and simpler. Many other countries
 have also taken steps to improve transparency in regulations
 and reassure investors about the security of their
 investments in the country. Finally, the paper examines the
 determinants of FDI growth in South Asia.
• Equity and Growth in a Globalizing World : Commission on Growth and Development

  Kanbur, Ravi; Spence, Michael (World Bank, 2012-03-19)

  The commission on growth and development was established in April 2006 in response to two insights: people do not talk about growth enough, and when they do, they speak with unearned conviction. The workshops turned out to be intense, lively affairs, lasting up to three days. It became clear that experts do not always agree, even on issues that are central to growth. But the Commission had no wish to disguise or gloss over these uncertainties and differences. And it did not want to present a false confidence in its conclusions beyond that justified by the evidence. While researchers will continue to improve people's understanding of the world, policy makers cannot wait for scholars to satisfy all of their doubts or resolve their differences. Decisions must be made with only partial knowledge of the world. One consequence is that most policy decisions, however well informed, take on the character of experiments, which yield useful information about the way the world works, even if they do not always turn out the way policy makers had hoped. It is good to recognize this fact, if only so that policy makers can be quick to spot failures and learn from mistakes. In principle, a commission on growth could have confined its attention to income per person, setting aside the question of how income is distributed. But this commission chose otherwise. It recognized that growth is not synonymous with development. To contribute significantly to social progress, growth must lift everyone's sights and improve the living standards of a broad swath of society. The Commission has no truck with the view that growth only enriches the few, leaving poverty undisturbed and social ills untouched.
• Globalization for Development : Trade, Finance, Aid, Migration, and Policy, Revised Edition

  Reinert, Kenneth; Goldin, Ian (Washington, DC : World Bank and Palgrave Macmillan, 2012-05-29)

  Globalization has been taking place for centuries, moving from the colonization of the inhabited parts of the world to the appearance of nations, from conquests to independent countries, from sailboats and caravans to steamboats, truck fleets and cargo planes, from trade in a few commodities to global production and distribution networks and to the present explosion of international flows of services, capital, and information. This book also helps to shatter a false dichotomy that holds that policies that favor the poor cannot be pro-market. There is an enormous set of pro-poor and pro-market policies that allow for more equal market competition among and within countries, and that ask that policy take account of externalities as much as possible. The sheer size of today's global economy is a testament to the speed of change: in 2005, world economic output total US$35 trillion an amount likely to double by 2030, assuming modest continued growth. In this book the authors provide a comprehensive introduction to key aspects of globalization trade, finance, aid, and migration, and their complex linkages with poverty and development. This book also helps to shatter a false dichotomy that holds that policies that favor the poor cannot be pro-market. There is an enormous set of pro-poor and pro-market policies that allow for more equal market competition among and within countries, and that ask that policy take account of externalities as much as possible.