The Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics provides readers with insight into the central questions of development ethics, the main approaches to answering them, and areas for future research. Over ...the past seventy years, it has been argued and increasingly accepted that worthwhile development cannot be reduced to economic growth. Rather, a number of other goals must be realised: Enhancement of people's well-being Equitable sharing in benefits of development Empowerment to participate freely in development Environmental sustainability Promotion of human rights Promotion of cultural freedom, consistent with human rights Responsible conduct, including integrity over corruption Agreement that these are essential goals has also been accompanied by disagreements about how to conceptualize or apply them in different cases or contexts. Using these seven goals as an organizing principle, this handbook presents different approaches to achieving each one, drawing on academic literature, policy documents and practitioner experience. This international and multi-disciplinary handbook will be of great interest to development policy makers and program workers, students and scholars in development studies, public policy, international studies, applied ethics and other related disciplines.
The financial system needs to develop in order for natural resource exports to have a positive effect on economic growth. Yet, an advanced financial system is crucial for transferring the revenues ...from oil exports to productive investments. If the level of development of the financial system remains under a certain threshold, the effect of natural resource exports on economic growth is too low. In this vein, the determination of the level and the deepness of financial development that has a positive impact on the growth of natural resource exports should be clarified. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the impact of natural resource exports on economic growth and the level of financial deepening by using the data of the selected Next-11 countries for the period of 1996–2016. Nonlinear panel data methodology is used in the study. Based on the empirical results, for the first regime, where the rate of financial deepening is under 45%, the increase in oil exports does not have a statistically significant effect on ecenomic growth. For the second regime, where financial deepening is over 45%, one unit increase in oil exports causes a 7% increase in economic growth.
•Impact of natural resource exports on economic growth and financial deepening of selected Next-11 countries for period 1996-2016.•The stationarity conditions of the series, the CIPS test (Cross Sectionally Augmented IPS), developed by Peasaran (2007).•For the first regime, the increase in oil exports does not have a statistically significant effect on ecenomic growth.•For the second regime, where financial deepening is above 45%, one unit increase in oil exports causes a 7% increase in economic growth.
In October 2019, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer jointly won the 51st Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel "for their experimental approach to ...alleviating global poverty." But what is the exact scope of their experimental method, known as randomized control trials (RCTs)? Which sorts of questions are RCTs able to address and which do they fail to answer? This book provides answers to these questions, explaining how RCTs work, what they can achieve, why they sometimes fail, how they can be improved and why other methods are both useful and necessary. Chapters contributed by leading specialists in the field present a full and coherent picture of the main strengths and weaknesses of RCTs in the field of development. Looking beyond the epistemological, political, and ethical differences underlying many of the disagreements surrounding RCTs, it explores the implementation of RCTs on the ground, outside of their ideal theoretical conditions and reveals some unsuspected uses and effects, their disruptive potential, but also their political uses. The contributions uncover the implicit worldview that many RCTs draw on and disseminate, and probe the gap between the method's narrow scope and its success, while also proposing improvements and alternatives. This book warns against the potential dangers of their excessive use, arguing that the best use for RCTs is not necessarily that which immediately springs to mind, and offering opportunity to come to an informed and reasoned judgement on RCTs and what they can bring to development.
A rationale for public investment in rural roads is that households can better exploit agricultural and nonagricultural opportunities to employ labor and capital more efficiently. Significant ...knowledge gaps persist, however, as to how opportunities provided by roads actually filter back into household outcomes as well as distributional consequences. This study examines the impacts of two rural road-paving projects in Bangladesh using a new quasi-experimental household panel data set surveying project and control villages before and after program implementation. A household panel fixed-effects methodology controlling for initial area conditions is used to estimate the impact of paved roads on household and individual outcomes and account for potential bias in program placement at the village level. Rural road investments are found to reduce poverty significantly through higher agricultural production, lower input and transportation costs, and higher agricultural output prices at local village markets. Rural road development has also led to higher secondary schooling enrollment for boys and girls, as compared to primary school enrollment. We find that road investments have also benefited the poor, meaning the gains are significant for the poor and in some cases disproportionately higher than for the nonpoor.
This book discusses how citizens can participate more effectively in sustainability science and environmental policy debates. It discusses designs for participatory procedures, and experiences of ...their application to issues of global change. While the focus is on citizen participation, the involvement of specific stakeholders - including water managers and venture capitalists - is also addressed. The book describes how focus group methods were combined with the interactive use of computer models into new forms of participation, tested with six hundred citizens. The results are discussed in relation to other important topics, including greenhouse gas and water management. By combining this with an examination of issues of interactive governance and developing country participation, the book provides state-of-the-art, practical insights for students, researchers and policy makers alike.
In modern society, economic growth is considered to be the primary goal pursued through policymaking. But when and how did this perception become widely adopted among social scientists, politicians ...and the general public? Focusing on the OECD, one of the least understood international organisations, Schmelzer offers the first transnational study to chart the history of growth discourses. He reveals how the pursuit of GDP growth emerged as a societal goal and the ways in which the methods employed to measure, model and prescribe growth resulted in statistical standards, international policy frameworks and widely accepted norms. Setting his analysis within the context of capitalist development, post-war reconstruction, the Cold War, decolonization, and industrial crisis, The Hegemony of Growth sheds new light on the continuous reshaping of the growth paradigm up to the neoliberal age and adds historical depth to current debates on climate change, inequality and the limits to growth.
•Before the pandemic progress toward some SDGs was lacking.•Post-pandemic here may be less financing for attaining the SDGs.•Affordable policies that meet several SDGs simultaneously are ...needed.•Fossil fuel and irrigation subsidy swaps to end water and energy poverty.•Tropical carbon tax to fund natural climate solutions.
Developing countries are highly vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to the lack of international support for ensuring progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet the mounting financial burden faced by all countries means that additional support is unlikely to be forthcoming in the near future. It is critical that developing countries find innovative policy mechanisms to achieve sustainability and development aims in a cost-effective manner. This requires identifying affordable policies that can yield immediate progress towards several SDGs together and aligns economic incentives for longer term sustainable development. We identify three policies that meet these criteria: a fossil fuel subsidy swap to fund clean energy investments and dissemination of renewable energy in rural areas; reallocating irrigation subsidies to improve water supply, sanitation and wastewater infrastructure; and a tropical carbon tax, which is a levy on fossil fuels that funds natural climate solutions. Such innovative and cost-effective policy mechanisms do not require substantial external support, and they foster greater progress towards achieving the SDGs in poorer economies.
Sustainability: a systems approach Clayton, A.M.H; Radcliffe, N.J. (Institute for Policy Analysis and Development, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh (United Kingdom))
1996
Book
As the most important emerging transportation technology, high-speed rail (HSR) can reshape regional economic development patterns and exert an important effect on the ecological environment. Using a ...panel data set of 275 Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above from 2003 to 2014, this study is the first to adopt a continuous spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model to investigate the effect and its mechanism of HSR service intensity on CO2 emissions. A series of robustness tests are performed, including the placebo test and using the propensity score matching method combined with the SDID (PSM-SDID) model. We also conduct a heterogeneity analysis using a spatial difference-in-difference-in-differences (SDDD) model. The results show that an increase in HSR service intensity significantly reduces urban CO2 emissions, resulting from the effects of transportation substitution, market integration, industrial structure, and technological innovation. Meanwhile, such an increase inhibits CO2 emissions in neighboring cities with a spatial attenuation boundary of 1000 km. On average, for every addition of 100 HSR trains in a city, the total CO2 emissions can be reduced by 0.14%. Moreover, the CO2 emission reduction effect of HSR is more significant in eastern China, large cities, and resource-based cities. However, higher levels of HSR service intensity in large cities and resource-based cities are not conducive to reducing CO2 emissions in neighboring cities. These findings can help to accurately evaluate the social benefits of expanding HSR networks and provide an important decision-making reference for climate governance during the era of HSR.
•We explore the effect and its mechanism of high-speed rail (HSR) on CO2 emissions.•We use a continuous spatial difference-in-differences model and China's urban data.•An increase in HSR service intensity significantly reduces urban CO2 emissions.•HSR curbs neighboring CO2 emissions with an attenuation boundary of 1000 km.•Every addition of 100 HSR trains in a city can reduce total CO2 emissions by 0.14%.
When should foreign aid organizations empower actors on the front lines of delivery to rely on their judgment to guide aid interventions, and when should distant headquarters lead? Understanding how ...best to manage the implementation of aid projects matters both for aid effectiveness and for what it tells us about the more general tension between central versus field worker control in organizations.
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