The Elusive Quest for Growth
The Elusive Quest for Growth

Author: William R. Easterly

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2002-08-02

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0262260654

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Why economists' attempts to help poorer countries improve their economic well-being have failed. Since the end of World War II, economists have tried to figure out how poor countries in the tropics could attain standards of living approaching those of countries in Europe and North America. Attempted remedies have included providing foreign aid, investing in machines, fostering education, controlling population growth, and making aid loans as well as forgiving those loans on condition of reforms. None of these solutions has delivered as promised. The problem is not the failure of economics, William Easterly argues, but the failure to apply economic principles to practical policy work. In this book Easterly shows how these solutions all violate the basic principle of economics, that people—private individuals and businesses, government officials, even aid donors—respond to incentives. Easterly first discusses the importance of growth. He then analyzes the development solutions that have failed. Finally, he suggests alternative approaches to the problem. Written in an accessible, at times irreverent, style, Easterly's book combines modern growth theory with anecdotes from his fieldwork for the World Bank.

Elusive Development
Elusive Development

Author: Marshall Wolfe

Publisher: Zed Books

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781856493802

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This deeply thoughtful book explores some of the very difficult questions thrown up by the development process, Marshall Wolfe reviews what has been said and done in the name of development over four decades. He sees development as 'a Sisyphean task of trying to impose value-oriented rationality on realities that remain permanently recalcitrant to such reality' precisely because its key actors - be they the state, social groups, development agencies, individual 'experts', or the market - cannot be assumed to be either benevolent or consistently rational.

Under-Rewarded Efforts
Under-Rewarded Efforts

Author: Santiago Levy Algazi

Publisher: Inter-American Development Bank

Published: 2018-07-11

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1597823058

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Why has an economy that has done so many things right failed to grow fast? Under-Rewarded Efforts traces Mexico’s disappointing growth to flawed microeconomic policies that have suppressed productivity growth and nullified the expected benefits of the country’s reform efforts. Fast growth will not occur doing more of the same or focusing on issues that may be key bottlenecks to productivity growth elsewhere, but not in Mexico. It will only result from inclusive institutions that effectively protect workers against risks, redistribute towards those in need, and simultaneously align entrepreneurs’ and workers’ incentives to raise productivity.

The Elusive Promise of Indigenous Development
The Elusive Promise of Indigenous Development

Author: Karen Engle

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2010-09-17

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 0822392968

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Around the world, indigenous peoples use international law to make claims for heritage, territory, and economic development. Karen Engle traces the history of these claims, considering the prevalence of particular legal frameworks and their costs and benefits for indigenous groups. Her vivid account highlights the dilemmas that accompany each legal strategy, as well as the persistent elusiveness of economic development for indigenous peoples. Focusing primarily on the Americas, Engle describes how cultural rights emerged over self-determination as the dominant framework for indigenous advocacy in the late twentieth century, bringing unfortunate, if unintended, consequences. Conceiving indigenous rights as cultural rights, Engle argues, has largely displaced or deferred many of the economic and political issues that initially motivated much indigenous advocacy. She contends that by asserting static, essentialized notions of indigenous culture, indigenous rights advocates have often made concessions that threaten to exclude many claimants, force others into norms of cultural cohesion, and limit indigenous economic, political, and territorial autonomy. Engle explores one use of the right to culture outside the context of indigenous rights, through a discussion of a 1993 Colombian law granting collective land title to certain Afro-descendant communities. Following the aspirations for and disappointments in this law, Engle cautions advocates for marginalized communities against learning the wrong lessons from the recent struggles of indigenous peoples at the international level.

Elusive Development
Elusive Development

Author: Yusif A. Sayigh

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-03-11

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1134924674

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The oil boom prompted a massive inflow of capital into the Arab region. But whilst the investment this facilitated clearly had benefits for the region, the developmental achievements of the boom decade are demonstrably unable to match the magnitude of the resources directed to development and the reasonable expectations invested in it. Professor Yusif Sayigh draws a powerful and painful lesson from this experience applicable to other areas: you cannot buy development; it must be soundly oriented and sought with resolve by society's leaderships and a people enjoying a large measure of freedom and political participation.

Poverty and Elusive Development
Poverty and Elusive Development

Author: Dan Banik

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9788215012186

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This book questions the current status of the development agenda and examines why development has eluded large groups of people living in poverty. It argues that there is a general unwillingness to understand, and focus adequate attention on, the factors that explain the continued production of poverty and inequality. Development has also become increasingly buzzword-driven, although little effort is made to operationalise such terms for actual implementation on the ground. The book further highlights how development interventions have become largely synonymous with "crises" and why there is a need to refocus our attention on the less sensational, and often invisible, processes that perpetuate poverty. Based on a critical analysis of local, national and global efforts to promote social, economic and political development, the book focuses on a selected set of interrelated issues that form an integral part of the current development discourse: corruption, democracy, human rights, climate change and foreign aid. These are discussed on the basis of empirical evidence from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Elusive Agenda
The Elusive Agenda

Author: Rounaq Jahan

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13:

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Reviewing the progress achieved in making gender a central concern in the development progress, this book evaluates selected leading bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, including the World Bank, which have played a critical role in shaping the development agenda.

Elusive Childhood
Elusive Childhood

Author: Susan Honeyman

Publisher: Ohio State University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 081421004X

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"Elusive Childhood examines how discourse touched by the identity politics of youth might be revised for fairness. Susan Honeyman demonstrates this potential by reading representations of children from throughout the Modern episteme in works of such writers as Henry James, Edith Wharton, and James Baldwin. Identity politics have changed the way we classify literature by opening up the canon, but they have also changed the way we approach literature. We've learned to recognize that biology is not destiny - sex doesn't necessarily determine gender or orientation, nor do fictitious absolutes like blood ratios measure ethnocultural identity, and so in an effort to avoid false generalizing about "others" we endorse individual self-representation, all the while recognizing how society constructs us." "But when it comes to representing the position we call childhood, there is little opportunity in legitimated discourse for children's self-representation and inadequate attention to social constructedness. Recognizing political inequity in literary representations of children, Honeyman proposes a method of reading child figuration in relief to impose as little adult prejudice as possible. This might be impossible for adults, yet it is necessary to attempt."--BOOK JACKET.

The Coffee Paradox
The Coffee Paradox

Author: Benoit Daviron

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2013-07-18

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1848136293

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Can developing countries trade their way out of poverty? International trade has grown dramatically in the last two decades in the global economy, and trade is an important source of revenue in developing countries. Yet, many low-income countries have been producing and exporting tropical commodities for a long time. They are still poor. This book is a major analytical contribution to understanding commodity production and trade, as well as putting forward policy-relevant suggestions for ‘solving’ the commodity problem. Through the study of the global value chain for coffee, the authors recast the ‘development problem’ for countries relying on commodity exports in entirely new ways. They do so by analysing the so-called coffee paradox – the coexistence of a ‘coffee boom’ in consuming countries and of a ‘coffee crisis’ in producing countries. New consumption patterns have emerged with the growing importance of specialty, fair trade and other ‘sustainable’ coffees. In consuming countries, coffee has become a fashionable drink and coffee bar chains have expanded rapidly. At the same time, international coffee prices have fallen dramatically and producers receive the lowest prices in decades. This book shows that the coffee paradox exists because what farmers sell and what consumers buy are becoming increasingly ‘different’ coffees. It is not material quality that contemporary coffee consumers pay for, but mostly symbolic quality and in-person services. As long as coffee farmers and their organizations do not control at least parts of this ‘immaterial’ production, they will keep receiving low prices. The Coffee Paradox seeks ways out from this situation by addressing some key questions: What kinds of quality attributes are combined in a coffee cup or coffee package? Who is producing these attributes? How can part of these attributes be produced by developing country farmers? To what extent are specialty and sustainable coffees achieving these objectives?

The Elusive Ideal
The Elusive Ideal

Author: Adam R. Nelson

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2005-05-10

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0226571904

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In recent years, federal mandates in education have become the subject of increasing debate. Adam R. Nelson's The Elusive Ideal—a postwar history of federal involvement in the Boston public schools—provides lessons from the past that shed light on the continuing struggles of urban public schools today. This far-reaching analysis examines the persistent failure of educational policy at local, state, and federal levels to equalize educational opportunity for all. Exploring deep-seated tensions between the educational ideals of integration, inclusion, and academic achievement over time, Nelson considers the development and implementation of policies targeted at diverse groups of urban students, including policies related to racial desegregation, bilingual education, special education, school funding, and standardized testing. An ambitious study that spans more than thirty years and covers all facets of educational policy, from legal battles to tax strategies, The Elusive Ideal provides a model from which future inquiries will proceed. A probing and provocative work of urban history with deep relevance for urban public schools today, Nelson's book reveals why equal educational opportunity remains such an elusive ideal.