Development and the crisis

How is the crisis different for developing and emerging nations, how should they and the G20 react?

Commentaries

Let developing nations rule

Dani Rodrik, 26 January 2009

There is just possibly a silver lining for developing nations in the present crisis, and it is that they may well emerge collectively with a much bigger say in the institutions that govern economic globalisation. Once the dust settles, China, India, Brazil, South Korea, and a handful of other “emerging” nations will be able to exercise greater influence in the way that multilateral...
International economic cooperation and the home front

Jeffry A. Frieden, 2 February 2009

If the current crisis turns into a disaster on the order of the Great Depression, it will most likely be due to a breakdown of cooperation among the major economies. The history of the modern world economy – and especially of its collapse in the 1930s – makes clear that the principal powers have to work together if they are to maintain an integrated international economic order....
Dealing with the global crisis: A view for the South

Ricardo Hausmann, 17 February 2009

The world saw a crisis coming. Just not this one. The widening US external deficit and the growing surpluses in China, Japan, and the Middle East reflected major global imbalances that would eventually wreck havoc on the world. Analysts such as Martin Wolf and Nouriel Roubini predicted that the world would grow tired of funding the US deficit, causing the US dollar to plunge, long-term rates...
Developing countries and the global crisis

Francisco Rodríguez, 23 February 2009

The “Development and the crisis” theme in Vox’s Global Crisis Debate provides a refreshing counterweight to current discussions’ overwhelming emphasis the effect of the crisis on developed nations. The emphasis in these discussions is so unbalanced that – as Tom Coupé found out interviewing participants at the GDN – most of those coming from developing...
What priorities should (South) African leaders take into the London Summit?

Peter Draper, 16 March 2009

As the global financial crisis deepens, so high-level attempts to contain its fallout intensify, and consequently interest in the London Summit, convened by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for April 2nd, 2009, is very high. The agenda is extensive and potentially far-reaching, albeit opaque to those not directly involved in international financial markets as either participants or regulators...
Establishing a global lender of last resort

Guillermo Calvo, 23 March 2009

The subprime crisis is a massive failure of the shadow banking system that has affected all corners of the capital market and triggered worldwide deleveraging. We are in a severe credit crunch. Savers distrust private-sector dissavers, which gives rise to a fall in aggregate demand and a search for safe assets (“flight to quality”). Therefore, the first priority should be to...
The London Summit and development: A view from the UK's development agency

L Alan Winters, 2 April 2009

VoxEU generated a hugely stimulating debate in the run-up to the London Summit, proposing, analysing, or refining many of the issues that figure in the final outcome – as well as many that do not. This note offers some personal reflections on the outcome of the Summit and the VoxEU debate. One of many casualties of the financial crisis has been the theory of decoupling. Developing countries...
East Asia and the new world economic order

Peter Drysdale, Hadi Soesastro, 7 April 2009

Now that the dust has begun to settle, it’s time to assess British PM Gordon Brown’s claim that the G20 Summit saw the creation of a new world economic order. This was a remarkable event. In less than a year, the leaders of a representative group of twenty of the largest or most important economies in the world met for a second time to address the challenges of global economic crisis...

Fiscal Rules – Help or hindrance?

Anis Chowdhury The University of Western Sydney, Australia, 4 October 2012

Anis Chowdhury (United Nations Economic and Social Commissions for Asia and the Pacific) and Iyanatul Islam (International Labour Organization). A fiscal rule represents legislated and long-term numerical limits on budgetary aggregates pertaining to debts, deficits, expenditures and revenues. In a recent IMF working paper1, Schaechter et al (2012) have reported on a database of fiscal rules...
Development and the Crisis: The Reasoning for Humanitarian Diplomacy and International Humanitarian Interventions in Regions of Conflict, for Group 20 Meeting Mexico, June 2012, by Dr Mark Fernando

Dr Mark Fernando Humanitarian Healthcare, 18 June 2012

Development and the Crisis: The Reasoning for Humanitarian Diplomacy and International Humanitarian Interventions in Regions of Conflict, for Group 20 Meeting Mexico, June 2012. To be sure, it is in the wider macroeconomic interests of all nation states to enable there to be humanitarian diplomacy, humanitarian healthcare initiatives and international...
Fiscal austerity and the youth employment crisis

Anis Chowdhury The University of Western Sydney, Australia, 1 June 2012

Fiscal austerity and the youth employment crisis Iyanatul Islam and Anis Chowdhury[1] Lack of job opportunities for young people has become painfully evident in the advanced economies, and most notably in the Euro zone and the UK. This has emerged against the grim background of a lingering recession. Growth in the Euro zone has been virtually zero in the most recent quarter while...
Greece: an entirely political crisis

18 May 2012

Now that the latest attempt at forming a national government has failed, the Greeks will be voting again on 17 June. If surveys of voting intentions are anything to go by, the crisis is only just beginning to get really nasty. The example of Greece is evidence of the need for reforms to be consolidated and socially fair, since – not least in order to secure greater popular support...
An Advisory Paper for Group 8 and Group 20 Humanitarian Healthcare Diplomacy. Humanitarian Relief to Assist Sub-Saharan Nations with Drought Relief, by Dr Mark Fernando

Dr Mark Fernando Humanitarian Healthcare, 24 January 2012

An Advisory Paper for Group 8 and Group 20 Humanitarian Healthcare Diplomacy. Humanitarian Relief to assist Sub-Saharan Nations with Drought Relief. As the regional climatic conditions seem to display an increase in shortages of rain and therefore locally available water supplies to the very needy and the economically poorest sectors of the populations in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a very...

Development and the Crisis: The Reasoning for Humanitarian Diplomacy and International Humanitarian Interventions in Regions of Conflict, for Group 20 Meeting Mexico, June 2012, by Dr Mark Fernando

Dr Mark Fernando Humanitarian Healthcare, 18 June 2012

Development and the Crisis: The Reasoning for Humanitarian Diplomacy and International Humanitarian Interventions in Regions of Conflict, for Group 20 Meeting Mexico, June 2012. To be sure, it is in the wider macroeconomic interests of all nation states to enable there to be humanitarian diplomacy, humanitarian healthcare initiatives and international...
Fiscal austerity and the youth employment crisis

Anis Chowdhury The University of Western Sydney, Australia, 1 June 2012

Fiscal austerity and the youth employment crisis Iyanatul Islam and Anis Chowdhury[1] Lack of job opportunities for young people has become painfully evident in the advanced economies, and most notably in the Euro zone and the UK. This has emerged against the grim background of a lingering recession. Growth in the Euro zone has been virtually zero in the most recent quarter while...
Development in Crisis

Ronald U. Mendoza UNICEF, 1 March 2009

The global financial crisis could harm the poor—and in particular poor children—in profound ways, with effects that could outlast the crisis itself. This important point should not be lost in the discussion of policy responses, particularly since food and fuel price shocks in 2008 have already harmed millions of people in the developing world. The present crisis and the imminent sharp economic...
The call for the “regulatory state”: Challenges for developing countries

Christian von Drachenfels VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, 3 February 2009

After the initial shock the debates about the global financial crisis resulted in a rare agreement between stakeholders whose opinions normally contrast significantly. Politicians, representatives of the business sector and researchers are now vehemently calling for tighter regulation of financial markets. Is this the dawn of a new era where the idea of a “regulatory state” becomes the leitmotif...
Beyond the numbers: using aid to combat the crisis in poor countries requires more than just cash

Geoff Handley Overseas Development Institute, 3 March 2009

The forthcoming G20 summit in London will focus on plans to address the global financial crisis, and perhaps even strike a grand bargain to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude cannot happen again. Although no low income countries are members of the G20, the crisis will have severe and real consequences for them, with net private capital flows to emerging markets forecast to fall from $929bn in...