Global finance and development

"Global Finance and Development" describes and explains the variety of relationships between finance and development. Finance is broken down into its various aspects in separate chapters on aid, debt, portfolio investment, FDI, microfinance and remittances (see sections three and four for details). Throughout the text finance is presented as a double-edged sword: it is a vital tool towards poverty reduction, helping to fund development, but also more critical approaches remind us about the ways in which finance can hinder development - for example the developmental impact of financial crises, the exploitation of sweatshop labour. It is because of this dual perspective the title 'Global Finance and Development' is the most appropriate, rather than, say, 'Financing Development'. The text develops a number of themes through the different chapters, these include: the relationship between public and private sources of finance in concrete terms - as the changing composition of capital flows to the developing world - as well as the debates about direct funding versus the allocation of credit through commercial financial markets. Another central theme is the interaction of different levels, from the global structure of finance through to local and everyday practices. As such, the text will emphasize the global context, but illustrate its operation through specific and grounded case studies.