. Developing countries will account for almost all the increase in the world's labour force over the next 25 years; most countries, especially in Africa, will experience very rapid labour force growth. . Labour-intensive development has been spectacularly successful in some countries and others...

. Lowering interest rates and, thus, the cost of borrowing in the rand zone (Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa) is a priority to promote investment and economic growth. . Local-currency interest rates in these countries are driven by those on rand-denominated transactions. Reducing...

. A growing recognition of the need to delimit the role of the government, to promote the market framework, and to rely on the private sector as the engine of growth, offers the prospect of a new beginning in rural development in Africa. . Rural people must take a more dominant role, both in...

• Environmental policy should be inspired by the recognition that the environment is everyone’s business; all social actors must be involved in environmental management • Policies that implicitly subsidize a wasteful and environmentally destructive use of resources are pervasive: reforms...

OECD Members, like those of the European Union, have created a new culture of policy interdependence and mutual respect. This gives the lie to the idea that cultures are deterministic, backward-looking realities that prevent some countries from developing and help others to do so. International...

Expectations of a broader convergence of living standards worldwide have spread at the same time as emerging markets and mature democracies seek to attract foreign investment in order to accelerate economic growth. In this increasingly competitive global environment, the protection of property...

Three novel macroeconomic policy challenges are discussed in this paper: the macroeconomic implications of China’s emergence; the implications of intensifying financial integration; and the interaction of Asia’s foreign exchange regime with monetary policy in the OECD area. First, China may...

Many OECD Member countries and a large number of the developing countries are suffering from extensive unemployment, both in short and long-term forms. Based on a five-part schema of labour market problems, this paper summarises and evaluates the effectiveness of labour market policies and...

One of the priorities set out in the <I>Capital Flows Initiative</I> of the NEPAD is to increase private capital flows to Africa, whereby providing African economies with longterm affordable and sustainable resources to finance their development. In this respect, lower debt costs may be of utmost...</i>

Can devaluations and exchange controls be co-ordinated at the regional or global level, to lessen their beggar-thy-neighbour character? Probably not without co-ordination mechanisms among monetary and fiscal authorities like the ones found in the EU. How precisely the mechanisms may apply to...