This study examines the effects of cross-border flows - FDI, FPI, and FBL - on growth and savings rates using data on 56 countries from 1969 through 1998. Very generally, few flow measures are significant determinants of real variables. However, consideration of the initial level of financial...

Few studies address the real effects of international capital flows. Instead of a cross-sectional design, this study exclusively examines time-series data from nine countries. Four cases - Nigeria, Zimbabwe, India, and Pakistan - produce evidence that either FDI or FPI adversely affect growth or...

This review examines the empirical literature on financial flows and economic performance, with particular respect to foreign direct investment (FDI), foreign portfolio investment (FPI), and foreign bank lending (FBL). Few studies report unequivocal positive statistical relations between flows...

Recent studies report that equity market liberalisation positively correlates with total return, which in turn purportedly increases private investment growth. While the finding on reform and performance is generally robust to alternative perspectives on capital account liberalisation that...

This paper analyses the complex interplay between the environmental acceptability of large infrastructure projects and other normative values that may influence policy decisions, such as 'social justice' and 'economic growth'. It explores how historical changes in policy ideas may determine if a...

This paper examines the social impact of a madrasa (Islamic religious school) reform program in Bangladesh. The key features of the reform are change of the curriculum and introduction of female teachers. We assess whether the reform is making any contribution in improving social cohesion in...

The Collier-Dollar approach to aid allocation has been less than fully embraced by donors – even those focused on poverty reduction – and has come into conflict with a different approach based on the Millennium Development Goals. These two approaches are shown to be special cases of a more...

Karl Polanyi wrote 'The Great Transformation' in 1944 which analysed the double movement Europe experienced, from a situation where the market was heavily regulated and controlled in the 18th century to a virtually unregulated market in the 19th century; and the great Transformation in which the...

This working paper has two objectives. The first is to summarise the results of rounds of research from 1973 onwards on the green revolution in South India. It provides background both to the research reported in Harriss-White, Janakarajan et al, 2004, 'Rural India facing the 21st century'...

Does diaspora imply a homeland? For a number of scholars who pioneered the growth of diasporic studies in the 1990s this was the sine qua non of the concept. Under the weight of social constructionist critics, who sought to deconstruct the foundational ideas of homeland and community, more...