This paper assesses the industrial performance and capabilities of Nigeria over the last decade. It explores Nigeria's export and production capacity, growth, structure and technological upgrading and compares it to other Sub-Saharan countries. Evidence shows that Nigerian industry is inexorably...

Wherever one looks, many elements conspire to suggest that the Democratic Republic of Congo should have collapsed some time ago under the multiple assaults of its own inadequacies as a state, the extreme heterogeneity and polarization of its populations, and the dislocations of globalization and...

Poverty reduction is the mantra of development policies today. Three out of every four people in the developing world live in rural areas, either directly or indirectly depending on agriculture. Agriculture-led development strategies need to be at the core of any poverty reduction strategy, as...

This study examines the capabilities of self-determination movements in Somalia after the collapse of a central state to explain the variable capacities of groups to provide stable orders and understand why leaders of these movements choose particular strategies. The primary factors shaping...

Uninsured risk has substantial welfare costs, not just in the short run, but also in terms of perpetuating poverty. This paper discusses the scope for extending insurance to the poor in LAC countries. It is argued that insurance provision to the poor could play an important role in a...

The reform of 1989 exposed Hungarian industry to foreign competition and confronted it to the loss of the vast and undemanding COMECON market, the withdrawal of public support and the need for privatisation. Based on twenty-four interviews in pharmaceutical, electronics, automotive and textile...

The relationship between globalization and employment is of growing significance to policy makers in developing countries, but is surprisingly difficult to analyse theoretically and empirically. 'Globalization' means different things to different analysts and it is so multi-faceted that its...

The paper evaluates in depth, the exchange control measures imposed by Malaysia in September-1998. Controls are evaluated using three alternative benchmarks—Malaysia vs. itself (pre-controls), vs. ex-ante forecasts of Malaysia for the year-1999, and Malaysia vs. the other affected East Asian...

The relative costs of trading different goods vary much less than the relative costs of producing them. The costs of trade are also often high. In consequence, as this paper shows theoretically and with simulations, demand elasticities in open economies are much lower than substitution...

Globalization is a pervasive influence on industrialization in the developing world. As the embodiment of technological progress and more open markets, it offers huge productive benefits to developing countries. However, its effects are very uneven. It is driving a growing wedge between the...