This paper investigates the extent of disparities amongst the provinces of China since the economic reform in 1978 up to the most recent year for which data is available. After a brief review of theoretical and in particular recent empirical literature on regional inequality in China it...

This paper argues that the future of the Human Development Index published by the United Nations depends on how successfully this index becomes operational and this is more likely to be possible at the country level for a variety of reasons. With this in mind the paper proposes a method and a...

If, as some recent research seems to suggest, the economic performance of countries that comply with World Bank conditionality is significantly better than that of countries that do not comply, then an important topic for research is the identification of factors that increase the likelihood of...

There is enough evidence to suggest that regional disparities within most developing countries are alarmingly high and probably increasing. This paper analyses regional disparities amongst major states in India to find out if they are on a convergence or further divergence course. It compares...

Some recent empirical research suggests that the implementation of policy reforms is largely dependent on domestic political economy factors. This finding is taken to suggest that aid and adjustment lending should only be provided to those countries that, on the basis of certain characteristics,...

The concept of convergence is extended to non-income components of human development index and the index itself. Evidence of weak absolute convergence is found over 1975-2001. The results are robust and verified by various conditional ß-convergence models and also supported by the evidence of...

This paper analyses the extent and dynamics of inequality amongst the provinces of Iran. It reviews various theoretical propositions for possible convergence and divergence and argues that while the evidence from the more developed countries supports the case of convergence the empirical...

Industry in Sub-Saharan African programme countries is in a severe crisis. Is this affecting the industrial base necessary for future growth and leading to de-industrialization? Or is the industry undergoing a process of efficient restructuring whereby the lack of growth is the result of...