One of the central claims of the new generation of neoliberal economists that emerged in the 1960s, especially in the USA, was that market-driven private sector financial institutions were by far the most effective at intermediating capital into the most productive uses (Friedman, 1962; McKinnon,...

An overview -- Introduction / Milford Bateman, Stephanie Blankenburg and Richard Kozul-Wright -- Development prospects in an era of financialization / Richard Kozul-Wright -- Microcredit and development / Milford Bateman -- Country case studies -- Looking through the glass, darkly : microcredit...

There is a growing consensus that the historical evidence shows that development and growth require the impetus provided by a functioning developmental state. Originally conceived through East Asian examples (Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) as a ‘top-down' intervention undertaken by a pilot...

Financial technology, or simply ‘fin-tech', is increasingly seen as one of the key tools to facilitate poverty reduction and local economic development. One article in particular by Tavneet Suri and William Jack published in the leading publication Science has played a hugely influential role...

This paper is an evaluation of the Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) model and network operating in Latin America with UNDP support. Originating in the 1980s as one of the supposedly transforming institutions linked to the neoliberal revolution, the commercialised LEDA model was one of...

Microcredit was once universally lauded in international development community circles as a ‘magic bullet'. Using the example of South Africa, this paper shows that microcredit has actually been an ‘anti-developmental' local financial model, and one of the most calamitous financial sector...

This working paper is produced within the project framework of the Employment Regeneration Programme funded by the EAR, undertaken under the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, and contracted to IMC Consulting Ltd (EuropeAid/114770/D/SV/KOS). It is intended to promote greater discussion about...

Although once universally lauded in international development community circles as a ‘magic bullet', in recent years the concept of microcredit has been increasingly recognised as having had a number of seriously adverse impacts in precisely those countries, regions and localities wherein it...

This paper examines the effectiveness of the Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) model of institutional support for local economic development (LED), a model of LED that became very popular in the 1990's as the neoliberal political project began its global ascendancy. The paper draws upon...