Ideas for Growth:
Cities can catalyse green growth
Cities have huge potential to drive green economic growth and provide a critical laboratory for innovation. At the 2012 Penang Symposium, economists, urban planners, city administrators, environmentalists, and national policymakers came together to debate and share their knowledge on the topic of green urban growth, showing that cities are an indispensable location for dealing with urbanisation, carbon management and economic growth. Tony Venables (Oxford and the IGC) and Danny Leipziger (George Washington and The Growth Dialogue) give their views on the symposium. Read on…
The Power of Ideas
The IGC has been helping the spread of ideas from one side of the developing world to another. The visit of the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar to Sierra Leone - the most high profile visit of an Indian official in many years - is the result of a combination of events that capture the spirit of what the IGC aims to do. To find out more, watch the video below or click here.
IGC researchers present to Commons Select Committee
Researchers from the IGC have presented evidence to the Commons Select Committee on International Development emphasising the importance of effective tax collection for developing countries. Tim Besley of the LSE and member of the IGC steering group, along with Adnan Khan, Acting Deputy Executive Director, submitted a paper on Tax in Developing Countries: Increasing Resources for Development to form part of the UK government’s review of its development policy.
The paper focuses on how governments in developing countries can collect more taxes in order to provide the infrastructure and support needed tor their countries to develop - such as building roads, schools and hospitals. But Besley and Khan point out that this is far from simple. While collecting taxes is essential for countries to grow, in order to do so governments need to spend money in the first place on monitoring people's incomes, company profits, trade at ports, and so on. Without the tax revenue to do this, the process can be extremely difficult to kick-start. Read on...
Mozambique Growth Forum 2012
Mozambique’s economy has a positive outlook, stressed Claudio Frischtak (IGC Country Director - Mozambique) at the Mozambique Growth Forum 2012. The event, bringing together policy-makers, donors, the private sector, civil society and academic researchers, provided an opportunity to discuss current issues facing the fast-growing Mozambican economy. While recent financial crises provide a challenge to the small, but fast growing, Mozambican economy, opportunities could emerge from high liquidity availability and low interest rates in the world markets. Other key participants included former Prime Minister Luisa Diogo, Minister of Trade and Industry Armando Inroga, and IGC Country Director (Ethiopia and Tanzania) John Page. Read on...
Moving up a gear: Can a free bike help a girl's education in northern India?
Watch our latest video from the India Bihar programme to find out, then click here to read more...
Financial crisis hits African trade
The global financial crisis has significantly reduced demand for African exports, and this is not the first time, according to recent IGC research carried out by Nicolas Berman (Graduate Institute, Geneva) and Philippe Martin (Sciences Po). In the immediate term, the challenge is to somehow support Africa’s exporters and bridge the financing gap, thus allowing exporters to continue to serve foreign markets. In future, the research suggests that there may be more stability for Africa’s exports if they increase their share of manufactured exports. Read on...
The IGC in India
Do you know what our team in Delhi works on? Watch this short video to find out.
Development economists need to start thinking about politics
Economists need to start thinking more about the politics of the world's poorest countries if they really want to help them develop, according to Prof. Tim Besley of the IGC in an article for the hugely influential magazine Foreign Affairs. How to ensure that countries go from being 'fragile states' - run by corrupt and unaccountable politicians and frequently devastated by politicial violence - to being 'developmental states' that provide the infrastructure for their economies to grow, is a question that still puzzles economists and should be an area where they focus more attention, according to Besley. Read on...
Rwanda Growth Forum
The IGC Rwanda Growth Forum 2012 brought together international experts on issues core to future economic growth in Rwanda. Four international speakers - Prof. Paul Collier (Oxford University), Prof. Ricardo Hausmann (Harvard University), Prof. Garth Frazer (University of Toronto) and Klauss Deininger (World Bank) - spoke, with senior members of Government moderating discussion and providing responses from the perspective of relevant government institutions. The Growth Forum promoted discussion around three policy issues key to Rwanda’s growth path: the importance of real exchange rate management; the impact of the common external tariff of the East African Community (EAC) and Rwanda’s bargaining position; and aid dependency and how to manage the risks this poses. Read on...
Prof. Hausmann responding to a question while the Minister of Finance looks on.
The IGC in Bihar
What does the IGC do in Bihar? Watch this short video below to find out.
The power of ideas: Indian Minister visits Sierra Leone
The IGC has been helping the spread of ideas from one side of the developing world to another. The visit of the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar - the most high profile visit of an Indian official to Sierra Leone in many years - is the result of a combination of events that capture the spirit of what the IGC aims to do. Read on...
IGC-Indian Statistical Institute India Development Policy conference
A high-level conference was held in New Delhi examining development policy issues for India. Many leading academics, including Mark Rosenzweig (Yale) Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University) and Michael Greenstone (MIT), attended the workshop, along with policy-makers such as NK Singh (MP, Rajya Sabha) and Vijayendra Rao (World Bank). Topics discussed ranged from macroeconomics and finance, to urban labour markets and health. Click here to visit our YouTube channel to watch the videos of the event, or click here to view the presentations.
Agriculture and growth dissemination workshop in Tanzania
New photos are available from the agriculture and growth dissemination workshop recently held in Tanzania. The workshop provided an opportunity for policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders to discuss the findings and policy implications of four important studies undertaken by agricultural economics researchers, including Justin Sandefur and Fulgence J. Mishili. Click here to view the photos and read more about the workshop.
Design and financing of social policy in Pakistan
Would the replacement of inefficient taxes and 'deficit financing' by a single rate value-added tax (VAT) be a more efficient option for Pakistan? What would be distributional effects of such a change be? These are two of the key research areas for the IGC's newest research project on the design and financing of social policy in Pakistan, overseen by Dr Ehtisham Ahmed. Click here to read the full summary of the project.
Structural transformation in Tanzania
The Government of Tanzania aims to transform the nation into a middle income country by 2025; however, what sort of structural transformation will Tanzania be expected to undergo as it grows to middle income status? A new IGC paper assembles data for a set of comparator countries that reached middle income status over the past 50 years and reviews the structure of their economies as they reached this target. It then analyses what would be required for Tanzania to transform into a country akin to these middle income comparator countries. A primary finding from this study is that, in order to cross the threshold into lower middle income status by 2025, Tanzania will need to sustain per capita growth of approximately 5% per year, equivalent to an overall GDP growth of approximately 7.7%, as well as significantly shift its economic structure away from agriculture towards manufacturing. Click here to read the paper.
