-
Blog post
The economic and political consequences of India’s demonetisation
The ruling party at the centre won the Uttar Pradesh state election despite its demonetisation policy having some negative economic impacts on the Indian economy. By combining primary data from surveys of wholesale and retail traders, with secondary data on wholesale markets, this column seeks to analyse why this was so. Experiments in macroeconomic policy are rare. One...
-
Blog post
Building capacity in fragility: Key lessons from Fragility Commission’s 3rd evidence session
Generating effective government capacity is key to growth and development in fragile situations. However, many obstacles prevent governments from building up this capacity including an overwhelming list of problems to solve, weak leadership, corruption within institutions, and pressure from donors. In fragile and conflict situations, governments often have little...
-
Blog post
Star power: Maharashtra starts rating industries by emissions
An Indian state programme is aiming to curb air pollution by facilitating transparency in industry emissions, using ratings and targets that the public can view online. Measuring industry emissions The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) launched a new Star Rating Programme for air pollution on June 5, 2017–World Environment Day. The programme uses smoke-stack...
-
Blog post
Credit bureaus in microfinance: A baseline study
Credit bureaus consolidate borrowers’ creditworthiness records and share them with microfinance institutions, thereby addressing adverse selection and moral hazard problems. Such changes give safe borrowers lower interest rates but can lock those with poor or non-existent credit histories out of the market. Ongoing research in Pakistan investigates this trade-off. For at...
-
Blog post
Bad practices hold back small firms in developing countries
Survey of more than 20,000 small firms suggests better business practices are correlated with higher productivity, firm profits, and rates of survival. Management practices in large firms around the world have been systematically measured and reported in a series of papers by Bloom and Van Reenen (2007, 2010) and Bloom et al. (2012). These papers show that better...
-
Blog post
Five key challenges facing Liberia’s transport industry: Paving the way to market integration
Improving transport connectivity and increasing market integration could improve competition, trade, and potential for growth in small Liberian firms. Transport costs are a key factor in determining market integration. Consequently, keeping transport costs low is critical to economic development, particularly for small firms situated in isolated local economies. In Liberia...
-
Blog post
Waste management in Asia: 1 goal, 5 cities, 5 lessons
Asia’s cities are the engines of incredible economic growth. For many countries, they generate over 80% of GDP and improve the lives of millions of people. But this prosperity comes with a price. Take for example the more than one million tons of solid waste that cities generate every day as they grow. Without proper management, the deluge of solid waste causes severe...
-
Blog post
Has GSP plus status improved Pakistan's garments exports?
In December of 2013, Pakistan acquired the GSP plus status from the European Union, granting member states duty-free access to 96 percent of Pakistani exports to the EU. Pakistan was the second country in all of South and Southeast Asia to receive the trade advantage, giving it a 10 to 14 percent duty advantage over major regional competitors including China, India,...
-
Blog post
Welcome to VoxDev
Today, the IGC launched VoxDev.org in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and and the Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries (PEDL) programme.
-
Blog post
Road to legitimacy: Takeaways from the Fragility Commission’s 2nd evidence session
The road to reforming and rebuilding the legitimacy of a state and its institutions is long and difficult. Elections, even when free and fair, are only a piece of the foundation upon which a state must re-establish trust with citizens and can start to rebuild public services, infrastructure, and its economy. “People don’t need ideas, they need bread.” This statement...
Blog post
Breaking the clientelist trap: Creating demand for good governance in India
A perennial challenge for reformist politicians is how to sustain their governance reforms beyond their first term in office. In poor contexts, clientelist politicians can out-compete reformers by threatening to exclude those who vote against them from accessing public benefits. How can reformers in office counter these tactics, break the clientelist trap and create a...