Jakob de Haan
This essential research review carefully analyses some of the most influential papers focusing on the relationship between economic and political institutions and economic development. Economic institutions shape economic incentives, such the incentives to become educated, to save and invest, to innovate and to adopt new technologies. Although economic institutions are critical for determining whether a country is poor or prosperous, it is politics and political institutions that determine which economic institutions are present in a country. This review explores these critical relationships and the causes of economic growth, whilst bringing forth the legal, colonial and financial factors, which contribute to economic discrepancies across countries. The text will be a valuable tool for economic researchers and scholars interested in this important subject.
Political Corruption in Africa
Extraction and Power Preservation
Edited by Inge Amundsen
Analysing political corruption as a distinct but separate entity from bureaucratic corruption, this timely book separates these two very different social phenomena in a way that is often overlooked in contemporary studies. Chapters argue that political corruption includes two basic, critical and related processes: extractive and power-preserving corruption.
Charles R. Hankla, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez and Raúl A. Ponce Rodríguez
This book argues that fiscal federalism will consistently deliver on its governance promises only when democratic decentralization is combined with the integration of political parties. It formalizes this argument and, using new data on subnational political institutions, tests it with models of education, health, and infrastructure service delivery in 135 countries across 30 years. It also presents comparative case studies of Senegal and Nigeria. The book emphasizes that a “fine balance” in local governance can be achieved when integrated party structures compensate for the potential downsides of a decentralized state.
Edited by Stefano Ponte, Gary Gereffi and Gale Raj-Reichert
Global value chains (GVCs) are a key feature of the global economy in the 21st century. They show how international investment and trade create cross-border production networks that link countries, firms and workers around the globe. This Handbook describes how GVCs arise and vary across industries and countries, and how they have evolved over time in response to economic and political forces. With chapters written by leading interdisciplinary scholars, the Handbook unpacks the key concepts of GVC governance and upgrading, and explores policy implications for advanced and developing economies alike.
Stefano Ponte, Gary Gereffi and Gale Raj-Reichert
This introductory chapter provides an overview of what global value chains (GVCs) are, and why they are important. It presents a genealogy of the emergence of GVCs as a concept and analytical framework, and some reflections on more recent developments in this field. Finally, it describes the chapter organization of this Handbook along its five cross-cutting themes: mapping, measuring and analysing GVCs; governance, power and inequality; the multiple dimensions of upgrading and downgrading; how innovation, strategy and learning can shape governance and upgrading; and GVCs, development and public policy.