This handbook organizes chapters by sets of policies that are important components of discussions about how to facilitate development. In each chapter, authors identify and discuss the relevant theoretical and empirical literature that describes the fundamental problems that the policies seek to...

The global financial crisis serves as a reminder of the risks of financial globalization. After grappling with surges of capital inflows earlier in this decade, many emerging market and developing economies experienced a sharp reversal of those inflows in late 2008 as a result of the crisis....

This chapter is an index to the methods and terminologies that have been used in this publication titled Development Economics, volume 5. The chapter also highlights the page numbers where these have been used in the publication.

Anyone who undertakes to produce a volume of surveys in economic development must confront the question: Does the world really need another one? The field changes over time and, one hopes, knowledge accumulates. So, one motive is the desire to cover the more recent advances. And indeed, economic...

In this chapter both theory and empirics are used to show that our picture of the processes of economic development changes radically when nature is introduced as a capital asset. Particular features of institutions that fashion societies' use of the natural-resource base are identified and...

From the point of view of economic development, education is the acquisition of knowledge and skills through experiences from conception onwards over the life cycle that increase productivity broadly defined. Education can occur through, but is not limited to, formal educational activities such...

The program evaluation literature for population and health policies is in flux, with many disciplines documenting biological and behavioral linkages from fetal development to late life mortality, chronic disease, and disability, though their implications for policy remain uncertain. Both macro-...

Expanding access to financial services holds the promise to help reduce poverty and spur economic development. But, as a practical matter, commercial banks have faced challenges expanding access to poor and low-income households in developing economies, and nonprofits have had limited reach. We...

This chapter reviews what economists have learned about the impact of labor market institutions, defined broadly as government regulations and union activity on labor outcomes in developing countries. It finds that: (1) Labor institutions vary greatly among developing countries but less than...