Africa has a long tradition of regional cooperation, its trade and monetary integration schemes being the oldest in the developing world. This paper analyses the state of regional integration with respect to trade and financial relations in selected regional schemes in Central, Southern and West...

The paper examines how developing countries can use existing policy space, and enlarge it, without opting out of international commitments. It argues that: (i) a meaningful context for policy space must extend beyond trade policy and include macroeconomic and exchange-rate policies that will...

Multi-donor budget support is an increasingly important modality for aid delivery, comprising up to30 per cent of central government spending in sub-Saharan African countries. While many donor institutions regard budget support as an improved method of developmental assistance, citing positive...

This paper describes the evolution of intergovernmental relationships on debt rescheduling. It starts describing some experiences that aroused in the 18th Century and which negotiations were carried out, in many occasions, with the help of gunboat diplomacy. The settlement of liabilities that...

Despite the hold of the neoliberal orthodoxy on policy making in developing countries, industrial policy remains important for the promotion of industrial development. However, the context for the design of industrial policy has profoundly changed as a result of new rules governing international...

The concept of “odious debt” regroups a set of equitable considerations that have often been raised in the context of political transitions. This paper explores the grounds of the “odious debt” concept in international law and points out that obligation to repay debt has never been...

Efforts towards economic development in Brazil and India share some common aspects. From the beginning of the 1950s to the end of the 1980s, both countries adopted import substitution policies including high tariffs and non-tariff barriers. Since the beginning of the 1990s, liberalizing economic...

Credit rating agencies (CRAs) play a key role in financial markets by helping to reduce the informative asymmetry between lenders and investors, on one side, and issuers on the other side, about the creditworthiness of companies or countries. CRAs´ role has expanded with financial globalization...

Using simple convergence equations, this paper projects that by mid-century per capita incomes in China and India will on average be about half the US level. In terms of total production, both countries should overtake the USA by 2050. Such developments will affect the advanced economies through...

The globalization of the world economy poses major challenges to the prevailing international economic system. The recent trade-investment system raises the issues of the marginalization of countries, firms, and agents if they are not capable to compete with large successful entities. The system...