Abstract Vertical specialization is a measure of the import content of exports. Given the widely recognized importance of trade in tasks and global production networks, vertical specialization has recently gained the attention of international trade researchers and policy makers. In this note,...

Abstract The massive globalization of production led by large firms in industrialized countries, combined with the policy shift in developing countries toward export-oriented growth, has meant that economic development has increasingly become synonymous with “economic upgrading” within...

Abstract We adopt a ‘parsimonious’ approach to measuring economic and social upgrading over 1990-2009 in four global value chains – apparel, mobile phones, agrofoods and tourism – based entirely on data published by international institutions. Economic upgrading is defined as a...

Abstract We implement a “parsimonious” and operational approach to measuring economic and social upgrading over 1990-2009 in four global value chains -- apparel, mobile phones, agrofoods and tourism -- based entirely on data published by international institutions. Economic upgrading is...

Abstract Aid for Trade is widely heralded as a success in promoting increased trade by developing countries. Increased trade, however, does not automatically translate into greater prosperity for workers or local communities. In a world characterized by global value chains (GVCs) in which large...

Abstract On the record of poverty and inequality in India over the last thirty or so years, the general scholarly view seems to be that there have been substantial declines in money-metric poverty, that there has been no significant over-time increase in inequality, and that the growth in per...

We examine the political economy causes of India's growth acceleration in the early 1990s, the periods of high growth in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the subsequent slowdown since 2011, drawing from the ESID conceptual framework (Pritchett and Werker 2013) and periodisation of growth episodes...

Abstract Recent findings in the economic growth literature suggest that developing countries need to keep a devalued exchange rate to stimulate their long-run economic growth. In light of this view, we assess the alignment of the real exchange rate of Pakistan, a developing country where...

Abstract Within social protection, antipoverty transfer programmes have significantly emerged in developing countries since the late 1990s. The effects of long-term participation and the assessment of the response of children's human capital formation to different levels of exposure are still...

Abstract Using the recent estimates of rural, urban and aggregate poverty rates for 31 developing countries, the present study statistically examines the extent to which the rural sector contributes to aggregate poverty reduction. After adjusting for the effect of rural-urban migration, our...