Migrant remittances are an increasingly important type of international financial flow for providing both additional resources for development as well as consumption expenditures for poverty alleviation. One geographical area where these flows are quite significant is in the CIS economies both...

This study provides a broad overview of the private housing market in central and eastern Europe and some of the CIS – its history, current conditions and implications for the overall economy. It highlights regional differences, describes the different policy choices that have been made, and...

Migrant remittances are an increasingly important source of income for the transition economies. For many of these economies, remittances are the largest type of international financial inflow and are larger than either capital inflows or official development assistance. These remittance inflows...

This paper provides the text of the Gunnar Myrdal Lecture presented at the U.N. Palais des Nations in 2003. The lecture suggests that the gaps in income per capita between richer and poorer countries largely reflect the quality of their institutions. Institutions, by reducing uncertainty, are...

This paper provides the text of the Gunnar Myrdal Lecture presented at the U.N. Palais des Nations in 2004. The lecture addresses the present economic and political conditions in an integrated Europe and the challenges ahead, particularly how the expansion of the European Union will require...

The impact of the dependence on primary commodities for economic development is analysed within the framework of growth regressions. While there is no evidence of a generalized primary commodity curse, reliance on primary commodities does retard growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Which factors...

This paper discusses the policy options that resource-rich economies need to implement in order to promote capital formation and sustainable development.

Corruption is a significant factor which determines the quality of the “doing business” environment at large. The aim of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of entrepreneurs’ corrupt behavior by looking at two questions: (1) does gender matter in corrupt behavior and (2) can...

Sustainable development cannot be achieved without a more equitable distribution of resources today and tomorrow. This paper highlights that prevailing inequalities are deeply gendered. Understanding this and making policy decisions towards reducing these inequalities is a key condition in...

The EU transfers provided to the New Member States and candidate countries are generally viewed as having been efficiently used in promoting development in these economies. This paper examines the conditionality and institutional arrangements used to manage these transfers, and asks if there are...