Agency is inescapably plural in both concept and measurement. In Sen’s account of agency, i) agency is exercised with respect to goals the person values; ii) agency includes effective power as well as direct control; iii) agency may advance wellbeing or may address other-regarding goals; iv)...

Violence impedes human freedom to live safely and securely, and can sustain poverty traps in many communities. A key challenge for academics, policy makers and practitioners working broadly in programs aimed at poverty alleviation, including violence prevention, is the lack of reliable and...

Africa's industrial performance has been poor and its ability to industrialize successfully is under increasing question. This paper argues that industrialization remains vital to African development. It describes the current global industrial setting and analyses the recent performance of...

There is an ongoing debate on whether or not developing countries suffer a trend deterioration in their terms of trade in their exchange of manufactures with developed countries. In a contribution to this debate, this paper analyses trends in the prices of US imports and exports of manufactures...

The paper explores the conditions making for success in Human Development (HD) in developing countries. For this purpose it defines success in HD in a materialistic and reductionist way as being measured by progress in improving life expectancy and reducing infant mortality rates. Drawing on...

The microeconomic analysis of labour mobilisation and labour relationships in developing countries, though diverse in its hypotheses, methods and results, still nurtures the idea of dualistically segmented labour markets. This binary rural/urban segmentation leaves in the dark an important...

There is growing concern in Southeast and East Asia about the competitive threat posed by China’s burgeoning exports, exacerbated by its accession to the WTO. The threat is not confined to labour-intensive products but spans the whole technological and skill range. At the same time, China is...

While it may be possible to mitigate poverty through social transfers, it is not possible to eradicate the processes that create poverty under capitalism. Eight such processes are discussed: i) the creation of the pre-conditions; ii) petty commodity production and trade; iii) technological change...

The well-known Human Development Index (HDI) encompasses only three rather basic aspects of human welfare. This paper aims to go beyond this, by identifying 11 categories of human development. We next propose plausible candidates as indicators of these categories. We then estimate correlations...

In 1986 the Oxford University Institute of Agricultural Economics was amalgamated into Queen Elizabeth House. The Institute, which came into being in 1913, achieved considerable distinction for its work on the problems of British agriculture under the Directorships of C.S.Orwin and A.W. Ashby....