We question the empirical foundation of keeping inflation at 5% or below in developing economies. Using System Generalized Method of Moments we investigate the issue in the context of 14 Asian developing countries for the period 1961-2010. We find no robust empirical justification for targeting...

1 Introduction -- 2 Africa's Least Developed Countries: Missed opportunities -- 3 Asia's Least Developed Countries: Policy Lessons -- 4 Central Asia: Three decades after the economic transition -- 5 The Pacific: Development challenges of small island states -- 6 Path dependence and policy as...

This book offers a critical appraisal of the conventional measures and analysis of poverty as well as of poverty reduction policies. Despite greater efforts in reducing poverty since the early 1980s, poverty remains stubbornly high in many parts of the world. This publication argues that the...