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On Planning for development in an urban world
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Urban
Development and Economics - Supplementary Digital Study Pack
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Academic
Year 2013/2014:
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From
Finance & Development, September 2013, Vol. 50, No. 3
Beyond the Household
Remittances that migrants send home to their families also have a major impact on the overall economy
Ralph Chami and Connel Fullenkamp
Remittances—private income
transfers from migrants to family
members in their home country—
are good news for the families that
receive them. Often sent a few hundred dollars
at a time, the remittances increase disposable
income and are generally spent on
consumption—of food, clothing, medicine,
shelter, and electronic equipment. They have
been growing for decades (see Chart 1). Remittances
help lift huge numbers of people
out of poverty by enabling them to consume
more than they could otherwise (Abdih, Barajas,
and others, 2012). They also tend to help
the recipients maintain a higher level of consumption
during economic adversity (Chami,
Hakura, and Montiel, 2012). Recent studies report
that these flows allow households to work
less, take on risky projects they would avoid if
they did not receive this additional source of
income, or invest in the education and health
care of the household. In other words, remittances
are a boon for households.But...
Capital Risk Flight
Rabah Arezki, Gregoire Rota-Graziosi, and Lemma W. Senbet
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, widely considered among the world’s richest countries in terms of
mineral deposits, also regularly sits high on various lists of the world’s poorest countries.
Each year, it loses billions of dollars in tax revenue as wealthy individuals and multinational
corporations take advantage of weak tax legislation and enforcement to funnel profits abroad,
including to foreign financial centers. A similar situation plays out repeatedly in many
countries in Africa and other parts of the world.
Closer to home
Hideaki Hirata, M. Ayhan Kose, and Christopher Otrok
Despite all the talk of globalization, business cycles seem to be becoming more regional.
The inexorable forces of globalization and regionalization have reshaped the world economic
landscape over the past quarter century. While international trade flows have been growing
at a much faster rate than global output, trade flows within regions of countries have been
playing an even more prominent role in world trade. Economic linkages within regions have
also become much stronger with the proliferation of regional trade agreements. Moreover,
while the volume of global financial flows has reached unprecedented levels since the mid-1980s,
overshadowing the increase in global trade over the same period, financial flows within
regions have also been on the rise for the past 15 years, especially in Europe and Asia.
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Academic
Year 2012/2013:
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From
UN-HABITAT
The State of World Cities 2012/2013
Prosperity for cities
This is a time of crises. This is also
a time for solutions.
Indeed, the world is currently engulfed in waves
of financial, economic, environmental, social and
political crises. Amidstthe turmoil, however, we
are also witnessing valiantand creative attempts at
different levels and by different actors to seek for solutions.
The State of the World’s Cities Report 2012 presents,
with compelling evidence, some of the underlying factors
behind these crises that have strongly impacted on cities.
It shows that a lopsided focus on purely financial prosperity
has led to growing inequalities between rich and poor,
generated serious distortions in the form and functionality
of cities, also causing serious damage to the environment –
not to mention the unleashing of precarious financial
systems that could not be sustained in the long run.
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Academic
Year 2011/2012:
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Locating cities on global
circuits
By Saskia Sassen
This paper discusses the cities that have the resources which enable
firms and markets to be global. It considers the new intensity and
complexity of globally-connected systems of production, finance and
management which may disperse production, yet need (relatively few)
networks of cities to provide their organizational and management
architecture. This produces new geographies and hierarchies of
centrality - particular cities and regions that have key roles in
globalization. Many such cities become far more closely linked to the
global economy than to their regional or national economies - and this
can have harsh consequences locally, pushing out firms and people that
are not within the internationalized sector. The paper discusses why
certain cities retain such importance, when production is so dispersed
and when telecommunications and rapid transport systems have limited
the advantages of spatial concentration. It also considers the
dependence of global cities on each other; a crisis in one key centre
often brings problems rather than opportunities for others.
Cities in a globalizing
world: from engines of growth to agents of change
- By Willem van Vliet
This paper describes the key role that city authorities and their civil
societies should play in mediating the relationship between economic
globalization and human development so that cities act not only as
engines of growth but also as agents for greater social justice and
environmental sustainability. In a globalizing and urbanizing world,
urban governments have a much more important role in guaranteeing that
citizen needs are met and citizen rights are respected. This is not a
conventional public-sector-led, professionally determined role but one
more rooted in participatory democracy and partnerships with citizens,
both to redress the limits of market mechanisms and to ensure urban
livability.
Globalization and social
exclusion in cities: framing the debate with lessons from Africa and
Asia
- By Jo Beall
This paper considers the contradictory roles demanded of city
governments as they seek to keep their cities competitive in an
increasingly globalized world economy while also having increasing
responsibilities for addressing social problems, and making local
economic development less exclusionary. After reviewing debates on
globalization, social exclusion and their interconnections, the paper
discusses the impact of globalization on the sweepers in Faisalabad
(Pakistan) and on livelihoods in Johannesburg. In Johannesburg, the new
socially excluded are those who are superfluous to the requirements of
the global economy and Johannesburg's position within it. Exclusionary
processes associated with globalization (including changes in the
international division of labour) graft themselves onto local dynamics
of social exclusion. The scope for government action at national and
city level is also reduced by the downsizing of governments, and
liberalization, privatization and deregulation.
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Academic
Year 2010/2011:
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Working
Paper No. 2010/30 -
World Institute for Development Research
The Face of Urban Poverty
Explaining the Prevalence of Slums in
Developing Countries
Ben C. Arimah - March 2010
"One of the most visible and enduring manifestations of urban poverty
in developing
countries is the formation and proliferation of slums. While attention
has focused on the
rapid pace of urbanization as the sole or major factor explaining the
proliferation of
slums and squatter settlements in developing countries, there are other
factors whose
impacts are not known with much degree of certainty. It is also not
clear how the effects
of these factors vary across regions of the developing world. This
paper accounts for
differences in the prevalence of slums among developing countries using
data drawn
from the recent global assessment of slums undertaken by the United
Nations Human
Settlements Programme. The empirical analysis identifies substantial
inter-country
variations in the incidence of slums both within and across the regions
of Africa, Asia as
well as, Latin America and the Caribbean. Further analysis indicates
that higher GDP…"
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U.K. House
of Commons
International Development Committee
Urbanisation and Poverty
Volume I - 2009
Some of DFID’s work to address urban
poverty is impressive and is making a noticeable
contribution towards meeting the Millennium Development Goal 7 target
on slum
upgrading. However, the Department needs to sharpen and refine its
approaches to urban
poverty. The last five years have seen rapid urbanisation, almost all
of it within developing
countries, yet DFID—along with other donors—has downgraded its support
to urban
development over this period. This process should be reversed.
The Department overwhelmingly focuses its efforts to address urban
poverty in Asian,
rather than African, countries. This balance needs to be redressed.
Africa is the world’s
fastest urbanising region and it has the highest proportion of slum
dwellers. Without a new
and comprehensive approach to urban development in Africa, a number of
cities could
face a humanitarian crisis in as little as five years’ time, given the
huge expansion of their
urban populations. Addressing urban poverty offers the opportunity to
tackle wider
development issues such as: unemployment and crime; social exclusion;
population
growth; and climate change and the environment.
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Academic
Year 2009/2010:
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From
International Labour Organization
Labour Shares - Technical
Brief No. 01, 2007
In most regions of the world, the share of national
income that goes to labour has been declining over the past two or
three decades.
This coincides with the advent of the latest wave of globalization, and
several studies provide evidence that globalization has contributed to
the decline in labour shares.
Several aspects of globalization, and in particular financial openness
and financial crises, have a detrimental impact on labour incomes.
The downward trend indicates that either wages or employment creation
in the formal sector have not kept pace with economic growth during
globalization, or that a combination of both occurred.
A falling labour share is thus the mirror-image of slow wage growth and
low employment elasticities. It is consistent with the finding that
economic growth does not create jobs at the rate it used to, and that
income gains for workers have often not kept pace with growth.
Moreover, a shift of incomes away from labour and towards capital has
contributed to rising inequality.
To make globalization fair, it is important to reverse the shift of
factor shares and to increase the share of national incomes that
accrues to labour.
Measuring
Labor's Share - By Alan B. Krueger, 1999
Getting Income Shares Right - By Douglas
Gollin, 2002
Re-measuring Labor's Share - By Andrew T.
Young and Hernando Zuleta, 2008
Getting income shares right: a panel data investigation
for OECD countries - By Aamer S. Abu-Qarn and Suleiman
Abu-Bader, 2007
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| UN: World Economic Situation
and Prospects
World Economic Situation and
Prospects 2010
The global
economy is on the mend …
The world economy is on the mend. After a sharp, broad and synchronized
global downturn in late 2008 and early 2009, an increasing number of
countries have registered positive quarterly growth of gross domestic
product (GDP), along with a notable recovery in international trade and
global industrial production. World equity markets have also rebounded
and risk premiums on borrowing have fallen.
… but recovery is fragile
World
Economic Situation and Prospects 2009
It was never meant to happen again, but the world economy is now mired
in the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression. In
little over a year, the mid-2007 subprime mortgage debacle in the
United States of America has developed into a global financial crisis
and started to move the global economy into a recession. Aggressive
monetary policy action in the United States and massive liquidity
injections by the central banks of the major developed countries were
unable to avert this crisis. Several major financial institutions in
the United States and Europe have failed, and stock market and
commodity prices have collapsed and become highly volatile. Interbank
lending in most developed countries has come to a virtual standstill,
and the spread between the interest rate on interbank loans and
treasury bills has surged to the highest level in decades. Retail
businesses and industrial firms, both large and small, are finding it
increasingly difficult to obtain credit as banks have become reluctant
to lend, even to long-time customers. In October 2008, the financial
crisis escalated further with sharp falls on stock markets in both
developed and emerging economies. Many countries experienced their
worst ever weekly sell off in equity markets
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UN: World
Economic and Social Situation
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Global
Economic Prospects and the Dev. Countries (GEPDC)
(various years)
Global
Development Finance (GDF) (various years)
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UNESCAP:
Statistical Indicators for Asia and the Pacific
Data Center
Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific
Statistical Yearbook
for Asia and the Pacific 2009
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World Bank:
Africa
Development Indicators(ADI) (various years)
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ILO:
Global
Employment Trends and Related Reports
- Economic
and Labour Market Analysis Department (EMP/ELM)
- Employment
Trends (EMP/TRENDS)
- Policy
Analysis and Research (EMP/ANALYSIS)
- Employment
Policy Department (EMP/POLICY)
- Country
Employment Policy (EMP/CEPOL)
- Employment-Intensive
Investment Programme (EIIP)
- Job
Creation and Enterprise Development Department (EMP/ENTERPRISE)
- Boosting
Employment through Small Enterprise Development (EMP/SEED)
- Cooperatives
(EMP/COOP)
- Multinational
Enterprises (EMP/MULTI)
- Skills
and Employability Department (EMP/SKILLS)
- ILO
Programme on Crisis Response and Reconstruction (ILO/CRISIS)
- Social
Finance
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WTO:
International Trade
Statistics (ITS) (various years)
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