Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 4 - November 2017) - Oxford University Press: Development Economics

Africa is at a critical inflection point. After decades of disappointing performance a combination of sound macro policies and a commodity price bonanza has led to a dramatic and long overdue surge in African growth rates and concomitant improvement in social indicators.This impressive performance has now created its own challenge for African leadership-the heightened aspirations of their own people and the expectation of the world at large. And responding to this challenge will definitely require more than staying the course-more of the same will not work. It willrequire bold and tenacious pursuit of multifaceted policies and initiatives that will call for intellectual integrity and single-minded determination combined with political courage at home and statesmanship abroad.It is in this context that the experience of the other emerging markets economies may provide pointers as African leaders grapple with the complex multidimensional issues of not just maintaining but accelerating economic growth, prosperity and well-being of their populace. To set the stage fordefining the opportunities and the promise that can lie ahead, this report sets out alternative scenarios of what the outcomes could be but not predictions of what they will be. This study also outlines a framework and action agenda that can deliver Africa's promise.

Price : Rs.2495

Catch Up analyzes the evolution of developing countries in the world economy from a long-term historical perspective, from the onset of the second millennium but with a focus on the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century. It is perhaps among thefirst to address this theme on such a wide canvas that spans both time and space. In doing so, it highlights the dominance of what are now developing countries and it traces their decline and fall from 1820 to 1950. The six decades since 1950 have witnessed an increase in the share of developingcountries not only in world population and world income, but also in international trade, international investment, industrial production, and manufactured exports which gathered momentum after 1980. This book explores the factors underlying this fall and rise, to discuss the on-going catch up in the world economy driven by industrialization and economic growth. Their impressive performance, disaggregated analysis shows, is characterized by uneven development. There is an exclusion of countriesand people from the process. The catch up is concentrated in a few countries. Growth has often not been transformed into meaningful development that improves the wellbeing of people. Yet, the beginnings of a shift in the balance of power in the world economy are discernible. But developing countriescan sustain this rise only if they can transform themselves into inclusive societies where economic growth, human development, and social progress move in tandem. Their past could then be a pointer to their future.

Price : Rs.695

This book examines in the context of South Asia, four inter related dimensions that constitute the central policy challenges of our time: consolidating democracy, confronting violent extremism, overcoming mass poverty, and addressing the challenge of climate change. These dimensions areexplored at the country-specific as well as the regional level, by some of the leading scholars and eminent public figures from the region, and interconnected by the editors through a new perspective. Consolidating democracy in societies with varying degrees of hierarchical rigidity requires governments to give space to civil society and provide institutional access to the under-privileged strata of society over governance decisions that affect their life. Such empowerment requires rapid povertyreduction through inclusive growth and creation of high wage employment. Apart from currently exclusive institutional structures in the economies of South Asia, a major hurdle in achieving inclusive growth is climate change, which has a relatively greater adverse effect on the poor. Mitigation andadaptation measures in the face of climate change require regional cooperation in South Asia for joint water shed management, improved efficiency of irrigation and water use, development of heat-resistant varieties of food grains, and developing decentralized food stock silos to give quick accessover food grain to the people in case of severe shortages. This requires cooperation and coordinated policy efforts among South Asian countries. The editors advocate that a prerequisite for such efforts is a new approach based on inter-state peace and cooperation that could facilitate the establishment within individual nation states of institutional links between democratic structures, development initiatives, managing violence andconserving the environment.

Price : Rs.1850

The world economy has been in a crisis mould since 2007. What started as a sub-prime crisis in the residential mortgage market in the US, resulted in a global financial crisis, uneven recovery and persisting uncertainties with new challenges to several areas of public policy. The eruption ofthe Sovereign debt crisis in some countries in the euro area has led to a setback to the incipient recovery. The emerging markets which appeared somewhat resilient in the initial stage, have since been subjected to uncertainties. In this backdrop, this book addresses evolving complex interlinkagebetween monetary, financial, and fiscal policies across the globe. The book is organized into three distinct themes. First, the impact of the crisis on fiscal positions and fiscal implications of the measures undertaken to deal with the crisis on the global economy are narrated. Second, cross-country experiences with special emphasis on the euro area economies aswell as India are explored. Finally, issues relating to the interaction between monetary, fiscal and financial policies are analysed, with emphasis on public debt management, sovereign debt restructuring, taxation and regulation of the financial sector and sub-national finance. The concludingchapter presents the emerging challenges.

Price : Rs.995

Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world by territory and is blessed with abundant natural resources. Since independence some 20 years ago, the country has transformed itself into a dynamic market-oriented economy. Over the last 10 years, its economic growth rate has been among thehighest in the world, thus reaching high middle-income country status, with low rates of poverty and unemployment. In December 2012, the President of Kazakhstan introduced "Kazakhstan 2050", a vision and agenda for the country, which postulates that Kazakhstan will join the ranks of the top 30 developed countries by 2050, not just in terms of per capita income, but in terms of broader measures of economic,social, and institutional development.This book written by a team of international experts presents an independent assessment of what will be needed to achieve this vision. Based on a review of Kazakhstan's socioeconomic development over the last 20 years and analysis of the outlook of the global economy, the volume explores howKazakhstan can build the foundations for an inclusive modern society in seven priority areas by: building, first of all, a strong human resource base; managing its energy resources sustainably; growing a green economy; pursuing balanced and efficient urban and regional development; creating adiversified, modern knowledge economy; becoming fully integrated with the rest of the world; and, underpinning all else, building effective and inclusive institutions.The assessment concludes that the vision is very ambitious, but broadly feasible, provided no sense of complacency sets in. It presents options for short-, medium-, and long-term action in each of the seven priority areas. Recognizing that there are no blueprints for success, and that Kazakhstanfaces many uncertainties, the book also concludes with a set of eight principles that can help guide policy makers on a pathway toward the vision of Kazakhstan 2050.

Price : Rs.1995