Finance & Development articles from September 2006

Finance & Development archives from September 2006

Battle of the bulge.(from the editor)(Editorial)
September 1, 2006... BETWEEN now and 2050, the world is expected to gain another 2.5 billion people, mostly in developing countries, before the global population stabilizes at around 9 billion--a huge leap from 2.5 billion in 1950. For economic policymakers,...

Need to boost aid to the private sector.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... We enjoyed your series on "Understanding Growth" (March 2006), but a crucial element is missing: stronger support for the private sector. In the past two decades, the international community has focused on infrastructure financing, debt...

AIDS data falling short?(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... In allocating scarce resources for public health it is essential that decisions be based on unambiguous epidemiology. While the fiscal data that Maureen Lewis uses in her article on "A War Chest for Fighting HIV/AIDS" (December 2005) are...

Barking up the wrong tree.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... It was interesting to read Raghuram Rajan (March 2006) on microfinance. Essentially, he says, do not kill the industry with "kindness." Surprisingly, he doesn't quote World Bank studies that show that microfinance institutions do not reach the...

Lipsky, Caruana join IMF.(John Lipsky appointment)(Jaime Caruana appointment)(International Monetary Fund)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato has recruited two top names to join the Fund. John Lipsky, previously the Vice Chairman of the JPMorgan Investment Bank, will take over as First Deputy Managing Director from Anne Krueger, who steps down on...

Flying more.(airline passenger traffic growth)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Scheduled passenger traffic on the world's airlines is expected to show robust growth over the next three years. With the anticipated good performance of the world economy, airline traffic is expected to rise by 6.1 percent in 2006, 5.8 percent...

Population pressures.(developing countries to improve production for world trade)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Although farm production is expanding faster in developing countries than in developed economies, the poorest nations will increasingly depend on world markets. They will thus be more vulnerable to price fluctuations because their own growth is...

Events in 2006.
September 1, 2006... September 14-15, New York, United States United Nations Conference on Migration and Development September 19-20, Singapore Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank November 9-10, Washington, D.C. Jacques Polak Seventh Annual Research...

Ahead of his time: Laura Wallace interviews economist Robert Mudell.(PEOPLE IN ECONOMICS)(Interview)
September 1, 2006... WHEN Robert Mundell received the Nobel Prize in economics in 1999, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited his "uncommon-almost prophetic--accuracy in predicting the future development of international monetary arrangements and capital...

Booms busts, and echoes: how the biggest demographic upheaval in history is affecting global development.
September 1, 2006... FOR MUCH (and perhaps most) of human history, demographic patterns were fairly stable: the human population grew slowly, and age structures, birth rates, and death rates changed very little. The slow long-run growth in population was...

Global demographic trends.(PICTURE THIS)(Statistical data)
September 1, 2006... DURING the past 50 years, the world's population has increased dramatically--a trend that is projected to continue. Most future growth will occur in less developed countries, where the population is increasing more than five times as fast as...

What is the demographic dividend?(BACK TO BASICS)
September 1, 2006... INDUSTRIAL countries have largely completed what is called the demographic transition'--the transition from a largely rural agrarian society with high fertility and mortality rates to a predominantly urban industrial society with low fertility...

Asia: ready or not: the world's most populous continent must prepare now for an aging population.
September 1, 2006... THE CHALLENGES faced by industrial countries in the West and Japan with the prospective retirement of the "baby-boom" generation are well recognized. Governments face a growing financial burden from pension costs, medical care, and possibly...

Global migration: two centuries of mass migration offers insights into the future of global movements of people.
September 1, 2006... WORLD MIGRATION has been going on for centuries, and free mass migration--of those not coerced, like slaves and indentured servants--has been going on for the past two. The reasons people move are no big mystery: they do it today, as they did...

Can Europe afford to grow old? The EU must face up to recent projections showing that aging will have a major economic and budgetary impact.
September 1, 2006... THE POPULATION of the 25-member European Union (EU) in coming decades is set to become slightly smaller--but much older--posing significant risks to potential economic growth and putting substantial upward pressure on public spending. The...

Reform in Europe: what went right? Successful reformers can offer valuable lessons for the rest of the EU.
September 1, 2006... A CLOUD hangs over continental Europe's future. Its economic and social models, reflecting a penchant for egalitarianism and social solidarity, are increasingly under pressure. Notwithstanding progress on reform, unemployment remains...

Pension challenges in an aging world: except where fertility rates are very low, needed pension system adjustments look manageable.
September 1, 2006... PENSIONS are high on the policy agenda in many developed countries and, increasingly, in developing countries also. This reflects the challenges that demographic changes are creating for pension systems, whether pay-as-you-go (PAYG) or funded....

Investing in the youth bulge: with the right investments, developing countries can turn their large youth populations into a boon.
September 1, 2006... RAPIDLY FALLING fertility rates in most developing countries have led to a "youth bulge"--the largest in history--that will be the next generation of workers, parents, citizens, and leaders. The number of young people aged 12-24 stands at 1.3...

Aging and financial markets: government as risk manager.
September 1, 2006... THE IMPLICATIONS of population aging for financial markets, and for macroeconomic and financial stability, are getting greater attention as the baby-boom generation approaches retirement. For governments, threats to fiscal sustainability have...

Gauging the cost of aging: why population aging is not the main cause of rising government health expenditure in New Zealand.
September 1, 2006... THE AVERAGE person aged 65 or older costs New Zealand's public health system five times as much as the average person under 65. Over the next 50 years, the proportion of the population aged 65 and over is expected to double. Naturally, numbers...

Globalization's losers.(Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Jeffry A. Frieden Global Capitalism Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century W.W. Norton, New York, 2006, 448 pp., $29.95 (cloth). Jeffry Frieden has written a lucid and fast-flowing account of what is now almost the standard...

No time for sleep.(Emerging Capital Markets in Turmoil: Bad Luck or Bad Policy?)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... Guillermo A. Calvo Emerging Capital Markets in Turmoil Bad Luck or Bad Policy? MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006, 547 pp., $45.00 (cloth). At the beginning of the 1990s, the Brady Plan, under which nonperforming commercial bank...

Planners versus searchers.(The White Man's Burden Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much III and So Little Good)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... William Easterly The White Man's Burden Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much III and So Little Good Penguin Group, New York, 2006, 400 pp., $27.95 (cloth). William Easterly divides the world of aid into "planners' and...

From paternalistic to enabling: India needs to adopt a style of government that unleashes the people's entrepreneurial zeal.(STRAIGHT TALK)
September 1, 2006... THE RECENT volatility in the Indian stock market seems to mirror a worldwide reassessment of emerging markets, rather than reflect specific concerns about India's future growth. There is an underlying strength to the Indian economy that will...

Kazakhstan.(COUNTRY FOCUS)(hydrocarbon impact on economy)(Industry overview)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Kazakhstan's economy has performed strongly over the past half decade. A rapid expansion in hydrocarbons production, supported by a prudent macroeconomic policy framework, has led to major economic and social gains. [GRAPHICS OMITTED]