Reform in Viet Nam is a protracted process. Beginning in 1979, it experienced both advances and reversals until 1986, a sudden acceleration in 1989-91, then gradualism hampered by a deepening entrenchment of interests in positions both for and...

This Technical Paper reports on a body of research conducted for the OECD Development Centre by Donald J. Robbins. It examines the patterns and determinants of rapidly rising educational attainment in six Latin American countries — Argentina, Chile,...

In this study, we analyse extended periods of growth in Africa based on panel estimations from 27 African countries during the 1960-1996 period. Only a dozen of such rapid growth episodes are observable in Africa since 1960, and several of them...

A basic feature of development dynamics is the reallocation of labour from low– productivity to higher–productivity activities (generally more capital–intensive and also often more skill–intensive). The expansion of skilled labour supply that...

The 1990s have witnessed pronounced boom-bust cycles in emerging-markets lending, culminating in the Asian financial and currency crisis of 1997-98. By examining the links between sovereign credit ratings and dollar bond yield spreads over 1989-97,...

During the 1990s, China has experienced a surge in imports of services, particularly those of communication, insurance and other business services, despite the fact that the authorities have maintained a plethora of restrictive measures limiting...

This study presents the main developments in the manufacturing industry in Cameroon, based on firm-level data covering the 1980-95 period. The emphasis is on structural factors of competitiveness. A production function and an export function are...

We assess the prospects for growth of African economies up to the year 2010 by modelling structural and policy determinants of growth, under different scenarios for changes in the exogenous factors and economic policies which shape the projections....

In the context of the partnership agreement signed between Tunisia and the European Union in 1995, talks will begin in the year 2000 on the liberalisation of their agricultural trade. Tunisia’s political attachment to Europe will give the country the...

In 1995/96, 47.5 per cent of the population of Bangladesh were still living below the poverty line. While this represents a decline compared to 62.6 per cent in 1983/84, the absolute number of poor people has in fact increased over the same period....

Against the background of Brazil’s highly unequal distribution of income and wealth, and its history of alienation and passivity of the poor, in particular during the years of political authoritarianism, this paper shows how an active civil society,...

In recent years, as China’s reform of state–owned enterprises (SOEs) has gathered momentum, the number of workers made redundant has been rising. Until now, the dismissals have affected only a fraction of the “surplus labour”, which has been...

Apart from size of population and GDP, China and Viet Nam have a good deal in common. Both are economies in transition from socialist central planning to the market. Both were largely agrarian societies on the eve of their reforms and, in both,...

We present estimates, at the State level, of Indian manufacturing Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and Technical Efficiency (TE) from the estimation of production functions for 17 manufacturing industries from 1976 to 1992. Our analysis relates TFP...

Corruption in customs administrations is a major problem in many African countries. Data from the period 1990-96 are used to examine several hypotheses concerning the determinants of customs fraud in Senegal and Mali. Statistical tests using...

How and to what extent can a high degree of global financial integration help the fast-ageing OECD benefit from the delayed ageing process in the non-OECD area? The question is being raised with increasing urgency as it is slowly understood that even...

The recent currency crises in Latin America and Asia have hit countries with strong macroeconomic fundamentals but weak domestic financial systems. Private capital flows, attracted by disorderly financial liberalisation and exchange rate pegs,...

Egypt needs to diversify exports further in order to emerge from its isolation and to draw the maximum advantage from the growth potential offered by trade globalisation. To what extent does the bilateral free trade agreement with the European Union...

This paper presents an overview of the evolution of exchange-rate regimes in Africa and then attempts to assess empirically the impact of exchange-rate policy on manufactured export performance on a panel of major Sub-Saharan Africa countries over...

The signature of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), which entered into force on 1st January, 1995, marked a turning point in efforts to strengthen and extend intellectual property protection....