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Human Development
On the Cusp of a Genuinely Transformative Agenda?
Gabriele Köhler
The recently published UN Secretary General's Synthesis Report on the SDGs fails to address the real issues as it refuses to investigate the root causes of the problems.
Why Asia is Probably Poorer than We Think
Jayati Ghosh
Asia's 'success' in reducing poverty uses a flawed system for measuring income on the basis of an average value based on Purchasing Power Parity and ignores food insecurity.
   
The Social Value of Employment and the Redistributive Imperative for Development
Andrew M. Fischer
The author argues public policy should strengthen redistributive mechanisms to foster synergies between the social values of employment, and human and economic development.
More of the Same, Just Prettier
Gabriele Köhler
The new recommendations for the Post-2015 MDG Agenda remain mired in neo-liberalism and have very little substance to offer.
   
Human Security and the Next Generation
of Comprehensive Human Development Goals
Gabriele Koehler, Des Gasper, Richard Jolly, Mara Simane
2015 marks the target year of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the UN in 2000. The goals have not yet been fully achieved due to various reasons, and the unfulfilled agendas need immediate attention. This paper makes a case for extending the MDGs beyond 2015 but significantly reshaping them: to make progress towards goals more explicitly rights-based and participatory, to prioritise economic and social equity and environmental sustainability, to insist on the centrality of employment and decent work, and to move away from the outdated and oversimplified North-South dichotomy.
Provincial Migration in China:
Preliminary insights from the 2010 population census
Andrew M. Fischer
In anticipation of the forthcoming release of the 2010 national population census of China, this paper compares the limited population data that have been released so far with annual data on natural population increase since the 2000 census in order to construct
a rough but robust measure of net migration for each province in China between these two censuses. The results emphasise the extent of net out-migration from much of interior and western China as well as the degree to which rapid population growth in five coastal growth poles has been due to net in-migration.
   
Affordable Medicine: A big step forward
C.P. Chandrasekhar
The recent judgement by India's Controller of
Patents granting Compulsory License to an
Indian pharmaceutical company for the production
of a cancer drug, the patent for which is held by
German pharmaceuticals and chemicals giant
Bayer, is not just historic but path breaking.
Statement by Former Staff Members of UNCTAD: Silencing the message or the messenger …. or both?
Since its establishment almost 50 years ago at the instigation of developing countries, UNCTAD has always been a thorn in the flesh of economic orthodoxy. Now efforts are afoot to silence that voice.
   
Financial Architectures and Development: Resilience, policy space, and human development in the global south
Ilene Grabel
In this paper it is argued that the current crisis is proving to be productive of institutional experimentation in the realm of financial architecture(s) in the developing world. The author argues that today there are numerous opportunities for policy and institutional experimentation, and there are clear signs that these opportunities are being exploited in a variety of distinct ways. As compared to any other moment over the last several decades, there are clear signs of fissures, realignments and institutional changes in the structures of financial governance across the global South.
Beyond GDP: Measuring our progress
Charles Seaford, Sorcha Mahoney, Mathis Wackernagel, Joy Larson, Réne Ramírez Gallegos
It is now widely accepted that one must move beyond viewing GDP as the critical measure of a nation's progress and recognise it for what it is - a measure of economic exchange, which is itself a means to an end; the 'end' being the achievement of 'sustainable well-being'. In this paper, the authors focus on ways of measuring environmental sustainability and well-being, as well as offering a view from the global South which entails measures of both of these.
   
Austerity Measures Threaten Children and Poor Households
Isabel Ortiz, Jingqing Chai and Matthew Cummins
In the wake of the food, fuel and financial shocks, a fourth wave of the global economic crisis began in 2010, viz., fiscal austerity. Updating earlier research by UNICEF, this working paper examines the latest IMF government spending projections for 128 developing countries, comparing the three periods of 2005-07 (pre-crisis), 2008-09 (fiscal expansion) and 2010-12 (fiscal contraction). It discusses the possible risks of the adjustment measures for social expenditures and summarises a series of alternative policy options.
The Consequences of Increasing Access to Education
Jayati Ghosh
Globally, there has been a rise in student enrolments
in educational institutions, which is a welcome improvement. However, this development gives rise to newer challenges of providing productive employment to meet the aspirations of the newly educated youths. Failure to do so can generate discontent and social tensions that can be destabilising factors for all societies in the near future.
   
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Economics Associates 2016
 

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