Globalization And Economic Diversification

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on bloomsburycollections.com. This volume brings together new contributions from renowned academic scholars, from experts on economies in transition and from the United Nations, the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as other international agencies. It aims to answer fundamental questions and spell out policy options to address the challenges for economies in transition. The volume includes comparative studies focusing on all transition economies, including Central and Eastern Europe, as well as regions such as Western Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

"This volume brings together new contributions from renowned academic scholars, from experts on economies in transition and from the United Nations, the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as other international agencies. It aims to answer fundamental questions and spell out policy options to address the challenges for economies in transition. The volume includes comparative studies focusing on all transition economies, including Central and Eastern Europe, as well as regions such as Western Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States."--Publisher's description.

We show that gender inequality decreases the variety of goods countries produce and export, in particular in low-income and developing countries. We argue that this happens through at least two channels: first, gender gaps in opportunity, such as lower educational enrollment rates for girls than for boys, harm diversification by constraining the potential pool of human capital available in an economy. Second, gender gaps in the labor market impede the development of new ideas by decreasing the efficiency of the labor force. Our empirical estimates support these hypotheses, providing evidence that gender-friendly policies could help countries diversify their economies.

This volume brings together new contributions from renowned academic scholars, from experts on economies in transition and from the United Nations, the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as other international agencies. It aims to answer fundamental questions and spell out policy options to address the challenges for economies in transition. The volume includes comparative studies focusing on all transition economies, including Central and Eastern Europe, as well as regions such as Western Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

This volume shows that in today’s globalized world, clusters are an important factor in explaining the different growth rates of firms, cities and regions. Drawing on the expertise of an international contributor team, it covers topics such as clusters and small and medium-sized enterprise competitiveness, innovation and science parks, clusters and multinationals, and information and communication technology clusters. It reveals great diversity in terms of the origin of clusters, the organizational relationships at play, and the characteristics of the firms involved. Taking lessons from a rich variety of literature and empirical cases, the book provides valuable insights for regional development and industrial policy. Economic Clusters and Globalization will be of interest to scholars and policymakers in economic geography, regional studies, entrepreneurship and international business.

This book combines the human development approach and innovation economics in order to explore the effects that structural economic change has on human development. While economic diversification can provide valuable new social choices and capabilities, it also tends to lead to more complex decision processes and changes to the set of capabilities required by people to self-determine their future. Within this process of structural transformation, social networks are crucial for accessing information and social support, but networks can also be a root cause of exclusion and inequality reproduction. This implies the need to encourage innovation and economic diversification beyond production expansion, focusing on the promotion of human agency and social inclusion. This book provides such a modern perspective on development economics, emphasizing the role of social networks, economic diversity and entrepreneurship for social welfare. The author discusses how innovation, social networks, economic dynamics and human development are interlinked, and provides several practical examples of social and micro-entrepreneurship in contexts as diverse as Peruvian rural villages and Brazil’s urban areas. The interdisciplinary perspective put forward in this book illustrates theoretical and methodological methods of exploring the complexity of development in a practical and relevant way. It also provides useful information about structural factors which need to be considered by practitioners when designing pro-poor growth policies. Furthermore, the coverage of the core concepts of innovation, networks and development economics, enriched with multiple examples, makes it a valuable resource for scholars and advanced students of modern development economics.

Kazakhstan has the potential to become an economic leader in Central Asia. Relying on oil and gas alone, however, will not produce the long-run level of growth needed to meet this potential. Reforms geared to improve the business climate, enhance competitiveness, and increase private sector participation are essential. This book examines reforms to accelerate economic diversification in the country. This involves not only modernizing and using public resources in agriculture more efficiently to increase productivity, but also transitioning of manufacturing toward high-potential exports to help the country’s industrial development and create employment opportunities. Upgrading innovation of oilfield services and improving transport and logistics are important to increase participation in the global value chains.