South Asia Economic and Policy Studies – Serie

Part A explores cases in selected countries in South Asia in detail, primarily focusing on the opportunities and challenges of job creation in the manufacturing sector, as well as related issues, including constraints on manufacturing-sector growth in South Asia, exports and trade linkages, participation in valuechains and the role of investment.

This book discusses history of mental construction of the border between India and Bangladesh. The book also explains how, after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, everyday encounter between people from India and Bangladesh have further embedded a feeling of us versus them.

This book explores various aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regimes with regard to plant-variety protection and farmers’ rights;

This book gathers a collection of essays presented from the perspective of a spatial planner whose working life has been immersed in South Asia. It concerns some of the serious challenges that need to be confronted in the South Asian context, including the externalities and ethical concerns that arise in the process of development. The mid-20th century saw a considerable focus in the West on assisting those countries emerging from European colonial domination. Theories were propounded and international agencies established to facilitate a process called ‘development’ in these countries. However, even after six decades of extraordinary expenditures and effort, millions among the targeted populations remain illiterate, live in abject poverty, and are the most vulnerable groups to external disasters, debilitating diseases and untimely death. In addition, the book reveals the theoretical inadequacies that negatively impact ongoing development efforts. Lastly, it identifies an availablealternative set of science-based approaches that could facilitate the serious pursuit of equitable progress in South Asia and potentially also in other low and middle income countries.

This book draws lessons from the story of Sri Lanka’s post-conflict development in the context of a struggle for socio-political reconciliation, a turbulent world economy, and difficult internal and external political challenges.

Outlining important policy requirements for Bangladesh to become an upper middle-income country, the book presents research work conducted during the project “Changing Labor Markets in Bangladesh: Understanding Dynamics in Relation to Economic Growth and Poverty,” sponsored by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada. Bangladesh has experienced remarkable economic growth rates over the last decade. The country has recently been upgraded from a low-income country (LIC) to a lower-middle-income country (LMIC) as per the World Bank’s classification system. By 2024, the country also aspires to graduate from the United Nation’s list of least developed countries (LDC). The 7th five-year plan sets an ambitious target of 8 percent growth in GDP by 2020. There are also steep development targets to be achieved under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. All these will require an enormous leap forward from the current level of economic growth rate and sustaining itin the future. The situation also calls for considerable structural change in the economy, facilitating large-scale economic diversification. Rapid expansion of labor-intensive and high-productivity sectors, both in the farm and nonfarm sectors, is thus crucial for Bangladesh. Further, this should take place in conjunction with interventions to enhance productivity, jobs and incomes in traditional and informal activities where there are large pools of surplus labor. Given its relevance for Bangladesh and applicability to many other developing countries, the book offers a unique and pioneering resource for researchers, industry watchers as well as policy makers.

This book discusses history of mental construction of the border between India and Bangladesh. The book also explains how, after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, everyday encounter between people from India and Bangladesh have further embedded a feeling of us versus them.

This book explores various aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regimes with regard to plant-variety protection and farmers’ rights;

This book gathers a collection of essays presented from the perspective of a spatial planner whose working life has been immersed in South Asia.

Outlining important policy requirements for Bangladesh to become an upper middle-income country, the book presents research work conducted during the project “Changing Labor Markets in Bangladesh: Understanding Dynamics in Relation to Economic Growth and Poverty,” sponsored by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada.

Gathering contributions from leading academics and international trade experts from South Asia, this book is dedicated to the late Dr. Saman Kelegma, whose untimely death in June 2017 left a huge void in the field of regional economic cooperation.

Gathering contributions from leading academics and international trade experts from South Asia, this book is dedicated to the late Dr. Saman Kelegma, whose untimely death in June 2017 left a huge void in the field of regional economic cooperation.

This book offers a selection of intensely researched essays focused on the critical planning objectives and policy priorities that would enhance the promotion of inclusive growth in a developing country.

This book offers a selection of intensely researched essays focused on the critical planning objectives and policy priorities that would enhance the promotion of inclusive growth in a developing country.

This book examines the theory and global evidence on structural transformation along with stylised facts and implications using, among others, a dynamic panel model, for South Asia. The characteristics of the structural transformation process in Bangladesh bring out the relevance of a comprehensive and inclusive South Asian ‘brand’ in view of the challenges of large population size, high burden of poverty, rising inequalities and its compulsion to achieve rapid and sustained inclusive development.The analysis highlights several distinct characteristics of Bangladesh’s structural transformation including changes in value added, trade, employment, productivity, formal-informal jobs, and opportunities for low-skilled workers. The book suggests that the manufacturing sector could not create the required number of jobs and generate rapid absolute and relative productivity gains in the Bangladesh economy. Although the services sector has largely led output and employment growth, servicessubsectors with strong labour absorptive capacity have low average productivity. Hence, growth-enhancing structural transformation led by these subsectors is likely to be less dynamic than required for rapid employment-creating growth in the economy.The book’s analysis on COVID-19 and cyclone Amphan shows that an integrated disaster and development paradigm is needed for Bangladesh. An inclusive and health and well-being focused structural transformation presents the pathway to advance the people-centred approach to development in Bangladesh through both vulnerability reduction and investments in sustainable development that would offset both known and unknown disaster threats. The key for Bangladesh is to skillfully manage the ‘developer’s dilemma’ of achieving both structural transformation in terms of large productivity gains and inclusive growth for reducing poverty and rising inequalities. This book is relevant to students, academicians and development practitioners and others interested in contemporary development.

This book examines the theory and global evidence on structural transformation along with stylised facts and implications using, among others, a dynamic panel model, for South Asia. The characteristics of the structural transformation process in Bangladesh bring out the relevance of a comprehensive and inclusive South Asian ‘brand’ in view of the challenges of large population size, high burden of poverty, rising inequalities and its compulsion to achieve rapid and sustained inclusive development.The analysis highlights several distinct characteristics of Bangladesh’s structural transformation including changes in value added, trade, employment, productivity, formal-informal jobs, and opportunities for low-skilled workers. The book suggests that the manufacturing sector could not create the required number of jobs and generate rapid absolute and relative productivity gains in the Bangladesh economy. Although the services sector has largely led output and employment growth, servicessubsectors with strong labour absorptive capacity have low average productivity. Hence, growth-enhancing structural transformation led by these subsectors is likely to be less dynamic than required for rapid employment-creating growth in the economy.The book’s analysis on COVID-19 and cyclone Amphan shows that an integrated disaster and development paradigm is needed for Bangladesh. An inclusive and health and well-being focused structural transformation presents the pathway to advance the people-centred approach to development in Bangladesh through both vulnerability reduction and investments in sustainable development that would offset both known and unknown disaster threats. The key for Bangladesh is to skillfully manage the ‘developer’s dilemma’ of achieving both structural transformation in terms of large productivity gains and inclusive growth for reducing poverty and rising inequalities. This book is relevant to students, academicians and development practitioners and others interested in contemporary development.

This book presents a selection of multifaceted development issues involving social, economic and environmental aspects, in order to inspire and guide implementation of the United Nations’ SDGs.