News and Events
New publication: State, Business and Growth in Post-Apartheid South Africa
It's twenty years this month since Nelson Mandela was freed after serving 27 years in prison (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/11/newsid_2539000/2539947.stm). Expectations of a new South Africa that would support pro-poor growth were high. But have the anticipated levels of pro-poor growth materialised?
In their new paper, State, Business and Growth in Post-Apartheid South Africa, University of Cape Town Professor of Economics Nicoli Nattrass and Professor of Politics and Sociology Jeremy Seekings investigate why South Africa's economic performance following democratic transition has failed to meet expectations. Focusing particularly on the emergence of politically well-connected black corporate elites, they look at why state-business relations remain fragile and highly fragmented and the prospects for pro-poor growth.
This study forms part of IPPG's major project investigating state-business relations across India and a range of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Read State, Business and Growth in Post-Apartheid South Africa
New book by IPPG researcher
IPPG researcher Paul Hare's latest book, Vodka and Pickled Cabbage: Eastern European Travels of a Professional Economist, has just been published. The book covers the period from Paul's first visit to Eastern Europe in 1968 (coinciding with the tragic end of the Prague Spring) through to the latest stages of EU enlargement in 2004 and 2007. It is a mix of travel tale; economic and political history; and economic accounts of central planning, the issues involved in building a market-type economy, and the particular problems faced by the transition economies in preparing themselves for EU accession.
Whilst not formally part of the IPPG programme, the book looks at institutions and their critical importance for a well functioning market-type economy. Indeed it was thinking about such issues in the context of the transition economies that led to Paul, an academic at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, being involved with IPPG in the first place. Thus the book highlights the importance of protecting private property rights and private business contracts, and gives examples of how things can go badly wrong when property and contracts are not protected. Beyond this, it discusses instances of poor business environment where old and poorly performing firms are protected by the state, and where conditions for the entry of new firms, generally vital for a dynamic private sector, are not well developed. Analysis of this topic relates to the broader SBR theme within IPPG. Last, the book also discusses the area of trade liberalisation and the institutions that are needed to support freer and more open international trade. Overall, while the book does not provide a recipe for growth, it tries to make clear that until the 'right' institutions were in place, the transition economies were unlikely to prove very successful economically.
Read more about Paul's IPPG work in Ghana and a number of IPPG papers by Paul for IPPG, free to download at http://www.ippg.org.uk/publications.html
Vodka and Pickled Cabbage: Eastern European Travels of a Professional Economist is published by Athens Press, GPB10.99, available from Amazon.
This is Africa magazine: Picking winners: the return of industrial policy
Dr Adrian Leftwich is quoted in the FT Group magazine article which looks at
how the financial crisis is leading to a re-evaluation of how the state can promote economic development.
See the article here
Winners of the GDN Conference Awards
IPPG researcher Dr. Dibyendu Maiti of the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, was awarded Second Prize in the category Regional Integration - Convergence Big Time or an Opportunity Wasted? at the Eleventh Annual Global Development Conference in Prague, in January 2010.
The five awards received 485 entries, with Jean-Philippe Platteau Professor of Economics, University of Namur and James Robinson, Professor of Government at Harvard University amongst the jury members for the final stges.
Dr Maiti won his prize for his paper on Regional Openness, Income Growth and Disparity across Major India states during 1980-2004, which draws on insights from his IPPG work.
For more on the awards:
http://gdnetcomms.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/awards-and-medals/
Watch Dibyendu Maiti at the awards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI72XsvRMv8
NEWS RELEASE: Analysing the economics and politics of state-business relations in Africa and India – new research findings
The first results from IPPG's major project investigating state-business relations across India and a range of countries in sub-Saharan Africa are now available.
The findings, which range from a new index that compares the effectiveness of state-business relations in Indian states, to a study of institutional weakness in post-apartheid South Africa, share the aim of identifying the political and economic factors affecting the relations between states and businesses and which shape the institutions (both formal and informal) which govern them.
- Read more and access research highlights here
IPPG researcher wins the prestigious African Professorship Competition
IPPG researcher Dr Jean Claude Saha, of the University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon, emerged as one of the top laureates at the14th edition of the Professorship competition, known in French as the Concours d'Agregation en Sciences Juridiques, Politiques, Economiques et de Gestion, organised every two years by the Conseil Africain et Malgache pour l'Enseignement Superieur (CAMES).
CAMES is an international organisation that manages higher education in Francophone African countries, and this competition is aimed at promoting deserving African university lecturers to the rank of Professor.
This year, more than 90 African lecturers took part in the competition, 36 of whom were in the Economics category. Candidates came from nine countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Togo, Senegal and Gabon). In Economics, nine candidates succeeded. Dr Jean Claude Saha, in part thanks to his IPPG paper, emerged in second position. Following this success, Dr Saha becomes Professor Saha.
Links:
CAMES: http://www.cames.bf.refer.org/spip.php?rubrique13
See media coverage [in French]: http://www.lanouvelletribune.info/200911124695/societe/14eme-concours-dagregation/-cames.html
Conference: Rural territorial dynamics: a Latin American perspective
Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Quito, Ecuador
9 September 2009
This seminar presented the latest results from IPPG's Rural Territorial Dynamics research cluster in Ecuador and Peru, with some results of an initial phase in Bolivia. The research examines the institutional underpinnings of inclusive growth processes in rural territories. The seminar was opened by Ecuador's minister of agriculture. Dr. Ramon Espinel.
Two case studies, Tungurahua in Ecuador and Cuatro caminos in Peru, illustrated growth findings and where poverty and/or inequality were reduced, with a field trip to Tungurahua revealing some remarkable institutional reforms.
Read more
Workshop: Investment Selection and Investment Policy in Ghana Accra, 5 November 2009
Workshop Poster
Ghana seems to have found its way in the last decade, achieving decent growth rates, noticeable improvements in living standards, and very respectable rates of investment. Nevertheless, there are widespread feelings in the country that Ghana could be doing even better, and problems with the investment environment might well form part of the explanation.
Minister Hannah TettehProfessor Paul Hare and his researcher, Felicia Owusu Fofie, both from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, were in Accra, Ghana for the closing policy workshop of their research project on Ghana (funded by DFID). The workshop was attended by around 40 business representatives and policy-makers, including two government ministers, both of whom delivered very interesting presentations. Paul Hare was interviewed by one of Ghana's main broadcasters, and for Ghana's daily newspaper, The Daily Graphic.
Preview research (final version end 2009): The Institutional Context of Industrial Investment Selection: A Case Study from Ghana
You can also download the Heriot-Watt case study on State-Business Relations: State-Business Relations and Economic Growth in Ghana.
Researcher on the road: In search of Malawi's business elites
Think that researchers work in ivory towers? Think again. On the road in search of Malawi's business elites, University of York, IPPG PhD student Henry Chingaipe encountered hidden archives, malaria and buses that went nowhere.
Henry's acount of his fieldwork experiences. The joys and pitfalls of doing an historical institutionalist inquiry in Malawi will form an appendix to his PhD (Institution Formation, Maintenance and Change: the Politics of State-Business Relations in Malawi).
Comment: Nobel Prize decision highlights significance of institutions
This year's Nobel Prize in economics has been jointly awarded to the political scientist Elinor Ostrom, of Indiana University, and the economist, Oliver Williamson, of the University of California, Berkeley (12 October).
Elinor Ostrom has been awarded the Economics Nobel for her pioneering work on the governance and decentralised management of common pool resources. For poor people and others living in natural resource-based development contexts, such resources, including pastures, forests and fish stocks, are vital. Prior to Ostrom's research, privatisation or state ownership were regarded as the main governance options to address what has been described as the "Tragedy of the Commons". Drawing on extensive and meticulous evidence, Ostrom highlighted and documented the success - and often superiority - of a third policy avenue, where local users had formulated and implemented rules and enforcement systems that ensured sustainable outcomes. Ostrom's ideas have influenced IPPG's research on the Forest Rights Act in India
Oliver Williamson's work provides a conceptual basis in the understanding of why informal institutions, such as social networks, are crucial in underpinning economic transactions in the early stages of economic development; and why individuals often band together to form organisations in order to reduce the 'transaction costs' of dealing directly with each other via contracts. Relating to other individuals through an internal organisational hierarchy, or through relational contracts such as networks, is often more efficient than relating to them through contracts in a marketplace. Williamson highlights the importance of non-market institutions in mediating economic activity in developing and transition countries, where formal institutions such as courts and bankruptcy laws are not yet in place.
Williamson's thinking has been important in many of the projects undertaken by IPPG researchers. See:
- Research on Contracting Institutions, a cluster of five IPPG research projects examining the nature of contracting institutions and the far-reaching implications on the investment decisions and growth prospects of small and medium sized firms and farmer-households.
- Informal Institutions in Transition: How Vietnam's Private Sector boomed without Legal Protection, Kunal Sen and Liesbet Steer, 2008.
- Transaction Costs and Institutional Arrangements in Potato Marketing by Small Producers in Rural Peru, Javier Escobal and Denice Cavero, 2007.
Moreover, and from an IPPG point of view, what is particularly interesting and important about this jointly-awarded Nobel prize and the work of the two distinguished Laureates is its implicit recognition that the processes which help to shape effective economic institutions are political ones. It highlights that the disciplines of economics and political science each have a significant contribution to make to our understanding of how effective institutions are formed, sustained and changed - a theme that has been central to much IPPG work.
Read the news release for the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Read the scientific background for the 2009 Nobel Committee decision.
Professor Kunal Sen, Professor of Development Economics and Policy in the School of Environment and Development at the University of Manchester
Dr Adrian Leftwich, Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics at the University of York
Co-directors, Institutions for Pro-Poor Growth (IPPG)
Event: The role of industrial policy in development
Overseas Development Institute15 October 2009 09:00-10:45hrs
This event brings together Justin Yifu Lin, Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President of the World Bank, and Ha-Joon Chang, Reader in the Political Economy of Development, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, following their recent high profile debate. The debate, in the September 2009 issue of Development Policy Review, asked Should industrial policy in developing countries conform to comparative advantage or defy it? Both support a strong role for the state in promoting economic development, but differ on the specific role that industrial policy can play.
The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has invited them both to further the discussion on what role industrial policy can play in promoting development. Presentations from the speakers will be followed by comments from Dirk Willem te Velde (ODI), who will discuss the topic in light of the ongoing work with Institutions for Pro Poor Growth on state-business relations and industrial policy in a number of African countries, and Karen Ellis (ODI), who will discuss the topic in light of her recent work on competition policy in developing countries.
More than fifty people signed up in the first two hours of the event going online and ODI plans to stream the event live (see www.odi.org.uk for more)
How non-state actors influence budget outcomes in Zambia
A new study published today (15 October 2009) explores how different interest groups in Zambia influence the adoption of pro-poor budgets. The IPPG study, How non-state actors lobby to influence budget outcomes in Zambia, by Samuel M. Bwalya, Ezekiel Phiri and Kelvin Mpembamoto, all senior personnel at the Zambia Revenue Authority, forms part of IPPG's wider exploration of state-business relations in Africa.
This paper examines the role non-state actors can play in shaping tax and expenditure policies through institutional arrangements which allow their participation in the budget process. The findings show that while pro-poor budgetary measures have been adopted in Zambia, the political reality is that professional and commercial interests appear to have greater influence. Their technical skills, grasp of procedures, contacts and knowledge of appropriate access routes give them a tactical advantage. Meanwhile pro-poor groups such as civil society organisations (CSOs) are politically less effective. Consistent with emerging IPPG findings that political processes shape both the form and effectiveness of institutional arrangements for poverty reduction, the authors recommend a role for donors in helping to improve technical capacities and lobbying skills of such pro-poor groups. They also suggest realignment of institutions such as the Zambia Business Council and Zambia Business Forum.
See abstract
Download pdf
Just published: Analysing forest rights reform in India
As the rights of local people in forest landscapes receives renewed international attention, a new IPPG paper explores the implementation of India's breakthrough Forest Rights Act (2006).
India has the largest numbers of inhabitants in the world who depend on forest for at least part of their subsistence and cash livelihoods - 275 million poor rural people (27 percent of the total population), according to World Bank figures (2006). Whilst the Forest Rights Act is a major piece of enabling legislation, the "prize" itself - the allocation of rights on the ground - depends on implementation.
The research project on which this paper is based, part of IPPG's research on the Politics of Property Rights, is undertaking detailed research in three states in India (West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh) and will present its findings in a series of research papers supported by filmed testimonies from the forest-dwellers themselves. This new paper provides the historical and political context behind the landmark legislation. It shows that both institutional innovation and implementation require effective political action if the intended beneficiaries are to experience the intended gains of reform.
Read the Forest Rights Act study.
IPPG e-newsletter - September 2009
IPPG's latest e-newsletter is now available. Highlights include:
- Headlines in India: IPPG researcher in the news with a study into contract labour
- Co-director of IPPG writes a column in the Financial Express on The State of Capitalism
- South Africa's business forums: IPPG's on-going research into the issues surrounding job creation
- New IPPG publication - State-business relations: constructing an effective SBR index for Indian states
South Africa: presenting SBR research back to business
University of Cape Town Professor of Economics Nicoli Nattrass and professor of Politics and Sociology Jeremy Seekings are conducting a South African case study of how state-business relations are shaped by the historical growth path and by labour-market institutions inherited from the past, but which are strongly influenced by policy changes (notably black economic empowerment). They argue that South Africa's growth path will only become 'pro-poor' when institutional changes are made to facilitate a more labour-demanding growth path. This, however, would require compromises from organised labour. Their ideas have been aired in business forums as part of their ongoing research. See Professor Nattrass's paper for the Centre for Development and Enterprise on the challenges of job creation.
IPPG: in the news in Malawi
Land reform was a hot issue during Malawi's recent general elections. IPPG researcher Dr Blessings Chinsinga, of Chancellor College, University of Malawi, used the opportunity to outline some of the issues and findings from his study on land reform in a double-page spread in Malawi's The Nation newspaper. The article appeared on 29 July 2009.
The feature is not available online but you can read Dr Chinsinga's original transcript here
(Please note that the text may differ slightly from the version as published).
State-business relations: constructing an effective SBR index for Indian state
Massimiliano Cali, Siddhartha Mitra and Purnima Purohit's new paper for IPPG focuses on the measurement of a specific economic institution - the relation between state and business.
To date, this area has received relatively little attention, and the new paper represents the most comprehensive effort to date to construct indices that systematically measure the quality and intensity of SBRs. For the first time, the indices are constructed at the sub-national level, for states within a country (India) rather than at national level.
The State of Capitalism by Prof Kunal Sen
Read Kunal Sen's article on the impact of institutions in India's business performance in the Financial Express (17th July 2009).
NEWS: Indian industry dependent on a forgotten workforce, new study reveals
A new IPPG study on the use of contract labour in India's manufacturing sector found surprisingly high levels of contract workers being used - in some cases, as many as three times the official estimate. IPPG researcher Dr. Dibyendu Maiti's findings made headlines across India when he presented his paper at a conference at the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) New Delhi in Delhi in July 2009. The research, conducted across two major industrial states, West Bengal and Gujarat, also found that that minimum wage and other contract labour laws are widely violated.
Read Dibyendu Maiti's research
Read the news release here
See the conference programme: The Informal Sector in South Asia: Organisational Dynamics, Institutional Determinants, Interlinkages and Development
Delhi, India: 27 - 28 July 2009
IPPG e-newsletter - June 2009
IPPG's June e-newsletter is available here. Highlights include:
- Parliamentary showcase for IPPG study on land rights in Malawi
- The role of institutions in Tanzania's coffee market - impact of new findings
- Event report: Industrialisation and State-Business Relations in Andhra Pradesh
- New IPPG publications - including Growth and three-dimensional poverty in Sub-Sahara Africa: Does Legislative Democracy Play a Role?
The role of institutions in Tanzania's coffee market - a case study
IPPG PhD student Shireen Mahdi recently stimulated policy dialogue in Tanzania with her policy note on the role of institutions in Tanzania's coffee market. The main impact of her note, currently being finalised as a World Bank country policy note, was to raise the profile of institutions as obstacles to or drivers of pro-poor agricultural growth.
Recent event: IPPG presentation at the Houses of Parliament
Minister for Africa, Ivan Lewis MP, was the keynote speaker at IPPG's presentation, The Growth Game: The institutions of development and the development of institutions in Africa and South Asia, at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday 4th March 2009. Lord Chidgey chaired the meeting, hosted by the Africa All Party Parliamentary Group with the All Party Group on Overseas Development (APGOOD). IPPG speakers included:
- Dr Adrian Leftwich, Co-director IPPG – read Adrian's presentation
- Professor Kunal Sen, Co-director IPPG
- Dr Blessings Chinsinga, University of Malawi – read more about Blessings' research
Recent event: IPPG Ph.D. presentations
IPPG Ph.D. students (from India, Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania) presented their work so far to a panel of academics from the Universities of York, Manchester, Greenwich and Malawi, Heriot Watt University and ODI. A full report is available.
Seminar: Malawi's land reform plans under the spotlight
An IPPG research study, published in December 2008, found serious shortcomings in Malawi's plans for far-reaching land reforms, currently being piloted in the south of the country.
See the Malawi research page for the news release and read the report from the World Bank seminar on Land Reform, Food Security and Agricultural Productivity (Malawi, December 2008).
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Last modified: Feb 2010