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Zonder onderwerpscode: wereldeconomie, ontwikkelingsproblematiek

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This paper examines opportunities for Sub-Saharan African countries to effectively participate in globalization, particularly given the increasing interest of China and India in Sub-Saharan Africa. How can Sub-Saharan Africa fully engage and gain benefits from global network trade? Over the past 15 years Asia has become Africa's fastest growing export market. Asian countries are much more open to trade than Europe or America. There seems to be no evidence to suggest that this trend will not continue in the near future. The authors acknowledge the numerous caveats in Asia's growing interest in the African continent, not least the "resource curse" of exports that are heavily concentrated on oil, minerals, and raw materials, as well as the fierce competition from Asia's cheap manufactured exports. However, they believe that there is strong evidence to suggest a clear potential for South-South cooperation in trade and investment. Drawing on evidence from their extensive research into international value chains, the authors identify five critical factors for effective participation in global network trade: price, speed-to-market, labor productivity, flexibility, and product quality. Underlying competitive performance of these critical factors are a country's policies and institutions. Effective policies, efficient institutions, and the necessary infrastructure will ensure the best outcome for trading countries. To improve the depth and sustainability of these five critical factors, it is important that developing countries create a supportive policy and institutional framework from the outset.

Access to Markets --- Banks and Banking Reform --- Bilateral Trade --- Debt Markets --- Development --- E-Business --- Economic Cooperation --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Free Markets --- Goods --- Incentives --- Inputs --- Interest --- International Economics & Trade --- International Trade --- Investment --- Labor Policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Natural Resources --- Private Sector Development --- Production --- Productivity --- Public Sector Development --- Social Protections and Labor --- Telecommunications --- Trade --- Trade Policy --- Transport --- Transport Economics, Policy and Planning --- Trends --- Value --- Value Added --- Wealth

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August 1995 - Do funding priorities for health and safety policies reflect irrational fears? the disaster of the month - rather than address more fundamental problems? A thousand people were surveyed to gauge popular feelings about funding choices between environmental and public health programs. In developing and industrial countries alike, there is concern that health and safety policy may respond to irrational fears - to the disaster of the month - rather than address more fundamental problems. In the United States, for example, some policymakers say the public worries about trivial risks while ignoring larger ones and that funding priorities reflect this view. Many public health programs with a low cost per life saved are underfunded, for example, while many environmental regulations with a high cost per life saved are issued each year. Does the existing allocation of resources reflect people's preoccupation with the qualitative aspects of risks, to the exclusion of quantitative factors (lives saved)? Or can observed differences in the cost per life saved of environmental and public health programs be explained by the way the two sets of programs are funded? Cropper and Subramanian examine the preferences of U.S. citizens for health and safety programs. They confronted a random sample of 1,000 U.S. adults with choices between environmental health and public health programs, to see which they would choose. The authors then examined what factors (qualitative and quantitative) seem to influence these choices. Respondents were asked about pairs of programs, among them: smoking education or industrial pollution control programs, industrial pollution control or pneumonia vaccine programs, radon eradication or a program to ban smoking in the workplace, and radon eradication or programs to ban pesticides. The survey results, they feel, have implications beyond the United States. They find that, while qualitative aspects of the life-saving programs are statistically significant in explaining people's choices among them, lives saved matter, too. Indeed, for the median respondent in the survey, the rate of substitution between most qualitative risk characteristics and lives saved is inelastic. But for a sizable minority of respondents, choice among programs appears to be insensitive to lives saved. The interesting question for public policy is what role the latter group plays in the regulatory process. This paper - a joint product of the Environment, Infrastructure, and Agriculture Division, Policy Research Department, and the Environment and Natural Resources Division, Asia Technical Department - is part of a larger effort in the Bank to see what can be learned about efficient environmental policy by examining the U.S. experience with environmental regulation. The authors may be contacted at mcropper@worldbank.org or usubramanian@worldbank.org.

Air Quality and Clean Air --- Breast Cancer --- Brown Issues and Health --- Children --- Disease Control and Prevention --- Environment --- Environmental Economics and Policies --- Environmental Health --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Health --- Health Care --- Health Education --- Health Monitoring and Evaluation --- Health Services --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Implementation --- Industrial Pollution --- Industry --- Insurance and Risk Mitigation --- Internet --- Knowledge --- Ozone --- Population Policies --- Public Health --- Risks --- Screening --- Smokers --- Smoking --- Strategy --- Water and Industry --- Water Pollution --- Water Resources --- Workplace

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