#development economics

[floofshy]

Plan to become a world space power.

my plan for my country to become a military leader in technology and spaceflight is to lower as many regulatory barriers to amateur rocketry as possible. Everyone should be able to take up building a rocket if they feel like. * Maybe public transport to public rocket test sites in all major cities. * Maybe try to replace sports with rocket design contests. It used to be javelin toss. Now it is rocket-propelled infantry-lunched precision spear strike. * Maybe a government funded program to compensate those were were crushed by an errant hobbyist rocket. Importantly, we have no export controls on rockets. Rockets are a product anyone can make and anyone can sell to anyone who buys. (Notably, we do regulate rockets with explosive warheads; this is the the fig-leaf we use to deny claims arms trafficking. We don't do arms trafficking anymore than pick-up exporters are.) With amateur rocketry as a popular national past-time, we should have a deep pool of talent for commercial excellence for any national rockery company we might hope to found. Other countries discourage amateur rocketry with regulation and liability, so it should be easy to fill this niche by specializing our culture. In contrast, you can't do this to become a major software center, because everyone has a computer and thus programming has attracted a near maximum number of hobbyist. Plus, everywhere wants to be the next silicon valley. Let us hope that my country does a minimal number of accidental missile strikes on foreign territory.

[oupacademic]

Maternal and newborn health remains a critical issue in the health agenda of developing countries around the world. In 2013, 289,000 women died from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, 2.6 million babies died from premature childbirth during the last three months of pregnancy or during delivery, and 2.7 million babies died as newborns.

While life expectancy has increased worldwide in recent decades, dramatic health inequalities persist across the world despite efforts to expand the supply of health services to disadvantaged populations. However, more emphasis is now being placed on demand strategies in an effort to change behavioral patterns related to maternity and childbirth, including covering direct costs, promotion of social and cultural changes, and introduction of incentives. Read more in The World Bank Research Observer: Changing Behavioral Patterns Related to Maternity and Childbirth in Rural and Poor Populations: A Critical Review

Image via Unsplash

[the-funtime-autocrat]

“The development of the country must be fostered in stages. It must start with the construction of infrastructure, that is, the provision of food and basic necessities for the people by methods which are economic, cautious and conforming with principles. Once the foundation is firmly established, progress can be continually, carefully and economically promoted. This approach will prevent incurring mistakes and failures, and lead to the certain and complete achievement of the objectives.”

Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927-2016) King of Thailand (1946-2016).

[thatgpaismine]

17/04 30 days till Finals.

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here, the stresses of life finally got to me. This studyblr helped me focus and get things done because I had a goal in mind, and now that I am a month away from finals I have decided to do the same. The plan is to upload one picture a day of my work with my goals and then try to update it at night with how much work I managed to do.

Today’s goal: Get at least 50% through my critical book review for my Developmental Economics class. Present coding project in front of my class. Today is a study in bed day since I hurt my leg the day before.

Success: yes!

[the-funtime-autocrat]

The feminization of the workplace has coincided with decline in the formerly strong ideals of society. More time is spent on Human Resources, Sensitivity and Inclusion training than development strategies. An equalization of talents and staff members has reduced the possibility of an effective merit system to develop, and pushed the weak into positions without the required ability, while the strong are isolated and their abilities rejected or left inactive. The inability, and unwillingness of management to be strong and authoritative have resulted in offices resembling the micro-versions of Somalia, abeit a warlord would be better. To become a strong business, strategy and structure are the norm with a strong authoritative leadership. Long-term development strategies, a low time preference, and a stabilization of costs over violent cost-cutting, will result in macro stability and future growth. Growth and stability should be the norm over stagnation and decline.

Me.

[the-funtime-autocrat]

Important as tariff protection may have been in the development of most NDCs, it was - I repeat - by no means the only, nor even necessarily the most important, policy tool used by these countries in promoting infant industries. There were many other tools, such as export subsidies, tariff rebates on inputs used for exports, conferring of monopoly rights, cartel arrangements, directed credits, investment planning, manpower planning, R&D supports and the promotion of institutions that allow public-private cooperation. Tariffs were not, and are not, the only policy available to a state intent on developing new industries or upgrading old ones. In some countries, such as Germany up to the late nineteenth century or Japan before the restoration of its tariff autonomy in 1911, tariff protection was not even the most important tool for infant industry promotion. Indeed, there was considerable degree of diversity among the NDCs in terms of their policy mix, depending on their objectives and the conditions they faced. For example, the USA used tariff protection more actively than Germany, but the German state played a much more extensive and direct role in infant industry promotion than its US counterpart. As another example, Sweden relied upon public-private joint activity schemes, far more than say, Britain did.

Ha-Joon Chang, “ Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective.”

[firstoccupier]

Seasonal Compassion Is a Failed Operating Model

By Cliff Potts, CSO & Editor-in-Chief, WPS News A Predictable Pattern Every year, institutions across the developed world engage in a predictable, short-lived surge of concern for poverty, homelessness, and economic precarity. The timing is not accidental. It coincides almost entirely with the Christmas season. During this period, corporations, governments, faith institutions, and media…

Seasonal Compassion Is a Failed Operating Model

[firstoccupier]

Remittances Explained: How Overseas Income Shapes the Philippines—and the Host Countries

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS NewsBaybay City, Leyte, Philippines — March 4, 2026 Remittances are often described simply as money sent home by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). In practice, they function as a core economic mechanism shaping household stability, national policy incentives, labor-market behavior, and even host-country workforce strategies. This essay examines…

Remittances Explained: How Overseas Income Shapes the Philippines—and the Host Countries