Category: Front Page

Webinar Summary – “Small is Beautiful”: A New Era in China’s Overseas Development Finance?

By Hua-Ke (Kate) Chi On Thursday, January 26, the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center hosted a webinar discussion for the 2023 update of the China’s Overseas Development Finance (CODF) Database, a global, harmonized, validated and geolocated database recording loan commitments from two major development finance institutions (DFIs) in China, the China Development Bank […]

The Global Diffusion of Special Economic Zones: Evidence from Ethiopia and Vietnam

By Keyi Tang There are over 5,000 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the world. About 75 percent of developing economies and almost all transition economies use these geographically bound areas in which governments facilitate industrial activity through fiscal and regulatory incentives and infrastructure support in their early stages of industrialization. Why have SEZs traveled so […]

The Political Economy of Special Economic Zones: The Cases of Ethiopia and Vietnam

There were over 5,000 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the world, according to the  United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2019. About 75 percent of developing economies and almost all transition economies use SEZs in their early stages of industrialization. While countries identify SEZs in different ways, they are defined as geographically […]

Chart of the Week: How Climate Transition Spillover Risks Could Affect Barbados’s GDP

By Amanda Brown Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley spoke at the opening of the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27), calling on powerful countries and institutions to commit to supporting climate vulnerable countries. From unlocking private sector finance to addressing loss and damage, Prime Minister Mottley highlighted the need to acknowledge and take action on the widespread impacts […]

“Small is Beautiful”: A New Era in China’s Overseas Development Finance?

After providing a staggering amount of finance for overseas development projects in the wake of the global financial crisis, Chinese overseas development finance has been on a general downward trend for several years. What is the status of China’s overseas development finance in the COVID-19 era? And looking forward, how likely is China to return […]

GDP Center Round-Up: Fall 2022 Global Economic Governance Book Talk Series

By Amanda Brown The Fall 2022 Global Economic Governance Book Talk Series convened five distinguished scholars across four webinars to discuss their recent books, spanning topics from the key to successful development to capital flight in Africa. In September, Stefan Dercon opened the series by unpacking what is behind the “development bargain” for developing countries. […]

GDP Center Round-Up: Fall 2022 Global China Research Colloquium

By Christina Duran From post-pandemic industrialization to COVID-19 and southern African sovereign debt, researchers from around the world explored a variety of topics as part of the Fall 2022 Global China Initiative Research Colloquium over the past four months. The webinar series kicked off in September 2022, with a discussion led by Dr. Justin Yifu […]