A decade after the Global Financial Crisis, the world economy continues to be on fragile footing. While global growth is gradually recovering in many parts of the world, deep vulnerabilities remain in the global monetary and financial system at a period when support for multilateral institutions is very low in some countries. During these times, […]
In recent decades, rising inequalities in national income and wealth have been accompanied by inequality in living standards between developed and developing countries. A new book, “International Policy Rules and Inequality: Implications for Global Economic Governance” edited by Jose Antonio Ocampo, analyzes the question: to what extent are the rules that govern the global economy […]
Until recently, development finance institutions (DFIs) and development finance have largely been relegated to the background of global policy making and relatively small subfields of economics, political science and sociology in the scholarly literature. That changed in 2014-2015 when nations of the world flocked to join the China-led, new multilateral development bank, the Asian Infrastructure […]
The 21st century has ushered in the emergence of alternative institutions for liquidity provision and development finance, many of which are Southern-led. While this new financing brings real benefits to an architecture that has long been under stress and deemed insufficient, challenges lie ahead. With the addition of Southern-led institutions, there are now more sources […]
Intellectual property rights (IPR) provisions have become a staple of modern free trade agreements since the 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which set minimum standards for IPR protection for World Trade Organization (WTO) members. Many recent bilateral and multilateral trade agreements increase the scope and coverage of IPR provisions and […]
Over the past 15 years, China has become one of the largest investors in the world, with Chinese companies, commercial banks and policy banks making major inroads in every region of the globe. China also launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 with the goal of catalyzing trillions of dollars of investments into […]
Since the Chinese government proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, Chinese investments have been rapidly increasing in BRI countries. The Chinese government’s $113 billion pledge in special funds for investments in 2013 suggests this trend will likely continue. The investment choices that Chinese financial institutions make surrounding power, transportation and other long-lasting […]
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) faces a $110 billion annual gap in financing for climate change. Development finance institutions (DFIs) have a unique role to play in closing this financing gap through correcting key market and government failures and by crowding in private sector economic activity. DFIs have also been asked to play an […]
After years of policy debate and advocacy, the World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) have developed a series of policies commonly referred to as ‘Environmental and Social Safeguards’ (ESS) aimed at preventing and mitigating social and environmental harm related to loan projects. In response to global climate change and inequality, the World Bank […]
In just over a decade Chinese policy banks have emerged as global leaders in development finance in general and in finance for energy projects in developing country governments in particular. According to the China’s Global Energy Finance Database, between 2000 and 2017, the China Development Bank (CDB) and China Export-Import Bank (CHEXIM) provided $225.75 billion in […]