Little Black Book of Economic Development, 2nd Edition (Economic Development Practitioner)

Little Black Book of Economic Development (2nd Edition)

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Napoleon III had the goal of overtaking London to make Paris the premier financial center of the world, but the war in reduced the range of Parisian financial influence. The Rothschild banking family of France funded France's major wars and colonial expansion. Its innovations included both private and public sources in funding large projects, and the creation of a network of local offices to reach a much larger pool of depositors. It became a powerful and dynamic funding agency for major projects in France, Europe and the world at large.

It specialized in mining developments; it funded other banks including the Imperial Ottoman Bank and the Austrian Mortgage Bank; it funded railway construction. After its defeat in , France had to pay enormous reparations to Germany, with the German army continuing its occupation until the debt was paid. The 5 billion francs amounted to a fourth of France's GNP — and one-third of Germany's, and was nearly double the usual annual exports of France. Observers thought the indemnity was unpayable and was designed to weaken France and justify long years of military occupation.

However France paid it off in less than three years. The payments, in gold, acted as a powerful stimulus that dramatically increased the volume of French exports, and on the whole produced positive economic benefits for France. The Paris Bourse or stock exchange emerged as a key market for investors to buy and sell securities. It was primarily a forward market, and it pioneered in creating a mutual guarantee fund so that failures of major brokers would not escalate into a devastating financial crisis.

Speculators in the s who disliked the control of the Bourse used a less regulated alternative the Coulisse. However it collapsed in the face of the simultaneous failure of a number of its brokers in — The Bourse secured legislation that guaranteed its monopoly, increased control of the curb market, and reduced the risk of another financial panic. France in was overwhelmingly a land of peasant farms, with some handicraft industry. Paris, and the other much smaller urban centers, had little industry.

This was probably due to higher transaction costs, which were mainly caused by inefficient property rights and a transportation system geared more to military needs than to economic growth. Historians are reluctant to use the term "Industrial Revolution" for France because the slow pace seems an exaggeration for France as a whole. The remainder remained little changed. The growth regions developed industry, based largely on textiles, as well as some mining. The persecution of the Protestant Huguenots after led to a large-scale flight of entrepreneurial and mechanical talents that proved hard to replace.

Instead French business practices were characterized by tightly held family firms, which emphasized traditionalism and paternalism. These characteristics supported a strong banking system, and made Paris a world center for luxury craftsmanship, but it slowed the building of large factories and giant corporations. Napoleon had promoted engineering education, and it paid off in the availability of well-trained graduates who developed the transportation system, especially the railways after Paris became world-famous for making consumerism a social priority and economic force, especially through its upscale arcades filled with luxury shops and its grand department stores.

These were "dream machines" that set the world standard for consumption of fine products by the upper classes as well as the rising middle class. In the s, the new railroads brought wealthy consumers to Paris from a wide region. Luxury stores grew in size, and featured plate glass display windows, fixed prices and price tags, and advertising in newspapers. He invested heavily in advertising, and added a wide variety of merchandise. Sales reached five million francs in In he moved to larger premises; sales reached 72 million in The multi-department enterprise occupied fifty thousand square meters with employees.

Half the employees were women; unmarried women employees lived in dormitories on the upper floors. The success inspired numerous competitors all vying for upscale customers. The French gloried in the national prestige brought by the great Parisian stores. Zola represented it as a symbol of the new technology that was both improving society and devouring it. The novel describes merchandising, management techniques, marketing, and consumerism.

Other competitors moved downscale to reach much larger numbers of shoppers. The Grands Magasins Dufayel featured inexpensive prices and worked to teach workers how to shop in the new impersonal environment. Its advertisements promised the opportunity to participate in the newest, most fashionable consumerism at reasonable cost. The latest technology was featured, such as cinemas and exhibits of inventions like X-ray machines used to fit shoes and the gramophone.

Despite the low pay and long hours they enjoyed the exciting complex interactions with the newest and most fashionable merchandise and upscale customers. By the 21st century, the grand Paris department stores had difficulty surviving in the new economic world. In France, railways became a national medium for the modernization of backward regions, and a leading advocate of this approach was the poet-politician Alphonse de Lamartine.

One writer hoped that railways might improve the lot of "populations two or three centuries behind their fellows" and eliminate 'the savage instincts born of isolation and misery. This design was intended to achieve political and cultural goals rather than maximize efficiency.

Don Allen Holbrook

After some consolidation, six companies controlled monopolies of their regions, subject to close control by the government in terms of fares, finances, and even minute technical details. It also subsidized militarily necessary lines along the German border, which was considered necessary for the national defense. Private operating companies provided management, hired labor, laid the tracks, and built and operated stations. They purchased and maintained the rolling stock—6, locomotives were in operation in , which averaged 51, passengers a year or 21, tons of freight.

Much of the equipment was imported from Britain and therefore did not stimulate machinery makers. Although starting the whole system at once was politically expedient, it delayed completion, and forced even more reliance on temporary exports brought in from Britain. Financing was also a problem. The solution was a narrow base of funding through the Rothschilds and the closed circles of the Bourse in Paris, so France did not develop the same kind of national stock exchange that flourished in London and New York. The system did help modernize the parts of rural France it reached, but it did not help create local industrial centers.

The railways helped the industrial revolution in France by facilitating a national market for raw materials, wines, cheeses, and imported manufactured products. Yet the goals set by the French for their railway system were moralistic, political, and military rather than economic. As a result, the freight trains were shorter and less heavily loaded than those in such rapidly industrializing nations such as Britain, Belgium or Germany. Other infrastructure needs in rural France, such as better roads and canals, were neglected because of the expense of the railways, so it seems likely that there were net negative effects in areas not served by the trains.

In the relative decline in industrial strength, compared to Bismarck 's Germany, proved decisive in the Franco-Prussian War. The total defeat of France, in this conflict, was less a demonstration of French weakness than it was of German militarism and industrial strength. This contrasted with France's occupation of Germany during the Napoleonic wars.

By , however, German armament and general industrialization had out-distanced not only France but all of its neighbors. Just before , France was producing about one-sixth as much coal as Germany, and a quarter as much steel. France was a rural nation as late as , but a major change took place after railways started arriving in the s—60s. In his seminal book Peasants Into Frenchmen , historian Eugen Weber traced the modernization of French villages and argued that rural France went from backward and isolated to modern and possessing a sense of French nationhood during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He based his findings on school records, migration patterns, military service documents and economic trends. Weber argued that until or so a sense of French nationhood was weak in the provinces. Weber then looked at how the policies of the Third Republic created a sense of French nationality in rural areas. The book was widely praised, but was criticized by some, such as Ted W. Margadant, who argued that a sense of Frenchness already existed in the provinces before The overall growth rate of the French economy shows a very strong performance in the s and again in the s, with poor performances in the s, s, and s.

The economy was critically hurt by the German seizure of major industrial areas in the northeast. French credit collapsed in and Britain began loaning large sums to Paris. The arrival of over a million American soldiers in brought heavy spending for food and construction materials. Labor shortages were in part alleviated by the use of volunteer and forced labor from the colonies. Inflation was severe, with the franc losing over half its value against the British pound.

France demanded full payment by Germany of the damages it imposed in the German-occupied areas. It also wanted the full cost of postwar veterans benefits. Prime Minister Clemenceau was largely effective against the moderating influences of the British and Americans. France obtained large but unspecified reparations, regained Alsace-Lorraine and obtained mandates to rule parts of former German colonies in Africa.

In January as a response to the failure of the German to ship enough coal as part of its reparations, France and Belgium occupied the industrial region of the Ruhr. Germany responded with passive resistance including printing vast amounts of marks to pay for the occupation, thereby causing runaway inflation. Inflation heavily damaged the German middle class because their bank accounts became worthless but it also damaged the French franc. France fomented a separatist movement pointing to an independent buffer state, but it collapsed after some bloodshed.

The intervention was a failure, and in summer France accepted the American solution to the reparations issues, as expressed in the Dawes Plan. The worldwide decline after affected France a bit later than other countries, hitting around Like many other countries, France had introduced the gold standard in the nineteenth century, meaning that it was generally possible to exchange bank notes for gold.

Unlike other countries e. Great Britain, which abandoned the gold standard in , France stuck to the gold standard until , which caused a number of problems in times of recession and deflation. France lost competitiveness relative to Great Britain, because the latter was able to offer its products at a cheaper price due to the devaluation of its currency after leaving the gold standard.

The French economy only started to recover when France abandoned the gold standard. France's relatively high degree of self-sufficiency meant the damage was considerably less than in nations like Germany. Hardship and unemployment were high enough to lead to rioting and the rise of the socialist Popular Front , which won the elections with a coalition of Socialists and Radicals, and support from the Communists. The election brought a massive wave of strikes, with involving 2 million workers, and their seizure of many factories and stores.

The strikes were spontaneous and unorganized, but nevertheless the business community panicked and met secretly with Blum, Who negotiated a series of reforms, and then gave labor unions the credit for the Matignon Accords. Blum persuaded the workers to accept pay raises and go back to work. Wages increased sharply, in two years the national average was up 48 percent. The imposition of the hour week proved highly inefficient, as industry had a difficult time adjusting to it. He launched a major program to speed up arms production.

The cost forced the abandonment of the social reform programs of the popular front had counted heavily on. Economic historians point to numerous bad financial and economic policies, such as delayed devaluation of the franc, which made French exports uncompetitive. More generally the argument is made that France could not afford the labor reforms, in the face of poor economic conditions, the fears of the business community and the threat of Nazi Germany. The consensus of historians is to judge the Popular Front a failure in terms of economics, foreign policy, and long-term political stability.

Conditions in Vichy France under German occupation were very harsh, because the Germans stripped France of millions of workers as prisoners of war and "voluntary" workers , and as well stripped much of the food supply, while demanding heavy cash payments. It was a period of severe economic hardship under a totalitarian government.

Vichy rhetoric exalted the skilled laborer and small businessman. In practice, however, the needs of artisans for raw materials was neglected in favor of large businesses. In the government took direct control of all production, which was synchronized with the demands of the Germans. It replaced free trade unions with compulsory state unions that dictated labor policy without regard to the voice or needs of the workers. The centralized, bureaucratic control of the French economy was not a success, as German demands grew heavier and more unrealistic, passive resistance and inefficiencies multiplied, and Allied bombers hit the rail yards; however, Vichy made the first comprehensive long-range plans for the French economy.

The government had never before attempted a comprehensive overview. De Gaulle's Provisional Government in , quietly used the Vichy plans as a base for its own reconstruction program. The Monnet Plan of was closely based on Vichy plans. Nazi Germany kept nearly 2. They added compulsory and volunteer workers from occupied nations, especially in metal factories. The largest number worked in the giant Krupp steel works in Essen. Low pay, long hours, frequent bombings, and crowded air raid shelters added to the unpleasantness of poor housing, inadequate heating, limited food, and poor medical care, all compounded by harsh Nazi discipline.

They finally returned home in the summer of Civilians suffered shortages of all varieties of consumer goods. The government answered by rationing, but German officials set the policies and hunger prevailed, especially affecting youth in urban areas. The queues lengthened in front of shops. Some people—including German soldiers—benefited from the black market , where food was sold without tickets at very high prices. Farmers especially diverted meat to the black market, which meant that much less for the open market. Counterfeit food tickets were also in circulation.

Direct buying from farmers in the countryside and barter against cigarettes became common. These activities were strictly forbidden, however, and thus carried out at the risk of confiscation and fines. Food shortages were most acute in the large cities. In the more remote country villages, however, clandestine slaughtering, vegetable gardens and the availability of milk products permitted better survival. The official ration provided starvation level diets of or fewer calories a day, supplemented by home gardens and, especially, black market purchases.

The great hardships of wartime, and of the immediate post-war period, were succeeded by a period of steady economic development, in France, now often fondly recalled there as The Thirty Glorious Years Les Trente Glorieuses. Alternating policies of "interventionist" and "free market" ideas enabled the French to build a society in which both industrial and technological advances could be made but also worker security and privileges established and protected. In the year France signed a treaty with US that waved off a large part of its debt. By the end of the 20th century, France once again was among the leading economic powers of the world, although by the year there already was some fraying around the edges: Reconstruction began at the end of the war, in , and confidence in the future was brought back.

With the baby boom which had started as soon as the birthrate surged rapidly. It took several years to fix the damages caused by the war — battles and bombing had destroyed several cities, factories, bridges, railway infrastructures. In , the provisional government of the French Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle and made up of communists , socialists and gaullists , nationalized key economic sectors energy, air transport, savings banks, assurances and big companies e. Renault , with the creation of Social Security and of works councils.

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The debts left over from the First World War, whose payment had been suspended since , was renegotiated in the Blum-Byrnes agreement of In return French negotiator Jean Monnet set out the French five-year plan for recovery and development. American films were now allowed in French cinemas three weeks per month. Nationalization of major industries took place in the s and s, but was never complete. The railways were nationalized in because they were losing money, but were strategically important.

Likewise the aeronautics and armaments industries were nationalized. During the war, the Vichy government froze wages, froze prices, controlled external trade and supervise distribution of raw materials to the manufacturing sector. The French economy accepted increasing levels of nationalization without major political opposition. After the war the power industry, gas, and electricity were nationalized in , with the goal of bringing increased efficiency. Banking and insurance were nationalized along with iron and steel.

However oil was not considered so important, and was not nationalized. Enlarge role of government necessitated systematic national planning, which was a key feature of the postwar industries. To aid the rebuilding of the French economy, the value of stolen resources were recovered from defeated Germany under the Monnet Plan.

As part of this policy, German factories were disassembled and moved to France, and the coal-rich industrial Saar Protectorate was occupied by France, as had been done post-World War I, in the Territory of the Saar Basin. Thus in the — period, France benefited from the resources and production of the Saar, and continued to extract coal from the Warndt coal deposit until The Saarland reunited with Germany in , and resolution of its situation led to the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community , precursor to the European Union , which played a significant role in Europe and France's economy in the later post-war period.

Although the economic situation in France was very grim in , resources did exist and the economy regained normal growth by the s. France managed to regain its international status thanks to a successful production strategy, a demographic spurt, and technical and political innovations. Conditions varied from firm to firm.

Little Black Book of Economic Development by Don A. Holbrook

Some had been destroyed or damaged, nationalized or requisitioned, but the majority carried on, sometimes working harder and more efficiently than before the war. Industries were reorganized on a basis that ranged from consensual electricity to conflictual machine tools , therefore producing uneven results. Despite strong American pressure through the ERP, there was little change in the organization and content of the training for French industrial managers. This was mainly due to the reticence of the existing institutions and the struggle among different economic and political interest groups for control over efforts to improve the further training of practitioners.

Millennium Development Goals

The Monnet Plan provided a coherent framework for economic policy, and it was strongly supported by the Marshall Plan. It was inspired by moderate, Keynesian free-trade ideas rather than state control. Although relaunched in an original way, the French economy was about as productive as comparable West European countries. France agreed to reduce trade barriers and modernize its management system.

France sent missions with businessmen and experts to tour American factories, farms, stores and offices. They were especially impressed with the prosperity of American workers, and how they could purchase an inexpensive new automobile for nine months work, compared to 30 months in France.

The industries that were most Americanized included chemicals, oil, electronics, and instrumentation. They were the most innovative, and most profitable sectors. The economic growth is mainly due to productivity gains and to an increase in the number of working hours.

Indeed, the working population was growing very slowly, the baby boom being offset by the extension of the time dedicated to studies. Productivity gains came from the catching up with the United States. Among the major nations, only Japan and Spain had faster growth in this era than France. By the late s, France's economic growth, while strong, was beginning to lose steam.

Dollar in , which was one of the leading factors for the social upheaval of that year. The trente glorieuses era is usually considered to end with the oil crisis , which increased costs in energy and thus on production. Growth resumed later in the decade, only to be slowed down by the economic depression of the early s, which affected the Socialist Party. Liberalisation under Jacques Chirac in the late s strengthened the economy. However, after the world economy stagnated and the global crisis and its effects in both the Eurozone and France itself dogged the conservative government of Nicolas Sarkozy , who lost reelection in against Socialist Francois Hollande.

In spite of this, France's recent economic history has been less turbulent than in many other countries. The average income in France, after having been steady for a long time, increased elevenfold between and , which constitutes a 0. France, like a number of countries, was affected by the financial crisis.

However, during the worst part of the crisis, between , France fared better than other industrialized countries. However, these stabilizers weigh inversely on recovery. Starting in , many countries experienced economic recoveries, where the analysis of the indicators of economic activity in France do not show a clear recovery, or rather do not show an increased growth during this time.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the current economy of France, see Economy of France. Part of a series on the. Direct Capetians — Valois — France in the Middle Ages. France in the long nineteenth century. France in the twentieth century. Great Depression in France. The Universal Spider New York: The Essence of Style: Histoire et dictionnaire des Guerres de religion. From the Revolution to the Belle Epoque. An evil or a rescuer? In the early s Nepal was one of the world's poorest countries and remains South Asia's poorest country.

Doubling health spending and concentrating on its poorest areas halved maternal mortality between and Its Multidimensional Poverty Index has seen the largest decreases of any tracked country. Bangladesh has made some of the greatest improvements in infant and maternal mortality ever seen, despite modest income growth. However, the child mortality and maternal mortality are down by less than half. Sanitation and education targets will also be missed. Recipients would theoretically re-channel debt payments to health and education. Countries became eligible once their lending agency confirmed that the countries had continued to maintain the reforms they had implemented.

One success was to strengthen rice production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers had not found suitable rice varieties that produce high yields. Some 18 varieties of this strain became available, enabling African farmers to produce enough rice to feed their families and have extra to sell. For instance, in Ghana, public school enrollment in the most deprived districts rose from 4.

In Kenya, primary school enrollment added 1. He chaired the WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health —01 , which played a pivotal role in scaling up the financing of health care and disease control in the low-income countries to support MDGs 4, 5, and 6. On behalf of Annan, from to he chaired the UN Millennium Project , which was tasked with developing a concrete action plan to achieve the MDGs. The recommendations for rural Africa are currently being implemented and documented in the Millennium Villages, and in several national scale-up efforts such as in Nigeria.

The Millennium Villages Project , which Sachs directs, operates in more than a dozen African countries and covers more than , people. The MVP has engendered considerable controversy associated as critics have questioned both the design of the project and claims made for its success. In The Economist reviewed the project and concluded "the evidence does not yet support the claim that the millennium villages project is making a decisive impact.

A Lancet paper claiming a 3-fold increase in the rate of decline in childhood mortality was criticized for flawed methodology, and the authors later admitted that the claim was "unwarranted and misleading". Malaria deaths declined by more than one-third, saving millions of lives.

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Although developed countries' financial aid rose during the Millennium Challenge, more than half went towards debt relief. Much of the remainder aid money went towards disaster relief and military aid. According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs , the 50 least developed countries received about one third of all aid that flows from developed countries. Over the past 35 years, UN members have repeatedly "commit[ted] 0. Each economically advanced country will progressively increase its official development assistance to the developing countries and will exert its best efforts to reach a minimum net amount of 0.

In the European Union reaffirmed its commitment to the 0. However, the United States as well as other nations disputed the Monterrey Consensus that urged "developed countries that have not done so to make concrete efforts towards the target of 0. Some nations' contributions fell far short of 0. The Australian government committed to providing 0.

A major conference was held at UN headquarters in New York on 20—22 September to review progress. The conference concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to accelerate progress towards the eight anti-poverty goals. Major new commitments on women's and children's health, poverty, hunger and disease ensued. According to MDG Monitor, the target under MDG 3 "To eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by , and in all levels of education by " was met. However MDG monitor points out that while parity has been achieved across the developing world, there are regional and national differences favouring girls in some cases and boys in others.

In secondary education in "Western Asia, Oceania, and sub-Saharan Africa, girls are still at a disadvantage, while the opposite is true in Latin America and the Caribbean — boys are at a disadvantage. Improving living conditions in developing countries may encourage healthy workers not to move to other places that offer a better lifestyle. Cuba , itself a developing country, played a significant role in providing medical personnel to other developing nations; it has trained more than 14, medical students from 30 different countries at its Latin American School of Medicine in Havana since Moreover, some 36, Cuban physicians worked in 72 countries, from Europe to Southeast Asia, including 31 African countries, and 29 countries in the Americas.

Countries such as Honduras , Guatemala , and Nicaragua benefit from Cuban assistance. Although there have been major advancements and improvements achieving some of the MDGs even before the deadline of , the progress has been uneven between the countries. Civil society organizations also engaged in the post process, along with academia and other research institutions, including think tanks. The Sustainable Development Goals SDGs have been proposed as targets relating to future international development once they expire at the end of In , the UN's Commission on the Status of Women agreed on a document that called for the acceleration of progress towards achieving the millennium development goals, and confirmed the need for a stand-alone goal on gender equality and women's empowerment in post goals, and for gender equality to underpin all of the post goals.

The Millennium Campaign targets intergovernmental, government, civil society organizations and media at global and regional levels. The Millennium Promise Alliance, Inc. As of the Millennium Villages Project operated in 14 sites across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The Global Poverty Project [71] is an international education and advocacy organisation that encourages MC support in English-speaking countries. The Micah Challenge is an international campaign that encourages Christians to support the Millennium Development Goals. Their aim is to "encourage our leaders to halve global poverty by ".

The World We Want is a platform and joint venture between the United Nations and Civil Society Organizations that supports citizen participation in defining a new global development framework to replace the Millennium Development Goals. UN Goals is a global project dedicated to spreading knowledge of MDG through various internet and offline awareness campaigns. This has had tremendous progress. Librarians and others in the information professions are in a unique position to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

It is often the dissemination of key information, e. Millennium Development Goals are not only for the developing world. Maret specifically addresses how U. As a result, MDG goals for poverty, healthcare, and education fall short. Limited instruction in information access and exchange contributes to this ongoing dilemma. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see MDG disambiguation. Graphs from the Millennium Development Goals Report Archived from the original on 15 April Retrieved 8 September Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger".

Achieve Universal Primary Education". Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women". Develop a Global Partnership for Development".

An introduction to the human development and capability approach freedom and agency. Sterling, Virginia Ottawa, Ontario: Earthscan International Development Research Centre. The challenge of intersecting inequalities. Naila Kabeer for Institute of Development Studies. Oxford University Press, p. Retrieved 7 October British Medical Journal , Vol. Retrieved 7 July International Journal of Drug Policy.

Gender and Development , Vol. Growth or safety net? Ro "Foreign Debt: Tracking the Millennium Development Goals". Retrieved September 10, Archived from the original on 18 February Retrieved 14 October Promote gender equality and empower women".

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