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"Low Income Developing Countries"
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The impacts of trade policy uncertainty on trade flow of emerging economies and low-income developing countries
This study is aimed to investigate the effects of the trade policy uncertainty (T.P.U.) on the trade flow of 113 emerging economies and low-income developing countries to 143 destination countries. It further investigates the effects of T.P.U. based on income heterogeneity. Moreover, it considers the effects of T.P.U. on trade flow between developing countries' pair and non-manufacture trade. The two-step Heckman sample selection model is applied to run the structural gravity model of trade using three-year intervals for the period 2004-2019. The analysis is repeated using the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (P.P.M.L.) model for the robustness test. The results imply that the extensive and intensive margin of trade flow of emerging economies and low-income developing countries are adversely affected by the T.P.U. of destination countries. However, the T.P.U. of origin has an adverse effect on the extensive margin of trade. It also negatively affects the trade flow between developing-developing pairs. We also conduct a counterfactual simulation analysis to convert the effect of T.P.U. on trade flow to distance equivalent. To sum up, the findings of this study imply that T.P.U. is a more important barrier to trade for emerging economies and low-income developing countries. Policy implications are forwarded based on the findings.
Journal Article
Reimagining the Special and Differential Treatment Provisions in the WTO's Dispute Settlement Understanding
The developed and developing members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are deeply divided on the concept, scope, and beneficiaries of the special and differential treatment (SDT) provisions. The division was revealed in the Committee on Trade and Development meetings, where developed members rejected the Group of 90's proposals to strengthen and operationalize SDT provisions in WTO agreements. This article focuses on the SDT provisions in the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), positing that the provisions are ineffective in upholding the WTO's development objectives. It analyses the extent to which the needs and circumstances of low-income developing countries and least-developed countries have been considered by the WTO adjudicating bodies through the application and interpretation of SDT provisions in the DSU. The article seeks to reimagine SDT provisions’ role in the DSU through secondary lawmaking and progressive treaty interpretation to ensure development is integrated into the WTO's Dispute Settlement Mechanism.
Journal Article
A Framework for Integration of Smart and Sustainable Energy Systems in Urban Planning Processes of Low-Income Developing Countries: Afghanistan Case
Population growth and city expansion in developing countries require traditional urban planning practices to be transformed in order to tackle climate change and follow Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agendas. Almost every expert in the urban sector believes that future cities should be sustainable, smart, and environmentally friendly, where energy is one of the most critical factors to achieve these goals. They also agree that smart and sustainable energy provision for cities requires a comprehensive and responsive legal and policy framework to be in place at the national level. However, this research’s findings reveal a lack of such frameworks for this group of countries. Considering the challenges and unique nature of Low-Income-Developing (LID) countries, there should be a framework based on the realities in these countries. In this research, key challenges of urban and energy sectors of LID countries, specifically Afghanistan, are identified, and a framework for the integration of sustainable and smart energy in the urban planning processes for LID countries is proposed. To make it easily replicable and adaptable for LID countries, the proposed framework is studied and analyzed around Afghanistan’s urban and energy sectors. This is one of the few frameworks of its kind for LID economies to the best of the authors’ knowledge. This framework lays a solid foundation for sustainable and smart energy integration in the urban planning process of developing countries. This study highlights that sustainable and smart energy systems could ensure climate change mitigation and economic growth enhancement but require close cross-sectoral coordination and policy maker’s commitments and involvement. This research will help many existing and emerging cities in the LID countries’ worldwide use and benefit from the proposed framework in their urban planning processes. It also enables policymakers, urban planners and designers, municipalities leadership, and other stakeholders of the urban, energy, and environment sectors to work together and make smart and rational decisions for the future of their cities and lead them towards smart and sustainable cities.
Journal Article
Welfare Gains of Aid Indexation in Small Open Economies
Foreign aid flows to poor, aid-dependent economies are highly volatile and pro-cyclical. Shortfalls in aid coincide with shortfalls in GDP and government revenues. This increases the consumption volatility in aid dependent countries, thereby causing substantial welfare losses. This paper finds that indexing aid flows to exogenous shocks like a change in the terms of trade can significantly improve the welfare of aid-dependent country by lowering its output and consumption volatility. Compared to the benchmark specification with stochastic aid flows, indexation of aid flows to terms of trade shocks can reduce the cost of business cycle fluctuations in the recipient country by four percent of permanent consumption. Moreover, use of indexed aid can allow donors to reduce the aid flows by three percent without lowering the level of welfare in the recipient country.
eBook
Nexus of Human Development and Environmental Quality in Low-Income and Developing Countries: Do Renewable Energy and Good Governance Matter?
The relationship between human development and environmental quality has been explored in this study by examining the human-development status and carbon (CO2)-emissions levels of 60 countries from the low, lower-middle, and upper-middle income categories. The roles of renewable energy and some economic and institutional factors such as GDP, the rule of law, regulatory quality, and corruption control have also been investigated to ascertain their impacts on the relationship. The empirical investigations apply the generalized method of moments (GMM), fixed effects (FE), and random effects (RE) methods, and the long-run associations among the variables are investigated by applying the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) techniques. The robust findings support the trade-off relationship between human development and environmental quality in the selected low-income and developing countries. With evidence of an environmental Kuznets’s relationship between economic growth and environmental quality, these findings reveal that the measures pursued to improve human-development status have a contributory impact on CO2 emissions in the selected countries. However, an increased demand for renewable energy, effective enforcement of the rule of law, and improved control over corruption have a mitigating effect on CO2 emissions. The result has also highlighted the policy issues instrumental to increased emissions levels in these countries. Consequently, it is recommended to formulate policies for resolving disparities within the various dimensions of human development while also making deliberate investments in the socio-economic aspects of human development to ensure both sustainable human development and environmental quality.
Journal Article
Tourism Promotion and Regional Development in Low-income Developing Countries
There are not so many papers that the economic effects of tourism are examined in a general equilibrium framework. The features of those papers are that they assume that tourism is regarded as non-tradable goods and services and that tourism is consumed by not only foreign tourists but also domestic residents. However, since our purpose of this paper is to examine the economic effects of tourism promotion on low-income developing countries, we assume that most domestic residents cannot afford to consume tourism, which is considered as a luxury good. Under such assumptions, we examine the effects of two tourism promotion policies on a developing economy. The main result we obtain is that both the policies improve the standard of living for the fanners in a rural region while they worse the standard of living for the workers who are employed in an urban region.
Journal Article
From global north to south: governing contaminants of emerging concern in water systems
Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), notably per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceuticals, and microplastics (MPs), are increasingly detected in water systems, posing growing risks to ecosystems, human health, and socio-economic stability. This descriptive scoping review pursues four objectives: (i) quantify CEC occurrence across the Global North and South, focusing on low- to middle-income developing countries (LMIDCs); (ii) assess policy frameworks and governance readiness; (iii) propose a feasible, phased roadmap for LMIDCs; and (iv) evaluate enabling conditions and potential impacts. Literature synthesised from 2020–2025 documents widespread contamination in drinking, surface, and wastewater, with concentrations in LMIDC hotspots 5–20 times higher than in the Global North. In South Africa’s Vaal River, PFAS exceeded 400 ng l −1 , pharmaceuticals approached 1000 ng l −1 , and MPs averaged approximately 31 particles m −3 in drinking water. Policy analysis reveals fragmented monitoring and limited treatment coverage in LMIDCs, in contrast to integrated, mixture-aware frameworks in the Global North. The proposed three-phase roadmap entails: (1) establishing CEC standards and baseline monitoring, (2) piloting targeted treatment supported by extended producer responsibility schemes, and (3) embedding adaptive, mixture-aware regulation within water safety plans. Feasibility analysis identifies enforceable standards, predictable financing, laboratory capacity, and public engagement as key success factors. Full implementation could reduce PFAS and pharmaceutical loads by 50%–80%, cut MPs by over 90%, and prevent multi-billion-dollar (USD) annual PFAS-related healthcare costs. These actions would help LMIDCs such as South Africa transition from reactive to proactive water-quality governance, and advance Sustainable Development Goals 6, 3, and 14.
Journal Article
Creating Shared Value Meets Human Rights: A Sense-Making Perspective in Small-Scale Firms
How do firms make sense of creating shared value (CSV) projects? In their sense-making processes, do they extend the meaning spectrum to include human rights? What are the dominant cognitive frames through which firms make sense of CSV projects, and are some frames more likely to have transformative power? We pose these questions in the context of small-scale firms in a low-to-middle income country—a context where CSV policies have been promoted extensively over the last decade in the expectation of improved economic competitiveness, growth, and sustainable development processes. We employ a grounded theory approach to identify three dominant cognitive frames used by our respondents to make sense of CSV. The most prevalent frame (growth first) prioritizes economic over social and environmental goals, and considers social, environmental, and human rights benefits to trickle down from economic growth and wealth generation. In the second frame (green-win), economic actors follow a win-win logic according to which environmental sustainability is pursued only if there are clear and foreseeable economic payoffs. The third frame (humanizing the business) is a niche that emphasizes the attainment of certain human rights goals, despite a perceived lack of immediate economic returns. Our work casts doubt on the capacity of CSV projects to stimulate sustainable development processes without radically changing entrepreneurs' cognitive frames from growth first to humanizing the business.
Journal Article
Gender Equality and Economic Diversification
We show that gender inequality decreases the variety of goods countries produce and export, in particular in low-income and developing countries. We argue that this happens through at least two channels: first, gender gaps in opportunity, such as lower educational enrollment rates for girls than for boys, harm diversification by constraining the potential pool of human capital available in an economy. Second, gender gaps in the labor market impede the development of new ideas by decreasing the efficiency of the labor force. Our empirical estimates support these hypotheses, providing evidence that gender-friendly policies could help countries diversify their economies.
Journal Article