This issue of Finance & Development discusses link between demographics and economic well-being. In the coming decades, demographics is expected to be more favorable to economic well-being in the less developed regions than in the more developed regions. The age structure of a population reflects mainly its fertility and mortality history. In high-mortality populations, improved survival tends to occur disproportionately among children. The “demographic dividend” refers to the process through which a changing age structure can spur economic growth. It depends, of course, on several complex factors, including the nature and pace of demographic change, the operation of labor and capital markets, macroeconomic management and trade policies, governance, and human capital accumulation. Population aging is the dominant demographic trend of the twenty-first century—a reflection of increasing longevity, declining fertility, and the progression of large cohorts to older ages. Barring a change in current trends, the industrial world’s working-age population will decline over the next generation, and China’s working-age population will decline as well. At the same time, trends toward increased labor force participation of women have played out with, for example, more women than men now working in the United States.

This book is intended for policy-makers, academics and students of development studies, area studies, political economy, geography and political science. Three of the best global performers in terms of economic growth are authoritarian states led by communist parties. The ‘socialist market economy’ model employed in China, Vietnam and Laos performs better than the economic systems in countries at a similar level of income per capita on a wide range of development indicators, yet market reforms and governance failures have led to highly unequal societies and significant environmental problems. This book presents the first comparative study of development in these three countries. Written by country experts and scholars of development studies, it explores the ongoing quest for market versus state within their model, and the coherence of their development. Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Over the decade or so since the global financial crisis rocked EU financial markets and led to wide-ranging reforms, EU securities and financial markets regulation has continued to evolve. The legislative framework has been refined and administrative rulemaking has expanded. Alongside, the Capital Markets Union agenda has developed, the UK has left the EU, and ESMA has emerged as a decisive influence on EU financial markets governance. All these developments, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, have shaped the regulatory landscape and how supervision is organized. EU Securities and Financial Markets Regulation provides a comprehensive, critical, and contextual account of the intricate rulebook that governs EU financial markets and its supporting institutional arrangements. It is framed by an assessment of how the regime has evolved over the decade or so since the global financial crisis and considers, among other matters, the post-crisis reforms to key legislative measures, the massive expansion of administrative rulemaking and of soft law, the Capital Markets Union agenda, the development of supervisory convergence as the means for organizing pan-EU supervision, and ESMA's role in EU financial markets governance. Its coverage extends from capital-raising and the Prospectus Regulation to financial market intermediation and the MiFID II/MiFIR and IFD/IFR regimes, to the new regulatory regimes adopted since the global financial crisis (including for benchmarks and their administrators), to retail market regulation and the PRIIPs Regulation, and on to the EU's third country regime and the implications of the UK's departure from the EU. This is the fourth edition of the highly successful and authoritative monograph first published as EC Securities Regulation. Heavily revised from the third edition to reflect developments since the global financial crisis, it adopts the in-depth contextual and analytical approach of earlier editions and so considers the market, political, institutional, and international context of the regulatory and supervisory regime.

Africa’s Development Dynamics uses lessons learned in the continent’s five regions – Central, East, North, Southern and West Africa – to develop policy recommendations and share good practices. Drawing on the most recent statistics, this analysis of development dynamics attempts to help African leaders reach the targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 at all levels: continental, regional, national and local.

This book explores the great transition of China from a subsistence agrarian economy to a technologically driven economic powerhouse which reflects the achievements of the hardworking Chinese people. China continues to grow as the second largest economy of the world from 2010 onwards. It is going to be the largest economy in the world by putting US economy behind. The Chinese GDP has increased of 1,500 times from 1952. This book examines the transformation of China and its economic growth is neither miraculous nor a product of market economy. Further, this book states economic development in China as a product of political pursuit shaped by the Chinese people led by the Communist Party of China from 1921 onwards. China is not only the workshop of the world today but also works as the engine of global economic growth and recovery of crisis ridden global economy. This book also shows how phenomenal Chinese economic growth and development led to the significant fall of poverty in China. This book states that the prosperous transition in China continues to show features of combined and uneven development. This is evident as China has largest billionaires, but many people still live and practice subsistence economy. However, many Chinese do not have access to clean air, water, sanitation and dignified sources of livelihoods. This book shows the social, economic and political inequalities as hindrances to deepening of democratic and egalitarian development in China. This book states that the gender gap and widening gap between urban and rural China are twin serious challenges to progressive transformations in China. The Chinese state and government are trying to implement different policies and programmes to overcome these challenges.

The pandemic recession in 2020 was milder than in most other OECD countries, but recent outbreaks have prompted the country to begin transitioning from a zero tolerance to a containment approach to the virus. As the recovery becomes more firmly entrenched, public policy must focus on setting the conditions for another prolonged period of strong and well-distributed growth in living standards.

Inclusive Financial Development provides theoretical and empirical analyses of the nature of financial inclusion. The contributing authors explore the impediments to inclusion that exist around the world, the macro and stability implications, and the regulation dimension.

This book contains assessment of the progress, or the lack of it, in implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through review of the assessments and of case studies, readers can draw lessons from the actions that could work to positively address the goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is designed to catalyze action in critical areas of importance to humanity and the planet. The effort to implement the SDGs, however, demands a sense of urgency in the face of environmental degradation, climate change, emerging conflicts, and growing inequality, among a number of other socio-economic problems. Five years after the launch of the 2030 Agenda, this book takes stock of how far the world has come and how we can position ourselves to achieve the global targets. The book is one of the first to assess how the implementation is impeded by the onset of COVID-19. It contains a special chapter on COVID-19 and the SDGs, while many thematic chapters on different SDGs also assess how COVID-19 adversely affects implementation, and what measures could be taken to minimize the adverse effects. This publication thus provides a fresh look at implementation of the SDGs highlighting impactful and creative actions that go beyond the business-as-usual development efforts. The volume reinforces this analysis with expert recommendations on how to support implementation efforts and achieve the SDGs through international and national strategies and the involvement of both the public and private sectors. The result is an indispensable textual tool for policy makers, academia, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as the public, as we march toward the 2030 deadline.

Since the 1990s, several emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) have, to varying degrees, embraced the process of financial globalisation, broadly defined as a set of policies that involve allowing for greater openness to cross-border capital flows as well as greater market access to foreign financial institutions. This book provides a systematic empirical analysis on the complex interactions between financial sector development, macroeconomic and financial stability in EMDEs in general and those in the Asian region in particular. The book consists of three sections pertaining to monetary and exchange rate policies under financial globalisation; financial inclusion and macroeconomic policies in the context of financial liberalisation; and finally, the dynamics of foreign direct investment flows and their real impacts in EMDEs. Each of the chapters analyse important economic policy issues of contemporary relevance and is informed by data and rigorous empirical analysis. The book will be appealing to anyone interested in exploring the implications of a key set of issues emanating from financial globalisation on EMDEs in a rigorous but readable manner.