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This book examines traditional insurance risks such as earthquakes, storms, terrorist attacks, and other disasters. It begins with a discussion of how the risk of such “acts of God and men” impact on our lives, health, and possessions. It then proceeds to introduce the statistical techniques necessary for analyzing these uncertainties. It explains that quantifying the risks that such disasters pose is difficult but that it is crucial for achieving the financing objectives of insurance. The book guides readers through the methods available for identifying and measuring such risks, financing their consequences, and forecasting their future behaviour (within the limits of science). It also considers the experience of risk from the perspectives of both policyholders and insurance companies, and compares their respective responses. The discussion of the risks inherent in the private insurance industry leads to a discussion of the government's role as both market regulator and potential “insurer of last resort.” The book concludes with an interdisciplinary investigation into the nature of uncertainty, incorporating ideas from physics, philosophy, and game theory to assess science's limitations in predicting the ramifications of risk.

This book assesses how learning helps countries grow, develop, and become more productive. It looks at what government can do to promote learning and casts light on the significance of learning for economic theory and policy. It explains that the thing that truly separates developed from less-developed countries is not just a gap in resources or output but a gap in knowledge. It shows that the pace at which developing countries grow is largely a function of the pace at which they close this knowledge gap. The book takes as its starting point Kenneth J. Arrow's 1962 paper “Learning by Doing,” and explains why the production of knowledge differs from that of other goods and why market economies alone typically do not produce and transmit knowledge efficiently. It shows that closing knowledge gaps and helping laggards learn are central steps to growth and development. It also argues that creating a learning society is crucial if we are to sustain improved living standards in advanced countries. It provides new models of “endogenous growth” and shows how well-designed government trade and industrial policies can help create a learning society, while poorly designed intellectual property regimes can retard learning. It also explains how virtually every government policy has effects, both positive and negative, on learning. It argues that free trade may lead to stagnation whereas broad-based industrial protection and exchange rate interventions may bring benefits—not just to the industrial sector, but to the entire economy.

This book revisits the causes of the 2008 global economic collapse, re-evaluating the international response to the crisis and suggesting more effective approaches to development cooperation. It explains how leading governments undertook extraordinary measures to offset the 2008 economic crisis, shoring up financial institutions, stimulating demand to reverse recession and rebalancing budgets to alleviate sovereign debt. The book argues that, while these measures were productive in and of themselves, they were effective because they were coordinated internationally and were matched with sweeping global financial reforms. The volume then shows that, unfortunately, international coordination has weakened after these initial steps. It therefore argues that one of the crisis' adverse effects will be a significant reduction in development cooperation. In response to this challenge, the book redesigns the international cooperation system and its governance, so that it can accept new actors and better achieve the Millennial Development Goals of 2015 within the context of a severe global crisis. Overall, the book provides an assessment of global economic imbalance and the potential of increased cooperation to rectify these inequalities.

In the decades since Geoffrey Heal began his field-defining work in environmental economics, one central question has animated his research: "Can we save our environment and grow our economy?" This issue has become only more urgent in recent years with the threat of climate change, the accelerating loss of ecosystems, and the rapid industrialization of the developing world. Reflecting on a lifetime of experience not only as a leading voice in the field, but as a green entrepreneur, activist, and advisor to governments and global organizations, Heal clearly and passionately demonstrates that the only way to achieve long-term economic growth is to protect our environment. Writing both to those conversant in economics and to those encountering these ideas for the first time, Heal begins with familiar concepts, like the tragedy of the commons and unregulated pollution, to demonstrate the underlying tensions that have compromised our planet, damaging and in many cases devastating our natural world. Such destruction has dire consequences not only for us and the environment but also for businesses, which often vastly underestimate their reliance on unpriced natural benefits like pollination, the water cycle, marine and forest ecosystems, and more. After painting a stark and unsettling picture of our current quandary, Heal outlines simple solutions that have already proven effective in conserving nature and boosting economic growth. In order to ensure a prosperous future for humanity, we must understand how environment and economy interact and how they can work in harmony—lest we permanently harm both.

Essential resources do more than satisfy people’s needs. They ensure a dignified existence. Since the competition for essential resources, particularly fresh water and arable land, is increasing and standard legal institutions, such as property rights and national border controls, are strangling access to resources for some while delivering prosperity to others, many are searching for ways to ensure their fair distribution. This book argues that the division of essential resources ought to be governed by a combination of Voice and Reflexivity. Voice is the ability of social groups to choose the rules by which they are governed. Reflexivity is the opportunity to question one’s own preferences in light of competing claims and to accommodate them in a collective learning process. Having investigated the allocation of essential resources in places as varied as Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Laos, Morocco, Nepal, the arid American West, and peri-urban areas in West Africa, the contributors to this volume largely concur with the viability of this policy and normative framework. Drawing on their expertise in law, environmental studies, anthropology, history, political science, and economics, they weigh the potential of Voice and Reflexivity against such alternatives as pricing mechanisms, property rights, common resource management, political might, or brute force.

Many believe economic growth is incompatible with ecological preservation. Green Capital challenges this argument by shifting our focus away from the scarcity of raw materials and toward the deterioration of the great natural regulatory functions (such as the climate system, the water cycle, and biodiversity). Although we can find substitutes for scarce natural resources, we cannot replace a natural regulatory system, which is incredibly complex. It is therefore critical that we introduce a new price into the economy that measures the costs of damage to these regulatory functions. This change in perspective justifies such innovations as the carbon tax, which addresses not the scarcity of carbon but the inability of the atmosphere to absorb large amounts of carbon without upsetting the climate system. Brokering a sustainable peace between ecology and the economy, Green Capital describes a range of valuation schemes and their contribution to the goals of green capitalism, proposing a new approach to natural resources that benefits both businesses and the environment.

This book provides a behind-the-scenes look at what companies in China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand are doing to build businesses that will lessen the environmental impact of Asia’s extraordinary economic growth. Dirty air, foul water, and hellishly overcrowded cities are threatening to choke the region’s impressive prosperity. Recognizing a business opportunity in solving social problems, Asian businesses have developed innovative responses to the region’s environmental crises. From solar and wind power technologies to green buildings, electric cars, water services, and sustainable tropical forestry, Asian corporations are upending old business models in their home countries and throughout the world. Companies have the money, the technology, and the people to act—yet support from the government (in the form of more effective, market-friendly policies) and the engagement of civil society are crucial for a region-wide shift to greener business practices. The book paints detailed profiles of what some of these companies are doing and includes a unique appendix that encapsulates the environmental business practices of more than fifty companies.

The revival of economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is all the more welcome for having followed one of the worst economic disasters—a quarter century of economic malaise for most of the region—since the industrial revolution. Six of the world’s fastest-growing economies in the first decade of this century were African. Yet only in Ethiopia and Rwanda was growth not based on resources and the rising price of oil. Deindustrialization has yet to be reversed, and progress toward creating a modern economy remains limited. This book explores the vital role that active government policies can play in transforming African economies. Such policies pertain not just to industry. They traverse all economic sectors, including finance, information technology, and agriculture. These packages of learning, industrial, and technology (LIT) policies aim to bring vigorous and lasting growth to the region. This collection features case studies of LIT policies in action in many parts of the world, examining their risks and rewards and what they mean for Sub-Saharan Africa.

This book draws attention to migration's developmental impacts on sending and receiving societies. Through current case studies, it examines the interplay among migration, development, culture, family reunification, human rights, and government, all with the aim of advancing more effective solutions to international migration issues. The volume's multidisciplinary perspective combines theoretical discussions with empirical applications, appealing to both academics and policymakers eager to maximize migration's developmental impacts. The book begins with a discussion detailing when and why migration promotes growth and what kind of indicators beyond GDP should be considered. Challenging a number of misconceptions, such as the assumption that redressing poverty and alleviating underdevelopment in immigrant communities are solely economic pursuits, chapters acknowledge the inherent cultural dimension in the migration-development debate and define the contours of a research program that systematically and comparatively weighs the cultural dynamics of development and migration. The chapters also emphasize the role of human rights in reinforcing positive developmental outcomes, how traditional social roles and its developmental impacts are reshaped by the international migration of women and children, and international migration's developmental impacts within specific geographic regions.