Organized by:
International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)
(http://www.networkideas.org)

An international capacity building workshop on 'Policy Trends, Growth Patterns and Distributional Outcomes under Globalisation', was held between 21-24th of August, 2006, at Shanghai, China in local collaboration with the Shanghai Administrative Institute (SAI), Shanghai, China at the institute premises. The workshop was meant for young economists who are either finishing Ph.D or have finished Ph.ds, as well others concerned with development in the field of policy making and/or advocacy. The workshop covered about 45 such scholars, taking full care of all expenses.

This workshop placed special emphasis on young Chinese scholars by including as many as 24 of them, in order to familiarize them with the emerging problems that the developing world is facing in the era of globalization, in spite of some of them (including China) recording high rates of growth. Young participants from Tsinghua University, Renmin University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Academy of Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, all from Beijing attended the workshop as well as scholars from Fudan University, Shanghai, Sun Yat Sen University, Nanjing University of Economics and Finances, Gansu Academy of Social Science, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Other participants from the rest of the world came from University of Rome, Italy, Western University, Baku, Azerbaijan, Federal University of Pará, and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, both from Brazil, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India , the Centre de Sciences Humaines, India, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India, University of Piemonte Orientale, Italy, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya, African Institute for Applied Economics, Nigeria, University of Sargodha, Pakistan, Hindu College, University of Delhi, India, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG) at the Prime Minister's Office, Tanzania, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, University of Cambridge, UK, and ILO, Switzerland.

The instructors for the workshop as well as the speakers were drawn from noted economists across the world who belong to the IDEAs network and share similar but still different outlooks on the issues of economic development and have worked on the field of inequality and its many dimensions from various micro and macro perspectives. It was the objective of the workshop to acquaint the participants with a diverse range of case studies and policy perspectives, and therefore the instructors' panel was drawn based on their ability to contribute a well informed and a wide variety of specialized lectures.

Over the four days of the workshop, eleven instructors from India, Malaysia, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, China, Thailand, Brazil and Ghana took lectures combined with question, answer sessions. There were three such one and half hour sessions each of the four days. There was also active interaction from the young participants in the form of the two hour participants' session each day where the participants presented their own work and received comments from the instructors as well as co-participants. On the last day, there was a wrapping up session where participants and instructors were invited to present their suggestions on the content and organization of the workshop, on the issues it raised and the broader development context of the world today.

Given below is the list of instructors with their current affiliations along with the titles of their presentations.

• C P Chandrasekhar, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, and is also a member of the Executive Committee of IDEAs: 'The Political Economy of Global Macroeconomic Imbalances (I & II)'

• Andong Zhu, Assistant Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China: 'Growth and Inequality in the Neoliberal Era and Three Unsustainable Trends in the World Economy'

• Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Florence, Italy: 'Can Macroeconomic Policy Reduce Poverty?'

• Jomo KS, Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), The United Nations, New York, USA: 'Globalization, World Inequality and Asian Growth'

• Franklin Serrano, Professor, Department of Economics, Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro ( Federal University of Rio De Janeiro ), Brazil: 'Global Trade Patterns and Their Implications'

• Jayati Ghosh, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, who is also the Executive Secretary of IDEAs: 'Employment Generation under Globalisation'

• Francis Cripps, Alphametrics Ltd, Bangkok, Thailand: 'Growth and Distribution in the World Economy'

• Charles Abugre , Head of Policy and Advocacy, Christian Aid, UK, (from Ghana): 'Africa: Inequality in Stagnation'

• Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations: 'Growth, Poverty and Distribution: the Latin American Experience'

• Saul Keifman, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Buenes Aires, Argentina: 'On the Political Economy of Monetary Policy'

Click here for the Reading List

September 14 , 2006.