Digital Currencies: Transforming Global Markets

The annual World Economic Forum took place in Davos, Switzerland, from January 15-19. Every year for 54 years, a global business elite has traveled there, whether to interact with customers and suppliers, with intellectual leaders on broad topics or, in an informal environment, with the representatives of governments and multilateral authorities who attend. Nothing is deliberated, of course, but over time the forum has established a reputation as a stage from which announcements ar ...

- Brazil’s latest tax reform will replace five taxes on consumption with one single VAT to promote greater efficiency and sectoral isonomy. - Forecasts produced by a detailed ICGE model point to sizeable gains in GDP exceeding 4% in the long run, even if spatially unequal. - Exceptions to the rules reduce potential benefits in efficiency terms. - Policies meant to promote regional development and close the gap deepened by the reform partially achieve their goal at the expense of ...

  This Paper was originally published on bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com   As a specific driver for the transformation of education systems in Morocco, inclusive education is a process that aims to reduce the exclusion of children with disabilities. Indeed, few studies have analysed the exclusion factors that cause children with disabilities not to pursue their education. Based on this, the present paper explores the spatial effect of factors related to accessibility and sc ...

The Africa Economic Symposium (AES) is the Policy Center for the New South’s new major conference, alongside the renowned Atlantic Dialogues and the African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO). AES aspires to be a continent-wide annual gathering of prominent economists, policymakers, and academics, which will bring together global and continental perspectives on the issues shaping the future of Africa’s economic development. The global economy is going through a period of ...

La pandémie de la Covid-19 était venue contribuer au ralentissement de la cadence des investissements chinois dans le cadre de l’Initiative Ceinture et Route « Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ». Entamée dès 2016, cette tendance à la baisse a été accentuée par les tensions géopolitiques et les problèmes internes qui ont affecté l'économie chinoise. Nonobstant ces contre-temps, la Chine a atteint l’un de ses plus grands objectifs : étendre son influence à travers le monde. À l’occasion ...

The debate on global value chains (GVCs) has emphasized countries’ contributions to value-added creation. From an intercountry perspective, a new body of research is addingto this debate by studying how subnational regions contribute to the indicators in specific countries. Proper assessment of economic contributions is essential for designing incentive policies. This paper analyzes the role played by the main trading partners of Moroccan regions in local value chains. We use input- ...

A 2023 United Nations progress report (UN, 2023) showed that, of the 169 targets that make up the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), only 15% are on track, and progress on many has either stalled or regressed. The Water-Energy-Food nexus approach has highlighted the utmost importance of understanding the interconnections between systems in order to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. In this policy brief, we use the lessons learned from the water sector through a case study f ...

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by Xi Jinping, passed its tenth anniversary in 2023. It has entered a third phase. The initiative added a label to China’s financing and construction of infrastructure abroad, which had already totaled more than $400 billion in the previous 10 years. In addition to the use of investment projects as part of Chinese ‘soft power’, the BRI has served to increase levels of usage of the country’s excess installed capacity. China’s economic re ...

This paper was originally published on The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) In order for Africa to raise living standards, create employment for youth and diversify exports, it must industrialise. Until recently, sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries made limited progress in manufacturing value addition and employment, mirroring the de-industrialisation trend seen in many developing countries. To propel industrialisation, SSA countries should adopt flexible st ...

This Paper was originally published on onlinelibrary.wiley.com   This study aims to shed new empirical light on the importance of the wage curve in a developing economy. The main contribution to the empirical literature is related to the analysis being conducted at different regional levels of a developing economy. This indicates that municipal-level data seems to be more adequate for wage curve evaluation, and that spatial dependency should be considered to adequately control for ...