Borders and networks: The forgotten elements of development
Laurent Bossard

The latest SWAC/OECD publication Cross-Border Co-operation and Policy Networks in West Africa addresses the crucial but often overlooked issue of cross-border co-operation, employing an analytical approach sparsely used in the development field and in West Africa in particular–social network analysis.

From OECD Insights. More here: http://oe.cd/1KU

Does growth lead to inequality? It depends
Orsetta Causa, Mikkel Hermansen and Nicolas Ruiz

Widespread increases in inequality over the past three decades have raised the question of whether growth in itself is a driver of income inequality. Considering that correlation often tells little about causation, this question is less trivial than may appear at first glance. Indeed, the concomitant rise in GDP per capita and income inequality does not, per se, imply any causal relationship from the former to the latter. Research efforts have offered mixed conclusions so far and the growth and inequality question has been at the centre of a long-standing controversy among economists.

From OECD Ecoscope. More here: http://oe.cd/1KV

Migration: An overlooked tool for local development
Cécile Riallant

The global approach to migration and development is typically framed at the national level, whereby policies are conceived by national governments and mostly implemented with national fiscal resources and by national actors. This is in line with the common perception that migration is subject to national sovereignty, involving country to country agreements and adherence to international conventions. Yet, this national level approach fails to acknowledge the diversity of development and migratory contexts that exist within countries.

From OECD “Development matters” platform. More here: http://oe.cd/1KW

Turning groundwater into farmers’ underground insurance against climate change
Robert Akam and Guillaume Gruère

Despite the recent drought in California, farms have continued to supply water-intensive crops such as fruits and nuts to consumers both in the US and around the world. Doing so has not always been easy for farmers–or for the environment.

From OECD Insights. More here: http://oe.cd/1L0

From economic crisis to crisis in economics
Andy Haldane

It would be easy to become very depressed at the state of economics in the current environment. Many experts, including economics experts, are simply being ignored. But the economic challenges facing us could not be greater: slowing growth, slowing productivity, the retreat of trade, the retreat of globalisation, high and rising levels of inequality.

From OECD Insights. More here: http://oe.cd/1KX

The Walking Dead: Zombie firms stifle economic recovery prospects
Müge Adalet McGowan, Dan Andrews and Valentine Millot

With the global economy stuck in a low growth trap, it is crucial to understand the factors behind the weak recovery in potential output growth, and particularly the barriers to productivity growth. New research shows that this dynamic can be partly understood in terms of the increasing survival of zombie firms– those firms that would typically exit in a competitive market but are being kept alive by creditors or policy weakness.

From OECD Ecoscope. More here: http://oe.cd/1KY

Human migration, environment and climate change
Daria Mokhnacheva, Dina Ionesco and François Gemenne

Environmental migration is a fact. Most countries experience some form of migration associated with environmental and climate change, or forced immobility for those populations that end up trapped. Sudden-onset disasters as well as slow-onset environmental change taking place around the world, whether natural or manmade, profoundly affect migration drivers and migration patterns, even though the relationship between concrete environmental factors and migratory response is seldom direct and linear.

From OECD “Development matters” platform. More here: http://oe.cd/1KZ

What is key for the OECD in 2017? An open economy perspective
Noe van Hulst

As we start a year that Ian Bremmer, President Eurasia Group, has coined as entering “the geopolitical recession”, it is worth asking what the OECD focus could be in 2017. I see two key issues worth highlighting in this context.

From OECD Insights. More here: http://oe.cd/1K

©OECD Observer No 309 Q1 2017