New Blog: Private Development

Tim Harford, who recently guest blogged on Marginal Revolution, is now blogging regularly at a new project of the World Bank, The private sector development blog.  The blog also features Pablo Halkyard who was "born in Brazil ...raised in the Himalayas, grew up in Washington, studied in Lima, has a British passport, though claims to be Chilean."  An ideal pair to write on development!

Here is a post from Tim.

[Regarding] Nancy Birdsall, Dani Rodrik and Arvind Subramanian's piece from July/August Foreign Affairs (now syndicated to the New York Times). It does sprawl a bit but there are more useful ideas in there than in a bookshelf full of the worthy stuff we development types produce. For instance:

For every leader who demands a bribe, there is usually a multinational company or a Western official offering to pay it. For every pile of illicit wealth, there is usually a European or American financial institution providing a safe haven for the spoils.

So:

...categorize certain regimes as corrupt or "odious." Companies that deal with such regimes would risk losing their claims to repayment if later on a lawful government decided to default on the debt passed down by its unlawful predecessor.

Also:

Even small relaxations of work-visa restrictions generate large income gains for workers from poor countries (as well as for the world economy). What is especially appealing is that the gains in income go directly to the workers, rather than through imperfect distribution channels (as with trade in goods) or through governments (as with aid).