Economic development includes a host of issues—including energy supply; technology; and access to jobs, food, water, education, health care, and housing—that are fundamental to improving the economic status of communities and transforming impoverished nations. RAND takes a multidisciplinary approach to investigating opportunities for economic development, modeling future trends, and applying objective analysis to recommend policy solutions for global, national, and local economies.
PROJECT
Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) are seen as particularly effective in low- and middle-income countries, but relatively little is known about the interface between the supply of services and program administration and specific human development outcomes. RAND Europe is assessing the effectiveness of CCTs, through a two-year grant from UK Economic Social Research Council and Department for International Development.
NEWS RELEASE
The Development Portfolio Management Group, a group providing independent review and counsel to international aid projects in developing countries, has joined the RAND Corporation. Joining nonprofit RAND will allow the group to assist a wider array of projects, including those funded by governments of developing countries, bi-lateral donors, regional development banks, and foundations.
PROJECT
Understanding the factors influencing economic growth and development is crucial to enhancing the human welfare of a nation. Research and Policy in International Development (RAPID) is a research center committed to fulfilling this objective.
COMMENTARY
The results from Montgomery County demonstrate that an integrative housing policy can be an effective form of school policy for disadvantaged children, writes Heather Schwartz.
COMMENTARY
Publicly funded R&D investment is a coherent policy to support long term economic growth. Our only note of caution is about how far and how fast that growth can be delivered because the evidence we have is out of date and skewed towards the experience of just one country, write Jonathan Grant and Jon Sussex.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Designed to help U.S. Army personnel more effectively use economic assistance to support economic and infrastructure development.
REPORT
This book examines six case studies of insurgencies from around the world to determine the key factors necessary for a successful transition from counterinsurgency to a more stable situation. The authors review the causes of each insurgency and the key players involved, and examine what the government did right — or wrong — to bring the insurgency to an end and to transition to greater stability.
COMMENTARY
Policies to stimulate African development require evidence that is difficult to obtain using existing indicators, writes Watu Wamae.
COMMENTARY
It's fashionable among academics and pundits to proclaim that the U.S. is in decline and no longer No. 1 in the world. The declinists say they are realists. In fact, their alarm is unrealistic, writes Charles Wolf, Jr.
NEWS RELEASE
RAND has signed an agreement to help the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development District in Guangdong Province, People's Republic of China, to develop a strategic plan for a system of policies, incentives, and other practices to support technological innovation in Knowledge City, a planned new development for 300,000 residents.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
There is no statistically significant evidence that the Mexico City smoke-free law had a negative impact on restaurants' income, employees' wages and levels of employment.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This paper elaborates upon and deepens the ongoing policy discussion of relationships between investments in transportation infrastructure and the nation's short- and long-term economic well-being.
REPORT
Describes three demonstration projects based on the Arc, RAND's proposal for a sweeping infrastructure corridor linking urban centers, within and between the West Bank and Gaza.
REPORT
Participants at this conference presented research on and discussed policy issues affecting the growth of entrepreneurship in India, with special emphasis on education and the effective utilization of infrastructure. This document summarizes the proceedings and includes several of the speakers' presentations.
COMMENTARY
Four years after Hurricane Katrina, many people in the Gulf Coast region are still "just surviving," struggling with the economic devastation and the physical and psychological toll of these kinds of disasters, write Anita Chandra and Joie Acosta.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Describes approaches to modernizing the U.S. freight-transportation system that require whole-system modeling, engagement of all stakeholders, and an understanding of the interdependence between local and national costs and benefits.
COMMENTARY
Alabama has made significant economic progress in recent decades, attracting car manufacturers and new industrial development. The state now has an opportunity to address some systemic challenges in education, health care, and workforce development to be competitive in a global economy, writes Melissa Flournoy.
REPORT
The long-term efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. freight transportation system is threatened by bottlenecks, inefficient use of some parts of the infrastructure components, vulnerability to disruptions, and crucial environmental and energy concerns.
NEWS RELEASE
The record of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein compares favorably to that of many other U.S. efforts at post-conflict reconstruction, particularly in the areas of economic and public reforms. However, these achievements were undermined and overshadowed by the U.S. failure to protect the Iraqi population from the criminals and extremists among them who pulled Iraq into civil war.
REPORT
This guidebook instructs U.S. Army personnel on how to better use various economic assistance programs and projects to support economic and infrastructure development in the course of their operations. Suggestions efforts include the realms of humanitarian assistance, agriculture, natural resource management, and private sector activity.
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