Demography and Growth

Substantial demographic shifts are under way in many countries which could have a sizeable impact on trend growth rates over coming decades. This article explores some of these demographic developments, particularly in relation to population growth and age structure, for a range of economies. It also examines some of the direct effects that these changes could have on average growth over the next 10 years.demography; trend growth; dependency ratios; ageing

Remoulding Welfare Britain: The Philosophy of the Big Society in Cameron’s Britain

Since the election of David Cameron as Conservative Party Leader there has been renewed interest in the functions and philosophies underpinning the responsibilities of the state. In 2008 David Cameron advanced the argument that Britain was ‘broken’. During the subsequent 2010 election campaign he put forward a remedy seeking to ‘fix’ Britain. David Cameron’s perception is that some social dynamics of our society are living without a comparable sense of social responsibility, seemingly devoid of any form of self control. Cameron’s narrative was in part enhanced by the several days of rioting in 2011. The subsequent rhetoric of the senior Coalition partner was given rocket boosters in selling this argument to the electorate, and that only the solutions offered by the Big Society could tackle this divide in Britain’s society

How dangerous is your life? Personalising Government open crime data

This paper discusses the use of Government Open Data and how public services based on this data can and should encourage data personalisation. We present our case study Fearsquare, an application that allows people to interact with public UK crime statistics in a way that is specific to their own, individual, everyday life by leveraging the popular social media service FourSquare. This service is used as an example of how Open Data can be tailored for used in the field of personal informatics. Results suggest that the ability to personalise Government Open Crime Data using Foursquare user location history data provides an added value to an already publically available dataset

A POLICY AGENDA FOR PRO POOR AGRICULTURAL GROWTH

Economic growth has been low and the incidence and numbers of poor people remain very high in some parts of the world, notably in sub Saharan Africa and some parts of South Asia. Projections for poverty reduction suggest that these regions are likely to continue to hold very large numbers of very poor rural people in the foreseeable future. Theoretical arguments and empirical evidence suggest that in poor agrarian economies both the processes of structural change within national economies and micro-economic relations within rural economies give agriculture (and particularly intensive cereal based growth) a pre-eminent and unique role in economic development and in poverty reduction. However, reliance on pro-poor agricultural growth as the main weapon against rural poverty today faces more difficult challenges than those faced in the green revolution areas in the latter part of the 20th century, due to a number of features that together increase risk and uncertainty and raise costs and/or lower returns to agricultural investment. Many of these difficulties are endogenous to today's poor rural areas, others result from broader processes of global change, but it is argued that some are the direct result of policies supporting liberalisation and withdrawal of the state. A review of the green revolutions of the 20th century suggests that state interventions in agricultural markets were widely used and important in supporting sometimes short periods of critical market and technological development in the process of rural growth. Unfortunately the benefits of such interventions have been overlooked as a result of their very evident inefficiency and high costs, without a clear understanding of their institutional benefits. Policy and research implications of this analysis are discussed.Food Security and Poverty, International Development,

The Public Face: Working the Front Desk of the UWC

A student’s first impression of the writing center is typically made at a reception desk. In the Undergraduate Writing Center (UWC) at the University of Texas at Austin, the front desk generally employs two staffers to welcome students, collect intake information, pair students with consultants, and do their best to ensure that consultations run smoothly. As a service that strives to provide a welcoming and supportive environment for students, the front desk's role is clearly important.University Writing Cente