IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/une/cpaper/021.html

LDC and other country groupings: How useful are current approaches to classify countries in a more hetergeneous developing world?

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Antonio Alonso
  • Ana Luiza Cortez
  • Stephan Klasen

Abstract

The proliferation of country groupings indicates the need to assess the effectiveness of the current system for development cooperation and to explore better ways to manage the international system, as heterogeneity among developing countries increases. Great caution should be exercised in devising new country categories. Donors can use sound criteria for aid allocation without creating new groupings. If new categories are created at all, issue-based classifications should be preferred to comprehensive categories; support should be issue-specific. Among the existing comprehensive classifications, the LDC category has significant advantages but it needs to better address the problems and incentives associated with graduation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Antonio Alonso & Ana Luiza Cortez & Stephan Klasen, 2014. "LDC and other country groupings: How useful are current approaches to classify countries in a more hetergeneous developing world?," CDP Background Papers 021, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    • Handle: RePEc:une:cpaper:021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/cdp/cdp_background_papers/bp2014_21.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adcock, Robert & Collier, David, 2001. "Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(3), pages 529-546, September.
    2. Matthias Bruckner, 2013. "Effectively addressing the vulnerabilities and development needs of small island developing States," CDP Background Papers 017, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    3. Lynge Nielsen, 2011. "Classifications of Countries Basedon their Level of Development: How it is Done and How it Could Be Done," IMF Working Papers 2011/031, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Mark McGillivray & Howard White, 1993. "Measuring development? The UNDP's human development index," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(2), pages 183-192, March.
    5. Sumner, Andy, 2012. "Where Do The Poor Live?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 865-877.
    6. Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke, 1998. "On Economic Causes of Civil War," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(4), pages 563-573, October.
    7. Fialho de Oliveira Ramos, D.N. & van Bergeijk, P.A.G., 2013. "Spaghetti and noodles : Why is the developing country differentiation landscape so complex?," ISS Working Papers - General Series 563, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    8. Ronald B. Davies & Stephan Klasen, 2013. "Of Donor Coordination, Free-Riding, Darlings, and Orphans: The dependence of bilateral aid on other bilateral giving," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 137, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    9. Roland Vaubel, 1996. "Bureaucracy at the IMF and the World Bank: A Comparison of the Evidence," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 195-210, March.
    10. Kenneth Harttgen & Stephan Klasen, 2013. "Do Fragile Countries Experience Worse MDG Progress?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(1), pages 134-159, January.
    11. Hendrik Wolff & Howard Chong & Maximilian Auffhammer, 2011. "Classification, Detection and Consequences of Data Error: Evidence from the Human Development Index," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(553), pages 843-870, June.
    12. Hirschman,Albert O., 1981. "Essays in Trespassing," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521282437.
    13. repec:wbk:wbpubs:4389 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Ana Luiza Cortez & Namsuk Kim, 2012. "Conflict and the identification of the Least Developed Countries: Theoretical and statistical considerations," CDP Background Papers 013, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    15. Easterly, William, 2009. "How the Millennium Development Goals are Unfair to Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 26-35, January.
    16. Ndulu,Benno J. & O'Connell,Stephen A. & Bates,Robert H. & Collier,Paul & Soludo,Chukwuma C., 2009. "The Political Economy of Economic Growth in Africa, 1960–2000," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521127752.
    17. Patrick Guillaumont, 2009. "Caught in a trap. Identifying the least developed countries," Post-Print hal-00436331, HAL.
    18. Morten Jerven, 2013. "Comparability of GDP estimates in Sub-Saharan Africa: The effect of Revisions in Sources and Methods Since Structural Adjustment," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 59, pages 16-36, October.
    19. repec:wbk:wbpubs:8150 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. repec:wbk:wbpubs:2444 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andy Sumner, 2016. "The world's two new middles Growth, precarity, structural change, and the limitations of the special case," WIDER Working Paper Series 034, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. John Rennie Short & Justin Vélez-Hagan & Leah Dubots, 2019. "What Do Global Metrics Tell Us about the World?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-16, May.
    3. Hoy Chris & Sumner Andy, 2016. "Global Poverty and Inequality: Is There New Capacity for Redistribution in Developing Countries?," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 117-157, June.
    4. Andy Sumner, 2016. "The world's two new middles: Growth, precarity, structural change, and the limitations of the special case," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-34, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Pamela Pogliani & Philip Wooldridge, 2022. "Cross-border financial centres," BIS Working Papers 1035, Bank for International Settlements.
    6. Rogelio Madrueño-Aguilar, 2017. "Global Income Distribution and the Middle-Income Strata: Implications for the World Development Taxonomy Debate," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 1-18, January.
    7. (ed.), 0. "Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16053.
    8. Xiao Jiang & Luis Villanueva, 2018. "Patterns of Technical Change and De-Industrialization," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 71(285), pages 161-182.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fialho de Oliveira Ramos, D.N. & van Bergeijk, P.A.G., 2013. "Spaghetti and noodles : Why is the developing country differentiation landscape so complex?," ISS Working Papers - General Series 563, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    2. Peter Nunnenkamp & Albena Sotirova & Rainer Thiele, 2016. "Do Aid Donors Specialize and Coordinate within Recipient Countries? The case of Malawi," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(6), pages 831-849, November.
    3. Rui Manuel de Sousa Fragoso & Carlos Alberto Falcão Marques, 2012. "Integrated Water Management Using Feasible Goals Method and Interactive Decision Maps: The Case of Odivelas Irrigation," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_07, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    4. Domínguez, Rafael & Olivié, Iliana, 2014. "Retos para la cooperación al desarrollo en el post-2015 /Challenges for Development Cooperation in the Post-2015," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 32, pages 995-1020, Septiembr.
    5. Elisabete Gomes Santana Félix, 2012. "Challenges of the Information Economy: Asymmetry of Information in the Information Society," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_15, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    6. Andy Sumner, 2016. "The world's two new middles Growth, precarity, structural change, and the limitations of the special case," WIDER Working Paper Series 034, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Soumodip Sarkar, 2012. "Financial Bootstrapping: a critical entrepreneurship skill," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_20, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    8. Maria Leonor Pimenta Marques Verdete da Silva Carvalho & Pedro Damião de Sousa Henriques, 2012. "The impact of shifting cultivation in the forestry ecosystems of Timor-Leste," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_16, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    9. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Savoia, Antonio, 2018. "Poverty reduction during 1990–2013: Did millennium development goals adoption and state capacity matter?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 70-82.
    10. Gertrudes Saúde Guerreiro, 2014. "Regional Income Convergence in Portugal (1991–2002)," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Economic Well-Being and Inequality: Papers from the Fifth ECINEQ Meeting, volume 22, pages 351-381, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    11. repec:cfe:wpcefa:2012_12 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Boris Branisa & Carolina Cardona, 2015. "Social Institutions and Gender Inequality in Fragile States: Are They Relevant for the Post-MDG Debate?," Southern Voice Occasional Paper 21, Southern Voice.
    13. Jorge Miguel Lopo Gonçalves Andraz & Nélia Maria Afonso Norte, 2012. "The “Great Moderation” in Portugal: GDP Volatility, Regime Changes and Business Cycles," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_09, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    14. Wim Naudé, 2008. "Conflict, Disasters, and No Jobs: Reasons for International Migration from Sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-85, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Alfredo M. Pereira & Jorge M. Andraz, 2013. "On The Economic Effects Of Public Infrastructure Investment: A Survey Of The International Evidence," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 1-37, December.
    16. Philipp Kolo, 2012. "Measuring a New Aspect of Ethnicity - The Appropriate Diversity Index," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 221, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    17. Laura Policardo & Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2020. "Can income inequality promote democratization?," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 510-532, July.
    18. Clare Leaver & Paul Segal, 2014. "The Global Distribution of Income," Economics Series Working Papers 714, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    19. Fantom,Neil James & Serajuddin,Umar, 2016. "The World Bank's classification of countries by income," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7528, The World Bank.
    20. António Bento Ratão Caleiro & Gertrudes das Dores Lopes Saúde Guerreiro & Elsa Cristina Neves Januário Vaz, 2012. "Comparative Analysis of Regional Input-Output Matrices: the Portuguese case," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_08, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    21. Andreia Teixeira Marques Dionísio & Paulo Jorge Silveira Ferreira, 2012. "An application of General Maximum Entropy to Utility," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2012_18, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:une:cpaper:021. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Aimee Gao (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desunus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.