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Fossil fuel subsidies are widespread in developing countries, where reform efforts are often derailed by disputes over the likely distribution of gains and losses. The impacts of subsidy reform are transmitted to households through changes in energy prices and prices of other goods and services, as well as through factor earnings. Most empirical studies focus on consumer expenditures alone, and computable general equilibrium analyses typically report only total effects without decomposing them by source. Meanwhile, analytical models neglect important open-economy characteristics relevant to developing countries. In this paper, we develop an analytical model of a small open economy with a preexisting fossil fuel subsidy and identify direct and indirect impacts of subsidy reform on real household incomes. Our results, illustrated with data from Viet Nam, highlight two important drivers of distributional change: (i) the mix of tradable and nontradable goods, reflecting the structure of a trade-dependent economy; and (ii) household heterogeneity in sources of factor income.

In India the formal, or organized, sector is not able to generate employment opportunities for the unskilled or semi-skilled workers on a large scale, forcing them to get residually absorbed in the unorganized sector. At the same time, the unorganized sector is believed to have work consignments from the organized sector and this ancillarization process is contributing to employment creation. In the backdrop of these views the present study, using the unit level data of the National Sample Survey (NSS, 2010-11), makes an attempt to estimate the employment elasticity and wage-productivity nexus in the unorganized sector. Although the employment function estimated in the paper suggests employment can be raised through wage reduction, it can affect the wellbeing of the workers because the wage rate in the unorganized sector is already very low. Further, subcontracting or ancillarization does not seem to be contributing to employment generation in unorganized manufacturing or trade related activities. However, in the services sector it shows a positive impact. The equation representing determinants of wages shows units with assets are better-off compared to those that do not have them. This has an important policy implication, suggesting that through asset creation, government may bring in improvements in livelihood of the unorganized sector enterprises.

The trajectory of Singapore's population size and composition can be mapped out with its progression through the various phases of demographic transition from high birth and death rates in the post-war years to very low birth and death rates today, all within the context of rapid economic and social development that has taken place in the past 50 years. Population planning has been integral in Singapore's national development strategy, balancing the economy's needs for more and better qualified workers with social considerations such as the dependency burden and the integration of large numbers of foreigners in a global city-state. This paper considers Singapore's population and manpower planning policies, with an account of the country's passage through the various stages of its demographic transition, and how its working age population composition has evolved. Population and labor force policies are examined with specific consideration of the social, economic and political implications resulting from those policy choices. A final section considers the challenges for the future stemming from these demographic trends.

As a result of human economic activity, the planet Earth is facing a climate change emergency (IPCC, 2013). Scientific research suggests that bold and immediate solutions are required to avert the worst impacts of climate change (US Global Change Research Program, 2017). At the same time, societies are facing unprecedented levels of income and wealth inequality — often along the lines of race and gender — which threaten the very foundations of democratic governance (OECD, 2011)…