International Trade, Economic Crisis and the Sustainable Development Goals

In this chapter, the author considers a three-sector general equilibrium model in the context of a developing nation to find out the impact of an increase in foreign capital inflow on the welfare level of the nation. Comparative static analysis reveals that an increase in the inflow of foreign capital causes redistribution across the factors of production and a reallocation of resources, reflected through the change in output. Moreover, the author considers the case of technology transfer and proves that an increase in foreign capital inflow makes the country better off in terms of social welfare even if the foreign capital is fully repatriated. Hence, this work shows that in the absence of any trade distortion, a partial investment liberalisation causes a welfare gain for a small open economy.

The context of sustainable development dwells, quite significantly, upon the one of gender parity in a society and nation. This is so because the issue of gender equality is key to distributive justice, which is in turn much essential for creating a good amount of precondition for sustainable development. Academic inquests into the problem into the gender disparity are indicative of how gender disparity on economic and social parameter triggers a negative productivity change over time and space. Thus, the current chapter brings forth an analytical approach to contemplating into the above-mentioned narratives in both theoretical and empirical terms. The tack of our analysis is as follows. To begin with, this chapter develops an index to determine the extent of gender disparity in health, education and participation in workforce (namely, Gender Gap Index or GGI). Moving on, the study extends to looking at India changing dynamics on gender gap vis-à-vis developing and less-developed countries. Besides, a general equilibrium model has been developed to unfurl the fallout of gender disparity in terms of the wage gap between male and female workers in the labour force, extant and conditioned further by demographic and sociopolitical factors.

‘Subjective well-being comprises of people's emotional responses, domain satisfactions, and global judgements of life satisfaction’ (Diener et al., 1999). The health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3) aims to ensure ‘good health and well-being’ for all, over the globe. The World Happiness Report (2022) reported a highly significant relation between the SDG-3 and the subjective well-being scores and hence for the improvement of citizen well-being suggested for a holistic approach to economic development. The present chapter examines the impact of global economic crisis 2008–09 on the subjective well-being using time series data for six selected countries for the time period 2004–2019. Considering the crisis as an ‘intervention’, this chapter performs interrupted time series analysis for single- and multiple-group (country) comparisons. The single group analysis finds that in the immediate year of crisis, there appeared to be significant decrease in subjective well-being, followed by a significant decrease in the annual trend subjective well-being relative to pre-crisis for most of the countries. In case of multiple group analysis, the regression results reveal that initial mean level difference between any country and remaining countries was significant for most of the countries. The difference in the subjective well-being trend between a particular country and remaining countries after initiation of the crisis compared to pre-crisis period has appeared to be significantly negative for all the countries considered in the analysis.

Reducing and eradicating global poverty features as a primary objective of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for 2030. Since over half a century, the World Bank has disbursed loans amounting to billions of US dollars to assist countries to alleviate poverty. However, the path to zero poverty is often impaired with conflicts, social unrest and, most commonly, economic crisis. In this chapter, we examine the inter-linkage between various forms of economic crises, poverty and government expenditure for a set of 127 countries from 1985 to 2010. Using a simultaneous equation model, we test the direct effect of a financial crisis on the incidence of poverty and its indirect effect through the immediate decrease in government expenditure. Contrary to previous studies, our findings suggest that crises have no direct impact on poverty. We find a similar effect for currency, inflation and debt crisis. However, there is evidence that poverty increases indirectly due to a fall in government expenditure. Our results are robust for non-advanced and advanced economies and alternate estimation technique using factor analysis.

Financial instability and economic crises are closely intertwined. There is no universally accepted definition. The term ‘stability’ or ‘instability’ refers to the behaviour of the system rather than to individual institutions. However, one cannot rule out that failure of a single financial institution can trigger significant financial turmoil as was happened in 2007–08 global financial crises. Like unstable equilibrium, instability implies inability to correct itself on its own. Instability, if it persists, turns into a crisis. In the above backdrop, the objective of this chapter is to investigate the financial crises and instability viewed both from economic and international political economy perspectives with a tale of four generation crisis models as it has been evolved over time to explain the phenomenon of different types of crises.

Nuclear energy investments contribute significantly to the energy independence of countries. This situation helps countries to develop both economically and socially. Therefore, countries need to develop strategies to increase their nuclear energy investments. However, radioactive waste generated in nuclear reactors is one of the most important disadvantages of this type of energy. Due to this situation, the wastes generated must be disposed of effectively for nuclear energy investments to be effective. In this study, it is aimed to create optimal strategies for the effective waste managements generated in nuclear power plants. Within this framework, four different balanced scorecard perspectives are considered as the criteria. In the analysis process, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology is taken into consideration. It is identified that learning and development is the most critical factor for the effective radioactive waste management created in nuclear power plants. On the other side, internal factors are the second most important criterion in this framework. Hence, it is understood that nuclear energy investors should give priority to the technological development for effective waste management in nuclear power plants. With the help of these technological improvements, the wastes can be disposed more successfully. As a result, environmental sustainability can be provided much easily.

The global economy is facing a steep challenge from volatility, risk and uncertainty associated with climate change, pandemics, regional conflicts and trade wars which are unprecedented and overlapping. These crises are leading to macro- and microeconomic imbalances. The immediate effects like rising inflation, shortage of energy and fertiliser, food insecurity, loss of jobs and poverty are looming large, leading to existential threat. It is evident that decades of progress are at risk and pursuing sustainable development goals (SDGs) requires dedicated and customised efforts by the governments and other relevant actors, especially in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICS). The concept of circular economy is considered to bring a paradigm shift by reducing the dependence on natural resource extraction and decoupling economic growth from use of natural resources. Bioeconomy is another emerging field which deals with the use of renewable biological resources such as biomass to produce renewable biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower for economic, environmental and social benefits. Circular bioeconomy (CBE) lies at the intersection and is defined as the production of recoverable biological (waste) resources and the conversion of these resources into high-value-added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. It has been estimated that the economic opportunity for the sector to complement or even substitute conventional ones is estimated to be USD 7.7 trillion by 2030 for food and feed waste products, and energy. CBE is perceived as a pathway for development and has the potential to target different SDGs directly like 6, 7 and 12 and SDGs 2, 3, 11, 12, 13 and 15 indirectly. This study explores the linkages of CBE with the SDG goals and provides recommendations to stimulate the sector.

Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) every year produces peace setting scores of many countries over the globe. The peace index score (PIS) and its ranking are fabricated by involvement of numerous recognised variables. The internal and external violence factors and their intensity regulate the strength of such scores. The present study deliberates such peace scores and rank of the countries in terms of regional variation and income class specifications. The study uses alteration of rank over three consecutive years and the growth of the PIS to elucidate the disparities over the region and income classification. The study recognised that income classification of countries smoothly elucidates the rank differences in terms of peace scores, but regional variation wise enlightenment remains misnomer. Further, this study contemplates four violence indicators and their growth over three years to describe the non-conformities of peace score between the countries. Studies acknowledged that inter-correlation between the peace growth scores and also between the growth of violence indicators is the significant factor to comprehend the peace score behaviour. Over the years, studies confirm that high-income countries are able to improve their PIS though there has large levels of inconsistency among countries. Among the regional specification, studies perceive that countries around the globe improved their peace score during 2018–2019, rather than 2019–2020.

Non-performing assets (NPAs) are classified as loans and advances which are in default, either refund of principal or interest payments are not duly met. This not only leads to dishonour of loan agreement from the recipients' point of view but also huge NPAs result macroeconomic instability and economic crisis. The financial crisis may create hindrances towards achievement of sustainable development of an economy. Keeping NPA in balance sheet portrays lacunae in management of the lender. The non-recovery of interest and principal reduces the lender's operating cash flow, which upsets the budget and drops the earnings. Statutory provisions, set aside to cover probable losses, reduce the income further. When the non-recovery is determined to be definite in nature, they are written off against earnings of the lending institution. Thus, presence of NPAs in balance sheet gives a distress signal to the stakeholders of the lending institution. Under this consideration, the present study will look upon some of these issues related to NPA management in Indian banking sector. The main objective of this study is to discuss the nexus between the NPA of Indian scheduled banks for priority sector, non-priority sector and public sector and the gross domestic product (GDP) of Indian economy for the time period 2005–2020. To study this objective, the ratio analysis and the trend analysis of NPA of three sectors and GDP of Indian economy over the given time frame have been done. Finally, some policy prescriptions regarding achievement of sustainable development after taking into account NPA management of an economy have also been proposed.

Clean energy is the most demanding issue for sustainable development, especially in post-COVID-19 scenario. The Government of India (GOI) has adopted various reform policies in the energy sector focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7). India has taken initiative on SDG 7 to ensure access to sustainable energy for all. The core interest area of this paper is to analyse recent energy reform policies in energy sectors covering power generation, transmission, distribution and consumption and discusses mechanism SDG target achievement within 2030 in India. In the COVID-19 pandemic scenario, every country faces a major issue of energy security since the undisrupted energy security is related to energy demand. In the time period of pandemic, industrial energy demand goes down rapidly all over the world, especially in India. Though in the eve of festive season in India the difference between the energy supply and demand slightly overcomes. In the year 2003, GOI through Electricity Act opened electricity market for private participation to increase efficiencies. In the COVID-19 pandemic scenario, every country faces a major issue of energy security since the undisrupted energy security is related to energy demand. Further, the Ministry of Power has taken several policies such as National Electrification Policy in 2005, National Tariff Policy, Rural Electrification Policy in 2009 and Integrated Energy Policy. This policy brief paper highlights the progress of clean energy in India and provides their future trajectory towards achieving SDG targets, especially in the period of COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 has affected millions of people across the world and worsened the socio-economic conditions that have sound reasons to discuss about the impact of COVID-19 on the progress of achieving the target level of sustainable development. The stagflation due to COVID-19 has a possibility to push a large section of population back under the critical level of income. The economic restriction and lockdown has impacted on the supply of food and essential requirements for decent living. The health services and education have been jeopardised. So the possible impact to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of no poverty (SDG1), zero hunger (SDG2), good health and wellbeing (SDG3), education (SDG4), decent work and economic growth (SDG8), income inequality (SDG10) are examined in this chapter. This chapter also discusses about the proper implementation and stress on SDGs as the possible instruments on the way out of recession. Difference-in-difference analysis is used to explain the impact of COVID-19 with the data in global context in respect of before COVID and after COVID.

The incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic has come as a big blow to every dimension of any economy. It disrupts the usual constructs and functioning of economies across the globe. Different macroeconomic variables such as income, employment, etc. have been in shambles because of the unprecedented pandemic. Such a situation needs an alternative thought to turn around everything, and circular economic approach indeed is a potent tool to weather this tumultuous situation. Circular economic framework facilitates recycling and reusing of wastes discarded. Because of various activities, wastes are generated, and if products could be generated out of wastes through a system, it would be beneficial to economies as this ensures the judicious utilisation of resources. Recycling, refurbishing and reducing are three important pillars of the circular economic framework, where product lifecycle gets extended and prudent use of existing resources can be possible. The usage of resources even out of wastes stands out to be a game changer in terms of sustainability of environment. The alternative usage of resources in this way creates alternative employment opportunities. The extension of product lifecycle through recycling and reusing creates alternative rooms for employment, giving ample opportunities for sustainable development. It leads to market creation for waste products. Such a circular economy approach, paving the way for alternative employment generation, leads to sustainable development. The present work tries to re-examine the efficacy of the circular economic framework and its resilience in the context of the unprecedented pandemic in terms of providing alternative employment opportunities. It attempts to underscore how circular economic construct positively impacts prudent use of resources through alternative employment generation in pandemic.

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) designed by the United Nations include ‘universal and equitable access to affordable, reliable and clean energy’ as one of the pathways to achieve a better and more sustainable future by 2030. Universal access to electricity, clean cooking fuel, increasing share of renewable resources and improving energy efficiency are the key components of SDG7. In India, the government has undertaken targeted programmes to ensure full electrification of households and greater use of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) for clean cooking replacing traditional solid biomass fuels in poor households. Installed capacity targets are set to raise the share of renewable resources in total energy mix along with the policies undertaken to make it cost-competitive (SDG India, 2019–2020). However, the economic crisis experienced by India during COVID-19 pandemic is likely to affect this ongoing drive towards clean energy use. Sudden fall in income and loss of employment particularly in the unorganised sector might have made the poor rural households vulnerable to reversion to their traditional cooking fuels. The renewable sector has also faced uncertainties due to halted construction works and disrupted global supply chains during lockdown. The present chapter discusses these pertinent issues crucial for achieving SDGs. It investigates how far the COVID-19-driven economic crisis has delayed India's clean cooking fuel programme for different states. It further examines the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on renewable energy sector, particularly on the solar energy sector. The study suggests some policy measures for a robust recovery, ensuring transition towards clean energy use and sustainable growth to protect the environment.

One of the major goals of sustainable development is creating employment opportunity among all. Despite its largest demographic dividends, the whole world faces challenges in employment generation among youth. The growing number of unemployed youths is one of the important problems faced by developed as well-developing countries. Youth unemployment is the situation of young people who are looking for a job but cannot find a job in the age between 15 and 24. Mismatch between education and employability resulted in high unemployment rates among the youth. A key research question is that how we can bridge the gap and equip the youth for job field. Although eminent economists, newspapers, international statistical bodies continuously put fingers towards this vulnerability, research work in this field is really scant. On this backdrop, this chapter wants to explore the intensity of youth unemployment in India; keeping in mind, India has the largest youth population in the world. Based on data sources from World Development Indicators, the chapter studies the time series since globalisation to COVID periods. This chapter also tries to search the macroeconomic variables related anyway to the youth unemployment rate. As research methodology, we use vector autoregressive (VAR) Granger causality test. Based on our results, the author has concluded that human development index in India and GDP both ways causes each other. And youth unemployment rate in India causes HDI. However, our econometric investigations can be useful to better assessment of youth unemployment in India from liberalisation to pandemic. At the end of this chapter, some final considerations and policy implications on youth labour market dynamics are analysed and discussed.

The Horn of Africa which has geostrategic importance is endowed with huge natural resources. However, the region is one of the conflict-prone regions in the world. Deficiencies in governance systems, deprivations and poverty, resource-based inter-communal conflicts and unduly interventions of external powers in the internal affairs of the countries have been the main triggers of conflicts. With the persistence of conflicts, the Horn of African countries have remained underdeveloped with poor development outcomes. The conflicts in the region, thus, must be reversed through genuine cooperation among the Horn of African countries. For regional durable peace and sustainable development in the Horn of Africa, the following measures are suggested: (i) Political recommitment and political willingness of leaderships in the Horn of African countries for broader regional cooperation for durable peace and development to address regional challenges jointly. (ii) Promote good governance and democratic principles. (iii) Strengthen regional cooperation among institutions of higher education to facilitate access to global knowledge. (iv) Establishment of regional media that promotes good images of the Horn of Africa. (v) Establishment of Horn of Africa Institute for Peace and Development to cultivate good governance and tolerance. (vi) Provision of civic education at all levels of education to promote understanding among different ethnic groups. (vii) Increase investments to improve the livelihoods of marginalised groups, particularly nomadic communities and unemployed youth. (viii) Refrainment of external powers from meddling in the internal affairs of the Horn of African countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected entire humanity, sustainable development and international trade. Even if international trade is in the recovery phase, COVID-19 pandemic's adverse effects on sustainable development and trade continue to be experienced globally. Furthermore, break out of the war in Ukraine (WIU) further affected not only Ukraine and Russia but also other countries. Countries have started to experience adverse impacts of the WIU more deeply as this war continues. From the global sustainable development and trade perspectives, the WIU impacts' magnitude is affected by the significance of Ukraine and Russia's role in and contribution to the global economy and trade (e.g. agriculture, energy). All countries, including developed, developing and under-developed countries, have started to be affected at different levels due to the adverse impacts of this war. Based on an in-depth literature review, this chapter aims to investigate the WIU's impacts on global sustainable development and international trade. Furthermore, effects of the WIU on climate change and on the fight against climate change are investigated within the scope of this chapter. This chapter is expected to be useful to all stakeholders of sustainable development including politicians and researchers.

It has been already established that the countries that have opened their economies in advance have reaped more benefits compared to those who have done it late. For example, the countries of the West are far away from the countries of the East in terms of the per capita incomes as because, besides others, the magnitudes of trade openness of the former are higher compared to that of the latter. Besides countries, there are some economic groups such as European Union, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), etc. who have proved the similar growth impacts of trade. There is another group of highly developing economies, with the acronym of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which has proved as being highly beneficiaries of the trade liberalisation. But the magnitudes of trade openness and their impacts in these countries are subject to further explorations using modern data. The present chapter aims to compute trade openness using two different methods for the BRICS countries and make association of it with growth and foreign currency reserves (FCRs) for the period 1991–2019. In addition, the study examines whether the FCR is sustainable. It observes positive and negative correlations between economic openness and gross domestic product (GDP) growth and FCR in the member nations leading to mean that trade openness has definitely contributed to the growth as well as accumulation of FCRs. But, the trends in the FCRs are unsustainable in the BRICS nations.

Climate change is a bitter truth for the entire humanity, and it vehemently calls for thoughtful means for environmental protection along with sustainable economic growth. International trade blocs fundamentally represent amalgamation of countries to achieve unified goals like higher living standards, reduced trade barriers, freer labour mobility across member states, social and cultural upliftment, political allegiance to regional association, etc. Throughout the 1990s, these trade blocs have committed to reducing environmental pressures and shifting towards cleaner forms of energy. This chapter examines the relationship between rate of change in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions per capita and rate of change in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in linear, quadratic and cubic polynomial forms with the other control variables like inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI), export of goods and services, population density, urban population percentage and location dummies for the 66 countries falling in seven regional trade blocs. Other than the European Union and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the remaining five trade blocs in the study – Association of South-East Nations (ASEAN), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Common Market for Eastern and South Africa (COMESA), Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) – contain mostly the developing and some of the fastest growing economies of the world. The panel regression result finds an inverse relationship between rate of change in per capita CO₂ emissions and rate of change in GDP per capita (in linear and cubic polynomial forms), exports and population density, while the other coefficients of the explanatory variables are positive. The study also establishes an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) which is opposite to N-shape during 2005–2019, and that contradicts with the original EKC of inverted U-shaped. However, this shape admits the collective efforts of region-specific trade blocs towards achieving clean environment which is one of the important global goals.

This chapter aims to critically analyse the implications that the national protectionist policies have on the global supply and value chains and the relocation of production. The analysis is based on the assumptions that the global economy is facing the possibility of decoupling of many trade connections, and this trend favours de-globalisation processes that have long been promoted by populism, nationalism and economic protectionism. It is concluded that global supply, production and value chains although being economically efficient are no longer any more secure under national protectionist policies, and therefore, the relocation of production processes is mainly due to the increase in the level of income and wages of the developing countries that are the destination and which reduce the advantages to relocate.

The world has seen significant level of emergence of the developing nations over the years. But the world has been going through certain economic crises – be it the worldwide recession of 2008 – that had a worldwide impact, be it the ongoing depression in economic activities since 2018–2019 due to several economic issues. Under these circumstances, how far these developing nations have been able to cope up with is an issue of worry. Can they overcome these depressions or recessions and get on the sustainable path of progress again and compete at par with the developed nations? In this chapter, we have used multiple regression analysis to analyse how far and to what extent these recessions have had impact on the exchange rates (ERs) and other important variables, including growth, of the selected eight developing nations. By taking ER as our dependent variable and five important macroeconomic indicators as regressors, we have checked if the recession caused any structural breaks in these economies or not. We have found the significant impact of gross domestic product (GDP), inflation and trade balance on ER, while the effects of net foreign direct investment (FDI) and rate of interest were not significant. By applying Chow test, we have seen that there is existence of structural breaks in these economies over the period of 2007–2010. These breaks can be attributed to the global recession as well as economic activities prior to the recession. We have also conducted few diagnostic tests to prove the robustness of our analysis.

Issues related to economic development and growth are oft discussed to illustrate the health of a nation. However, such development is constrained by the inequality parameter of the representative society. Again, economic fluctuations arising from several crises may hinder the representative nation from getting on a smooth path to development. Now, augmentation of crises along with the presence of inequality may trigger economic vulnerabilities, leading to unsustainable economic development. Against this backdrop, we initially frame a theoretical model to capture the above-mentioned issues and try to derive plausible economic interpretations for the same. To verify the same in a more robust manner, we consider a panel of 30 developing countries from Africa, spanning the time period 1980–2020. Both the health status and the education status of our panel of countries are used to explore the sustainability issue in the presence of income inequality. All data have been collected from the World Development Indicators (WDI) and Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) (Table 21.1

). We have divided the entire timespan into two separate time periods on the basis of the 2008 crisis, to test the impact of this crisis on sustainable development in terms of health and education of the selected African nations. We have used a two-stage dynamic panel model to analyse the inherent dynamics within the health and education indicators and also to trace the consequences of unsustainability for the selected panel. Our study suggests that policymakers in African countries should focus on implementing health and education-oriented programmes augmented with sector-specific liberalisation policies, with particular stress given on the aspect of sustainability rather than on growth alone.

Variables Description.

Although multiple effective vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic have been discovered, produced and deployed worldwide at exceptional rates, multiple countries have been left out due to numerous reasons, and the vaccination rates among these countries have been dismally low, while at the other end, some nations were able to inoculate almost all of their people. There have been studies concerning this issue, trying to understand the factors causing such inequity, and most of them look at socio-economic conditions like income and the behavioural factor of vaccine acceptance. This chapter, however, emphasises the role of trade and the global value chains (GVCs) in providing countries access to vaccines, which are being manufactured in a distributed system of production stages. The main concerned variables are vaccination rates and the GVC participation measure. Such analysis could help us understand whether being part of the production chain gives the countries an advantage in accessing the vaccine stocks, and the results suggest that the GVC participation rate does have an effect on the vaccination rate of a country.