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The purpose of this paper is to describe and critique the swing in international policy from encouraging lower income countries to erect local stock exchanges in the 1990s to discouraging them on efficiency grounds after the US securities markets collapsed in 2001.

Surveys existing literature and data about stock exchanges in emerging market countries for evidence justifying a supportive policy approach to local exchanges in lower income countries.

Basic indicators of stock exchange performance in lower income countries from the World Development Indicators database reveal positive trends alongside the less auspicious indicators emphasized by international organizations opposed to stock exchange development in lower income countries. A survey of finance and development literature generally, and work on capital markets specifically, provides evidence of and rationale for the public benefits of stock exchange development, particularly in emerging market countries. Review of governance structures of stock exchanges in low and middle income countries finds the public interest reflected in government participation in stock exchange boards and in their predominantly non‐profit status. Existing research on stock exchange trading systems provides a rationale for specific policy choices to encourage stock market performance and also highlights areas for further policy‐relevant research.

Provides evidence and rationale to bolster the case for public support of local stock exchange development in low and middle income countries in the face of opposition to such efforts from international development agencies like the World Bank.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that are significant in contributing to the per capita income growth of countries that are experiencing or have experienced the lower-middle and upper-middle income traps.

The study comprises 85 countries over the period 1960 to 2017 spanning across three income groups: lower-middle, upper-middle and high. A panel data structure was used to run a fixed effect and random effect estimation on three models of income groups. The Hausman specification test, which was used for further statistical fitness, confirmed the appropriateness of fixed effect over the random in explaining the estimation of factor variables.

The results show that unemployment is a pervasive problem that negatively affect countries at all income levels. Foreign direct investment and population of dependents are associated with economic progression of countries that have experienced or are experiencing the lower-middle income trap. Furthermore, rising income inequality and foreign aid assistance are detrimental to countries that have experienced or are experiencing the upper-middle income trap. Moreover, income inequality, disproportionate urban population and rising dependent population are damaging for high income countries that never experienced any of the middle-income traps. Conversely, openness to trade, inflation and exchange rate volatility had limited capacity in explaining growth dynamics.

This study could not incorporate geopolitical, demographic, geographical and other such exogenous factors, which could have episodes of influences on the economic development of countries. These were outside the study's realm of quantitative analysis.

This paper contributes to existing literature by providing an empirical cross-sectional comparative analysis of countries belonging to different income groups. The prevailing literature lacks such a cross-tabulated presentation of factors affecting countries that avoided the middle income trap and those that could not.

This paper aims to assess whether the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has encouraged governments to take actions towards fostering digital means of payments and financial transactions to stimulate economic activities and achieve higher financial inclusion.

Using a logit model, this paper tests the impact of the level of income and GDP per capita, government effectiveness, digital adoption, number of commercial banks and the pandemic-related closure of business and stores due to full lockdowns on governments’ policy response regarding digital means of payments.

The author finds that low- and lower-middle-income countries had significantly responded to the surged need for digital means of payment during the pandemic compared to the upper-middle-income and high-income countries. The author also finds that government effectiveness and the number of commercial banks were predictors of government policy response, while the full lockdown of countries and the overall digital adoption were not.

Data of the post-COVID-19 pandemic are limited, and the sample size is small.

This is the first paper to empirically model governments' response during the pandemic to promote digital means of payments. This paper gives insight into post-crisis potential changes in digital payment adoption in the upcoming years.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a more comprehensive model of economic growth using a sample of 28 lower middle-income developing countries.

The authors modify the conventional neoclassical growth model to account for the impact of the increase in the number of people working relative to the total population and that of the increase in the value added per worker over time. The authors then extend this model by incorporating the role of trade, government consumption, and human capital in output growth.

Regression results show that over three quarters of cross-lower middle-income country variations in per capita GDP growth rate can be explained by per capita growth in the share of public expenditures on education in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of government consumption in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of imports in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of manufactured exports in the GDP (not of that of total exports in the GDP), and the growth of the working population relative to the total population.

Statistical results of such empirical examination will assist governments in these countries identify policy fundamentals that are essential for economic growth.

To address the simultaneity bias, the authors develop a simultaneous equations model and are able to show that such model is more robust and helps explains cross-country variations in per capita GDP growth over the 2000-2014 period.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nexus between financial inclusion and human development for countries belonging to different income groups during 2009–2019, and whether this relation differs across these groups.

The paper constructs an index of financial inclusion (IFI) for different income group countries employing dynamic panel data models estimated by generalized method of moments (GMM) to analyse the relation between financial inclusion and human development.

Financial inclusion in low and lower-middle-income countries has higher effect on human development than in high and upper-middle income countries.

The study examines the effect of IFI on the human development index (HDI) at the aggregate level. Future research can tackle the IFI effect on every component of HDI and other aspects of financial inclusion could be incorporated like financial technology.

The originality lies in constructing an index for financial inclusion using the most recent data for a wide range of countries, in addition to examining the impact of financial inclusion on the human development levels of different income groups allowing for more accurate analysis tackling the differences in terms of adopted policies across various income groups; unlike other studies that are carried out on a one country basis or only across one or two country groups that do not allow for comparison across various groups of countries.

This paper examines the effects of foreign aid type on human well being. Cross‐country regressions revealed aid for education and water to be positively correlated with human well being in low‐income countries while aid for education and health are positively correlated with human well being in lower‐middle‐income countries. The results also confirm growth in output and gross domestic investment to be positively associated with human well being in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries. In the low‐income countries, it is also found that unproductive government expenditure, conflicts and rural populations are negatively correlated with human well being. Conflicts and rural populations are also negatively correlated with human well being in the middle‐income countries.

Existence of working poverty reduces the effectiveness of the strategy of “increasing employment to reduce poverty”. Developed countries are already concerned about it but insufficient attention has been made by developing countries. Focusing on developing countries this study identifies (1) the effects of trade openness (TO) on working poverty and (2) whether the working poverty trap exists or not in developing countries. Both objectives are also analyzed for three subsamples of low income, lower-middle income and upper-middle income developing countries.

Panel data for 98 developing countries over the period of 2000–2016 have been collected for the study. Fixed effect and GMM methods are applied for static and dynamic analysis, respectively.

The study finds that TO significantly reduces working poverty rate (WPR) (mainly driven up by upper-middle income developing countries). The positive association between WPR with its previous year's rate proves the existence of working poverty trap.

The study's outcome is subject to selected time, countries and methods. Future research should use more improve methods and should identify the channels through which TO could affect working poverty.

Middle income and upper-middle income developing countries should increase TO to reduce the working poverty. Low income developing countries that have the highest working poverty should search the way to derive beneficial effects of trade on working poverty.

Working poverty is not only a developed country issue rather it is a global phenomenon. Hence, it is expected that the study will raise the social consciousness about this phenomenon in developing countries too.

The study fulfills the gaps of identifying the effects of TO on working poverty and existence of in-work poverty trap in developing countries.

This study is aimed at better understanding the evolution of inequality in carbon emission in intraincome and interincome groups in the world, and then to uncover the driving factors that affect inequality in carbon emission.

The approach is developed by combining the Theil index and the decomposition technique. Specifically, the Theil index is used to measure the inequality in carbon emissions from the perspective of global and each income group level. The extended logarithmic mean Divisia index was developed to explore the driving factors.

This study finds that the inequality in carbon emissions of intraincome group is getting better, whereas the inequality in carbon emission of interincome group is getting worse. And the difference in global carbon emissions between income groups is the main source of global carbon emission inequality, which is greater than that within each income group. In addition, the high-income group has transferred their carbon emissions to upper-middle income group by importing high-carbon-intensive products to meet the domestic demand, while lower-middle-income group do not fully participate in the international trade.

To alleviate the global carbon inequality, more attention should be paid to the inequality in carbon emission of interincome group, especially the trade between high-income group and upper-middle income group. From the perspective of driving factors, the impact of import and export trade dependence on the per capita carbon emissions of different income groups can almost offset each other, so the trade surplus effect should be the focus of each group.

In order to consider the impact of international trade, this study conducts a comprehensive analysis of global carbon emissions inequality from the perspective of income levels and introduces the import and export dependence effect and the trade surplus effect into the analysis framework of global carbon emission inequality drivers, which has not been any research carried out so far. The results of this paper not only provide policy recommendations for mitigating global carbon emissions but also provide a new research perspective for subsequent inequality research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of bank interest rate spread in Sub-Saharan African countries, which were categorized into macro-specific, bank-specific and institutional variables.

The authors used fixed effects estimations to analyze the data. The data were drawn from a pool of 20 Sub-Saharan African countries for a period of ten years spanning 2003–2012. The countries were categorized into low-income, lower middle-income and upper middle-income countries based on World Bank income classifications.

The results show that inflation has a negative and significant effect on interest rate spread, while operating costs and bank concentration have a positive and significant effect on interest rate spread. Similarly, government effectiveness, rule of law and political stability are negatively related to the interest rate spread.

The paper provides evidence that interest rate spread is determined by both bank-specific, macro-economic and institutional variables. The paper also indicates that the income status of a country is important in explaining the variations in the interest rate spread across the region. Therefore, the policy makers should design policies that take into account the variables in order to help in planning by all economic agents, including banks.

The paper uses data from Sub-Saharan Africa and introduces institutional variables in the model, which have been found to be critical in the context.

The purpose of this paper is to simulate the indirect and direct effects of remittances in developing countries.

The paper estimates a dynamic macroeconomic model and estimates the short‐run and long‐run dynamic multiplier effects of hypothetical temporary changes in remittances, as well as simulates the permanent effects of observed remittances.

The results indicate positive multiplier effects in general, and they also reveal a substantial variability across income categories and regions. The results indicate that low‐income economies are more inclined to spend their incomes on consumption and investments than middle‐income economies and, therefore, have a higher short‐run potential gain from receiving remittances. Low‐income economies typically reside in Sub‐Saharan Africa, whereas middle‐income economies are mainly found in East Europe, Latin America and North Africa and the Middle East. However, actual gains from remittances are highest in lower middle‐income economies because these countries receive more remittances. Generally, the short‐run effects are higher than the long‐run effects due to a sustained dependence of imported goods and services.

The paper analyzes the effects of remittances on components in aggregate demand.

The results support the World Bank's current policy recommendation that remittances should be promoted.

The paper corrects the algebraic solution for dynamic multiplier effects in Glytsos's work, written in 2005, and estimates the model for a macroeconomic panel containing 115 developing countries. The paper considers the effects of the net flows of remittances rather than of inflows only.