Economics and Finance

There has been a remarkable transformation of the rural economy in Bangladesh during the last decades leading to significant reductions in poverty. National statistics and other reports have documented the progress in agriculture, infrastructure, health, education and the improved condition for women in rural Bangladesh.

This book comprises a selection of studies from the research team of the Extreme Poverty programme (EEP-Shiree), sponsored by GOB-DFID during 2008-16. Its core premise is that extreme poverty is significantly different as a socio-economic, political and cultural experience from being moderately poor in the society.

This volume on macroeconomic and monetary topics regarding Bangladesh are a collection from papers that were presented at the fourth BDI conference held at the University of California-Berkeley in February, 2013. Most of the chapters are based on empirical analyses, using data over various time periods and applying many different econometric techniques. They address real sector issues such as growth, employment, saving, investment, trade and agriculture, as well as financial or monetary issues such as money supply, inflation, equity markets, and microfinance.

This book is an outcome of a study on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and their contextual determinants in Bangladesh, with a focus on the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical industry. The author argues that businesses in Bangladesh need to collaborate with the government to close the existing gap of distrust and lack of confidence.