public –private partnerships, development, transnational corporations, United Nations organizations, global governance,

There is a protracted stalemate between rich (the North) and poor (the South) countries over the question of minimum labour standards in developing economies. This paper is a sequel to Singh and Zammit (2000). It considers afresh key issues in the controversy. While fully recognizing the moral, political and philosophical dimension of this complex issue, the paper concentrates on the central economic question of the "race to the bottom". It emphasizes the difficulties of establishing labour standards in the vast informal sectors in developing countries and suggests that the ILO conventions 87 and 98 should be amended to properly reflect these concerns. It also argues that ILO core conventions should be broadened to include the right to decent living. The overall conclusion is that labour standards are important indicators of economic development but their promotion is best achieved in a non-coercive and supportive international environment such as that provided by the ILO.

This paper considers the Greenspan/Summers/IMF (GSI) argument that the Asian way of doing business was the deep cause of the Asian crisis. The IMF reform programme for the crisis-affected Asian countries suggested they should abandon the Asian business model and adopt the US corporate model. The main findings are: (a) contrary to GSI doctrine, poor corporate governance and lack of competition are not common characteristics of the Asian business model; (b) the stock market-based US business model has severe limitations for developing country corporations, not least because of imperfect share prices and the imperfect market for corporate control. Copyright (c) 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

This paper explores the main issues involved in examining the gender impact of international capital flows to developing countries. It argues that at the macroeconomic level women lose more than men from slow and/or unstable economic growth, financial crises and meltdowns, the more so the longer and deeper the economic downturn. This is largely due to the fact that, in the absence of a publicly provided social security system, the family and therefore women have to bear many additional burdens. The paper urges that women should formulate an agenda of their own with respect to international monetary reform and outlines some proposals.

In 1992 a blue‐ribbon group of US economists led by Michael Porter concluded that the US stock market‐based corporate model was misallocating resources and jeopardising US competitiveness. The faster growth of US economy since then and the supposed US lead in the spread of information technology has brought new legitimacy to the stock market and the corporate model, which is being hailed as the universal standard. Two main conclusions of the analysis presented here are: (a) there is no warrant for revising the blue‐ribbon group’s conclusion; and (b) even US corporations let alone developing country ones would be better off not having stock market valuation as a corporate goal.Shareholder wealth, Information Technology, stock‐market efficiency, G1, G3,

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