Globally, women are having half as many children as they had just fifty years ago. Why have birth rates fallen, and how will low fertility affect our shared future? In Decline and Prosper!, demographic expert Vegard Skirbekk offers readers an accessible, comprehensive and evidence-based overview of human reproduction. Readers learn about the evolution of childbearing across different populations and how fertility is related to (changes in) our reproductive capacity, contraception, education, religion, partnering, policies, economics, assisted reproduction, and catastrophes. Readers will explore the future of family size and its impact on human welfare, women’s empowerment and the environment. Skirbekk argues that low fertility is on the whole a good thing, while recognizing the challenges of population aging and “coincidental” childlessness. A balanced, integrative examination of one of the most important issues of our time, Decline and Prosper! drives home the fact that we must ultimately adapt to a world with fewer children. The book will be invaluable to anyone who is interested in the far-reaching effects of global fertility, including researchers and students of demography, social statistics, medical sociologists, family and childhood studies, human geographers, sociology of culture, social and public policy.

This publication presents a comprehensive discussion on the impact of the global financial crisis (2008–2009) on certain Asian economies at different levels of analysis---showcasing cross-country regression, computable general equilibrium modeling, and microeconometric modeling for Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Viet Nam. Using different measures of remittances, cross-country regression analyses suggest that a 10% increase in remittances leads to a 3%–4% rise in real gross domestic product per capita. At the same time, the analyses show that remittances exert a negative impact on aggregate poverty. Moreover, these money transfers from abroad exert important impacts on the macroeconomy that include improving external current accounts, alleviating debt burdens, appreciation of domestic currencies, and moderating inflation.

The Routledge Handbook of Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies is a landmark volume that offers a uniquely comprehensive overview of entrepreneurship in developing countries. Addressing the multi-faceted nature of entrepreneurship, chapters explore a vast range of subject areas including education, economic policy, gender and the prevalence and nature of informal sector entrepreneurship. In order to understand the process of new venture creation in developing economies, what it means to be engaged in entrepreneurship in a developing world context must be addressed. This handbook does so by exploring the difficulties, risks and rewards associated with being an entrepreneur, and evaluates the impacts of the environment, relationships, performance and policy dynamics on small and entrepreneurial firms in developing economies. The handbook brings together a unique collection of over forty international researchers who are all actively engaged in studying entrepreneurship in a developing world context. The chapters offer concise but detailed perspectives and explanations on key aspects of the subject across a diverse array of developing economies, spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In doing so, the chapters highlight the heterogeneity of entrepreneurship in developed economies, and contribute to the on-going policy discourses for managing and promoting entrepreneurial growth in the developing world. The book will be of great interest to scholars, students and policymakers in the areas of development economics, business and management, public policy and development studies.

Non-State Actors in Conflicts: Conspiracies, Myths, and Practices explores some of the most pressing topics in political science and media studies. The contributions gathered here provide alternative perspectives on various non-state actors and their functions in global politics, in addition to providing case studies and theoretical approaches towards non-state actors, such as armed non-state actors and international non-governmental organizations. The volume also covers the topic of conspiracy theories and conspiracies formed in relation to the functions and existence of these actors.

Can the Pakistan's agricultural sector and rural economy once again play a significant role in growth and development? Agriculture and the Rural Economy in Pakistan: Issues, Outlooks, and Policy Priorities identifies several measures that can promote agricultural productivity growth as well as wider economic and social development.