Place Based Economic Development with Simon White

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Simon White

Simon White

Simon White is a specialist in place-based economic development, private sector and business development and business environment reform.

Ethnic power sharing in Africa

In a new paper titled, “How Is Power Shared In Africa?”, Patrick Francois, Ilia Rainer, and Francesco Trebbi examine the role of ethnic elites. They investigate the ethnicity of cabinet ministers since independence (Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of

Second Global Seminar on Results Measurement

Last month, the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) held its second Global Seminar on Results Measurement in Bangkok. The seminar featured the experiences of ten field programmes that have used the DCED Standard for Results Measurement. It also looked at cross-cutting themes, such as what we have learned to

Regulatory reform - deregulation versus better regulation

Simon White | This article argues for better regulation rather than simply less regulation.

Jobs created by "everyday businesses"

Last year I posted a discussion on this site about the so-called “growth-oriented” enterprises and questioned whether policy makers are able to identify these firms before they grow. This topic has recently been revisited by the UK-based RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) in a

Do business environment reforms encourage informal firms to formalise?

This article examines the role of business environment reform in formalising the informal economy.

Measuring Donor-Supported Business Environment Reform Results

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) has just published guidance for donor and development agencies on how to measure the results of business environment reform support programmes. I prepared these guidelines along with members of the DCED’s Business Environment Working Group. The guidance can be downloaded from here.

The innovation imperative - building competitiveness beyond the resources boom

The Australian Institute of Management and the University of Melbourne have released a report on firm-based innovation, which highlights the challenges to firms. While innovation can occur by change, firms do better by ensuring the systems are in place for innovation to flourish. This requires a whole-of-organisation approach with good