Market economy

A free private-enterprise economy governed by consumer sovereignty, a price system, and the forces of supply and demand.

Mixed economic systems

Economic systems that are a mixture of both capitalist and socialist economies. Public and private sectors co-exist in such economic system.

MFA

A set of non-tariff bilateral quotas established by developed countries on imports of cotton, wool, and synthetic textiles and clothing from individual developing countries.

Non-formal education

Any non-school-based programme that provides basic skills and training to individuals. Examples include adult education, on-the-job training programmes, and agricultural and other extension services.

Outward-looking development policies

• Policies that encourage free trade;
• the free movement of capital, workers, enterprises;
• a welcome to multi inflational corporations, etc.

Partial Scope Agreement (PSA)

A PSA is only partial in scope, meaning it allows for trade between countries on a small number of goods.

Privatization

Selling public assets (corporations) to individuals or private business interests.

Property rights

Legal titles given to natural resources such as land to people enabling them freely to buy and sell their assets, and other rights to use, gain income from, or sell property.

Purchasing power parity (PPP)

The purchasing power of a country’s currency: the number of units of that currency required to purchase the same basket of goods and services that a US dollar buys in the United States.

Rent seeking

Efforts by individuals and businesses in an economy to capture the economic rent arising from price distortions and physical controls caused by excessive government intervention, such as license, quotas, interest rate ceilings, and exchange control.

Social safety net

A set of government programmes such as public distribution system, welfare payments, free health clinics, and unemployment insurance designed to ensure a minimum level of living for the poor.

Urban bias

When the urban sector is favoured in the development policies, thereby creating a widening gap between the urban and rural economies.

Trickle-down theory of development

The notion that an overall growth of gross national product and income per capita would automatically benefit (trickle down) the poor.