The department is a lively community that is recognised internationally as one of the top centres for research and teaching in development studies.

Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
This paper analyses how adjustment policies affected the poor in Asian economies, focussing on the period up to 1997. It shows that there was a significant reduction in both private income poverty and social income poverty over the previous thirty years.
The adjustment policies of the 1980s led to some episodes of rising poverty, but unlike in other regions, there was no substantial increase in poverty. Countries which adjusted on their own, however, did significantly better on poverty than those who adjusted with IMF or World Bank programmes. In both cases, the main basis for the good performance was a sustained growth rate not very high commitments of national income to social expenditure, nor a progressive improvement in income distribution.
Social safety nets did not play a big part. As a result when the economic crisis occurred in East Asian countries in 1997-8, there were only limited safety nets, of either a traditional or state supported kind, so that a sharp increase in poverty ensued.