Sustainable Economic Development: Fostering the United Nations Goals

This book provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of the general framework of sustainable development paths in relation to where countries stand at present, by outlining the main challenges they face, and the potential pathways ahead to foster the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In connecting different SDG’s, the collection of chapters teases out the multifarious relationships and influences on policy, balancing economic, social, and environmental dimensions for development, making qualitative distinctions between high-income and low-income countries in the SDGs context. In doing so, the book emphasizes that with the rapid upliftment from extreme poverty and subsistence, globally, growing economic and social gaps have expanded with unprecedented speed. Widening divides in material wealth are shown, to some extent, as a ’side effect’ of fast economic growth and development. This book draws out these connections between economic progress (expressed through shifts on per capita income) and the achievements and setbacks, to meeting each of the SDGs, respectively. Beyond its place in social scientific discourse, relevant to scholars researching the various aspects of sustainable economic development, this book’s findings also have important implications for policymakers, development specialists, and economists in both developed and developing countries.

Mohamed Sami Ben Ali is a full professor of Economics at Qatar University. Previously, he was the head of the economics department and the member of the scientific board at HEC Business School, Tunisia. He holds a H.D.R degree, the highest European qualification for research. Previously, he received a Ph.D. in Economics with high honors from University of Lille--France, an M.Phil. (D.E.A) in International Finance and International Trade, and a B.A. in Business Economics. He has been teaching for the past years at graduate and undergraduate levels in Tunisia, Qatar, and France where he was a visiting professor. Dr. Ben Ali serves as an associate editor for Springer and De Gruyter journals and an editor for Palgrave and Springer and Routledge (Taylor and Francis) books series. He published a couple of books on economic development. His research and publications focus mainly on economic development and international monetary macroeconomics. He is actively participating and chairing in numerous international conferences.

Ewa Lechman is a full professor of Economics in the Faculty of Management and Economics at Gdańsk University of Technology. Her research interests concentrate on economic development, digital technologies and technological progress, and its role in reshaping social and economic systems, as well as economics of network and innovative financial instruments. She has served as a referee in more than 35 highly ranked academic journals. She was a 2013 Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence winner. From 2017 to 2019, she was nominated by Elsevier as an outstanding reviewer, and she has contributed to the University`s Elsevier Research Impact Leaders Award. Dr. Lechman has coordinated and participated in multiple research grants on digital technologies, social, and economic development, awarded by, inter alia, National Science Centre, CERGE-Global Development Network, National Bank of Poland, Stockholm Business School, and the United Nations for Development Program. An author and a co-author of more than 120 papers and books, she also serves on the board of the journal Telecommunication Policy (Elsevier).