# Dividends or Disaster

1 Opinion November 29, 2016 The Economist ![Peter Henry](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_039935.jpg?itok=jqzFUJ8T) By Peter Henry > A change in policies and attitudes is needed, starting in 2017.

After a decade of decline triggered by the global financial crisis, capital inflows to the emerging world rebounded in 2016. This is good news. A rise in capital flows, if sustained, could provide an extremely welcome boost to growth in both advanced economies that need more high-return investment opportunities and emerging economies that need more jobs. Unfortunately, a new mix of populism and nationalism threatens to keep the world from taking advantage of the opportunity that will open up as the working-age population grows in the developing world and shrinks in rich countries.

In 2017 more than 1.1m new workers will join the labour force each month in the least developed countries. Sub-Saharan Africa will experience the most rapid labour-force growth, but many economically and geographically important developing countries in Asia and the Middle East will be close behind.

Read the full article published in [The Economist](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/Economist-PeterHenry-DividendorDisaster%281%29.pdf).

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*Peter Henry is the Dean of the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Dean Richard R. West Professor of Business and William R. Berkley Professor of Economics & Finance.*## More Opinions by Peter Henry

- [To Build Back Better, We Need Better Data About the Developing World](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/build-back-better-we-need-better-data-about-developing-world)
- [Averting Tragedy: Corporate Ethics and the Educational Commons](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/averting-tragedy-corporate-ethics)
- [Austerity and recovery: East Asian lessons for Europe](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/austerity-and-recovery-east-asian-lessons-europe)
- [Economists Need to Analyze and Explain, Don’t Prognosticate](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/henry-economists-don-t-prognosticate)
- [POV: Love and Labor Lost](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/peter-henry-love-labor-lost)