The
Current Global Financial Turmoil and Asian
Developing Countries
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| Yilmaz
Akyüz |
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The resilience of emerging
markets to direct and indirect shocks
from the current financial crisis in
the US will play an important role in
determining global growth and stability
in the near future, since much of it
has been due to expansion in these economies,
notably in Asia. This paper explores
the extent to which growth and stability
in Asian emerging markets can be decoupled
and this the paper argues crucially
depends on prevailing domestic economic
conditions as well as the policy response
to possible shocks from the crisis.
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Consumers
and Demand  |
| Ben
Fine |
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This
paper discusses the limitations of the
theory of the consumer, and of demand,
which lies at the heart of mainstream
economics. This paper seeks to explain
why consumer theory evolved like this
and, despite its narrowness and deficiencies,
has expanded its scope of application
both within economics and across other
social sciences. The paper finally offers
a broad sketch of an alternative approach
to consumer theory, one that draws upon
political economy that is necessarily
interdisciplinary. The final section discusses
some of the wider implications of developments
in and around consumer theory for the
nature and prospects of economics as a
discipline. |
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| Oil
and Challenges of Trade Policy Making in
Sudan in a Globalizing Arena |
| Mehdi
Shafaeddin |
|
This paper examines the
potential impact of oil revenues on
the economy of Sudan and the challenges
facing the Government in policy making;
particularly trade policy, allocation
of oil revenues for long-run development,
and diversification of the production
and export structure of the economy.
Developing a conceptual framework of
analysis, the author argues that while
export of petroleum provides financial
resources for the acceleration of investment
and growth, prospects for sustained
growth and diversification will be still
limited by some physical and institutional
bottlenecks, not easily overcome by
just oil revenues. Export of oil may
also have other negative effects on
Sudan’s economy.
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| Minsky's
"Cushions of Safety", Systemic
Risk and the Crisis in the US Subprime Mortgage
Market |
| Jan
Kregel |
|
The
sub prime crisis in the US has little
to do with the mortgage market, or subprime
mortgages per se, but rather with the
basic structure of the financial system
that produces overestimates of creditworthiness
and underpricing of risk. The bottom line
is that the system has been structured
to make credit too cheap, leading to excessive
risk in order to provide higher returns.
The financial fragility that was identified
in Minsky's work cannot be eliminated,
only damped by systemic policies. However,
it is possible to eliminate fragility
that emerges from the structure and regulation
of the financial system.
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| Managing
Financial Instability in Emerging Markets
: A Keynesian Perspective |
| Yilmaz
Akyüz |
|
This paper examines the
extent to which Keynesian thinking could
help understand the causes and dynamics
of crises in emerging markets and provide
suitable policy prescriptions. It concludes
that at the analytical level the endogenous
unstable dynamics analyzed by post Keynesians,
notably Hyman Minsky, goes a long way
in providing a powerful framework for
explaining the boom-bust cycles driven
by international capital flows in emerging
markets. The paper also points out the
need to develop new instruments for
stabilization, placing greater emphasis
on countercyclical financial regulations
and control than has hitherto been the
case.
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| The
Main Lesson from the Asian Crisis: ''Dragons''
Should Not Fundamentally Change Their Policies |
| Kunibert
Raffer |
|
This
paper argues that liberating themselves
from the dictates of the international
financial institutions seems to be the
optimal policy response for the Asian
economies, because the ''reforms'' demanded
by IFIs not only left untreated the problem
triggering the Asian crisis of the nineties,
but instead tried to enforce an unfeasible
set of neoliberal policies. In addition,
the IFIs actually took economic advantage
of the crisis.
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| Climate
Change and its Implications: Which Way Now?
|
| Praveen
Jha |
|
The impact of climate
change on the world of today and the
future is undeniable. Stipulated emission
reduction targets for developed countries
are still too modest under the Kyoto
Protocol and the US, the world's largest
polluter remains outside the agreement.
The scientific community warns that
a global coordinated response with participation
of the major emitters and rapidly growing
economies of China and India is the
only way forward to avoid the worse
predicted effects of global warming.
This paper reviews the debates and attempts
to trace the path to the future.
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| Social
Inequality in Land Ownership in India: A
Study with particular reference to West
Bengal |
| Aparajita
Bakshi |
|
This
paper deals with an important form of
discrimination in the countryside, the
lack of access of Dalit (Scheduled Caste)
and Adivasi (Scheduled Tribe) households
to ownership and operational holdings
of land in rural India. It includes a
case study of the impact of land reforms
in one State of India, West Bengal, on
land holding among Dalit and Adivasi households.
The aim of this paper is to determine
Dalit households' access to land for production,
and compare this access with that of other
social groups. The findings suggest that
the land redistribution programme followed
in the state has increased land access
for such marginalised groups.
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| Mexican
Economic Liberalization: The Project and
the Realities |
| Alicia
Puyana Mutis |
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Mexico has been an early
and radical reformer by signing, almost
fifteen years ago, the North American
Free Trade Agreement NAFTA. This study
shows the course of the Mexican economy
and explores to what degree the objectives
of the reforms, as regards growth and
employment, have progressed, following
liberalization and the implementation
of NAFTA. At the Mexican level of development,
a more aggressive public investment
policy is needed since the experience
during the last two decades has shown
that the reform process has not improved
the greater well-being of the society.
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| Reforms
and Labour's Landscape in Contemporary China |
| Praveen
Jha & Sakti Golder |
|
In
spite of the astounding economic growth
in China, the well being of workers has
emerged as a major issue for concern.
Even though there is not much theoretical
support or hard evidence to connect economic
performance to labour market flexibility,
policy makers, almost everywhere in the
world, including in China, appear to be
persuaded by such a connection. This paper
focuses on some issues related to the
well-being of labour in contemporary China.
In particular, it takes a look at the
relevant labour related policies and their
implications for employment.
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| Nurkse,
Early Development Theory and Modern Monoeconomics |
| Jan
Kregel |
|
This paper revisits Nurkse's
position on the question of the finance
for development and suggests that a
better way to understand the issue would
be to draw a distinction between Nurkse
who believed that development was basically
demand constrained, against his critics
who believe development to be supply
constrained. The paper argues that Nurkse
provides a fresh alternative view to
current monoeconomics that says that
all that is required is getting the
supply side right and the market will
produce economic development. By placing
the emphasis on the demand constraints
to development, Nurkse provides an alternative
perspective to elucidate many of the
vexing problems of development.
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| The
Natural Instability of Financial Markets |
| J.A.
Kregel |
|
This
paper discusses the inherent instability
in the current financial system. It arises
from major movements in bank reserves
and the creation of liquidity which can
not be controlled significantly. As a
result, increased laxity in lending criteria
as banks compete with each other to find
borrowers produces a decline in asset
quality. It is the change in liquidity
preferences of the banks which eventually
leads them to stop liquidity creation,
rather than the maturity mismatch, which
causes fragility. The paper also discusses
the available methods of dampening such
instability in the financial system and
the current constraints on them. |
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