Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

China's Changing Economic Structures And Its Implications For Regional Patterns Of Trade Production And Integration, Kim Song Tan, Hoe Ee Khor

Research Collection School Of Economics

There is tremendous momentum for economic and financial integration in East Asia today. Partly inspired by the formation of the European Union and partly as a response to the 1997/98 Asia financial crisis, many East Asian countries are showing greater commitment to regional economic cooperation. A number of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) have either been concluded or are being negotiated.1 At a less formal level, the ASEAN+3 grouping has brought the whole region together in regular consultations over trade, investment, as well as monetary and exchange rate policy matters.

Do Imports Cause Economic Growth? A Time-Series Investigation Of The U.S. Data, Peter J. Saunders, Koushik Ghosh

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

This paper investigates the relationship between imports and economic growth in the US in the long run and the short run. Quarterly data ranging from the first quarter of 1970 to the fourth quarter of 2000 are used to investigate this relationship. Cointegration tests using Johansen's (] 988) technique are used to analyze the long run relationship between imports and economic growth (measured by nominal GDP). Test results indicate that imports and economic growth are related in the long run. The short run analysis of the data is conducted within vector error correction (VEC) testing framework. VEC rest results indicate …

Bond Yield Compression In The Countries Converging To The Euro, Lucjan T. Orlowski, Kirsten Lommatzsch

WCBT Faculty Publications

We demonstrate that bond yield compression is under way in the countries converging to the euro and that German yields are significant drivers of local currency yields. Based on the evidence from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, we conclude that these new ...Member States of the European Union are ready to adopt the euro without risking a disruptive shock to their financial stability. This message transpires from investigating the daily volatility dynamics of local bond yields as a function of German yields, conditional on changes in local term spreads, exchange rates and adjustments to central bank reference rates. Similar …

Institutions, Wages, And Inequality: The Case Of Europe And Its Periphery (1500-1899), Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper explores the long-run relationship between institutions and wage outcomes in Europe and its periphery. I find that cities that exercised stronger institutional protection of private property experienced: (i) higher levels of both skilled and unskilled real wages, as well as (ii) lower levels of inequality as measured by the skilled-unskilled wage ratio. While the first result corroborates existing work on the positive growth effects of better institutions, the second finding is more novel to the literature. Some explanations are proposed for how stronger institutions can cause an increase in the relative supply of skilled workers, thus lowering wage …

Liberalisation Of The European Services Market And Its Impact On Switzerland: Assessing The Potential Impacts Of Following The Eu's 2004 Services Directive, Henk Lm Kox, Arjan Lejour

Henk LM Kox

After Argentina, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Argentina recently completed the largest sovereign bond restructuring in history. As soon as the government announced the results of its $100 billion tender in March 2005, editorial pages worldwide heralded a new era for sovereign debt, for the emerging markets and, occasionally, for international finance. Their views on Argentina's lessons were as disparate as they were definite. Some said the exchange would close the markets to middle-income countries. To others, it reaffirmed the markets' resilience. Some claimed it proved the need for statutory sovereign bankruptcy. Others said it clearly discredited the idea. Most spoke too soon. The deal took months …

Trade, Growth And Increasing Returns To Infrastructure: The Role Of The Sophisticated Monopolist, Ashok S. Guha, Brishti Guha

Research Collection School Of Economics

We consider a model of international trade with increasing returns in a non-traded input into industry, infrastructure, and show that the nature of equilibrium depends crucially on whether the infrastructure provider acts in a naïve manner – akin to a Level 1 agent in a cognitive hierarchy (C-H) model – or in a more sophisticated manner. Infrastructure requires a fixed investment and is produced under decreasing marginal costs, and we model two possible market forms, monopoly and Cournot oligopoly with free entry – both capable of generating pecuniary externalities in the manufacturing sector . Unlike most other work exploring the …

The Impact Of Trade Liberalization On Growth, Unemployment, And Poverty In Bangladesh, Maha Z. Mirza

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Trade liberalization has been one of the major policy components of the governments of the developing countries in the recent decades. Bangladesh as many other developing nations, has adopted different measures of trade reform policies as an element of International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), as well as to be an integral part of the world wide trend of globalization. Such policy measures include the reduction/rationalization of tariff rate, simplification of import and export trade procedures, relaxation of restrictive trade policies, and reform of financial and monetary policies. Even though, the trade reform measures were anticipated to increase …

Protection For Sale Under Monopolistic Competition, Pao Li Chang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper proposes a general empirical framework to estimate the protection-for-sale model, where the protection regime shifts according to a sector's market structure (perfectly or monop-olistically competitive). We base the protection structure on Grossman and Helpman (1994) for the subset of perfectly competitive sectors and on Chang (2005) for the subset of monop- olistically competitive sectors. The two protection regimes are simultaneously estimated with joint constraints. The results of the J-test consistently reject the homogeneous (perfect compe- tition) protection-for-sale model often adopted in previous literature and suggest a direction of improvement toward the proposed heterogeneous protection structure model.

The 2004 Global Labour Survey: Working Institution And Practices Around The World, Davin Chor, Richard B. Freeman

Research Collection School Of Economics

The 2004 Global Labor Survey (GLS) is an Internet-based survey that seeks to measure de facto labor practices in countries around the world, covering issues such as freedom of association, the regulation of work contracts, employee benefits and the prevalence of collective bargaining. To find out about de facto practices, the GLS invited labor practitioners, ranging from union officials and activists to professors of labor law and industrial relations, to report on conditions in their country. Over 1,500 persons responded, which allowed us to create indices of practices in ten broad areas for 33 countries. The GLS' focus on de …

California’S Ocean Economy, Judith T. Kildow Dr, Charles S. Colgan

Publications

California’s Ocean Economy is the most expansive study of its kind in the nation and provides an update to the 1994 economic study conducted by the California Research Bureau and later released as part of the Resources Agency ocean strategy titled, California’s Ocean Resources: An Agenda for the Future. This report from the National Ocean Economics Program (NOEP) provides a more comprehensive understanding of the economic role of California’s ocean resources than has been available to date. It also provides California with strong evidence that its unique ocean and coastal resources are important to sustaining California’s economy. This information highlights …

Protection For Sale Under Monopolistic Competition, Pao Li Chang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper broadens the protection for sale model of Grossman and Helpman (1994) by incorporating the Krugman–Dixit–Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition, given its importance in explaining the prevalence of intraindustry trade. Several new results arise in this paper. First, the endogenous import tariff will never fall below zero, even in unorganized sectors. Second, the endogenous export policy for organized sectors is not necessarily an export subsidy, and can be an export tax as in unorganized sectors. Third, the level of import protection varies inversely with the degree of import penetration, regardless of whether the sector is organized or not.

Information And Communication Technologies And The Effects Of Globalization: Twenty-First Century “Digital Slavery” For Developing Countries—Myth Or Reality?, L. A. Ogunsola

E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10)

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to examine the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) revolution and the concept of globalization as they effect developing countries. Globalization as one of the reasons for possible widening of the gap between the poor and the rich nations was examined and the emerging concept of “digital slavery” was carefully evaluated. The wide gap in availability and use of ICTs across the world and the influences ICTs exert on globalization at the expense of developing countries were carefully examined and suggestions and necessary policies were offered for developing countries to leap-frog the industrialization …

Banking Sector Reforms And Bank Consolidation: The Malaysian Experience., Okorie A. Uchendu

Bullion

This paper examines banking sector reform with particular reference to the Malaysian banking sector. The Malaysian banking sector which resulted from the Asian financial crises of the 1990s is the subject of the study. The paper is divided into four sections: following the introduction, section II covers conceptual issues in banking sector reform and bank consolidation. The Malaysian experience in banking sector reforms and bank consolidation is discussed in section III, while lessons for Nigeria and concluding remarks are presented in section IV. The paper highlights the response of the Malaysian authorities to the Asian financial crisis and identified the …

Banking Sector Reforms And Bank Consolidation: The Turkey Experience., U. M. Ogubunka

Bullion

Countries reform their banking sectors for a number of reasons, including structural, capitalization and ownership issues. Consequently, the objectives of the reforms can hardly be the same in all countries. This paper is presented on the basis that an overview of the banking reform in the lessons Nigeria could learn from it. The paper is structured into seven sections. the next section following this introduction identifies some of the key features of Turkish banking system pre-reform era of 2001, section three deals on the drivers of banking reform in the country. section four reviews some of the actions taken in …

Export-Led Growth In Bangladesh: A Time Series Analysis, Hiranya K. Nath, Khawaja Mamun

WCBT Faculty Publications

This article examines time series evidence to investigate the link between exports and economic growth in Bangladesh. Using quarterly data for a period from 1976 to 2003 the article finds that industrial production and exports are cointegrated. The results of an error correction model (ECM) suggest that there is a long-run unidirectional causality from exports to growth in Bangladesh.

What Matters For Financial Development? Capital Controls, Institutions, And Interactions, Menzie David Chinn, Hiro Ito

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

We extend our earlier work, focusing on the links between capital account liberalization, legal and institutional development, and financial development, especially that in equity markets. In a panel data analysis encompassing 108 countries and twenty years ranging from 1980 to 2000, we explore several dimensions of the financial sector. First, we test whether financial openness can lead to equity market development when we control for the level of legal and institutional development. Then, we examine whether the opening of the goods sector is a precondition for financial opening. Finally, we investigate whether a well-developed banking sector is a precondition for …

Structural Break In India's Growth, Ambrish A. Dongre, Neeraj Hatekar

Ambrish A Dongre

How significant was the shift in the economic growth performance that occurred in the 1950s, relative to the shift that is supposed to have occurred in the 1980s? If one were to identify the single most significant break date in India’s growth performance, does it turn out to be 1951-52 or 1980-81 or some such year in the post 1980s? The hypothesis in this paper is that the single most important trend break in GDP growth is to be found not in the 1980s, as the existing literature claims, but in the early 1950s. This is not because the performance …

Efficiency And Efficacy Of Kenya's Constituency Development Fund: Theory And Evidence, Mwangi S. Kimenyi

Economics Working Papers

Kenya's Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is one of the ingenious innovations of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) Government of Kenya. Unlike other development funds that filter from the central government through larger and more layers of administrative organs and bureaucracies, funds under this program go directly to local levels and thus provide people at the grassroots the opportunity to make expenditure decisions that maximize their welfare consistent with the theoretical predictions of decentralization theory. Increasingly, however, concerns about the utilization of funds under this program are emerging. Most of the concerns revolve around issues of allocative efficiency. In this note, …

Targeting Relative Inflation Forecast As Monetary Policy Framework For Adopting The Euro, Lucjan T. Orlowski

WCBT Faculty Publications

This study proposes relative inflation forecast targeting as an operational framework of monetary policy for adopting the euro by the EU new Member States. This strategy assumes containing differentials between the domestic and the eurozone inflation forecasts as an operational target. A model prescribing the RIFT framework is presented along with a set of appropriate policy indicator variables and instrument rules. The proposed framework advances the strategy based on relatively strict inflation targeting that is currently pursued by some NMS. Several ARCHclass tests in various functional forms are employed for providing preliminary empirical evidence on convergence of inflation differentials relative …

On Measuring The Efficiency Of The Social Security System Reforms. The Case Of Poland, Joanna Tyrowicz, Piotr Mularczyk

Joanna Tyrowicz

As other European countries, transition economies face the reform of the social security system. As one of the first, Poland has introduced a pension reform in 1999, which changed a standard pay-as-you-go system into a one constructed of three pillars and based on addressed contributions. The five years from the reform allow to take a first look at the reform, both in terms of assessing the legal implementation as well as the realization of main assumptions and aims. In this paper we consider the effectiveness of the reform. We find that in many aspects this reform should not be considered …

‘Empowering Europe’S Citizens’? Towards A Charter For Services Of General Interest, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, Francisco Comín

Judith Clifton

This article analyses the development of the European Union (EU) project of a Charter for Services of General Interest (SGI) from the mid-1990s to the publication of the White Paper on Services of General Interest and the draft European Constitution in 2004. Though service charters are often associated with New Public Management (NPM) reforms related to privatization, they are also an integral part of the process of EU institution building, and need to be understood alongside developments such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Using a four-stage model of international NPM convergence analysis four phases of the Charter for SGI …

Immigrants And Their International Money Flows 2005-06, Western Michigan University

Werner Sichel Lecture Series

Workers' remittances, the repatriated earnings of immigrant workers, have captured the attention of policymakers and researchers. For a number of developing nations these inflows of funds are their largest source of foreign exchange earnings--exceeding official aid, direct foreign investment, and goods export earnings. Despite the fact that these inflows are large and are becoming larger, we know very little about either the determinants of international transfers or about their impacts on receiving economies. WMU's forty-second lecture-seminar series "Immigrants and Their International Money Flows," will address a myriad of issues relating to these growing international money transfers.

Feasibility And Timing Of The Euro Adoption By The New Eu Member States, Lucjan Orlowski

WCBT Faculty Publications

The 10 new member states are now facing the challenge of framing and implementing policies for adopting the euro. They are all bound by the EU Treaty to replace their national currencies with the euro at some future time as they were admitted to the Union with a derogation to this effect. In order to prepare adequately for entry to the euro area, the candidates need to undergo fiscal and monetary convergence. In principle, they should refrain from lax fiscal policies that could skew the eurozone policy mix by forcing the European Central Bank (ECB) to tighten monetary policy. They …

Come Together? Producer Welfare, Consumer Welfare, And Wto Rules, Petros C. Mavroidis

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter explains why the dynamic of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations tends to lead to the progressive liberalization of market-access barriers promoting consumer welfare. As all agreements tend to be ‘incomplete’, it is a legitimate task of WTO judges to clarify progressively the WTO requirements of nondiscriminatory treatment of like goods and of like services. The additional requirements, in the WTO Agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade and on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards, to base restrictive measures on the ‘necessity principle’ and on ‘scientific evidence’, offer useful ‘double checks’ for judicial identification of protectionist measures. While the WTO rules …

What Iraq And Argentina Might Learn From Each Other, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Iraq and Argentina each launched a $100 billion debt restructuring last year. The two cases are rarely mentioned together. Most think of Argentina as the quintessential case of financial globalization gone awry - a lapsed market reformer that sank under the weight of (depending on your perspective) misguided liberalization or its own financial chutzpah, and took with it Argentine depositors, Italian retirees, Japanese banks, and offshore investment funds. Iraq's debt has a distinctly preglobalization flavor. Most of its obligations precede the recent wave of financial liberalization. In the words of Iraq's own advisers, its debt restructuring is a quintessential geopolitical …

The Relationship Between Import Prices And Inflation In The United States, Thomas D. Corrigan

WCBT Faculty Publications

Inflation has been a non-issue in the United States in recent years despite strong economic growth, on balance, and falling unemployment. Some analysts believe that "new economy" dynamics are responsible for this favorable outcome and further claim that the traditional Phillips curve tradeoff between growth and inflation is no longer a valid assumption underlying economic policy decisions. Others believe that the Phillips curve is indeed alive and well but that favorable "supply shocks" have masked the still relevant tradeoff between growth and price stability. One potential "supply shock" candidate is a declining trend in the cost of imports into the …

Environmental Trade Measures, The Shrimp-Turtle Rulings, And The Ordinary Meaning Of The Text Of The Gatt, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Estimating Models Of Complex Fdi: Are There Third-Country Effects?, Badi H. Baltagi, Peter Egger, Michael Pfaffermayr

Center for Policy Research

The recent general equilibrium theory of trade and multinationals emphasizes the importance of third countries and the complex integration strategies of multinationals. Little has been done to test this theory empirically. This paper attempts to rectify this situation by considering not only bilateral determinants, but also spatially weighted third-country determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI). Since the dependency among host markets is particularly related to multinationals' trade between them, we use trade costs (distances) as spatial weights. Using panel data on U.S. industries and host countries observed over the 1989-1999 period, we estimate a "complex FDI" version of the knowledge-capital …

Redesigning The International Lender Of Last Resort, Patrick Bolton, David A. Skeel Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.