International Economics Commons^™

Vietnam’S Gdp: Re-Assessing Growth Rate And Identifying An Alternative Indicator, My Linh D. Nguyen

Honors Theses

Since the economic reform known as Doi Moi (Renovation) in 1986, Vietnam has changed from one of the world’s poorest to a middle-income country in one generation (USAID, 2022). The country has consistently registered high and stable economic growth since the reform, averaging 6.3% from 1985 to 2021 (World Bank, 2022). High growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) is good news, but it has also raised questions that go both ways. On one side, there is much speculation that the government of Vietnam has manipulated economic statistics, compared to the case of China and India. As quoted in Kinh …

[Introduction To] Paradoxes Of Care: Children And Global Medical Aid In Egypt., Rania Kassab Sweis

Bookshelf

Each year, billions of dollars are spent on global humanitarian health initiatives. These efforts are intended to care for suffering bodies, especially those of distressed children living in poverty. But as global medical aid can often overlook the local economic and political systems that cause bodily suffering, it can also unintentionally prolong the very conditions that hurt children and undermine local aid givers. Investigating medical humanitarian encounters in Egypt, Paradoxes of Care illustrates how child aid recipients and local aid experts grapple with global aid's shortcomings and its paradoxical outcomes.

Rania Kassab Sweis examines how some of the world's largest …

Could Tariffs Be Pro-Cyclical?, James Lake, Maia K. Linask

Economics Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom says that tariffs are counter-cyclical. We analyze the relationship between business cycles and applied MFN tariffs using a disaggregated product-level panel dataset covering 72 countries between 2000 and 2011. Strikingly, and counter to conventional wisdom, we find that tariffs are pro-cyclical. Further investigation reveals that this pro-cyclicality is driven by the tariff setting behavior of developing countries; tariffs are acyclical in developed countries. We present evidence that pro-cyclical market power drives the pro-cyclicality of tariffs in developing countries, providing further evidence of the importance of terms of trade motivations in explaining trade policy.

Domestic Political Competition And Pro-Cyclical Import Protection, James Lake, Maia K. Linask

Economics Faculty Publications

Governments, especially in developing countries, routinely practice binding overhang (i.e. setting applied tariffs below binding WTO commitments) and frequently move applied tariffs for given products up and down over the business cycle. Moreover, applied tariffs are pro-cyclical in developing countries. We explain this phenomenon using a dynamic theory of lobbying between domestic interest groups. Applied tariffs are pro-cyclical when high-tariff interests (e.g. import-competing industries) capture the government: these groups concede lower tariffs to low-tariff interest groups (e.g. exporting firms or firms using imported intermediate inputs) during recessions because recessions lower the opportunity cost of lobbying and thereby generate a stronger …

Costly Distribution And The Non-Equivalence Of Tariffs And Quotas, James Lake, Maia K. Linask

Economics Faculty Publications

When governments impose a quota or tariff on imports, it is well known that the resulting rents and revenues trigger costly rent-seeking and revenue-seeking activities, which are welfare-reducing and may be economically more significant than the efficiency losses resulting from the protectionist-induced resource misallocation. Repeated interaction among firms can eliminate wasteful rent- and revenue-seeking expenditures through cooperation. We show that while aggregate outcomes are equivalent under tariffs and quotas if cooperation arises, the conditions under which cooperation arises differ by policy. This difference arises because a firm must incur additional cost to physically import and distribute the goods associated with …

Techniques, Technologies And Politics Of Crisis And Post-Crisis Economics: Anglo-American Macroeconomics And Alternatives, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper attempts a critical appraisal of one core debate and theories in economics about the 2008 crisis and post-2008 economic growth and stagnation. In addition to examining formal publications, this essay also examines serious blogs by high-profile economists who are core participants in public discourse over economic policy. Drawing on the general logic of economic sociology and political economy — in particular, an appreciation for more complex microfoundations of economic practice (e.g. power and culture) and institutions—this paper addresses three issues about theoretical frameworks and claims about post-crisis growth or lack thereof: 1) Techniques: economists’ discourses focus primarily on …

Why Isn't China Exporting Automobiles? : A Model Of Technology Adoption, Nianchen Han

Honors Theses

In modern times, the automobile industry has become a relatively labor intensive industry as compared to other industries such as the food processing industry orIT industry. Normally, several people are involved in each process of an automobile production line. However, for a food processing firm such as a bottled water firm, it only takes a few people to control the huge machine in the factory. Under the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem’s assumption, a country will operate an industry that is intensive in its abundant resource. That means a labor abundant country will produce labor intensive goods and a capital abundant country will …

Illusions Of Market Paradise: State, Business, And Economic Reform In Post-Socialist Russia And Post-1980s Crisis Argentina, Jeffrey K. Hass, Gastón J. Beltrán

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by sweeping, radical neoliberal, monetarist-inspired economic reforms designed to correct financial or structural crises. Latin American countries initiated the wave, followed by Eastern Europe and the former USSR, although the timing, scope, and policies varied. Often one reads accounts of friends and foes of reform lined up to do battle in domestic and international alliances. However, reform processes and outcomes do not always follow the formula of reformers versus conservatives; there is more to the balance of power than these all-too-common accounts would suggest. Industrial managers in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia …

From Economic Crisis To Reform: Imf Programs In Latin America And Eastern Europe By Grigore Pop-Eleches (Book Review), Aleksandra Sznajder Lee

Political Science Faculty Publications

Grigore Pop-Eleches’s book on the interaction of international and domestic determinants of IMF-style reforms in developing countries makes a significant contribution to international and comparative political economy literature. His effort to capture the dynamics of the contentious and complex relationship between the IMF and developing countries/emerging markets inLatin AmericaandEastern Europerepresents mid-range theorizing at its best. The author combines insights from international and comparative political economy literatures to pursue complementary questions. From the international effect perspective: what role do economic crises play in the initiation and implementation of IMF-backed economic reform? Is the IMF impartial in its policy and financial support …

The Subtlety Of Political Risk With Foreign Direct Investment: The Case Of The Vietnamese Sugar Industry, Tom Arnold, Bonnie Buchanan, Janice Lo

Finance Faculty Publications

Political risk entails more than a host country taking advantage of investment from foreign sources. A more subtle form of political risk is attributable to the host government's mismanagement of policies that may be intended to attract foreign direct investment, but may have unintended consequences. A perfect example is the ''One Million Tonne Sugar Program " sponsored by the government of Vietnam during the mid-1990s. What appears to be a very lucrative investment for foreign investors becomes a financial disaster due to the inability of the government to allocate resources efficiently and police its borders from smugglers.

Does Free Trade Cause Hunger? Hidden Implications Of The Ftaa, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Voluntary free trade has the potential, slowly and gradually over time, to create "general opulence" because it allows workers to acquire greater competency and specialization: in a word, workers become more productive. The creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would expand market areas and thereby potentially contribute to raising future living standards of workers. This paper seeks to analyze the theoretical basis for trade, provide an economic overview of FTAA countries, and analyze the winners and losers from trade.