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Begin New Search Publishing Institution School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London Publication Year within 25 Years

21. On the Current Links Capital Markets and Investment in MENA Countries

Author:
Randa Alami
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper considers the current status of some Middle Eastern markets (Arab countries excluding the Gulf countries). These markets have matured significantly over the last six years, and this helped the concurrent strong economic and investment growth. Evidence gathered here indicates the markets have become a minor source of corporate investment, mobilising both domestic and foreign investors. It allowed them to capture both part of the surge in intra-regional capital flows, and part of rising Foreign Direct Investment. A more enhanced economic impact is constrained by their nascent nature, their volatility and illiquidity, and by what remain poor governance structures. Moreover, these Arab stock markets are still the realm of very large corporations: they have only began to address the needs of smaller entreprises, with venture capital and private equity funds at an embryonic stage. They also support a limited number of economic sectors, while governments and top income elites continue to dominate shareholding. They cannot and should not be relied upon to fulfil all the financing needs of the private sector. This message has been reinforced by the current world crisis, which ended the euphoric but unrealistic expectations that regional capital markets will continue to expand as rapidly as they did between 2002 and 2008.
Topic:
Markets, Foreign Direct Investment, Capitalism, Economic growth, Investment, and Corporations
Political Geography:
Middle East

22. A Note on Mundell-Fleming and Developing Countries

Author:
John Weeks
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper inspects the statement found in macroeconomic text books that under a flexible exchange rate regime with perfectly elastic capital flows monetary policy is effective and fiscal policy is not. The logical validity of the statement requires that the domestic price level effect of devaluation be ignored. The price level effect is noted in some textbooks, but not analysed. When it is subjected to a rigorous analysis, the interaction between exchange rate changes and domestic price level changes render the standard statement false. The logically correct statement would be, under a flexible exchange rate regime with perfectly elastic capital flows the effectiveness of monetary policy depends on the values of the import share and the sum of the trade elasticities. Monetary policy will be more effective than fiscal policy if and only if the sum of the trade elasticities exceeds the import share. Inspection of data from developing countries indicates a low effectiveness of monetary policy under flexible exchange rates. In the more general case of less than perfectly elastic capital flows the conditions for monetary policy to be more effective than fiscal policy are even more restrictive. Use of empirical evidence on trade shares and interest rate differentials suggest that for most countries fiscal policy would prove more effective than monetary policy under a flexible exchange rate regime. In any case, the general theoretical assertion that monetary policy is more effective is incorrect.
Topic:
Monetary Policy, Developing World, Capital Flows, Macroeconomics, and Fiscal Policy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

23. Uncovering Dynamics in the Accumulation of Technological Capabilities and Skills in the Mozambican Manufacturing Sector

Author:
Alex Warren-Rodriguez
Publication Date:
03-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper examines the formation and accumulation of skills and technological capabilities in the Mozambican manufacturing sector. To this effect, it deploys Sanjaya Lall’s technology capabilities conceptual and methodological framework to examine these issues for the Mozambican metalworking and light chemical sectors in the context of historical dynamics taking place in Mozambique in the economic and industrial policy spheres. This analysis shows that these two industries are experiencing a process of gradual technological obsolescence, combined with a progressive simplification of production processes that is leading to a weakening of their technology capability and skill base. In this context, neither foreign direct investment, nor other mechanisms of technology transfer identified in the literature as contributing to the process of technological and skills accumulation, appear to have been able to reverse these trends. In light of available evidence on recent industrial (policy) developments, this paper argues that this process can be seen as a response to a deteriorating policy and economic environment that in the past two decades has undermined investments in industrial technological development in Mozambique.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Foreign Direct Investment, Manufacturing, and Industrialization
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, and Sub-Saharan Africa

24. Niebyl, Money and Development

Author:
Daniela Tavasci, Jan Toporowski, and Radha Upadhyaya
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper examines Karl Niebyl’s critique of monetary theory against the typology of equilibrium, reflective and critical theories of money. It argues that despite fundamental criticisms of monetary theory, his analysis of money in capitalist development is essentially a reflective one. The paper goes on to show how the development of the capitalist firm in the twentieth century may give a more critical, disequilibrium, role to money and finance. The introduction presents a categorisation of theories of money. The second section shows the reflective nature of Niebyl’s theory of money comparing it to more recent disequilibrium or critical theories. As Niebyl’s work focuses to the changing function of money with the emergence of industrial capitalism, the next section deals with possible lessons for understanding money in a context of capitalist development. The fourth section reflects on Niebyl’s considerations on methodology.
Topic:
Development, Monetary Policy, Capitalism, and Industrialization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

25. The Economics and Culture of Financialisation

Author:
Jan Toporowski
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper examines some of the social, economic and political consequences of financial inflation for the activities of companies and the operations in debt markets of an increasingly financial middle class. In this paper ‘financialisation’ is broadly defined as the inflation of capital markets. The first section of the paper explains the Kalecki-Steindl theory of enforced company indebtedness in a middle-class society. The second section of the paper shows how financial inflation makes companies over- capitalised, resulting in a decline in the trend of long-term investment. The third section shows how forced company indebtedness is modified when the middle classes start to operate in inflating asset markets. A conclusion sketches out some of the consequences of this financialisation for politics, social policy, and moral and cultural attitudes.
Topic:
Culture, Finance, Social Policy, and Middle Class
Political Geography:
Global Focus

26. An Exploration of Factors Shaping Technology-Upgrading Efforts in Mozambican Manufacturing Firms

Author:
Alex Warren-Rodriguez
Publication Date:
05-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper presents an analysis of factors shaping technology-upgrading efforts in the Mozambican manufacturing sector. It uses firm-level data to examine these issues for the metalworking and light chemicals sectors, using Logit regression analysis to identify factors associated with firms’ decisions to engage in technology-upgrading efforts in three areas: (i) product development; (ii) production technology development aimed at upgrading existing equipment or purchasing entirely new manufacturing technologies; (iii) and process engineering. In line with much of the literature on industrial organization and the microeconomics of technology change, this paper finds that existing production and technological conditions in manufacturing firms do play an important role in shaping their technological efforts. However, this association is not always linear, cumulative or uniform across the various relevant spheres of manufacturing, underscoring the multifaceted nature of technology change at this level. Moreover, factors identified in the literature as being instrumental in shaping technology development efforts, such as skills or foreign ownership, play no role in dynamics of this kind in Mozambique. At the same time, other factors that have received less attention, such as the ability of firms to engage in technology cooperation arrangements or the role played by demand and market conditions appear as important factors shaping these technology-upgrading efforts. Altogether, these findings serve to underscore the importance of defining policy interventions for private sector development that go beyond investment climate concerns and take into account issues such as the promotion of linkages, technology cooperation and demand/market management considerations.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Demand, Manufacturing, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, and Sub-Saharan Africa

27. Linking Technology Development to Enterprise Growth: Evidence from the Mozambican Manufacturing Sector

Author:
Alex Warren-Rodriguez
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper examines the relationship between firm-level technological development and enterprise performance in the Mozambican manufacturing sector. It does this on the basis of primary data collected for two industries – metalworking and light chemicals – and the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative information. Overall, the analysis presented in this paper only identifies a weak and, in some cases counterintuitive, association between levels of technological capability and innovation and enterprise performance. There are, however, some isolated exceptions to this finding, in which technology development has played a more decisive role in driving enterprise growth, such as the cluster of firms subcontracting work with the Mozal aluminium smelting plant. The case study of this cluster of firms allows the identification and illustration of conditions that might be required to facilitate a process of technology-led manufacturing growth.
Topic:
Industrial Policy, Science and Technology, Economic growth, and Innovation
Political Geography:
Africa, Mozambique, and Sub-Saharan Africa

28. European Banks in the Developing World

Author:
Jan Toporowski
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper looks at the recent expansion of European banks in the developing countries. It argues that no specific European influence is apparent in emerging markets, other than a declining financial interest in former colonies. Actual developments in emerging markets are determined by domestic factors, financial liberalisation, and capital account liberalisation. The sole exception is provided by monetary unions of France and Portugal with former colonies. These highlight the drying up of local money markets as local banking becomes a branch activity of global banks. This is a paradoxical result, since financial liberalisation is usually supposed to result in financial development. It also suggests financial liberalisation may not be the best way of supporting the under-banked small and medium enterprise sector in developing countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe

29. From South Asian to Diaspora: Missing Women and Migration

Author:
Matthew McCartney and Aisha Gill
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
The modernisation paradigm is here tested and found wanting in a very particular context; the experience of the migrant. Women in South Asia have a biologically abnormal chance of mortality from conception until their mid-30s. This phenomenon is thought to be related to a range of economic and cultural factors, which include sex selective abortion and gender-biased allocations of health care and nutrition. There is scant research on the manifestation of this phenomenon after migration to developed countries. The modernisation paradigm suggests that migrants will quickly adopt the norms of the host developed country. Some of the proximate causes that generate the excess mortality of females in South Asia are, indeed, not likely to be operational in a developed country; namely, female infanticide and deprivation of nutrition and health care for girls. However, the cultural preference for sons in South Asia has persisted following migration, while the specific way in which this preference is satisfied has changed: sex-selective abortion is replacing post-natal neglect of, and harm done to, girls and women. In some cases, further empirical work is required if the issue of how South Asian practices of gender discrimination might be manifest in the behaviour of migrants to the UK.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, Gender Issues, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and South Asia

30. China's Quest for Alternative to Neo-liberalism: Market Reform, Economic Growth, and Labour

Author:
Dic Lo
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
Since the turn of the century, China's state and society have focused their efforts on “constructing a harmonious society”. Viewed from the perspective of globalization, these efforts represent a quest for a model of development that deviates fundamentally from neo-liberalism. In particular, state policies and institutional reforms in recent years have tended to target at labor compensation-enhancing economic growth, rather than growth based on “cheap labor”. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of the emerging Chinese economic development model, and, on that basis, to analyze its efficiency and welfare attributes. In conjunction with an analysis of China's economic growth path, which seems to have undergone a transition from labor-intensive growth to capital-deepening growth, it is argued that the new development model does represent a more feasible and desirable pursuit than neo-liberalism. The paper concludes with a discussion on the impact of this new Chinese development model on the future direction of globalization.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Markets
Political Geography:
China and Asia