1 - 6 of 6
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. Welfare losses, preferences for redistribution, and political participation: Evidence from the United Kingdom’s age of austerity
- Author:
- Patricia Justino, Bruno Martorano, and Laura Metzger
- Publication Date:
- 05-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper studies the effect of austerity on forms of political participation—including voting, appealing for reform, and peaceful protesting—and the role of preferences for redistribution in shaping the relationship between individual exposure to austerity and political participation. The paper focuses on the case of the United Kingdom (UK) where, between 2011 and 2019, wide-ranging austerity policies were introduced to deal with high public debt in the aftermath of the 2007–08 financial crisis. Cuts to government spending on public investment, services, and social protection, especially during the initial fiscal consolidation phase of 2011–15, led to significant welfare losses for the population. We provide evidence from observational microeconomic data and a large-scale online experiment in the UK showing that individual exposure to welfare losses from austerity increases political participation and strengthens preferences for government redistribution. The experimental data suggests that changes in individual preferences for redistribution significantly shape the effect of austerity on political participation.
- Topic:
- Austerity, Welfare, Redistribution, and Political Participation
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
3. Jordan: Another Peak in a Multi-Year Crisis
- Author:
- Joshua Krasna
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)
- Abstract:
- Jordan recently saw violent protests over high fuel prices stemming from IMF-mandated austerity measures. These highlighted domestic malaise, driven by economic crisis, repressive government measures in recent years, and widespread despair of the possibility of near-time improvement of the economic and political situation. While the regime has presented a long-range plan for political reform leading to parliamentary government in a decade, this has met with apathy and lack of belief. This domestic crisis dovetails with a low intensity “hot war” on the northern border against the smuggling of Captagon (Fenethylline, a synthetic amphetamine widely used in the region) with Syrian official connivance; and a new Israeli government seemingly intent on pursuing policies in Jerusalem and the West Bank which threaten Jordan’s interests. This is not the first time, and will not be the last time, that Jordan faces domestic pressures and external challenges. However, the conflation of various challenges and crises, makes the current moment one of elevated, though not acute, concern.
- Topic:
- Reform, Protests, Crisis Management, Austerity, and Captagon
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Jordan
4. Paying with Austerity: The Debt Crisis and Restructuring in Sri Lanka
- Author:
- C. P. Chandrasekhar, Jayati Ghosh, and Debamanyu Das
- Publication Date:
- 12-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- On April 12, 2022, Sri Lanka defaulted on external debt service commitments. Announcing the “pre-emptive default,” pending restructuring, the government also announced that it was suspending repayments due in 2022 on its external debt. By May, Sri Lanka was formally in default, becoming the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to default on debt in two decades. There were medium-term factors that underlay the crisis, not least of which was the chronic dependence on foreign finance, especially debt, to cover widening current account deficits that followed the IMF-inspired and dictated embrace of liberalization policies starting in the late 1970s. In recent years, following the global financial crisis and the end of the civil war in 2009, this dependence on external borrowings intensified. There was also a dramatic shift towards bilaterally, besides multilaterally, financed investment projects and increasing reliance on the bond market, partly to meet debt service commitments on accumulated debt. Given this vulnerability, a crisis was precipitated by a collapse in foreign exchange receipts during the Covid pandemic, due to falling exports, near-zero tourist arrivals and reduced remittances and the subsequent spike in the outflow of foreign exchange because of the speculation-induced rise in the prices of fuel and food. This paper details the events which culminated in the Sri Lankan debt crisis, assesses the appropriateness of the official, IMF-prescribed strategy of adjustment and debt restructuring, considers the experience with restructuring thus far, and explores alternatives that would have been, and could still be, less regressive and ensure sustainable development.
- Topic:
- Debt, Political Economy, Finance, Austerity, and Liberalization
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and Sri Lanka
5. IMF Social Spending Floors: A fig leaf for austerity?
- Author:
- Alexandros Kentikelenis and Thomas Stubbs
- Publication Date:
- 04-2023
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The International Monetary Fund has said that it protects spending on education, health and social protection from cuts in its loan programmes through social spending floors. These measures are a welcome step forward, but are they effective? Analysis of all 17 IMF loan programmes (Extended Credit Facilities, or ECFs, and Extended Fund Facilities, or EFFs) for low- and middle-income countries during the first two years of the pandemic shows that these floors are deeply inadequate, inconsistent, opaque and failing. They are little more than a fig leaf for harmful austerity, which is driving inequality, poverty and suffering.
- Topic:
- Finance, Austerity, IMF, and Social Spending
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
6. The Middle East and North Africa Gap: Prosperity for the rich, austerity for the rest
- Author:
- Alexandros Kentikelenis, Sahar Mechmech, Amine Bouzaiene, Rowaida Moshrif, and Nabil Abdo
- Publication Date:
- 10-2023
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- This briefing paper examines growing inequality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, focusing on Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis. It examines the lack of adequate and just taxation systems across the region, particularly wealth taxes. This limits governments’ fiscal space and their spending on public services, resulting in gender discrimination and the widening of the MENA inequality gap to a chasm. The rich must pay their fair share. Austerity in the MENA region cannot become the norm. Taxing the profits of the region’s richest people will provide critical recourses that are currently lacking but would begin to close the chasm between the rich and the rest.
- Topic:
- Tax Systems, Economic Inequality, Austerity, and Prosperity
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa