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1072. Economic Distress and the Inevitability of an Economic Recovery Programme
- Author:
- ZIPAR
- Publication Date:
- 03-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR)
- Abstract:
- Zambia is emerging from a major economic downturn. The copper price collapse, electricity shortages, huge fall in the value of the Kwacha and high inflation in 2015 left the economy stalling. Growth in 2015 was 2.9% and possibly 3.4% in 2016, significantly below the long-term average rate of 6.9%. The downturn was compounded by a tightening of monetary policy which made it harder for businesses to borrow, and by a continuation of expansionary fiscal policies which increased the budget deficit and Government debt. Because the scale of the challenge was so significant, the Government announced it would launch Zambia Plus, a home-grown recovery programme to put the economy back on track
- Topic:
- International Political Economy and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
1073. Second Hand Motor Vehicles Imports
- Author:
- Thulani Banda and Zali Chikuba
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR)
- Abstract:
- The sustained positive growth of the Zambian economy has resulted in many shifts in consumption patterns of Zambian households. One notable change is the increased consumption of consumer durables, particularly motor vehicles. Motor vehicle ownership has increased substantially since 2004. The increase in motor vehicle ownership owes in part to the highly unbridled access to second hand motor vehicle imports. The downside of the relaxed motor vehicle import regulations as observed in Zambia is the ageing of the motor vehicle fleet and deterioration in fleet safety. Second hand motor vehicles imported in the country may be fine, but they may also be unreliable – commonly referred to as lemons in economic literature – and costly to maintain thereby generating serious financial, road safety and environmental concerns. Considering that Zambia is one of the highest road fatality risk countries in Africa with 23.7 road traffic deaths per 100,000 people, the ageing fleet of motor vehicles only compounds the risk. Thus, more deliberate measures to ensure lives are safeguarded and consumers get value-for-money on motor vehicle imports should be devised and implemented urgently.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
1074. Accelerating export growth in Zambia
- Author:
- ZIPAR
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR)
- Abstract:
- Export-transactions data for the period 1999-2011 in Zambia suggests that much of the growth in the value of exports has been driven by the contribution of new exporters than pre-existing exporters. The catastrophic growth among pre-existing exporters is explained by the high death rate that occurs within the first two years of exporting. Approximately between 50%- 60% of exporters will not survive beyond the year of export commencement. We discuss the potentially important policy implications of these rather surprising results relative to the sizeable evidence that shows it is the deepening of export values among existing exporters that drives much of the year-on-year growth in exports for many advanced and developing countries.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
1075. Constraints on the demand for youth labour in Zambia
- Author:
- ZIPAR
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR)
- Abstract:
- Zambia is one of many developing countries struggling to create adequate employment opportunities for its people, especially in the formal economy. Unemployment is highest among youths (15–24 years old) and particularly affects those without skills. Unless the challenge of youth unemployment is met, Zambia could face rising poverty levels in the future. Based on a survey of firms in the mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and construction industries, this study analyses constraints on the demand for youth labour and identifies five broad policy areas in which the government could help make it easier for firms to absorb more young people.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
1076. the EU's common security and defence policy after Brexit
- Author:
- Christine Nissen
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This week constitutes yet another step towards the materialization of an ‘EU defence union’. On 13 November the so-called ‘PESCO’ provision was launched, which allows groups of willing EU member states to make binding commitments to each other on security and defence. 23 EU member states immediately signed up to participate, and since then, Ireland and Portugal have also joined in, which means that the only hold outs are Malta, Denmark and the United Kingdom. At the European Council summit held on 14-15 December, EU leaders will welcome the PESCO initiative cementing their willingness to significantly strengthen the EU as a framework for European security and defence cooperation. This week, EU foreign ministers will adopt the decision establishing PESCO as well as unveil the first common projects, which will drive their engagement in the years to come. 17 concrete projects are now on the table, including an European Medical Command, the creation of a crisis response centre and a plan for increased military mobility.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
1077. U.S. Trade policy under Trump
- Author:
- Peter Gibbon and Jakob Vestergaard
- Publication Date:
- 07-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- A few weeks ahead of the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), to be held in Buenos Aires from 10 to 13 December, the international trade community is gripped with a mixture of angst, disbelief and despair. Although US President, Donald Trump, made radical statements during his presidential campaign – including the infamous statement that the “WTO is a disaster” [for the US] – few expected much of that to translate into actual policies when he was elected and appointed President. Yet, this is very much what has in fact happened over the past 10 months.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- America
1078. Closed Shops: Opening Canada's Legal Profession to Foreign-educated Lawyers
- Author:
- Lauren Heuser
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- This final report was prepared following the 6 Degrees Citizen Space, which took place in Toronto, ON, from September 25 to 27, 2017. It provides a dialogue about the key barriers foreign-educated lawyers face in Canada’s licensing and employment processes, and makes recommendations for how unnecessary barriers can be mitigated or dismantled. Barriers are considered unnecessary if they are not relevant to testing an individual’s professional competency, or make it unduly difficult for foreign-educated lawyers to achieve licensure or employment relative to their Canadian counterparts. These recommendations are directed at a variety of stakeholders, including provincial law societies, the National Committee on Accreditation, law schools, fairness commissioners, legal employers, immigration officials and internationally trained lawyers themselves. For the purposes of this project, the author interviewed numerous foreign-educated lawyers, as well as Canadian immigration officials, immigration lawyers, regulators, employers and professors. The conversations made clear that there is work to be done in opening Canada’s closed legal shop.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Canada
1079. New Thinking on Innovation
- Author:
- CIGI
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- Innovation is at the centre of the current economic policy discourse in Canada. Innovation drives productivity and with it, standards of living. Innovation is the process of using ideas, typically in the form of intellectual property (IP), to offer new or improved products or services for the same or lower overall cost of production. This collection of essays, which were first published online in the spring of 2017, marshalls new thinking on innovation, and brings together a community of scholars and practitioners who offer fresh approaches to innovation in Canada, and Canada’s place in the world. The essays discuss the role that international trade plays in stimulating innovation, including the nature of trade agreements; consider domestic policy on innovation; and examine how global processes such as the World Trade Organization and the Group of Twenty might foster a climate in which the innovation strategies of smaller countries could be accommodated. An epilogue maps the key themes to emerge from the discussion and suggests a framework for an IP-centric innovation strategy. Rapid developments in technologies, often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, are upending established structures in every part of the economy and society. As in other facets of international negotiations, the starting point in efforts to bring order to and shape the current technology-fuelled environment for the global good is national policies and postures.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
1080. The Long March: Contentious Mobilization and Deep Democracy
- Author:
- Mohammad Ali Kadivar, Adaner Usmani, and Benjamin Bradlow
- Publication Date:
- 07-2017
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem)
- Abstract:
- Over the last several decades, dozens of authoritarian regimes have fallen and been replaced by formal democracies. These new democracies are not all of identical quality -- some have made substantially greater progress than others towards deepening democratic institutions. We make use of a new dataset which identifies five distinct dimensions of democratization in order to study this variation. We argue that prolonged unarmed contentious mobilization prior to transition drives democratic progress in each of these five dimensions. Mobilization matters because it generates a new, democratically-oriented political elite and because it furnishes non-elites with the capacity for autonomous collective action. In panel regressions spanning the 1950 to 2010 period and using original data, we show that the duration of antecedent anti-authoritarian mobilization is a significant and consistent predictor of subsequent democratic deepening. To illustrate the mechanisms, we present a historical analysis of democratic transition in Brazil. This case study shows how both formal political actors and non-elite collective actors, emboldened by prolonged mobilization, drove deepening of democracy post-transition.
- Topic:
- International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus