Search

Begin New Search Topic International Political Economy

231. 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

232. Blue Economy Vision 2025: Harnessing Business Potential for India Inc and International Partners

Author:
FICCI Task Force
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
Abstract:
Blue Economy Vision 2025: Harnessing Business Potential for India Inc and International Partners is a pioneering effort by FICCI to sensitise India Inc about the growing global and regional emphasis on sustainability of harnessing the ocean resources. It makes a convincing argument that the oceans, with a current estimated asset value of US$ 24 trillion and an annual value addition of US$ 2.5 trillion, would continue to offer significant economic benefits both in the traditional areas of fisheries, transport, tourism and hydrocarbons as well as in the new fields of deep-sea mining, renewable energy, ocean biotechnology and many more, only if we integrate sustainable practices with our business models.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

233. The political economy of the transformation of Islamic finance in Turkey

Author:
SETA
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
Abstract:
When Islamic finance is mentioned around the world, the first thing that comes to mind is Islamic banks. The sphere of Islamic finance has expanded in the last decade with developments particularly in capital markets and the insurance sector. Nonetheless, the market share of Islamic finance in the world’s financial market accounts for approximately 1 percent. Still, many segments are interested in Islamic finance because of its high growth figures, resilience against crises, and the fact that it offers a system that prioritizes ethical values in contrast to conventional finance. Islamic banks in Turkey date back to the establishment of the Adapazarı Islamic Trade Bank (Adapazarı İslam Ticaret Bankası) in Sakarya (Adapazarı) in 1913. However, examples of globally accepted Islamic banking models in Turkey appeared with the emergence of Special Finance Houses (SFHs) following the passage of relevant legal regulations in 1984
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Markets

234. Have Macroeconomic Rules of the Game Changed? Some Clues from the Phillips Curve

Author:
Samuel Howorth, Domenico Lombardi, and Pierre Siklos
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Students of macroeconomics will have heard about the central role played by the so-called Phillips curve in both theoretical and empirical analyses for almost 70 years. In 1958, A. W. Phillips reported an inverse relationship between changes in wages and the unemployment rate (Phillips 1958). The progeny of his thinking led to a revolution both in policy making and in the development of theoretical links between the real and nominal macroeconomic variables. Names such as Samuelson, Solow, Phelps, Friedman, Lucas and Sargent became associated with refinements and enhancements of the core finding reported by Phillips. Indeed, all of these economists went on to become Nobel laureates in economics, although not exclusively because of their contributions to the analysis of what has since been called the Phillips curve. Indeed, the concept is so influential that it spawned several different versions of the trade-off used to guide policy makers as a menu for the choices they face when deciding whether the gains from lower inflation are offset by the economic costs of higher unemployment. Initially, expectations of individuals or firms were ignored. This briefly gave policy makers the impression that they could simply select an inflation-unemployment combination and implement the necessary policy mix to achieve the desired outcome. Once a role for expectations was incorporated, debate centred on how forward-looking individuals are. The more forward-looking, the less likely it was that policy makers would be able to “exploit” the trade-off because, unless wages rose in purchasing-power terms, the gains from lower unemployment would, at best, be temporary once workers realized that the higher inflation, at unchanged wages, actually drives real wages down. Indeed, the pendulum swung all the way to the conclusion — reached by the 1970s and early 1980s — that the Phillips curve was illusory and there was no trade-off policy makers could exploit.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, International Political Economy, Labor Issues, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

235. From Catching Up to Forging Ahead in Advanced Manufacturing—Reflections on China’s Future of Jobshina's Evolving Role in Latin America: Can it Be a Win-Win?

Author:
Dieter Ernst
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
This paper explores what we know about possible employment effects of the 10-year plan, issued by the State Council on May 19, 2015, entitled Made in China 2025. MIC2025 was designed to address China’s emerging labor shortage challenge. To achieve this goal, the plan seeks to boost labor productivity through an increased use of robots and through network-based upgrading of the entire industrial value chain and related services. How might the projected increase in labor productivity affect the creation and quality of jobs in China? Will China’s push into advanced manufacturing now move the country’s manufacturing employment closer to the pattern of “employment de-industrialization” observed in the US and other industrialized countries? How China will cope with the advanced manufacturing challenge for employment will have major implications not only for the US and other industrialized countries, but also for emerging economies and, most importantly for the majority of developing countries that are still struggling as latecomers to labor-intensive industrial manufacturing. The paper lays out objectives of the MIC 2025 plan and highlights a failure of Chinese policy makers to take into account employment effects and other labor market issues when they design their grand visions of industrial policy. The paper finds that until 2014, manufacturing has acted as an employment absorber in China. However new data on unemployment, labor force participation and income inequality signal that China may now be moving towards an “employment de-industrialization” pattern, unless enough knowledge-intensive service jobs will be created in China’s growing information economy. The paper concludes with implications for policy and further research.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Markets, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
China

236. The Trans-Pacific Partnership The politics of openness and leadership in the Asia-Pacific

Author:
MIREYA SOLIS and Mireya Solis
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Trade policy, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in particular, is vitally connected to the national interests of prosperity, security, and governance. With novel rules on the digital economy, high tariff elimina- tion targets, and disciplines to address behind-the-border protectionism, the TPP creates opportunities for American sectors that enjoy competitive strength—services, advanced manufacturing, agriculture—to expand their reach in overseas markets. Projected annual income gains from this trade deal range between $57 billion and $131 billion by 2032, compared to a base- line scenario. In sharp contrast to the experience of import competition with China, the TPP will not impose large adjustment costs in terms of employment and wages, generating instead a net (albeit small) positive effect on job creation and wage rates. However, the individual costs for displaced employees are very high, and the contours of a new pro-adjustment safety net that enables workers to navigate difficult economic transitions (brought about by technological change or trade) are highlighted below.
Topic:
Globalization, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
America and Asia-Pacific

237. China’s Global Rise Can the EU and U.S. Pursue a Coordinated Strategy?

Author:
Philippe Le Corre and Jonathan Pollack
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
China’s emergence as a global economic power and its fuller integration in the international order are among the principal policy challenges facing Europe and the United States in the early 21st century. At the time of Beijing’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China (though already growing rapidly) was in global terms an economic actor of limited consequence. A decade and a half later, China’s transformation is without parallel in economic history. Over the past 15 years, China has experienced an eightfold increase in GDP, enabling it to serve as the pri- mary engine of global economic growth in the early 21st century. It has leapfrogged from sixth to second place among the world’s economies, trail- ing only the United States in absolute economic size. In addition, China has become the world’s leading trading state and is now the second largest source of outward foreign direct investment. Change of this magnitude has enhanced China’s political power and eco- nomic leverage. It has also stimulated China’s internal economic evolution, simultaneously expanding the power of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) while also contributing to major growth in the private sector. China has also begun to think bigger, devoting increased attention to the rules of global economic governance. Although Beijing insists it has no intention of supplanting the existing international order, China contends that chang- ing power realities will require modification of global rules.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Political Economy, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
China, America, and Europe

238. A Glass Half Full The Rebalance, Reassurance, and Resolve in the U.S.-China Strategic Relationship

Author:
Michael O'Hanlon
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
What is the state of the U.S.-China security relationship as President Obama’s term in office concludes? Given the centrality of this rela- tionship to the future of the region and indeed the planet, as well as the emphasis that President Obama has appropriately placed upon it, the question bears asking at this milestone in history.
Topic:
International Political Economy and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
China and America

239. A Framework for U.S. Policy toward China

Author:
Jeffrey Bader
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Serious people understand that the manner in which the United States deals with China will be a critical, if not the critical, overseas chal- lenge for the United States in the 21st century. China will likely be the largest economy in the world within one or two decades; the second or third strongest military soon, if not already; and competitive with the United States and Europe in global economic, and perhaps political and cultural, influence in some regions. China is ruled by a Communist Par- ty resistant to political liberalization at home and wedded to nationalist rhetoric and behavior in dealing with its neighborhood, enhancing the chances for rivalry with the United States. For those students of history who see conflict as the likely outcome when ris- ing powers encounter dominant powers, these are precursors of a dark future. How should we deal with China? What policy framework best optimizes our interests, which are multiple and not always consistent with each oth- er? Americans are in the midst of an ongoing presidential campaign that, in a better world, would be asking and answering such questions, but this is not such a campaign.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
China and America

240. How Trade with Mexico Impacts Employment in the United States

Author:
Christopher Wilson
Publication Date:
11-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
The U.S.-Mexico trade relationship is huge. The two countries trade over a half-trillion dollars in goods and services each year, which amounts to more than a million dollars in bilateral commerce every minute. With such a large volume of trade, it is not hard to believe that the number of jobs that depend on the bilateral relationship is similarly impressive. New research commissioned by the Mexico Institute shows precisely that: nearly five million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico. This means that one out of every 29 U.S. workers has a job supported by U.S.-Mexico trade.
Topic:
Globalization, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Employment
Political Geography:
America and Mexico