Search

Begin New Search Topic Economics Political Geography Global Focus

71. Global Peace Index 2017: Measuring peace in a complex world

Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace
Abstract:
The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources and measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation. In addition to presenting the findings from the 2017 GPI, this year’s report includes analysis of the Positive Peace factors that are most important for transitioning to higher levels of peace and how deteriorations in Positive Peace are linked to the rise of populism in Europe. The report also assesses the trends in peacekeeping and militarisation, including a cost/benefit analysis highlighting the positive economic benefits from early peacebuilding interventions.
Topic:
Economics, Peace Studies, Conflict, Violence, and Peace
Political Geography:
Global Focus

72. Post-conflict Stabilization in Africa

Author:
Anke Hoeffler
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
Abstract:
Post-conflict peace is fragile, about half of all conflicts break out again during the twelve post-conflict years. In Africa this risk is even higher. Using survival analysis this paper suggests that while it is difficult to find correlates of peace stabilization, there are some policy relevant results. How a conflict ends is important. Negotiated settlements are fragile but the chances of peace surviving can be significantly improved through the deployment of UN peacekeeping operations. The data suggest that many operations start before the end of the armed conflict, thus they should be viewed as ‘peace preparation’ operations. The paper recommends the use of additional case studies, given that the small sample size prevents further quantitative examination of these important issues.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Economics, Peacekeeping, Conflict, and Peace
Political Geography:
Africa and Global Focus

73. An economic review of the collaborative economy

Author:
Georgios Petropoulos
Publication Date:
02-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
This Policy Contribution tackles the definition and benefits of collaborative economy, as well as the distinction between professional and non-professional services, recommendations on safety and transparency for users, and the way to approach regulatory concerns.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

74. Assessing the Governance Practices of Sustainability Reporting

Author:
Jason Thistlethwaite and Melissa Menzies
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
To promote climate change risk mitigation in financial markets, the Financial Stability Board recently proposed the creation of a Climate Disclosure Task Force, coordinated through the G20, to develop standards for companies to disclose their exposure to climate change risks. With more than 400 existing disclosure schemes, this task will be challenging. This brief identifies the key categories of governance practices that must be addressed, how these divergent practices challenge end-users, and how the establishment of criteria that define effective and efficient reporting is a critical first step for the Climate Disclosure Task Force.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Markets, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

75. Globalization

Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Course Pack
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
Globalization is a framework for describing many affiliated worldwide developments. Globalization isn't simply more of the ongoing process of internationalization; rather it describes the increasing ease with which technologies, people, goods, services and capital move transnationally. But the term is also widely used to convey such elements as universalization and changes to sovereignty. While many embrace it, others fear it. Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has suggested that opposition to globalization could have the effect of reversing progress on free trade. The International Forum on Globalization is one organization that seeks to reverse globalization. The readings in this course pack focus on the many facets of globalization.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Political Economy, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

76. An Economy For the 1%: How privilege and power in the economy drive extreme inequality and how this can be stopped

Author:
Deborah Hardoon, Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva, and Sophia Ayele
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Abstract:
The global inequality crisis is reaching new extremes. The richest 1% now have more wealth than the rest of the world combined. Power and privilege is being used to skew the economic system to increase the gap between the richest and the rest. A global network of tax havens further enables the richest individuals to hide $7.6 trillion. The fight against poverty will not be won until the inequality crisis is tackled.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, International Trade and Finance, Poverty, and Social Movement
Political Geography:
Global Focus

77. Does the Level of Public Debt Matter?

Author:
Susan Schadler
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
Research on links between the level of a country’s public debt and its broader economic developments has been heatedly debated in the economic literature. Two strands of the research stand out — one linking the level of debt to a country’s GDP growth rate and the other examining the debt level as an EWI of economic crises. As a broad generalization, research at the moment favors the view that high levels of debt are not a cause, in and of themselves, of low growth nor are they particularly good predictors of impending economic or even debt crises. In principle, the empirical findings have obvious implications for policy makers confronting the question of how to fashion policies (and fiscal policy in particular) when a country has a high debt burden. The IMF, as both a contributor to the literature and an adviser concerned with preventing or dealing with debt crises, has a particularly important stake in navigating the findings. Whether in its surveillance (routine annual advice to all member countries) or the construction of its lending programs to support countries in or near crisis, the IMF must answer the question “how much does the level of debt matter?” Despite the empirical research that casts doubt on the importance of debt, the level of debt figures prominently in the algebra of debt sustainability and the IMF’s real world policy advice. This policy brief examines the nexus of the relatively strong conclusions coming from the academic research and the IMF’s policy advice. It addresses the following question: given that the broad conclusion from the academic literature is that the level of debt itself is not systematically bad for growth or stability, why does the debt level seem to figure rather prominently in the IMF’s policy advice and conditionality?
Topic:
Debt, Development, Economics, International Monetary Fund, Financial Crisis, GDP, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

78. 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

79. Jurisdiction on the Internet: From Legal Arms Race to Transnational Cooperation

Author:
Bertrand de la Chapelle and Paul Fehlinger
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
The past 20 years have witnessed a profound change in the types of non-resident investors who provide funding to emerging market economies (EMEs) and the financial instruments through which emerging market (EM) corporations borrow from abroad. Until the beginning of the new millennium, private capital flows to EMEs were mainly intermediated by large global banks, and EMEs were subjected to massive volatility in their external payments balances, exchange rates and domestic financial systems. But since the early 2000s the role of bank-intermediated credit has declined, as the base of investors willing to take on exposure to EM corporate debt has become much larger and more diverse. These structural changes have encouraged a vast growth in flows of funds, not only from the mature economies to EMEs as a group, but also among EMEs themselves.
Topic:
Debt, Economics, Emerging Markets, International Trade and Finance, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

80. The Impact of Sustainability Codes of Conduct in the Financial Sector

Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the impact of four major financial sector sustainability codes of conduct, the UN Environmental Programme Finance Initiative, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, the Equator Principles and the Global Alliance for Banking on Values with regard to their impact on the sustainability of their members. The codes of conduct focus on the integration of environmental, social and governance criteria into financial decision making in lending, investment, asset management and project finance. corporate sustainability voluntary codes of conduct have a positive impact on their members. The effectiveness, however, depends on the quality and content of a code, as well as on implementation and compliance mechanisms.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, United Nations, and Ethics
Political Geography:
Global Focus