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2341. Security Matters

Author:
Centre for European Security Studies
Publication Date:
02-2013
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Centre for European Security Studies
Abstract:
In 2012 CESS conducted a range of activities in Turkey in the framework of the “Good Governance of the Security Sector in Turkey” programme: In March we organised a conference and a follow-up training course in Ankara on Financial Accountability and Budgetary Transparency of the Security Sector. During these events we discussed the main procedures in reviewing defence budgets and particular attention was dedicated to the role of the Court of Accounts. It became clear during the proceedings of both events that despite the fact that changes have been made for the better in Turkey with regard to financial oversight of the security sector, most of these changes unfortunately are only made on paper and are still not put into practice. The auditing process clearly lacks key mechanisms that would make the military more accountable. Therefore the Court of Accounts still has no real leverage over the military in terms of auditing defence spending.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2342. Gendering Global Conflict: Toward a Feminist Theory of War

Author:
Laura Sjoberg
Publication Date:
08-2013
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Columbia University Press
Abstract:
Laura Sjoberg positions gender and gender subordination as key factors in the making and fighting of global conflict. Through the lens of gender, she examines the meaning, causes, practices, and experiences of war, building a more inclusive approach to the analysis of violent conflict between states. Considering war at the international, state, substate, and individual levels, Sjoberg's feminist perspective elevates a number of causal variables in war decision-making. These include structural gender inequality, cycles of gendered violence, state masculine posturing, the often overlooked role of emotion in political interactions, gendered understandings of power, and states' mistaken perception of their own autonomy and unitary nature. Gendering Global Conflict also calls attention to understudied spaces that can be sites of war, such as the workplace, the household, and even the bedroom. Her findings show gender to be a linchpin of even the most tedious and seemingly bland tactical and logistical decisions in violent conflict. Armed with that information, Sjoberg undertakes the task of redefining and reintroducing critical readings of war's political, economic, and humanitarian dimensions, developing the beginnings of a feminist theory of war.
Topic:
International Relations, Gender Issues, War, International Security, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus
Publication Identifier:
9780231520003
Publication Identifier Type:
ISBN

2343. A Paradigm Shift thatNever Will Be?:Justin Lin’s New Structural Economics (pdf)

Author:
Ben Fine and Elisa Van Waeyenberge
Publication Date:
01-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper assesses the attempt by Justin Lin, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, to posit a new development paradigm through his New Structural Economics, NSE. Lin’s attempt to redefine development economics deserves scrutiny for at least two reasons. He launched his new framework from the platform that his position as Chief Economist at the Bank. Critical scrutiny of his propositions then allows for continued insights into the complex relationship between scholarship and policy at the Bank and further illuminates, more broadly, the role of the Bank across the spectrum of development economics, development studies and development policy. Second, Lin’s framework claims a return to a “structural” understanding of development, with a strong industrial policy rhetoric emanating from it. This has been greeted with considerable enthusiasm by erstwhile critics of the Bank. Closer scrutiny of the NSE, however, both reveals the flawed nature of its core theoretical notion of comparative advantage and exposes its strong, if unfortunately conservative, commitment to a flawed and incoherently applied neoclassical economics. These issues are explored across Lin’s propositions regarding structural change, the role of the state and finance and are further examined in the context of specific policy interventions that Lin attaches to the NSE.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, World Bank, and Economic structure
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2344. A Note on Credit Allocation, Income Distribution, and the Circuit of Capital (pdf)

Author:
Paulo dos Santos
Publication Date:
08-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This note considers the relationship between credit allocation and the aggregate, class distribution of income in the Circuit of Capital. Production and consumption credit inject means of purchase in different locations in the monetary circuits of capitalist reproduction. On the basis of comparative-dynamic analysis of the properties of steady-state evolutions, the note shows that production credit increases the wage share in total income, while consumption credit increases profit shares. These findings hold in general for any evolution in which sectoral revenue- elasticities of outlays measure less than unity. The note also motivates a new endogenous approach to the aggregate distribution of income, and offers new analytical tools facilitating work based on demand-constrained models of the Circuit of Capital.
Topic:
Inequality, Income Inequality, Economic Theory, Credit, and Capital
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2345. A History of Polyvalent Structural Parameters: the Case of Instrument Variable Estimato

Author:
Duo Qin and Yanqun Zhang
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper investigates the rise and fall of the IV method in macro-econometric models and its subsequent revival in micro-econometric models. The key findings are: (i) the IV method implicitly breaks the contemporaneously circular causality postulated in a simultaneous- equation model (SEM) by redefining the conditional variable concerned as a suboptimal conditional expectation of it; (ii) the IV method falls out of favour in macro-econometrics mainly because of lack of empirical validations for such redefinitions; (iii) the IV method wins its popularity in micro-econometrics by its capacity to produce multiple suboptimal conditional expectations of the latent conditional variables of interest under the disguise of an SEM consistent estimator; nevertheless, (iv) such suboptimal conditional expectations give rise to the insurmountable difficulty of credibly interpreting the IV-based parameter estimates, especially in the case of prognosticated omitted variable bias. The findings highlight the methodological drawback of the estimator-centric strategy of textbook econometrics.
Topic:
Economic Theory, Macroeconomics, and Microeconomics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2346. Modelling Scale Effect in Crosssection Data:The Case of Hedonic Price Regression

Author:
Duo Qin and Yimeng Liu
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
An innovative and simple experiment with cross-section data ordering is carried out to exploit a basic and common feature between many economic variables – nonlinear scale dependence. The experiment is tried on hedonic price regression models using two data sets, one for automobiles and the other computers. The key findings are: (a) Hedonic price indices can be significantly biased if they are constructed using models which disregard possible nonlinear scale effects latent in random data samples; (b) Scale-based data ordering offers considerable potential to filter such scale-dependent information from cross-section samples; (c) The filtering can be easily carried out by systematic adoption of dynamic modelling methods.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Economic Theory, Models, and Price Regression
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2347. Price Non-Convergence in Commodities: A Case Study of the Wheat Conundrum

Author:
Sophie van Huellen
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
The close relationship between commodity future and cash prices is critical for the effectiveness of risk management and the functioning of price discovery. However, in recent years, commodity futures prices, across the board, have appeared increasingly detached from prices on physical markets. This paper argues that while various factors, identified in previous literature, which introduced limits to arbitrage have facilitated non-convergence, the actual extent of non-convergence in these markets is caused by essential differences in the mechanisms of price formation on physical and derivative markets. With reference to the particular case of the CBOT wheat market, the paper shows that the size of the spread between futures and cash prices can be theoretically and empirically linked to the increasing inflow of financial investment into commodity futures markets.
Topic:
Agriculture, Markets, Commodities, and Financialisation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2348. Capital Flows to Emerging Markets: An alternative Theoretical Framework

Author:
Bruno Bonizzi
Publication Date:
11-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper represents a theoretical contribution to the analysis of international capital flows. It outlines an alternative theoretical framework based on Post-Keynesian monetary theory, and in particular on Hyman Minsky’s Wall Street paradigm and concept of Money-manager capitalism and Jan Toporowski’s theory of capital market inflation. The key aspects of such an approach are, firstly, that in a monetary analysis capital flows need to be understood as “flows of funds”, as opposed to the traditional understanding of capital flows based on “real” decision, such as saving and investment. A consequence of this is the need of focusing on gross rather than net capital flows. Secondly, when considering emerging markets, the asymmetric nature of the international monetary system must be stressed. Thirdly, it is important to understand the specific forms that capital flows take: in today’s world, pension funds and other institutional investors — alongside banks — are key players in the financial markets, and their role in shaping capital flows to emerging markets must be explicitly recognised. This paper synthesises these elements by understanding capital flows as the result of institutional investors portfolio choice. Along the lines of Minsky and Toporowski, portfolio choice by institutional investors need to be assessed in relation to their balance sheet structure, beside risk/return trade-offs and general state of risk aversion
Topic:
Emerging Markets, Capital Flows, Investment, and Economic Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2349. The Negative Impact of the War on Drugs on Public Health: The Hidden Hepatitis C Epidemic

Author:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Publication Date:
05-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Commission On Drug Policy
Abstract:
The hepatitis C epidemic fueled by the “war on drugs” is sweeping amongst injecting drug users around the world, yet continues to be largely ignored. Access to preventive services is far too low and diagnosis and treatment are too expensive and inaccessible for most people in need. The report provides an overview of the hepatitis C virus, while exploring how the ‘war on drugs’ and repressive drug policies are failing to drive transmission down. Hepatitis C is one of the harms caused by repressive drug policies, yet it s both preventable and curable when public health is the focus.
Topic:
Health, War on Drugs, Infectious Diseases, Drugs, and Public Health
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2350. Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: Towards a Multi-Dimensional Approach

Author:
Manuel Balán
Publication Date:
01-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
Abstract:
Few if any issues are as crucial in ensuring sustainable development as the promotion and consolidation of the Rule of Law (henceforth RoL). In fact, RoL has become a major ingredient in analyses of what is missing in countries struggling for political and economic development. Yet, this objective remains elusive, as there is limited knowledge of what policies work in promoting the Rule of Law. With this in mind, this paper analyzes CIDA’s approach to RoL promotion, tracking how different programs promoted by CIDA addressed RoL concerns. Overall, and despite the term having been left out of CIDA’s priorities for some time, the organization shows interest and investment in RoL related projects. Yet, CIDA’s approach has lacked a clear and explicit direction, and has emphasized projects dealing with capacity building.
Topic:
Corruption, Development, Governance, Rule of Law, and Political Science
Political Geography:
Global Focus