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231. Is the IMF business model still valid?

Author:
Ángel Ubide
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Since the Asian crisis, the IMF has undergone a deep process of soul searching, trying to extract lessons from the experience. External criticism has been abundant, and basically all three of the IMF's main areas of work – surveillance, crisis prevention and resolution, and poverty reduction – have been called into question. Several years later, there is a feeling that not much has been achieved, and key questions remain unanswered. As the world business cycle matures, and thus the likelihood of further crises slowly increases, it is critical for the stability of the world financial system to discuss what the IMF's business model should look like.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Asia

232. Dawning of a New Era: The LNG Story

Author:
Henry Lee
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Spurred on by higher natural gas prices and a growing demand for cleaner fuels, interest in new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities has mushroomed. At the end of 2004, over forty new receiving and regasification stations were being proposed in the United States, and another ten were seeking siting approvals in Mexico and Canada. Even if less than ten percent of these projects are approved and built, more than twenty percent of United States gas demand may be supplied by LNG facilities by 2012. On the production side, the number of countries contemplating the construction of liquefaction facilities has doubled, and existing producers are scurrying to build more and larger facilities.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
United States, Canada, and Mexico

233. Human Capital, R and Competition in Macroeconomic Analysis

Author:
Erik Canton, Bert Minne, Ate Nieuwenhuis, Bert Smid, and Mark van der Steeg
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
Long-run per capita economic growth is driven by productivity growth. Major determinants of productivity are investments in education and research, and the intensity of competition on product markets. While these ideas have been incorporated into modern growth theories and tested in empirical analyses, they have not yet found their way to applied macroeconomic models used to forecast economic developments. In this paper, we discuss various options to include human capital, R and product market competition in a macroeconomic framework. We also study how policy can affect the decisions to build human capital or to perform research, and how competition policy impacts on macroeconomic outcomes. We finally sketch how these mechanisms can be implemented into the large models used at the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB).
Topic:
Development, Economics, Education, and Emerging Markets
Political Geography:
Netherlands

234. A Gravity Model under Monopolistic Competition

Author:
Kari E. O. Alho
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
This paper presents an alternative derivation of the gravity equation for foreign trade, which is explicitly based on monopolistic competition in the export markets and which is more general than previously seen in the literature. In contrast with the usual specification, our model allows for the realistic assumption of asymmetry in mutual trade flows. The model is estimated for trade in Europe, producing evidence that trade flows and barriers do indeed reveal strong asymmetry. We then carry out a simulation, based on the estimated model, of the general equilibrium effects (through trade) of the UK's possible entrance into the economic and monetary union.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and Europe

235. Impact of Public R Financing on Private R Does Financial Constraint Matter?

Author:
Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
This study analyses how public R financing impacts companies. Our main goal is to study whether public and private R financing are substitutes or complements, and whether this impact differs between financially constrained and unconstrained companies. Our company-level panel data cover the period from 1996 to 2002. The statistical method employed in the research takes into account the possibility that receiving public support may be an endogenous factor. Our results suggest that public R financing does not crowd out privately financed R Instead, receiving a positive decision to obtain public R funds increases privately financed R Furthermore, our results suggest that this additionality effect is bigger in large firms than in small firms.
Topic:
Emerging Markets and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

236. Collective Bargaining Practices in Eastern Europe: Case Study Evidence from Romania

Author:
Aurora Trif
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
There are several studies on recent developments in collective bargaining in Eastern Europe, but there is still a debate about the extent to which collective bargaining practices resemble those in continental Western Europe. This paper aims to contribute to this debate, by examining primary data on collective bargaining practices in Romania using an actor-centred institutionalist approach. It focuses on collective bargaining in four large chemical companies. Comparisons are made to other countries in order to highlight the developments in Romanian cases. Unexpectedly, the study's findings point to an increase in state intervention in establishing the terms and conditions of employment after 1989, due to the state's new roles during the transformation process that affected job security. The study suggests a considerable increase in the influence of top managers in determining pay and working conditions, while trade unions retained the considerable influence over social benefits in large companies. The findings show continuance of certain pre-1989 practices, such as a persistence of high state intervention and a limited independence of the trade unions from the management. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of institutional changes in the context of a shift from a centrally planned economy to a market-based economy.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Romania

237. Class Formation or Fragmentation? Allegiances and Divisions Among Managers and Workers in State-Owned Enterprises

Author:
Kun-Chin Lin
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This essay argues that crosscutting allegiances between managers and workers, and between existing workers and ex-workers, have formed strong social and psychological bases for sustained collective action and inaction during a period of organizational transformation in contemporary China. This thesis challenges the conventional wisdom that implies either class formation during marketization or the failure of such as an explanation for the alleged limits of the working class in mobilizing to defend its social contract against the central state. Through in-depth case studies of Chinese oilfields and refineries, I identify patterns of fragmentation deriving from intergenerational differences among the workers, managerial incentive structures, and the continuing reworking of patron-client relations between subgroups of workers and managers. I conclude that managers' and workers' passive and active responses to the state's rapid dismantling of the socialist notion of “class” in a self-sufficient work unit have placed a tangible social limit on authoritarian institutional innovation.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, and Government
Political Geography:
China

238. Tackling Trade in Agriculture

Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Opening up agricultural markets to international trade has been one of the thorniest issues in successive rounds of global trade talks. Protection in agricultural trade is still high in both the developed and developing world, so agreement in agriculture is crucial to the success of the Doha Development Agenda talks in the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly for developing countries who stand to make significant gains.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Emerging Markets, and International Trade and Finance

239. Economic Survey of China, 2005

Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
China's economic growth has averaged 9½% per cent over the past two decades. The rapid pace of economic change is likely to be sustained for some time. These gains have contributed not only to higher personal incomes, but also to a significant reduction in poverty. At the same time, the economy has become substantially integrated with the world economy. A large part of these gains have come through profound shifts in government policies. Reforms have allowed market prices and private investors to play a significant role in production and trade.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Emerging Markets
Political Geography:
China and Asia

240. Economic Survey of Mexico, 2005

Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Fiscal management has been successful in recent years, and the backdrop of an inflation-targeting monetary policy has helped anchor expectations that macroeconomic stability is here to stay. In addition, the financial sector has gone through an important transformation and a broader and deeper domestic capital market has developed. This will enable the Mexican authorities to turn more of their attention to long-term priorities, which are where the important policy challenges increasingly lie. Faster growth of living standards will require reforms to the tax system so as to finance the appropriate level of current spending and long-term investment needs. Fiscal relations between the different levels of government need to be re-thought so as to ensure a more effective and more equitable use of revenues. Part of higher oil revenues should be earmarked for financing some important multi-year but finite programmes. Major reforms to education, the labour market, the electricity industry, other network sectors and ways of doing business are also desirable, and will help spur investment in Mexico's future by both domestic and foreign firms. It is important that reforms be assessed and judged by legislators on their intrinsic merits rather than through the prism of short-term political considerations.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Emerging Markets
Political Geography:
Central America and Mexico