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on Confederation of Independent States |
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Issue of 2016‒08‒28
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Constantin, Ștefan |
| Abstract: | In March 2014 a change took place on Europe's political map. The Crimean Peninsula became part of Russia, switching sovereignty after more than 20 years during which it was part of Ukraine. This took place following a Russian military intervention and a referendum. A majority of the world's countries however, do not recognize the Russian control of Crimea and still consider it a part of Ukraine, rendering the territory an area with undefined political status. Shortly after the sovereignty change, the region and its population started experiencing all kinds of hardships. An often neglected type of hardship Crimeans are experiencing is the difficulty of obtaining visas. Following the referendum, many diplomatic missions in Russia have instituted a policy of not issuing visas to residents of Crimea who apply with Russian-issued documents. This article shall make a summary of EU and Schengen countries' positions regarding this issue, as these are the biggest groups of countries that requires both Russians and Ukrainians to obtain visas before travelling there. This research was made mostly directly, by requesting each country's diplomatic mission in Moscow to give an official position. The research had the purpose of verifying the information that certain countries do issue visas to Crimeans with Russian documents and also to give a more general and complex picture on the matter of visas for residents of Crimea. This theme is important as a policy of not issuing visas has significant repercussions on the region's economy and on the freedom of movement of its citizens. |
| Keywords: | Crimea, tourism, visas, restrictions, diplomatic missions |
| JEL: | F51 F59 L83 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:73143&r=cis |
| By: | Vinokurov, Evgeny; Libman, Alexander; Pereboyev, Vladimir |
| Abstract: | For almost two decades, regional cooperation and integration has remained one of the most pertinent issues of economic policy in the post-Soviet countries. There have been hundreds of initiatives and projects that aimed at deeper bilateral and regional cooperation and integration. In many cases, these initiatives had overlapping membership and objectives, or they ceased to exist, or were re-established by the same actors. Agreements with similar content, such as free trade areas or customs unions, were signed over and over again by the same countries. This variety of outcomes needed a comprehensive system to monitor and assess the current processes of economic, political and social interaction between countries. The CIS region did not possess any of these comprehensive studies and measurements. Therefore the assessments normally had to be done on ad-hoc basis. The blank space was filled by the large-scale research project initiated and implemented by the Eurasian Development Bank. The outcome of the project was the System of Indicators of Eurasian Integration. |
| Keywords: | regional integration; economic integration; post-Soviet; Russia; Eurasia; Eurasian Economic Union |
| JEL: | F13 F15 F5 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61909&r=cis |
| By: | Amador, João; Cabral, Sónia |
| Abstract: | Global Value Chains (GVCs) became the paradigm for the production of most goods and services around the world. Hence, interconnections among countries can no longer be adequately assessed through standard bilateral gross trade flows and new methods of analysis are needed. In this paper, we compute measures of network analysis and apply visualisation tools to value added trade flows in order to understand the nature and dynamics of GVCs. The paper uses data on the bilateral foreign value added in exports for the period 1995-2011 and, in each year, GVCs are represented as directed networks of nodes (countries) and edges (value added flows). The analysis is extended beyond total trade flows to discuss the distinct roles of goods and services in GVCs. Moreover, the differences between Germany, the US, China and Russia as major suppliers of value added in GVCs are also examined. JEL Classification: F12, F14, C67 |
| Keywords: | global value chains, input-output tables, international trade, network analysis |
| Date: | 2016–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20161931&r=cis |
| By: | Nouf Alsharif; Sambit Bhattacharya |
| Abstract: | Classical theory predicts that petroleum rich countries would specialise in petroleum products. Yet diversification is touted as a desirable policy objective for petroleum rich nations because it reduces exposure to volatility. Given such theoretical ambiguity, it is important to understand the empirical relationship between petroleum and diversification. In this paper, we test the effect of giant oil discoveries on diversification using a panel dataset covering up to 136 countries and the period 1962 to 2012. After controlling for country and year fixed effects, we find evidence of non-oil export concentration 8 years after a discovery. However, we do not observe any effect on the structure of employment in the non-resource and manufacturing sectors. It appears that democratic political institutions moderate the export concentration effect of petroleum discovery. Countries with weak political institutions experience employment concentration in the non-tradable sector post discovery. |
| Keywords: | Oil Discovery; Political Institutions; Structural Change; Export Diversification |
| JEL: | D72 O11 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csa:wpaper:2016-19&r=cis |