|
on Central and Western Asia |
|
Issue of 2010‒11‒13
twenty papers chosen by Bibhu Prasad Nayak Institute for Social and Economic Change |
| By: | Zangeneh, Hamid |
| Abstract: | Iran's unimpressive economic performance came about as a result of the Iran-Iraq War and the inevitable collapse of oil prices, both of which were beyond the government’s control, in combination with economic sanctions and many self-inflicted and self-destructive policies. Foremost among the self-inflicted and self-destructive wounds is the insecurity of individual citizens, human rights violations; the faltering private investment, is lack of uniformity in the application of the laws of the land and uncertainty due to political instability, corruption, and low exports and imports (total trade) relative to the world total trade. |
| Keywords: | Iran; economic growth; economy; inflation; international trade; investment |
| JEL: | F00 O5 F14 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:26283&r=cwa |
| By: | Jack Habib; Judith King; Assaf Ben Shoham; Abraham Wolde-Tsadick; Karen Lasky |
| Abstract: | Ce rapport s’intéresse à certains des principaux facteurs à prendre en compte concernant la situation des arabes israéliens sur le marché du travail : les écarts dans le capital humain (éducation, connaissance de l'informatique, maîtrise de l’hébreu) ; le lieu de résidence, la périphérie offrant moins de possibilités d’emploi ; la place traditionnellement limitée accordée aux femmes ; et la discrimination quant à l'accès aux ressources publiques d'une part et aux pratiques des employeurs de l'autre. Deux facteurs supplémentaires affectent en particulier les tendances en cours : l’évolution du marché du travail suite au changement radical vers une économie à forte intensité technologique et la réorientation de secteurs entiers de l’industrie traditionnelle, et l'augmentation significative du nombre de travailleurs étrangers en Israël, qui, dans des secteurs comme l'agriculture et le bâtiment rivalisent directement avec les ouvriers arabes les moins instruits.<BR>Ce rapport s’intéresse à certains des principaux facteurs à prendre en compte concernant la situation des arabes israéliens sur le marché du travail : les écarts dans le capital humain (éducation, connaissance de l'informatique, maîtrise de l’hébreu) ; le lieu de résidence, la périphérie offrant moins de possibilités d’emploi ; la place traditionnellement limitée accordée aux femmes ; et la discrimination quant à l'accès aux ressources publiques d'une part et aux pratiques des employeurs de l'autre. Deux facteurs supplémentaires affectent en particulier les tendances en cours : l’évolution du marché du travail suite au changement radical vers une économie à forte intensité technologique et la réorientation de secteurs entiers de l’industrie traditionnelle, et l'augmentation significative du nombre de travailleurs étrangers en Israël, qui, dans des secteurs comme l'agriculture et le bâtiment rivalisent directement avec les ouvriers arabes les moins instruits. |
| JEL: | I38 J15 J21 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaab:102-en&r=cwa |
| By: | Andrey Ivanov (UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre); Mihail Peleah (UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the links between human development concept and the attempt to implement the communist project in the countries of the former socialist bloc. It argues that the human development performance of the socialist system, despite its beneficial outcome for the ‘working masses’, had little in common with actual human development. It met basic needs in education, health, and living standards. Under the socialist system development approaches were missing two major components of human development – freedom and agency. In this sense an emerging sense of agency in societies in the region is the major transformation outcome. The departure from centrally planned and state-dominated model of development was painful, expensive and took long time. In some countries it is still in process with uneven progress and moments of reverse. But the overall trend is clear and policies that encourage people someone to take responsibility, act and bring about change for improving their own welfare are the best long-term investment in human development opportunities. Still, major questions remain unanswered. The first is to what extent the current – market-based, consumer demand oriented – system is capable of going beyond those basic needs and combine economic growth with other human development dimensions? Has it already gone into the opposite extreme to that of the former communist utopia attempt – subordinating human development to consumer demand driven consumption? Answering these questions goes beyond the scope of the current paper but the socialist countries’ experience could perhaps provide some insights for the answers. |
| Keywords: | human development, basic needs, Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, USSR, CIS, transitional economies, freedom, agency. |
| JEL: | P36 N30 O15 O52 P20 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hdr:papers:hdrp-2010-38&r=cwa |
| By: | K. Azim Ozdemir; Mesut Saygili |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1015&r=cwa |
| By: | Pinar Ozlu; Cihan Yalcin |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1016&r=cwa |
| By: | Necati Tekatli |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1019&r=cwa |
| By: | Abo-Zaid, Salem |
| Abstract: | The topic of trade effects on economic growth has been usually controversial. Former empirical evidence linking trade to growth in Israel has been mixed and inconclusive either. This study reexamines the role of trade in Israel by testing for cointegration and causality from both exports and imports to output and total factor productivity over the period 1960-2004. The results suggest that both output and TFP are positively long-run correlated with exports and imports. The Granger causality tests indicate positive effects of exports on both output and TFP, where imports influence output only. In addition, physical capital has also been found to be Granger-caused by imports. This may suggest that the impact of imports on output is through the accumulation of physical capital and/or improvement in TFP over time. |
| Keywords: | Trade-growth relationships; Cointegration; Causality ; Israeli economy |
| JEL: | O47 C22 F43 |
| Date: | 2010–10–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:26344&r=cwa |
| By: | Pierre-Noel Giraud (CERNA - Centre d'économie industrielle - Mines ParisTech); Aline Sutter (chercheur indépendant - Casa de Velázquez); Timothée Denis (chercheur indépendant - Casa de Velázquez); Cédric Léonard (chercheur indépendant - Casa de Velázquez) |
| Abstract: | As conventional oil reserves are declining, the debate on the oil production peak has become a burning issue. An increasing number of papers refer to Hubbert's peak oil theory to forecast the date of the production peak, both at regional and world levels. However, in our views, this theory lacks microeconomic foundations. Notably, it does not assume that exploration and production decisions in the oil industry depend on market prices. In an attempt to overcome these shortcomings, we have built an adaptative model, accounting for the behavior of one agent, standing for the competitive exploration-production industry, subjected to incomplete but improving information on the remaining reserves. Our work yields challenging results on the reasons for an Hubbert type peak oil, lying mainly "above the ground", both at regional and world levels, and on the shape of the production and marginal cost trajectories. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00530077_v1&r=cwa |
| By: | Rasha Khatib; Awad Mataria (Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs a Benefit Incidence Analysis (BIA) framework of health care financing in the occupied Palestinian territory to trace the distribution of public spending on health care, and to provide some elements of response that would complement, and integrate with, the findings from previous literature on the topic for the case of the occupied Palestinian territory. With this aim in mind, the present paper attempts to address the following objectives: (i) to assess the budget and financing structure of the different health care providers in the occupied Palestinian territory, as related to various socioeconomic, locality, and ailment groups of the population; (ii) to assess the health status of the Palestinian population and its distribution over different: demographic, geographic and socio-economic groups, using generic mortality and morbidity indicators; and (iii) to assess how benefits of public spending are distributed across different groups of the population. The occupied Palestinian territory is not a classical example of a developing country aiming to improve equity in the health system and thus such evaluation will take into consideration the political instability of the country and its influence on the financing of the health care system. |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erg:wpaper:564&r=cwa |
| By: | Niklas Potrafke (Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Using the POLITY IV and Freedom House indices, Rowley and Smith (2009) found that countries with Muslim majorities enjoy less freedom and are less democratic than countries in which Muslims are a minority. Because the POLITY IV and Freedom House indices have been criticized on several grounds, I reinvestigate Rowley and Smith’s finding using the new Democracy-Dictatorship data from Cheibub et al. (2010). The empirical results confirm that countries with Muslim majorities are indeed less likely to be democratic. |
| Keywords: | Islam, religion, democracy, political institutions |
| JEL: | Z12 O11 P16 P48 F59 |
| Date: | 2010–11–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:knz:dpteco:1010&r=cwa |
| By: | Joel Perlmann; Yuval Elmelech |
| Abstract: | There is much interest in explaining the persistent ethnic gaps in education among Israeli Jews; specifically, the much lower attainments of those from Asian and African countries compared to the rest—Mizrahim vs. Ashkenazim, respectively. Some explanations (especially early ones) have stressed premigration immigrant characteristics, particularly the relatively lower level of educational attainment among Mizrahim. More recent interpretations have tended to focus on discrimination of various sorts that took place after the immigrants arrived in Israel. Crucial evidence for the discriminatory effect was introduced by Yaakov Nahon (1987), who demonstrated a shift toward a Mizrahi-Ashkenazi dichotomy in educational attainment between birth cohorts of adult immigrants and birth cohorts of adults born in Israel. From this evidence, a wide range of scholars concluded that the premigration educational characteristics of immigrants could not explain Israeli educational patterns, and that, consequently, the explanation based on discrimination was thereby greatly strengthened. In this paper, we use the 1961 Israel census public-use dataset to refine Nahon’s analysis. Instead of using age cohorts as proxies for “fathers” and “children,” we focus on actual fathers and their children. Our results vary substantially from Nahon’s. In fact, we find that the educational attainment of immigrant fathers clusters quite closely around the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi dichotomy, and conclude that it is no longer reasonable to rule out the premigration hypothesis. This outcome leaves researchers with a more challenging explanatory task than before, because they are now faced with the notoriously difficult situation of having to determine the relative influence of premigration characteristics, on the one hand, and of discriminatory processes, on the other. |
| Keywords: | Education; Immigration; Ethnicity; Mobility |
| JEL: | I2 I28 J15 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_633&r=cwa |
| By: | D'Souza, Anna; Jolliffe, Dean |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of rising wheat prices -- during the 2007/08 global food crisis -- on food security in Afghanistan. Exploiting the temporal stratification of a unique nationally-representative household survey, the analysis finds evidence of large declines in real per capita food consumption and in food security (per capita calorie intake and household dietary diversity) corresponding to the price shocks. The data reveal smaller price elasticities with respect to calories than with respect to food consumption, suggesting that households trade off quality for quantity as they move toward staple foods and away from nutrient-rich foods such as meat and vegetables. In addition, there is increased demand in the face of price increases (Giffen good properties) for wheat products in urban areas. This study improves on country-level simulation studies by providing estimates of actual household wellbeing before and during the height of the global food crisis in one of the world's poorest, most food-insecure countries. |
| Keywords: | Food&Beverage Industry,Regional Economic Development,Rural Poverty Reduction,Nutrition |
| Date: | 2010–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5466&r=cwa |
| By: | Jesus Felipe; Utsav Kumar |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the growth experience of the Central Asian economies after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In particular, it evaluates the impact of being landlocked and resource rich. The main conclusions are: (1) Over the period 1994–2006, the landlocked resource-scarce developing countries of Central Asia grew at a slower pace than other landlocked resource-scarce developing countries; on the other hand, resource-rich developing countries in Central Asia grew at the same pace as other resource-rich developing economies. (2) Having “good” neighbors pays off in the form of growth spillovers; this calls for greater regional cooperation and enhanced regional integration through regional transport infrastructure, improved trade facilitation, and enhanced and coordinated economic policies. And (3) countries with a higher share of manufacturing exports in GDP grow faster, and the more sophisticated a country’s export basket, the higher its future growth; Central Asian countries should, therefore, take a more aggressive stance in supporting export diversification and upgrading. |
| Keywords: | Central Asia; EXPY; Landlocked; Manufacturing Exports; Primary Exports; Resource-rich |
| JEL: | O13 O14 O52 O57 Q33 Q34 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_629&r=cwa |
| By: | Krisztina Kis-Katos; Helge Liebert; Günther G. Schulze (Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the determinants of the origin of domestic and international terrorism in a large panel data set of 159 countries spanning from 1970 to 2007. We show that terror increases with GDP per capita, a higher POLITY score measuring a more open and competitive political system and experiences of domestic conflict, anarchy and regime transitions. Our evidence thus contradicts the notion that terrorism is rooted in economic deprivation or that strongly autocratic regimes breed more terrorists. Rather we show that weak or failing states are a hotbed for terrorism. Lastly, we show that domestic terror is determined by similar forces as international terror. |
| Keywords: | terrorism, origin of terrorism, negative binomial panel |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fre:wpaper:12&r=cwa |
| By: | Visser, Oane; Spoor, Max |
| Abstract: | While âland grabbingâ in Africa by China, and other populous, high-income Asian countries such as South Korea got quite some attention, land grabbing in post-Soviet Eurasia has gone largely unnoticed. However, as this paper shows, recently also in the latter region foreign state and private companies are accumulating vast expanses of farm land. The paper discusses the factors which make post-Soviet Eurasia such an attractive area for international investment, with arguably much more potential than most areas in Africa or Asia. Second, the process of land accumulation and acquisition of farms is described. Both domestic as well as international accumulation of land is dealt with, placing this in the domestic context of agricultural development and institutions. Furthermore, the main actors (investors) involved in land grabbing are distinguished (according to their country of origin and legal or institutional form). Third, the paper outlines the main obstacles (and points of contention) concerning the emergence (and effectiveness/performance) of domestic and especially international, agro-holdings in the region, and will present some preliminary findings around the question whether this development is a necessary step towards agricultural modernization, or that there are substantial disadvantages to land grabbing. |
| Keywords: | land grabbing, post-Soviet countries, agroholdings, economic inequality, Community/Rural/Urban Development, |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaa118:95314&r=cwa |
| By: | Mahvish Shami (Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | Backed by a range of studies finding only limited propensity for free-riding when communities have an interest in self provision, the last few decades have seen a surge of interest in community based development amongst international organisations. A major caveat to the ‘second wave’ of collective action studies, however, is that collective action will often break down under hierarchical social relationships. This is unfortunate news for rural societies in developing countries, as these are often entrenched in patron-client networks. And while studies of collective action under clientelism are in short supply, the few that exist are generally pessimistic. This paper argues, however, that clientelist relations are highly context-specific, which matters a great deal for their implications for collective action. Making use of a natural experiment in rural Punjab, Pakistan, the paper finds that the unequal relationship between landlords and peasants does not, in and by itself, block peasant collective action. Rather, it is the interaction between clientelism and isolation that allow patrons to block community based projects. Despite still relying on powerful landlords, peasants in connected villages face no such constraints. On the contrary, their patrons assisted them in their collective endeavours, making the hierarchical network an added resource for peasants to rely upon. |
| Keywords: | Collective action, Clientelism, Interlinked markets, Rural road networks, Pakistan |
| JEL: | O18 Z13 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:wpaper:2010_14&r=cwa |
| By: | Andrew Filardo; Hans Genberg |
| Abstract: | Monetary policy frameworks in the Asia and Pacific region have performed well in the past decade as judged by inflation outcomes. We argue that this is due to three principal factors: (i) central banks have focused on price stability as the primary objective of monetary policy, (ii) institutional setups have been put in place that are supportive of the central banks’ abilities to carry out their objectives, and (iii) economic policies in general have been supportive of the pursuit of price stability, in particular the adoption of prudent fiscal policies that have reduced concerns of fiscal dominance. [ADBI Working Paper 195] |
| Keywords: | Monetary, policy, frameworks, Asia, central banks, institutional |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:3139&r=cwa |
| By: | Jha , Shikha; Sugiyarto, Guntur; Vargas-Silva, Carlos |
| Abstract: | Remittances to Asia plunged during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but the drop was temporary as the flows were increasing once again after just one year. The current crisis, however, is fundamentally different in that even the main remittance-sending countries have been adversely affected. The global nature of this crisis raises several questions such as whether the remittances slowdown will also last for a short time or developing Asia should prepare for a long period of remittance stagnation. This study examines remittances data of several Asian countries to shed light on such questions. The results suggest that while remittance flows to key recipients in the region have slowed down, there has not been a sharp drop. Furthermore, there is no indication that the remittance flows will slow down further, suggesting that the flows should be back on a higher growth path in a few years. It is unlikely, however, to see the same growth rates of the past, given that an important share of that growth during the last two decades was due to better recording of remittances and an increased use of wire transfers on the part of migrants. The study also provides policy options to deal with the future outlook of remittances. |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:oxford:http://economics.ouls.ox.ac.uk/14956/&r=cwa |
| By: | K. P. Kannan; K. S. Hari |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to construct a time series estimation of remittances from abroad to the Kerala economy for the period 1972 to 2000. It is now widely acknowledged that foreign remittances in the economy of the State of Kerala in India in the form of money sent by its workers in the Gulf countries play a crucial role. The study finds that by the early nineties remittances to the Kerala economy assumed a significant share of state income. [Working Paper No. 328] |
| Keywords: | emigration, Gulf countries, Kerala economy, remittances, and consumption |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:3132&r=cwa |
| By: | Axel Dreher; Martin Gassebner; Lars-H. R. Siemers |
| Abstract: | Using the KOF Index of Globalization and two indices of economic freedom, we empirically analyze whether globalization and economic liberalization affect governments’ respect for human rights using a panel of 106 countries over the 1981-2004 period. According to our results, physical integrity rights significantly and robustly increase with globalization and economic freedom, while empowerment rights are not robustly affected. Due to the lack of consensus about the appropriate level of empowerment rights as compared to the outright rejection of any violation of physical integrity rights, the global community is presumably less effective in promoting empowerment rights. |
| Keywords: | Human Rights, Globalization, Economic Freedom, Liberalization |
| JEL: | D78 K10 P48 |
| Date: | 2010–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:cegedp:115&r=cwa |