|
on Central and Western Asia |
|
Issue of 2011‒07‒02
eleven papers chosen by Bibhu Prasad Nayak Institute for Social and Economic Change |
| By: | Mohamed, Issam A.W. |
| Abstract: | In countries where tools of economic control are immature and disabled due to totalitarian systems, macroeconomic analyses for aggregate quantities and relationships, such as total consumption, investment, and government expenditures represents a difficult task. The practice of aggregation distinguishes this field of microeconomics and has advantages but also creates problems, a brief survey of these problems is required now, although a deeper appreciation of these must await the critical attitudes that can only develop with more exposure to entire subject. One difficulty is the complex area known as the aggregation problem, the classifying of widely varying goods or activities into one general category, which is treated as a homogeneous variable. The political, social and military fate of nations depends greatly upon economic success, and no area of economics is today more vital to nation’s success than its macroeconomic performance. Countries like Japan which has grown rapidly by wining export markets for its products, enjoy enhanced political power and higher living standards. A country’s living standards depend crucially upon its macroeconomic policies. |
| Keywords: | Yemen; Macroeconomics; Money Supply; Demand |
| JEL: | R1 A1 C0 C5 C46 R15 A10 C1 C4 A13 C3 A12 A19 C01 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:31782&r=cwa |
| By: | Coskun, Yener |
| Abstract: | Housing is one of the major socio-economic problems in Turkey. Widespread spontaneous settlements in urban area may be accepted as the sufficient criterion for the level of housing question in Turkey. Additionally, there are important quality problems in existing housing units. This problematic structure may be also explained by the lack of efficient housing policies and housing finance system. It seems after 2003 that housing policy of Turkey is essentially based on the Housing Development Administration‟s (HDA) pragmatic approaches. In this context, we may argue that the current housing policy is one-dimensional and also would be unsustainable in some perspectives. In this experimental research, the author attempts to analyze limitations and clear/potential problems of the housing policies of HDA. We basically analyze whether affordable housing problem is minimize with alternative policies and required incentives. In this context, we review housing subsidies and PPPs as the instruments of alternative social/private rental housing supply models. In a broader perspective, the original contribution of this paper is to examine private rental housing, social rental housing, urban renewal, micro-finance and housing production of REITs as the alternative housing supply/finance models to improve affordable housing. We conclude that these alternative housing supply/finance models may improve housing affordability and hence minimize the housing question in Turkey, if they can optimally design and required incentives may meet by the central/local governments. |
| Keywords: | Housing finance; affordable housing; Turkish housing policies; TOKI (Housing Development Administration) |
| JEL: | R31 R38 |
| Date: | 2011–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:31729&r=cwa |
| By: | Roman Mogilevsky |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the public finance performance and the dynamics of government expenditures on education and health in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2007- 2010, when the country was hit by the global economic crisis and then by an internal political crisis in 2010. Despite these crisis conditions, public health expenditures have increased substantially. In education, recurrent expenditures have been protected, while capital investments have been cut dramatically. Both sectors suffer from chronic under-financing, which results in an insufficient quality of services. The country’s fiscal situation in the medium-term is going to be difficult, so efficiency-oriented reforms need to be implemented in health care and especially in education in order to sustain the development of these critical services in Kyrgyzstan. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal policy, Kyrgyzstan, Education financing, Health financing, Global economic crisis |
| JEL: | E62 H50 H51 H52 I18 I22 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:cnrepo:0097&r=cwa |
| By: | Baybars Karacaovali (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa) |
| Abstract: | Turkey has been an active user of antidumping since the 1990s and more recently added safeguards and countervailing duties to its temporary trade barriers (TTBs). Turkey is a founding member of the World Trade Organization and formed a customs union with the European Union (EU) in 1996. It has also signed numerous preferential trade agreements the EU has been involved in as part of its EU candidacy. The drastic intra and extra-group trade liberalization brought by the relations with the EU seems to be important determinants in the rise of Turkey’s contingent protection over the last decade. Moreover, apart from an increase in the number of initiations, the higher rate of initiations finding support and sluggishness in the removal of TTBs over time appear to have played a role in their build-up. Turkey has been significantly affected by the 2008-9 global economic crisis and at the same time kept increasing the use of TTBs. The increase as of 2009 was in line with the recent upward trend but the response to the crisis may come with a lag. In general, Turkey does not target established EU members with TTBs although there is no restriction. Turkey mainly targets developing countries, especially China, at rates disproportional to their import market share. |
| Keywords: | Temporary trade barriers, antidumping, safeguards, countervailing duties, Turkey |
| JEL: | F13 F14 F15 |
| Date: | 2011–06–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201107&r=cwa |
| By: | Acharya, Amitav (American University) |
| Abstract: | Departing from the traditional yardsticks for measuring the performance and effectiveness of regional institutions, this paper proposes a new framework to investigate their effect in the socialization (i.e. internalization of group norms by newcomers) of new members. Called Type III internalization, it represents a middle ground between Type I (i.e. member states simply acting according to group expectations, even if they may not agree with them), and Type II (i.e. states transforming themselves by adopting the interests and identities of the group) internalization. In Type III internalization, states act both instrumentally and normatively. While their interests and values do not change permanently, there is enough change to induce substantially new kinds of cooperative behavior, in trade and security. Type III internalization is non-legalistic and consensual, moving at a pace in which everyone is comfortable, but there is no danger of backtracking. New members moderate their competitive instincts and pursue common objectives. The impact of institutional norms such as “open regionalism” and “cooperative security” transmitted through institutions such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the ASEAN Regional Forum on Viet Nam, India, and the People's Republic of China attests to the existence of a Type III internalization. |
| Keywords: | Asia; regional institutions; Asian regional institutions; constructivism; socialization; institution-design; multilateralism |
| JEL: | F50 |
| Date: | 2011–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbrei:0082&r=cwa |
| By: | Amir Mansour Tehranchian (Department of Economics, Mazandaran University, Babolsar, Iran); Masoud Behravesh (Department of Management, Bonab Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bonab, Iran) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, Stieglitz’s theory regarding the threshold effects of real interest rate on investment of Iran's private sector during 1973-2008 is experimentally examined. The study showed that although the real interest rate directly affects on private investment in Iran, an increase of more than 2 percent in the real interest rate will reduce the private sector's investment. In other words, Stieglitz’s argument about a one-threshold level (close to zero) of the real interest rate is confirmed in Iran. Paying attention to the rate of inflation and threshold limit of influence of interest rate on monetary policies is considered the most important proposals of the present research |
| Keywords: | Private sector's investment, Real interest rate, Threshold effects |
| JEL: | E22 E43 E44 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cms:1icm11:2011-004-097&r=cwa |
| By: | Mohamed, Issam A.W. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of the System Dynamics method is to study the relationship between structure and behavior in non-linear, dynamic systems. In such systems, the significance of various structural components to the behavior pattern exhibited, changes as the behavior unfolds. Changes in structural significance modify that behavior pattern which, in turn, feeds back to change the relative significance of structural components. We develop a macroeconomic model through which we can study the characteristics of the feedback between structure and behavior. This model is based on multiplier-accelerator model, and inventory – adjustment model. This work is an extension of the work by Nathan Forrester on the use of basic macroeconomic theory to stabilize policy analysis. The design of a System Dynamics model begins with a problem and a time frame that contribute to the problem. They are listed and their structural relationships sketched the factors with particular attention to characterizing them as levels (or stocks) and rates (or flows) that feed or drain them. Levels and rates must alternate in the model; no level can control another without an intervening rate or any rate influence another without an intervening level. |
| Keywords: | System Dynamics; Macroeconomic Variable; Economic Analysis; Yemen |
| JEL: | C68 C0 A1 C00 C67 A10 C1 C10 B40 C20 C02 C15 C22 C30 C01 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:31692&r=cwa |
| By: | Claude Didry (IDHE - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Economie - CNRS : UMR8533 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I - Université Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis - Université de Paris X - Nanterre - École normale supérieure de Cachan - ENS Cachan); Caroline Vincensini (IDHE - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Economie - CNRS : UMR8533 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I - Université Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis - Université de Paris X - Nanterre - École normale supérieure de Cachan - ENS Cachan) |
| Abstract: | On the basis of the "challenge" North [1997 (1977)] identified in the works of Polanyi, we propose to outline the originality of North's institutionalism, especially in comparison with "new institutionalism" in economics as well as in sociology. Far from endorsing the dichotomy between market and non market dimensions of economic activities at the basis of the analyses of Williamson and Granovetter, North's definition of institutions as "rules of the game" allows him to conceive of institutions as the institutional foundations of the market and therefore as explanatory principles of historical dynamics. |
| Keywords: | institutions, institutionalism, North, Polanyi, Williamson, Granovetter |
| Date: | 2011–03–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00601544&r=cwa |
| By: | Sübidey Togan |
| Abstract: | The purpose of the paper is to study the European Union - Turkey customs union (CU) of 1995 covering trade in industrial goods. The customs union decision of 1995 tending to rules and disciplines on various regulatory border and behind-the-border policies covers in particular customs reform, technical barriers to trade, competition policy, intellectual property rights, and administrative procedures. The paper after assessing in each case the status quo at the time of the entry of the CU into force evaluates the commitments undertaken under the CU, and assesses the degree of implementation of the CU requirements as well as the administrative costs of implementation of the CU. Finally, the paper shows how the CU has successfully moved the Turkish economy from a government-controlled regime to a market based one. |
| Keywords: | Economic Integration, Customs Union |
| JEL: | F15 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sec:cnstan:0426&r=cwa |
| By: | Gauri, Varun; Woolcock, Michael; Desai, Deval |
| Abstract: | The capacity to act collectively is not just a matter of groups sharing interests, incentives and values (or being sufficiently small), as standard economic theory predicts, but a prior and shared understanding of the constituent elements of problem(s) and possible solutions. From this standpoint, the failure to act collectively can stem at least in part from relevant groups failing to ascribe a common intersubjective meaning to situations, processes and events. Though this is a general phenomenon, it is particularly salient in countries characterized by societal fragility and endemic conflict. We develop a conceptual account of intersubjective meanings, explain its relevance to development practice and research, and examine its implications for development work related to building the rule of law and managing common pool resources. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Law,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,Cultural Policy,Labor Policies,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2011–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5707&r=cwa |
| By: | Jack Joo K. Ree |
| Abstract: | The paper takes stock of the impact of the global financial crisis that began in late 2007 on banking sectors of Asian low-income countries, by exploring bank-level data provided by Bankscope. The paper examines three key channels of possible crisis spillovers: exposures to (i) valuation changes of mark-to-market financial assets, (ii) a drop in crossborder funding, and (iii) rises in NPLs prompted by international real economic linkages. The paper finds that despite relatively low financial integration, the impact of the crisis on LIC banks, particularly the largest ones, were not insignificant. Impacts were most palpable through a loan-to-crossborder funding nexus. |
| Keywords: | Asia , Banking sector , Credit risk , Economic models , Emerging markets , Financial crisis , Financial risk , Global Financial Crisis 2008-2009 , Low-income developing countries , Spillovers , |
| Date: | 2011–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:11/115&r=cwa |