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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Capannelli, Giovanni (Asian Development Bank Institute); Tan, See Seng (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | The formation of regional production networks in East Asia has occurred mainly through market forces, without much help from regional institutions in promoting the creation of a single Asian market. While this approach has served the region well in the past, the drastic changes experienced since the 2008–2009 financial crisis and the challenges Asian countries are facing—growing inequalities and competition, on the one hand, and enhanced threats to the environment and people’s health on the other—have rendered more urgent the need for intergovernmental cooperation at global and regional levels. Asia’s institutions for regionalism need strengthening through reform and innovation. |
| Keywords: | asian integration; asian institutions; regional production networks; east asia; single asian market; intergovernmental cooperation |
| JEL: | F15 F55 F59 |
| Date: | 2012–08–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0375&r=cwa |
| By: | Vladimir mau (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with Russia's economic policy in 2009. The author speaks about institutional stability as the main outcome of the crisis year. He provides specific features of the anti-crisis policy and outlines Russia's anti-crisis policy. The priorities of Russia's economic policy during the crisis take lengy description. The author also focuses on systemic challenges and new tasks for the countri in the coming years. |
| Keywords: | 2008 economic crisis, Russian economy |
| JEL: | P48 P26 P16 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gai:ppaper:17&r=cwa |
| By: | Hein, Eckhard |
| Abstract: | In this paper the euro crisis is viewed as the most recent episode of the crisis of financedominated capitalism. Therefore, two major features of finance-dominated capitalism, the increasing inequality of income distribution and the rising imbalances of current accounts, are analysed for a set of major Euro area countries. Against this background the euro crisis is examined, and it is shown that the economic policy reactions of European governments and institutions, narrowly interpreting the crisis as a sovereign debt crisis caused by irresponsible behaviour of some member country governments, are misguided and will lead to deflationary stagnation and an increasing risk of disintegration of the Euro area. For this reason, an alternative macroeconomic policy approach tackling the basic contradictions of financedominated capitalism and the deficiencies of European economic policy institutions and economic policy strategies is outlined. It is argued that, on the one hand, an institution which convincingly guarantees the public debt of Euro area member countries and, on the other hand, an expansionary macroeconomic policy approach, in particular in the current account surplus countries of the Euro area, need to be introduced. -- |
| Keywords: | Finance-dominated capitalism,distribution,financial and economic crisis,European economic policies |
| JEL: | E25 E58 E61 E63 E64 E65 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:142012&r=cwa |
| By: | Simachev, Yuri; Kuzyk, Mikhail; Ivanov, Denis |
| Abstract: | The paper tells the history of Russian financial development institutions, analyses their scope and fields of operation, discovers crucial problems and imbalances of Russian financial developenment institutions system and speculates on possible ways to its improvement. |
| Keywords: | Russia; financial development institutions |
| JEL: | O38 O32 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40851&r=cwa |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | The Great Recession after 2008 did not turn out to be as deep and severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s. According to the European Commission, this positive result is due to the fact that economic policy-makers around the world learnt their lessons from the Great Depression in stabilizing their financial systems and, moreover, that particularly the European Union and its economic governance system has become a shelter against negative external shocks in coordinating stabilization policies to maintain aggregate demand. This paper argues that the claim of the European Commission needs some qualifications: on the one hand, the lessons have not been applied appropriately in all EU and, particularly, Eurozone Member States. This is, on the other hand, not merely the result of mismanagement of individual governments but the systematic outcome of an ineffective and even counterproductive European economic governance system. Although, in the wake of the Euro Crisis some crisis control and emergency measures have been established, crisis resolution has failed as the core of the inefficient governance system - the European Stability and Growth Pact (ESGP) - has not been reformed adequately. -- |
| Keywords: | Euro Crisis,European Governance,Economic Policy |
| JEL: | B59 F15 H30 N10 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:32&r=cwa |
| By: | Singh, Nirvikar; Mora, Jesse |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the experience of 10 Asian countries with respect to growth, trade and FDI. It explores relationships between the nature of exports and imports and growth, as well as the relevance of FDI as a channel for these relationships. We find that FDI is often positively correlated with higher productivity levels in exports and imports. The effect for imports is particularly apparent for imported intermediate goods, reflecting the emergence of greater trade fragmentation. In turn, both imported intermediates and exports that are associated with higher productivity levels are positively correlated with per capita GDP. This paper therefore brings together empirical evidence that integrates discussions of FDI, trade fragmentation and improvements in the productivity of traded goods. |
| Keywords: | Economics, international trade, trade policy, product upgrading, trade fragmentation, vertical specialization, FDI, economic development |
| Date: | 2012–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucscec:qt1d62r9n5&r=cwa |
| By: | Carl Chiarella (Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney); Boda Kang (Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney); Christina Nikitopoulos-Sklibosios (Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney); Thuy-Duong To (University of New South Wales) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the volatility structure of commodity derivatives markets. The model encompasses stochastic volatility that may be unspanned by futures contracts. A generalized hump-shaped volatility specification is assumed that entails a finite-dimensional affine model for the commodity futures curve and quasi-analytical prices for options on commodity futures. An empirical study of the crude oil futures volatility structure is carried out using an extensive database of futures prices as well as futures option prices spanning 21 years. The study supports a hump-shaped, partially spanned stochastic volatility specification. Factor hedging, which takes into account shocks to both the volatility processes and the futures curve, depicts the presence of unspanned components in the volatility of commodity futures and the outperformance of the hump-shaped volatility in comparison to the more popular exponential decaying volatility. This hump shaped feature is more pronounced when the market is volatile. |
| Keywords: | commodity derivatives; crude oil derivatives; Unspanned stochastic volatility; hump-shaped volatility; pricing; hedging |
| Date: | 2012–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uts:rpaper:308&r=cwa |
| By: | Fabrizio Carmignani |
| Keywords: | Landlocked, income, trade, institutions, system of equations |
| JEL: | C31 O11 F15 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gri:epaper:economics:201204&r=cwa |
| By: | Andrew E. Clark; Sarah Flèche; Claudia Senik |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that within-country happiness inequality has fallen in the majority of countries that have experienced positive income growth over the last forty years, in particular in developed countries. This new stylized fact comes as an addition to the Easterlin paradox, which states that the time trend in average happiness is flat during episodes of long-run income growth. This mean-preserving declining spread in happiness comes about via falls in both the share of individuals who declare low and high levels of happiness. Rising income inequality moderates the fall in happiness inequality, and may even reverse it after some point, for example in the US starting in the 1990s. Hence, if raising the income of all does not raise the happiness of all, it will at least harmonize the happiness of all, providing that income inequality does not grow too much. Behind the veil of ignorance, lower happiness inequality would certainly be considered as attractive by risk-averse individuals. |
| Keywords: | Happiness, inequality, economic growth, development, Easterlin paradox |
| JEL: | D31 D6 I3 O15 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp468&r=cwa |
| By: | Aran, Meltem A.; Hentschel, Jesko S. |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the equity and financial protection implications of the expansion of the Green Card (Yesil Kart) non-contributory health insurance program in Turkey during the growth years from 2003 to 2008. It also considers the program's protective impact during the economic crisis in 2009. The authors find that the rapid expansion of the program between 2003 and 2008 was highly progressive. It led to significant gains in coverage of the poor but offered limited financial protection as out-of-pocket expenditures even before the introduction of the program had been limited. Using a specialized welfare monitoring survey, fielded in 2009, the authors estimate the impact of the program on household level health care utilization during the first phase of the economic slowdown in Turkey. Using three different estimation techniques, they find that the Green Card program had a significantly positive impact on protecting health care utilization during the crisis. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Health Law,Housing&Human Habitats |
| Date: | 2012–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6178&r=cwa |
| By: | Bilgin Ayata |
| Abstract: | Turkey has undergone significant legal and institutional reforms regarding minority rights and cultural rights in the past decade as part of a reform process to meet political criteria for EU membership. However, it has not been studied so far if this increasing institutional compliance has also led to transformations at a normative level in the public discourse in Turkey. To explore this question, this paper presents the results of a qualitative media analysis that I conducted on the restoration and reopening of an Armenian church in 2007 – a milestone for the Republic as churches were destroyed or doomed to vanish for nearly a century since the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The restoration of the Sourp Khatch/Akhtamar Church became a showcase for Turkey’s self-promotion as a ‘tolerant nation’. However, the church was notably made accessible to the public as a museum that initially lacked the cross on its dome and was conceived to only host a religious service once a year. This opening of a church-museum is a symbolic instance in Turkey’s ongoing transformation process in which tolerance and plurality have become prominent keywords in politics and public debate. Yet, as the findings suggest, they do not so as a reflection of European norms, but rather stand for a rediscovery and reinterpretation of Turkey’s Ottoman past practices as a multi-religious empire. I show, however, that this reinterpretation occurs on the shaky grounds of a blindfolded view of the past, in particular the denial of the Armenian Genocide, and on the denial that minorities are still endangered in present day Turkey. I conclude that, without an acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey’s nostalgic embracement of the Ottoman past and representation of norms such as tolerance as the ‘true’ Turkish/Islamic norms do not stand for a norm internalization or a norm adaption process, but instead, for a disconnection between norm and practice. |
| Keywords: | international relations; Turkey |
| Date: | 2012–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:kfgxxx:p0041&r=cwa |
| By: | Evren Ceritoglu |
| Abstract: | The precautionary saving hypothesis proposes that purchase of private health insurance diminishes household saving, since health insurance coverage decreases the possibility of unexpected out-of-pocket health expenditures. The empirical analysis is realised using the TURKSTAT Household Budget Surveys between 2003 and 2010 for the Turkish economy for this purpose. The econometric results from the Two-Stage Probit Least Squares (2SPLS) regressions indicate that there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between household saving and voluntary health insurance, which includes purchases of private health insurance. Moreover, the relationship between household saving and green-card ownership, which is distributed to the poorest individuals without social security coverage, is negative and statistically significant. As a result, the empirical analysis provides evidence in favour of the precautionary saving hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | health expenditures risk, precautionary saving |
| JEL: | D12 I11 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tcb:wpaper:1222&r=cwa |
| By: | Islahi, Abdul Azim |
| Abstract: | This is a critical evaluation of the book entitled The Long Divergence:How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East by Timur Kuran. |
| Keywords: | Economic History of Middle East; Ottoman Economic History; Decadence of Muslim East |
| JEL: | P00 O53 K00 N00 N95 B00 P52 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40877&r=cwa |
| By: | Ziesemer, Thomas (UNU-MERIT/MGSoG, and School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of aggregate aid, earmarked aid, committed or disbursed, on social indicators in health and education. A literature review shows that for earmarked aid use of commitment data mostly leads to insignificant results; use of disbursement data mostly leads to significantly favourable results; panel data models including lagged dependent variables lead to significantly favourable results for at least one form of aid unless only commitment data are used. In our own analysis of effects of aggregate aid per capita on life expectancy and literacy we find from detailed analysis of lag structures that the data for literacy and life expectancy in dynamic panel data models should be taken in the form of growth rates. Growth rates of aid per capita are shown to have significantly favourable effects on the growth rates life expectancy. Growth rates or levels of aid per capita may reduce growth rates of illiteracy in system GMM estimates. |
| Keywords: | Development Aid, Education, Health, Dynamic Panel Data Model |
| JEL: | F35 I15 I25 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2012057&r=cwa |