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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2007‒08‒08
twenty-six papers chosen by |
| By: | Yasushi Hamao (Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California); Takeo Hoshi (Graduate School of International Relations University of California, San Diego); Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | Recent studies have established that the Japanese stock market was quite large in the pre-war period, and played an important role in financing the economic development. The pre-war stock market in Japan, however, did not achieve its size and status quickly. Indeed, the market capitalization stayed relatively small during the early years of the stock market development in Japan. This paper studies the pre-war development of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which eventually grew to be one of the two largest stock exchanges in the pre-war Japan, and examines why the development was rather stagnant since its establishment in 1878 to the 1910s and what led to its take-off in the late 1910s. The paper argues that the TSE stayed small because the low liquidity discouraged the new companies from listing their stocks. The lack of growth in new listed stocks meant the liquidity continued to be low until 1918, when the TSE changed its listing policy to start listing companies without waiting for their listing applications. The provides empirical evidence from listing behavior of cotton spinning firms that shows the size of the market indeed mattered for their listing decision before 1918. |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2007cf495&r=his |
| By: | Yen Le Espiritu (University of California, San Diego) |
| Abstract: | In the United States, the writing on the Vietnam War involves the highly organized and strategic forgetting of the Vietnamese people. In a highly original work that investigates the production of American cultural memory, Marita Sturken shows that in the United States, the narrative of the Vietnam War foregrounds the painful experience of the Vietnam veterans in such a way that the Vietnamese people are forgotten: “They are conspicuously absent in their roles as collaborators, victims, enemies, or simply the people whose hand and over whom (supposedly) this war was fought” (Sturken 1997, 62). Likewise, US scholars have refused to treat Vietnamese refugees as genuine subjects, with their own history, culture, heritage, and political agendas. |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cmgdev:338&r=his |
| By: | Gómez-Sorzano, Gustavo |
| Abstract: | Abstract: I apply the Beveridge-Nelson business cycle decomposition method to the time series of per capita murder in the State of Massachusetts. (1933-2005). Separating out “permanent” from “cyclical” murder, I hypothesize that the cyclical part coincides with documented waves of organized crime, internal tensions, breakdowns in social order, crime legislation, social, and political unrest, and recently with the periodic terrorist attacks to the U.S. The estimated cyclical component of murder warns that terrorist attacks in the U.S. from 1940 to 2005, have affected Massachusetts creating estimated turning point dates clearly marked by the most tragic terrorist attacks to the nation: the shut down in power in NYC in 1965, the World Trade Center Bombing in 1993, and 9/11 2001. The index for Massachusetts foretold with amazing precision those attacks, and must be used as a proxy for attacks for the Whole U.S along with indexes already constructed for the nation (http://mpra.ub.uni-uenchen.de/1145/01/MPRA_paper_1145.pdf) and, New York City (http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/4200/01/MPRA_paper_4200.pdf). The indexes must be used as dependent variables in structural models for terrorist attacks and in models assessing the effects of terrorism on the U.S. economy. |
| Keywords: | : A model of cyclical terrorist murder in Colombia; 1950-2004. Forecasts 2005-2019; the econometrics of violence; terrorism; and scenarios for peace in Colombia from 1950 to 2019; scenarios for sustainable peace in Colombia by year 2019; decomposing violence: terrorist murder in the twentieth in the United States; using the Beveridge and Nelson decomposition of economic time series for pointing out the occurrence of terrorist attacks; decomposing violence: terrorist murder and attacks in New York State from 1933 to 2005; terrorist murder; cycles of violence; and terrorist attacks in New York City during the last two centuries. |
| JEL: | N40 K14 O51 N42 H56 D74 C20 K42 C22 C29 |
| Date: | 2007–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4342&r=his |
| By: | John Forth; Blanchflower, D., Bryson, A. |
| Abstract: | There was a time before the first Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS80) in 1980 when what we knew of industrial relations was based primarily upon small scale surveys and case studies. WIRS80 marked a radical departure in the study of industrial relations for two reasons. First, following in the footsteps of a small number of survey forerunners, it sought to ‘map’ industrial relations in Britain with nationally-representative large-scale surveys of workplace managers, thus permitting investigation of the incidence of practices and changes over time. Second, it focused on industrial relations institutions and outcomes, linking them to the processes of industrial relations that had been the chief focus of studies up until that point. This paper reflects on some of what we have learned in the five surveys over the quarter century since 1980, focusing selectively on the demise of collective IR, pay determination, union wage effects, variable pay, the climate of employment relations and union effects on employment growth. [Also IZA Discussion Paper #2518] |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:288&r=his |
| By: | David Cutler (Harvard University); Angus Deaton (Princeton University); Adriana Lleras-Muney (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | Mortality rates have fallen dramatically over time, starting in a few countries in the 18th century, and continuing to fall today. In just the past century, life expectancy has increased by over 30 years. At the same time, mortality rates remain much higher in poor countries, with a difference in life expectancy between rich and poor countries of also about 30 years. This difference persists despite the remarkable progress in health improvement in the last half century, at least until the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In both the time-series and the cross-section data, there is a strong correlation between income per capita and mortality rates, a correlation that also exists within countries, where richer, better-educated people live longer. We review the determinants of these patterns: over history, over countries, and across groups within countries. While there is no consensus about the causal mechanisms, we tentatively identify the application of scientific advance and technical progress (some of which is induced by income and facilitated by education) as the ultimate determinant of health. Such an explanation allows a consistent interpretation of the historical, cross-country, and within-country evidence. We downplay direct causal mechanisms running from income to health. |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pri:cheawb:235&r=his |
| By: | Laurent Deville (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - [CNRS : UMR7088] - [Université Paris Dauphine - Paris IX]) |
| Abstract: | We survey the litterature devoted to Exchange Traded Funds |
| Keywords: | literature review, Exchange Traded Funds |
| Date: | 2007–07–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00162223_v1&r=his |
| By: | Yoshiko Nagano |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to lay down the foundation for a research project compiling the historical statistics of the Philippine economy, as part of the Research Unit for Statistical Analysis in Social Science (2003-2008), the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. First, I detail what we have accomplished in the gathering of historical data on the Philippines, mainly from US university libraries and archives. Second, I share what I worked on for part of the research on Philippine foreign trade. Third, a brief review is made of research studies on Philippine national income accounts in Philippine economic history. Fourth, I discuss, tentatively, some historical factors that need to be considered for an accurate estimate of Philippine national income accounts. |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:hstdps:d07-220&r=his |
| By: | Mavalankar Dileep; Shastri Priya; Ramani K.V. |
| Abstract: | Chikungunya is a virus spread by the bite of the Aedes mosquito, which recently reemerged as a massive epidemic in the Indian Ocean islands and India. Chikungunya is generally considered self-limiting and has been reported as non-fatal but, since March 2005, one-third of the 770,000 people in the Indian Ocean Island of Réunion (a French territory) have been affected by Chikungunya with 237 deaths. India reported 1.3 million cases of Chikungunya however the Government of India has not reported any deaths. However there is evidence that deaths due to Chikungunya did occur. The lack of official reports of deaths is mainly due to the poor recording of ‘Causes of Death’ in India. The London Bills of Mortality from the 17th provides a very good example of the importance of proper reporting of deaths especially during an epidemic period. This paper reflects on the London bills of mortality and modern day lessons to be drawn from it as well as the reasons behind the apparent lack of death reporting in 2006’s Chikungunya epidemic. |
| Date: | 2007–07–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2007-07-12&r=his |
| By: | Prema-Chandra Athukorala; Satish Chand |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the relationship between tariff and growth in the Australian economy over the period from 1871 to 2002. The study is motivated by the debate on the apparent 'tariff-growth paradox', a sign switch in the link between tariff rate and growth between the first and second episodes of globalization in world history, established from cross-country growth regressions. The long annual time series together with the recent developments in time series econometrics allows us to establish an unambiguous and stable negative relationship between tariff rates and economic growth. It is of course not possible to generalize from a single country case, but our results do cast significant doubts on the 'tariff-growth paradox' reported in recent cross-country studies. |
| Keywords: | economic growth, tariff, Australia |
| JEL: | F14 O40 O56 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2007-08&r=his |
| By: | Chris Freeman (SPRU, University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | In the last few decades of the twentieth century, the attention paid to technical innovation in the economics and management literature and in social science generally has justified some such description as "a Schumpeterian renaissance". This article, in justifying the concept of such a renaissance, distinguishes in particular Schumpeter's work on the clustering of innovations and technological revolutions as a major contribution to contemporary theory. As always during his lifetime, the relevance of these ideas to his work on Business Cycles remains controversial but the debate on this topic has certainly enlivened the renaissance of neo-Schumpeterian economic theory and research. |
| Keywords: | innovation clusters, technological revolution, Schumpeter, business cycles |
| JEL: | E11 O30 |
| Date: | 2007–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:102&r=his |
| By: | Ricard Gil; Pablo T. Spiller |
| Abstract: | We develop a basic framework to understand the organization of highly creative activities. Management faces a fundamental tradeoff in organizing such activities. On the one hand, since creativity cannot be achieved by command and control or by monetary incentives, internal/contractual production of creative products is plagued by hazards arising from their fundamental characteristics: extremely high input, output and market uncertainty, and the inherent informational advantages of creative talent. Procuring highly creative products in the market place, though, exposes the distributor to a fundamental risk: independently produced creative goods are generic distribution-wise. Thus, in procuring creative products in the marketplace, distributors face the unavoidable winner's curse risk. Since this risk is, to a large extent, independent of the creative nature of the product, the higher the creative content, the higher the relative hazards associated with internal or contractual production. Thus, internal/contractual production of creative goods will tend to be less prevalent the higher the creative content associated with its production. We apply this insight to the evolution of the U.S. film industry in the mid-XXth century. We exploit two simultaneous natural experiments -- the diffusion of TV and the Paramount antitrust decision forcing the separation of exhibitors from distributors and prohibiting the use of block-booking. Both events increased the demand for creative content in movies. We develop empirical implications which we test by analyzing in detail the decision by distributors to produce films internally or to procure then in the market place, in the face of an increase in the demand for creative content. |
| JEL: | L22 L23 L24 L26 L82 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13253&r=his |
| By: | W. Max Corden |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a simplified overview of the causes of and policy responses to the East Asian financial crisis, focusing on the four principal countries involved, namely, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Korea. The main point is that there was a prolonged investment boom in these countries and an ending to the episode in the form of a 'hard landing' was neither inevitable nor predictable, but was set off by events in Thailand and reinforced in Indonesia’s case by political factors. There was a clear relationship between severity of the exchange rate crises and the short-term foreign borrowing that was denominated in foreign currency, usually dollars, and was unhedged. There were several policy responses, notably efforts to rescue the banks and various private corporations. Only in the Korean case was there a systematic attempt to get foreign creditors to reschedule the payments they were owed. There were some special features of each of our four countries. In particular, in Indonesia, there was an interaction of a political with an economic crisis, Malaysia did not incur significant short-term debts unlike the other three countries, while Thailand adhered too long to a fixed exchange rate. |
| Keywords: | Asian crisis, exchange rate policy, foreign capital, currency mismatch |
| JEL: | F20 F40 O53 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2007-06&r=his |
| By: | Hout, Wil |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the conditions under which the Surinamese State Oil Company (Staatsolie) has been consolidated, not only as a firm oriented at the production of oil, but also as a development agent. Staatsolie's chances to success seemed rather slim at its creation in the beginning of the 1980s, mainly because of the non-developmental, patrimonial character of Surinamese politics and the nature of Suriname's state, which has traditionally been oriented toward patronage and clientelism. The analysis documents the origins of Staatsolie and focuses on its commitment to the acquisition and further development of technological and managerial expertise. At present, Staatsolie ranks among the most successful companies in Suriname and its contributions to the economy of this small middle-income country are considerable. The success of Staatsolie's attempt to become a development agent is attributed, in particular, to the company's double strategy. The internal part of this strategy, derived from the management vision and ideological commitment of the company's leadership, was aimed at developing technological and management skills. The external part of the strategy was aimed at steering away from political influences on the company and playing out politically the formal-legal position of the firm in the petroleum sector. After 25 years of Staatsolie, it is argued that the factors that were responsible for the company's success may turn out to be the main challenges for the years ahead. |
| Keywords: | rent-seeking, oil industry, patrimonial politics, Latin America, Suriname |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iss:wpaper:444&r=his |
| By: | Tetsuji Okazaki (Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the relationship between economic development, income inequality and social stability, using the data of prewar Japan. We have made prefecture-level income inequality index, based on tax and wage statistics with respect to four data points, 1888, 1896, 1921 and 1935. Regression analyses of the prefecture-level panel data confirmed that there was an inverse-U shaped relationship between economic development and income inequality. At the same time thorough analyses of the data on thefts and suicides, we found that income inequality gave a negative impact on social stability. |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tky:fseres:2007cf500&r=his |
| By: | Frits Bos |
| Abstract: | According to the IMF and OECD, the Dutch fiscal framework is rather unique, and its design and implementation are highly recommendable. This paper describes this framework, its role in managing Dutch public expenditure, its history since 1814, the most recent national discussions and the role of the CPB. Major features of the Dutch fiscal framework are the trend-based fiscal framework with real net expenditure ceilings for the whole term of government, the role of independent organisations, like the CPB, Statistics Netherlands and the Netherlands Court of Audit, and the intermediary role of the national advisory group on budgetary principles. The framework reflects a long learning process, e.g. how to reconcile sound public finance, political pressures and the detailed requirements for managing public expenditure. There was not only progress, but also regression (e.g. the budgetary process became hectic and short-sighted in the seventies and early eighties) and old ideas becoming relevant again, e.g. taxes should be low and stable, each generation should bear its own burden and the reintroduction of cost-benefit analysis in public decision-making. |
| Keywords: | National fiscal rules and institutions; CPB, Advisory group on budgetary principles; Dutch fiscal framework; history of Dutch public finance since 1814; public expenditure; budgetary policy; expenditure ceilings; independent fiscal council; Drees jr; Duisenberg; Lieftinck; Pierson; Tinbergen; Zalm; Zijlstra |
| JEL: | B1 B2 H5 H6 N44 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:docmnt:150&r=his |
| By: | Ippei Fujiwara; Naoko Hara; Naohisa Hirakata; Takeshi Kimura; Shinichiro Watanabe (Bank of Japan (Corresponding author, e-mail: takeshi.kimura@boj.or.jp)) |
| Abstract: | Focusing on policy-making under uncertainty, we analyze the Bank of Japanfs monetary policy in the early 1990s when the bubble economy collapsed. Conducting stochastic simulations with a large-scale macroeconomic model of the Japanese economy, we find that the BOJfs monetary policy at that time was essentially optimal under uncertainty about the policy multiplier. On the other hand, we also find that the BOJfs policy was not optimal under uncertainty about inflation dynamics, and that a more aggressive policy response than actually implemented would have been needed. Thus, optimal monetary policy differs greatly depending upon which type of uncertainty is emphasized. Taking into account the fact that overcoming deflation became an important issue from the latter 1990s, it is possible to argue that during the early 1990s the BOJ should have placed greater emphasis on uncertainty about inflation dynamics and implemented a more aggressive monetary policy. The result from a counter-factual simulation indicates that the inflation rate and the real growth rate would have been higher to some extent if the BOJ had implemented a more accommodative policy during the early 1990s. However, the simulation result also suggests that the effects would have been limited, and that an accommodative monetary policy itself would not have changed the overall image of the prolonged stagnation of the Japanese economy during the 1990s. |
| Keywords: | Collapse of the Bubble Economy, Monetary Policy, Uncertainty |
| JEL: | E17 E52 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ime:imedps:07-e-09&r=his |
| By: | Panagiotopoulos, Miltiadis |
| Abstract: | The publications about the transition of French corporate governance are controversial fluctuating between proposing the integration of socioeconomic qualities, to the fragmentation of different and persistent systems by the interdependence of their attributes, or the predominance of the qualities of a single network. I demonstrate a distinctive interdisciplinary perspective which emphasizes the strong affiliation of economics and political science with financial markets and workplace relationships in the course of organizational transformation. |
| Keywords: | Institutional Complementarities; Industrial Relations; Trade Unions; Corporate Governance |
| JEL: | L2 G3 J5 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4292&r=his |
| By: | Prema-Chandra Athukorala |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the use of temporary controls on capital outflows as a crisis resolution measure my examining the outcome of Malaysia’s radical response to the 1997-98 financial crisis. The analysis suggests that carefully designed temporary capital controls were successful in providing Malaysian policy makers a viable setting for aiding the recovery process through the standard Keynesian therapy. Capital controls also assisted banking and corporate restructuring by facilitating the mobilization of domestic resources, and more importantly, by providing a cushion against possible adverse impact on market sentiment of 'national' initiatives. Of course other countries should be cautious in deriving policy lessons from Malaysia because a number of factors specific to Malaysia seem to have significantly conditioned the outcome of the capital-control based recovery package. |
| Keywords: | Asian financial crisis, Capital controls, Malaysia |
| JEL: | F32 F41 O53 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pas:papers:2007-07&r=his |
| By: | Panagiotopoulos, Miltiadis |
| Abstract: | Social partnership and collective organization are dissimilar as regards the explanation of the development of the capitalist system, on the one hand emphasizing cooperation between management and labour and on the other the contrary. I indicate that the two propositions are not real substitutes, and provided that the environmental factors are favourable, can become the component parts of a coordinated design for the revitalization of British trade unions. |
| Keywords: | Institutional Complementarities; Industrial Relations; Trade Unions; Corporate Governance |
| JEL: | L2 G3 J5 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4290&r=his |
| By: | Benoît Mojon |
| Abstract: | This paper shows how US monetary policy contributed to the drop in the volatility of US output fluctuations and to the decoupling of household investment from the business cycle. I estimate a model of household investment, an aggregate of non durable consumption and corporate sector investment, inflation and a short-term interest rate. Subsets of the models' parameters can vary along independent Markov Switching processes. ; A specific form of switches in the monetary policy regimes, i.e. changes in the size of monetary policy shocks, affect both the correlation between output components and their volatility. A regime of high volatility in monetary policy shocks, that spanned from 1970 to 1975 and from 1979 to 1984 is characterized by large monetary policy shocks contributions to GDP components and by a high correlation of household investment to the business cycle. This contrasts with the 1960's, the 1976 to 1979 period and the post 1984 era where monetary policy shocks have little impact on the fluctuations of real output. |
| Keywords: | Monetary policy ; Business cycles |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-07-07&r=his |
| By: | Elena Carletti (Center for Financial Studies, University of Frankfurt, Merton Str. 17-21, HPF 73, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany.); Philipp Hartmann (European Central Bank, DG Research, Kaiserstraße 29, 60311 Frankfurt, Germany.); Steven Ongena (Tilburg University, Department of Finance, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands.) |
| Abstract: | There is a long-standing debate about the special nature of banks. Based on a unique dataset of legislative changes in industrial countries, we identify events that strengthen competition policy, analyze their impact on banks and non-financial firms and explain the reactions observed with institutional features that distinguish banking from non-financial sectors. Covering nineteen countries for the period 1987 to 2004, we find that banks are special in that a more competition-oriented regime for merger control increases banks’ stock prices, whereas it decreases those of non-financial firms. Moreover, bank merger targets become more profitable and larger. A major determinant of the positive bank returns, after controlling inter alia for the general quality of institutions and individual bank characteristics, is the opaqueness that characterizes the institutional setup for supervisory bank merger reviews. Thus strengthening competition policy in banking may generate positive externalities in the financial system that offset unintended adverse side effects on efficiency introduced through supervisory policies focusing on prudential considerations and financial stability. Legal arrangements governing competition and supervisory control of bank mergers may therefore have important implications for real activity. JEL Classification: G21, G28, D4. |
| Keywords: | Specialness of banks, mergers and acquisitions, competition policy, legal institutions, financial regulation. |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20070786&r=his |
| By: | T.K. Jayaraman; Baljeet Singh (The University of the South Pacific, Fiji) |
| Abstract: | This paper undertakes an econometric study of the impact of FDI in Fiji during a 30-year period. In the absence of data on Fiji’s employment in FDI sectors either in aggregated form or by specific sectors, we are constrained to use data on formal sector employment as a proxy. This implies that employment in both formal and FDI related activities move in the same direction and proportion. The paper investigated the relationship between employment and foreign direct investment for Fiji through a multivariate modeling strategy by including GDP. |
| Keywords: | Foreign Direcit Investment, Employment creation, Fiji |
| JEL: | F1 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esc:wpaper:3507&r=his |
| By: | Yap, Josef T. |
| Abstract: | In response to the 1997 East Asian financial crisis many schemes were initiated to reform the international financial architecture. The proposed reforms had two wide-ranging objectives: (i) to prevent currency and banking crises and better manage them when they occur; and (ii) to support adequate provision of net private and public flows to developing countries, particularly low-income ones. Unfortunately the progress has been uneven, asymmetric, and patchy. This is largely because the structural problems related to the supply side of capital flows have not been addressed, particularly the unipolar character of the global financial system. As a result, many East Asian economies face many of the same conditions that prevailed immediately prior to the crisis: huge capital inflows heavily tilted toward hot money, rapid appreciation of currencies in real terms, surging stock prices, and little policy space to implement countercyclical measures in the event of a crisis. The difference is that many countries have accumulated a large amount of foreign exchange reserves but at the expense of domestic investment and economic growth. In order to resolve the problems that are posed by volatile capital flows it is important to accelerate East Asian cooperation and integration, particularly with regard to the objective of using regional savings for regional infrastructure projects. Political rapprochement between China and Japan is a necessary condition both to move regional cooperation and integration forward and to overhaul the unipolar global financial system. |
| Keywords: | capital flows, real effective exchange rate, international financial architecture, disaster myopia |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2007-05&r=his |
| By: | Tatom, John |
| Abstract: | China, a low income country about the same geographic size as the US and with over four times the population, has had persistent rapid growth that averaged 9.6 percent per year since reform began in 1979. On a per capita basis, real GDP is eight times larger than it was 26 years earlier! China’s population is expected to continue to slow, reaching near zero in 30 years. It has already slowed markedly due to the one-child policy from about 1.5 percent per year in the late 1970s, to about 0.6 percent in recent years. China is likely to become the US’ third largest trading partner, supplying relatively cheap and high quality machinery, apparel and other goods, and a large market where US producers can produce and/or sell their products. At the same time, private Chinese investment is likely to become an important source of saving and financing for US economic activity. Doing business with China has always been a two-way street and that street is beginning to widen to include significant flows of entrepreneurial and financial resources in both directions. |
| Keywords: | China; growth; financial regulation; demographics |
| JEL: | O5 E6 |
| Date: | 2007–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:4265&r=his |
| By: | Carriquiry, Miguel A. |
| Abstract: | Worldwide production of biodiesel is growing at a rapid pace. Arguably, the European Union (EU) is the global leader in biodiesel production, but the United States has recently expanded its production. The growth of the biodiesel industry in both regions has been fueled by a series of government-provided financial incentives. However, the timing of the growth and incentive provisions, the nature of the main incentives, and the market conditions differ across regions. This article provides a comparative analysis of the EU and U.S. biodiesel industries, highlighting market and policy aspects that are leading to a rapid but distinct growth. |
| Keywords: | biodiesel, biodiesel industry, biodiesel quality, biofuels, energy security, rapeseed oil, rapeseed methyl ester, soybean oil, soydiesel, ultra low sulfur diesel. |
| Date: | 2007–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12835&r=his |
| By: | Mariana Llanos (GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies); Constanza Figueroa Schibber (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) |
| Abstract: | Este trabajo intenta evaluar en qué medida el Senado argentino cumplió su papel consti-tucional de contralor del Poder Ejecutivo en torno a los nombramientos del poder judicial entre 1983 y 2007, como también los factores que afectaron el cumplimiento de este rol. Para ello, se analiza el trámite parlamentario de los pliegos girados por el Ejecutivo para el nombramiento de todos los jueces federales, los pertenecientes a la llamada “Justicia Na-cional” de la Capital Federal y los miembros del Ministerio Público. A partir de los mis-mos se concluye que los poderes del Senado dependen de varios factores, a saber, los re-cursos institucionales de los presidentes al interior de esta cámara (medidos no sólo a par-tir de las mayorías legislativas sino también de su poder en la Comisión de Acuerdos), la categoría del cargo a ser ocupado (si se trata de miembros de la Corte Suprema o de otros tribunales), las ambiciones presidenciales en otras áreas de política (como la reelección al cargo) y las reglas que regulan la selección y confirmación de candidatos (como el secreto o la publicidad del trámite legislativo). |
| Keywords: | Judicial appointments, presidential nominations, senatorial confirmations, Ar-gentine Supreme Court, Argentine lower courts |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gig:wpaper:54&r=his |