networkideas.org - International Development Economics Associates

The Current Global Financial Turmoil and Asian Developing Countries

Yilmaz Akyüz

The resilience of emerging markets to direct and indirect shocks from the current financial crisis in the US will play an important role in determining global growth and stability in the near future, since much of it has been due to expansion in these economies, notably in Asia. This paper explores the extent to which growth and stability in Asian emerging markets can be decoupled and this the paper argues crucially depends on prevailing domestic economic conditions as well as the policy response to possible shocks from the crisis.

Consumers and Demand

Ben Fine

This paper discusses the limitations of the theory of the consumer, and of demand, which lies at the heart of mainstream economics. This paper seeks to explain why consumer theory evolved like this and, despite its narrowness and deficiencies, has expanded its scope of application both within economics and across other social sciences. The paper finally offers a broad sketch of an alternative approach to consumer theory, one that draws upon political economy that is necessarily interdisciplinary. The final section discusses some of the wider implications of developments in and around consumer theory for the nature and prospects of economics as a discipline.

The Accumulation Process in the Period of Globalization

Prabhat Patnaik

This paper, based on a lecture given in memory of D. D. Kosambi, discusses the current global crises in terms of rising inflation and food shortages, and argues that this situation reflects the inherent nature of capitalism which engages in accumulation through both expansion and encroachment. This squeezes out peasant agriculture and all petty producers, and ultimately leads to a supply constraint on goods produced by these groups. Under the current context of capitalism, these forces are creating a crisis for mankind.

The Global Food Crisis

Jayati Ghosh

The recent food shortages and rapidly rising prices of food have adversely affected billions of people, especially the poor in the developing world. This is very much a man-made crisis, resulting from the market-oriented and liberalising policies adopted by choice or compulsion in almost all countries, which have either neglected agriculture or allowed shifts in global prices to determine both cropping patterns and the viability of farming, and also generated greater possibilities of speculative activity in food items. This article discusses the features, causes of the current crisis and indicates an alternative policy framework for redressal.

Using Minsky's Cushions of Safety to Analyse the Crisis in the U.S. Subprime Mortgage Market
Jan Kregal
                                           IDEAs Working Paper no. 04/2008

Regional Trade Agreements and Improved Market Access in Developed Countries: A Reality Check and Possible Policy Alternatives
Parthpratim Pal
                                           IDEAs Working Paper no. 03/2008

Inflation Targeting: Issues and Alternatives

This is a set of papers which covers theoretical and empirical research on the issue of inflation targeting. The papers specifically cover various outcomes of inflation targeting as well the controversies, exploring alternative approaches, methodologies and solutions. While the impact on employment remains a primary concern of the papers, other specific issues which have been covered are; employment costs of inflation reduction in developing countries from a gender perspective, looking at the nature of inflation targeting from a class based social perspective, a comparison of inflation targeting and real exchange rate targeting in affecting economic growth and employment. In addition, country specific studies on the impact of inflation targeting and alternatives in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, India, Vietnam, and Philippines are included.

Bank of the South & ALBA: Regional Integration within
the South as an Alternative to the North based Global Hegemony?

South Bank: 90 Days of Silence
Gabriel Strautman

The initiative aimed at the creation of a South American multilateral financial institution or the South Bank as part of an effort to building a new regional financial architecture has run into trouble as consensus on the role of the new institution was never reached among South Bank member countries. The focal points of conflict are related to the composition of capital and the decision-making system of the new institution, which at the same time will be crucial to decide on the Bank's finance goals – maybe the main reason for disagreement among partners.
South Bank: A People's Perspective of Integration

This article on the new initiative from South America, the Bank of the South, articulates the position of ‘Jubilee South' on this issue. It describes the nature of the South Bank, its goals, functioning and finally, its importance in the context of providing an alternative platform for south based economic development that is democratic, participatory, and economically, socially, and environmentally just.

The IMF's Policy Support Instrument:Expanded Fiscal Space or Continued Belt-Tightening?

Action Aid Policy Brief, October, 2007

This Action Aid Policy Brief discusses whether, after two and a half years of 'the Policy Support Instrument (PSI)', there is any evidence that the IMF has used its signaling power to support the 'mature stabilisers' to move from perpetual belt-tightening to long term development and growth. The paper reviews all five PSI agreements that have so far been signed and looked in detail at two of them, in Uganda and Mozambique. The paper finds that PSIs often recommend even stricter inflation targets than their predecessors, despite the progress the IMF has acknowledged, and despite the substantial concern that low inflation targets are inhibiting growth and development.

Turkey and the Long Decade with the IMF: 1998-2008

A. Erinc Yeldan

This article provides a critical review of Turkey’s engagement with the IMF over the past decade which ended recently. It argues that the end of the stand by in May 2008 signifies neither autonomy from the IMF nor a successful graduation and a completion of the IMF programme. Present Turkey is characterized by high debt, speculative growth environment with jobless patterns with its government institutions under siege.

Fear of Foreigners

Jayati Ghosh

There has been a significant increase in immigration into Italy in the past decade and a half, a significant proportion of which is still “illegal”. The reasons for this rise have been demographics, institutional factors as well as government policy. But recently, in a clear reversal from the past, the attitude towards illegal immigration has hardened in the country, with some of it targeted especially against developing country immigrants.

Small Farmers and the Doha Round: Lessons from Mexico's NAFTA Experience

Mritiunjoy Mohanty

This policy brief has been written in the context of the demand of developing countries, including India, in the on-going Doha round of WTO negotiations for policy space within which the livelihood security of their small and marginal farmers can be protected. It uses Mexican agriculture’s integration experience under NAFTA to establish that developing country demands are justified. Finally it suggests an alternative agricultural modernisation model centered on small and marginal farmers and maximisation of employment growth.

Debt Relief as if Justice Mattered

David Woodward

This report is the last in a series from New Economics Foundation designed to stimulate progress towards a comprehensive and fair treatment of the crisis of sovereign debt. With the end of an unprecedented period of low interest rates now in sight, such a goal is needed more than ever. We incluse a short summary of this paper in section.

Is NAMA a Tool of Development? or Another Manifestation of Asymmetries in WTO Rules?

Mehdi Shafaeddin

This brief argues that the collapse of the talks in the Doha Round actually arises because of fundamental reasons related to the contradictions in design and implementation of WTO rules. There are also inconsistencies between the agreed Doha Text and the subsequent proposals made by developed countries during the process of negotiations. This article concentrates on the issues related to NAMA (non-agricultural market access) as an example.

An Insider View from George Soros

C.P. Chandrasekhar

Among some of the voices which are calling for more attention to the nature of the current US financial crisis and for a more disinterested view of the need for state intervention, an influencial one is that of George Soros. His book "The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crash of 2008 and What it Means", being released in May, challenges the prevailing sanguine view on the intensity and implications of the crisis.

The Empire Strikes Back?

Jayati Ghosh

The vicious series of attacks on China against the backdrop of the Beijing Olympics 2008 actually reflects the discomfort of many countries, the developed foremost among them, with China’s status as the emerging economic super power, strengthened by its sheer size in terms of market and labour force, its stable polity and rapidly growing infrastructure.

Best viewed on Internet Explorer 6 & Netscape Navigator 6 and above