Organized by:
International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)
http://www.networkideas.org
Supported by: The United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Venue: Quality Inn MGM
Beach Resorts, 1/74 East Coast Road, Muttukadu, Kanchipuram
District, Tamil Nadu 603112, India (near Chennai).
IDEAs organised a workshop on "Macro Economic
Constraints and Policy Alternatives in Developing
Countries"
at
Muttukadu, Chennai, India from 23rd
January to 26th
January, 2006. The workshop was based on a heterodox
perspective consisting of a series of lectures followed
by open discussions on the impact of international
trade and financial liberalization on macroeconomic
policies at country levels, especially in the developing
world. The lectures included both theoretical as well
as empirical analyses of the resultant situations
in developing economies and explored alternative future
policy paradigms for resolving macroeconomic crises
posed by the forces of liberalization. The programme
covered impact on specific sectors and used case studies
to illustrate and analyse the current scenario.
The
workshop venue had over 30 trainees (either completed
their PhD or at the verge of completing it) from South
Asia, Africa, Latin America and South East Asia.
The participants were provided full funding for travel
along with complete boarding and lodging to attend
the workshop. While screening the applicants, special
emphasis was given to those from the low income developing
countries and they were also given preferential treatment
with regard to funds. The total work time of
the workshop was 24 hours over a period of four days.
The
trainees were given lectures with discussion on the
following topics:
- Macroeconomic
Implications of Global Imbalance by
Professor C.P. Chandrasekhar,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
- Macroeconomic
Analysis when Holding Gains are Properly Identified
by Dr.
Alex Izurieta,
Research Fellow, Cambridge Endowment for Research
in Finance, Judge Business School, University of
Cambridge, London.
-
International Economic Integration
and Employment Patterns by
Professor Jayati Ghosh,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
- Managing
International Capital Flows by
Dr. Yilmaz Akyuz,
former Director of Division on Globalization and
Development Strategies, UNCTAD.
- Determinants
of Neo-liberal Financial Globalization by
Professor
Erinc Yeldan,
Department of Economics, Bilkent University, Turkey.
- Some
Contradictions in the World Economy by
Professor Prabhat Patnaik,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
- Economic
Reforms in China by Cui Zhiyuan, School of Public
Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing.
- Changes
in the Distribution of Income over the Last Two
Decades:extent, sources and possible causes by
Professor Giovanni Andrea Cornia,
University of Florence, Florence.
Professor C.P. Chandrasekhar
lectured on the high current account deficit
faced by the United States for the last one and a
half decade and the serious implications it had has
on the global macroeconomic imbalances. He concluded
that the specific trade-related factors cannot explain
either the magnitude of the U.S. current account imbalance
or its recent sharp rise. Rather, the U.S. trade balance
has been passively determined by foreign and domestic
incomes, asset prices, interest rates, and exchange
rates, which are themselves the products of more fundamental
driving forces. Dr. Alex Izurieta also showed great
concern for the high US Current account deficit. He
argued that the present US economy relies largely
on large capital inflows, but the concentration of
investment in the highest-income regions of the world
is socially damaging, destabilizing and prejudicial
to the effective development of resources in the world
as a whole. He concluded that the US deficit can be
contained in a less damaging manner only if the rest
of the world contains its own surpluses and boosts
investment in other regions. A couple of things in
his lecture attracted the trainees: a) the introduction
of the concept of holding gains and b) the running
of iteration programmes to explain how simple they
were.
Professor Jayati Ghosh
gave a very stimulating lecture on the aspect of trade
not being able to generate employment in the economy.
Her lecture was a perfect blend of immense empirical
research and profound theoretical concepts. She brought
some gender perspectives into the macroeconomic issues
arguing that women continue to be disproportionately
engaged in low-wage, low-productivity and part-time
jobs. Professor Yilmaz Akyuz
took up quite a different topic in his lecture regarding
management of capital inflows, especially arguing
the serious effects that capital inflows have on the
developing world. He emphasized that in the current
political environment, the maximal feasible strategy
for developing countries in their search for greater
financial stability would be to try to combine national
control over capital flows with some internationally-agreed
arrangements for debt standstills and lending into
arrears, while strengthening their financial systems
through better standards, and effective prudential
regulations and supervision.
Professor E. Yeldan spoke
about the changing global scenario with the aggressive
infiltration of the ideas of neo-liberal economics,
which led to an undermining of the development through
state interventions. He drew an alternative policy
framework as elements of a more socially relevant
programme, where he emphasised that domestic development
objectives have to be elevated over the strategic
interests of finance capital. Professor Prabhat Patnaik
strengthened the ideas on the concern over the US
current account deficit, previously put forward by
Prof. C.P. Chandrasekhar and Dr.
Alex Izurieta, and also provided a sound theoretical
analysis of the issue. His lecture became quite intersting
and special in a way that his arguments were based
on the historical and political events of the globe
and the effects it has on the development prospects
of the third world.
The lecture of Professor Chui
Zhuiyan anchored around the development process
of China and provided a detailed case-study of the
Chinese economy. The lecture even provided a comparative
study of the Indo-Chinese economy, which in the recent
period has drawn a lot of attention in the media,
as well as the academia. He enlightened the trainees
when he proposed a new concept of Beijing Consensus,
in opposition to the Washington consensus, based on
innovation (or experiment), equity and asymmetric
defense strategy. In Professor
A.G. Cornia's lecture, he elaborately discussed
the significance of inequality in the global economy
and empirically established the fact that especially
in the policy regime of liberalization and globalization,
this inequality tends to rise across and within the
borders. This discussion assumed huge importance since,
in the recent periods, policy makers neglect inequality
as a policy issue.
In an effort to improve its future performances, IDEAs
requested the participants to fill up a questionnaire
(feedback forms), which detailed the performance of
each lecturer and in the end to provide some valuable
suggestions. In their response, some participants
suggested that a greater stress on differences in
the development experiences of the different countries,
for instance a greater stress on the unfolding of
the development process in Africa as distinct from
that of Asia would have been more useful. It was felt
that Africa was somewhat under represented in the
discussions and country studies. Overall, the participants
were quite satisfied with the way the workshop was
unfolded and agreed that it was a good learning experience
for them.
February 7, 2006.
|