Jomo Kwame Sundaram is assistant secretary general for economic development at the United Nations and research coordinator for the G24 Intergovernmental Group on International Monetary Affairs and Development. In 2007 he was awarded the Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. --Book Jacket.
This volume examines the impact on economic performance of structural policies-policies that increase the role of market forces and competition in the economy, while maintaining appropriate regulatory frameworks. The results reflect a new dataset covering reforms of domestic product markets, international trade, the domestic financial sector, and the external capital account, in 91 developed and developing countries. Among the key results of this study, the authors find that real and financial reforms (and, in particular, domestic financial liberalization, trade liberalization, and agricultural liberalization) boost income growth. However, growth effects differ significantly across alternative reform sequencing strategies: a trade-before-capital-account strategy achieves better outcomes than the reverse, or even than a "big bang"; also, liberalizing the domestic financial sector together with the external capital account is growth-enhancing, provided the economy is relatively open to international trade. Finally, relatively liberalized domestic financial sectors enhance the economy's resilience, reducing output costs from adverse terms-of-trade and interest-rate shocks; increased credit availability is one of the key mechanisms.
Ten original essays examine the political and institutional factors that influence the initiation and efficiency of preferential credit policies in Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Chile, Mexico, and Brazil.
The provision of legal technical assistance has in recent years become a major concern for international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, and for Western-based bilateral donor agencies. This book offers critical perspectives for the evaluation of legal technical assistance projects and contains proposals for action and research. Five chapters offer general perspectives on law, state and civil society and the remaining six case studies on themes such as economic regulation, agrarian reform, representation of women and access to justice.
For the large number of developing countries undergoing significant structural transformations, one of the most important and controversial adjustment areas is that of the financial markets. Focusing on the role of the institutional and enabling environment within which financial reform occurs and on the integration of principles of finance with more macroeconomic approaches to the subject, the book contains case studies of reform experiences in Argentina, India, Nigeria, Turkey and Uruguay. Themes studied include the 'go slow' versus 'big bang' approach and the particular problem of bank-firm inter-linkages in Eastern Europe.
This book collects ten complementary essays on different aspects of financial sector policy for developing and transitional economies. The essays, by leading theoreticians and practitioners, draw on the history and experience of financial sector policy reforms to derive lessons for the future. The collection is carefully chosen to cover the major contemporary issues, including both crisis avoidance and institution-building. The increasing importance of non-bank finance and of international linkages (including dollarization) for small economies are given special attention.
Developing countries commonly adopt reforms to improve their governments yet they usually fail to produce more functional and effective governments. Andrews argues that reforms often fail to make governments better because they are introduced as signals to gain short-term support. These signals introduce unrealistic best practices that do not fit developing country contexts and are not considered relevant by implementing agents. The result is a set of new forms that do not function. However, there are realistic solutions emerging from institutional reforms in some developing countries. Lessons from these experiences suggest that reform limits, although challenging to adopt, can be overcome by focusing change on problem solving through an incremental process that involves multiple agents.
The book critically examines some of the most topical and challenging issues confronting the public sector in developing countries in an era of globalization. The contributors examine the potential and limits of managerial, fiscal and decentralization reforms and highlight cases where selective use of some of the new management reforms has delivered positive results. Looking into the future, the book provides lessons from the experience of implementing public sector reforms in developing countries.
China's prospects of successfully completing the transition to a market economy and becoming the world's largest economy during the 21st Century depend on the future sustainability of high rates of economic growth. This book is a comprehensive, balanced and realistic assessment of China's financial reform program and future direction. Covering not only the banking sector but also non-bank financial institutions, stock market development and external financial liberalization, the authors examine the impact of financial reform on economic development in China during the reform period. This volume will facilitate a more accurate assessment of the Chinese approach to financial reform, and will therefore allow more informed future policy choices for both China and other developing and transitional countries.
"Anne O. Krueger has assembled and deftly summarized an excellent set of papers on the major issues in economic reform in developing countries at the turn of the century."--Stanley Fischer, International Monetary Fund The papers and commentary collected in this volume discuss vital contemporary thinking on economic policy reform--in particular, the difficulties that leave so much of the world mired in poverty. Distinguished contributors address issues ranging from education and privatization to exchange rates and telecommunications reform, providing an excellent overview of the current situation and the possible paths into the future.
