The countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States have opened up their economies to the world economy as a step towards a profound transformation from plan to market. Some have fully integrated into the European market while others have not. This book focuses on the challenges economies face when in transition.
This volume brings together new contributions from renowned academic scholars, from experts on economies in transition and from the United Nations, the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as other international agencies. It aims to answer fundamental questions and spell out policy options to address the challenges for economies in transition. The volume includes comparative studies focusing on all transition economies, including Central and Eastern Europe, as well as regions such as Western Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
"This volume brings together new contributions from renowned academic scholars, from experts on economies in transition and from the United Nations, the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as other international agencies. It aims to answer fundamental questions and spell out policy options to address the challenges for economies in transition. The volume includes comparative studies focusing on all transition economies, including Central and Eastern Europe, as well as regions such as Western Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States."--Publisher's description.
Substantial progress in the fight against extreme poverty was made in the last two decades. But the slowdown in global economic growth and significant increases in income inequality in many developed and developing countries raise serious concerns about the continuation of this trend into the 21st century. The time has come to seriously think about how improvements in official global governance, coupled with and reinforced by rising activism of 'global citizens' can lead to welfare-enhancing and more equitable results for global citizens through better national and international policies. This book examines the factors that are most likely to facilitate the process of beneficial economic growth in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. It examines past, present, and future economic growth; demographic changes; the hyperglobalization of trade; the effect of finance on growth; climate change and resource depletion; and the sense of global citizenship and the need for global governance in order to draw longer-term implications, identify policy options for improving the lives of average citizens around the world, and make the case for the need to confront new challenges with truly global policy responses. The book documents how demographic changes, convergence, and competition are likely to bring about massive shifts in the sectoral and geographical composition of global output and employment, as the center of gravity of the global economy moves toward Asia and emerging economies elsewhere. It shows that the legacies of the 2008-09 crisis-high unemployment levels, massive excess capacities, and high debt levels-are likely to reduce the standard of living of millions of people in many countries over a long period of adjustment and that fluctuations in international trade, financial markets, and commodity prices, as well as the tendency of institutions at both the national and international level to favor the interests of the better-off and more powerful pose substantial risks for citizens of all countries. The chapters and their policy implications are intended to stimulate public interest and facilitate the exchange of ideas and policy dialogue.
Abstract: June 1999 - Do globalization and national development reinforce each other? Are they mutually compatible? What opportunities for national development does globalization open? What problems does it pose? What is the proper balance between national, regional, and global responses to the challenges posed by globalization? Globalization offers developing countries the opportunities to create wealth through export-led growth, to expand international trade in goods and services, and to gain access to new ideas, technologies, and institutional designs. But globalization also entails problems and tensions that must be appropriately managed. For one thing, global business cycles can contribute greatly to macroeconomic volatility at the national level. The scope and severity of crises in Mexico (1994-95), Asia (1997), Russia (1998), and Brazil (1999) suggests the severity of the financial vulnerability developing countries face nowadays. With financial markets so highly integrated, problems are transmitted rapidly from one country to another. The rapid transmission of financial shocks changes levels of confidence and affects exchange rates, interest rates, asset prices, and, ultimately, output and employment-with consequent social effects. Policymakers should also be concerned about how globalization exacerbates job instability and income disparities both within and across countries. Macroeconomic and financial crises, by increasing poverty and social tensions, can be political destabilizing. As the 20th century ends, the resources of Bretton Woods institutions are strained because of the large and complex rescue packages needed to deal with large-scale volatility. Development policy agendas in the era of globalization need to articulate traditional concerns with growth, stability, and social equity with new themes such as transparency and good governance at several levels: national, regional, and global. This paper-a product of the Country Management Unit, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela-is part of a larger effort in the region to understand the links between globalization and national development. The author may be contacted at [email protected].
"In the US, in Europe, and throughout the world, globalization, in tandem with technological progress, has left a massive number of people behind, feeling dispossessed, disenfranchised, and angry. Leading the charge of "hyperglobalization" during the second half of the last century, and enforcing the Western framework of austerity in the developing world has been the International Monetary Fund. Along with the World Bank and WTO, many consider the IMF one of the most consequential institutions to have pushed the world economy blindly towards excessive globalization, while not adequately considering its powerful negative consequences. In October 2017, however, the IMF convened with some of the world's most celebrated economists and experts on trade and globalization to have an honest discussion on the most pressing concerns the world faces today as a result of globalization, and how to address the extensive challenges it has created. Edited by chief economist Maurice Obstfeld and senior economist Luis Catao of the IMF, the book brings together a team of respected senior economists with the most promising younger scholars to address five major themes: how globalization affects economic growth and social welfare; potential political implications of an honest discussion of globalization, and that "free trade may not be politically viable"; free trade's role in global inequality; how workers adjust or not when they're dislocated by globalization; and how trade policy influences the way countries develop their economies and societies. The book could represent a historic milestone at which the world's top economists and policymakers have an unprecedented, honest debate about the real costs and consequences of globalization"--
The growth paradigm or the economic growth generally been presented as a positive, limitless and good for social problems. The term was hardly touched in pre-capitalism by any academic research. With the rise of capitalism and industrial revolution it became an important tool to measure production quantitatively and qualitatively. Industrialisation also encouraged the expansion of trade and gradual breakdown of the pre-capitalist order in 18th century in Britain. The spread of market had facilitated the specialisation, encouraging division of labour. Whilst for The Classical Political Economists; Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus; economic growth is self-reinforcing. Marx pointed out importance of forces and relations of production and significance of social classes within it (Marx, 1863). Smith, Ricardo and Malthus were writing at a time when capitalist development was expanding fast and growth was a central in the process. The gradual impact of the West on the rest of world became part of a wider process of change in the World Economy. European capital increased its domination of the world trade through expansionist commercial policies (Wallerstein, 1979). The economic growth encouraged commerce. The necessity to export, and other technological changes formed part of the reason for the decline of feudalism. This transition from feudalism to capitalism began in the West and soon made an impact on the rest of the World. T Farhang Morady, Hakan Kapucu, Ömer Yalçınkaya (Development & Growth: Economic Impacts of Globalization) 12 In 1932 Simon Kuznets, the US economist identified Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to measure the national output of a country within a period. It has continued to be an important indicator to measure economic growth, but it has also been under considerable criticisms. For example; GDP treats resources as income without excluding depletion or depression of the resources. Moreover, GDP has been criticised for disregarding income distribution. Despite all the criticism, GDP has been the most significant indicator of growth and development. With the Post War-II reconstruction of devastated countries and in order to kick-start the World Economy, the state in both developed and developing counties became the important agency to facilitate economic growth. The establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions, the Keynesian model of government intervention and the US implementation of “New Deal” facilitated growth. This was deliberate strategy to reconstruct and create networks of international cooperation. This was pointed out by President Truman in 1949: A program of development based on the concepts of democratic fair-dealing. All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from a constructive program for the better use of the World's human and natural resources (Truman, 1949). This meant the reinforcement and need to distribute the 'Benefits' of capitalist form of development, more widely, against the planned economy sustained by the Soviet Union. The economist such as Joseph Schumpeter pointed to the possibility that capitalist growth, if it is sustained, could abolish poverty (Schumpeter, 1954, pp66-68). Whilst development meant rapid industrialisation, GDP became a key policy objective for the policy makers and governments around the world, not just in the Soviet Union but the Western Capitalist World, to set targets for their Growth Rate. The end of the Cold War in the 1980s, for some, meant triumph of Neoliberal Capitalism. The others talked of trade liberalization; free movement of capital and the development of information technology, facilitating the relocation of businesses across the world. (Ohmae, 1995). Friedman suggested that globalization is the Inevitable; Integration of markets, nation-states and technologies ... enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states, to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before (Friedman, 1999). Development & Growth: Economic Impact of Globalization (Edited by: Farhang Morady, Hakan Kapucu, Ömer Yalçınkaya) 13 Francis Fukuyama (1992) suggested the new era as ‘The End of History’ through which the ‘Liberal Idea’ triumphed, leading to a new global hegemony. For Fukuyama the only route to modernity, growth and development is the Neo-liberal Democratic path under Global Capitalism. This optimism was not shared by all academics, as Globalization produced poor growth and polarization of wealth: what Collier terms the ‘Bottom one Billion’ (2008). As a result, there has been major criticism of the World Bank and the International Monetary Funds in the second half of the 1990s, especially with the Asian financial and economic crises. The response from these institutions has been vigorous. They continued to believe that liberalization, deregulation, and privatization represent the best way forward for growth and development. With 2008 world recession the World Economy has faced a new challenge. The emergence of powerful economies such as; China, India and Brazil; helped the world economy to grow, at least for now. However, the unevenness of the world economy continues to cause difficulties especially the US as they feeling the threat of their competitors such as China, Germany and even India. The victory of Donald Trump as the S President has represented an ideological shift from free trade advocator of global capitalism to a mixture of right-wing populism. Before and after the presidential election, he called for the revival of the American economy, which has been under considerable pressure since 2008 World Recession. In order to prove growth rate Trump has a huge challenge ahead, not least to deal with the competition from South East Asian economies, especially China. It remains to be seen whether the new US administration will continue with their populist rhetoric In this book, “Economic Impacts of Globalization: Growth & Development”, several academicians provide different analysis of economic growth and economic development. The scientific ethics and responsibility of the works in the book belong to the authors / writers. The book compromises of 15 chapters focusing on economic growth and economic development in the era of globalisation. By taking different angles, they demonstrate different problems and solutions.
Critics of globalization claim that economic integration drains political authority from states: devolving authority to newly empowered regions, delegating it to supranational organizations, and transferring it to multinational firms and nongovernmental organizations. Globalization is also attacked for forcing convergence of state institutions and policies and threatening the ability of societies to chart their own democratically determined courses. In Governance in a Global Economy, Miles Kahler and David Lake assemble the contributions of seventeen leading scholars who have systematically investigated how global economic integration produces changes of governance. These authors conclude that globalization has created a new and intricate fabric of governance, but one that fails to match the stark portrait of beleaguered states. Exploring changes in governance across several policy areas (such as tourism, trade, finance, and fiscal and monetary policy), the authors demonstrate that globalization changes the policy preferences of some actors, increases the bargaining power of others, and opens new institutional options for yet others. By reintroducing agency and choice into our understanding of globalization, this book provides important new insights into the complex and contingent effects of globalization on political authority and governance. The introduction and the conclusion are by the editors; the contributors are James A. Caporaso, Benjamin J. Cohen, Barry Eichengreen, Zachary Elkins, Geoffrey Garrett, Peter Gourevitch, Virginia Haufler, Michael J. Hiscox, Robert O. Keohane, Lisa L. Martin, Walter Mattli, Kathleen R. McNamara, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Jonathan Rodden, Ronald Rogowski, Beth A. Simmons, and Peter Van Houten.
Global policy making is taking shape in a wide range of public sector activities managed by transnational policy communities. Public policy scholars have long recognised the impact of globalisation on the industrialised knowledge economies of OECD states, as well as on social and economic policy challenges faced by developing and transition states. But the focus has been on domestic politics and policy. Today, policy studies literature is building new concepts of 'transnational public-private partnership', 'trans-governmentalism' and 'science diplomacy' to account for rapid growth of global policy networks and informal international organisations delivering public goods and services. This Element goes beyond traditional texts which focus on public policy as an activity of states to outline how global policy making has driven many global and regional transformations over the past quarter-century. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.
