Industrial competitiveness in Brazil ten years after economic liberalization

Includes bibliography

Urban transport in the era of economic liberalization

In that decade, a different solution was required, because the Latin American economies, with only a few exceptions, were already regulated, protected and supervised by the State. One notable exception was the Chilean economy, which, at the onset of the 1970s, had been among the most controlled economies in the region after Cuba. Beginning in 1976/1977, Chile's economy underwent profound restructuring with the adoption of neoliberal policies, involving a reduction in customs tariffs, a decrease in State subsidies, the first steps towards the privatization of state-owned enterprises and a loosening of controls both over prices and production processes in general. The Chilean experience initially gave good results, but in 1982 Chile fell into a deep recession, caused to some extent by the continued fixing of one of the most important prices, that of the Chilean peso on the foreign exchange market, together with inadequate regulation of the banking sector.

Running Hot and Cold: Economic Liberalization and Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America by Sector

This article examines the effects of market–oriented economic reforms on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Latin America from 1985 to 2006. In contrast with most existing scholarship, we disaggregate FDI into its destination in the primary resource, manufacturing, and service sectors allowing us to determine that different kinds of investments exhibit distinct behavior. Notably, manufacturing FDI appears to be erratic; previous investment is not a predictor of current investment. FDI across sectors is associated with varying policy environments, with service and primary resource investment attracted to hosts with policies associated with more stable economic and political contexts. Overall, manufacturing FDI appears to function more like “hot” portfolio investment and is less likely to provide some of the positive spillover effects thought to be associated with more permanent FDI. These findings have an array of implications for economic, development, and industrial policies throughout Latin America and the developing world.

Entrepreneurship and Economic Liberalization in the OECD Countries

Entrepreneurship displays remarkable differences across countries because of diverse factors. In this sense, it is frequently argued that economic liberalization encourages entrepreneurship. In this paper we address the extent to which economic freedom, understood as market economy oriented institutions and policies, matters for entrepreneurial activity through a panel data analysis for 78 countries during the period 2001-2012. We examine the relationship between the Fraser Institute’s economic freedom index and its five areas, and three entrepreneurial activity indicators from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, namely total entrepreneurial activity, necessity entrepreneurship and opportunity entrepreneurship. Economic freedom seems to increase opportunity entrepreneurship and decrease necessity entrepreneurship. Focusing on the OECD countries, we highlight that economic freedom is positively associated with entrepreneurship. In terms of entrepreneurship motivation, we find that a more flexible regulation of credit, labor and business, as well as entrepreneurial attitudes, may contribute to enhance opportunity entrepreneurship

Examinig the roloe of economic liberalization in entrepeneurship: a cross-country study

In the last few decades some authors have underlined the role of institutions and policies for entrepreneurship. North (1990) underlines that entrepreneurs are the main agents of change and that organizations, such as firms set up by entrepreneurs, adapt their activities and strategies to fit the opportunities and limitations provided through formal and informal institutional frameworks. Baumol (1990) hypothesizes that entrepreneurial individuals channel their efforts in different directions depending on the quality of prevailing economic, political, and legal institutions. Sobel (2008) asserts that better institutions have both more productive entrepreneurship and also less unproductive entrepreneurship. He stresses that the best path to foster entrepreneurship is through institutional reforms that constrain or minimize the role of government. In this context, economic freedom may be seen as a significant aspect for entrepreneurial activity and it is frequently argued that economic liberalization encourages entrepreneurship. In this paper we address the extent to which economic freedom, understood as market economy oriented institutions and policies, matters for entrepreneurial activity

Globalization, economic freedom, and human rights

Using the KOF Index of Globalization and two indices of economic freedom, the authors empirically analyze whether globalization and economic liberalization affect governments’ respect for human rights in a panel of 106 countries over the 1981–2004 period. According to their results, physical integrity rights significantly and robustly increase with globalization and economic freedom, while empowerment rights are not robustly affected. Due to the lack of consensus about the appropriate level of empowerment rights as compared to the outright rejection of any violation of physical integrity rights, the global community is presumably less effective in promoting empowerment rights.

Foreign investment in Mexico after economic reform

Includes bibliography

The importance of the manufacturing sector for Brazilian economic development

Includes bibliography

Ways to Liberalization: A report on an ongoing research project

The talk presents the theoretical approach, the design of the data collection and some preliminary results of an ongoing research project on economic liberalization in mature democracies. Starting from findings of an analysis of austerity policies, I show that there is hardly the choice to avoid liberalization, but there are several ways of liberalization. Negotiated liberalization is feasible if problem pressures are low and actors have incentives to negotiate. These incentives are outcomes of politico-institutional configurations.

The Sheepskin Marketing Channel in Ethiopia after Liberalization: The Survival Strategies of the Participants

Sheepskin market in Ethiopia seems to enjoy the benefits of the economic liberalization policy since 1991, such as price deregulation or liberalization of economic activities. The close observation on the profiles and activities of each actor in the marketing channel, however, illustrates that the actors have tried to complement the lack of appropriate infrastructure and legal protection, which should be provided by the government, through utilizing their social and blood ties. While these ties have implemented the role of the government, there are risks that the marketing channel might be developed based on coalition with social network and the poor without the network would be excluded.

Post-Crisis Economic Reform in Indonesia:Policy for Intervening in Ownership in Historical Perspective

Introduction : Economic reform in Indonesia after the Asian currency crisis is often discussed in parallel with Thailand and South Korea, which were alike hit by the crisis. It should however be noted that what happened in Indonesia was a change of political regime from authoritarianism to democracy, not just a change of government as seen in Thailand and South Korea. Indonesia’s post-crisis reform should be understood in the context of dismantling of the Soeharto regime to seek a new democratic state system. 　　　In the political sphere, dramatic institutional changes have occurred since the downfall of the Soeharto government in May 1998. In comparison, changes in the economic sphere are more complex than the political changes, as the former involve at least three aspects. The first is the continuity in the basic framework of capitalist system with policy orientation toward economic liberalization. In this framework, the policies to overcome the crisis are continued from the last period of the Soeharto rule, under the support system of IMF and CGI (Consultative Group on Indonesia). The second aspect is the impact of the political regime change on the economic structure. It is considered that the structure of economic vested interests of the Soeharto regime is being disintegrated as the regime breaks down. The third aspect is the impact of the political regime change on economic policy-making process. The process of formulating and implementing policies has changed drastically from the Soeharto time. With these three aspects simultaneously at work, it is not so easy to identify which of them is the main cause for a given specific economic phenomenon emerging in Indonesia today. 　　　Keeping this difficulty in mind, this paper attempts to situate the post-crisis economic reform in the broader context of the historical development of Indonesian economic policies and their achievements. We focus in particular on the reform policies for banking and corporate sectors and resulting structural changes in these sectors. This paper aims at understanding the significance of the changes in the economic ownership structure that are occurring in the post-Soeharto Indonesia. Economic policies here do not mean macro economic policies, such as fiscal, financial and trade policies, but refer to micro economic policies whereby the government intervenes in the economic ownership structure. In Section 1, we clarify why economic policies for intervening in the ownership structure are important in understanding Indonesia. Section 2 follows the historical development of Indonesia’s economic policies as specified above, throughout the four successive periods since Indonesia’s independence, namely, the parliamentary democracy period, the Guided Democracy period under Soekarno, the Soeharto-regime consolidation period, and the Soeharto-regime transfiguration period2. Then we observe what economic ownership structure was at work in the pre-crisis last days of the Soeharto rule as an outcome of the economic policies. In Section 3, we examine what structural changes have taken place in the banking and corporate sectors due to the reform policies in the post-crisis and post-Soeharto Indonesia. Lastly in Section 4, we interpret the current reorganization of the economic ownership in the context of the historical transition of the ownership structure, taking account of the changes in the policy-making processes under democratization.

Generational effects on adult height in individual heterogeneity

As adult height is a well-established retrospective measure of health and standard of living, it is important to understand the factors that determine it. Among them, the influence of socio-environmental factors has been subjected to empirical scrutiny. This paper explores the influence of generational (or environmental) effects and individual and gender-specific heterogeneity on adult height. Our data set is from contemporary Spain, a country governed by an authoritarian regime between 1939 and 1977. First, we use normal position and quantile regression analysis to identify the determinants of self-reported adult height and to measure the influence of individual heterogeneity. Second, we use a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition approach to explain the `gender height gap¿ and its distribution, so as to measure the influence on this gap of individual heterogeneity. Our findings suggest a significant increase in adult height in the generations that benefited from the country¿s economic liberalization in the 1950s, and especially those brought up after the transition to democracy in the 1970s. In contrast, distributional effects on height suggest that only in recent generations has ¿height increased more among the tallest¿. Although the mean gender height gap is 11 cm, generational effects and other controls such as individual capabilities explain on average roughly 5% of this difference, a figure that rises to 10% in the lowest 10% quantile.

Generational effects on adult height in individual heterogeneity

As adult height is a well-established retrospective measure of health and standard of living, it is important to understand the factors that determine it. Among them, the influence of socio-environmental factors has been subjected to empirical scrutiny. This paper explores the influence of generational (or environmental) effects and individual and gender-specific heterogeneity on adult height. Our data set is from contemporary Spain, a country governed by an authoritarian regime between 1939 and 1977. First, we use normal position and quantile regression analysis to identify the determinants of self-reported adult height and to measure the influence of individual heterogeneity. Second, we use a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition approach to explain the `gender height gap¿ and its distribution, so as to measure the influence on this gap of individual heterogeneity. Our findings suggest a significant increase in adult height in the generations that benefited from the country¿s economic liberalization in the 1950s, and especially those brought up after the transition to democracy in the 1970s. In contrast, distributional effects on height suggest that only in recent generations has ¿height increased more among the tallest¿. Although the mean gender height gap is 11 cm, generational effects and other controls such as individual capabilities explain on average roughly 5% of this difference, a figure that rises to 10% in the lowest 10% quantile.

Rural Food System Change in Tanzania during the Post-Ujamaa Era. A Case Study from Western Bagamoyo District

Food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa have been rapidly transforming during the recent decades with diverse outcomes on human development and environment. This study explores the food system change in rural villages in eastern Tanzania where subsistence agriculture has traditionally been the main source of livelihood. The focus is on the salient changes in the spatial dimensions and structural composition of the food system in the context of economic liberalization that has taken place after the end of the socialist ujamaa era in the mid-1980s. In addition, the linkages of the changes are examined in relation to food security, socio-economic situation, livelihoods, and local environment. The approach of the study is geographical, but also involves various multi-disciplinary elements, particularly from development studies. The research methods included thematic and questionnaire interviews, participatory tools, and the analysis of land use/ cover data and official documents. Several earlier studies that were made in the area during the late 1970s and 1980s provided an important reference base. The study shows that subsistence farming has lost its dominant role in food provisioning due to the declining productivity of land, livestock losses, and the increasing shift of labour to non-farm sectors. Also rapid population growth has added to the pressure on land and other natural resources. Despite the increasing need for money for buying marketed foods and other necessities, the nutritional situation shows improvement and severe malnutrition has diminished. However, the long-term sustainability of this transformation raises concerns. Firstly, the food security situation continues to be fragile and prone to shocks such as adverse climatic conditions, crop failures and price hikes. Secondly, the commodification of the food system and livelihoods in general is linked to rapid environmental degradation in the area, particularly the loss of soil fertility and deforestation. The situation calls for efforts that take more determined and holistic approaches towards sustainable development of the rural food system with particular focus on the role and viability of small-scale farming.

Análisis del proceso de negociación del Tratado de Libre Comercio Colombo Canadiense, para el sector agrícola. Periodo 2007 – 2008

En el mundo se está evidenciando un proceso de globalización, que ha impulsado a los Estados a una interacción, generando cambios significativos a nivel económico, cultural, político y social. Un reflejo de lo anterior, es la iniciativa de negociación del Tratado de Libre Comercio Colombo Canadiense, que además refleja una nueva etapa del Proceso de Apertura Económica iniciada en Colombia hace más de una década. El TLC Colombo Canadiense materializa la primera iniciativa bilateral entre estos dos países, enfocada a una negociación de Libre Comercio, sin embargo, los dos Estados ya habían tenido antecedentes de negociaciones comerciales multilaterales. Las negociaciones de Libre Comercio entre estos dos países, se desarrollaron en cinco rondas de negociación celebradas desde junio de 2007 hasta julio de 2008. Para el Sector Agrícola específicamente, las negociaciones fueron muy productivas, obteniendo los mejores resultados frente a las propuestas ofensivas tanto de Canadá como de Colombia. Frente a la entrada en vigor del TLC Colombo Canadiense, se evidenciaron distintas posiciones tanto de algunos representantes de la sociedad civil, como de organizaciones no gubernamentales, la academia, entre otros, que rechazaban completamente el acuerdo, alegando especialmente el tema del conflicto armado interno en Colombia, la violación a los Derechos Humanos, la falta de garantías a los derechos de los trabajadores y a los sindicatos, entre otros temas sociales.