Financial Openness, Democracy, and Redistributive Policy

Financial Openness, Democracy, and Redistributive Policy PDF Author: Mansoor Dailami
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Banks and Banking Reform
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
What explains the spread of both democracy and financial openness at this time in history, given the constraining impact of financial market integration on national policy autonomy? International policy coordination is part of the answer, but not all. Also important is the presence of cost-effective redistributive schemes that provide insurance against the risk of financial instability.

Financial Openness, Democracy, and Redistributive Policy

Financial Openness, Democracy, and Redistributive Policy PDF Author: Mansoor Dailami
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Banks and Banking Reform
Languages : en
Pages : 38

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Book Description
What explains the spread of both democracy and financial openness at this time in history, given the constraining impact of financial market integration on national policy autonomy? International policy coordination is part of the answer, but not all. Also important is the presence of cost-effective redistributive schemes that provide insurance against the risk of financial instability.

Financial Openness, Democracy, and Redistributive Policy

Financial Openness, Democracy, and Redistributive Policy PDF Author: Mansoor Dailami
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
What explains the spread ...

Endogenous Financial Openness

Endogenous Financial Openness PDF Author: Joshua Aizenman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Commercial policy
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
"This paper studies the endogenous determination of financial openness. We outline a framework where financial openness is endogenously determined by the authority's choice of financial repression as a taxation device, and where the private sector determines endogenously the magnitude of capital flight. The optimal financial repression is shown to depend on the openness of the economy to international trade, the efficiency of the tax system (which in turn may be affected by political economy considerations), and on political polarization and the degree of opportunism. Similar predictions are obtained in a model where authorities pursue an opportunistic policy representing the interest of a narrow pressure group that engages in capital flight due to political uncertainty. We confirm the predictions of the models, showing that de-facto financial openness [measured by (gross private capital inflows + outflows)/GDP] depends positively on lagged trade openness, and GDP/Capita. For developing countries, we find that a one standard deviation increase in commercial openness is associated with a 9.5 percent increase in de-facto financial openness (% of GDP), a one standard deviation increase in the democratization index reduces financial openness by 3.5%, and a one standard deviation increase in corruption is associated with a 3% reduction of financial openness. Similar negative dependence applies for measures of political competition. The impact of a budget surplus on financial openness is negative for developing countries, but positive for the OECD. The theoretical and empirical analysis leads us to conclude that a more openly competitive, free and inclusive political system will lead to lower levels of de-facto financial openness after controlling for incomes, macroeconomic policy (inflation and budget surpluses), interest rates and commercial openness"--NBER website

Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth

Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth PDF Author: Mr.Jonathan David Ostry
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484397657
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
The Fund has recognized in recent years that one cannot separate issues of economic growth and stability on one hand and equality on the other. Indeed, there is a strong case for considering inequality and an inability to sustain economic growth as two sides of the same coin. Central to the Fund’s mandate is providing advice that will enable members’ economies to grow on a sustained basis. But the Fund has rightly been cautious about recommending the use of redistributive policies given that such policies may themselves undercut economic efficiency and the prospects for sustained growth (the so-called “leaky bucket” hypothesis written about by the famous Yale economist Arthur Okun in the 1970s). This SDN follows up the previous SDN on inequality and growth by focusing on the role of redistribution. It finds that, from the perspective of the best available macroeconomic data, there is not a lot of evidence that redistribution has in fact undercut economic growth (except in extreme cases). One should be careful not to assume therefore—as Okun and others have—that there is a big tradeoff between redistribution and growth. The best available macroeconomic data do not support such a conclusion.

Straight Talk on Trade

Straight Talk on Trade PDF Author: Dani Rodrik
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691196087
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Deftly navigating the tensions among globalization, national sovereignty, and democracy, Straight Talk on Trade presents an indispensable commentary on today's world economy and its dilemmas, and offers a visionary framework at a critical time when it is most needed.

Law and the Wealth of Nations

Law and the Wealth of Nations PDF Author: Tamara Lothian
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231174671
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Tamara Lothian shows a path to the reconstruction of the economy in the service of both growth and inclusion that would reignite economic growth by democratizing the market. Law and the Wealth of Nations offers a progressive approach to the supply side of the economy and proposes innovation in our fundamental economic arrangements.

Democracy, Public Expenditures, and the Poor

Democracy, Public Expenditures, and the Poor PDF Author: Philip Keefer
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0031210104
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Countries vary systematically with respect to the incentives of politicians to provide broad public goods, and to reduce poverty. Even in developing countries that are democracies, politicians often have incentives to divert resources to political rents, and to private transfers that benefit a few citizens at the expense of many. These distortions can be traced to imperfections in political markets, that are greater in some countries than in others. The authors review the theory, and evidence on the impact of incomplete information of voters, the lack of credibility of political promises, and social polarization on political incentives. They argue that the effects of these imperfections are large, but that their implications are insufficiently integrated into the design of policy reforms aimed at improving the provision of public goods, and reducing poverty.

Inequality and Democratization

Inequality and Democratization PDF Author: Ben W. Ansell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316123286
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Research on the economic origins of democracy and dictatorship has shifted away from the impact of growth and turned toward the question of how different patterns of growth - equal or unequal - shape regime change. This book offers a new theory of the historical relationship between economic modernization and the emergence of democracy on a global scale, focusing on the effects of land and income inequality. Contrary to most mainstream arguments, Ben W. Ansell and David J. Samuels suggest that democracy is more likely to emerge when rising, yet politically disenfranchised, groups demand more influence because they have more to lose, rather than when threats of redistribution to elite interests are low.

Democracy and Income Inequality

Democracy and Income Inequality PDF Author: Branko Milanovic
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Ideology, as proxied by a country's dominant religion, seems to be related to inequality. In Judeo-Christian societies increased democratization appears to lead to lower inequality; in Muslim and Confucian societies it has an insignificant effect. One reason for this difference may be that Muslim and Confucian societies rely on informal transfers to reach the desired level of inequality, while Judeo-Christian societies, where family ties are weaker, use political action. Standard political economy theories suggest that democratization has a moderating effect on income inequality. But the empirical literature has failed to uncover any such robust relationship. Gradstein, Milanovic, and Ying take another look at the issue. The authors argue that prevailing ideology may be an important determinant of inequality and that the democratization effect "works through" ideology. In societies that value equality highly there is less distributional conflict among income groups, so democratization may have only a negligible effect on inequality. But in societies that value equality less, democratization reduces inequality through redistribution as the poor outvote the rich. The authors' cross-country empirical analysis, covering 126 countries in 1960-98, confirms the hypothesis: ideology, as proxied by a country's dominant religion, seems to be related to inequality. In addition, while in Judeo-Christian societies increased democratization appears to lead to lower inequality, in Muslim and Confucian societies it has an insignificant effect. The authors hypothesize that Muslim and Confucian societies rely on informal transfers to reach the desired level of inequality, while Judeo-Christian societies, where family ties are weaker, use political action. This paper - a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study inequality and income redistribution. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research projects "Democracy, Redistribution, and Inequality" (RPO 683-01) and "Deriving World Income Distribution in 1988 and 1993" (RPO 683-68).

Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality

Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality PDF Author: Ms.Era Dabla-Norris
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513547437
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 39

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Book Description
This paper analyzes the extent of income inequality from a global perspective, its drivers, and what to do about it. The drivers of inequality vary widely amongst countries, with some common drivers being the skill premium associated with technical change and globalization, weakening protection for labor, and lack of financial inclusion in developing countries. We find that increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth—that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down. This suggests that policies need to be country specific but should focus on raising the income share of the poor, and ensuring there is no hollowing out of the middle class. To tackle inequality, financial inclusion is imperative in emerging and developing countries while in advanced economies, policies should focus on raising human capital and skills and making tax systems more progressive.