Investigating the Influence of Economic and Socio-Political Openness on Growth

Investigating the Influence of Economic and Socio-Political Openness on Growth PDF Author: Lena Malešević Perović
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper investigates the influence of international openness on economic growth in a sample of 32 European economies. The usual approach in the literature on the topic is to observe the impact of trade openness on growth. We, however, broaden this standard approach and analyse not only economic aspect of openness but also socio-political aspect. In our empirical analysis we use the TSLS (two stage least squares) estimator, whereby in the first step we use the standard growth regression that includes, among other variables, openness, and in the second step we include different determinants to instrument openness. Our research, in general, shows that openness is an important determinant of growth in a set of investigated countries. Trade openness and financial openness influence growth positively. The influence of institutions on growth is manifested mainly indirectly - through its influence on trade and financial openness.

Investigating the Influence of Economic and Socio-Political Openness on Growth

Investigating the Influence of Economic and Socio-Political Openness on Growth PDF Author: Lena Malešević Perović
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper investigates the influence of international openness on economic growth in a sample of 32 European economies. The usual approach in the literature on the topic is to observe the impact of trade openness on growth. We, however, broaden this standard approach and analyse not only economic aspect of openness but also socio-political aspect. In our empirical analysis we use the TSLS (two stage least squares) estimator, whereby in the first step we use the standard growth regression that includes, among other variables, openness, and in the second step we include different determinants to instrument openness. Our research, in general, shows that openness is an important determinant of growth in a set of investigated countries. Trade openness and financial openness influence growth positively. The influence of institutions on growth is manifested mainly indirectly - through its influence on trade and financial openness.

How Does Political Instability Affect Economic Growth?

How Does Political Instability Affect Economic Growth? PDF Author: Mr.Ari Aisen
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1455211907
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
The purpose of this paper is to empirically determine the effects of political instability on economic growth. Using the system-GMM estimator for linear dynamic panel data models on a sample covering up to 169 countries, and 5-year periods from 1960 to 2004, we find that higher degrees of political instability are associated with lower growth rates of GDP per capita. Regarding the channels of transmission, we find that political instability adversely affects growth by lowering the rates of productivity growth and, to a smaller degree, physical and human capital accumulation. Finally, economic freedom and ethnic homogeneity are beneficial to growth, while democracy may have a small negative effect.

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).

Making Politics Work for Development

Making Politics Work for Development PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464807744
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.

Terrorism, Economic Development, and Political Openness

Terrorism, Economic Development, and Political Openness PDF Author: Philip Keefer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107411272
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
To what extent are terrorism and development related? What are the relative weights of the economic, political, and social aspects of development? What is the development impact of different responses to terrorism? This volume addresses these crucial questions, synthesizing what we know about the development links with terrorism and pointing out what we do not. Contributors to this volume examine the economic and fiscal costs of terrorism and the response to terrorism. They conclude that the economic costs of terrorism in rich countries are low, relative to the economic costs of combating terrorism; both are likely high in poor countries. They also report evidence on how development affects terrorism. This work supports the hypothesis that political development - political openness and the quality of government - is inversely associated with the emergence of terrorist organizations, but not that poverty per se is directly responsible for terrorism.

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.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309452961
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 583

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Book Description
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Global Trends 2040

Global Trends 2040 PDF Author: National Intelligence Council
Publisher: Cosimo Reports
ISBN: 9781646794973
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Deals and Development

Deals and Development PDF Author: Eric Werker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198801645
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
When are developing countries able to initiate periods of rapid growth and why have so few been able to sustain growth over decades? This book provides a novel conceptual framework built from a political economy of business-government relations and applies it to nine countries across Africa and Asia, drawing actionable policy recommendations.

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.