Liberalisation,Multinational Enterprises and Export Performance: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing

This article tests two empirical hypotheses: one, MNE affiliates perform distinctly better than their local counterparts in the export markets in a globalised economy, and two, the MNE affiliates have greater comparative advantages in high-tech than in low- and medium-tech industries. Tobit estimates of a large data set of Indian manufacturing firms for the late 1990s provide relatively weak support to the first hypothesis. A disaggregated industry-group-wise analysis indicates that MNE affiliates perform no better than their local counterparts in high-tech industries. Thus, even with a higher level of integration with the global economy in the 1990s India appears to have failed in attracting efficiency-seeking FDI on a significant scale, particularly in high-tech industries. R&D and efficiency of manpower emerge as two significant determinants of international competitiveness in technology-based sectors (high- and medium-high tech sectors). Imports of raw materials enhance the export competitiveness of firms in all industry groups. Finally, large firms are found to be more export oriented, implying the need for creating large flagship companies in the country.     

International Trade,R&D Spillovers and Productivity: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Industry

This paper examines the effect of trade facilitated R&D spillovers on the productivity of manufacturing firms in India, inter-sectoral variation in the effect on productivity and the importance of firms' investment in R&D, technology imports and plant and machinery in enhancing the productivity effect. Using firm level panel data, the study shows that R&D spillovers have a significant effect on productivity and that this effect is greater in technology-intensive industries. The paper also shows that firms' investment in plant and machinery enhances the productivity effect of R&D spillovers. The paper provides detailed micro-level evidence on the argument that trade openness promotes technological progress in developing countries.     

Trade Openness and Wage Inequality: Evidence for Malaysia

This article examines the impact of trade openness on wage inequality in Malaysia during the period 1984–1997. Malaysia has operated a very open trade regime since the 1960s and has pursued aggressive import substitution and export supporting policies. This development strategy is very different to that adopted in many other emerging economies where trade liberalisation has been associated with greater wage inequality. The aim of the present study is to examine whether Malaysia's more open approach to international trade has had a similar effect on wage inequality. The results suggest, in fact, that this is not the case.     

试析美国的歧视性贸易政策

美国主要以贸易政策的立法机制为基础,以反倾销诉讼、人世谈判和技术出口管制为主要手段,通过贸易与政治的相互渗透实现其歧视性贸易目标。美国的歧视性贸易政策措施虽然保护了生产商的利益,但也产生了明显的负效应。以双边和区域自由贸易协定、技术性贸易壁垒和技术出口管制为主要特征的歧视性贸易政策仍将继续。     

Trade Liberalisation and Export Performance in Selected Developing Countries

This article examines the impact of trade liberalisation on export growth for a sample of 22 developing economies. The research applies dynamic panel data models based on fixed-effects and generalised methods of moments (GMM) estimators. In addition, heterogeneous panels for the complete sample, as well as for different regions of the world, are estimated using a time-series/cross-section technique. The main findings are that trade liberalisation is a significant determinant of export performance, but its effect varies across continents. Export duties have a small detrimental effect on export growth, while relative price changes and world income growth have the expected signs.     

Decentralization,Government Capacity,and Environmental Policy Performance: A Cross-National Analysis

This study examines how decentralization and government capacity interactively shape national environmental policy performance. Despite the extensive literature on the policy consequences of decentralization, what remains deficient is a proper understanding of the role that government capacity may play in the process. This study advances an integrative proposition that decentralization can improve policy performance if the government is equipped with capable, efficient and trustworthy administrative apparatus. Findings from a cross-national analysis on national environmental policy performance lend strong support for the general argument by revealing that such positive effects of decentralization are significantly strengthened by the quality of government capacity.     

Inequality,Economic Development,and Democratization

Although multiple theories suggest that economic development and inequality somehow affect democratization, these claims have received only limited empirical support. I contend that much of the confusion stems from the implicit assumption held by the literature that development and inequality affect democratization independently of one another. In this paper, I argue that the effect of income distribution on democratization is in fact contingent on the income level: in middle-income countries inequality fosters democratization; in rich countries, however, it harms democratization. Using a data set covering almost all autocracies between 1960 and 2007, I find evidence consistent with my hypothesis.     

Policy and Non-Policy Barriers to Trade and Implicit Taxation of Exports in Uganda

Uganda has made significant progress in reducing policy-induced anti-export bias in its trade policy in the 1990s. Taxes on exports have been abolished, and import protection has been reduced considerably. Such trade barriers are only a component of thee transaction costs associated with trade. Poor infrastructure, notably by increasing transport costs, and institutional inefficiencies can significantly increase trade costs. The effective protection of imports, and implicit tax on exports, due to transport costs is calculated and compared to effective protection due to trade policy barriers for Uganda. The results reveal that transport costs are often very high, in many cases representing a greater cost (tax) to exporters than trade policy.     

Preferences,Spatial Prices and Inequality

This study examines the effect of prices on inequality in rural India during the period of economic reforms and beyond (1999/2000–2009/2010). It proposes a framework for calculating ‘exact’ price indices, based on the ‘Exact Affine Stone Index’ (EASI) demand system, and shows its usefulness by calculating spatial prices and regionally varying temporal prices that allow for both differences in preferences between states and over time. The study finds that the nature of inflation has been regressive during (1999/2000–2004/2005) and progressive during (2004/2005–2009/2010) and that the effects of temporal price inflation and spatial prices on inequality are qualitatively different.     

Decentralisation,Economic Inequality and Insurgency

This paper investigates if devolution of political power in conflict-affected areas can reduce violence. Political decentralisation has been widely recognised to improve access to local public services. By providing institutional means to address local grievances, its role in diffusing social tensions has also been suggested. However, there is lack of systematic evidence on the role of local self-government in mitigating social-unrest arising due to local socio-economic issues. Our paper addresses this gap in the literature by assessing the impact of a local government institution, introduced in the Adivasi districts in 1996, on Maoist insurgency in India. The local councils aimed at addressing Adivasi grievances by recognising their traditional lifestyle and land, forests, and water rights, thereby reducing their incentive to participate in insurgency. However, empirical analysis performed using difference-in-difference methodology suggests that Maoist insurgency, as reported in Global Terrorism Database, increased post-decentralisation. We make sure this result is robust to various alternative explanations including state-level policy changes and political environment. Drawing on extensive empirical tests as well as existing qualitative studies, we show that an unequal local power structure and weak state-capacity in implementing the decentralisation programme resulted in local elites appropriating its benefits. This increased Adivasis grievances and consequently insurgency.     

Performance Contracting as an Instrument for Improving Performance in Government: An Indian Experience

In this article, the effectiveness of the Performance Contracting or the Results Framework Document (RFD) process and its impact on improving Government's performance in the Indian context were analyzed. The results reveal that the RFD process has a significant and positive impact on the performance of ministries in the Government of India. The initiative has helped in an objective assessment of ministries and a focused effort on achieving the organizational targets, and in enabling performance orientation among civil servants. It has also contributed to a refining of the organization's vision and mission and their integration with the organizational objectives. However, the process has been driven by civil servants. The initiative has not been integrated with the budgeting process, and the performance appraisal and performance-based incentive systems. The study has enabled validation of existing frameworks of PMS and incorporating the RFD process in a generic integrated framework of PMS.     

美国利益集团政治与对华贸易政策

像其他外交政策一样,美国对华贸易政策建立在国家利益基础之上。那么,什么是美国的国家利益？美国资本主义多元民主政治,美国社会各阶层、各种政治、经济、文化利益集团的政治博弈又是如何在美国的对华贸易政策中表现出来的呢？     

跨境贸易人民币结算——正式启动人民币国际化政策

2009年,中国政府正式推出跨境贸易人民币结算试点。经过半年多的准备,7月6日,该试点正式启动。尽管这次试点仅仅涉及到贸易结算,但是其意义远远超越了贸易的范围,它预示着一个重要的时代变化,即中国政府正式打开了人民币走向世界的大门。从这一视点来看,在中国对外金融开放的进程中,2009年是一个重要的里程碑。     

Policy Diffusion,Policy Learning and Local Politics: Macroprudential Policy in Hungary and Slovakia*

This article explains why certain Central and Eastern European states adopted macroprudential policies of local design that went beyond what European Union and International Monetary Fund authorities had recommended after the global financial crisis. We argue that macroprudential policies increase state control not only because of their inherent normative view on the inefficiency of markets, but also because governments use macroprudential policy to enhance state power. We show that macroprudential tools have often been used to satisfy local policymakers’ own agendas: financial nationalism in Hungary and protectionism in Slovakia.     

Evaluation, Policy Learning and Evidence-Based Policy Making

The increasing emphasis on the need for evidence-based policy indicates the continuing influence of the 'modernist' faith in progress informed by reason. Although the rationalist assumptions of evidence-based policy making have been subject to severe challenge from constructivist and post-modernist perspectives, it is argued that the attempt to ground policy making in more reliable knowledge of 'what works' retains its relevance and importance. Indeed, its importance is enhanced by the need for effective governance of complex social systems and it is argued that 'reflexive social learning' informed by policy and programme evaluation constitutes an increasingly important basis for 'interactive governance'. The expanded use of piloting of new policies and programmes by the current UK Government is considered to provide limited scope for evaluation to derive reliable evidence of whether policies work. There is a need for greater clarity about the role of evaluation in situations where piloting essentially constitutes 'prototyping'. More emphasis should be placed on developing a sound evidence base for policy through long-term impact evaluations of policies and programmes. It is argued from a realist position that such evaluation should be theory-based and focused on explaining and understanding how policies achieve their effects using 'multi-method' approaches.