Regional input into centralized economic planning: The case of Soviet Central Asia

This article uses the case of the Soviet Union to demonstrate that in centrally planned economies there remain both incentives and channels for regional administrators to express local interests to the center and have these interests reflected in national policy decisions. Debate over future economic development in Soviet Central Asia is fascinating in what it reveals concerning the nature of center-periphery relations in the USSR and the limitations these relations impose on centrally planned economies. The debate shows that even in a system which so highly values centralized economic planning, regional planners often give priority to local over national economic needs in their policy proposals and are able to affect policy decisions made in Moscow. The findings are relevant to all centrally planned economies and must be considered in any evaluation of this economic model.The author wishes to thank the International Research and Exchanges Board for its support of research and travel.     

Strategic management of privatization: a framework for planning and implementation

The continuing interest of governments around the world in privatizing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is making privatization policy an important instrument for promoting market-oriented approaches to economic development. Privatization has become an integral part of administrative reform in former centrally planned socialist economies, developing countries, and post-industrial societies. More than a decade of experience with privatization provides lessons that can help governments to plan, implement and manage the process more efficiently, effectively, and responsively. The framework for managing privatization described here draws from lessons of that experience to define the forms, scope and pace of privatization, choose organizational structures for management, identify macropolicy and institutional reforms necessary to facilitate privatization, and develop management procedures for implementing privatization programmes successfully.     

Is there an export‐ or import‐led growth in emerging countries? A case of BRICS countries

The BRICS economies could be considered a world number one trading group in one respect and emerging economies in another. The study applied both Johansen cointegration methodology for the long‐run relationship and Granger causality test for the direction of causality for the period of 1979–2018. The study findings confirmed that the growth‐led exports (GLE) hypothesis model is relevant for India, South Africa, and China, while exports‐led growth (ELG) hypothesis model is relevant for both Brazil and Russia. The growth‐led imports (GLI) hypothesis model is relevant for Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, while import‐led growth (ILG) hypothesis model is relevant for Russia. Hence, based on the findings, we confirmed that trade‐led growth hypothesis is valid. Finally, the results show that domestic and global demand contributes to a larger trade; countries that are labor‐abundant generate employment and foster economic growth.     

The effect of trade openness on economic growth: Some empirical evidence from emerging market economies

This study investigates the impact of trade openness on economic growth in a panel of five emerging market economies, covering the data period from 1993 to 2016. Based on the panel estimation methods, the empirical results confirm the long‐run relationship among trade openness, economic growth, financial development, inflation, labour force, and technology, whereas the findings of long‐run elasticities show that trade openness has a positive considerable impact on economic growth. Furthermore, the heterogeneous panel non‐causality tests indicate the presence of a bidirectional causality between economic growth and inflation and a unidirectional causality that runs from economic growth to trade openness and economic growth to financial development in the short run. Finally, the findings suggested that trade openness plays a substantial role in promoting economic growth while also promoting economic development in these five emerging market economies.     

Economic Perceptions and Executive Approval in Comparative Perspective

Controversy exists over whether people use retrospective or prospective economic perceptions when evaluating their political leadership. In this article, I argue that the structure of the political-economic system affects which type of economic perception people employ. Specifically, in established democracies with developed economies, people will employ prospective assessments. In contrast, in nations with less well-established democratic systems and less developed economies, people will employ retrospective reasoning. They do so because under such conditions uncertainty about the future is too high for them to make reliable prospective assessments. I test this hypothesis on aggregate survey data taken from 41 nations in 2002. Support for the hypothesis is found. The conclusion puts the findings into perspective and discusses directions for future research.     

Havel versus Klaus: Public Policy Making in the Czech Republic

In Central and Eastern Europe, we can observe and analyze an ongoing social experiment euphemized as the process of the transformation of totalitarian countries with centrally planned economies into democratic countries with market economies. This article offers an analysis of what has been happening in the Czech Republic in this regard. Attention is given to the impact of political philosophies (those represented by names of Václav Havel and Václav Klaus) upon legal and institutional changes. Key terms for better understanding of these processes are the free market, civil society, civic sector, and participation of citizens in public affairs. Channels, developmental threats, and opportunities for public policy formation and implementation are studied as well.     

Religion,liberty and economic development: An empirical investigation

The empirical investigations conducted for this paper show that one can not accept the null hypothesis that religion and liberty are not related to development. Judeo-Christianity in particular appears to an important determinant of economic development. This is explained in part by its fostering of the private ownership of property. Nations with the Judeo-Christian values are more likely to have political democracies that are conductive to economic development. Capitalist economies with Judeo-Christian democracy are more likely to have higher levels of economic development.     

China in the dynamic Asia‐Pacific region

The Chinese economy has experienced spectacular growth in recent years. Despite its huge trade and investment potential, China today remains an insignificant player in the world economy. But the emerging Chinese economy has already profoundly changed the pattern of trade and investment flows in the Asia‐Pacific region. Over the years, the Chinese economy has been steadily integrated with its neighbouring economies of Japan, the NIEs and ASEAN, which are all well known for their dynamic growth. The growing integration of the Chinese economy, with its huge economic potential, into the Asia‐Pacific region will enhance the region's prospects for further growth. Most Asia‐Pacific economies take a positive view of China's increasing economic involvement in the region as a new source of economic opportunity. It is in such a regional rather than the global context that the immediate effects of China's recent economic upsurge should be gauged.     

The impact of clean energy consumption on economic growth and CO2 emissions in BRICS countries: Does the environmental Kuznets curve exist?

This paper examines the impact of clean energy consumption (CEC) on economic growth (EG) and CO₂ emissions (CO₂) within a framework of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in a panel of BRICS countries for the period 1992–2014. The results indicated that CEC and EG have a significant positive impact on EG, while CO₂ has a negative impact on it. Our results also found that EC and EG increase CO₂ while CEC significantly reduces it. Further, we found that the EKC hypothesis is valid in the BRICS countries. Finally, panel causality test indicated that unidirectional causality running from EC to EG. However, we did not find a causal relationship between CEC and EG. Based on these results, some of the policy implications have proposed for these emerging market economies.     

Public Lands Policy and Economic Trends in Gateway Communities

From the mid‐1960s through 1980, major policy changes were adopted as a result of federal and state public lands protection statutes. This article analyzes the impact these policy changes have had upon the economies of gateway communities, a subject of limited discussion in the scholarly literature. One conclusion is that gateway community economies have become less dependent on resources extraction. This analysis finds that several factors––beyond policy change––have influenced the shift away from resources extraction. Likewise, there is the question over what economic mainstays have stepped in to fill the resources extraction void? For many gateway communities, it appears that the answer has been recreational tourism. The implications of this economic shift within gateway communities are explored.     

The determinants and interrelationship of carbon emissions and economic growth in African economies: Fresh insights from static and dynamic models

This study explores the interrelationship between CO₂ emissions and economic growth in selected Africa economies from 1990 to 2014 providing evidence from both static and dynamic models. Results show that increases in energy use have a significant and positive effect on economic growth; which goes to show that growth in Africa is actually energy dependent. Further findings suggest that CO₂ emissions have no significant contemporaneous effect, however, a significant and negative effect at a one‐period lag on economic growth. The significance of the impacts is consistently confirmed by both the static and dynamic estimations. Also, trade adds to economic growth and also contributes to environmental deterioration in Africa. There is a dire need for Africa to adjust its energy portfolio by shifting to clean energy sources which will enhance sustainable economic growth without deteriorating the environment.     

Gender,quality of life,and growth in Asia 1970-90

This paper examines the gender distribution of the benefits of economic growth in several Asian economies from 1970–90. Using Borda rank ordering, we compare the progress made in these countries towards closing the gender gap in well-being. In addition to commonly-used indicators, trends in the ratio of females to males in the population are examined. We explore determinants of changes in this ratio, using regression analysis. The results indicate that gender equity in quality-of-life ratings is highest in those Asian economies that grew the slowest over the period in question. Further, the data indicate that economic growth does not have a significant effect on the female-to-male population ratios for this set of countries. Variables that affect women's bargaining power do, however, have a positive effect on relative female life chances, as does spending on public education.     

Nomenklatura,state monopoly,and private enterprise

Using a behavioral model of political decisionmaking, it is argued that an increasing population size and/or an increasing efficiency of production in a private enterprise economy relative to a centrally planned economy may create the conditions for a self-interested nomenklatura in a Soviet-type economy to consider a transition to a market economy. This transition may be thwarted, however, by the threat for prospective private enterpreneurs of exploitation after the change of regime. Some form of political pluralism guaranteeing sufficient political influence to private entrepreneurs appears to be required for a successful transition. The analysis shows that such a combined political and economic reform can be in the interest of the nomenklatura, thereby providing an endogenous behavioral explanation for a change of regime.     

Varieties of Capitalism and the Euro Crisis

This article examines the role played by varieties of capitalism in the euro crisis, considering the origins of the crisis, its progression, and the response to it. Deficiencies in the institutional arrangements governing the single currency are linked to economic doctrines of the 1990s. The roots of the crisis are linked to institutional asymmetries between political economies. Northern European economies equipped to operate export-led growth models suitable for success within a monetary union are joined to southern economies whose demand-led growth models were difficult to operate successfully without the capacity to devalue. The response to a tripartite crisis of confidence, debt, and growth is explained in terms of the interaction of institutions, interests, and ideas, and its importance for the future of European integration is explored.     

Interrogating sub-Saharan Africa's high economic growth rate and low poverty reduction rate: A poverty paradox?

Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) high economic growth coincides with an increase in the level of poverty. In a panel of 40 SSA countries over a 30-year period, while accounting for the potential spillover effect of poverty in the region. The study found that economic growth recorded over the years has not translated to poverty reduction, particularly, in resource-rich economies of SSA. The result also shows that income inequality worsens the effect of economic growth on poverty and that the poverty-reducing effectiveness of growth varies considerably across sectors, across space, and over time. The research findings suggest that governments across the region, particularly, in oil-exporting countries in SSA must diversify the economy away from oil (toward the service sector) to reduce poverty in the region.     

Distributional coalitions,state strength,and economic growth: Toward a comprehensive theory of economic development

High-performing economies in the Asia-Pacific region together with only mediocre economic development in Latin America prompts the question of what explains differential economic growth rates among developing countries. Combining a statist perspective with Olson's theory of interest group formation, this research hypothesizes that nations with weak distributional coalitions will more likely experience high growth and state intervention will be effective. Using a longitudinal research design, this secondary analysis involves a comparative and interactive examination of eight Asian-Pacific and twelve Latin American countries. By considering the role of the state in interaction with distributional coalitions in society, the results indicate that approximately two-thirds of the variance in national economic growth is explained.     

Towards a stages theory approach to privatization

In analysing the path of optimal sequencing of privatizations by public administrations, it is too simplistic to characterize the process as one in which in the early phase small state-owned enterprises are disposed of and, in the later stage, the larger enterprises. Such a dichotomy fails to capture fully the market failure elements, technological dimensions, sociological imperatives and political constraints that help to determine the choice and timing of enterprises to be privatized. Rather, the privatization experience of the developing and developed countries, including the former centrally planned economies, can be eclectically analysed as traditional, transitional and transformation stages in an almost inexorable movement towards a pure capitalist economy. In the traditional stage, countries have tended to privatize those enterprises for which the private sector has an obvious comparative advantage. In the transitional stage, the privatization programme includes certain important enterprises, which, despite a considerable amount of government subsidy or tariff protection, have performed ‘inefficiently’. In the stage of transformation from a still basically mixed economy to a near pure capitalist economy, there is privatization of the strategic enterprises. Although the stages approach varies between countries, the above-mentioned sequencing allows for more effective cumulative internalization of the learning experience.     

Inequality,the Crash and the Ongoing Crisis

The rise in inequality across many rich nations, but especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, was meant to lead to a bigger economic pie from which all would benefit. In fact, the increased concentration of income over the last three decades has led to more fragile and unstable economies making it a key cause of the 2008 Crash and today's lack of recovery. The evidence of the last 100 years is that models of capitalism that fail to share the proceeds of growth more evenly will eventually self‐destruct. More equal societies have softer business cycles. In contrast, more unequal economies are associated with more extreme cycles—they have exaggerated booms, deeper falls and extended troughs. The scale of inequality is not just an issue about fairness and proportionality, it is therefore integral to economic health.     

Social media taxation and its impact on Africa's economic growth

Technology affordances enable citizens to digitally connect and collectively act towards realization of established economic goals of a given country. This paper contributes to scholarly discussions on the effects of social media tax on Africa's economic growth. For African economies to grow, there is need to abolish social media tax and device means through which social media discussions that generate billions of data are captured and analyzed to guide policymaking processes aimed at economic growth. We connote that social media tax disengages the government from its citizens that access information through social media platforms. The tax is a hindrance to realization of the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA‐2024) and the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063.     

Political freedom, economic freedom, and income convergence: Do stages of economic development matter?

In the literature, theory and empirical evidence on the nexus of political freedom, economic freedom, and economic growth are mixed. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the effect of political freedom on promoting economic growth is realized and detectable at later stages of social and economic development. Using panel data for a sample of 104 countries between 1970 and 2003, we find strong support for our hypothesis. While economic freedom has greater effects on income convergence in the OECD countries, political freedom clearly promotes the convergence among those OECD countries.