Ordoliberal Lessons for Economic Stability: Different Kinds of Regulation,Not More Regulation

Since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 the term “ordoliberalism” has experienced a marked revival. This discussion tends to focus on the need for more state intervention. Yet this misrepresents the core ideas of ordoliberalism because its main concern is not with “how much” but with “what kind of” intervention is needed. Thus, this article seeks to clarify the ordoliberal position, in particular its key distinction between market conforming and nonconforming state intervention. Discussing the current financial crisis, it also evaluates the potential benefits and drawbacks of ordoliberalism. The article rebukes rhetorical shortcuts that equate every economic policy coming out of Germany with ordoliberalism. It also suggests that while the ordoliberal conception does not necessarily provide a solution to the current problems in the short run, in the long run it may form the basis for a sounder conception of economic regulation than more libertarian views can offer.     

Place-making: Chin refugees,citizenship and the state in Malaysia

Southeast Asia is a transit point as well as a point of destination for thousands of migrants and refugees. This is not new, as people movements in and through the region have a long and diverse history. However, the spaces for movement have been severely restricted by modern national borders and border protection enforcement. A significant part of the migration flows are made up of refugees. This is particularly so in Malaysia, which is currently home to approximately 200,000 refugees. The Malaysian government continues to resist outside and internal pressures to face up to and remedy the refugee crisis it increasingly finds itself in. As a result, refugees live in a liminal and extra-legal place in Malaysia, which makes any real engagement with the Malaysian body politic and Malaysians problematic. This paper traces the attempts at place-making by Chin refugees in Malaysia and their attempts to evade, confront and circumvent Malaysian authorities.     

Deindustrialisation and the social and economic sustainability nexus in developing countries: Cross‐country evidence on productivity and employment

In an empirical investigation of the interactions between industrial structure and macro outcomes, an accounting framework was applied to relate changes in sectoral employment and output compositions to changes in overall productivity growth over time. The numerical results were interpreted using a taxonomy describing industrialisation and deindustrialisation in developing countries. The findings suggest that, in particular, industrial performance correlates with the overall performance of an economy, and therefore is the key sector in explaining the sustainability of different regional patterns in overall productivity and employment growth. That is, negative rates of productivity growth in the industrial sector are strongly associated with negative productivity growth for the economy as a whole, and vice versa. Further, slow industrial growth may lead to low road development, in which productivity growth trades off with employment growth, while high road development is defined as simultaneously expanding employment and overall productivity growth.