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When nine Ghanaian banks collapsed during the country's 2017–2019 financial crisis, a Charismatic Pentecostal pastor was at the center of public accusations as the board chairman of one of the failed banks. His role put a spotlight on the growing influence of Charismatic Pentecostal institutions and elites in Ghana's financial market. Shifting the perspective between diverse actors who reckoned with the bank's collapse, from ordinary Christians to artist‐activists, this article explores how Ghanaians evaluated the culpability of the pastor and in so doing problematized who Christian elites involved in banking and business are accountable to: God, their congregants, or the public at large? We argue that global financial liberalization has generated new types of financial elites, Pentecostal pastors among them, who become subject to new lines of accountability. Holding someone accountable comes with stakes expressed through vernacular registers that demonstrate how financial markets are engulfed in broader social relations and regimes of ethical evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by Rajan's study and existing economic reform theories (especially the lobby theory), we highlight income inequality as a driver of financial liberalisations. However, no evidence yet supports this idea. To verify this liberalisation‐induced‐by‐inequality hypothesis, the nexus of income inequality and financial liberalisations is formalised and empirically investigated in this paper. We utilise an ordered logit model with two‐way fixed effects and panel data from 91 countries to conduct the analyses. The baseline empirical results indicate that income inequality is a positive and significant determinant of financial liberalisations in aggregate and three component indicators. The results for three component indicators remain stable after a series of robustness checks, including mitigating the potential endogeneity via IV‐2SLS, Lewbel instrumental variable technique and difference within group, assessing the bias from the unobservable variables, considering the persistent and learning effects of liberalisations and the interaction effects, alternating the measures of income inequality, reducing business cycle, and using financial reforms rather financial liberalisation as independent variable. The results for aggregate liberalisations are slightly unstable in models with persistent and learning effects. Thus, liberalisation‐induced‐by‐inequality hypothesis is generally confirmed. In addition, the impacts of income inequality on financial liberalisations are widely heterogeneous across countries, the rate of change in income inequality and wealth inequality could also predict the occurrence of financial liberalisations, and the evidence that income inequality makes the poor easier access credits (i.e., Rajan's hypothesis) is found. Finally, the role is investigated of financial liberalisations in shaping banking stability, and we find that financial liberalisations can enhance growth and lower financial risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effects of monetary policy credibility and the open economy trilemma on monetary policy efficiency in developing countries. Based on a sample of 28 developing countries, the findings reveal that monetary policy credibility increases monetary policy efficiency. The results also show that central banks in developing countries have more efficient monetary policies when they choose a policy arrangement contrary to the 'middle‐ground convergence'; but, to the extent they accumulate international reserves, it allows them to move to a middle‐ground strategy. Regarding the trilemma, the estimates suggest when monetary policy is independent, monetary policy is more efficient. Furthermore, when financial openness and exchange rate stability are deepened, central banks become less efficient in conducting monetary policy. However, when countries hold higher levels of international reserves, the positive effect of monetary autonomy on monetary policy efficiency decreases and the negative effect of financial liberalisation on monetary policy efficiency decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has been hailed as a key pillar and catalyst for economic growth, industrialization, and sustainable development in Africa. One of the anticipated benefits is the promise to increase intra‐African trade through the elimination of import duties and other tariffs among countries. However, due to the heterogeneity between the African countries, questions remain as to whether each country will benefit from tariff elimination. This paper aims to evaluate the macroeconomic, fiscal, and welfare consequences of import tax removal in Senegal with the rest of Africa. We link an extended version of the partnership for economic policy (PEP) static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with a non‐parametric microsimulation approach. We calibrate the model with Senegal's most recent Social Accounting Matrix. The microeconomic model is calibrated using the latest Senegalese household consumption survey. The findings indicate that tariff removal from the rest of Africa has favorable economic, fiscal, and welfare impacts for Senegal. The paper suggests that it will lead to an increase in economic growth and investment. The removal of tariffs is expected to favor urban households over rural ones and leads to a modest decrease in income inequality, accompanied by a 3.36% reduction in the number of poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In empirical studies, the disparity between financial development and environmental quality has prompted us to examine the impact of credit growth on environmental quality in ASEAN countries. These countries have experienced phenomenal credit growth over the past three decades due to their adoption of financial liberalisation, integration and innovation. In this study, we investigated the role of credit growth on environmental quality while controlling for several macroeconomic variables, including regulatory quality, natural resources, foreign direct investment, globalisation and per capita gross domestic product growth. Using static models (ordinary least square [OLS], random effect model, Panel Corrected Standard Error and partial spatial cross correlation) and dynamic models (dynamic OLS, dynamic random effect and two‐step system generalised methods of moments (GMM) on data spanning from 1984 to 2019, we observed a nonlinear association between credit growth and environmental quality. The findings suggest that credit growth may simultaneously have favourable and detrimental effects on environmental quality. High credit growth can lead to increased emissions and environmental degradation through the promotion of fossil fuel‐driven energy consumption, production and distribution of economic resources. However, if the government promotes regulatory quality and encourages lenders to invest more in green technologies and renewable and sustainable energy sources, credit growth may contribute to improved environmental quality. These results carry important policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic led to widespread social and economic policy experimentation as governments sought to protect household finances while locking down economies. Cash transfers emerged as one of the most popular policy measures, leading many to reflect on new possibilities for enacting universal basic income through temporary or emergency interventions. We take Australia's pandemic response, and particularly its Coronavirus Supplement, as an example of this broader experimentation. We analyse the Supplement through the lens of an emergency basic income, arguing the measure reflected existing institutional structures and norms, forms of national and international policy learning, and vulnerabilities in Australia's liberalized housing and labour markets. While temporary, we consider how its apparent success might suggest ongoing policy relevance, either as a form of capitalist "crisis management" or as an alternative pathway for implementing forms of basic income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neomercantilism is commonly portrayed as a central mechanism of China's global agribusiness engagement. It implies reordering the international food regime by moving away from financial and trade liberalization and securing stable import supplies and price controls under state support. However, this article raises an alternative interpretation through an empirical‐rich investigation of the prominence of the state‐owned China Oil and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) in the soybean commodity chain. The article draws upon analyses of the Chinese state and international food regime to demonstrate that recent changes in state‐capital relations during the Xi Jinping administration propelled forms of capital accumulation based on financial speculation and shareholder values. I conclude that state‐driven internationalization has placed Chinese agribusiness in an advantageous position within global finance rather than challenging it through agrarian neomercantilist strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the diffusion of the Basel II Capital Accord into emerging markets (EMs). The literature on the diffusion of financial standards reinforces determinism: carefully derived standards such as those around financial liberalization are assumed to be applicable to all markets in an effort to promote stability and international harmonization. Attempts to use financial liberalization and macroprudential toolkits such as Basel II, however well intentioned, can increase rather than mitigate financial instability, due in part to unevenness in the adoption of financial standards. We analyse rich, action research data on the response of banks in 19 EMs in Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe to the advent of Basel II. We find heterogeneous rather than universalistic responses, captured as four types of behavioural variations leading to differences in the intensity of diffusion: Reformist, Instigative, Disobliging and Cosmetic. The variations reflect regulatory neoliberalism. The typology contributes to our understanding of the interaction between bank behaviour, regulator stance and institutional context as determinants of the diffusion of global financial standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the role of financial development on the aggregate implications of reducing import tariffs on capital and intermediate inputs. We document empirically that financially underdeveloped economies feature a slower aggregate response following trade liberalization. To quantify these effects, we set up a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms subject to collateral constraints and estimate it using Colombian plant‐level data. We find that low financial development substantially limited the gains from trade liberalization in Colombia in the early 1990s. More broadly, we find that low financial development substantially limits both the aggregate and welfare gains from tariff reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important proposition in Economics claims that competition spurs technical efficiency, as it forces firms to raise competitiveness to survive market pressure. This study examines the effects of firm‐level Lerner indexes on productivity, using a dataset on energy firms from Central European postcommunist countries during 2009–2017. The energy sector is of particular interest, as markets are still concentrated, although governments have liberalized them considerably. To contribute to the literature, I derive Lerner indexes from the production function next to involving the return on sales. Supporting the literature, the overall results highlight that market power significantly decreases productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising public debt everywhere has raised the question of how to reduce debt again in the future. High public debt also seems to be an impediment for the exit of central banks from ultra‐low interest rates and quantitative easing. Historical precedents and proposals have included austerity, haircuts and the generation of inflation. Each way has advantages and disadvantages, including uncertainty about effects and side effects. We approach the issue from an historical perspective, based on case studies of prominent approaches to debt reduction. We analyse debt reduction through economic austerity in Italy, hyperinflation in Germany after World War I, inflation in Argentina since the 1980s, currency reform in Germany after WW II, and financial repression in the United States and the United Kingdom after WW II. Finally, we discuss Ronald McKinnon's order of economic and financial liberalisation as well as the Chicago Plan combined with the introduction of central bank digital currencies as an option for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complete financial markets allow countries to share their consumption risks internationally, thereby creating welfare gains through lower volatility of aggregate consumption. Using a panel of 116 countries between 1970 and 2019, I show that a higher share of low‐income households reduces consumption risk sharing, especially so in less‐developed countries. Moreover, I find that a broad range of financial market reforms and financial integration have a positive impact on international consumption risk sharing in poorer developing countries, while in emerging market countries, financial market development, financial reforms, and capital account openness has an impact. In advanced economies, financial (stock and bond) market development as well as financial integration improves international risk sharing. A lack of financial reforms, a lower degree of financial integration and a high share of low‐income households thus contribute to the degree of risk sharing being lower in developing countries than in advanced economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effects of financial development and product market competition on the macroeconomic dynamics in an overlapping generations model with credit market imperfections and monopolistic competition. In general, financial development is regarded as one of the key engines for economic growth. Financial market deregulation facilitates financing for entrepreneurs and has a positive effect on business growth. In fact, the effects of financial liberalization are different between developing and developed countries. We develop a model in which financial development brings about the regime shift endogenously. We show that financial liberalization at an early stage of economic development is harmful for economic growth. Instead, financial liberalization should be conducted after the take‐off of the economy. The sequence of carrying out several market deregulation policies is important. We insist that the government should deregulate the goods market before financial market liberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Latin American Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this paper is twofold: First, to explore the macroeconomic and institutional factors influencing stock market development (SMD) in Fiji during the period 1996–2018 and second, to explore the causes of the prolonged sluggish nature of the South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPX) in Fiji. A mixed‐method approach was employed: autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) testing framework was used to estimate the influence of the structural determinants in Fiji while descriptive and narrative analysis was used to explain the status of the SPX. The study findings partially confirmed the findings of previous studies. The findings that economic growth promotes SMD while inflation is negatively correlated to SMD were consistent with previous findings. However, the finding that regulatory quality and banking sector development have negative impacts on SMD was contrary to the findings of previous studies. Many determinants, which have been shown to have significant impact on SMD in other studies, did not show any significant impact on the SPX in the Fijian context, particularly the stock market liquidity showed no correlation to SMD and not distributed normally. Exploration of the nexus of the market liquidity reveals that present regulatory conditions are not conducive for the stock market to be vibrant and suggests eliminating excessive paperwork and entry restrictions are critical, not only to attract new players to the market but also to increase trading volumes. We argue that the concentration of ownership and market disintegration resulted in the current sluggish status of the SPX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper calculates the top income shares in Greece from 1967 (the seizure of power by the military dictatorship) until 2017 (the aftermath of the debt crisis). This long‐run perspective allows for the examination of the relationship between inequality and institutional transformations, namely democracy, finance, and crisis. We find in particular that (a) transition to democracy did not affect the income share of the top decile, whereas social democracy had a significant negative impact; (b) financial development and liberalization substantially increased all top decile shares; and (c) debt crisis, consolidation, and recession increased the share of the upper ranks of the top decile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of financial reforms and financial development on an economy has received considerable attention over the recent past. According to McKinnon and Shaw, financial liberalization policy and, in particular, interest rate deregulation is a means for achieving high economic growth by boosting savings and investments. This paper aims to investigate the long‐run relationship between financial liberalization and economic growth in Liberian as articulated by McKinnon and Shaw's theory. The study employed time series data spanning from 1980 to 2016 and dataset was sourced from World Development Indicators databases. The dataset was estimated using econometric techniques of Combined Co‐integration test, Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares, and robustness check of Fully Modified Ordinary Squares, and Canonical Co‐integration Regression, respectively. Results reveal, positive and significant coefficient of financial liberalization variables, thus supporting the McKinnon and Shaw hypotheses. Also, found long‐run Combined Co‐integration among the estimated models. Policy recommendation includes that policymakers should refrain from policy that will adversely affect deposit interest rates considering its immense impact on savings mobilization, gross investment, and economic growth. Furthermore, improving competition will compel deposit‐taking institutions to raise deposit interest rates in a bid to attract more depositors, thus reducing interest rates spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the issue of the evolution of consumer bankruptcy in Poland which was introduced into Polish law in 2009. The authors explain why the legislator abstained from introducing consumer bankruptcy along with a huge reform of insolvency framework in 2003. They present different approaches of the legislator towards consumer bankruptcy – from a very restrictive one which excluded most consumers from bankruptcy proceedings to a liberal one that allows dishonest debtors to benefit from debt relief. Moreover, the influence of legislation regarding consumer bankruptcy on the effectiveness of insolvency courts is discussed. Each of the approaches caused certain problems in practice. Liberalization of the rules on consumer bankruptcy led to an increasing number of consumer bankruptcy cases which could be barely processed by insolvency courts to the detriment of commercial bankruptcies and restructurings. The authors present the latest change of the law regarding consumer insolvency which – due to its novelty – has not received enough attention yet. They also provide a preliminary assessment of the new rules, which they consider imperfect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article situates South Africa's cash transfer programme within the country's financialized neoliberal regime. The adoption of economic liberalization by the African National Congress in the aftermath of the democratic transition has raised the profile of international investors in the domestic bond market. It is argued that this development, in the context of rising public debt and stagnating economic growth, has facilitated the financialization of the post‐apartheid state and has linked the sustainability of fiscal policy, and hence state‐led redistributive measures, to deepening debt relations with global asset managers. Additionally, a cluster of orthodox economic measures, such as inflation targeting and reserve accumulation, have served to thwart the potential for industrial upgrading. Moreover, it is posited that financial liberalization has further strengthened the influence of the Treasury over heterodox bureaucratic centres such as the Department of Trade and Industry, thereby serving to lock in the post‐transition neoliberal programme. Finally, the article argues that the integration of cash transfer recipients into the circuits of debt and finance is an outgrowth of the limitations of the social welfare programme and the broader financialization of the state. Overall, the analysis offered here serves as a counter‐argument to the notion that South Africa's cash transfer programme could offer a progressive alternative to market orthodoxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Latin American Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Summary: This paper investigates the impact of financial liberalization on the relationship between consumption and total wealth (i.e., the sum of asset wealth and human wealth). Financial liberalization is persistent and may signal changes in expected future consumption growth rates and/or in rates of return on wealth that, through the intertemporal budget constraint, affect the current consumption–wealth ratio. We estimate the long‐run relationship between consumption, total wealth, and financial liberalization by state space methods using quarterly US data. The results show that the trend in the consumption–wealth ratio is well‐captured by our baseline liberalization indicator. We find that the increase in this indicator over the sample period has increased the consumption–wealth ratio with about 10%. Investigating the responsible channel, additional estimates show that financial liberalization has predictive power for aggregate consumption growth rather than for returns, a result that supports an incomplete markets interpretation of the link between liberalization and the consumption–wealth ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Vietnam, following the process of financial liberalization, the rapid banking expansion has resulted in structural frangibility and bad debt proliferation with negative implication for bank performance. This is the first comprehensive study that evaluates the performance of the Vietnamese banking system at the start of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 up to 2016. We show that the Vietnamese banking system experienced a downward trend in technical efficiency over the liberalization period. However, there persists an efficiency gap among banks with different ownership structure, suggesting that privatization matters for performance improvement. One of the major contributions is the analysis of the impact of non‐performing loans on bank performance. We argue that this category of loans and bank size have nonlinear effects on the estimated efficiency levels. Medium‐sized banks are more efficient than big and small banks. This finding implies that the ongoing restructuring scheme pushing banks' scale expansion via capital build‐up should be carefully taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A better functioning industrial sector matters directly for growth and contributes indirectly to poverty alleviation, unemployment reduction, trade promotion, exchange of goods and services, increased per capital income, GDP growth and so forth. in developed and Least developed countries (LDC). Nonetheless, after global financial crisis and fall of Bretton wood system a new debate was generated to re‐examine the issue after the implementation of financial liberalization policies in different economies. Therefore the present research focuses on examining the predominant determinants of industrial developments for a sample of developed economies and check the comparison between European Union (27 Countries) and United Kingdom. The explicit aim of the present research is to investigate the association between capital account openness (CAO), trade openness (TO), equity openness (EO) and industrial development (IDV) for economies of Europe (EU without UK) and United Kingdom (UK). Time series data set over 1986 to 2017 was employed for empirical analysis. Industrial development was measured by industry value added; KAOPEN as a measure of CAO, TO measured by the ratio of the sum of imports and exports relative to GDP and EO measured by market capitalization divided by GDP. The data sources predominantly included International Financial Statistics and World Development Indicators. Stationarity of data was measured through augmented Dickey–Fuller test, OLS regression was used to examine the association and percentage variation between the study variables. Findings reported only EO and TO as significant predictor of industry development in case of EU. However, EO, TO and CAO does not contribute as a significant determinant in case of United Kingdom. Lastly, the study also explains tremors, subsequent effects and magnitudes, intra‐ and inter‐reliance of constructs under consideration by employing vector auto‐regression (VAR), impulse response function and variance decomposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Latin American Policy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article discusses the changes in Visionário, a favela located near the affluent neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, to assess the effects of the Sports Mega Events (SMEs) on the political and economic conditions in the favela. Following Harvey's (2005) description of "accumulation by dispossession," several authors have highlighted that the UPP policing program, implemented before the SMEs, was part of neoliberal efforts to colonize favela territory with the prospect of future gain. Visionário has witnessed two consecutive policing programs (GPAE and UPP) in the past twenty years. Both were aimed at disarming the drugs‐gang members who attempt to rule the favela by force. The ethnography in this article shows that both policing programs started ambitiously, yet gradually police officers withdrew and gang members reoccupied strategic positions in the favela. As a result, residents learnt to deal with ongoing territorial shifts in a highly dense urban space and with the liminal presence of police officers. In my analysis, I argue that in terms of neoliberal strategies to accumulate favela territory by dispossession, this case suggests a failure, and I analyze the struggle over favela territory as the outcome of contradictory forces connected to global neoliberalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilize an unprecedented liberalization episode in China, namely its World Trade Organization accession, to estimate the impact of trade liberalization on firm markup and markup distribution. Using a panel data quantile regression, we show that the impact of tariff reduction on markup can be heterogeneous to different firms, resulting in an unevenly distributed markup change across firms. In particular, reduction in output tariff reduces markup and markup dispersion, while reduction in input tariff increases markup and markup dispersion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, marijuana has become legally available for recreational use to roughly a quarter of Americans. Policy makers have long expressed concerns about the substantial external costs of alcohol, and similar costs could come with the liberalization of marijuana policy. Indeed, the fraction of fatal accidents in which at least one driver tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol has increased nationwide by an average of 10% from 2013 to 2016. For Colorado and Washington, both of which legalized marijuana in 2014, these increases were 92% and 28%, respectively. However, identifying a causal effect is difficult due to the presence of significant confounding factors. We test for a causal effect of marijuana legalization on traffic fatalities in Colorado and Washington with a synthetic control approach using records on fatal traffic accidents from 2000 to 2016. We find the synthetic control groups saw similar changes in marijuana‐related, alcohol‐related, and overall traffic fatality rates despite not legalizing recreational marijuana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a cross-sectional time-series model to assess the impact of market liberalizations in emerging equity markets on the cost of capital, volatility, beta, and correlation with world market returns. Liberalizations are defined by regulatory changes, the introduction of depositary receipts and country funds, and structural breaks in equity capital flows to the emerging markets. We control for other economic events that might confound the impact of foreign speculators on local equity markets. Across a range of specifications, the cost of capital always decreases after a capital market liberalization with the effect varying between 5 and 75 basis points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A stock market liberalization is a decision by a country's government to allow foreigners to purchase shares in that country's stock market. On average, a country's aggregate equity price index experiences abnormal returns of 3.3 percent per month in real dollar terms during an eight-month window leading up to the implementation of its initial stock market liberalization. This result is consistent with the prediction of standard international asset pricing models that stock market liberalization may reduce the liberalizing country's cost of equity capital by allowing for risk sharing between domestic and foreign agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the Irish case, this article explores the interaction between the financialized economy and the urban planning system. While considerable scholarship has examined the financialization of real estate, it remains unclear how planning systems are being repurposed to facilitate a finance‐led regime of urban growth or how the 'real estate–financial complex' seeks to enact planning policy transformations that support its interests. This article explores how such actors have advanced the concept of 'financial viability of development' as a means of influencing the post‐crisis re‐regulation of Irish planning policy. This group has argued that housing construction in post‐crash Ireland is unviable given the high development finance costs, onerous planning gain contributions and the lack of development certainty in the planning process. As such, housing construction has been at an all‐time‐low, leading to a new crisis in affordable housing provision. In response, a complicit state has further liberalized the planning system, introducing an array of policies that are evermore facilitative of development interests. Empirical findings, based on interviews with developers, lobbyists and planners, emphasize the importance of informal access to policymakers, the wielding of 'expert knowledge' and media management to co‐opt the state into adopting financial viability within planning policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence of the impact that financial liberalization plays, within various exchange rate regimes, on the likelihood of systemic banking crisis. Using a sample of 50 banking crisis episodes over the period of 1985–2005, I investigate the impact of financial liberalization and exchange‐rate regime on the likelihood of systemic banking crisis. When interacted with an overall financial liberalization measure, exchange‐rate regime was significant and positive under a flexible regime. Other empirical results show that when interacted with financial liberalization dimensions, exchange‐rate regime variables produced significant results under intermediate and flexible exchange‐rate regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By applying a recently developed econometric technique, the synthetic control method (SCM), this paper empirically assesses the growth effect of financial liberalization in the presence of financial crises for the so‐called Tiger Cub Economies over the period 1975 to 2002. The outcomes of the SCM analyses show that financial liberalization exerted a significant growth effect in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand before the outbreak of the 1997 East Asian financial crisis, while no such growth effect was found for the Philippines for the entire study period. Moreover, after the outbreak of the financial crisis, the growth effects of financial liberalization for Malaysia and Thailand remained significantly higher than those for their synthetic counterparts. However, the growth effect of financial liberalization was not that sturdy in the case of Indonesia following the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK retail energy market has witnessed multiple regulatory interventions since its liberalisation almost two decades ago. Such interventions reached their peak with the enactment of the UK Domestic Gas Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act in July 2018. The Act puts in place a requirement on the independent regulator, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), to set an absolute price cap on poor value tariffs. As such, it signals a repudiation of the overarching paradigm of consumer empowerment that has informed regulatory remedies to date. Rather than advocating for a different paradigm, this article highlights the difficulties inherent in reconciling price caps – both practically and conceptually – with the competitive process and consumer empowerment. It also discussses other instruments, not necessarily exhausted in retail price regulation, that can render affordable energy prices, without sacrificing consumer empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: A burgeoning field of research shows that financialization is positively associated with income inequality. However, while it is widely recognized that the recent growth of financial activity increases in tandem with the reduction of state controls in national economies, scholars often struggle to find a straightforward connection between economic liberalization and income inequality. In light of this confusion, this study presents the argument that liberalization does not share a direct connection to the distribution of national income. Rather, economic liberalization is a moderating variable that conditions the connection between financialization and income inequality. Methods: These contentions are tested by way of interaction effects using a panel data set of 14 developed economies for the years 1995–2010. Results: The results confirm the main arguments of this study as the positive link between financialization and the income share of the top 1 percent is higher at increasing levels of financial liberalization. Conclusions: This research indicates that cross‐national variations of income inequality are partially attributable to state policy decisions on financial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is an extensive literature on the impact of regional trading agreements on trade and capital flows, as well as on the relationship between international trade, growth, and poverty there is comparatively little treatment of the possible linkages between regional integration and poverty. We analyze the channels through which regional integration could impact on poverty, and then review the existing evidence on the impact of regional integration on poverty. We focus on two key characteristics that make any regional integration process different from unilateral and multilateral liberalization: first, the asymmetric nature of the liberalization process; second, the scope or ambition of the regional liberalization being undertaken and the nature of the institutional arrangements that are put into place to manage the process of regional integration. We also distinguish between short, medium, and long run effects on poverty of regional integration processes. There is some direct evidence explicitly linking regional integration and poverty, but in good part the shedding of the light depends on an indirect literature on trade, FDI, migration, and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found negative effects of "market" as a global concept on trust. The current research differentiated the effects of two market attributes on trust. Study 1 found a negative effect of market priming on interpersonal trust. Study 2 manipulated the representations of the two market attributes by rendering either impetus or rule attribute relatively salient. The results showed that compared with highlighting impetus, highlighting rule improved interpersonal trust and facilitated trust recovery. In Study 3, we analyzed macroeconomic indicators and applied cross‐temporal meta‐analysis to reveal the negative relationship between reduced interpersonal trust and damaged market rule as reflected by the marketization index. The present research explains why Chinese marketization has negatively impacted interpersonal trust: Market rules that protect interpersonal trust have been weakened during the process of marketization, whereas the impetus attribute of market, which is harmful to interpersonal trust, has become more salient. These findings highlight the importance of establishing comprehensive market rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen: Este estudio de carácter exploratorio se basa en estadísticos descriptivos y en un análisis econométrico para examinar los efectos en el empleo de los regímenes unilaterales aplicados al comercio de servicios, con datos del Índice de Restricción del Comercio de Servicios de la OCDE para 44 países miembros y no miembros de la OCDE y 22 subsectores durante el periodo 2014–2016. Los resultados sugieren que la liberalización unilateral de los servicios no está asociada a efectos netos de desplazamiento de la mano de obra. Sin embargo, serán necesarias fuentes de datos mejoradas para una comprensión más completa de esta cuestión. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers novel insights into the modal and sectoral characteristics of trade in services that may exert an influence on the redistributive properties of liberalization in service trade and investment. It uses descriptive statistics, and econometric analysis to examine the labour market effects of unilateral service regimes, drawing on data from the OECD's Services Trade Restrictiveness Index for a sample of 44 OECD and non‐OECD countries and 22 sectors over the period 2014–16. Whereas the findings suggest that the unilateral liberalization of services is not associated with net labour displacement effects, the authors call for empirical evidence, based on improved data sources, for a fuller understanding of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of foreign investors in promoting stock price efficiency in emerging stock markets relying on the fact that stock prices in these markets are influenced by both local and global factors. We employ a data sample of Vietnamese‐listed firms on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange over the period from 2006 to 2015. We utilize the panel data estimation analysis. The results show that foreign investors accelerate the incorporation of available information into local stock prices. The finding reinforces the important role of foreign investors in domestic stock markets of emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model to evaluate the relative cost efficiency of commercial banks in Taiwan in the wake of liberalization. The model is estimated using data made available through Taiwan's Banking Bureau and Financial Supervisory Commission. With data from before and after the 2008 financial crisis, our central result is that banks affiliated with bank holding companies (BHC) have become increasingly more efficient. While unaffiliated banks have generally increased their efficiency, they have not kept pace with respect to efficiency gains. Secondary findings are that, independent of ownership structure, both balance sheet and income statement composition affect efficiency. In particular, bank efficiency increases with growth in loans and capital prices. We also find evidence that labor productivity is a key explanatory factor behind efficiency differences across banks. As a result, a policy recommendation is made that banks invest in maximizing worker productivity. Finally, in addition to the insights gained from this study we contribute to the general literature on both bank efficiency and the use of the SFA model by applying it to new data in a new setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Echoing the call for 'no taxation without representation', the development of modern taxation went hand‐in‐hand with Western democratisation. However, taxation appears to have lost its role in the third wave of democratisation. Unlike early democratisers, contemporary autocracies tend to introduce a ready‐made modern taxation system before democratisation. With advice from international organisations, the value added tax (VAT), which mature democracies innovated, has been adopted for economic adjustment and development in globalised markets. Despite these divergences, it is argued in this article that a fundamental relationship between taxation and representation remains. Taxation inherently involves a social contract between revenue‐seeking rulers and citizens, and thus involves their bargaining over representation. Therefore, the production of state revenue intervenes in contemporary democratisation as well. By factoring in the effect of the VAT in 143 developing countries between 1960 and 2007, an entropy‐balancing analysis has confirmed its important role in contemporary democratisation. The taxation‐democratisation linkage has travelled from early to contemporary democratisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Many countries which experienced rising home prices (often described as bubbles) over the 2000s decade also ran large trade deficits. Some early research on the topic suggested that capital from trade surplus countries lowered borrowing costs and boosted housing values. In this scenario, the current account deficits and high home prices in bubble countries were driven in substantial part by capital flows from abroad. In contrast, some theoretical and empirical work suggests domestic factors‐rising home prices‐stimulate borrowing, which leads to current account deficits. In this more recent telling, it is domestic changes in bubble countries‐the increase in home values‐that drive trade imbalances, rather than the reverse. In this study, we investigate the interaction of both the current account and home prices for nine nations, with data spanning a minimum of the mid‐1990s to 2013, with the objective of determining whether external factors impact domestic housing markets. We use vector autoregressions and find strong evidence that the current account exerts a palpable effect on home values, even controlling for reverse causality and the effects of other variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a novel, detailed, time‐consistent tariff database taking account of import protection developments in the agricultural sector since 2001, we propose a statistical decomposition of the changes in the various types of tariffs. The results show that the multilateral system has played a limited role in trade liberalisation over the period. Many countries have continued to apply much lower tariffs on agricultural products than their WTO ceilings. Moreover, there has been substantial unilateral dismantling of tariffs over the period, so that much of the liberalisation took place outside WTO and regional agreements. The number of regional trade agreements has surged, but their impact on applied agricultural tariffs has been limited. Finally, we investigate the tariffs, trade and production implications for food and agricultural products of two extreme scenarios in the future development of trade negotiations: an ambitious surge of regional agreements and a trade war within the WTO context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reassesses the impact of trade liberalization on productivity. We build a new, unique database of effective tariff rates at the country‐industry level for a broad range of countries over the past two decades. We then explore both the direct effect of liberalization in the sector considered, as well as its indirect impact in downstream industries via input linkages. Our findings point to a dominant role of the indirect input market channel in fostering productivity gains. A 1 percentage point decline in input tariffs is estimated to increase total factor productivity by about 2 percent in the sector considered. For advanced economies, the implied potential productivity gains from fully eliminating remaining tariffs are estimated at around 1 percent, on average, which do not factor in the presumably larger gains from removing existing non‐tariff barriers. Finally, we find suggestive evidence of complementarities between trade and FDI liberalization in boosting productivity. This calls for a broad liberalization agenda that cuts across different areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines strategic bargaining in a non‐cooperative game of tariff negotiation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In the model, a country bargains sequentially and bilaterally with multiple trading partners under the MFN principle, making take‐it‐or‐leave‐it offers consisting of tariffs and transfers. A dynamic bargaining inefficiency arises in which the country strategically delays the reduction of its tariff until the final stage, and extensions to the model demonstrate gradual trade liberalization over multiple stages. Based on this idea of forward manipulation, the theory provides an explanation for gradualism in tariff reduction during the early GATT rounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the economic liberalization in the New Zealand. Topics discussed include information on the Brexit, withdrawal of the Great Britain from the European Union; discussions on the personal and economic freedom including freedom of trade, ease of doing business, absence of corruption, compliance with the rule of law, protection of property rights and democratic stability in New Zealand.

After Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union, it experienced civil war and strife for more than a decade. In late 2003, the peaceful Rose Revolution installed a new government that began a series of radical market‐liberal reforms. However, the effectiveness of these reforms was controversial. We offer a rigorous evaluation of these reforms via the synthetic control method which creates a credible counterfactual. Compared to the synthetic controls, we find that the reforms enacted after the Rose Revolution led to significant improvements in Georgia's social and economic development, albeit with temporary side effects and argue that this case provides some support for the effectiveness of rapid, multidimensional reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]