Thinking About Five Strategies for Making Diversity Work

Greater diversity in the workplace introduces the possibility for increased misunderstanding and conflict at the same time as it holds out the promise of creativity and innovation. Workplace diversity change leaders have learned that making diversity work cannot be taken for granted. We cannot automatically assume that people will engage well with others across differences. Our history with bias, inequity and exclusion remains too much a part of how we understand one another. Making diversity work represents a mindset shift in the way people interact and engage. Organizations that are serious about creating inclusive work environments—where everyone feels welcomed, respected, and valued for who they are—recognize the importance of how people work together. Relationship building across differences needs to be developed and nurtured. Inclusive organizations focus on creating internal culture change to build people skills and promote shared expectations for mutual respect— an evolving endeavor. I’d like to add to the conversation by offering several observations for what this mindset shift might entail

Cambodia's Persistent Dollarization: Causes and Policy Options

Cambodia's economic and social achievements over the past ten years have been the most impressive in its history. Nevertheless, Cambodia today is still as dollarized, if not more so, than it was ten years ago. What is this so, and what, if anything, should the Government do? This paper attempts to answer both these questions, by examining the reasons behind the apparent paradox between a decade of economic and political improvements and continued dollarization, and drawing policy implications from it. We advise against pursuing enforced dedollarization, and advocate a policy option that focuses instead on accelerating accommodative reforms, especially in the financial sector and on legal and institutional reforms. We also identify a host of institutional barriers that need to be overcome to prepare the groundwork for a natural process of de-dollarization.Cambodia; dollarization; exchange rates; currency board; hysteresis

Trade Intensity and Business Cycle Synchronization: The Case of East Asia

This paper examines whether increasing trade intensity among East Asian countries has led to a synchronization of business cycles. It extends the work of Shin and Wang (2004) in two ways: by (i) improving the specification of their business cycle correlation equation, and (ii) extending the sample to cover the period after the Asian financial crisis. The study finds that intra-industry trade, rather than inter-industry trade, is the major factor explaining business cycle co-movements in East Asia, with important implications for the prospects for a single currency in the region.economic integration; trade intensity; intra-industry trade; business cycle synchronization; East Asia

Does Trade Integration Contribute to Peace?

This paper investigates the effect of trade integration on military conflict. Our empirical analysis,based on a large panel data set of 290,040 country-pair observations from 1950 to 2000, confirms that an increase in bilateral trade interdependence and global trade openness significantly promotes peace. It also suggests that the effect of trade openness varies depending on the geographical proximity of countries. The peace-promotion effect of bilateral trade integration is significantly higher for contiguous countries that are likely to experience more conflicts. The analysis shows, however, that an increase in global trade openness reduces the probability of conflict more for countries far apart from each other than it does for countries sharing borders. The results also show that military conflict between countries significantly reduces not only bilateral trade interdependence but also multilateral trade integration. The main finding of the peace-promotion effect of bilateral and global trade integration holds robust when controlling for the natural and geopolitical characteristics of dyads of states that may influence the probability of military conflict and for the simultaneous determination of trade and peace.Trade; Globalization; Military conflict; Peace

Thinking About LGBT Diversity in the Workplace

[Excerpt] Today, according to a May 13, 2011 report by the PEW Research Center, “a majority of Americans, 58%, now say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged by society.” There are many reasons for this more inclusive shift in attitudes. Inclusion of sexual orientation, and increasingly gender identity, in workplace inclusion initiatives and diversity awareness dialogue is likely one. The workplace, driven by the pragmatic need for improved productivity, talent recruitment, and retention of a motivated workforce, has become a powerful environment for social change and learning

Investment without regulatory commitment : the case of elastic demand

Includes bibliographical references (p. 9)

Taking advantage of online communities for generating innovative ideas

The use of the internet for business purposes and among consumers is spreading at an impressive rate. Companies use it for a lot of different activities like, for example, marketing, online shopping and customer service. However, the use of the internet for the purpose of innovation, to create ideas and concepts, is still underdeveloped. Practical experience shows that online communities are suitable for developing innovative ideas with users. To gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms we have taken a case-study approach. Based on this we generate a set of propositions concerning characteristics that a community should have in order to foster innovativeness. Our findings show that communities should be social, access should be restricted and it is necessary that users are free to post critical messages. Furthermore, the threads should be organised to create a lively discussion and users have to be able to build-up reputation. --internet , online communities

Changing Impact of Fiscal Policy on Selected ASEAN Countries

This paper investigates the effectiveness of fiscal policy in five Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Through a structural vector autoregression (VAR) model, government spending is found to have weak and largely insignificant impact on output, while taxes are found to have outcomes contrary to conventional theory. Extensions using a time-varying VAR model reveal the impact of taxes on output mainly reflect heightened concerns over public finances amid the Asian financial crisis and the recent global financial crisis. On the other hand, for Singapore and Thailand, there is evidence that government spending can at times be useful as a tool for countercyclical policy.ASEAN; fiscal policy; structural VAR; time-varying VAR

Assessing the Resilience of ASEAN Banking Systems: The Case of the Philippines

Since the global financial crisis in 2008/09 there has been heightened concern about the resilience of banking systems in Southeast Asia. This paper proposes a methodology that uses a macroprudential perspective to assess the resilience of banking systems in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It then proceeds to apply this methodology to examine the resilience of the Philippine banking system. Data on financial soundness in the Philippine banking system are utilized in a vector autoregression model to study the dynamic relationships that exist among financial and macroeconomic indicators. Using impulse response functions, a simulation of financial ratios in the banking system is conducted by assuming unlikely but plausible stress scenarios to determine whether banking system credit and capital could withstand the impact of such circumstances. In the stress scenarios, the estimated impact of macroeconomic shocks on nonperforming loan and capital adequacy ratios is generally minimal. The results, however, do suggest that the Philippine banking system has some vulnerability to interest rate and stock market shocks. The results of such stress testing provide a better understanding of the level of preparedness required for managing risks in the financial system, especially in the wake of continuing global economic uncertainty.Banking System; Macroprudential; Stress Testing; Philippines; Panel VAR

Crises in Asia: Recovery and Policy Responses

The goal of this paper is to provide stylized facts on recovery from economic downturns and to evaluate the role of macroeconomic policies in promoting recovery. In particular, we examine gross domestic product (GDP) recessions and financial downturns (credit contractions and stock price declines) using data from 21 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) economies and 21 developing Asian economies. We find, in general, recovery from a GDP recession in Asian economies is somewhat slower than in OECD economies. However, recovery from a financial downturn is not much different between Asian and OECD economies. We also find OECD economies have been more active and effective in using counter-cyclical policies than Asian economies in the face of GDP recessions and financial downturns. Recent evidence, however, suggests Asian economies may have better success in the current global crisis.Recession; Financial Crisis; Recovery; Policy Response; Asia