Facing the development challenge in Mozambique: an economywide perspective

"Following Mozambique's economic collapse in 1986, the country began a wide-ranging process of reform, with the support of the international community. The diagnosis was of an economy that failed to maintain monetary control, consumed beyond its means, focused production excessively on nontraded goods, and relied on inefficient and inflexible microeconomic structures. Nevertheless, Mozambique was also at war. The pace of stabilization and structural adjustment quickened after 1992, when, concurrent with the demise of apartheid, civil strife finally came to an end. After more than 10 years of adjustment, the reform program has now been essentially implemented. Yet, this does not imply, as shown in this study, that sufficient conditions for sustained economic development are in place. Mozambique remains very poor, and even under highly optimistic assumptions about the future, the development process is set to last for decades. This report attempts to respond to some of the basic development challenges facing Mozambique and to provide both qualitative and quantitative insights for policymaking in the years to come. Throughout, the issues addressed are approached from an economywide perspective ....Finally, this study aims to demonstrate that sophisticated analytical tools can be of significant value, even in “data-poor” situations. The need for a clear perspective and in-depth understanding of the socioeconomic complexities of the country in question stands out. However, while the analyses in this report are Mozambique specific, the basic analytical approach is replicable and could be brought to bear on other countries both within and outside Africa." From Authors' Introduction.Structural adjustment (Economic policy) Mozambique., Mozambique Economic conditions 1975- ., Mozambique Social conditions., Agriculture Economic aspects Africa., Poverty.,

Land, Labour and Capital Markets in European Agriculture: Diversity under a Common Policy. CEPS Paperback. October 2013

Well-functioning factor markets are an essential condition for the competitiveness and sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas. At the same time, the functioning of the factor markets themselves is influenced by changes in agriculture and the rural economy. Such changes can be the result of progress in technology, globalisation and European market integration, changing consumer preferences and shifts in policy. Changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) over the last decade have particularly affected the rural factor markets. This book analyses the functioning of factor markets for agriculture in the EU-27 and several candidate countries. Written by leading academics and policy analysts from various European countries, these chapters compare the different markets, their institutional framework, their impact on agricultural development and structural change, and their interaction with the CAP. As the first comparative study to cover rural factor markets in Europe, highlighting their diversity − despite the Common Agricultural Policy and an integrated single market − Land, Labour & Capital Markets in European Agriculture provides a timely and valuable source of information at a time of further CAP reform and the continuing transformation of the EU's rural areas

European Community.

No abstract is available for this item.

Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets: A Survey

The characteristics that distinguish most developing countries, compared to large industrialized countries, include: greater exposure to supply shocks in general and trade volatility in particular, procyclicality of both domestic fiscal policy and international finance, lower credibility with respect to both price stability and default risk, and other imperfect institutions. These characteristics warrant appropriate models. Models of dynamic inconsistency in monetary policy and the need for central bank independence and commitment to nominal targets apply even more strongly to developing countries. But because most developing countries are price-takers on world markets, the small open economy model, with nontraded goods, is often more useful than the two-country two-good model. Contractionary effects of devaluation are also far more important for developing countries, particularly the balance sheet effects that arise from currency mismatch. The exchange rate was the favored nominal anchor for monetary policy in inflation stabilizations of the late 1980s and early 1990s. After the currency crises of 1994-2001, the conventional wisdom anointed Inflation Targeting as the preferred monetary regime in place of exchange rate targets. But events associated with the global crisis of 2007-09 have revealed limitations to the choice of CPI for the role of price index. The participation of emerging markets in global finance is a major reason why they have by now earned their own large body of research, but it also means that they remain highly prone to problems of asymmetric information, illiquidity, default risk, moral hazard and imperfect institutions. Many of the models designed to fit emerging market countries were built around such financial market imperfections; few economists thought this inappropriate. With the global crisis of 2007-09, the tables have turned: economists should now consider drawing on the models of emerging market crises to try to understand the unexpected imperfections and failures of advanced-country financial markets.

Essays on Environmental Policy Instruments, Emissions Leakage and Public Policy

This dissertation consists of three essays related to my research on environmental policy, emissions leakage, and public policy. In the first essay, I address how open economies respond to environmental policy instruments under uncertainty. I develop a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model for a small open economy (SOE) and evaluate the macroeconomic fluctuations in response to cap-and-trade, pollution tax, and emissions intensity standard under two shocks: productivity and terms of trade. My findings suggest that cap-and-trade policies are most effective in dampening the macroeconomic volatility from productivity shock. However, under the terms-of-trade shock, pollution tax, and intensity target policies are as effective as the cap-and-trade policies in reducing the macroeconomic volatility of consumption and employment. The second essay addresses the effects of a general fall in service trade costs on emissions leakage. I develop a two-good (manufacturing and services) general equilibrium model of a SOE to evaluate emissions leakage from an emissions tax increase. Under free trade in manufacturing and no trade in services, no leakage occurs. Allowing for trade in services, a positive leakage is driven by income, output and terms-of-trade effects. Calibrating the model to the Canadian macroeconomic data, I find that the emissions leakage is about 18 % lower when using trade friction levels estimated from the literature rather than assuming no trade frictions in services. In the third essay, using a data panel for American states from 1987 to 2010, I evaluate the effects of rainy day funds (RDFs) on state gross domestic product (GDP). RDFs are intended to smooth taxes and spending to alleviate fiscal stress during recessions. While RDFs are not intended to affect the business cycle, they may do so through fund accumulation during periods of economic expansion and through fund disbursement during periods of economic contraction. Using an Arellano-Bond estimator, I find that the RDF\u27s average output multiplier is about l.5. The multiplier during recessionary periods is about 3.4 and during election years is as big as in recessionary periods

Center for Economic Studies and Research Data Centers Research Report: 2013

Many individuals within and outside the Census Bureau contributed to this report. Randy Becker coordinated the production of this report and wrote, compiled, or edited its various parts. Matthew Graham and Robert Pitts authored Chapter 2, C.J. Krizan authored Chapter 3, and Lucia Foster, Todd Gardner, Christopher Goetz, Cheryl Grim, Henry Hyatt, Mark Kutzbach, Giordano Palloni, Kristin Sandusky, James Spletzer, and Alice Zawacki all contributed to Chapter 4. Brian Holly provided the material found in Appendix 3. Our RDC administrators and executive directors helped compile information found in Appendixes 2 and 6. Other CES staff contributed updates to the other appendixes. Linda Chen of the Census Bureau’s Center for New Media and Promotions and Donna Gillis of the Public Information Office provided publication management, graphics design and composition, and editorial review for print and electronic media. Benjamin Dunlap of the Census Bureau’s Administrative and Customer Services Division provided printing management.The Center for Economic Studies partners with stakeholders within and outside the U.S. Census Bureau to improve measures of the economy and people of the United States through research and innovative data products.Research summaries in this report have not undergone the review accorded Census Bureau publications and no endorsement should be inferred. Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Census Bureau or other organizations. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed

The dragon and the elephant

"China's and India's rapid rise in the global arena has not only captured the attention of the world but has also set into motion a rethinking of the very paradigm of economic development....Today, China and India together account for 40 percent of the world's population. Both have implemented a series of economic reforms in the past two and half decades: China initiated this process at the end of the 1970s, while India began in the early 1990s. These reforms have led to rapid economic growth, with a growth rate of 8–9 percent per annum in China and 6–7 percent per annum in India. Despite similar trends in the reforms, the two countries have taken different reform paths; China started off with reforms in the agriculture sector and in rural areas, while India started by liberalizing and reforming the manufacturing sector. These differences have led to different growth rates and, more importantly, different rates of poverty reduction. They also have fundamentally different implications for growth and poverty reduction in the future. What can we learn from the process of economic reform in these two countries?... A number of studies looking into key aspects of reform and their relationship to outcomes, presented at two international workshops held in New Delhi and Beijing, try to offer some answers to these questions. These papers are currently being prepared by IFPRI for publication, and this discussion paper is a synopsis presented as a forerunner to the book. " from Authors' AbstractPoverty alleviation China ,Poverty alleviation Egypt ,Economic reform ,

The Impact of Decoupled Payments on Land Prices in the EU

This chapter analyses the income distributional effects of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in the EU. The authors find that the SPS implementation details are highly significant in determining policy rent distribution between farmers and landowners. Farmers’ benefits can range from 100% of the SPS value to a negative policy incidence.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Boosting productivity in the services sector: 2nd interim report - competition and ICT topics

Contains questions, findings and recommendations important to raising services-sector productivity in New Zealand, focusing on the adoption of information and communications technology by service firms. Overview: This is the Productivity Commission’s 2nd interim report as part of its inquiry Boosting Productivity in the Services Sector. The report focuses on two topics that are significant to raising productivity in the services sector: stimulating a more competitive environment in the services sector; and the successful application of information and communications technology (ICT) by New Zealand service firms. The inquiry’s 1st interim report – released in July 2013 – focused on developing a better understanding of the services sector, its recent performance, and its role in the New Zealand economy. That report sets out the vital role that services play in the New Zealand economy. For example: services account for nearly three-quarters of GDP; and the competitiveness of exports depends critically on the performance of the services sector. This is because the services sector contributes more than half the country’s exports, primarily through embodiment in exported goods. Services-sector productivity, therefore, strongly affects the productivity of the economy as a whole and the wellbeing of New Zealanders. Yet the sector has underperformed relative to the best international performers. Productivity growth in the US services sector and that of some European countries has driven aggregate productivity growth in those countries. Most services industries in New Zealand have not experienced the same growth in productivity. Growth has been neither strong nor broad-based enough to achieve any significant productivity catch-up in the economy when compared with leading OECD countries. The productivity levels of most New Zealand services industries are below those in Australia and the United Kingdom

Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets: A Survey

The characteristics that distinguish most developing countries, compared to large industrialized countries, include: greater exposure to supply shocks in general and trade volatility in particular, procyclicality of both domestic fiscal policy and international finance, lower credibility with respect to both price stability and default risk, and other imperfect institutions. These characteristics warrant appropriate models. Models of dynamic inconsistency in monetary policy and the need for central bank independence and commitment to nominal targets apply even more strongly to developing countries. But because most developing countries are price-takers on world markets, the small open economy model, with nontraded goods, is often more useful than the two-country two-good model. Contractionary effects of devaluation are also far more important for developing countries, particularly the balance sheet effects that arise from currency mismatch. The exchange rate was the favored nominal anchor for monetary policy in inflation stabilizations of the late 1980s and early 1990s. After the currency crises of 1994-2001, the conventional wisdom anointed Inflation Targeting as the preferred monetary regime in place of exchange rate targets. But events associated with the global crisis of 2007-09 have revealed limitations to the choice of CPI for the role of price index. The participation of emerging markets in global finance is a major reason why they have by now earned their own large body of research, but it also means that they remain highly prone to problems of asymmetric information, illiquidity, default risk, moral hazard and imperfect institutions. Many of the models designed to fit emerging market countries were built around such financial market imperfections; few economists thought this inappropriate. With the global crisis of 2007-09, the tables have turned: economists should now consider drawing on the models of emerging market crises to try to understand the unexpected imperfections and failures of advanced-country financial markets.