Stimulating innovation in Russia: the role of institutions and policies

This paper examines the potential role of innovation policy in enhancing long-term productivity growth in Russia. It begins by exploring the role of framework conditions for business in encouraging innovative activities, particularly with respect to intellectual property rights and competition. Realising Russia’s innovation potential will also require reform of the large public science sector. This raises issues pertaining to the organisation and financing of public research bodies and, in particular, to the incentives and opportunities they face in commercialising the results of their research. Finally, the paper looks at the potential role of direct interventions, such as special economic zones and technoparks, as well as the scope for improving the tax regime for private-sector R&D

Banking, financial integration, and international crises : an overview

This paper summarizes new research on the relationship among institutions, financial development, economic growth, financial integration, and the likelihood of boom-bust cycles and banking crises. The first part of the paper reviews issues pertaining mainly to the banking sector, and summarizes new findings regarding banking regulation and supervision and the behavior of depositors and other market participants. New findings on the internationalization of banking, boom-bust cycles and macro-financial linkages during financial integration, the elements of international financial crises, and the role of capital controls to reduce macroeconomic vulnerability are reviewed in the second part of the paper.

From “Clientelism” to a “Client-centred orientation”? The challenge of public administration reform in Russia

The inefficiency, corruption and lack of accountability that afflict public administration in Russia impose substantial direct costs on both entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens. This paper examines the major weaknesses of Russia’s public administration and assesses the government’s recently revised programme of administrative reform. It lays particular stress on the relationship between public bureaucracies and the larger institutional environment within which they operate, as well as on the need for far greater transparency of public bodies and stronger non-judicial means of redress for citizens wishing to challenge bureaucratic decisions. Many of the problems of Russia’s public administration are aggravated by the fact that the Russian state often tries to do too much: the paper therefore explores the link between administrative reform and the scope of state ownership and regulation

ICLARM annual report

A report of the Center's activities during the year.ICLARM, Annual reports

Banking on crises : expensive lessons from recent financial crises

Caprio summarizes both basic and proximate factors behind financial crises, arguing that although a variety of factors contribute to the crises, the basic causes are information and incentive problems. Caprio develops a scoring system for the broad regulatory environment for a dozen Asian and Latin American financial systems in 1997. The Asian economies in crises score the lowest. Economies with the highest scores felt relatively little impact from the crises. This paper will address these issues. Section II will summarize briefly the voluminous literature on proximate and more distant causes of crises. Although both micro and macro factors are associated with crises, beyond lobbying for changes in the international financial system, national authorities are left with following sound macro policies, improving financial sector infrastructure, and upgrading regulation and supervision as mean of minimizing the likelihood and costs of financial crises. Is there a payoff to improving the regulatory framework? Tentative evidence presented in section III, which compares the broad regulatory environment in 12 selected Asian and Latin American countries, suggests that the answer is affirmative. This comparison both reveals how some countries have been progressing, and can help as a guide, indicating weak areas of regulation that should be a target for further improvement. Generally, those countries that have higher scores on their regulatory systemsappear to have weathered the latest crisis well, suggesting that improving the regulatory environment, broadly interpreted, should be a goal for countries that have not thus far made much headway in this area. A plausible hypothesis then is that authorities are learning -- at great cost - - from the last 2 decades of crises and are moving to raise the cost or otherwise tighten the safety net supporting the banking sector. Section IV concludes with unresolved issues and suggestions for future research.Financial Intermediation,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research

"Policy externalisation" inherent failure : international financial institutions' conditionality in developing countries

Conditionalities – i.e. ‘exchanging finance for policy reform’ in an asymmetrical relationship between the ‘donor’ and the ‘recipient’ – are central mechanisms of the reform programmes of international financial institutions (IFIs). As they are imposed by outside entities, they can also be viewed as ‘policy externalisation’, which is paradoxically a massive intrusion in the shaping of a country’s domestic policies. The resilience of such devices is remarkable, however. Indeed, in the early 1980s, many developing countries were facing balance of payments difficulties and called upon these international financial institutions for financial relief. In exchange for this relief, they devised economic reforms (fiscal, financial, monetary), which were the conditions for their lending. These reforms were not associated with better economic performance, and this led the IFIs to devise in the 1990s different reforms, which this time targeted the functioning of the government and its ‘governance’, economic problems being explained by governments’ characteristics (e.g., rent-seekers). The paper demonstrates the limitations of the device of conditionality, which is a crucial theoretical and policy issue given its stability across time and countries. These limitations stem from: i) the concept of conditionality per se - the mechanism of exchanging finance for reform; ii) the contents of the prescribed reforms given developing countries economic structure (typically commodity-based export structures) and the weakness of the concept of ‘governance’ in view of these countries’ political economies; and iii) the intrinsic linkages between economic and political conditionalities, whose limitations thus retroact on each other, in particular regarding effectiveness and credibility

De Novo, vol 5, issue 2, November 2007

https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/newspapers/1068/thumbnail.jp

Evaluación crítica de la comprensión y del conocimiento actuales en el contexto de una aproximación ecosistémica a la gestión pesquera en el Mar Mediterráneo y el Mar Negro

A critical review was carried out involving experts from 17 countries, to identify, summarize and evaluate the current understanding related to the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries management (EAF) in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The existing information available at country level, coming from research and monitoring projects and other types of activities, was explored. The evaluation was done following a standardized protocol and using simple semi-quantitative methods. The results highlighted an overall low-medium degree of fulfilment of the requirements of the EAF, with some differences related to the different issues considered. The highest scores were reported for the knowledge related to fleet structure/ behaviour and species/habitat distribution, whereas the lowest scores were reported for modelling, and socio-economic and management issues. Although only semi-quantitative, these results provided an initial picture at a broad regional level on the state of knowledge with a view to a proper implementation of the EAF in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and identified gaps in scientific knowledge that should be covered.Se llevó a cabo una revisión crítica con la intervención de expertos de 17 países para la identificación, resumen y evaluación del conocimiento actual en relación a la Aproximación Ecosistémica a la Gestión Pesquera (EAF) en el Mar Mediterráneo y el Mar Negro. Se explora la información existente a nivel de cada país, derivada de proyectos de investigación y seguimiento, así como otros tipos de actividades. Se llevó a cabo una evaluación siguiendo un protocolo estandardizado y el uso de métodos semi-cuantitativos. Los resultados muestran que en general el grado de cumplimiento con los requerimientos de EAF es bajo-medio, con algunas diferencias relacionadas con los distintos aspectos considerados. Las puntuaciones más elevadas correspondieron al conocimiento relacionado con la estructura de flota y su comportamiento, así como con la distribución espacial de hábitats y especies. Las puntuaciones más bajas correspondieron a aspectos relacionados con la modelización, la socio-economía y la gestión. A pesar de su carácter semi-cuantitativo, estos resultados proporcionan una primera imagen a nivel regional del estado de conocimiento del que se parte para una implementación adecuada de EAF en el Mar Mediterráneo y el Mar Negro y ayuda a identificar las carencias en el conocimiento científico que deben ser corregidas