The economic dimensions of prolonged occupation: continuity and change in Israeli policy towards the Palestinian economy

- There is no Israeli economic policy towards the Palestinian people or the occupied territory; rather there is a policy to maintain occupation and administration of the Palestinian territory by whatever means available, including economic strategies; - Israeli strategies deployed since 1967 have included economic inducements to improve the quality of life, devolution, and other schemes focused on promoting individual welfare but not preventing communal poverty; - The Oslo Accords and the Paris Protocol on Economic Relations (PER) of 1994 formalized the de facto customs union in operation under occupation and locked in the adverse path of dependence of the Palestinian economy upon Israel; - Palestinian Authority institutions have been unable to establish sovereign or even autonomous institutions capable of expanding the space for economic policymaking and for economic polices promoting long-term development; - The effects of Israel’s dual strategy of skewed economic integration coupled with physical separation has led, over forty years, to divergence in per capita incomes between Israel and the territory, rather than the convergence promised by economic theory and the premises of the customs union; - Instead of continuing to repeatedly reform the facades of interim self-government, all efforts should aim to form the sovereign institutions for statehood; - New Israeli overtures under the heading of “economic peace” risk not only diverting attention from political processes, but also hark back to an era of Israeli domination of the Palestinian economy, which demonstrably failed; - Though the PER may have outlived its design and usefulness, it can only be superseded if a fundamentally different framework is envisaged, rooted in ensuring Palestinian sovereignty, statehood and economic viability; - A Palestinian economic strategy for sovereignty and peace would entail seeking recognition of the Palestinian economy as a separate customs territory, and would become the reference point for formulation of economic policy, institution-building, decision-making, and international economic relations; - Such a status would offer a platform for building a viable, vibrant and secure national economy for the envisioned State of Palestine, governed by a framework which adheres, among other principles, to the multilateral rules and disciplines embodied in the World Trade Organization; - Only through a Palestinian economic policy framework that is predicated on the separate, internationally recognized status of the economy of the occupied territory, which in turn helps to create the conditions to end occupation, can a viable Palestinian economy and a sovereign State emerge to deliver the promise of peace.Palestinian economy, occupied Palestinian territories

Political ecology and the epistemology of social justice

Piers Blaikie’s writings on political ecology in the 1980s represented a turning point in the generation of environmental knowledge for social justice. His writings since the 1980s demonstrated a further transition in the identification of social justice by replacing a Marxist and eco-catastrophist epistemology with approaches influenced by critical realism, post-structuralism and participatory development. Together, these works demonstrated an important engagement with the politics of how environmental explanations are made, and the mutual dependency of social values and environmental knowledge. Yet, today, the lessons of Blaikie’s work are often missed by analysts who ask what is essentially political or ecological about political ecology, or by those who argue that a critical approach to environmental knowledge should mean deconstruction alone. This paper reviews Blaikie’s work since the 1980s and focuses especially on the meaning of ‘politics’ within his approach to political ecology. The paper argues that Blaikie’s key contribution is not just in linking environmental knowledge and politics, but also in showing ways that environmental analysis and policy can be reframed towards addressing the problems of socially vulnerable people. This pragmatic co-production of environmental knowledge and social values offers a more constructive means of building socially just environmental policy than insisting politics or ecology exist independently of each other, or believing environmental interventions are futile in a post-Latourian world

Firm finances, weather derivatives and geography

This paper considers some intellectual, practical and political dimensions of collaboration between human and physical geographers exploring how firms are using relatively new financial products – weather derivatives – to displace any costs of weather-related uncertainty and risk. The paper defines weather derivatives and indicates how they differ from weather insurance products before considering the geo-political, cultural and economic context for their creation. The paper concludes by reflecting on the challenges of research collaboration across the human–physical geography divide and suggests that while such initiatives may be undermined by a range of institutional and intellectual factors, conversations between physical and human geographers remain and are likely to become increasingly pertinent. The creation of a market in weather derivatives raises a host of urgent political and regulatory questions and the confluence of natural and social knowledges, co-existing within and through the geography academy, provides a constructive and creative basis from which to engage with this new market and wider discourses of uneven economic development and climate change

Short-run and long-run determinants of the price of gold

In 1833 the price of gold was $20.65 per ounce, about$415 in 2005 terms, while in 2005 the actual price of gold was $445 - a very small change in the real price of gold over a period of one hundred and seventy two years. Despite this apparent constancy in real terms over the long run, it is also true that, outside of periods when the gold price was fixed through various iterations of the gold standard, it has fluctuated significantly in the shorter term, sometimes for years at a time. Can these two apparently contradictory realities be reconciled? And can one be sure that the long run positive relationship between gold and inflation has persisted beyond the era of Bretton Woods? Indeed, is there any credence to the claim that gold can be used as a long-run hedge against inflation? The results reported in this paper provide some answers to these questions that are so central to the gold market and its many participants around the world. We also address the inflation hedging properties of gold in the currencies of the major gold-consuming countries outside of the USA, taking into account both the domestic exchange rate relative to the dollar and domestic consumer price index movements. Real gold prices denominated in the home currency of investors outside of the USA also deviate in the short-run from their home country inflation hedge price and there is also a long-run tendency for gold prices to revert to the long-run hedge price. The major gold consuming countries outside of the USA, that is, India, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia were rational to purchase gold in that it proved more than adequate as an inflation hedge. For these countries the actual USA dollar gold price between 1976 and 2005 far exceeded the dollar gold price required to provide an inflation hedge after taking account of exchange rates between the US dollar and the home country and the home country consumer price index movements

Global Risks 2015, 10th Edition.

The 2015 edition of the Global Risks report completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, drawing on the perspectives of experts and global decision-makers. Over that time, analysis has moved from risk identification to thinking through risk interconnections and the potentially cascading effects that result. Taking this effort one step further, this year's report underscores potential causes as well as solutions to global risks. Not only do we set out a view on 28 global risks in the report's traditional categories (economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological) but also we consider the drivers of those risks in the form of 13 trends. In addition, we have selected initiatives for addressing significant challenges, which we hope will inspire collaboration among business, government and civil society communitie

Toward a long-term strategy of economic development of Croatia: Where to begin, what to do and how to do it?

This paper attempts to elaborate the main principles of an economic development strategy suitable for Croatia over the next 10–15 years. Based on brief analyses of advances made in development theory and policy and experiences of the emerging market economies in Asia, Latin America, and Central Europe, the paper identifies critical factors necessary for launching an accelerated process of economic development. These factors are: leadership commitment to economic development; the level and quality of social and human capital; application of modern (especially information) technology; stable and consistent macroeconomic policies; and efficient market-based institutions. The paper then analyses Croatia’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of these factors in comparison with a select group of economies: Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Ireland, Chile, Uruguay, Hong Kong and Singapore. In addition, the paper analyses implications of “new economy” developments in the United States and other advanced industrial countries for a small open economy like Croatia. Against this background, the paper proposes seven basic principles for elaborating a long-term strategy of Croatia’s economic development: (i) Setting a clear development goal—the paper proposes a doubling of real per capita GDP to US$10,000 in the next 10–15 years, which would require an average annual growth rate of about 5½%, and that this growth rate is achievable; (ii) Ensuring transparency and equal access to development opportunities, as opposed to following specific industrial policy; (iii) Adjusting to globalisation of economic activity and absorbing “new economy” developments; (iv) Implementing fundamental reform of labour markets, with a view to reducing the high non-wage labour costs through pension and health care reforms; (v) Actively promoting financial market development by accelerating corporate and bank restructuring, and legal and judicial system reforms; (vi) Deciding on the economic role of the state in such areas as education, legal and judicial systems, market regulation, infrastructure, and science and technology; and (vii) Maintaining stable and consistent macroeconomic policies to facilitate structural reforms. The paper briefly discusses the main benefits and costs of a possible “euroisation” of Croatia’s economy, and arrangements for a possible transition from the current monetary and exchange rate regime, characterised by a high degree of factor and commodity price indexation to the Deutsche mark, toward a more flexible interim regime that would facilitate the eventual adoption of the euro and be consistent with the overall development strategy outlined

Modeling the fiscal impacts caused by climate change

Aim of the paper: The purpose is to gather the practices and to model the impacts of climate change on fiscal spending and revenues, responsibilities and opportunities, balance and debt related to climate change (CC). Methodology of the paper: The methodology will distinguish fiscal cost of mitigation and adaptation, besides direct and indirect costs. It will also introduce cost benefit analyses to evaluate the propensity of policy makers for action or passivity. Several scenarios will be drafted to see the different outcomes. The scenarios shall contain the possible losses in the natural and artificial environment and resources. Impacts on public budget are based on damage of income opportunities and capital/wealth/natural assets. There will be a list of actions when the fiscal correction of market failures will be necessary. Findings: There will be a summary and synthesis of estimation models on CC impacts on public finances, and morals of existing/existed budgeting practices on mitigation. The model will be based on damages (and maybe benefits) from CC, adjusted with probabilities of scenarios and policy making propensity for action. Findings will cover the way of funding of fiscal costs. Practical use, value added: From the synthesis of model, the fiscal cost of mitigation and adaptation can be estimated for any developed, emerging and developing countries. The paper will try to reply, also, for the challenge how to harmonize fiscal and developmental sustainability