7,571 research outputs found
What do Asian Countries Want the Seat at the High Table for? G20 as a New Global Economic Governance Forum and the Role of Asia
The recent global crisis has reminded everyone of the importance of reforming the international monetary and financial system. The current system is no longer adequate to meet the needs of a complex, integrated world economy. Various proposals, both on the demand and supply sides, have been put forward, and include building a stronger global financial safety net, diversifying the supply of international reserve currencies, and so on. However, these proposals face trade-offs between desirability and political feasibility. In this situation, a practical proposal entails strengthening policy coordination among the major economies and reforming the International Monetary Fund. Success on both fronts depends heavily on reform of global economic governance and the effectiveness of the G20. Asia‘s representation in the G20, and its increased status, give both privileges and responsibilities. To meet these responsibilities, Asians should invest greater efforts in developing their intellectual leadership in global economic issues.Global Economic Governance Reform; Reform of International Monetary System; Reform of the International Monetary Fund; The role of Asia in global economic governance
Credit policies : lessons from East Asia
Directed credit programs were a major tool of development in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, their usefulness was reconsidered. Experience in most countries showed that they stimulated capital-intensive projects, that preferential funds were often (mis)used for nonpriority purposes, that a decline in financial discipline led to low repayment rates, and that budget deficits swelled. Moreover, the programs were hard to remove. But Japan and other East Asian countries have long touted the merits of focused, well-managed directed credit programs, saying they are warranted when there is a significant discrepancy between private and social benefits, when invesment risk is too high on certain projects, and when information problems discourage lending to small and medium-size firms. The assumption underlying policy-based assistance and other forms of industrial assistance (such as lower taxes) is that the main constraint on new or expanding enterprises is limited to access to credit. The authors give an overview of credit policies in East Asian countries (China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea) as well as India, and summarize what these countries have learned about directed credit programs. Among the lessons: 1) Credit programs must small, narrowly focused, and of limited duration (with clear sunset provisions); 2) subsidies must be low to minimize distortion of incentives as well as the tax on financial intermediation that all such programs entail; 3) credit programs must be financed by long-term funds to prevent inflation and macroeconomic instability, recourse to central bank credit should be avoided except in the very early stages of development when the central bank's assistance can help jump-start economic growth; 4) they should aim at achieving positive externalities (or avoiding negative ones), any help to declining industries should include plans for their timely phaseout; 5) they should promote industrialization and export orientation in a competitive private sector with internationaly competitive operations; 6) they should be part of a credible vision of economic development that promotes growth with equity and should involve a long-term strategy to develop a sound financial system; 7) policy based loans should be channeled through well-capitalized, administratively capable financial institutions, professionally managed by autonomous managers; 8) they should be based on clear, objective, easily monitored criteria; 9) programs should aim for a good repayment record and few losses; and 10) they should be supported by effective mechanisms for communication and consultation between the public and private sectors, including the collection and dissemination of basic market information.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Economic Theory&Research,Housing Finance,Banks&Banking Reform
Risk management and stable financial structures
Conventional development economics has focused mainly on generating economic growth by mobilizing savings and allocating them wisely among investment opportunities. Savings (external and domestic) were to be mobilized through tax incentives, income, and interest rate policies. Their allocation often involved direct government intervention in the investment process. After the disastrous results of the 1980s, the new wisdom is to let the private sector generate growth, while the government provides the regulatory and supervisory framework for competitive markets, ensures the existence of level playing fields, and removes obvious cases of moral hazard. But the private sector working under an inappropriate financial structure may do no better than the government in making right investment choices for long-term growth. So governments (which in a financial crisis are responsible for all national debts) should have an effective national risk management strategy, with an understanding of the national balance sheet, and the necessity of a stable financial structure for steady long-term economic growth. The authors argue that it is not only how much investment is mobilized and allocated but also how investments are financed that matters for an economy's long-term growth. Finance and development are inextricably linked with risk management (both at the sectoral and national levels). Development is a function not just of promoting the right industries and allocating capital for the high-return investments (asset management) but also of choosing the right financial structure (liability management) - and of the related risks arising from the liability mix chosen. The authors argue that one of the ingredients of the East Asian success is prudent risk management by these governments. They present five rules for national risk management, concluding, among other things, to: (a) establish fiscal discipline and price stability as the anchor of overall financial stability; (b) encourage asset diversification through industrialization and export orientation, financed by foreign direct investment; (c) avoid sectoral imbalances, such as excessive domestic or external borrowing, including the development of instruments and institutions to absorb shocks; (d) establish strong institutional capacity to assess and contain systemic risks; and (e) when the above conditions are not adequately met, retain some policy measures to handle the risk.Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research
The government's role in Japanese and Korean credit markets : a new institutional economics perspective
The authors discuss the effectiveness of credit policies in the early stages of economic development in Japan and Korea. They examine the importance of institutional arrangements for managing credit policies in the two countries. They emphasize participatory government intervention, wherein credit policies could be viewed as part of an internal allocation mechanism: government, banks, and large industrial firms may be said to have formed what the authors call a"government led internal organization"(GLIO). They examine the theoretical foundations for this view and discuss the implications for the efficiency of credit allocations. They argue that in early economic development such a participatory approach may have helped overcome pervasive market imperfections. But there were also significant dangers: problems of entrenched interests and institutional inertia. In both countries, the relative importance of GLIO gradually diminished as competitive capital markets and large conglomerates ("privately led internal government organizations") expanded with economic growth.Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation
The financial crisis in Korea
노트 : Paper prepared for World Bank Conference, "Financial Liberalization: How Far, How Fast?" Washington, D.C
The Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education: Intellectual and attitudinal challenges
mathematics; education; curriculu
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Nanoporous Solid Acid Materials for Biomass Conversion into Value-Added Chemicals: Synthesis, Catalysis, and Chemistry
Growing environmental concerns associated with diminishing reserves of fossil fuels has led to accelerated research efforts towards the discovery of new catalytic processes for converting renewable lignocellulosic biomass into value-added chemicals. For this conversion, nanoporous solid acid materials have been widely used because of their excellent hydrothermal stability and molecular sieving capability.
In the thesis, hierarchical Lewis acid zeolites with ordered mesoporosity and MFI topology (three dimensionally ordered mesoporous imprinted (3DOm-i) Sn-MFI) were successfully synthesized within the confined space of three dimensionally ordered mesoporous (3DOm) carbon by a seeded growth method. The obtained 3DOm-i Sn-MFI showed at least 3 times higher catalytic activities for the biomass-derived sugar isomerization than conventional Sn-MFI zeolites. This is because the mesopores in the hierarchical zeolites greatly enhance molecular transport.
In addition, Lewis acid Sn-MFI combined with Pt metal nanoparticles (Pt/Sn-MFI) could oxidize glycerol to produce lactic acid (LA) under base-free conditions. Glycerol is a by-product in biodiesel synthesis. 80.5% selectivity of LA was achieved at 89.8% conversion of glycerol using a bifunctional Pt/Sn-MFI catalyst under base-free conditions. In the tandem reaction pathway, selective oxidation of glycerol to glyceraldehyde (GLA) and dihydroxyacetone (DHA) by using Pt catalysts was cascaded with Lewis acid catalyzed isomerization of GLA/DHA into LA.
Moreover, morphology-tunable Lewis acid Sn-BEA with hydrophobicity was successfully synthesized by recrystallization of post-synthesized Sn-BEA (Sn-BEA-PS) using ammonium fluoride (NH4F) and tetraethylammonium bromide (TEABr). This recrystallization includes simultaneous procedures of dissolution-reassembly: i) the dissolution of Si-O bonds around silanol nests by fluoride ions, and ii) the reassembly of fragmented silica species into defect-free zeolite framework in the presence of TEA ions. The recrystallization also increased open Lewis acid Sn sites. These findings can explain why a 2.5 times higher rate of aqueous glucose isomerization was achieved on recrystallized Sn-BEA (Sn-BEA-RC), compared with Sn-BEA-PS. Moreover, in the isomerization of bulky lactose (C12 sugar) dissolved in MeOH, hierarchical Sn-BEA-RC showed a 3.2-fold higher activity than hydrothermally synthesized Sn-BEA (Sn-BEA-HF), due to the mesopores and enhanced organophobic character of the recrystallized catalyst.
In the final part, renewable p-xylene synthesis was investigated. p-Xylene is a major commodity chemical used for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with applications in polyester fibers, films and bottles. Diels-Alder cycloaddition of 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) and ethylene with subsequent dehydration of the cycloadduct intermediate to produce p-xylene is an attractive reaction pathway for its production from biomass feedstocks. It was shown that phosphorous-containing zeolite BEA (P-BEA) is active, stable and selective for this reaction with an unprecedented p-xylene yield of 97%. It can selectively catalyze the dehydration reaction from the furan-ethylene cycloadduct to p-xylene, without performing side reactions which include alkylation and oligomerization. This acid catalyst establishes a commercially attractive process for renewable p-xylene production
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