580 research outputs found
The Effects of Neoliberal "Reforms" on the Post-Crisis Korean Economy
In December 1997 the IMF offered Korea loans to help alleviate its financial crisis. These loans were accompanied by what the IMF called âextreme structural conditionality.â Korea was required to replace its traditional East Asian economic system with a neoliberal model. We review economic performance in the neoliberal era. Growth has slowed, poverty and inequality have risen, and investment spending has stagnated, while foreign ownership of Korean firms and banks has skyrocketed. We argue that foreign investment has not helped Korea. For example, by leading a shift from corporate to consumer lending, foreign control of Koreaâs financial markets has constrained capital accumulation and helped create an excessively indebted household sector, while making it harder for the government to adopt progressive economic policies. We conclude that the eight year experiment with radical neoliberal restructuring has turned out well for foreign capital and wealthy Koreans, but has been a failure for the majority of Koreaâs people.
Was the IMF's Imposition of Economic Regime Change Justified? A Critique of the IMF's Economic and Political Role in Korea During and After the Crisis
As late as October 1997 the IMF declared that the Korean economy was experiencing a temporary liquidity squeeze, not a solvency problem. Yet in December 1997 Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer declared that Korea suffered from a systemic âbreakdown of economic relationsâ so complete that only radical economic restructuring could restore prosperity. The IMF attached what it called âextreme structural conditionalityâ to its loan agreements with Korea, demanding a complete and rapid transition from Koreaâs traditional East Asian economic model to a globally integrated neoliberal model. We subject the IMFâs assertion that the allocative efficiency of the Korean economy had collapsed by 1997 to a number of empirical tests, including time series and cross-section analyses of capital productivity and corporate profitability, and firm and industry level econometric tests of the proposition that investment spending was excessive and misallocated in the pre-crisis period. This evidence does not support the IMFâs systemic breakdown claim. We conclude that the IMFâs imposition of âextreme structural conditionalityâ on Korea is best understood as an illegitimate and antidemocratic exercise of power designed to meet the needs of the IMFâs key constituents rather than those of the majority of Koreaâs people.
Economic Performance in Post-Crisis Korea: A Critical Perspective on Neo-Liberal Restructuring
This paper evaluates the neoliberal economic restructuring process implemented in Korea following the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We first argue that the austerity macroeconomic policy of late 1997 and early 1998 was the main cause of the economic collapse in 1998, and that the decision of the IMF and President Kim Dae Jung to impose a radical neoliberal transformation of financial markets and large industrial firms in the depressed conditions of 1998, though defensible on political grounds, made the failure of these reforms virtually inevitable. A detailed analysis of the macro economy, labor markets, financial markets, and nonfinancial firms in Korea in the past three and one-half years shows that neoliberal restructuring has created a vicious cycle in which a perpetually weak financial sector fails to provide the capital needed for real sector growth, investment and financial robustness, while real sector financial fragility continuously weakens financial firms. Neoliberal policies may have pushed Korea onto a low-investment, low-growth, development path, one with rising insecurity and inequality. Meanwhile, the removal of virtually all restrictions on cross-border capital flows has led to a dramatic increase in the influence of foreign capital in Korea's economy. The paper concludes by arguing that Korea should reject radical neoliberal restructuring and instead adopt reforms designed to democratize and modernize its traditional state-guided growth model.Globalization; Korean crisis; neoliberalism; economic restructuring; Korean economic model
FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND FINANCING CONSTRAINTS IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY - THE CASE OF BANGLADESH
This paper examines the sensitivity of investment to available cash-stock, a measure for internal funds, for 192 listed non-financial firms of Bangladesh from 1992 to 2002. The empirical results show that smaller firms have greater financing constraints to investment than larger firms due to financial market imperfection and unequal access to external finance. We also find that financing constraints of investment by small firms are eased along with financial development. It is likely that financial development encourages efficiency of the financial market in Bangladesh, and hence decreases cash stock sensitivity of investment of small firms. Our finding demonstrates the importance of financial development for economic growth even in a developing country like Bangladesh.financing constraints, financial development, investment, Bangladesh
Weighted Tree-Numbers of Matroid Complexes
International audienceWe give a new formula for the weighted high-dimensional tree-numbers of matroid complexes. This formula is derived from our result that the spectra of the weighted combinatorial Laplacians of matroid complexes consist of polynomials in the weights. In the formula, Crapoâs -invariant appears as the key factor relating weighted combinatorial Laplacians and weighted tree-numbers for matroid complexes.Nous prĂ©sentons une nouvelle formule pour les nombres dâarbres pondĂ©rĂ©s de grande dimension des matroĂŻdes complexes. Cette formule est dĂ©rivĂ©e du rĂ©sultat que le spectre des Laplaciens combinatoires pondĂ©rĂ©s des matrides complexes sont des polynĂŽmes Ă plusieurs variables. Dans la formule, le ;-invariant de Crapo apparaĂźt comme Ă©tant le facteur clĂ© reliant les Laplaciens combinatoires pondĂ©rĂ©s et les nombres dâarbres pondĂ©rĂ©s des matroĂŻdes complexes
A weighted cellular matrix-tree theorem, with applications to complete colorful and cubical complexes
We present a version of the weighted cellular matrix-tree theorem that is
suitable for calculating explicit generating functions for spanning trees of
highly structured families of simplicial and cell complexes. We apply the
result to give weighted generalizations of the tree enumeration formulas of
Adin for complete colorful complexes, and of Duval, Klivans and Martin for
skeleta of hypercubes. We investigate the latter further via a logarithmic
generating function for weighted tree enumeration, and derive another
tree-counting formula using the unsigned Euler characteristics of skeleta of a
hypercube and the Crapo -invariant of uniform matroids.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures. Sections 6 and 7 of previous version simplified
and condensed. Final version to appear in J. Combin. Theory Ser.
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