5,808 research outputs found
Feminist Reflections on the 'End' of the War on Terror
This article examines the range of arguments articulated to justify the use of force under the
āWar on Terrorā. The three key justifications for unilateral force directed against terrorist actors,
pre-emptive force, implied authorisation and the use of force to prevent terrorist actors operating
from failed states, are demonstrated as analogous to domestic provocation excuses. As such, the
article argues the āendā of the āWar on Terrorā has been in name only as the Obama
Administration in the United States continues to develop practice in line with that of its
predecessor. The analogy with domestic provocation excuses demonstrates weaknesses of
contemporary US practice and of the pre-emptive force justification. Using a feminist
understanding of the limitations of provocation defences and of the relationship between social,
cultural, political and legal norms, the legacy of the āWar on Terrorā is demonstrated as an
assertion of a limited model of security that ignores the role militaries play in womenās insecurity
and which limits womenās participation through the use of sexual stereotypes. The article
concludes with a discussion of the range of feminist strategies that might be invoked to challenge
the legacy of the āWar on Terrorā
Feminist Politics and the Use of Force: Theorising Feminist Action and Security Council Resolution 1325
This article reflects on the ten-year anniversary of āSecurity Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and
Securityā (hereinafter, āResolution 1325ā). The article contextualises the Security Councilās approach within feminist
legal thinking, using Resolution 1325 as a springboard for increased feminist conversations on the recurrent themes of
essentialism, victim feminism and praxis. It is argued that feminist action in the Security Council should extend these
debates. To this end, the article concludes with reflection on the possibility of force to save women, arguing that this
fourth axis of feminist debate be taken up with some urgency by feminist scholars and activists
Dollarization and financial integration
How does a country's choice of exchange rate regime impact its ability to borrow from abroad? We build a small open economy model in which the government can potentially respond to shocks via domestic monetary policy and by international borrowing. We assume that debt repayment must be incentive compatible when the default punishment is equivalent to permanent exclusion from debt markets. We compare a floating regime to full dollarization. ; We find that dollarization is potentially beneficial, even though it means the loss of the monetary instrument, precisely because this loss can strengthen incentives to maintain access to debt markets. Given stronger repayment incentives, more borrowing can be supported, and thus dollarization can increase international financial integration. This prediction of theory is consistent with the experiences of El Salvador and Ecuador, which recently dollarized, as well as with that of highly-indebted countries like Italy which adopted the Euro as part of Economic and Monetary Union: in each case, around the time of regime change, spreads on foreign currency government debt declined substantially.Financial crises ; Foreign exchange administration
Capital Versus Labor Taxation with Heterogeneous Agents
We investigate the welfare implications of eliminating a proportional capital income tax for a model economy in which heterogeneous households face labor income risk and trade only one asset. Labor taxes rises at the time of the reform to maintain long run budget balance. Our stochastic process for labor earnings is consistent with empirical estimates of earnings risk, and also implies a distribution of asset holdings across households closely resembling that in the United States. We find that a vast majority of households prefers the status quo to the tax reform. This finding is interesting in light of the fact that our reform would be optimal if we abstracted from heterogeneity and assumed a representative agent. Initial household productivity and initial household wealth are independently important in determining a particular household's expected gain or loss, in contrast to a complete markets economy in which only the ratio of asset to labor income matters.
The International Diversification Puzzle Is Not as Bad as You Think
In simple one-good international macro models, the presence of non-diversifiable labor income risk means that country portfolios should be heavily biased toward foreign assets. The fact that the opposite pattern of diversification is observed empirically constitutes the international diversification puzzle. We embed a portfolio choice decision in a frictionless two-country, twogood version of the stochastic growth model. In this environment, which is a workhorse for international business cycle research, we derive a closed-form expression for equilibrium country portfolios. These are biased towards domestic assets, as in the data. Home bias arises because endogenous international relative price fluctuations make domestic stocks a good hedge against non-diversifiable labor income risk. We then use our our theory to link openness to trade to the level of diversification, and find that it offers a quantitatively compelling account for the patterns of international diversification observed across developed economies in recent years.Home bias, international diversification
The international diversification puzzle is not as bad as you think
In simple one-good international macro models, the presence of non-diversifiable labor income risk means that country portfolios should be heavily biased toward foreign assets. The fact that the opposite pattern of diversification is observed empirically constitutes the international diversification puzzle. We embed a portfolio choice decision in a frictionless two-country, two-good version of the stochastic growth model. In this environment, which is a workhorse for international business cycle research, we derive a closed-form expression for equilibrium country portfolios. These are biased towards domestic assets, as in the data. Home bias arises because endogenous international relative price fluctuations make domestic stocks a good hedge against non-diversifiable labor income risk. We then use our theory to link openness to trade to the level of diversification, and find that it offers a quantitatively compelling account for the patterns of international diversification observed across developed economies in recent years.Investments, Foreign ; International trade - Econometric models
Financial Globalization and Real Regionalization
Over the period 1972-1986, the correlations of GDP, employment and investment between the United States and an aggregate of Europe, Canada and Japan were respectively 0.76, 0.66, and 0.63. For the period 1986 to 2000 the same correlations were much lower: 0.26, 0.03 and -0.07 (real regionalization). At the same time, U.S. international asset trade has significantly increased. For example, between 1972 and 1999, United States gross FDI and equity assets in the same group of countries rose from 4 to 23 percent of the U.S. capital stock (financial globalization). We document that the correlation of real shocks between the U.S. and the rest of the world has declined. We then present a model in which international financial market integration occurs endogenously in response to less correlated shocks. Financial integration further reduces the international correlations in GDP and factor supplies. We find that both less correlated shocks and endogenous financial market development are needed to account for all the changes in the international business cycle.
Consumption and labor supply with partial insurance: an analytical framework
This paper studies consumption and labor supply in a model where agents have partial insurance and face risk and initial heterogeneity in wages and preferences. Equilibrium allocations and variances and covariances of wages, hours and consumption are solved for analytically. We prove that all parameters of the structural model are identified given panel data on wages and hours, and cross-sectional data on consumption. The model is estimated on US data. Second moments involving hours and consumption show that the rise in wage dispersion in the 1970s was effectively insured by households, while the rise in the 1980s was not.Wages ; Consumption (Economics)
Estimating marginal cohort working life expectancies from sequential cross-sectional survey data
This article applies recently developed health expectancy methodologies to estimate the average duration of future work life in different states of work ability. Data on working capacity obtained from sequential cross-sectional samples of the cohort population were available from Finnish surveys conducted among active municipal employees. We used these data to estimate cohort marginal probabilities and expected occupancy times in the work ability states. One finding is that the proportion of workers with excellent or good work ability decreased monotonically with advancing age for both genders, but men were prone to have worse work ability and a shorter work career than women. Transition from poor to good or excellent work ability state was estimated to increase working life expectancy of a 45-year-old person by four years for both genders. This study indicates that the work ability of aging Finnish workers deteriorates prematurely, leading to serious socio-economic consequences. Thus it is important to examine the development of work ability already at an early age when it is still possible to intervene in the process
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