by Anand Rajaram (1992)
This paper reviews the experience of price reform in China, as well as selected East European countries. Price reform is an essential element of any program that seeks to achieve sustained and rapid economic growth in China via improvements in factor productivity. For price liberalization to generate sustainable growth, reform must occur within a framework that takes into account the interdependencies between the real sector and financial and institutional elements of the economy. The experience of Eastern Europe suggests that cycles of progressively more severe macro-instability can significantly reduce the degrees of freedom available to the authorities, undermine gradual reform attempts and substantially raise the costs of the eventual adjustment. Policy makers in China have demonstrated that they can successfully fashion a national consensus to control inflation. A similar understanding of the need for fiscal and monetary restraint must underpin any program of economic reforms. As China proceeds with price reform, complementary pricing actions will be required so as to maximize the allocative gains. The eventual goal of price reform should be to achieve full price liberalization. Side by side with the liberalization of domestic prices exchange rate adjustment and reform of the trade regime allows for a closer link between domestic relative prices and international relative prices. China has already taken steps to unify the exchange rate and promote trade.
Dennis McConaghy
"The Keystone XL pipeline was most controversial North American energy infrastructure project of our time, and its history and demise serve as a cautionary tale for Canada, a country that will remain mired in regulatory dysfunction until it finds common ground between economic value and credible carbon policy."--
Daniel Korski & Richard Gowan
Broken promises from EU members on crisis missions risk more fragile states collapsing into failed states, argue ECFR's security experts Daniel Korski and Richard Gowan. Broken promises and treating Afghanistan, DR Congo and Iraq like Bosnia has left the EU without the capacity to prevent fragile states from becoming failing states. This is the main finding of the latest report from the European Council on Foreign Relations, by ECFR's security experts Daniel Korski and Richard Gowan, published today. According to the report, Can the EU rebuild failing states? A review of Europe's civilian capacities: EU member states break promises and significantly under-staff key international missions. No member state has deployed even half of what they promised in the 2004 Civilian Headline Goal process, and the EU has a shortage of 1,500 personnel across its 12 ongoing EU state building missions. All eyes are on Afghanistan: but the EU's police mission there is at half its authorised strength. Crisis missions still rely on the 'Bosnia-template', ignoring reality on the ground. The 2005-2006 mission to DR Congo, for instance, was rendered largely irrelevant because EU planning failed to take into account corruption and the country's size compared to Bosnia. Turf wars between the European Commission and the European Council weaken missions. In practice, spheres of influence overlap, leading to squabbles over who is responsible for what. In 2004 this led to a case at the European Court of Justice over who should get involved in a project tackling weapons trafficking in West Africa. Daniel Korski says: "If Yemen descends into full blown civil-war or al Qaeda gains new bases in Africa, the EU will be ill-equipped to offer the strategic and development assistance likely to be needed. Getting EU crisis missions right is essential in a world where stability in faraway places is key to security on the streets of Hamburg, Marseille and Manchester."--Publisher description.
Gregory W. Noble
This book offers a close look at the impact of industrial policies on collective action in East Asia - in Japan and Taiwan and, more briefly, in South Korea. Systematically comparative and based on interviews and original research in the local languages, it focuses on forms of collective action such as cartels, standardization, and research and development consortia in the consumer electronics and minimill steel industries. Gregory Noble combines detailed case studies with analyses of the political, bureaucratic, and industrial environments in which policy is crafted. He also considers how these environments have evolved in the past decade as long-ruling conservative parties have been challenged in all three countries.
Gulshan Sachdeva
The North-East region of India is known for its ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and physiographical diversity. Due to special constitutional arrangements, historical background and geographical location, a specific economic policy framework has been in operation for the region, which this book has questioned. It proposes a new policy framework based on the market approach. In contrast to the popular perceptions, the book also shows that financially the region is not a neglected region. The book has recommended that the region will have to focus on integrating itself with the rest of the country and the world. It has to build hard and soft infrastructure and revitalise its agriculture. Above all, North-East has to become investor friendly, and stand on its own feet without excessive dependence on the Central government. Private investment is a critical component for any new development strategy, for which the book has identified major areas for policy action. These include land and labour policies, infrastructure development and improvement in the law and order situation. To link the region with dynamic East Asia, the book has argued for declaring certain areas as free trade areas as well as developing an aggressive strategy for a growth quadrangle involving the North-East of India, Myanmar, Southwest China, Northern Thailand and Bangladesh.