Political instability, policy uncertainty, and economic growth: An empirical investigation

This paper elaborates upon the effect of political stability on economic growth using a novel approach. Unlike the literature on growth that emphasizes the turnover of decision makers, this paper focuses on the volatility of economic policies as the relevant indicator of stability. The literature on growth ignores the microeconomic instability associated with frequent changes of government policies. The empirical results of this paper indicate that the effect of political instability on economic growth is not conclusive. Most of the commonly used proxies for political instability have failed to explain growth differences across countries. The political instability indices have no significant effect on growth when a reasonable set of core variables is also included in the regression equation. The results also show that almost all of the policy uncertainty variables are significantly and negatively correlated with economic growth. However, the instability of economic policies has no significant impact on the accumulation of capital.     

The economic causes and consequences of social instability in China

This paper provides a survey of the economic literature relevant to social instability in China and moulds it into an argument. The objective is to offer a fresh view of economic policy and performance through the lens of the threat posed by social instability. This is a concept that economists rarely analyse, and yet it can lurk behind much economic policy-making. China's leadership has often publicly expressed its concern to avoid ‘social instability’. It is viewed as a threat both to the political order and to the continued rapid growth of the economy. This threat to growth in turn endangers the maintenance of social stability. The paper examines the likely economic determinants of social instability, using both surveys and other evidence. After discussing the determinants of China's rapid growth, the paper goes on to examine the likely mechanisms by which social instability can affect the growth rate. There is a case for more research on the role of social instability in the economic development process.     

Benchmark wealth capital stock estimations across China's 344 prefectures: 1978 to 2012

Measures of wealth (‘net’) capital stock (WKS) can be used for measuring economic exposure to natural disasters and thus are essential for disaster risk management in terms of both quick loss estimation during emergency responses and post-disaster planning for recovery and reconstruction. Today, the improved availability of statistical data and the progress of capital stock estimation methods have made it possible to produce datasets of WKS on the prefecture level. By applying the perpetual inventory method (PIM) to estimate prefecture-level WKS in China from 1978 to 2012, this paper aims to illustrate both the methodology for generating the WKS dataset and the utility of the WKS as a useful indicator of economic exposure to potential hazards. The estimation results indicate that the accumulated WKS for Mainland China had reached RMB 152 trillion by 2012, and it has maintained an average annual growth rate of 14% since 1990. Spatially, the uneven distribution of WKS is distinct, with approximately 47% being concentrated in the eastern economic region, and approximately 60% to 22% of China's prefectures. Methodologically, the dataset can easily be extended to more recent years with available data. Furthermore, a systematic sensitivity analysis indicates that the depreciation rate is the most important parameter for WKS estimates. Notwithstanding certain limitations, the paper concludes that such WKS estimates, in particular with its finer spatial resolution, offer a useful baseline for quick disaster loss estimation.     

Time-Consistent Polities and Growth in Developing Countries: An Empirical Analysis

This paper investigates whether stable political regimes develop stable systems of rules that are conducive to growth, similar to property rights. New measures of political stability indicate that stable political systems stimulate growth in developing autocratic countries. Contrarily, political instability significantly reduces growth in autocracies, as instability creates a time-consistency problem. In some specifications, an instability measure has significant negative growth effects in democracies, and may be an alternative to measures of property rights. Similarly, ethnic fractionalization reduces growth in autocracies, but not developing democracies. Tests indicate that these results are not sensitive to extreme values in the data. JEL no. O40, H11     

Foreign direct investment and country risk: Further empirical evidence

Global political and economic changes over the last decade have resulted into massive capital inflows to developing countries, most of these flows are foreign direct investments. In light of threats of political instability in the forms of civil wars, illegal capital flight, financial market instability, and political corruption, etc., further assessment of country risk is warranted. We examine the relationship between FDI and political and economic risks for 26 countries for the years 1992, 1993, and 1994 by using regression analysis and cross section data. The results indicate a significant relationship between FDI and these risks. This study provides more reliable estimates by using a current and eclectic measurement of risks represented by Euromoney indexes of political and economic risks. In the previous studies the perception of risk was narrowly defined and also political instability events were mistakenly interpreted as political risks.     

Political instability and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some recent evidence

Political instability has become endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. Since the early 1960s, when most of the African countries began to achieve independence, more than fifty coups have taken place in the continent. This rise in political decay has significantly affected economic development. This study examines the relationship between elite political instability and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It concludes that lack of political stability has contributed significantly to economic stagnation in the continent of Africa.     

Trade and growth: The Nigerian experience

This paper analyses the impact of trade on Nigeria's economic growth. Using a two-gap model, it estimates the relationships between exports, foreign capital and economic growth. The paper also provides an assessment of the relative influence of Nigeria's two main types of export (agricultural produce and petroleum) on economic growth. The results of the analysis provide empirical support for the hypothesis that trade has been an important engine of growth in Nigeria. The paper recommends, as part of Nigeria's strategy for achieving rapid economic development, the vigorous pursuit of an export promotion policy.     

Political instability and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Further evidence

After more than three decades of independence, many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have not yet developed stable political systems. Since the 1960s, when African countries began to achieve independence, many of them have encountered significant levels of institutional instability. In recent years, political violence has emerged as the most common method of governmental change. In this study, the effects of political violence on economic and human development in Sub-Saharan Africa are examined. It is seen that political instability is a significant constraint to the improvement of the human condition in the region.     

The North Korean economy seen by satellite: Estimates of national performance,regional gaps based on nighttime light

External estimates must be used to assess North Korea’s economy because Pyongyang authorities withhold economic statistics. The Bank of Korea’s figures are considered the most widely employed estimates. However, they have several limitations. This paper estimates North Korea’s economic growth over a more than 20-year period, by analyzing the nighttime lighting, as recorded by orbiting satellites. The data is more objective and reliable than other data used to evaluate the North Korean economy. It indicates steady growth after 2000, contradicting Bank of Korea estimates. The methodology also has the advantage of being able to gauge regional economic activity. Performance varied widely among regions, the result of internal factors such as market activities and external factors such as trade with China and economic cooperation with South Korea.     

The historiography of French economic growth in the nineteenth century

There has been a long-standing debate about French nineteenth-century economic growth. After 1945 the ‘retardation—stagnation’ thesis dominated. From the 1960s ‘revisionists’ painted a more optimistic view. Recently, ‘anti-revisionism’ has revived gloomy ideas. New research has been primarily responsible for changes of view. National income estimates, and later cliometric studies, bolstered the revisionist argument. Work on the ‘great depression’ stimulated anti-revisionism. Scholars have also been influenced by the economic and political state of France at the time they were writing and the debate has been somewhat politicized. The article ends by surveying the ‘moderate revisionism’ which now prevails.     

Technological progress and technical efficiency in Chinese industrial growth: A frontier production function approach

We estimate a frontier production function for Chinese industry for the period 1953–1985. Contrary to prior studies based on OLS estimates, we find that Chinese industry has been characterized by a rate of growth of technological progress between 1.8 and 3.6 percent per year. We also find that the capital-saving nature of technological progress has adversely affected Chinese productivity growth because of increases in the capital-labor ratio. The utilization of industrial resources has been quite suboptimal for much of the sample period, with industrial production well off the production frontier. These deviations from efficient resource use reflect well-known political and economic developments that disrupted economic activity. Finally, both technical efficiency and total factor productivity increased appreciably in the period 1978–1985, suggesting that the reforms have had some positive impact on industrial performance.     

Impact of East Asia's Growth Interruption and Policy Responses: The Case of Indonesia

Assessments to date of the consequences of implementing the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations have assumed medium-term rates of economic growth in East Asia that now seem unsustainable. This paper compares an earlier assessment with a new set of estimates involving an interruption to East Asian economic growth in the late 1990s, using the global, economy-wide GTAP model. Attention focuses on results for Indonesia, the worst-affected country in the region. An important consequence of the crisis is that Indonesia is likely to become more agrarian for a time than it otherwise would have been. The estimated benefits to Indonesia from embracing further unilateral reform, as a way of catching up, are contrasted with the alternative strategy of reneging on Uruguay Round commitments to liberalize trade.     

Public spending and economic growth: evidence from Ghana (1970–2004)

Governments undertake expenditures to pursue a variety of objectives, one of which is economic growth. This paper examines aggregated and disaggregated expenditure on economic growth in Ghana over the period 1970–2004. Expenditure on education and health represents human capital development, while expenditure on roads and waterways captures infrastructure development. The study reveals that the aggregated government expenditure retarded economic growth. The study's findings show that expenditures on health and infrastructure promote economic growth, while those on education had no significant impact in the short run. In addition, the political economy variables?namely the nature of governance (democracy) and political instability (years of changes in government and military dictatorship)?proved significant in explaining Ghana's economic growth over the study period.     

政治平等与经济增长：经验研究

本文利用政府质量数据库和宾大世界表等数据库的数据,借助了动态索罗增长回归模型,研究了政治平等对经济增长的影响。本文发现,政治平等不仅对经济增长有显著的正向促进作用,对政府支出和通货膨胀的表现也有明显的改善。对政治平等多角度的测量和排除异常值的干扰后的结果表明,本文的结论是稳健的。     

Does religious beliefs affect economic growth? Evidence from provincial-level panel data in China

More and more literature on economic growth and development has increasingly focused on long-run effects of geographic, historical, and cultural factors on productivity and income per capita. This paper investigates the effect of religious beliefs on economic growth using provincial panel data from 2001 to 2011 in China. It's very meaningful to study the role of religion playing in economic development since religion has influence on political preference, human capital and work ethic, especially in current China which is faced with income disparity, environmental pollution, and official corruption. Our results reveal that, among the different religions, Christianity has the most significant effect on economic growth. This conclusion is consistent among different estimators and robust with stability over time. However, no consistent or robust conclusions can be drawn for other religions. Different estimation methods give different signs or significance. Given the very few studies and limited data resources about China in this field, the paper as a tentative study provides a brand new viewpoint.     

企业家成长过程的演化博弈分析

企业家在一国经济发展中起着举足轻重的作用,影响企业家成长过程的因素很多,但在我国由计划经济向市场经济转型的特殊时期,其制度环境(政治、经济和文化等)对企业家成长的影响尤为突出。企业家的成长是一个历史过程,随着市场经济的出现而逐渐演化而成,因此从演化的角度能够更清晰地分析企业家的成长。本文通过模型分析得出:企业家在一个环境中活动所获得的收益和付出的成本将很大程度上影响企业家的成长,安徽模式在短期内难以向江浙模式演变。     

THE IMPLICATIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMIC GROWTH FOR THE REST OF AFRICA

This paper measures the extent to which South African economic growth is an engine of growth in sub‐Saharan Africa. Results based on panel data estimation for 47 African countries over four decades suggest that South African growth has a substantial positive impact on growth in the rest of Africa, even after controlling for other growth determinants. The estimates are robust to the effects of global and regional shocks, changes in model specification, and sample period.     

外商直接投资与环境污染——基于联立方程的实证检验

本文尝试通过分析FDI对各经济变量的不同影响渠道,全面测度FDI对环境污染的影响。为了更好地理解FDI流入与中国环境污染之间的关系,文章建立了联立方程来刻画各变量之间的不同影响,包括考虑FDI与经济增长的相互影响和FDI对环境监管的影响等。同时,文章使用中国217个城市2003～2006年的工业污染数据进行实证检验,结果表明,FDI通过对经济增长、产业结构和环境污染治理的影响最终有利于我国的工业污染治理和环境状况改善。因此,引进外资要注重引进国外先进的技术和环境标准,积极吸收利用外资先进的生产工艺和绿色的生产流程,要提高资源利用的效率,促进环境保护措施的有力实施,实现中国经济的可持续发展。     

Democracy and Durability: Empirical Analysis and a Causality Test

The current literature has failed to differentiate between the collapse of democratic and authoritarian rules or whether democratic regimes collapse for the same reasons as do authoritarian regimes. Therefore, the current literature is silent on whether democracies are more fragile or less susceptible to economic and political breakdowns. Using a multitude of political instability variables, this paper explores empirically, whether political freedom and civil liberty (a proxy for democracy) has any effect on the stability of the political order. The empirical results of the paper confirm the hypothesis that democracy is conducive to political stability; the higher the level of political freedom and civil liberty, the more stable countries are. The paper also presented a Granger-causality test of political instability and the level of political freedom and civil liberty. The test results indicate that the level of political freedom and civil liberty Granger-cause the level of political instability, while the level of political instability does not Granger-cause the level of political freedom and civil liberty. The test results indicate that Granger-causality runs one-way from political freedom and civil liberty to political instability and not the other way. A further comprehensive research is needed on the multi-layered and the complex relationship among democracy and the resilience of the political order.I would like to thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments that improved the quality of the paper. I would also like to thank the Research Council of Niagara University for their financial support.     

Changing Engines of Growth in China： From Exports, FDI and Marketization to Innovation and Exports

This paper investigates the changing sources of growth in post-reform China. Using crossprovince regressions, this paper finds that, in earlier periods, exports, foreign direct investment and marketization were significantly related to per capita income growth, whereas＇ since the late 1990s, foreign direct investment and marketization have lost their significance and have been replaced by new sources of growth, such as innovation and knowledge, with only exports continuing to be important. This finding is robust after controlling for other variables representing other economic policies and provincial characteristics. We also tackle the possible endogeneity of innovation variables using the instrumental variables estimation method.