Is Economic Integration the Solution to African Development?

In the African continent, several regional initiatives have been launched or executed. These gave rise to several groupings including COMESA consisting of 19 countries, ECOWAS (15 countries), ECCAS (10 countries), and SADC with 15 countries. These groupings are not exclusive in that several countries belong to more than one regional group. The road to full integration clearly begins with a regional arrangement. The many groupings in Africa had the long term goal of creating an all inclusive African Economic Union. The objective is to promote the African continent’s economic growth, political stability, and good governance. The paper examines the effectiveness of some of these regional grouping in the context of an all-inclusive African club with the aid of the club model. Using data for the period 1986–2005, costs and benefits of membership are evaluated using the gravity Model. The Helpman’s size dispersion index is used to identify a potential anchor for a regional grouping.

Equity Markets and Economic Development: Does the Primary Market Matter?

This article examines the role played by primary and secondary equity markets in economic growth. It departs from standard literature to integrate both markets and to explicitly acknowledge the primary equity market. By employing a variety of dynamic panel estimators for 54 countries over the period 1995‐2010, we show that the primary equity market is not an important determinant of economic growth, although it facilitates the development of the secondary market. This study also confirms the importance of liquidity provided by the secondary market. The evidence here calls for further investigation into the capital‐raising function of equity markets.     

A Research on Approach to the Development Strategy of Tourism Economic Growth

As the tourism is improving, the economy growth can be obtained. Therefore, to improve tourism is to improve the economy. In fact, some supplies of tour could not meet the demands, which brings out conflict. It is obvious that solving the problem of supply and demand of tour is the approach to the development strategy of tourism economic growth.     

Brazil and China: Two Routes of Economic Development?

We look at two emerging economies, Brazil and China, and propose an evaluation of their recent development in terms of growth performance and the evolution of income inequality. Our analysis, therefore, is related to the literature on their recent vast growth and also to the much debated Kuznets curve and theory. However, we claim that neither the growth nor the Kuznets approach capture recent relevant phenomena characterizing such countries' dynamics: namely, the presence of at least two distinct growth models. Cointegration analysis and empirical evidence seem to corroborate our interpretation. They also offer some further insights. We surmise that while contributing to press for a further re‐examination of convergence in the light of the issue of income distribution, such findings have interpretative relevance and policy implications for other less developed countries.     

Three Decades After James Street’s “The Institutionalist Theory of Economic Development”: What Does Institutional Approach to Economic Development Mean Today?

James Street’s article, “The Institutionalist Theory of Economic Development,” (1987) is a masterpiece of institutionalist research on economic development. The thirty-year anniversary of its publishing is an invitation to review what the institutional approach to economic development means today. This article, therefore, aims to present a historical survey of works published in the Journal of Economic Issues (JEI) on economic development.     

The Dragon-shape Strategy of China＇s Regional Economic Development and Policy Analysis

According to this paper, the dragon-shape strategy is the optimized option of China＇s future strategy with respect to the geographic distribution of regional economy.     

Can Empathy Explain Gender Differences in Economic Policy Views in the United States?

This paper shows that different levels of empathy of men and women explain the well-documented gender differences in interventionist government economic policy views in the United States. Using the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to measure empathy, the study finds that more empathic people support more interventionist policies. While greater empathy leads both men and women to support more government action, there is no gender difference in the effects of empathy on policy views. When policy views are separated by area, gender differences on policies concerning poverty, inequality, and social welfare disappear once empathy is accounted for, though they persist in views on free markets.     

The Local Economy Movement: An Alternative to Neoliberalism?

The economic turmoil of the last 2 years has shown that hyper-globalized capitalism is inherently crisis prone, and that it has been unable to create sustainable prosperity. Unfortunately, the left has failed to convincingly refute Margaret Thatcher’s assertion that “there is no alternative.” There is, however, a growing social movement that aims to promote small, locally-scaled enterprises. This essay argues that the local economy movement can potentially provide a unifying principle for a new progressive agenda. However, localizers must take seriously the possible loss of gains from trade. In addition, it is important to resist a naive localism that romanticizes the local while ignoring action at other scales.     

Does the EU Financing System Contribute to Shadow Economic Activity?

Financial contributions to the EU budget depend basically on official GDP. This means that countries with higher shadow economic activity contribute less than they should contribute in a system based on actual GDP and therefore could reduce their incentive to fight against such activities. In this paper we investigate if the EU financing system really has an influence on the intensity with which governments in EU member states fight against shadow economic activity. We find that the EU net contributors significantly fight more intensively against shadow economic activity while EU net receivers fight less. As a result, shadow economic activity is higher in net receiver and lower in net contributor countries than it were in comparison with a scenario of nationally balanced EU funding. Quantitatively and averaged over the time period 2001–2007, the diagnosed effect amounts to a stimulation of hidden economic activity by almost 10% for particular economies.     

Growth Miracle or Endangered Development? Vested Interests,Policy-Making,and Economic Development in the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is often considered among the most successful developing countries, based primarily on its high and relatively sustained growth rates over the last two decades. On the other hand, indicators of human and social development, healthcare, and education have been particularly poor. I argue that the polarization of economic power plays an important role for this development. Furthermore, I analyze the structure of the Dominican economy in order to show that the country has relied on tourism, services, and special economic zones to obtain relatively high growth rates. These activities do not require high-skilled labor and will not allow the economy to generate high incomes for the population, but benefit a few families who control most conglomerates. In turn, this explains low investment in education and social spending, as well as low taxation rates.     

Does International Harmonization of Environmental Policy Instruments Make Economic Sense?

Harmonization of the instruments used in environmental policy has beenconsidered necessary to guarantee fair competition in internationalmarkets. We examine the economic costs of harmonizing paper recyclingstandards in countries where the urgency of the waste disposal problemsdiffer. Using data of seven European countries we estimate thetechnologically feasible input combinations of pulp and waste paper forpaper production. Short-term effects of two environmental policy measures,minimum content requirement and utilization rate target, are analyzed. Bytranslating the two administrative instruments into taxes and subsidies, weshow that the shadow costs of the harmonization vary considerably betweencountries. The difference in the domestic availability of waste may explainthe variation, and a modification of the policy measures to incorporate thisaspect is suggested.     

The Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone invites investment in the following projects:

1. A brief account of the Zhanjiang Sanfan Industrial Co. Ltd:The company was set up in November 1992. with a registered capital of RMB45 million yuan. Its main undertakings include real estate development and domestic and foreign trade.2. The Sanfan Haijing Residential Estate to be developed:The residential estate, which is eventually to cover 60 mu (15 mu to a hectare) lies in the center of Zhanjiang City, in an area already serviced by a complete range of public utilities and roads, while close to the sea. The first-phase implementation of the project calls for developing 6.3 mu of land, on which     

Promote Competitive Neutrality to Facilitate China’s Economic Development:Outlook,Policy Simulations,and Reform Implementation-A Summary of the Annual SUFE Macroeconomic Report(2019-2020)

Twenty nineteen(2019)marked another year of lethargic growth in the Chinese economy amidst escalated internal and external complexities.Internally,the country's macroeconomic landscape was overcast continuously by fallen consumption growth,plunged growth in manufacturing investment,rapid accumulation of household debt,risen income inequality,and the overhang of local government debt.The nation's external conditions did not fare any better,with drastically declined growth in imports and exports,continued trade tensions with the US,and weakened external demand.Based on the IAR-CMM model,which takes account of both cyclical and secular factors,the baseline real GDP growth rate is projected to be 6.0%in 2020(5.9%using more reliable rather than the official data),with a downside risk.Alternative scenario analyses and policy simulations are conducted,in addition to the benchmark forecast,to reflect the influences of various internal and external uncertainties.The findings emanated from these analyses lead us to stress the importance and urgency of deepening reform to achieve competitive neutrality for China’s transformation into a phase with sustainable and high-quality development.