Some topical issues of Russian monetary policy

Some issues of Russian monetary policy are considered. The strenghts and weaknesses of the Russian monetary policy regime reviewed and alternative methods of macroeconomic regulation are presented.     

Global food prices and monetary policy in an emerging market economy: The case of India

This paper investigates a perception in the political debates as to what extent poor countries are affected by price movements in the global commodity markets. To test this perception, we use the case of India to establish in a standard SVAR model that global food prices influence aggregate prices and food prices in India. To further analyze these empirical results, we specify a small open economy New-Keynesian model including oil and food prices and estimate it using observed data over the period 1996Q2 to 2013Q2 by applying Bayesian estimation techniques. The results suggest that a big part of the variation in inflation in India is due to cost-push shocks and, mainly during the years 2008 and 2010, also to global food price shocks, after having controlled for exogenous rainfall shocks. We conclude that the inflationary supply shocks (cost-push, oil price, domestic food price and global food price shocks) are important contributors to inflation in India. Since the monetary authority responds to these supply shocks with a higher interest rate which tends to slow growth, this raises concerns about how such output losses can be prevented by reducing exposure to commodity price shocks.     

Stakeholding and the local economy

During the 1980s local economic policy became an issue of major political concern. The polarisation of the New Right market-led strategies advanced by the Thatcher governments and the New Left-inspired counter-response, typified by the last years of the GLC, reflected the tenor of national political and economic debates at the time. Arguably, in the 10 years since the abolition of the GLC, local economic development has been devoid (some might say spared) of any “big idea” arising from wider political debates. Recently, however, there have been signs that a new political direction may be emerging at the national level with significant implications for local economic policy. That direction is the notion of stakeholding.     

Greening the local economy

While there has been a growing awareness of environmental issues in recent years, there has been little attempt to integrate environmental policy with economic development issues. This paper argues that this is an issue which should be addressed by local authorities and suggests ways in which local authorities could begin to move towards sustainable local economic development.     

Sustainable development and the local economy

This article sets out the divergence so far between the developing “environmental economics” and local authority “green strategies”. We propose a model of environmentally sustainable economic development. Our argument outlines “environmental efficiency” and more stringent “sustainability” objectives. It reviews current local authority activities and practices. All are within the “environmental efficiency” framework. It concludes by identifying opportunities created by recent government commitment to environmental improvement targets and argues that local authorities are well placed to take up the challenge of developing sustainable development in local economies. It suggests that this process will involve intervention in the market in a way not dissimilar to that adopted in the 1980s by local authorities concerned with developing socially progressive economic strategies and that this process might be termed “social environmentalism”.     

Re-booting the local economy: Information and communication technologies in local economic strategy

Many local economic strategies today include reference to a communications infrastructure that involves electronic networks alongside that of roads and railways. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), often referred to as the “information superhighway” or informatics, are considered useful to stimulate local economic activity. This paper, based on a North East case study, suggests that the importance of ICTs to local economic strategy lies in the rationale of key local strategy makers, while the use of ICTs for local economic development means that the local governance of ICTs will become a salient feature in future economic development.     

Greening the environment: National and local economic issues

Friends of the Earth (UK), 1989: The Environmental Charter for Local Government. London: Friends of the Earth, no price stated.

Association of Metropolitan Authorities, 1989: Action for the Future - Priorities for the Environment. London: AMA, £10.00.

Local Government Training Board, 1990: The Environmental Role of Local Government. Luton: LGTB, no price stated.

SEEDS (South East Economic Development Strategy), 1990: Green Plan — Interim Report. Stevenage: SEEDS, no price stated.

The Local Authority Associations, 1990: Environmental Practice in Local Government. London: Association of District Councils, £20.00 (£15.00 to local authorities).

Opschoor, J.B. and Vos, H.B. 1989: Economic Instruments for Environmental Protection. Paris: OECD, no price stated.     

Basic needs: Some issues

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, first, the need for a development strategy aimed directly at the abolition of absolute poverty within a short period of time, and, second, to spell out the main elements of such a strategy. After sketching, in very broad terms, some of the conceptual and operational issues involved in a basic needs strategy, the paper provides some very rough orders of magnitude of the number of people who suffer basic forms of deprivation in the developing world. Finally, the paper describes the analytical work and country studies that should be undertaken to give operational content to the concept of basic needs.     

Trade policies and growth in emerging economies: policy experiments

This paper analyzes a dynamic endogenous growth model to quantify the channels through which international trade affects longer-term growth of an emerging economy, with an emphasis on the role played by trade policies. In the model, trade can promote (i) labor migration from agricultural to non-agricultural sectors and (ii) the inflow of foreign knowledge to enhance productivity in non-agricultural sector. The model is estimated to match with the data from selected advanced and emerging economies. Policy experiments suggest that openness to trade and elimination of trade barriers would raise annual real GDP growth by up to three percentage points for decades.

     

Social accounting in the local economy

High levels of unemployment have stimulated contemporary interest in social accounting. Decisions taken on the basis of private profitability, without regard for the wider economic and social consequences, may not be in the interests of the local community and the workforce. Traditionally such social consequences do not feature in accounting procedures for decision making or control purposes. But while local authorities are now showing more interest in social accounting, conceptual and practical problems must be addressed. This article highlights some of the major issues and calls for experimenting and publication of results to speed the development of useful techniques.     

Speculation and the crawling peg: Some further issues

Summary This paper shows that managed float exchange rate systems may be beset by problems of dynamic instability, given a combination of high capital mobility and minimally rational expectations. This is especially the case if the authorities index the rate of real appreciation/depreciation to either the overall rate of reserve accumulation or the level of reserves. A possible route out of this dilemma is to index the rate of real appreciation to the level of the nominal trade surplus.I have benefited from discussions with Jay Levin and from the helpful comments of an anonymous referee. All remaining errors are my sole responsibility.     

Defence and development: Some thematic issues

Armed forces are, in many developing countries, configured for very restricted and traditional roles. Often their considerable organisational capabilities and human resource expertise are not fully harnessed to the broader developmental objectives of the country concerned. The capabilities of armed forces and their considerable resources can, potentially, be utilised in a much wider arena than simply in the role of territorial defence. Numerous pros and cons can be attached to this expanded deployment of the armed forces and such deployment is critically dependent on the peculiarities of the country, as reflected in its political culture and its history. It is argued in this article that the collateral utility of the South African National Defence Force is far wider than that which present government policy permits. The effective utilisation of this capability, however, will depend on a high level of political will within government to do so, the revision of existing government policy in this regard, and the effective coordination of these expanded defence efforts within a broader human security policy.     

Digital economy and regulatory issues. Introduction

This special issue contributes to the topical field of Internet economics. The articles focus on multi-platform competition, the changing role of telecommunications regulation, issues of net neutrality, and open source software and innovation.