European trade liberalisation and the stillborn Nordic customs union in the 1950s

Abstract

Historical research on the aborted Nordic customs union of the 1950s has emphasised the conflicting commercial interests of the countries involved. This study identifies the common commercial interests that from 1954 committed governments to further progress in the customs union issue. It argues that increased frustration over the ‘hardening’ of the European commercial regime made the governments opt for a customs union to develop Nordic manufacturing industries.     

Adjusting to Trade Liberalisation: The Case of Firms in the South African Textile Sector

This paper examines the responses of firms in the textile industryof South Africa to that country's rapid liberalisation of tradesince the early 1990s. The data reveal that there have beenincreased exports accompanied by reductions in employment andcontraction of production of yarns and fabrics. Drawing on asurvey of companies, followed by interviews, it documents howcompetitive pressures from imports have led firms to increasetheir exports. Exporting is not, however, directly associatedwith better performance. This is due to its being a responseby many firms to weak domestic demand and the need to maintainproduction capacity. But, liberalisation has also been accompaniedby much upgrading of equipment and by increased specialisationand vertical disintegration in order to develop competitiveniches despite South Africa's manufacturing wage levels beinghigher than those of many of its international competitors.Firms focusing on non-price factors of export competitivenesshave been better performing. Firms have also been most successfulwhere technological capabilities based on the domestic marketprovided a foundation for export competitiveness. There areindications that with the restructuring induced by liberalisationthe sector is in a position more effectively to exploit itscompetitive strengths in international markets. In addition,the United States' African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)offers some stimulus for the textile industry to supply fabricsto firms in the export garment sector which previously importedthem.     

Evolving Financial Reporting Practices: A Comparative Study of the Nordic Countries' Harmonization Efforts*

Abstract. In the 1960s, a group of culturally similar countries—the Nordic countries—cooperated in harmonizing their companies acts, including their accounting requirements. They even issued a Nordic proposal for new companies acts, intended to be enacted as new laws in each of the Nordic countries. The purpose of the paper is to study this harmonization effort and to suggest future research to enhance our understanding of diverse financial reporting practices. The paper shows that accounting harmonization in this context was difficult, even though the prerequisites for success were excellent. Future research should explore the experiences of accounting harmonization in other contexts. Résumé. Dans les années 60, un groupe de pays de même parenté culturelle — les pays nordiques — ont collaboré à l'harmonisation de leurs lois sur les sociétés ainsi que de leurs exigences en matière comptable. Ils ont même produit une Proposition des pays nordiques relative à de nouvelles lois sur les sociétés, qui devaient être sanctionnées dans chacun des pays participants. Les auteurs ont ici pour but d'analyser cet effort d'harmonisation et de suggérer d'éventuels travaux de recherche qui nous amèneraient à mieux comprendre différentes pratiques en matière d'information financière. Les auteurs expliquent que l'harmonisation comptable, dans ce contexte, s'est révélée difficile, même si les préalables au succès étaient excellents. Les travaux de recherche à venir devraient porter sur l'analyse des expériences d'harmonisation comptable dans d'autres contextes.     

The Evolution of Australian Monetary Policy in the 1950s

The 1950s in Australia was a decade of major change in both central banking and the financial system. The changes fed upon one another: financial innovation responded to monetary policy; the authorities adapted their strategy in response. The private banks resisted the harnessing of their balance sheets to policy, and a protracted process of conflict and compromise unfolded. Meanwhile, the growth of non‐bank financial institutions undermined bank‐centred policy. Official controls on bank interest rates opened a space for the new intermediaries. The central bank's attempt to restrain their growth contributed to a credit squeeze at the turn of the 1960s.     

Countries' creditworthiness: An indicator from a probit analysis

Summary This article discusses the results of an emperical analysis of developing countries' creditworthiness using data for 32 countries over the sample period 1983–1993, and presents a country risk indicator on the basis of a probit model. In this model the occurrence of payment arrears is related to a set of explanatory variables, which include policy-related and global determinants, next to general macroeconomic and financial variables. The new indicator has a rank correlation of about 0.8 with often used measures provided by rating agencies. Nevertheless, several remarkable differences are present. For Mexico, for instance, our indicator points towards declining creditworthiness since 1989, whereas other ratings show Mexico's creditworthiness to be increasing steadily.Helpful comments by two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged.     

对20世纪90年代中俄贸易的实证分析

本书对自苏联解体至上个世纪末的中俄贸易做了实证分析。在宏观经济环境和国际大环境基本稳定的条件下,数量关系说明,影响中俄两国之间贸易额的主要因素是两国的国民收入,在上个世纪末,对两国贸易负面影响较大的因素是俄罗斯国民收入的持续走低。新世纪已经来临,中俄两国贸易是否会有大幅度进展？两国领导人的积极努力虽有一定的作用,但关键取决于俄国经济的复苏程度。在其他因素不变的情况下,俄罗斯的实际国民收入变动１％,     

Capital Account Liberalisation by China and the Effects on Global FDI and Trade

We model the partial liberalisation of the capital account by China using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the world economy. Our results indicate that a reduced capital controls on foreign direct investment (FDI) would lead to a significant increase in FDI capital in China and a significant reduction in the cost of capital in China relative to the rest of the world. Furthermore, we observe an increase in capital stocks in most regions, which benefits most regions in terms of GDP and GNP. The Chinese economy grows by 3.3% driven by a significant fall in the rental price of capital that, in turn, lowers domestic costs, causes a real depreciation of the exchange rate and thus increased exports relative to other regions. We also observe an across-the-board increase in the saving rate driven by the rise in the price of consumption relative to investment (saving) in all regions.     

Nordic historical National Accounts since the 1880s

Abstract

In many respects the history of National Accounts (NA) and of Historical National Accounts (HNA) is common to all the Nordic countries, The first rudimentary accounts can be found by the end of the nineteenth century while the first income tax statistics of the early twentieth century provided a further stimulus. It was the 1920s and the 1930s, however, that saw the real breakthrough. In Sweden it took the form of HNA, and in the other countries the form of NA, with Denmark and Norway in the lead. The commodity-flow method provided the common characteristic.

Later developments somewhat differed in the individual countries. All participated in the Kuznets project ofHNA. Denmark and Norway had obtained new series by the mid 1960s and the early 1970s. Sweden and Finland came later, at the end of the 1980s, and consequently today have the most up-to-date series. These though reveal differences in methodology and a new project has been started, whose aim is to revive the spirit of Nordic community.     

Black economic well-being since the 1950s

Conclusion Industrial cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh that once offered manufacturing jobs as a route to economic advancement no longer provide an economic environment conducive to long-run gains in black incomes. Faced with massive losses in blue-collar manufacturing jobs in the 1970s and 1980s — as well as growing local government fiscal difficulties — these cities are changing rapidly in character. Administration and management are more and more the dynamic, expanding sector, and the resultant demands for workers have been concentrated in the white-collar fields. Highly educated blacks benefit from these trends in job availability; the less educated lose ground economically. The swing between widespread progress (as in World War II) and widespread regression in relative economic status (as in the 1930s) was the traditional cyclical fate of the overall urban black population. Today the smaller white-collar group prospers while the larger blue-collar urban black work force is undermined, except in periods of labor shortage.     

20世纪50年代的职工储蓄动员与现代国家建设

伴随着现代国家建设,政府对民众日常生活的介入与塑造愈益加深。1949年以后,为了早日向工业国转变,国家选择了高投入、高积累的工业化发展战略,并通过计划经济体制调整国民收入中积累和消费部分的比重,个体消费者的经济活动也因此被纳入国家计划的范畴。储蓄作为一种延期消费,具有调节货币流通、推迟社会购买力、增加生产建设资金的作用。为此,国家加大了对城市居民特别是职工储蓄的推广力度。对银行储蓄的大力提倡和动员,成为国家调整积累与消费关系的重要手段,同时它也在无形中改造了民众传统的经济生活方式和消费习惯。根植于传统“熟人社会”的民间借贷具有强大的生命力,成为现代国家推广银行储蓄的一大阻力。在这种情况下,互助储金会等新型的互助.互济组织应运而生,承担着将职工从民间信贷导向银行储蓄的历史功能。