Growth and Development in the Global Political Economy

This paper analyzes the effects of changes in relative commodity prices on the distribution of income among factors of production in the context of two models of a simple, two-good economy. In the first model capital is treated as a specific factor in each industry, with labor mobile between industries. The assumption of specificity determines the direction of factor income changes, with magnitudes depending on substitutability between factors and on intensities of factor use within the two industries. In the second model, capital is viewed as a quasi-fixed factor. For the short run, this model is identical to the model first considered. For the long run, this model is identical to the Stolper-Samuelson model in which the direction and magnitude of factor income changes depend solely on relative factor intensities. The difference between the short-run and long-run determinants of changes in factor incomes gives rise to a conflict between factor owners' short-run and long-run interests.

In 2004 the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) embarked on a large-scale research project on the ‘Impact of Globalization on the World’s Poor’ co-directed by Machiko Nissanke and Erik Thorbecke. The first conference was essentially conceptual in nature, meant to understand better the various mechanisms and channels through which globalization affects the poor either directly or indirectly. The other three conferences focused on each of the major regions of the developing world: Asia, Africa and Latin America. Theobjectivesofthisintroductionarethreefold:first,toreviewbrieflyhow the forces of globalization influence poverty in general; second, to describe and discuss the main transmission channels and mechanisms; and third to analyze the impact of globalization on Africa and present an overview of the six Africa case studies included in this issue. 1. The Impact of Globalization on the World’s Poor Globalization provides a strong potential for a major reduction in poverty in the developing world because it creates an environment conducive to fastereconomicgrowthandtransmissionofknowledge. 1 However,structural factors and policies within the world economy and national economies have impeded the full transmission of the benefits of the various channels of globalization for poverty reduction. In particular sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) hasbeenrelativelylessaffectedbytheforcesofglobalizationthanotherparts of the world. World income distribution continues to be very unequal and many poor countries particularly in Africa are stagnating. Moreover, there is much empirical evidence that openness contributes to more within-country

In a comparison of today’s global political economy with that of the last great era of globalization, the late nineteenth century, the most prominent distinction is be the high degree of institutionalization in today’s system. While the nineteenth-century system did have some important international institutions—in particular the gold standard and an emerging network of trade agreements—it had nothing like the scope and depth of today’s powerful international economic institutions. We cannot understand the functioning of today’s global political economy without understanding the sources and consequences of these institutions. Why were international organizations (IOs) such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or International Monetary Fund (IMF) created? How have they gained so much influence? What difference do they make for the functioning of the global economy and the well-being of individuals around the world? In large part, understanding IOs requires a focus on the tension between the use of power, and rules that are intended to constrain the use of power. IOs are rules-based creatures. They create and embody rules for gaining membership, for how members should behave, for monitoring, for punishment if members renege on their commitments, etc. However, these rules-based bodies exist in the anarchical international system, in which there is no authority above states, and states continue to exercise power when it is in their self-interest to do so. While states create and join IOs in order to make behavior more rule-bound and predictable, the rules themselves reflect the global distribution of power at the time of their creation; and they only constrain to the extent that states find that the benefits of constraint exceed the costs of the loss of autonomy. The tension between rules and power shapes the ways in which international institutions function, and therefore the impact that they have on the global economy. For all their faults, international economic institutions have proven themselves to be an indispensable part of the modern global political economy, and their study represents an especially vibrant research agenda.

This dissertation postulates that the trend of increasing globalization of economic activities within the shifting features of the world economy has been the dominating force transforming and integrating the international economic structure. I adopt ecological theory's external view of system structure, and focus on a more relational view of international exchange. Using network methodology, I analyze the effects of global transactional interactions on economic growth. This research extends concepts of the macro-urban approach to an analysis of international transactions. Based on data for 93 nations over a 20-year period (1970-1978 and 1978-1990) from three transactional networks (93 x 93 matrices), major effects of international trade, capital, and labor flows on global economic structure and growth are carefully examined. Results indicate that economic interdependencies developed in terms of network positions and changes in the network centralities have been pivotal determinants in reorganizing international economies and creating competitive advantages for economic growth for countries centrally located in the global production networks. Applying difference-of-logs (growth rate) models, the results present robust positive effects of transactional networks on economic growth net of four groups of alternatively hypothesized determinants (dependence, industrialization, human capital investment, and military expenditure). The results indicate that increased transactional linkages with the international economy have been beneficial rather than harmful to economic growth. I conclude that structural position in external transaction networks has been the critical factor affecting growth and transformation in the world economy.

The World as a Region: Urban Development Strategies in a Global Economy

The global economy is currently going through a period of transformation that has seen Asia emerge as the most rapidly growing, industrializing and modernizing region in the world economy. Whilst the rest of the world struggled during the financial crisis of 2007-9, Asia played the role of a linchpin for global economic recovery. This book analyzes the growth of key Asian economies in the latter half of the twentieth century, followed a little later by China. Notwithstanding the diversity in the region, rapid growth was instrumental in integrating the Asian economies initially in a market-led manner. Dilip K. Das focuses on the interactive dynamics and the process of integration in the region, exploring the synergy created as well as the resulting symbiotic growth among the Asian economies and China. Written in a clear, comprehensive and critical manner by a world class expert in the field, this book brings together the contemporary academic and policy debates on the issues under examination. As such it is an essential read for students and scholars of economics, international political economy and Asian Studies as well as MBA students.

The World Bank’s Urban Resilience Project (URP) champions resilience as the best response to tackle environmental hazards faced by inhabitants in Dhaka, Bangladesh without sacrificing economic development. Embedded within neoliberal risk management and sustainable development frameworks, the URP supports ongoing forms of urban expansion and densification in Dhaka as the key driver of Bangladesh’s economic growth, purporting that this strategy will enable the city to address increasing and intensifying forms of flooding, heat waves, fires and earthquake risk. This paper argues that the URP depoliticises the causes of and proposed solutions to environmental hazards in Dhaka and the manner in which they are unevenly experienced. Drawing on fieldwork using qualitative methods, this paper posits that three facets guide resilience in Dhaka: reactive neoliberal policies, individualism, and disciplinary control. Ultimately, the URP obfuscates a wider regime of urban development in Dhaka that benefits certain groups (the state, international organisations, elite classes) while further economically and environmentally marginalising those living and working informally. In developing theoretical and empirical contributions to understandings of resilience in global political economy the paper contributes to debates in global political economy and environment, the everyday life of global political economy, and the inter-scalar governance of capitalist societies.

The article considers the problems of China’s economy development, as well as the peculiarities of reforms over time through the prism of elucidating the possibilities and mechanisms of the country’s entry into the world market with the strengthening of its place and role in it. It has been demonstrated that only the expansion of the national internal market can create the necessary prerequisites for a full entry into the global economy. Particular attention is paid to supporting the economy through the government infrastructure investment programs. It was noted that sustainable growth of China’s economy in 2011-2018, the development of its industry, construction, are being traced, which significantly expanded the country’s opportunities to influence an international economy. Hence the conclusion is made about sustainable development of the China’s economy in an attempt by the government to focus on opening its new segments of the national economy on the foreign market with further liberalization of prices, which makes the country economically more powerful. It has been clearly demonstrated how the dynamic growth of state industrial production over the past two decades has transformed China into a leading country in the world. It is noted that China, which has a leading position in the world in the production of many types of products, is now focused on the need to increase domestic consumption in order to make the economy less dependent on exports in the future. The idea that the limited space of the internal market as it grows requires the search for new territories for further realization and development of its production is substantiated

This longitudinal evaluation of gender inequalities and economic growth addresses key questions in the evolving debate over the character of gender differentiation and the goals of womens empowerment. These questions include: 1) whether the impact of strategies of economic growth served to enhance or undermine the status of women; 2) whether changes in the status of women were accompanied by significant changes in gender inequality; and 3) the implications for existing debates. Section I reviews several sets of literature pertinent to the questions using three general approaches: modernization-neoclassical women in development and gender and development. Section II presents the data and methods used in the evaluation. The research assessed the contending interpretations reviewed in the first section by combining another set of cross-sectional and longitudinal data on womens status and inequalities between men and women with other existing indicators. Section III discusses the results in the following order: 1) cross-sectional patterns in womens status; 2) trends in womens status; 3) cross-sectional patterns in inequality between men and women; 4) trends in inequality between men and women; and 5) conclusion. Finally section IV presents an overall discussion of the findings of the whole longitudinal evaluation.

Innovation and entrepreneurship serve as the primary engines propelling the global economy forward. In this collection of expert insights, we delve into the fundamental forces driving these regional economics, economic geography, and international economics. In recent decades, we've borne witness to a profound transformation in the world economy—a phenomenon commonly referred to as 'globalization'. This term encapsulates the rapid expansion of the free flow of goods, capital, people, ideas, information, and knowledge across borders. As we within multinational corporations and among independent entrepreneurs. Moreover, our contributors illuminate the critical role of location in fostering creativity, innovation deepen our comprehension of how innovation and entrepreneurship fuel economic development and foster growth in this globalized landscape, our experts underscore that the current era of globalization has ushered in a remarkable surge in entrepreneurial activity, evident both and entrepreneurship. They emphasize that in a globalized economy, public policy must prioritize knowledge and ideas as the fundamental drivers of competitiveness and economic prosperity.dynamics, enriching our understanding with both theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence across various research domains, such as the economics of innovation and entrepreneurship,

China’s banking reform has achieved significant progress in the past decade; however, problems and challenges remain. Our chapter argues that the inefficiency in the banking industry is mainly due to the system problem, and separate financial sector regulation restricts further banking development. Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) will accelerate the speed of China’s banking reform, even though with pain and at a price, and in turn, China will benefit from further integration into the world economy. The past decades witnessed successful economic reform in China, with GDP growth at an average rate of almost 8%; per capita GDP from US$266 at the end of 1979 to US$1,081 at the end of 2003 increased more than four times (Table 3.1). Successful accession to WTO on 11 December, 2001, accelerating the pace of economic reform and opening up speed to the world, meanwhile led China’s integration even more into the global economy, and “its share in world trade is now over 4 percent, compared with near zero in 1978” (Rodlauer and Heytnes, 2003, in ‘Introduction and Overview’). Now, China has become the major driving force in the development of global economy and plays an important role. “China’s historical record on globalization is very poor. China has almost always been either a strong opponent to this historical process when it was strong enough, or a reluctant follower when it was too weak to voice its opposition. However, given the size of China’s population and its dynamic economy over the last 20 years, the integration of China into the world economy will be of far-reaching significance” (Wen, 2001). China could have a bigger impact on the global economy than the other economies in the future. China’s integration with the global economy represents its rapid expansion of international trade (Prasad, 2004). “Since the late 1970s, exports and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in China have risen dramatically under the open-door policy. The contribution of FDI in China’s exports has been widely recognized” (Zhang and Song, 2001, p. 385). “Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) has been a strategic

The internationalization of the banking sector in developing countries brings both significant benefits and challenges. Foreign banks promote competition, efficiency and financial inclusion, which accelerates the integration of local banking systems into the global economy. However, the arrival of large international players may increase risks and force local banks to make significant changes. Studies show that the influence of foreign banks is ambiguous and depends on the level of economic development of the country. When assessing the effects of globalization, it is important to consider the differences between developed and developing countries. In periods of economic crisis, foreign banks can play a stabilizing role, but they can also import shocks from their own countries. To maximize benefits and minimize risks, it is necessary to develop a strategy that ensures a balanced presence of foreign banks, supports competition and innovation, but does not allow excessive concentration of bank capital. In this context, the internationalization of financial services becomes an important tool for strengthening and liberalizing the financial systems of developing countries, opening new opportunities for their economic growth and sustainable development. Since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the beginning of the era of financial liberalization, one of the most important manifestations of the process of integration of the banking sector into the world economy has been the expansion of foreign banking capital into foreign markets. Financial sector liberalization is intended to provide equal opportunities for financial institutions to access the international market or reduce restrictions from local regulators. Liberalization of the banking industry is one of the most important financial sector liberalization programs.

The monograph is devoted to the main trends in the development of the world economy between the two crises: The Great Recession of 2008-2009 and the crisis of 2020-2021 caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The authors reveal numerous contradictions that accumulated in the global economy during this period and reached their peak by the time the pandemic began. These contradictions are grouped into four groups corresponding to the sections: structural problems affecting the nature of economic growth; contradictions in the development of the financial system; problems of social development and the evolution of the welfare state; energy and resource-environmental problems. The authors demonstrate that the economic turmoil, the growth of political tension within the leading countries and the intensification of conflict in international relations in recent years are largely a reflection of humanity's inability to find an answer to these and other contradictions. The system of global regulation, which has entered a period of deep crisis, is particularly unable to keep up with the changes taking place in the global economy. It is the result of a three-year research project implemented at the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The team of authors includes 18 authors from Russian and foreign universities, research centers and international organizations who are recognized experts on various problems of the world economy. The chapters prepared by them are structured according to a single logic: from problem formulation to a review of theories, a description of existing approaches to solving problems, obstacles in their implementation and, ultimately, to identifying key challenges of the future. Such a structure allows us to present a comprehensive picture of the form in which the world economy has come to a critical moment of its development. For students and postgraduates of economic specialties. It will be useful for teachers developing courses on the world economy and its individual aspects, as well as for the general public interested in global challenges and problems.

China's rise as the world's second-largest economy surely is the most dramatic development in the global economy since the year 2000. But China's prominence in the global economy is hardly new. Since 500 BCE, a dynamic market economy and the establishment of an enduring imperial state fostered precocious economic growth. Yet Chinese society and government featured distinctive institutions that generated unique patterns of economic development. The six chapters of Part I of this volume trace the forms of livelihood, organization of production and exchange, the role of the state in economic development, the evolution of market institutions, and the emergence of trans-Eurasian trade from antiquity to 1000 CE. Part II, in twelve thematic chapters, spans the late imperial period from 1000 to 1800 and surveys diverse fields of economic history, including environment, demography, rural and urban development, factor markets, law, money, finance, philosophy, political economy, foreign trade, human capital, and living standards.

'"Transnationalism" is a term which suffers from being "in" in social science' (Huntington, 1973, p. 334). Although this opening quote is from 40 years ago, it could just as well have appeared in a publication this year. It was written in the aftermath of a global energy crisis, when there was a need to redefine the role of some of the key actors and their relative position in the global (political) system. Transnationalism continues to be popular in the social sciences, at least in part because four decades of globalization have resulted in a world economy that presents a mixture of public and private governance, where new actors continue to emerge, but where state borders still matter. In this context, transnational organizations and transnational corporations (TNCs), in particular, continue to exert a powerful influence on the world economy, but the world economy they are operating in is in some important ways quite different from the economy that was shaping up in the 1970s.