Political Economy

"In this paper, we analyze firms' pricing behavior using a full informative micro dataset that accounts for a large part of Italian firms. In our view, “the black boxes” to examine are the relations between price setting, market structure and spatial disparities. The paper aims to extend the empirical literature in several directions. A first goal of the research is to investigate the link between heterogeneity in price changes and spatial dependence. Besides, we compare the price dynamics among sectors, namely manufacturing vs. service. It is irrefutable that prices stickiness is linked to good market rigidities. Consequently, these issues have extremely important policy implications; for instance, the Monetary Authority considers the macro price indexes in order to determine the right policy to stabilize the economy and to improve social welfare. However, the Central Bank does not distinguish the likely aggregation bias source from the cross sector–region–country heterogeneities.

Overall, the purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of survey data that allows us to collect important aspects for Economic Policy analysis, which could not be drawn from analysis with “mesoeconomic” or aggregate data. Finally, we provide empirical evidence that price dynamic heterogeneity across geographical areas, as well as disparities across industries, are statistically significant in our microeconometric models. Indeed, the probability that industries in the backward areas change prices is 30% less than in more developed regions (Northeast). In addition, we find that sectoral diversity counts especially across goods and service industries, even if this outcome is not always robust across microeconometric specifications."

In order to fully understand the recent rise and potential future of maritime ports, logistics, and the goods-moving sector as economic engines, it is useful to place the analysis in the larger context of the global and national economy. This requires a consideration of how the process of globalization, and the supporting institutional infrastructure, have contributed directly to the expansion of port economies and the rise to prominence of the logistics and supply chain management industry. As we enter a period of global economic crisis, many of the same factors and conditions that fueled the expansion must be considered in assessing the future vitality and viability of global transport and logistics. This paper will present a neo-Marxist theory of economic crisis based on the inevitable imbalance between the “capacity to produce” and the “capacity to consume” that explains the emergence of the current demand-side economic crisis. The extended phase of debt-driven demand and consumption -- that fueled globalization, the expansion of port economies, and the larger logistics industry -- led directly to the global financial crisis and the current state of stagnation and decline in the logistics sector.  The character of the ongoing crisis in comparison to past crises, and the factors responsible for its extended severity, will likely ensure the continuing depressed state of the logistics industry, supply chains, and maritime ports.  As a representative case of this dynamic, the paper examines the Jacksonville Florida port economy and the challenges facing the Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport).

Abstract: Taking an emerging multipolar world as its premise, this thesis attempts to answer the question if and how International Institutions are promoting a distinct model of political economy. The thesis finds that, in rejection of the expectations of the rational liberal institutionalist approach, as formulated by Kenneth Abbott and Duncan Snidal, and in acceptance of the expectations of the critical theory of Robert Cox, the ILO promotes a labour model that has been criticized to only favour certain countries. However, in response to earlier criticism, the Decent Work Agenda has been tailored to country specific concerns and refrains from prescribing universal policies. In addition, by criticising and developing the Varieties of Capitalism framework in a useful analytical tool for this thesis, this thesis has firstly sought to contribute to the relatively new focus of the Varieties of Capitalism to characterise emerging and developing economies and, secondly, sought to contribute to more accurately typifying the labour characteristics of the already pre-existing ideal types of political economies.

"Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of countries in the global south. For much of the global south, however, the promise that markets will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, neoliberalisation has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills.

This book deals with the post-conflict geographies of violence and neoliberalisation in Cambodia. Applying a geographical analysis to contemporary Cambodian politics, the author employs notions of neoliberalism, public space, and radical democracy as the most substantive components of its theoretical edifice. He argues that the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country’s inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. The book demonstrates Cambodian perspectives on the role of public space in Cambodia's process of democratic development and explains the implications of violence and its relationship with neoliberalism.

Taking into account the transition from war to peace, authoritarianism to democracy, and command economy to a free market, this book offers a critical appraisal of the political economy in Cambodia.
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Reviews:

Gunn, G. C. 2013. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 43.1: 188-191.

Brickell, K. 2011. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52.3: 372-374.

Percival, T. 2011. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 32.2: 270-272.

Christie, R. 2010. South East Asia Research, 19.2: 349-372.

Ordóñez de Pablos, P. 2010. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management, 1.4: 65-66."

"The literature on the rational PBC suggests that politicians systematically manipulate economic and fiscal conditions before elections to increase their chances of reelection. Most tests of this theory look for evidence of pre-election distortions in fiscal policy. We propose a new test that explores the two-way interaction between the magnitude of the opportunistic distortion and the margin of victory. The test is implemented using a large
panel of Portuguese municipalities. The results show that opportunism leads to a larger winmargin for the incumbent and that incumbents behave more opportunistically when their
win-margin is small. These results are consistent with the theoretical model."

"Il cambiamento climatico, l'aumento della popolazione mondiale e fenomeni di economia di scala a livello globale stanno mettendo le risorse idriche mondiali sotto forte pressione. Come molti altri paesi definiti water-stressed, la Repubblica Popolare Cinese sta pagando negli ultimi anni una crescente riduzione nella disponibilità delle proprie risorse idriche. Ciò con conseguenze nefaste sulla popolazione: 300 milioni sono i cittadini cinesi ad non avere tutt'ora accesso a fonti di acqua potabile; mentre il numero di sollevazioni di massa per il controllo delle fonti disponibili ha raggiunto, secondo le autorità cinesi, 120.000 in 10 anni.

Sotto l'egida della Banca Mondiale, il Fondo Monetario Internazionale e il Dipartimento per lo Sviluppo Internazionale del Regno Unito (DFID) la Repubblica Popolare ha recentemente sperimentato l'introduzione di associazioni locali gestite direttamente dai contadini, chiamate Water Users' Associations (WUA, cin. nongmin yongshuizhe xiehui), nella convinzione che devolvere i diritti di gestione localmente avrebbe migliorato la performance del sistema e fermato una volta per tutte le recriminazioni provenienti dal basso. Questo modello di governance “dal basso” è stato ufficialmente introdotto in Cina con il progetto di gestione del fiume Yangtze/Changjiang, sponsorizzato dalla Banca Mondiale agli inizi degli anni ‘90, e più di recente (2004-2011) testato in diversi progetti di cooperazione internazionale finanziati dal DFID, volti al miglioramento dell'accesso all'acqua nelle aree rurali delle Province di Gansu, Henan, e Mongolia Interna.

Questi progetti hanno conosciuto nel tempo una diffusione inaspettata al di là dei limiti posti dai progetti stessi, venendo replicati in centinaia di comunità rurali confinanti le località pilota selezionate. I contadini coinvolti nei progetti sono stati gli artefici di tale diffusione. Benefici sostanziali provenivano dalla riforma della gestione dell'acqua nelle comunità rurali, e le comunità confinanti incominciarono presto a far tesoro di tale esperienza provvedendo autonomamente a fondare nuove associazioni contadine preposte alla gestione dell'acqua. 

Testimone di tale successo, il governo cinese ha sposato entusiasticamente le riforme proposte dal consorzio di agenzie internazionali, promuovendo la riforma del settore idrico a livello nazionale. Ciò è avvenuto in parte perché gli indicatori posti a misurazione dell'uso della risorsa in agricoltura segnavano numeri preoccupanti. Un'altra ragione dietro la volontà di riformare la gestione dell'acqua in questo paese è di carattere politico: la consapevolezza che il cambiamento climatico, sommato alla crescita della domanda idrica da parte della società, stia incamminando la Cina verso un futuro in cui la limitatezza della risorsa sarà sempre più causa di problemi di ordine pubblico e il nodo da sciogliere nel bilanciamento degli interessi dei vari gruppi sociali. Un'ultima motivazione a dar slancio alla riforma del settore sta nel ritiro dello Stato cinese e nel processo di “responsabilizzazione” finanziaria esperito dai diversi livelli della macchina amministrativa cinese. Devolvere diritti e doveri direttamente ad associazioni contadine, significa sì promuovere il coinvolgimento dei cittadini nella gestione della risorsa, conferendo loro più poteri (empowerment), ma anche ridurre il coinvolgimento dello Stato nella soluzione di problemi di allocazione e distribuzione intrinsecamente conflittuali, permettendo alle autorità di preservare legittimità e ridurre il proprio carico fiscale. La riforma del settore idrico cinese vede dunque la commistione di molteplici interessi: internazionali, nazionali, locali. Nel processo di traduzione e accorpamento di aspettative e aspirazioni tanto diverse tuttavia, la creazione delle WUA sul territorio cinese ha preso una sua propria strada, indipendente in forma e finalità da quelle inizialmente immaginate. "

In this paper, we critically engage with the notion of a ‘post-neoliberal turn’ in Latin America. The analysis interrogates the existence and characteristics of post-neoliberalism as a mode of regulation, and explores the contributions (and limits) of the concept as a means of theorizing political and economic re-structuring. We critically synthesize the literature, articulating commonly cited principles and practices of post-neoliberalism according to different political, ideological, and geographical contexts. To generate productive engagement across disciplinary and geographical boundaries, we draw on perspectives from Latin America and on concepts of ‘variegated neoliberalization’ and ‘counter-neoliberalization’ (thereby abstracting from, rather than about, Latin America).

"The purpose of the essay is to show how the lack of democracy allowed a corrupt government to govern the fifteenth-largest economy in the world for the benefit of its partners -the owners of both foreign and domestic capital- imposing an economic ethos that is ideal for them to thrive whilst impoverishing the majority of the Mexican population and placing it in one of the worst social conditions experienced throughout the history of Mexico. The author begins by stating that the last three administrations of the PRI concentrated exclusively on staying in power by protecting the interests of the local oligarchic class and the international centres of economic power while completely abandoning their most basic responsibility. In this way, he then discusses the current dire economic situation, emphasizing the dramatic deterioration of real wages.

Summary
 Manic Neoliberalism
 Labour Peonage and Neo-Colonization
 The Bitter Fruits of Mexico’s Neoliberalisation
 Real Solutions"

"In this chapter we are addressing the numerous cases of government failures in countries with transit economies and weak democratic traditions when the state is called upon to provide “pure public goods” (defense, security, and justice). In other words, the subject matter of this chapter involves those institutions which create the very possibility of the existence of real, rather than merely nominal, private property.

The modern understanding of genuine private property includes the assumption of the inviolability of the person of the property owner. Without this, the difference between private property and medieval “conditional tenure” becomes negligible.

The inviolability of the person of the property owner is assured by the state’s supplying three classic “pure public goods”: defense (protection of the property owner from aggression from abroad); security, and justice (protection of the property owner against arbitrary action and coercion within the country).

The creation and maintenance of a combat ready military, uncorrupted law enforcement government agencies, and an independent court system subject only to the law, are duties of primary importance when reforms are under way. These “pure public goods” are extremely important for long term economic growth.

An independent court presumes the independence of judges, their irremovability, and high costs of their dismissal. Court independence is provided and ensured by laws and traditions, and finds its expression in the fact that the state, as represented by high ranking officials and agencies of the government, can lose in court to a private individual in the course of a litigation of some significance to society as a whole. The availability or absence of independent courts is treated as a logical variable.

In Russia, the quality of the court system and the law enforcing agencies of the government continues to remain low, despite an entire series of attempts at reform and disparate achievements here and there. In the early 1990s, reformers’ attention was principally focused on economic transformations: their objective was achieving financial stability and privatization. The absence of financial stability posed the imminent threat of social explosion and economic collapse. Privatization was already outfitted with ready-to-use options for implementation, which had been tested by other post-socialist countries.

An understanding of the importance of reforming the court system and law enforcing and judicial government agencies came in the late 1990s. Significant and lasting achievements in the area of creating an atmosphere favorable to the growth of business and the economy turned out to be impossible without such reforms. "