The Political Economy of Policy Reform


Book Description

Policymakers around the world have increasingly agreed that macroeconomic discipline, microeconomic liberalization, and outward orientation are prerequisites for economic success. But what are the political conditions that make economic transformation possible? At a conference held at the Institute for International Economics, leaders of economic reform recounted their efforts to bring about change and discussed the impact of the political climate on the success of their efforts. In this book, these leaders explore the political conditions conducive to the success of policy reforms. Did economic crisis strengthen the hands of the reformers? Was the rapidity with which reforms were instituted crucial? Did the reformers have a "honeymoon" period in which to transform the economy? The authors answer these and other questions, as well as providing first-hand accounts of the politically charged atmosphere surrounding reform efforts in their countries.




Revolution in Development


Book Description

Revolution in Development uncovers the surprising influence of postrevolutionary Mexico on the twentieth century's most important international economic institutions. Drawing on extensive archival research in Mexico, the United States, and Great Britain, Christy Thornton meticulously traces how Mexican officials repeatedly rallied Third World leaders to campaign for representation in global organizations and redistribution through multilateral institutions. By decentering the United States and Europe in the history of global economic governance, Revolution in Development shows how Mexican economists, diplomats, and politicians fought for more than five decades to reform the rules and institutions of the global capitalist economy. In so doing, the book demonstrates, Mexican officials shaped not only their own domestic economic prospects but also the contours of the project of international development itself.




The Political Economy of International Reform and Reconstruction


Book Description

When he fled Austria in 1934, Ludwig von Mises left behind a wealth of writings that, he supposed, were lost forever. Seized by the Nazi Gestapo, the papers were subsequently captured by the Soviet KGB and were archived in Moscow. Their discovery in 1996, by Professors Richard and Anna Ebeling of Hillsdale College, received widespread attention. In cooperation with Hillsdale College, Liberty Fund will make available these long-lost writings, many of which have not previously appeared in English, as part of a three-volume edition of selected writings by one of the unsurpassed economists of the twentieth century. In the first of the volumes to be published are contained separate previously unpublished works that Mises wrote from 1940 through 1944, when much of the world was at war. The papers include: Guiding Principles for the Reconstruction of Austria (1940); An Eastern Democratic Union: A Proposal for the Establishment of a Durable Peace in Eastern Europe (1943); Aspects of American Foreign Trade Policy (1943); Mexico's Economic Problems (1943); The Main Issues in Present-Day Monetary Controversies (1944), and; A Non-Inflationary Proposal for Post-War Monetary Reconstruction (1944).




The Political Economy of Mexico's Financial Reform


Book Description

This title was first published in 2001. An analysis of the political economy of Mexico's financial reform. It is organized in three parts. The first part - chapters one to four - develops the framework, both historical and institutional. The first chapter outlines the theoretical discussion on state autonomy and develops a simple analytical framework to study public policy decisions. The subsequent three chapters address three main themes: external dependency of domestic states on international capital, political change under President Carlos Salinas and financial policy in Mexico. The second part presents the analysis of three main institutional changes to the financial system - development banking reform, commercial banking privatisation and autonomy of the central bank. Each specific case study shows how the reforms conformed to the ideas of the dominant consensus on economic policy and how they delivered an inefficient incentive structure. The third part - chapter eight - brings together all the elements to explain Mexico's 1994 financial crisis.




The Mexican Economy


Book Description

Mexico is the fifteenth largest economy in the world and Latin America's biggest exporter and importer. There are, however, two Mexicos: one more prosperous, advanced and modern, the other poor, isolated and backward, and this polarization characterizes much of Mexico's recent economic development. This book charts Mexico's modern economic history as well as its current structure, its regional differences, and the productivity gaps and economic challenges it faces. It examines the relative robustness of recent macroeconomic fundamentals alongside industry-level economic trends, especially those sectors dependent on exports through the North American free trade agreement. The book covers demographic trends, urbanization, education and health, and migration to the North. The economic impact of Mexico's long border with the United States is given particular focus. As are drugs, organized crime and the country's entrenched corruption. The book offers a concise and up to date analysis of Mexico's economic development and the country's political economy suitable for a range of courses in Latin American studies and Development Studies.




Regulatory Cycles: Revisiting the Political Economy of Financial Crises


Book Description

Financial crises are traditionally analyzed as purely economic phenomena. The political economy of financial booms and busts remains both under-emphasized and limited to isolated episodes. This paper examines the political economy of financial policy during ten of the most infamous financial booms and busts since the 18th century, and presents consistent evidence of pro-cyclical regulatory policies by governments. Financial booms, and risk-taking during these episodes, were often amplified by political regulatory stimuli, credit subsidies, and an increasing light-touch approach to financial supervision. The regulatory backlash that ensues from financial crises can only be understood in the context of the deep political ramifications of these crises. Post-crisis regulations do not always survive the following boom. The interplay between politics and financial policy over these cycles deserves further attention. History suggests that politics can be the undoing of macro-prudential regulations.




The State of State Reforms in Latin America


Book Description

Latin America suffered a profound state crisis in the 1980s, which prompted not only the wave of macroeconomic and deregulation reforms known as the Washington Consensus, but also a wide variety of institutional or 'second generation' reforms. 'The State of State Reform in Latin America' reviews and assesses the outcomes of these less studied institutional reforms. This book examines four major areas of institutional reform: a. political institutions and the state organization; b. fiscal institutions, such as budget, tax and decentralization institutions; c. public institutions in charge of sectoral economic policies (financial, industrial, and infrastructure); and d. social sector institutions (pensions, social protection, and education). In each of these areas, the authors summarize the reform objectives, describe and measure their scope, assess the main outcomes, and identify the obstacles for implementation, especially those of an institutional nature.




The Making of a Market


Book Description

During the nineteenth century, Yucat&án moved effectively from its colonial past into modernity, transforming from a cattle-ranching and subsistence-farming economy to a booming export-oriented agricultural economy. Yucat&án and its economy grew in response to increasing demand from the United States for henequen, the local cordage fiber. This henequen boom has often been seen as another regional and historical example of overdependence on foreign markets and extortionary local elites. In The Making of a Market, Juliette Levy argues instead that local social and economic dynamics are the root of the region&’s development. She shows how credit markets contributed to the boom before banks (and bank crises) existed and how people borrowed before the creation of institutions designed specifically to lend. As the intermediaries in this lending process, notaries became unwitting catalysts of Yucat&án&’s capitalist transformation. By focusing attention on the notaries&’ role in structuring the mortgage market rather than on formal institutions such as banks, this study challenges the easy compartmentalization of local and global relationships and of economic and social relationships.




Reforming the Governance of the IMF and the World Bank


Book Description

The papers included in this book cover different aspects of the governance of the Bretton Woods institutions. They explore different options for reform and show that enhancing the participation of developing and emerging market countries in resolving the major monetary and financial problems confronting the world economy, would improve global economic performance and contribute to the elimination of world poverty.