Suchergebnisse

Reducing disparities among regions within European countries is the aim of European and national structural policies. In particular, a European grant contributes to the German governmental program for equalizing regional unemployment. The goal is to bring it down to the national average by creating new and/or by safeguarding existing jobs. In the given paper the distribution of available aid among 271 German labor market regions is considered as an econometric decision problem. At first, the dependence of the unemployment rate on the amount of aid is estimated for each eligible region. Using this dependence, the variance of regional unemployment rates is expressed as a function of the regional subsidies. The optimal aid distribution among regions is obtained by minimizing this variance subject to the total budget constraint and administrative restrictions. The optimal figures computed are compared with statistical data for 2000{2002. They show that the regional unemployment in West Germany could be equalized better (with variance 3.50 against the actual 4.40) and with a simultaneous decrease in the average unemployment in West Germany from 7.45 to 7.28%. In East Germany all regions are eligible, implying no administrative constraints and a high optimization flexibility. It enables almost perfectly equalize regional indices down to the variance 0.28 against the actual 9.76. Under the model assumptions, the actual results of the equalizing policy could be attained by half the budget granted. These underused possibilities explain the low efficiency of active labor market policies reported in empirical studies. To improve their performance, some tools for optimally distributing subsidies and predicting their effects are suggested.

Between 1980 and 2000, a number of Sub-Saharan African countries entered into conditional structural adjustment lending arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in response to economic crisis and decline. Despite the fact that the crises had been due in part to long-term overdependence on primary sector activities, such as cash crop agriculture and natural resource extraction, many countries allegedly continued to prioritize these activities during structural adjustment. This approach of continued primary sector-oriented development despite the risks associated with such policies presents a puzzle, raising the question of whether and why borrowing African countries pursued similar sectoral policies in the structural adjustment period as they had during previous periods of development. This dissertation investigates the above puzzle of sectoral continuity by describing and explaining cases of continuity in the agricultural, extractive, and industrial sectors in ten Sub-Saharan African countries between the colonial period and the structural adjustment period. Using novel data, the dissertation descriptively demonstrates that there was significant continuity over time in terms of which sectors were prioritized (i.e., sectoral level continuity) and the policy approaches used to structure economic activity within those sectors (i.e., within-sector continuity), finding strong evidence of agricultural sector continuity and isolated cases of extractive and industrial sector continuity in the ten countries.I argue that these cases of sectoral continuity can be explained primarily by domestic interests in borrowing countries. I show that borrowing governments exercised significant influence over sectoral policy-making during structural adjustment, and that they utilized that influence to pursue continuity in existing productive sector activities in the context of domestic political systems characterized by widespread state use of productive sector resources as a means of maintaining political power and support. I also argue, however, that borrowing states did not always exercise influence over sectoral policy choices and that, in some cases, IMF staff exercised dominant control over sectoral policy. In these cases, IMF staff used their influence to pursue policies of sector-level continuity and within-sector discontinuity based on prevailing economic ideas. With the above findings, the dissertation makes a theoretical contribution in the form of a multi-level framework of international policy-making that takes into account (1) which actors dominated structural adjustment policy-making processes and (2) how those actors' preferences impacted the degree to which sectoral policy choices were geared toward continuity or change.

Providing overviews of states and sectors, classes and companies in the new international division of labour, this series treats polity-economy dialectics at global, regional and national levels. This volume in the series looks at the complexities of structural adjustment in Africa.

Profiles regional economic development and the rural-urban disparity.

AbstractThe paper presents an account of the origin, contents and apparent impact of the Nigerian structural adjustment programme of 1986–90. The programme arose from pressure by Nigeria's external creditors to reach an accommodation with the Bank and the Fund, but once the decision to undertake such a programme had been taken it became largely 'home‐grown' and contains a number of heterodox elements, including a ban on imported foodstuffs. Other major elements are a shift to a market‐determined exchange rate, the winding‐up of the six government commodity marketing boards and the gradual elimination of administrative controls on overseas trade. The design of the programme takes note of a number of recent theoretical findings, including the significance of the intermediate import constraint and the presence of crowding‐in effects of public expenditure on private investment in a number of African countries, any assessment of the programme's impact is of necessity preliminary; but, at the least, it has made possible a reduction in the burden of debt service, and the growth rate of GDP and exports, in particular export crops such as cocoa and rubber, have been much higher in the post‐than in the pre‐structural adjustment period; but inflation has worsened, real wages have fallen, and diversification of exports has not occurred. The tentative verdict is that the programme tried to achieve too much too soon, underestimated the resultant social costs, and placed too much reliance and changes in price incentives as a means of bringing about the necessary restructuring.

A publication having a provocative avocation, as does this book, is possible only with the support and sharp minds of many dedicated professionals. Contributions from colleagues on five continents enabled this research endeavor to mature from an urgent although poorly formulated idea some three years ago to a serious study of the environmental impacts of policy-based lending. It is nothing short of a privilege to have benefited from the dedication and support of so many gifted colleagues who helped steer this study through methodological, political, and logistical thickets of many kinds.

View that international lending organizations should take a broader view of the development process and assess more carefully the administrative capacity of Third World governments to make policy changes. Economic growth, social equity, international transactions, and public sector management.

Notes that the structural adjustment programme (SAP) which the Bretton Woods institutions have obliged developing countries, particularly the heavily indebted ones among them, to adopt as a condition for debt relief has provoked controversy. Considers proposals designed to reorient SAP into a human-centred strategy for promoting trade and investment, productive employment, poverty eradication and the enhancement of social integration and democracy. While welcoming these proposals and a paradigm shift currently taking place in the World Bank, argues that this will not be the first time such movement has happened without leading to any significant change on the ground. (Original abstract - amended)