Suchergebnisse

Recent critics of unequal exchange have argued that not only does the theory critically depend upon the unrealistic assumption of complete speciali zation (no nonspecific commodities) but also that unequal exchange tends to be self-cancelling and empirically insignificant. Each of these criticisms is examined and found to be lacking. The theory is first extricated from the confusing and ir relevant environment of the labor theory of value and a price-denominated fun damental theorem is stated and proved. Unequal exchange is then generalized to account for nonspecifics in a logically consistent way. Though the fundamental theorem does not hold for nonspecifics, a numerical example in which surplus is transferred shows that any criticism of unequal exchange based on its alleged in ability to handle nonspecifics must be empirical in nature rather than logical. It is next shown that while unequal exchange may indeed disappear in the long run for a variety of reasons, nothing in the theory itself implies that it is necessarily self- cancelling. It is argued that capitalists are not attracted to the periphery by low wages but by high profits which depend upon transportation costs and nontraded goods as much as low wages. Finally a 67-sector model of world trade is intro duced in an attempt to assess the empirical relevance of unequal exchange. It is shown that some 38% of the value of peripheral exports is required to equalize the rate of profit under existing wage differentials.

When the economy is shocked by devaluation, prices do not rise proportionately. Output increases and the distribution of income can actually improve. These results support Sandinista policy of raising wages along with devaluation, a policy widely criticised as counterproductive

After reviewing the macro-economy of Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, the author discusses the transition to the new government and analyses the current situation. He makes projections for the medium term up to the year 2000, based on a 2-sector, 2-class macromodel, in which consistency projections are made that show that the economic recovery will be painfully slow and will involve, at least for the next decade, shifting resources from the non-traded to the traded goods sector, with low overall growth rates

What are the medium-term prospects for the Nicaraguan economy where, by medium term, we refer to the year 2000? The difficult task of fortune telling is made enormously more complicated by the political economy that was established in the country by theFrente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN)after the 1979 revolution in which they, with the aid of diverse social factions, overthrew the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. After more than a decade, the FSLN then handed over power, in mid-1990, to a coalition of opposition parties (theUnion Nacional Opositoraor UNO) headed by Violeta Chamorro. The 1990 election brought the first peaceful transfer of power in Nicaraguan history but, perhaps, represented more an abdication by the beleaguered Sandinistas than it did a sea change in the balance of class conflict.