Key issues such as understanding how development banks work, what their main aims are, and what their links with the private financial and corporate sector are have come to the forefront, and there is an increased interest in what instruments, incentives, and governance work better in general and in particular contexts.
Recent years have been characterized by growing frustration with globalization, reflecting unsatisfactory processes and outcomes in multiple areas. In the social area, disenchantment is the result of the uneven way the benefits of globalization have spread in developing and developed countries alike. In the economic area, high financial volatility and a broad regulatory deficit have resulted in a sequence of national and international financial crises, and most recently in a global financial crisis unprecedented since the Great Depression. In the environmental area, no effective action has been taken so far to face the unprecedented challenges posed by climate change and the massive destruction of biodiversity.
Korea has embarked on a new and innovative economic strategy, sometimes called J-nomics, a possible solution to the problems plaguing so many advanced and emerging markets. In this brief essay, I first will outline some of the main challenges facing Korea and many other advanced countries, and then explain why J-nomics provides a hopeful answer to these challenges.
The role of exchange rate policies in economic development is still largely debated. This column argues that there are theoretical foundations for policies that guarantee competitive and stable real exchange rates. When there are constraints on the available set of policy instruments, the complementary use of competitive exchange rates with export taxes for traditional export sectors would result in effectively multiple real exchange rates. The empirical evidence suggests that both foreign exchange interventions and capital account regulations can be effectively used for maintaining competitive exchange rates and for dampening the effects of boom-bust cycles in external financing and the terms of trade on the exchange rate, thereby promoting growth and stability.
In the 1990s, development policy advocated by international financial institutions was influenced by Washington Consensus thinking. This strategy, based largely on liberalization, privatization, and price-flexibility, downplayed, if not disregarded, the role of government in steering the processes of technological learning and economic growth. With the exception of the Far East, Read more…
Capital market liberalization has been a key battle in the debate on globalization for much of the previous two decades. Many developing countries, often at the behest of international financial institutions such as the IMF, opened their capital accounts and liberalized their domestic financial markets as part of the wave Read more…
Policy Brief #4 About the Authors Akbar Noman Senior Policy Fellow Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) Akbar Noman is Senior Fellow at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. His other academic appointments include Oxford University, and the Institute Read more…
The main reports about the post-2015 UN development goals agree about the need for the agenda to encompass the three dimensions of sustainable development, be universally applicable, and adaptable to national priorities.
Policy Brief #14 About the Authors Stephany Griffith-Jones Financial Markets Program Director Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) Stephany Griffith-Jones is an economist specialising in international finance and development, with emphasis on reform of the international and national financial system, especially in relation to financial regulation and global governance. She is Read more…
This important collection of essays from the leading writers in the field, focuses on the importance of taking environmental issues into account in the process of development and poverty reduction. This book deepens our understanding of environmental sustainability in a context of economic growth, putting sustainable development firmly back on Read more…