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8702. Implications of COP26 for Africa's mining industry
- Author:
- Vincent Obisie-Orlu
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Good Governance Africa (GGA)
- Abstract:
- Due to the importance of critical minerals in the energy transition, the mining industry has a significant role to play in the pursuit of a net-zero future. At the same time, critical minerals mining is an environmentally damaging process, often occurring in jurisdictions with poor labour and environment standards, compounded by political instability risk. The recently concluded 26th Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) shows that Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration must play a larger role in the mining industry.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, Political stability, Mining, Industry, and Minerals
- Political Geography:
- Africa
8703. A strategy to future-proof Zambia’s mining industry
- Author:
- Vincent Obisie-Orlu
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Good Governance Africa (GGA)
- Abstract:
- Zambia is in an opportune position to benefit from the growing demand for copper to support the global energy transition. Policymakers in President Hakainde Hichilema’s administration have an opportunity to build a resilient and high-performance Zambian economy to bring a true New Dawn. To realise this vision, Zambia must address key economic challenges such as the legacy effects of the previous instability of the mining regulatory system. Volatile changes have plagued the country until recently, with past governments changing mining taxes in response to the copper price. Resultantly, investment growth has diminished and the multiplier effect that would otherwise have been associated with mining has been foregone. Poor macroeconomic governance and mining growth retardation have also pushed Zambia’s national debt to unsustainable levels, as exports have been insufficient to fund debt repayment. The country is now seeking debt relief from its external creditors and has struck a deal with the International Monetary Fund. In this first of a two-part policy briefing series, we examine the key economic challenges associated with mining governance reform and provide recommendations that will help develop a resilient mining tax regime and a more streamlined regulatory environment. The second briefing will address the debt challenge. Considering the growing demand for copper to meet the global net-zero goal, and an impending global supply crunch, more copper will need to be produced and Zambia is in a prime position to do so. At the same time, Zambia has declining copper ore grades. Our primary recommendation, therefore, is that a profit-based Mineral Royalty Tax (MRT) framework be strongly considered. This will enable investment in the necessary capital and infrastructure needed to increase output and promote exploration. Though profit-based MRTs can be exploited by mining companies making claims of increased capital investment to increase outputs, when combined with the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)’s reporting standards, the risk of exploitation is reduced.
- Topic:
- Natural Resources, Economy, Tax Systems, Mining, and Industry
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Zambia
8704. The legal and political implications of a judicial review of the Zondo Commission’s findings
- Author:
- Helen Acton
- Publication Date:
- 05-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Good Governance Africa (GGA)
- Abstract:
- Gwede Mantashe, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, has threatened to judicially review the Zondo Commission’s (‘the Commission’) findings against him. This decision highlights legal and political weaknesses in South Africa’s democratic system. The law is unclear on whether the findings of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) could constitute administrative action reviewable in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA). This was not sufficiently dealt with by the High Court the only time it previously faced a judicial review of a COI’s findings. Even if COI findings could constitute administrative action, it seems that the Commission’s findings and recommendations concerning Mantashe in particular are unlikely to be reviewable in terms of PAJA. The principle of legality would be his most viable option for a legal challenge, but on analysis it is unlikely Mantashe would succeed on this basis either. Moreover, challenging the findings of this Commission on legally dubious grounds underscores political weaknesses in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, and consequently the electoral system more generally. Not only does the proposed challenge by a senior party member in Cabinet undermine the ANC’s steadfast commitment to end entrenched corruption, but it also demonstrates that the party’s step-aside rule is too narrow. The rule does not impose political accountability on members implicated by COI findings unless they are criminally charged by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). This sets the bar too low for political accountability, which should not be equated with criminal liability. The ANC’s lenient stepaside rule, and its members’ use of legal technicalities to avoid political accountability, is dangerous in a proportional representation system with a one-party-dominant legislature. Voters elect a party in a closed list system, and so depend entirely on the ruling party to hold its members individually accountable for wrongdoing. The ANC needs to prove to the electorate that it takes this job seriously.
- Topic:
- Natural Resources, Mining, Judiciary, and Energy
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Africa
8705. Efforts to mitigate elections in SADC countries becoming Covid-19 spreaders
- Author:
- Craig Moffat
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Good Governance Africa (GGA)
- Abstract:
- Gwede Mantashe, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, has threatened to judicially review the Zondo Commission’s (‘the Commission’) findings against him. This decision highlights legal and political weaknesses in South Africa’s democratic system. The law is unclear on whether the findings of a Commission of Inquiry (COI) could constitute administrative action reviewable in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA). This was not sufficiently dealt with by the High Court the only time it previously faced a judicial review of a COI’s findings. Even if COI findings could constitute administrative action, it seems that the Commission’s findings and recommendations concerning Mantashe in particular are unlikely to be reviewable in terms of PAJA. The principle of legality would be his most viable option for a legal challenge, but on analysis it is unlikely Mantashe would succeed on this basis either. Moreover, challenging the findings of this Commission on legally dubious grounds underscores political weaknesses in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, and consequently the electoral system more generally. Not only does the proposed challenge by a senior party member in Cabinet undermine the ANC’s steadfast commitment to end entrenched corruption, but it also demonstrates that the party’s step-aside rule is too narrow. The rule does not impose political accountability on members implicated by COI findings unless they are criminally charged by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). This sets the bar too low for political accountability, which should not be equated with criminal liability. The ANC’s lenient stepaside rule, and its members’ use of legal technicalities to avoid political accountability, is dangerous in a proportional representation system with a one-party-dominant legislature. Voters elect a party in a closed list system, and so depend entirely on the ruling party to hold its members individually accountable for wrongdoing. The ANC needs to prove to the electorate that it takes this job seriously
- Topic:
- Elections, Crisis Management, Vaccine, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Africa
8706. The Ethnic Chapter of Colombia’s Peace Agreement Five Years On: An Independent Assessment
- Author:
- Helmer Eduardo Quiñones Mendoza
- Publication Date:
- 07-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
- Abstract:
- In 2016, the Colombian Peace Agreement included an Ethnic Chapter designed to ensure the representation of and oversight by indigenous and Afro-Colombian social organizations in the implementation process. This recognition of ethnic rights as a cross-cutting agenda set a precedent among international peace-building processes. But failures in the implementation have meant that armed conflict and systematic violence against ethnic peoples and their territories have raged on. In this Accountability Note, Helmer Eduardo Quiñones Mendoza presents an assessment of the implementation of the Ethnic Chapter of the peace agreement. The assessment was carried out by the advisory team to the High-Level Forum with Ethnic Peoples (IEANPE), the main mechanism for monitoring and promoting the Ethnic Chapter, and presented to the Colombian government in 2021. Together with a preface by Armando Wouriyú Valbuena (Secretary of the Ethnic Commission, Technical Secretary of the IEANPE, and distinguished indigenous leader), an introduction by Jonathan Fox (ARC Director), and an afterword by Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli (Washington Office on Latin America), this note assesses implementation against each of the agreement’s six pillars, identifies entry points for improvement, and lays out an agenda for building a new future for Colombia’s ethnic minorities by fully implementing the Ethnic Chapter of the 2016 agreement.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Treaties and Agreements, Minorities, Ethnicity, and Peace
- Political Geography:
- Colombia and South America
8707. Heroes on Strike: Trends in Global Health Worker Protests During COVID-19
- Author:
- Sorcha A. Brophy, Veena Sriram, Haotian Zong, Chloei Andres, Maria Paz Mawyin, and Narayanan GL
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
- Abstract:
- This Accountability Note describes global trends in health worker protests between March 11, 2020 and March 10, 2021. We argue that the frequent characterization of health workers as heroes of the pandemic obscures the fact that health workers themselves describe the challenges they face during this time as violations of their rights as workers, highlighting the obligations of their employers to provide working conditions and remuneration that justify the risk they assume. Using data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) Project, we first provide a global overview of the growth in health worker protest activity in the March 2020–2021 period as compared to the March 2019–2020 period. Health workers engaged in protest activity with greater frequency during the first year of the pandemic than during the prior year. The eighty-five countries included in the ACLED data set in both the March 2019–2020 period and the March 2020–2021 period experienced a sixty-two percent increase in health worker protest activity (from 2416 protests to 3913 protests). We then provide an overview of the content of the 6589 health worker protests in the ACLED dataset between March 2020 and March 2021, describing protests in 149 countries in terms of five categories: working conditions and remuneration, resources, health system delivery issues, public policy, and other. By far, the largest category of protests during this period are those related to working conditions and remuneration. Approximately sixty-six percent (N=4358) of global protests in the 2020–2021 period expressed health worker dissatisfaction about issues such as: occupational hazards, unpaid wages, risk allowances and job security. Surprisingly, personal protective equipment (PPE) concerns—an issue covered frequently in the media—motivated a relatively low percentage of the protests (less than nine percent). We note this not to downplay the gravity of global PPE shortages, but to situate PPE shortages as one among many health worker concerns during the pandemic. Protests initiated by health workers about health system delivery issues provide an important reminder that even in the middle of a pandemic, not everything was about COVID-19. Sixty-two percent of the health system-related protests during the 2020–2021 period were about issues that were not coded as directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the vast majority of health workers’ protests around public policy were not about pandemic-related government policy, but about social issues like climate change, immigration, police brutality, and elections. The aim of this analysis is to understand what health workers advocated for during a time of immense pressure, and to identify some broad areas of concern for health sector accountability. Through this analysis, we prepare the groundwork for future research and action, and share preliminary guidance regarding how health sector stakeholders—including government, health worker associations, unions, and civil society—might develop improved systems of accountability.
- Topic:
- Health, Protests, Crisis Management, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8708. A Gravity Theory of Subordinate Financialisation
- Author:
- Photis Lysandrou
- Publication Date:
- 01-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- City Political Economy Research Centre (CITYPERC), University of London
- Abstract:
- Recent decades have marked both the globalisation of capitalism following the collapse of communism and its financialisation following the rapid growth of the world's securities markets. These developments have impacted the core-periphery divide in capitalism. In the case of globalisation, the entry of the ex-communist countries into the world capitalist system has swelled the ranks of the emerging capitalist economies (ECEs) that are kept subordinate through the pressures from the advanced capitalist economies (ACEs). In the case of financialisation, the growth of the securities markets has led to a palpable change in the pressures that perpetuate subordination. Where previously the use of authority was the chief source of those pressures, it now plays a secondary role. Absent that authority, and the ECEs would still be held in a subordinate position in global capitalism through the gravitational pull of the ACEs' financial securities markets. The central purpose of this paper is to explain this gravitational pull.
- Topic:
- Markets, Political Economy, Capitalism, Finance, and Financial Globalization
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8709. The Rise of a Rule-Based Transgressor Elite
- Author:
- Ronen Palan
- Publication Date:
- 01-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- City Political Economy Research Centre (CITYPERC), University of London
- Abstract:
- Transnationally organised, rule-based transgressor elites are the wealthiest and most powerful elites today. The core of this group comprises managers of large multinational corporations and related ‘born global’ corporations, such as Tesla, eBay and the like, large investment houses, such as Blackrock, Blackstone and Vanguard, leading international investment banks and elite legal, consultancy and accounting firms. This elite core is joined by several ancillary groups. Arguably the most significant of those are midsize corporate groups, many of which are privately held. Numbering in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, they employ tactics perfected by large corporations to arbitrage rules and ensure corporate and other forms of taxation, rules specifying personal or group liabilities or other regulations, including protection of shareholders and the like, are either partially or fully avoided. To these, Ricardo de Soares adds another group; he argues elites from development countries latch onto existing institutional and professional providers serving those other elites; once they achieve their goal of transferring capital out of their own countries, they participate actively in the process of wealth and power concentration described in this paper (Soares, 2021) .
- Topic:
- Political Economy, Multinational Corporations, Elites, and Capital Accumulation
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8710. What Do We Really Know about Productivity Differentials across Countries?
- Author:
- Jayati Ghosh
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- This paper examines and critiques the most widely used measure of productivity (output per worker employed) and argues that this is a flawed, inadequate and even misleading measure of economic progress. In terms of cross-country comparisons and assessing trends over time, both the numerator (GDP or value added) and the denominator (number of workers or hours worked) have significant conceptual and measurement problems. These issues are considered in general, and also with regard to how they affect analyses of productivity differentials in the U.S. and India in the recent period.
- Topic:
- Political Economy, GDP, Employment, Economy, and Productivity
- Political Geography:
- South Asia, India, North America, and United States of America
8711. The Environmental Consequences of Inequality
- Author:
- James K. Boyce
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- Inequality has important consequences for the extent of pollution and natural resource depletion as well as for the distribution of the costs and benefits from environmental degradation. Inequalities in the distribution of purchasing power operate through the market, and inequalities in the distribution of political power operate through governance institutions, often with mutually reinforcing effects.
- Topic:
- Environment, Political Economy, Natural Resources, Inequality, Justice, and Pollution
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8712. Who Gains from Agricultural “Reform”?: Understanding the 2020 Farm Laws and Protests
- Author:
- C. P. Chandrasekhar
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- Over 2020-21, farmer protests in India turned into a movement that took large numbers of farmers to the borders of India’s capital. The movement was provoked by the passage of three farm laws designed to dismantle regulation of agricultural trade, provide a legal framework for contract farming arrangements, and facilitate corporate entry into agricultural production and trade. Despite intense farmer opposition the government held out for almost a year after the movement began before withdrawing the laws. The paper attempts to understand the factors underlying this stand-off by tracing the post-Independence evolution of agricultural and food policy and examining the political economy context of the positions adopted by the farmers and the government. A lesson that the farmers have derived from experience, I argue, is that agricultural prices, the terms of exchange between agriculture and industry, and the viability of crop production are not determined by benign and free markets, but by structures of power reflected in state policy. Till the economic crises of the mid-1960s those power relations were skewed against agriculture, but the crisis forced a shift in state policy aimed at raising agricultural production by intensifying farming activity, especially food grain production. A new framework of intervention involving procurement at a cost-plus price and distribution to consumers at subsidised prices, helped either tilt the terms of trade in favour of agriculture or prevent an adverse shift in the terms facing agriculture. Farmers saw the farm laws and the failure to guarantee procurement at an adequately remunerative price as an effort to dismantle that protective framework and favour corporate interests. The protests have resulted in the. repeal of the laws. But the stand-off over the level and price of procurement is still unresolved.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Political Economy, Reform, Protests, and Trade
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
8713. The Distribution of the Cost of Cuban Social Reproduction in 2016: The Relative Contributions of Domestic and Diasporic Households, the Private Sector, and the State
- Author:
- Anamary Maqueira Linares and Katherine Moos
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- Drawing on feminist political economy and social reproduction theory, we propose an accounting framework for understanding the distributional role of household production, employment, remittances, and government social transfers in the social reproduction of the Cuban people. We apply this quantitative framework to available data and produce estimates for 2016. Our findings demonstrate that households—both domestic and diasporic—were the largest contributors to social reproduction in Cuba. Our empirical exercise provides insight for a qualitative conceptualization and analysis of the changing distribution of social reproduction in Cuba, especially regarding changes in state provisioning and employment. Results reveal how the actual distributional arrangements underlying Cuban social reproduction differ from the official commitments and goals of the Cuban Revolution and signal several potentially unsustainable self-reinforcing dynamics.
- Topic:
- Political Economy, Employment, Private Sector, and Remittances
- Political Geography:
- Cuba and Caribbean
8714. Past Economic Decline Predicts Opioid Prescription Rates
- Author:
- Herb Susmann, Elias Nosrati, Michael Ash, Michael Marmot, and Lawrence King
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- America is in undergoing an epidemic of opioid related deaths. Analysts have emphasized two different (but not mutually exclusive) arguments. Supply based explanations emphasize the immoral activity of pharmaceutical companies from 1996 to aggressively market opioids. They typically use prescription rates as a measure of this variable. Demand based explanations emphasize the demand for opioids caused by economic hardship. This paper demonstrates that prescription rates are not entirely exogenous. We show that the decline of average household income from 1979 to 1989 at the county level is a significant predictor of opioid prescription rates in 2010. This is consistent with research that shows that childhood trauma predicts adult drug abuse. The policy implications of this finding are that an adequate response to the opioid epidemic must address economic dislocation and insecurity.
- Topic:
- Political Economy, Health Crisis, Pharmaceuticals, Opioid Crisis, and Income
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
8715. Considerations on Inflation, Economic Growth and the 2 Percent Inflation Target
- Author:
- Robert Pollin and Hanae Bouazza
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- This paper considers two basic questions with respect to inflation control, inflation targeting, and overall macroeconomic performance. The initial question is: what has been the justification in research for establishing an inflation target, and specifically a low inflation rate target of 2 – 3 percent, as the organizing principle and overarching goal of macroeconomic policy? The second question is: do we actually observe stronger macroeconomic performances—as measured in standard terms of GDP growth—when macro policy operates within the framework of such low inflation targets? Our answers to these questions are straightforward. First, no serious body of research has been produced that provides a clear justification for a 2 – 3 percent inflation target as the central goal of macroeconomic policy. Further, there is no body of evidence showing that economies at any level of development consistently experience stronger economic growth outcomes when inflation is maintained at less than 3 percent as opposed to higher inflation rates, certainly within a 4 – 5 percent inflation range and, in some circumstances, somewhat higher rates still. These findings are significant insofar as they open space for considering the set of measures other than contractionary monetary policies as viable inflation control tools. It is possible that these other measures do not operate as forcefully as contractionary monetary policy in bringing inflation down to a 2 – 3 percent target range. But our findings suggest that it is not typically necessary to force down inflation to such low levels, especially given that contractionary monetary policies succeed in controlling inflation primarily through the channel of raising mass unemployment and weakening workers’ bargaining power.
- Topic:
- Economic Growth, Inflation, and Macroeconomics
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8716. Inflation Targeting in Open Economies: The Contradictions of Determinacy and Stability
- Author:
- Esteban Perez-Caldentey and Matias Vernengo
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- Since 1999, more than half of Latin American countries have put in practice inflation targeting regimes with the objective of maintaining price stability within a low inflation environment. Building on previous work, we argue that the adoption of this monetary regime was the result of a policy shift that began with the Washington Consensus, and which materialized sequentially in increased financial openness, greater exchange rate flexibility, leading eventually to the implementation of inflation targeting. We further sustain that in the case of an open economy, the use of inflation targeting leads to incoherent and contradictory results that severely question its alleged superiority over other monetary frameworks. Finally, we posit the need for comprehensive regulatory frameworks to deal with the complex dynamics and transmission mechanisms that characterize economies that have a high degree of financial openness, such as those of Latin America.
- Topic:
- Regulation, Economy, Inflation, and Economic Stability
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
8717. Lessons from the Inflation of 2021-202(?)
- Author:
- Asha Banerjee and Josh Bivens
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- Starting in mid-2021, inflation in the United States rose to levels not seen since the early 1980s. This inflation followed on the heels of the economic shock imposed by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the significant fiscal policy interventions meant to smooth the fallout of this shock. As of October 2022, inflation – both headline and core measures stripping out food and energy prices – remained at historically high levels, though there are significant signs of softening in the near-future. This episode has sparked furious debate over the proper policy response, and has exposed how little innovative thinking has been done on inflation by either macroeconomists or policy analysts since the 1980s price acceleration was ended by the Volcker shock. This paper identifies a number of key questions raised by the inflationary outbreak of the past 18 months and offers some answers. An extremely brief summary of these questions and answers is provided below, with the rest of the paper expanding on these points.
- Topic:
- Economy, Inflation, Macroeconomics, Fiscal Policy, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
8718. Inconsistent Definitions of GDP: Implications for Estimates of Decoupling
- Author:
- Gregor Semieniuk
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- Efforts to assess the possibilities for decoupling economic growth from negative environmental impacts have examined their historical relationship, with varying and inconclusive results. Part of the problem is ambiguity about definitions of environmental impacts, e.g. whether to use territorial or consumption-based measures of environmental impact. This paper shows that ambiguities arising from definitional changes to GDP are sufficiently large to affect the outcomes. I review the history of structural revisions to GDP using the example of the United States, and on international comparisons of purchasing power parity, compare decoupling results using various historical definitions of GDP on the same environmental indicator, and demonstrate that changing the GDP data vintage does impact decoupling results in qualitatively important ways, with and without purchasing power parity. Inconsistencies in economic measurement introduce an additional layer of ambiguity into historical decoupling evidence and model projection into the future. To advance debate and be clear about scenario assumptions, rigorous reporting of GDP definitions used and the sharing of data vintage for subsequent comparison and replication are urgently needed.
- Topic:
- Environment, Political Economy, GDP, and Economic Growth
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
8719. Time Use Data in Feminist Political Economy Analyses: Gender and Class in the Indian Time Use Survey
- Author:
- Sirisha Naidu and Smriti Rao
- Publication Date:
- 10-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- The literature on agrarian change in India has largely employed class categories based upon data on land, assets and occupational status. Land and asset data tend to exist at the level of households, while occupation categories have neither fully counted reproductive labour nor accounted for diversified livelihood strategies. As a result, categorizations of class in the literature on agrarian change tend to collapse women’s class relations into those of male household heads. The recent completion of India’s first ever national time use survey provides an opportunity to address these longstanding gaps. This paper examines whether and how the 2019 Indian Time Use data lends itself to an understanding of class relations that i) can better accommodate an expanded conception of work as including reproductive labor ii) better accommodate the highly diversified livelihoods of rural Indians iii) better grasp the articulation of caste and gender differentiated labor processes with capital. In this paper, we are able to show i) and ii). The third goal is somewhat stymied by the absence of qualitative data that contextualize time use data. We compare the class relational mapping obtained from time use data with that obtained from land and occupational data and examine the possibilities and limits of employing time use data to deepen feminist political economy analyses of agrarian change.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Political Economy, Labor Issues, Feminism, Caste, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
8720. Savings Glut, Secular Stagnation, Demographic Reversal, and Inequality: Beyond Conventional Explanations of Lower Interest Rates
- Author:
- Matias Vernengo
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Abstract:
- Interest rates have declined over the last 40 years, a period of increasing inequality. The steady decline in interest rates has been interpreted by and large as resulting from a decline of the natural rate of interest. This paper surveys the main explanations associated with the notion of a decline in the natural rate of interest, including the savings glut and the secular stagnation hypothesis. It analyzes the views according to which demographic forces were behind the decline, and might perhaps be associated to a future rise of the same natural rate. It also discusses the view according to which the role of inequality has been also to affect the natural rate of interest. Finally, views that discuss the role of monetary and financial factors, including the so-called global financial cycle literature, are discussed. It is argued that the conventional view suffers from logical and empirical problems that are ultimately insurmountable. A brief critique of the notion of a natural rate of interest, and alternative monetary theory of the decline of interest rates, as determined exogenously by the monetary authority of the hegemonic country, the United States, is proposed.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Inequality, Finance, and Interest Rates
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America