Finance & Development articles from March 2005

Finance & Development archives from March 2005

Unduly fearful?(From The Editor)(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... ONE OF THE rallying cries in development circles has been that trade liberalization--as much as increased aid--holds the key to helping low-income countries boost growth and eradicate poverty. For that reason, great hopes have been pinned on...

Amartya Sen--a contrarian view.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I read with great interest the brilliant piece on Amartya Sen ("Freedom as Progress," September 2004). As an Indian economist from Santiniketan where Professor Sen studied, I take a great interest in what he says and does. While I am an ardent...

What pace works best for reform?(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I agree with John McMillan ("Reform: What Pace Works Best?," September 2004) that reforms in developing countries should be gradual and piecemeal rather than rapid and comprehensive, as proposed by Oleh Havrylyshyn. McMillan's approach takes...

IMF must take on corruption.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Cyrus Rustomjee ("Why Developing Countries Need a Stronger Voice," September 2004) correctly observes that the five-year history of the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility includes numerous failures in sub-Saharan Africa. In my own...

Asian tsunami spotlights disaster preparedness.
March 1, 2005... The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on December 26, 2004, that killed more than 200,000 people has prompted a renewed focus on disaster preparedness and risk reduction. United Nations officials say that nearly three billion people live in...

IMF improves terms on emergency aid.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The IMF Executive Board has decided to subsidize emergency assistance to low-income countries hit by natural disasters. The subsidy would cut the interest charged on an emergency loan to 0.5 percent from the regular rate, which is related to...

Demanding readership.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... F&D has a regular readership of at least 460,000 for its print editions, plus thousands more for its online editions, according to a new readership survey conducted by the London-based company, Research Perspectives. The magazine prints 110,000...

Events coming up in 2005.(worldwide banking meetings)(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... April 16-17, Washington D.C. IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings May 4-5, Istanbul, Turkey Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting September 14-16, New York United Nations Conference to assess Millennium Development Goals September...

Managing the currency of an 'out' country: Camilla Andersen interviews Bodil Nyboe Andersen, Denmark's central bank governor.(People In Economics)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... WHILE THE corridors of the Danish central bank--located in a beautiful marble and glass building designed by internationally acclaimed architect Arne Jacobsen--are pretty quiet these days, it wasn't always so. When Bodil Nyboe Andersen took...

Finding a voice: tackling the fears of small developing countries in world trade talks.
March 1, 2005... THE CURRENT ROUND of trade talks under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) aims at better integrating developing countries--especially the small and poor ones--into the global trading system. For that reason, it was named the...

Why should small developing countries engage in the global trading system? 3 three points of view on a hot topic in the Doha Round.(Point Of View)
March 1, 2005... Over the past few years, developing countries, especially the smallest and most vulnerable, have increasingly worried about greater participation in the global trading system--fearing they may get swamped by products from rich countries or lose...

Making the WTO more supportive of development: how to help developing countries integrate into the global trading system.(World Trade Organization)
March 1, 2005... IN WORLD trade negotiations there is a constant tension between attempting to establish a set of universally applicable rules and allowing certain opt-outs or exceptions, particularly for developing countries. The World Trade Organization (WTO)...

Why prospects for trade talks are not bright.(Debating Doha)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... NOTWITHSTANDING some recent flesh impetus, the Doha Round has been hobbled by a frustrating "now-it's-on-now-it's-off" quality. If only it could be brought to conclusion, the world would be so much better off, especially if one is to believe...

Doha can achieve much more than skeptics expect.(Debating Doha)
March 1, 2005... IF ALL global trade barriers were eliminated, approximately 500 million people could be lifted out of poverty over 15 years. Developing countries would gain approximately $200 billion annually in income and at least half of this amount would...

Success requires a 'Grand Vision'.(Debating Doha)(Doha Round)
March 1, 2005... WHILE MANY trade policy specialists are disillusioned about the Doha Round, a solid majority of the public in many countries strongly supports freer trade. The 2003 Pew and the 2004 German Marshall Fund polls show that more than 80 percent of...

Preference erosion: cause for alarm? A few vulnerable economies dependent on a handful of products are most at risk from a loss of trade preferences.(Trade agreements)
March 1, 2005... IN SUMMER 2004, the 147 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approved a framework agreement that lent fresh momentum to the multilateral trade talks under the Doha Round--a momentum that had flagged after the collapse of negotiations...

Aligning aid with adjustment: for the small group of countries that will be hard hit by liberalizing agricultural trade, special financing schemes will be needed.
March 1, 2005... AGRICULTURAL TRADE liberalization has long been high on the multilateral trade reform agenda, given anticipated global welfare gains that the IMF and others estimate could be as large as $125 billion. The biggest net beneficiaries would be the...

How freer trade can help feed the poor: an agenda for easing hunger worldwide by reducing trade protectionism.
March 1, 2005... TRADE POLICY may not, at first glance, seem like the ideal tool for combating hunger. But eradicating costly protectionist barriers may be one of the best ways to put food on the tables of the poor. The world produces more than enough food to...

Energy (in)security?(Picture This)
March 1, 2005... HOW is the global energy system likely to evolve over the next 30 years? The International Energy Agency paints a sobering picture in its World Energy Outlook 200,1. If governments stick with current policies, energy needs will be almost 60...

Understanding the investment climate: new data sources about firms provide insights into helping economies grow.(investments)
March 1, 2005... ONE OF the new frontiers of economics is the analysis of growth from a microeconomic perspective. This puts the focus on the firm as the lever of growth, instead of the broad aggregate numbers that are the stuff of macroeconomics. Examining the...

Dollarization: controlling risk is key.(Back To Basics)
March 1, 2005... ECONOMICS may be a science, but it also seems to be subject to fashion. Dollarization--the use of a foreign currency, usually the U.S. dollar, for transactions in another country--was only a few years ago a hot theme at economic conferences and...

Time for change at the IMF: how the institution should be transformed to address new forces shaping the global economy.(International Monetary Fund)
March 1, 2005... VIABLE international institutions reflect the historical necessities of a particular period, and the strength of any institution lies in its ability to adapt and serve changing economic and political forces. The International Monetary Fund (IMF...

After Wolfensohn: assessing the World Bank.(book)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Sebastian Mallaby's book about the World Bank and its President James Wolfensohn has generated not only a lot of publicity but also genuine discussion about the Bank and its mission. The imminent appointment of a new president to replace...

Earning independence.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Robert P. Bremner Chairman of the Fed William McChesney Martin and the Creation of the Modern American Rnancial System Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 2004, 368 pp., $38.00 (cloth). "The reforms accomplished during...

Preparing for the end of oil.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The End of Oil On the Edge of a Perilous New World Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2004, 400 pp., $26.00 (cloth). Paul Roberts This timely and readable book is about the world's addiction to oil, its eventual depletion, and the need to...

Euro area.(Country Focus)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Growth should pick up somewhat in 2005, but productivity and labor participation must improve to tackle fiscal pressures from aging, including mounting pension liabilities. [GRAPHICS OMITTED]

Rules versus discretion: should the IMF have less of a free hand in resolving crises?(Straight Talk)(International Monetary Fund)
March 1, 2005... THE IDEA that policymakers may actually be better off binding themselves through rules rather than giving themselves a free hand seems strange to the layperson. After all, isn't it hard to predict the circumstances in which policy has to be...