Economic and Political Weekly Articles
​
Why Farmers Respond Differently to Higher Food Prices
Vol. L, No. 42, October 17, 2015 |Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Vol - L No. 20, May 16, 2015 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
In the complex set of transactions between the affiliates of multinational enterprises located in different countries, the valuation of such deals for taxation by the host country is a complicated matter. A discussion of the various models and practices and a consideration of what the United Nations can offer in this regard.
Nutrition: What Needs To Be Done?
Vol - XLIX No. 42, October 18, 2014 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Vikas Rawal
About 805 million people - one in nine people worldwide - remain chronically hungry. Ending hunger and malnutrition requires strong political commitment at the highest level, effective coordination among various ministries and partners, and broad-based social participation. Three policy priorities are crucial to ending malnutrition - expansion of social protection; making smallholder agriculture more nutrition sensitive; and focusing on under-fi ve child and maternal nutrition deficiencies. An integrated approach is needed to ensure that food consumed is nutritious, wholesome, acceptable, safe and affordable, especially to the poorest and most vulnerable.
Reducing Unemployment in the Face of Growing Public Debt
Vol - XLVIII No. 41, October 12, 2013 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
As the policymakers struggle to deal with the twin problems of unemployment and debt, their reliance on harsh fiscal measures, with no offsetting effort to foster growth and job creation, has typically failed to induce growth, create jobs, raise incomes and restore investor confidence. Instead, they exacerbate unemployment and social unrest, and are politically unsustainable. A better way out is by deepening tripartite social dialogue among investors/employers, employees and governments.
A Global Green New Deal for Sustainable Development
Vol - XLVIII No. 34, August 24, 2013 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The protracted global economic slowdown and the deep ecological crisis that the world finds itself in both call for a Global Green New Deal, similar to the New Deal of the United States that tackled the Great Depression. The 21st century New Deal must include developing countries and has to be economically, socially and ecologically sustainable.
New International Development Finance Options
Vol - XLVIII No. 28, July 13, 2013 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Official Development Assistance to poor countries has declined in the past two decades. What are the possibilities of a revival, and in what form?
Widening Global Income Inequality
Vol - XLVIII No. 17, April 27, 2013 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Vladimir Popov
Inter-country income inequalities now account for about two-thirds of world inequality, with intra-country inequality accounting for only a third. Global income inequality narrowed in the post-second world war decades before the Reagan-Thatcher revolutions and then the Washington Consensus shifted the balance of power. Recent trends in the functional distribution of income point to a declining share for labour despite strong evidence of rising labour productivity. Evidence of growing wealth concentration in recent decades is consistent with the acceleration of the growth of rentier power.
Vol - XLVIII No. 03, January 19, 2013 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Drawing on global experiences and comparisons, this article argues for the need to increase cooperation between countries to plug tax loopholes and brin in systems which enhance the tax to GDP ratio without hurting investments. Increasing this ratio is the only way to improve development spending while avoiding fiscal difficulties.
Stronger Recovery, More Jobs for All
Vol - XLVIII No. 01, January 05, 2013 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Only a sustained commitment to prioritising economic recovery can overcome the short-termism dictated by financial markets. Recovery priorities should emphasise job creation as well as enhancing national productive capacities. This necessarily requires ensuring greater coherence of macroeconomic policies with structural transformation goals than seen thus far.
Vol - XLVII No. 49, December 08, 2012 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Other than in China, where the reduction in poverty has been spectacular, progress in poverty reduction in the world during the past three decades has been modest. This slow progress and the decline in influence of the Washington Consensus has prompted new thinking on poverty and its reduction.
Global Food Price Increases and Volatility
Vol - XLVI No. 22, May 28, 2011 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Global food prices continue to rise month after month, driven by longer-term and more recent trends. Financialisation is an important factor among the recent trends. There is strong evidence of correlation among the markets for different financial assets, including stocks/shares, commodities and currencies. Falling asset prices in other financial market segments may thus be more important for explaining the recent surge in food prices than supply constraints or changing demand and other factors underlying longer-term gradual upward price trends.
Lessons from the 2008 World Food Crisis
Vol - XLV No. 12, March 20, 2010 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
The global food price spikes of 2008 should not have come as a surprise. There were a number of long-term trends that were working towards the surge in food prices, which was finally occasioned by some proximate causes. While global prices have eased since then - though not in India - there are lessons to be drawn from the 2008 crisis. There is a need to increase food production without raising prices to consumers. This calls for significant public support for food production. Yet, the poverty and much more limited fiscal capacity of developing countries as well as the liberalised agricultural trade regulations over recent decades constrain them from being more supportive of food security efforts. In addition, international public support has fallen off since the 1980s as agro-business corporate interests increasingly influence public policy, trade regulations and access to technology.
Export-oriented Industrialisation, Female Employment and Gender Wage Equity in East Asia
Vol - XLIV No. 01, January 03, 2009 | Jomo Kwame Sundaram
This paper investigates if export growth in manufacturing in east Asia led to a removal of labour market rigidities and the institutional biases of gender-based discrimination as commonly argued. It challenges the orthodox perspective by looking more closely at industrial employment in the region by gender. Gender discrimination in the region's labour markets seems to have survived economic liberalisation, with the large gender wage gaps characteristic of the region not closing despite rapid growth and full employment, and sometimes even becoming larger in some of the more developed economies in the region.
Trade Theory Status Quo Despite Krugman
Vol - XLIII No. 49, December 06, 2008 | Jomo K S and Rudiger von Arnim
Paul Krugman's contribution in the development of "new" trade theory pushed the profession beyond the overly simplistic assumption of perfect competition. Since then, new trade theory has tended to be integrated and reconciled with traditional trade theory, undermining its deployment in support of successful strategic trade policy intervention.
Trade Liberalisation for Development? Who Gains? Who Loses?
Vol - XLIII No. 48, November 29, 2008 | K S Jomo and Rudiger von Arnim
A number of models - developed in particular in the World Bank - show large gains for developing countries through trade liberalisation at the World Trade Organisation. These models are, however, not just simplistic, they also suffer from a number of fundamental flaws. The actual gains are far smaller for developing countries and far greater for the rich countries. The models ignore the risks of displacement, economic downturns and rising debt.
Financial Liberalisation, Crises and the Role of Capital Controls: The Malaysian Case
Vol - XLII No. 50, December 15, 2007 | K S Jomo
In the wake of the east Asian financial crisis in mid-July 1997, not only were the initial policy initiatives taken by the Malaysian government to counter portfolio capital flight ill-conceived, the currency and capital control measures seem to have been motivated by political considerations and the desire to protect well-connected businesses. The Malaysian experiment with capital controls was compromised by political bias, abuse by vested interests and inappropriate policy instruments. However, this is not to reject the desirability of the judicious use of capital controls.
​