Artur Tamazian

Growth effects of a comprehensive measure of globalization with country-specific time series data

Many studies have estimated the growth effects of globalization where globalization was measured with a few economic variables, ignoring its social and political dimensions. Recently, Dreher (2006) has developed a comprehensive measure of globalization with several variables from the economic, political and social sectors. He showed, with the panel data methods, that globalization has positive growth effect implying that countries with higher globalization grow faster. We argue that 5-year average growth rates, used in many panel data studies, are inadequate proxies for the unobservable Steady State Growth Rate (SSGR). Using the Dreher indices, we extend the Solow (1956) model to derive country-specific estimates of SSGRs for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India and the Philippines. Our results show that countries with higher levels of globalization have higher SSGRs but the growth effects on SSGRs are smaller than in many studies.

Determinants of foreign direct investment and volatility in South East Asian economies

The objective of this paper is to identify and examine the determinants of barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI) in South East Asian economies. Based on our theoretical groundings, we identify potential barriers under four categories, namely macroeconomic policy factors, political factors, institutional factors and socioeconomic factors. Using cross-sectional time-series data for 17 South East Asian economies from 1996 to 2005, we test these set of barriers against per capita FDI inflows and volatility in FDI inflows using fixed effects pooled regression analysis. In the process, we also check as to how fragile our results are to the small but important changes, which we bring in the conditioning information set using robustness check. Our empirical evidence suggests that all the possible set of barriers identified have significant negative effect on per capita FDI and positive impact on volatility in FDI inflows. We therefore suggest that there is an urgent need to find the solutions to break these barriers that are acting as stumbling blocks in attracting FDI of their actual potential.

Growth effects of FDI in 80 developing economies: the role of policy reforms and institutional constraints

Theoretical and empirical literatures have identified several channels through which foreign direct investment (FDI) influences economic growth. This paper examines the impact of FDI on economic output growth per worker using aggregate production function augmented with FDI inflows, economic policy reforms and institutional constraints. The paper covers 80 developing countries over the period 1980–2006. We use panel data and employ fixed, random effects and GMM methods for estimation. Our results highlight the importance of FDI, policy reforms and institutional development for growth in developing economies. Finally, we demonstrate that irrespective of reforms and institutions, an increase in FDI affects output growth positively.

What is the Long Run Growth Rate of the East Asian Tigers

New panel data estimates for the four East Asian Tigers show that the contribution of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) to growth is much higher than past estimates. An extended production function with learning by doing implies that TFP is about 3.5% and these countries will grow at this rate in the long-run.

Does Growth & Quality of Capital Markets drive Foreign Capital? The case of Cross-border Mergers & Acquisitions from leading Emerging Economies

Is there any interrelationship between firm level FDI in the form of cross border Mergers & Acquisitions and capital markets growth and quality? We addressed this question using panel data of cross border M&A for nine emerging economies. Our study period goes from 1987 to 2006. We find that the stock market variables, viz., capitalization and value addition encourage the number of deals and value of cross border Mergers & Acquisitions. However, the association with regulatory and financial reforms is much stronger and robust. We then interact both the stock market variables with financial and regulatory reforms variables only to find much stronger results. The coefficients proved to be higher than other variables, suggesting that higher reforms in capital markets could increase firm level FDI. Moreover, the results are found to be extremely robust when we replace stock market variables with squared values of the same, reiterating the fact that larger is the growth, greater is the inflow of firm level FDI in the form of cross border Mergers & Acquisitions.

RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH AT THE COST OF ENVIRONMENT DEGRADATION? ??? PANEL DATA EVIDIENCE FROM BRIC ECONOMIES

The paper investigates whether the decline in environmental quality in BRIC economies is due to high energy consumption level which is a resultant of rapid economic growth. We answer this using environmental, macroeconomic and financial variables along with Kyoto Protocol indicators based on panel data from 1992 to 2004.

Are Left‐Wing Governments Really Pro‐Labor? An Empirical Investigation for Latin America

Are left‐wing governments in Latin America, as proclaimed by their leaders, really pro‐labor? It is often argued that left‐wing governments in Latin America have implemented pro‐labor policies. In this paper we put these claims to an empirical test using 37 aspects of de facto (practices) and de jure (laws) violations of labor rights. Using panel data on 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries during the period 1985–2002, we do not find any effect of left‐leaning chief executives on labor rights. While left‐leaning chief executives do legislate laws protecting labor rights, the enforcement of these laws is abysmally weak. Further evidence suggests that cohesive left‐wing governments are more likely to legislate laws protecting labor rights than diverse governments. These results are robust to alternative measures of ideology, estimation methods, and controlling for endogeneity. The policy implications suggest that irrespective of the political ideology, upholding labor rights in Latin America requires strengthening the enforcement capacity.

A simultaneous equations model of finance and growth: FIML estimates for India

In the relationship between economic growth and financial development, it is generally conceded that both variables are likely to be interdependent. However, no attempt has been made so far to estimate a simultaneous equations model to test whether finance causes growth or vice versa. This article uses the Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) method to estimate a two equations model of growth and finance for India to determine the strength of this interdependence. Our results show that Financial Developments (FD) have a small but significant permanent growth effect. However, there is no evidence to support the view that ‘where enterprise leads, finance follows’.

An Empirical Assessment of Economic and Political Challenges of European Union Accession

The collapse of the Soviet Union was an exceptional experiment in the economic history of the world, which made the post-socialist countries the subject of various economic studies. Different researchers and organizations tend to monitor the progress of economic and institutional reforms through inventing different indexes (indicators), apparently trying to understand how to detect the end of the transition process. The European Union, opening its door to accession candidates and starting negotiations with a number of eastern European and Baltic states, was the first to rely on those assessments of progress in reforms for making decisions on the readiness of the countries in terms of economic and institutional development to become a member of the European family. This study tries to link the actual assessments of reforms (start of negotiations) and the available set of indicators to construct an empirical model. We apply statistical techniques of limited dependent variable models to reveal the most important criteria followed by the ‘EU admission committee’ and capture them in limited dependent variable models, which are applied to evaluate the readiness of a number of other post-socialist countries to start hypothetical negotiations with the EU. Based on available empirical results the factors captured in the model include the share of public expenditure in GDP, GDP per capita, private sector share of GDP, share of trade with EU in external turnover, democratization and inflation (macroeconomic stability). Our empirical assessments show that there are several transition economies (Albania, Armenia and Georgia), which despite not having candidate status, offer better general standing in terms of ‘accession criteria’ than the current candidates. This fact may suggest to policy-makers (other geopolitical conditions being equal) to consider these countries for future EU enlargement waves.

Determinants of Barries to Quality of Direct Foreign Investments - Evidences From South & East Asian Economies

The objective of this paper is to examine whether FDI inflows in South & East Asian economies posses any barriers which are deterring to attract FDI of their actual potential? If so, what are those various set of barriers? These questions are addressed in this study using cross section time series data for 17 South and East Asian economies from 1996 to 2005.