Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal最新文献

{"title":"Austerity: The New Normal - A Renewed Washington Consensus 2010-24","authors":"I. Ortiz, M. Cummins","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3523562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3523562","url":null,"abstract":"This working paper: (i) examines historical and projected government expenditure trends for 189 countries; (ii) reviews the latest IMF country reports for countries to identify the main channels used by governments to adjust expenditures; (iii) discusses the negative social impacts of austerity measures; (iv) presents the renewed Washington Consensus advised to governments that are left with limited budgets—and the alternative UN Consensus on Development for All; and (v) calls for urgent action by governments to identify fiscal space to accelerate development, human rights, a green recovery with jobs and inclusive growth, and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Analysis of expenditure projections verifies two distinct phases of spending patterns since the onset of the global economic crisis. In a first phase (2008-09), most governments introduced fiscal stimulus programs and ramped up total spending. Overall, 136 countries (more than 70 per cent of the sample reviewed) expanded spending during 2008 and 2009 by an average annual increase of 3.2 per cent of GDP. In 2010, however, governments started to scale back stimulus programs and reduce spending in a second phase of the crisis that institutionalized austerity as the new norm, which is expected to continue at least until 2024. The fiscal contraction phase (2010-24) is characterized by shocks in which adjustment deepens, the first occurring in 2010-11, the second taking hold during 2016-17 and the third expected to initiate in 2020. The forthcoming adjustment shock is expected to impact 130 countries in 2021 in terms of GDP. One of the key findings is that the developing world will be the most severely affected; in 2021, 93 developing countries are projected to cut public spending during the forthcoming shock versus 37 high-income countries. Comparing the 2020-24 and pre-crisis 2005-07 periods further suggests that 69 governments may be undergoing excessive contraction, defined as cutting expenditure below pre-crisis levels in terms of GDP. Turning to populations affected by the upcoming shock, projections indicate that austerity will affect approximately 5.8 billion persons by 2021—about 75 per cent of the global population. For billions of persons, the persistence of a long jobs crisis and austerity mean a deterioration of living conditions. How are governments achieving fiscal adjustment? What are the main adjustment measures that have direct social impacts? This review of 161 IMF country reports in 2018-19 reveals that the most commonly considered adjustment measures are: (i) pension and social security reforms (in 86 countries); (ii) cutting or capping the public sector wage bill, including the number and salaries of teachers, health workers and civil servants delivering public services (in 80 countries); (iii) labor flexibilization reforms (in 79 countries); (iv) reducing or eliminating subsidies (in 78 countries); (v) rationalizing and/or further targeting social as","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126749648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental Performance in Asia: Overview, Drivers, and Policy Implications","authors":"Bihong Huang, Yining Xu","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3541554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3541554","url":null,"abstract":"As accompaniments to fast-growing economies, the effects of environmental degradation such as deteriorating water quality, land deforestation and pollution, and frequent atmospheric haze are gaining increasing attention from both policy makers and the public across countries in Asia. We give an overview on environmental performance, disentangle its drivers, and finally advance preliminary policy recommendations for more effective environmental governance in the region.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125106304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Macroeconomic Effects of Government Spending in China","authors":"Xin Wang, Y. Wen","doi":"10.1111/1468-0106.12242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0106.12242","url":null,"abstract":"Government spending plays an important role in determining economic performances in China. Its macroeconomic effects are analyzed in this paper. We show that government spending in China (i) Granger-causes output, consumption and investment booms as well as inflation and (ii) has a multiplier larger than 1. The large multiplier effects are found not only in aggregate time-series data but also in panel data at the provincial level. We also provide a theoretical model and Monte Carlo analysis to rationalize our empirical findings. Our theoretical and Monte Carlo analyses support the large multiplier found in China but also suggests that government spending is not necessarily a free lunch in spite of the large multiplier effects.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129587888","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The 'No-Alternative Scenario' in the Alternative Analysis of NEPA","authors":"Kalpana S. Murari","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3470966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3470966","url":null,"abstract":"Environmental impact assessment report or the EIS, a primary document that provides an assessment on the sustainability of a business or commercial activity, is most often overlooked for serious anomalies. Expected to preserve the environmental integrity of a nation, it is often incomplete and inaccurate leaving out details on viable alternatives including the ‘no-action’ alternative. The normative standards of an EIA report adopted by most of the developing nations calls for a review of impact assessment procedures and reaffirms the need for universal harmonization of procedures. The absence of sanctions for improper assessment of environmental impacts of commercial activities within a nation including extraction of natural resources undermines the millennium goal of sustainable development and creating low-carbon economies and consequently failing to address climate change impacts. Natural resources are held in trust for the public by authorities who are expected to extend absolute right of access to genuine, verifiable and actionable information for the purpose of comment and review of any federal, state or private sponsored commercial activity including infrastructure building that may have environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts that requires an oversight by an independent third party institution. Standardization and universal harmonization of norms for impact assessment, enforcement and compliance of such regulations by nations has to become a topic for debate at various academic levels to gain importance to manifest a change in the outlook and purpose of preparing an EIA report. The provision calling for a discussion of alternatives for a project or a project component so as to mitigate environmental consequences is mostly overlooked or rendered perfunctory by developing nations racing to meet their developmental goals. EIA reports, ultimately, aim at conserving and replenishing the reserves of natural resources of a nation and promote a low-carbon economy through sustainable development. This paper will discuss EIA under the auspices of International law relating it to Sustainable Development. It emphasizes the significance of providing viable, feasible and prudent alternatives to and in large infrastructure projects that have severe to adverse enviro-social impacts including transboundary effects and how courts in the United States while hearing cases under the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA have defined and refined the provision for alternative assessment deeming it as the ‘heart of an EIS’.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133530392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dust and Death: Evidence from the West African Harmattan","authors":"Achyuta R. Adhvaryu, P. Bharadwaj, James Fenske, Anant Nyshadham, Richard Stanley","doi":"10.3386/W25937","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3386/W25937","url":null,"abstract":"Dust pollution in West Africa increases infant and child mortality. Employing differences in differences, we make three contributions. First, using data from 12 poor countries, we highlight the vulnerability of people with few resources, fragile health, and limited capacity to adopt avoidance behavior. Second, we examine prenatal and post-natal parental investment responses, and show evidence consistent with compensating behaviors. However, despite these efforts, the health of surviving children is still adversely affected. Third, we investigate differential impacts over time and across countries. We find declining effects over time, implying in the absence of reductions in dust itself that societies are adapting in some way. Using national-level measures of macroeconomic conditions and public health resources, we find suggestive evidence that both economic development and public health improvements have contributed to this adaptation, with health improvements seemingly playing a stronger role.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115035707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Best Interests in the Long Term: Fiduciary Duties and ESG Integration","authors":"Susan N. Gary","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3149856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3149856","url":null,"abstract":"Two persistent misconceptions continue to affect the way fiduciaries think about sustainable investing: (1) fiduciary duties block a fiduciary investor from considering environmental and social factors and (2) if a fiduciary investor engages in sustainable or responsible investing, the portfolio will suffer financially. An examination of socially responsible investing, ESG integration (an investment process that involves consideration of material environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors together with traditional financial metrics), corporate social responsibility, and impact investing, shows that neither of these assumptions is correct. Analyses of different forms of sustainable investing have found no necessary cost to a portfolio when sustainable funds are compared with traditional funds. The SEC already requires companies to report material information, and reporting standards developed by the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) are improving the understanding of the financial materiality of ESG factors. \u0000 \u0000Given the changes in finance, fiduciary duties also require examination. The duty to act as a prudent investor is of central importance, and the available data explains why a prudent investor should consider ESG information. Moreover, since the duty of impartiality protects future beneficiaries, that duty requires a long-term investment time horizon, increasing the need to take ESG factors into consideration. It follows that a prudent fiduciary investor not only may, but should, use ESG information in developing financial policy and decisions.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132658610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Belt and Road Initiative: Economic, Poverty and Environmental Impacts","authors":"M. Maliszewska, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe","doi":"10.1596/1813-9450-8814","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-8814","url":null,"abstract":"China's Belt and Road Initiative aims to improve connectivity between China and more than 70 countries through infrastructure investment and regional cooperation. The initiative has the potential to accelerate significantly the rate of economic integration and development in the region, as trade costs decline. The goals of this paper are to (i) study the impacts of infrastructure improvements on Belt and Road Initiative and non–Belt and Road Initiative countries' trade flows, growth, and poverty; and (ii) suggest policies that would help maximize gains from the Belt and Road Initiative–induced trade cost declines. The analysis captures the trade costs reductions as a result of infrastructure improvements. The findings indicate that the Belt and Road Initiative would be largely beneficial. First, global income increases by 0.7 percent (in 2030 relative to the baseline). This translates into almost half a trillion dollars in 2014 prices and market exchange rates. The Belt and Road Initiative area captures 82 percent of the gain, with the largest percent gains in East Asia. Second, globally, the Belt and Road Initiative could contribute to lifting 7.6 million people from extreme poverty and 32 million from moderate poverty. Third, the initiative would lead to a modest increase in global carbon dioxide emissions, with a complex set of positive and negative outcomes at the national level for other types of emissions.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"62 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133181775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-run Dynamics of Sulphur Dioxide Emissions, Economic Growth and Energy Efficiency in China","authors":"Bin Hu, Zhengtao Li, Lin Zhang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3382136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3382136","url":null,"abstract":"This paper estimates the linkages among total Sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions, total GDP and energy efficiency using China’s provincial panel data from 2002 to 2015. We investigate total emissions rather than per capita emissions or ambient concentrations, since it is total emissions that the environment cares about. Energy efficiency is estimated using stochastic frontier analysis and decomposed into both persistent and transient efficiency. We then investigate the long-run dynamics among SO2 emissions, economic growth and energy efficiency by employing the panel-based error correction model and taking the effects of cyclical variations into account. Our analysis shows that GDP has a positive impact on total SO2 emissions in the short run and gains in energy efficiency have a significant negative effect on emissions in the long run. By controlling the effects of business cycle, the effects of GDP on emissions remain positive in both short and long run. Cross-sectional analysis provides similar insights. We argue that economic growth itself is an emission generator. Therefore, the government needs to establish a long-run strategy to curb the emissions by improving energy efficiency.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128311455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Women's Education and Marriage Decisions: Evidence from China","authors":"Hua Cheng","doi":"10.1111/1468-0106.12247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0106.12247","url":null,"abstract":"The faster increase in education among women compared with men has been underexplored. Thus, using Chinese data, we evaluate the impacts of a plausibly exogenous increase in educational attainment on women's marriage decisions. An extra year of education does not change women's decision to marry and leads to a brief delay of 0.12 years in their marriage age on average, which is much smaller than the delay among men. Although more educated women and men both have improved labour market outcomes, which may have increased their patience, men experience larger income growth than women do. Moreover, declining physical attractiveness at least partly explains why the delay is less than 1 year. Overall, the results are more reliable after addressing the endogeneity issue.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114908052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"La publicidad social como herramienta para la construcción de ciudadanía (Social Advertising As a Tool for Citizenship-Building)","authors":"Francesca Senes, David Ricciulli-Duarte","doi":"10.21789/25007807.1425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21789/25007807.1425","url":null,"abstract":"This paper seeks to contribute to the insights of social advertising and its role as a tool for citizenship building. Methodologically, this study is carried out using a literature review on the categorization of this phenomenon, formulating an ethical-based contribution that reveals a transition in the role of individuals, who turn from “consumers” into “citizens”. This research allows concluding that incorporating citizenship building processes in social advertising creates an impact on social development, since active participation by citizenry towards change is effectively promoted.","PeriodicalId":288665,"journal":{"name":"Emerging Markets Economics: Environmental & Social Aspects eJournal","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131440604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}