{"title":"Environmental Macroeconomics: A Neglected Theme in Environmental Economics","authors":"Dodo J. Thampapillai","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3011784","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3011784","url":null,"abstract":"Environmental issues are usually considered as drivers of allocative distortions within markets. The corrections of such distortions, for example, by recourse to the internalization of externalities, are firmly rooted within the market framework. Therefore the traditional view is that environmental issues fall fairly and squarely within the domain of microeconomics. This paper argues that such a view is flawed. The primary reason is that externalities are never fully internalized. Within any market, there always exist residual externalities, which do accumulate over time. Therefore, the same way as the aggregate of market transactions lead to the definition of national product in macroeconomics, the aggregate of residual externalities lend credence to the recognition of nature as capital and its depreciation. In accordance with this recognition, this paper illustrates the reformulation of long run stabilization frameworks in macroeconomics. The analysis of such reformulated frameworks illustrates different configurations for policy variables as illustrated with reference to South Korea.","PeriodicalId":406980,"journal":{"name":"Lee Kuan Yew School: International Economy/Regional Economy (Topic)","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127886449","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 2016-17 Budget: A Positive Step in India's Transformation Process","authors":"M. Asher","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2753375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2753375","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses Union Government of India's 2016-17 Budget, comprising the Railway Budget as well as the main Budget components. It is argued that this Budget should be viewed as a part of the process of transforming India towards meeting challenges of growth and competitiveness in a manner which eases the ordinary life of the citizens, and which encourages aspirations for a better quality of life. The assessment criteria for transforming India include consistency with growth diagnostics, fairness, and preparing the country to rapidly progress towards an upper -middle -income category of nations. The paper discusses several seemingly small Budget initiatives with disproportionately large positive impact on outcomes, an important feature of competent governance. Other key characteristics of the Budget include harnessing knowledge and technology, innovative financing methods to use assets of government more productively, project planning to crowd-in private investments, and outcome-orientation. As a result, in several instances, the Budget has been able to obtain better efficiency in resource use as well as improved fairness simultaneously. The analysis identifies some Budget proposals which required better preparation, particularly concerning taxing of provident funds.The paper concludes, that, on balance, India's 2016-17 Budget does improve India's public financial management, and advance the process of transforming India in the right direction. Suggestions for future Budget priorities include further expanding economic freedom contestability, and empowerment; accounting, budgeting, and procurement reforms; implementing Goods and Services Tax (GST) competently and expeditiously; refining Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) framework, and reforming income tax and its administration.","PeriodicalId":406980,"journal":{"name":"Lee Kuan Yew School: International Economy/Regional Economy (Topic)","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114137313","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":"Ezra Mishan's Cost of Economic Growth: Evidence from the Entropy of Environmental Capital","authors":"Dodo J. Thampapillai","doi":"10.1142/S021759081640018X","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S021759081640018X","url":null,"abstract":"Ezra Mishan’s (1967) famous articulation of the costs of economic growth included amongst others the rearrangement and loss of nature. This paper builds on this theme by recourse to two important concepts in science, namely the assimilative capacity of nature and the entropy of law of thermodynamics. These concepts enable the formulation of an alternative conceptual framework for the explanation of national income (Y) in terms of factor-utilization. In this framework, environmental capital (KN) is an explicit factor besides manufactured capital (KM) and labor (L). A simple methodology that permits the estimation of the volume of KN utilized is used towards demonstrating that economic growth is an entropic process. Empirical illustration of KN utilization as point-estimates is made for Australia and South Korea.","PeriodicalId":406980,"journal":{"name":"Lee Kuan Yew School: International Economy/Regional Economy (Topic)","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126421361","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}