The Informal Economy of the BRICSThis article evaluates the impact of trade liberalisation on the informal economy in the BRICS countries, which have significant unorganised sectors and trade policy changes. The article uses panel data from 1996 to 2015 to measure informality based on the method of Kaufmann and Kaliberda, which estimates the size of the informal sector as the difference between official GDP an...
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Formal-Informal Dichotomy of Work in IndiaThis study tries to comprehend the facets of the increasing informalisation of work in India. It uses a deductive approach to analyse the secondary data and literature on the subject. Informalisation of the workforce is not a unique phenomenon restricted to India. Reforms have expedited the informalisation of work in India, which has a detrimental impact on the nature of newly ...
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A Panel Analysis of Inequality and Driving Factors of Economic Growth Across EconomiesThe paper examines the relationship between income inequality and economic growth, using various factors like the Gini index, initial per capita GDP, trade and financial openness, financial deepening, population growth, skill premium, energy use, price level ratio, and adult female mortality from 1990 to 2020. Statistical techniques such as ordinary least squares, fixed effects...
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The Missing Piece: A Copyright IndexThis paper aims to add to the literature on intellectual property protection by creating an index/database to reflect the strength of copyright and related rights for 109 countries for 2023. The index is primarily based on a range of factors like coverage of the law, membership in copyright conventions and its duration, copyright applications and enforcement mechanisms. The e...
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Modern Money TheoryThe article criticizes modern money theory (MMT), which is a macroeconomic policy that aims to achieve full employment by using money-financed fiscal deficits, without using any formal modelling. The article claims that MMT policy would not work in an open and internationally highly financially integrated economy, because it would either cause the money stock to grow unsustaina...
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Trade Reforms and Smooth Labour Market Adjustments in India?There is a growing concern among economists that the trade policy reforms resulting from India’s growing participation in various multilateral and bilateral agreements has not benefitted all workers engaged in the manufacturing sector. As per existing literature, reform-led reallocation of workers from contracting to expanding sectors will be relatively less costly, if intra-in...
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Enriching the Human Development Index through the Inclusion of Affordable Healthy DietThis article presents research findings that support adding ‘affordable healthy diet’ as an indicator in the ‘Long and healthy life’ dimension of the Human Development Index (HDI). The article also aims to link the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition and Promote Sustainable Agriculture) with the HDI, by showing the importance...
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Inequality: A Problem for the Indian EconomyThe economic slow-down and COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted India’s extreme crisis inequality. India is an unequal country: 84% of household sector income declined in 2021, at the same time that the number of billionaires went up from 102 to 142. According to the World Inequality Report, the income of the top 10% of the population is 20 times that of the bottom 50% and this g...
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Governments Manipulate DataGovernments widely manipulate official economic and social data—but the public tends to disregard this fact. There is extensive empirical evidence that governments extensively manipulate official data. National statistical offices should be independent of their government to fight such manipulation, and alternative data producers should be supported. The public should be aware ...
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The Determinants to Finance the Fiscal DeficitBolivia faces a shortage of foreign currency, especially dollars, due to a decline in natural gas exports. This decline leads to reduced foreign exchange income and savings, impacting the productive community’s social economic model and causing macroeconomic imbalance. The research identifies independent variables affected by this shortage, all denominated in dollars: gas expor...
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Trade in the ShadowsAccurate, timely and reliable statistics on international trade in goods and services are of considerable academic and policy relevance. A major source of illicit financial flows (IFFs) out of developing countries accrues from the under-invoicing of commodity exports. Researchers have highlighted the critical importance of reliable trade data to estimate the magnitude of IFFs a...
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Argentina, Crises and the International Monetary FundArgentina has a long history of economic, financial and currency crises and has been exhibiting crisis characteristics since 2018. Crises in Argentina may be analysed using currency crisis models and in particular, experience seems to fit the first-generation model. After a break of 15 years, Argentina has had programs with the International Monetary Fund, a standby agreement i...
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Are Purchasing Power Parity Exchange Rates Misleading in Oil-Rich Gulf Countries?This article examines the accuracy of purchasing power parity (PPP) rates in Saudi Arabia. It highlights concerns about the perceived wealth of Saudi citizens based on interviews with American expatriates and wage statistics. It discusses the limitations of the Saudi International Comparison Program (ICP) data, including variations in data quality, differences in product select...
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Institutional Capital in EU Candidate CountriesIn economic theory, a growing understanding of the crucial connection between institutional capital and economic development. Modern economists stress that institutional capital is key to shaping an economic progress, influencing the policies of organisations like the World Bank and IMF, as North (1994) points out. This is especially important for developing countries. Efficien...
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Measuring the Informal Economy in MoroccoThis paper, relying on the electricity consumption method, attempts to both measure the size of the informal economy in Morocco and construct a larger time series dataset for the Moroccan informal economy. We use the Kaufmann and Kaliberda (1996) model to calculate the size of the informal economy over the period 1971 to 2014. The results show that this hidden part of the econ...
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Statistical Data Collection Challenges amid COVID-19 PandemicThe importance of reliable statistical data is even more urgent in the context of the coronavirus crisis, in terms of managing the risks for public health, restarting the world economy and addressing the long-term economic and social impact of the pandemic. Government lockdowns, social distancing and work from home restrictions, imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, pose i...
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Assessing Economic Data Integrity Amidst Sovereign DefaultThe sovereign default of Sri Lanka in April 2022 has sparked concerns about the accuracy and reliability of official economic data, including GDP, inflation, and unemployment figures. The integration of statistical agencies under government ministries in developing countries like Sri Lanka raises concerns about political influence and data integrity. The inflation data in Sri L...
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Measuring the Non-observed Economy in VietnamThis article takes advantage of new political demand at the government’s highest level to focus on measurement of the informal economy in Vietnam from a statistical perspective. The main challenges, concepts and definitions regarding the informal economy within the framework of the non-observed economy are reviewed. A discussion of alternative methodologies for measuring the ...
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Shedding Light on the Shadow EconomyThe shadow or informal economy covers all economic activities which are hidden from official authorities for monetary, regulatory and institutional reasons. Although widely used, multiple indicator-multiple cause (MIMIC) models have been criticised, and we develop a modified model and database covering 157 countries over the years 1991 to 2017. We tested our model using satelli...
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The Debt-Openness PuzzleThe ‘debt-openness puzzle’ is investigated in this research by determining the effect of trade liberalisation on rising debt levels and if BRICS nations trade openness and government debt have a different connection than advanced economies. Using panel generalised method of moments (PGMM) regressions, we investigate the causes of debt in the advanced, developing, and BRICS econ...
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