World Economics Journal Archive
The contents of all previous issues of World Economics are listed below. Subscribers have access to the complete back issue archive: click on titles to view abstracts and full text of articles (PDF). If you are not a subscriber, sign-up online now.
Trade Data: Use with Care
Brian Sturgess, World Economics, December 2017
Politicians focus on trade deficits and surpluses between countries and threaten trade wars and retaliatory actions, but the conventional international trade statistics used by many commentators are inaccurate. World exports and imports do not balance, but asymmetries a ... More
India and China: Tracking their WTO Journeys with Trade Data
Siddhartha K. Rastogi, World Economics, December 2017
Trade data are used to examine the roles played by India and China in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the implications for their share of global trade. India was a founding members of the WTO whereas China joined in 2001 after much deliberation, negotiation and c ... More
Using Indian Data to Measure the Impact of the Eurozone Debt Crisis Through the Financial Channel
Vighneswara Swamy, World Economics, December 2017
Economic data for the period 2000 to 2013 shows that the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone had a macroeconomic impact on India by transmission through financial channels. Capital flows into India slowed down significantly due to the crisis: net external loans availe ... More
Will ‘America First’ Trump International Cooperation and Coordination?
Stuart P.M. Mackintosh, World Economics, December 2017
Seventy years of American leadership of the international system has ended abruptly shaking the foundations of the post-World War II international architecture. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, twin pillars of the post-World War II system, will be adv ... More
The Globalisation of Corporate Governance and Implications for African Corporates in a Changing Regulatory Landscape
Hippolyte Fofack, World Economics, December 2017
Adopting global corporate governance standards remains a challenge for most corporates in developed and developing economies, but shareholder capitalism is probably set on an irreversible growth path. The growing number of African corporate entities abiding by global c ... More
Measuring GDP in Fragile States
Barbro Hexeberg & Jose Pablo Valdes Martinez, World Economics, December 2017
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is central to measuring economic performance and productivity, and monitoring fiscal and monetary policies, as well as changes in poverty and shared prosperity. Compiling GDP in accordance with internationally agreed definitions and rules is ... More
Analysis of Revisions in Indian GDP Data
Amey Sapre & Rajeswari Sengupta, World Economics, December 2017
This paper studies constant price growth estimates of India’s annual GDP data in order to understand the revision policy adopted by the Central Statistics Office. The use of high-frequency indicators to prepare initial estimates overstates the growth of the economy, alt ... More
The Economic Impact of Italian Market Reforms
Giovanna Maria Dora Dore, World Economics, December 2017
Italy’s labour market is highly segmented by gender and age with high labour costs, high rates of self-employment and undeclared work, high minimum wages, strong dismissal constraints and uneven job opportunities between Northern and Southern regions. Italy has experien ... More
Measuring the Share of Labour in GDP
Michael Grömling, World Economics, December 2017
There is a view that increasing inequalities in advanced economies are responsible for growth problems and political polarisation. A new impetus has been injected into the analysis of macroeconomic income distribution since if capital’s share is rising this has implica ... More
Measuring the Impact of the Internet on Retailing
Julian Gough, World Economics, December 2017
The internet has radically changed the purchasing of goods and services leading to a rapid expansion of online retailers and a decline of many traditional shops on the high street. The UK is the leading nation in Europe in terms of online sales, after a remarkable chang ... More
On Measuring Hyperinflation: Venezuela’s Episode
Steve H. Hanke & Charles Bushnell, World Economics, September 2017
Venezuela now exhibits the 57th historic episode of hyperinflation as measured in the Hanke–Krus World Hyperinflation Table. Entry to the hyperinflation dataset depends on three qualifying criteria: inflation rates greater than 50% per month; the persistence of this rat ... More
Measuring Income Inequality and Insufficiency: The Philippine Experience
Percival S. Gabriel, World Economics, September 2017
Income inequality is normally illustrated by the Lorenz curve and measured by the Gini coefficient and other variant measures. Standard estimates exclude what is left of income when expenditure is subtracted and some groups have income insufficiency, income sufficiency ... More
How Accurate Are the National Balance Sheets for China?
James L. Chan, World Economics, September 2017
The accuracy of data on China’s national balance sheets has attracted much less attention than that of the Gross Domestic Product reports. China’s Bureau of National Statistics has not released official national balance sheets, but two Chinese research teams have produc ... More
Flow of Funds Accounts: The Financial and Non-Financial Sector Linkages in India
Tarlok Singh, World Economics, September 2017
This study uses historic flow of funds data in India and examines the movements of funds across financial and non-financial sectors of the economy. The study develops a new theoretical framework to map the multidimensional nexus across macro-economic aggregates and to ... More
The Unstoppable Economic Rise of Asia
Brian Sturgess, World Economics, September 2017
The Asia-Pacific region is set to remain the world’s economic powerhouse in terms of economic growth for the next few decades. In value terms, Asian GDP increased between 1970 and 2015 from $4.63 trillion to $45.39 trillion in constant prices, an increase well above the ... More
Estimating the Impact of Foreign Trade on GDP Growth in Sweden: Evidence from Historical Data 1800–2000
Manuchehr Irandoust, World Economics, September 2017
This paper uses historic economic data to review Swedish foreign trade and industrial policy over the period 1800–2000. The long-term causal relationships between imports, exports and economic growth are examined. The results show that there exists a long-term relation ... More
Making Data Measurement Errors Transparent: The Case of the IMF
Peter A.G. van Bergeijk, World Economics, September 2017
In 1950 Morgenstern pointed out that absolute precision and certainty are impossible in economic observations, but estimates are often hampered by a substantial degree of measurement error. Unlike the natural sciences, economists in general do not report measurement er ... More
Beyond the Shadow Economy : Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism
George C. Georgiou, World Economics, September 2017
Money laundering is illegal world-wide and constitutes a significant economic inefficiency. Current anti-money laundering and combating the financing (AML/CFT) efforts are primarily driven by the threat of terrorism and drug-trafficking, but the majority of illicit mon ... More
What Makes Maddison Right: Chinese Historic Economic Data
Jan Luiten van Zanden & Debin Ma, World Economics, September 2017
The ‘Great Divergence debate’ in economic history relates to the question of when China fell behind the levels of well-being in Western Europe. A recent paper published in this journal argues that existing historical data cannot answer this question and criticizes estim ... More
Quantifying the Quantifiable: A Reply to Jan-Luiten van Zanden and Debin Ma
Patrick O'Brien & Kent Deng, World Economics, September 2017
New Estimates of Regional GDP in the UK
Julian Gough, World Economics, June 2017
Real GDP is estimated by applying a price-level estimate or deflator to nominal GDP, but GDP levels in the UK’s 12 inhabited regions are only reported at nominal prices with no allowance for differences in regional prices. A purchasing power parity (PPP) rate for the £ ... More
Why Maddison was Wrong: The Great Divergence Between Imperial China and the West
Kent Deng & Patrick O'Brien, World Economics, June 2017
Much academic debate in Western and Chinese universities has engaged in testing the hypothesis that standards of living in China did not fall behind those of the populations of the national economies of Western Europe until late in the eighteenth century Unfortunately, ... More
Double Deflation Casts Doubt on Existing GDP Data
Brian Sturgess, World Economics, June 2017
Increasingly, national income statisticians, the specialists involved in producing real national income figures, and the users of those figures are living in a parallel universe. Most countries use an outdated and inaccurate method to estimate real Gross Domestic Produ ... More
Building a New Testable Model to Estimate Total Factor Productivity
Andrew Smithers, World Economics, June 2017
A new model to measure Total Factor Productivity free from the flaws which exist in previous models; appropriate data are used to test it. The model distinguishes between the contributions made to investment and growth by changes in technology and other non-technology v ... More
Assessing the G20’s Mutual Assessment Process: A MAP but Little Direction
Graham Bird, World Economics, June 2017
After the global economic and financial crisis, the G20 has tried to orchestrate an internationally coordinated approach to economic recovery. In late 2009, the Mutual Assessment Process (MAP) was introduced to minimize risk by reducing global economic imbalances and e ... More
Measuring the Elusive Middle Class and Estimating its Role in Economic Development and Democracy
Giovanna Maria Dora Dore, World Economics, June 2017
The middle class has a special role in economic, political, and social thought, but social scientists seem unable to agree on how to define or measure it. This article stems from an ongoing Johns Hopkins University project on populist and autocratic attitudes worldwide ... More
How to Reconcile Democracy, the State and the Global Market
Giovanni Farese & Paolo Savona, World Economics, June 2017
Nation states were the vehicle for market capitalism, but global market capitalism has freed itself from regulations imposed by nation states. A trilemma between democracy, the state and the market became an irreconcilable one, and gathered momentum. The post-War period ... More
Problem or Solution: Data on Sub-National Debt for Infrastructural Development in Nigeria
Kingsley Imandojemu, World Economics, June 2017
Nigeria has witnessed a substantial rise in sub-national debt at the state level in an economy characterised by infrastructural decay and macro-economic imbalance. The mismanagement of sub-national debt in Nigeria has culminated in the inability of most states to meet t ... More
The Data Quality Index
World Economics
World Economics, June 2017
GDP data is important used to apportion funds from international organisations, to influence rating agency decisions and much more, but official data is totally inadequate for the demands made of it. The notion of GDP data is flawed conceptually, but there are also seve ... More
Neglect Private Debt at the Economy’s Peril?: Applying Balance Sheet Recession Analysis to the Post Bail-in Cyprus Economy
Leslie G. Manison & Savvakis C. Savvides, World Economics, March 2017
The role of private debt as a cause of financial crises and prolonged recessions is often neglected. In Cyprus policy concern has focused on government debt despite the problem of a rapid growth of private debt and its wasteful use. Private debt in Cyprus stands at over ... More
Are Estimates of the Economic Contribution of Financial Services Reliable
Brian Sturgess, World Economics, March 2017
The methods used to estimate the contribution of financial services to national income are seriously flawed. Banking sector output in the UK was estimated to have increased in 2008 while the financial services sector was collapsing. The relative contribution of service ... More
Measuring the Performance of Fiscal Reforms: The Case of the GCC
Ahmed Hashim Alyushaa, World Economics, March 2017
Public spending has raised the welfare of citizens in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) significantly over the period 1960–2015, particularly as measured in raised average life expectancy and lowered infant mortality rates. Fiscal policy in oil-producing countries is ... More
Defending Development: An Evaluation of the Multidimensional Poverty Index
Raadhika Vishvesh, World Economics, March 2017
The need to define development has witnessed many attempts to condense a country’s economic deprivation into a single figure. In order to target poor citizens, it is important to classify those who are ‘non-poor’ by a poverty statistic. Crucial steps in the creation and ... More
Measuring the Impact of Agricultural Finance on Rural Inequality: Evidence from Egypt
Heba Farida Ahmed Fathy El-laithy, Ahmed Rostom & Lamia Donia , World Economics, March 2017
Evidence suggests that financial development and improved access to credit not only accelerates economic growth, but also reduces household poverty and income inequality. Using Egyptian household survey data evidence it is found that a 1% increase in agricultural wages ... More
The Impact of Minimum Wage Legislation
Julian Gough, World Economics, March 2017
Minimum wage policies are powerful political tools, but the economic effects are unlikely to be in the interests of society as a whole. Wages should be left to the free operation of market forces. Minimum wage rate policies are only effective in low-wage industries: the ... More
Sovereign Wealth Fund Investment in Economic Transformation: Toward an Institutional Framework
Patrick Schena & Asim Ali, World Economics, March 2017
The prospect of prolonged lower hydrocarbon and commodity prices has forced many countries to reconsider both fiscal policy and sovereign wealth fund asset allocation to address possible liquidity needs. In order to analyze the diversity and effectiveness of public inve ... More
The Environmental Kuznets Curve: The Validity of Kuznets and its Policy Implications
Harry Booth, World Economics, March 2017
The Kuznets curve is an income inequality measure used in development studies which predicts an inverse-U shape with inequality first rising with industrialisation and then declining, as more and more workers join the high-productivity sectors of the economy. Criticism ... More