Petrostates and Private Sectors: Regulating Business and Markets in Resource-Rich Countries

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nimah Mazaheri
Keyword(s):  
2007 ◽  
pp. 4-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Polterovich ◽  
V. Popov ◽  
A. Tonis

This paper compares various mechanisms of resource curse leading to a potentially inefficient use of resources; it is demonstrated that each of these mechanisms is associated with market imperfections and can be "corrected" with appropriate government policies. Empirical evidence seems to suggest that resource abundant countries have on average lower budget deficits and inflation, and higher foreign exchange reserves. Besides, lower domestic fuel prices that are typical for resource rich countries have a positive effect on long-term growth even though they are associated with losses resulting from higher energy consumption. On top of that resource abundance allows to reduce income inequalities. So, on the one hand, resource wealth turns out to be conducive to growth, especially in countries with strong institutions. However, on the other hand, resource abundance leads to corruption of institutions and to overvalued real exchange rates. On balance, there is no solid evidence that resource abundant countries grow more slowly than the others, but there is evidence that they grow more slowly than could have grown with the right policies and institutions.


Author(s):  
Parasakthi N ◽  
Deepika R ◽  
Sivanathan C ◽  
Abubackkar Sithiq PD ◽  
Venkateshan N

Pain and inflammation are the basic defense responses of the body that the result of the injury and any other damage to the body. During the years the concerns were raised towards the inflammation that is caused to the oxidative damage that is resulted in the physiological stress due to oxidation. There are a lot of drugs that are used to treat the condition effectively and the typical examples are NSAID’s and SAID’s which have a noted mechanism to show the anti-inflammatory activity. They have serious problems with the side effects like Gastrointestinal irritation, Gastric pain, Gastric perforations and peptic ulcers. Herbs have been used as better alternatives that are used to treat diseases. The significance of the medicinal plants had been emphasized significantly in tradition rich countries like India and all over the world. The research proof of those herbs for their activities and their traditional claims were proven. Poly Herbal Gels were prepared using the root extracts of the plant Corchorus olitorius. The gels were prepared using the Carbopol 940 and the prepared gels were investigated for their anti-inflammatory property and the gels showed a significantly better activity compared to the plant extract and the standard drug too. The addition of other drugs in to the gels added and advantage to the increase in the activity and faster onset of action as the gel was applied directly in the place of the inflammation.


Author(s):  
Vahid Yücesoy

Oil-rich countries have oftentimes been confronted with the challenge of diversifying their economies away from oil dependence given the exhaustible nature of these fossil fuels. Investing in sovereign wealth funds has been one of the most ubiquitous ways of preparing for the post-oil period. Investing in sovereign wealth funds rather than directly injecting the oil revenues in the economy not only precludes the outbreak of the Dutch Disease (which is known for giving rise to an exchange rate appreciation, crowding out non-oil industries and keeping the economy reliant on oil), but it also saves for future generations. Yet, in the case of Azerbaijan, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), founded in 1999, has only increased this reliance on oil. Using the rentier states theoretical framework, this paper will argue that the direct control over SOFAZ exercised by the president and the lack of consultation with the NGOs have made corruption easier, making the task of economic diversification more difficult. This has been possible because through corruption the president has often resorted to oil money to buy peace rather than invest it in economic diversification. As a result, since the foundation of SOFAZ, the country is more reliant, not less, on oil.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v8i1.223  


Author(s):  
Leif Wenar

Article 1 of both of the major human rights covenants declares that the people of each country “shall freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources.” This chapter considers what conditions would have to hold for the people of a country to exercise this right—and why public accountability over natural resources is the only realistic solution to the “resource curse,” which makes resource-rich countries more prone to authoritarianism, civil conflict, and large-scale corruption. It also discusses why cosmopolitans, who have often been highly critical of prerogatives of state sovereignty, have good reason to endorse popular sovereignty over natural resources. Those who hope for more cosmopolitan institutions should see strengthening popular resource sovereignty as the most responsible path to achieving their own goals.


Author(s):  
K.E. Goldschmitt

Bossa Mundo chronicles how Brazilian music has been central to Brazil’s national brand in the United States and the United Kingdom since the late 1950s. Scholarly texts on Brazilian popular music generally focus on questions of music and national identity, and when they discuss the music’s international popularity, they keep the artists, recordings, and live performances as the focus, ignoring the process of transnational mediation. This book fills a major gap in Brazilian music studies by analyzing the consequences of moments when Brazilian music was popular in Anglophone markets, with a focus on the media industries. With subject matter as varied as jazz, film music, dance fads, DJ/remix culture, and new models of musical distribution, the book demonstrates how the mediation of Brazilian music in an increasingly crowded transnational marketplace has had lasting consequences for the creative output celebrated by Brazil as part of its national brand. Through a discussion of the political meaning of mass-mediated music in chronologically organized chapters, the book shifts the scholarly focus on the music’s transnational popularity from the scholarly framework of representing Otherness to broader considerations of a media environment where listeners and intermediaries often have differing priorities. The book provides a new model for studying music from culturally rich countries in the Global South where local governments often leverage stereotypes in their national branding project.


Author(s):  
Jan Abel Olsen

Chapter 1 provides a contextual frame for the book. An inquiry into the key concepts of health and healthcare is followed by an illustration of the general health production function, that is, the association between increasing healthcare inputs and resulting health outcomes. The important message is the pattern of positive but diminishing effects of healthcare on health: more healthcare improves health, but at a diminishing rate. The production function is also illustrated at the macro level: when considering the poor countries of the world, a strong association is observed between increased healthcare spending and the country’s life expectancy. However, among rich countries we observe a strongly diminishing effect of increased healthcare spending. Some further international comparisons are included to show that the richer a country gets, the higher the proportion of wealth it spends on healthcare.


Author(s):  
Brian Nolan

The concluding chapter provides a thematic overview in order to bring out from the range of findings presented in the book the main messages and their implications. In doing so, it highlights that the wide variation across OECD countries in how the circumstances of middle and lower income households have evolved—documented and analysed throughout the book in various dimensions—has critical implications for the quest for inclusive growth. While there are some important commonalities across rich countries, it may not be helpful to frame their experiences mostly in terms of the types of encompassing ‘grand narratives’ that are now in vogue, and seek on that basis to produce a common set of policy prescriptions where ‘one size fits all’.


This book addresses the central challenge facing rich countries: how to ensure that ordinary working families see their living standards and the prospects for their children improve rather than stagnate over time. It presents the findings from a comprehensive analysis of performance over recent decades across the rich countries of the OECD, in terms of real income growth around and below the middle. It relates this performance to overall economic growth, exploring why these often diverge substantially, and to the different models of capitalism or economic growth embedded in different countries. In-depth comparative and UK-focused analyses also focus on wages and the labour market and on the role of redistribution. Going beyond income, other indicators and aspects of living standards are also incorporated including non-monetary indicators of deprivation and financial strain, wealth and its distribution, and intergenerational mobility. By looking across this broad canvas, the book teases out how ordinary households have fared in recent decades in these critically important respects, and how that should inform the quest for inclusive growth and prosperity.


Author(s):  
Philippe Askenazy ◽  
Bruno Palier

This chapter describes France as apparently one of the few rich countries to have avoided a significant increase in income inequality in recent decades. However, stable average inequalities mask an asymmetric trend of income between age groups, the elderly improving their situation while the young see theirs worsening. Furthermore, it shows that behind this relatively still surface, a general trend of precarization of more and more ordinary workers is occurring. The importance of wage-setting processes and of regulation of the labour market is brought out, together with the way the tax and transfer systems have operated, in restraining the forces driving inequality upwards. Wage growth, while limited, has thus been reasonably uniform across the distribution and together with the redistributive system have kept household income inequality within bounds. However, in response to high unemployment both regulatory and tax–transfer systems have served to underpin the very rapid growth in precarious working over the last decade, representing a very serious challenge for policy.


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