A New Quest for Self-Reliance: East Asia and Indian Economic Nationalism

Since 2017, India has introduced an increasing number of protectionist economic policies including higher tariffs, import duties and production subsidies while also rejecting and reviewing free trade agreements and imposing new regulations on foreign companies. This paper seeks to make sense of India’s recent foreign economic policies and their potential impact on its relations with East Asia. It does so by analyzing the economic, political and geopolitical drivers of these policy changes and placing their emergence within a broader historical context. It is argued that India is entering a new period of “neo-mercantilist” economic nationalism that simultaneously seeks to protect and nurture industries while attracting foreign investment and integrating India into global value chains. This is the outcome of the consequences of “liberal” economic nationalist policies and a changing geopolitical environment — including a broader global impetus toward neo-mercantilist policies and conflict with China. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified this pre-existing turn toward neo-mercantilism. India’s new economic nationalism has the potential to produce significant changes in India’s relations with East Asia but also faces significant challenges in its implementation in the post-COVID era.

How could Finland promote renewable-energy technology innovation and implementation?

Several major market failures are hindering renewable energy production. Probably the most significant one of these are negative externalities. Another issue hindering renewable energy production is low technological and commercial maturity. These technologies might not become commercially viable in the near future without state intervention. This study aims to analyse Finnish energy policy based on current legislation related to renewable energy production and budget policy related to renewable-energy subsidies. This study shows that the polluter-pays principle is implemented quite well in Finland due to the emissions trading scheme and taxation. Still, this principle is not entirely implemented in electricity production as electricity tax is not based on the carbon intensity of the fuel used, but rather on who uses the electricity. National subsidy policies focus on a short-term increase in renewable energy production as most subsidies are production subsidies granted through a bidding process, making these subsidy policies partly technology-neutral. These policies do not take into account long-term needs for energy policy as much as they could.

SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL BASES OF INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF LIVESTOCK IN THE CONDITIONS OF CENTRAL KAZAKHSTAN

The analysis demonstrates that the growth of animal products is provided, mainly by the private subsidiary farmings and households (PSF and HH), where is concentrated more than 80% of cattle and poultry. Meanwhile, small-scale seasonal production prevails in this sector, which, as practice shows, sometimes does not meet the requirements of the processing industry, and the output products cannot be competitive domestically, especially on the foreign markets. Consequently, the purpose of these scientific and production researches were the development of the conceptual framework for the improvement of the efficiency of live-stock animal breeding in the rural regions of Central Kazakhstan, which have lion shares of pasture land and underground minerals of the country. A distinctive feature of the operating system of the small economy management forms in rural regions of Akmola, Karaganda, North-Kazakhstani, and South-Kazakhstani areas has been studied. The modern abstract-logical, economic-mathematical and statistical methods, common research methods in the area of livestock section are applied in the scientific researches, experiments: All-Russia Research and Development Institute of Livestock Breeding, VIZH, VASKHNIL, and also data on the development of cattle breeding of the region before and post-privatization periods of the rural reform was used. On the basis of long-term research work, the author having identified the main problems, is developing a comprehensive program for the development of animal husbandry in four areas, that is, to improve systems: economy management, fodder production, subsidies and breeding. According to the research, the principles and conceptual foundations of improving the efficiency of breeding domestic farm animals have been developed. At the same time, the principles of a systematic approach, feedback, the need to describe the regulatory impacts of the state, the functional composition and structure of the system of economic models at the level of rural regions are distinguished and justified.

China’s ‘Going Global’ Policy: Transnational Production Subsidies Under the WTO SCM Agreement

ABSTRACT As China is increasingly ‘going global’, foreign direct investment under its Belt and Road Initiative is becoming heavily scrutinized. One of the concerns is that Chinese companies establishing themselves in third countries would be unfairly advantaged by the financing they receive under China’s expansionist strategy. This financing gives rise to a situation that had long been described as ‘unrealistic’, in which a government subsidizes a firm outside of its territory. When such a firm’s products are exported to third countries, could such financing be disciplined under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures? Should such financing, which enhances development in the receiving countries, be disciplined at all? The authors shed light on these issues and provide a preliminary guidance on how to structure this problem under international trade law.

A Rentier State under Blockade: Qatar’s Water-Energy-Food Predicament from Energy Abundance and Food Insecurity to a Silent Water Crisis

This article investigates Qatar’s sustainability crisis of the high levels of water, electricity and food use. The high levels of consumption have been enabled by Qatar’s significant hydrocarbons wealth, a generous rentier state’s redistributive water governance, and structural dependence on imported food and food production subsidies. The water crisis is silent because it does not generate supply disruptions nor any public discontentment. The geopolitical blockade Qatar is experiencing sparked discussions in policy circles on the best ways to ensure food security, but has only exacerbated its water insecurity. The blockade makes more urgent than ever the necessity to maximize and increase synergies among different sectors.

Modelling the Coevolution of the Fuel Ethanol Industry, Technology System, and Market System in China: A History-Friendly Model

The interaction among the fuel ethanol industry, the technology system, and the market system has a substantial effect on the growth of the fuel ethanol industry which plays a key role in the formation of a sustainable energy system in China. However, we know little about the relationships among them and it is difficult to explore the nexus using econometric method due to the lack of statistics on China’s fuel ethanol industry. This paper develops a history-friendly coevolutionary model to describe the relationships among the fuel ethanol industry, the technology system, and the market system in China. Based on the coevolutionary model, we further assess the impacts of entry regulations, production subsidies, R&D subsidies, and ethanol mandates on the growth of the fuel ethanol industry in China using a simulation method. The results of historical replication runs show that the model can appropriately reflect the multidirectional causalities between the fuel ethanol industry, the technology system, and the market system. We also found that entry regulation is conducive to weakening the negative economic impacts induced by the growth of the grain-based fuel ethanol industry without affecting the long-term total output of the industry; production subsidies to traditional technology firms are helpful for the expansion of the fuel ethanol industry, but they also impede technology transfer in the industry; only when firms inside the industry are not in the red can R&D subsidies promote technological progress and then further accelerate the growth of the fuel ethanol industry; the ethanol mandate has a significant impact on industrial expansion only when a production subsidy policy is implemented simultaneously. Our findings suggest that more attention could be paid to consider the cumulative effects caused by coevolutionary mechanisms when policymakers assess the effects of exogenous policies on the growth of the fuel ethanol industry. More attention also could be paid to the conditions under which these policies can work effectively.

SIZE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF FARMS SPECIALIZING IN THE PRODUCTION OF BEEF CATTLE ON THE BACKGROUND OF ALL AGRICULTURAL FARMS

The aim of the study is the assessment of the management effectiveness of production resources on farms of various sizes specializing in beef cattle production against the background of total results in farms covered by agricultural accounting in the FADN system in 2017. The assessment was carried out in terms of organization and the intensity of production, production and economic results as well as the efficiency of resource management. Production intensity on farms focused on beef cattle production was found to be clearly lower, therefore, productivity and profitability settled on a low level. For most farms specializing in beef cattle production, subsidies determined income, however, when their size increased, the share of subsidies in income generally dropped. Decreasing cost-intensity in production caused it. Accordingly, along with an increase in the size of the compared farm groups, the differences in the level of income and economic efficiency of resource management clearly decreased. Therefore, it can be assumed that the increase of farm size specializing in beef cattle production is a way to improve effectiveness, especially the economic effectiveness of resource management.

Characteristics Development of Agriculture and Agricultural Policy Southeast European Countries

In general the agricultural policy South East European countries are characterized by high volatility, which is expressed in terms of applied instruments and measures as well as in regard to the products to which it relates. In the first phase of price and trade liberalization, most countries have abolished or significantly reduced non-tariff barriers to the import and export of a wide range of products. Also, most countries have reduced or abolished production subsidies and left import tariffs as the main instrument to protect producers. This chapter emphasizes that the further development of CAP in many ways depended on negotiations with the countries of Southeast Europe. Some of these countries are already in the EU and some candidate countries which are at different levels of negotiation with the EU. Southeast European countries are basically agricultural country with low productivity and low prices of agricultural products to be completely restructured. These countries can be reintegrated into CAP only respect the rules and with the help of EU member states.

DETERMINANTS OF FAMILY FARM INCOME DEPENDING ON FARM SIZE

The aim of article is to present the key economic determinants of family farm income. The data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) are used. These data include basic information about the situation of ca 1900 production types according to economic size in the EU in the years 2004-2017. Moreover, an attempt is made to use the panel models to evaluate the economic determinants of family farm income. The Gretl programme is used to evaluate fixed effect models, allowing to choose seven statistically significant variables among a potential twenty-two economic determinants of family farm income. Next, estimation of models depending on the farm size is made. These economic determinants are: utilised agricultural area, share of crop and livestock production in total production, subsidies per farm, net investment per hectare, cash flow per hectare and input calculated per hectare. The impact of variables varies according to the economic size of a farm, but all the models include two variables: cash flow per ha and subsidies. Therefore, these are the most significant economic determinants of family farm income in the EU, regardless of the economic size of agricultural farm.