Brazil, Russia, India, China And South Research Articles

How Differently Does Oil Price Influence BRICS Stock Markets?

This article explores the strength and extent of causal relationship between BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) stock returns and real oil price using frequency domain approach of Breitung and Candelon (2006). This technique offers an appropriate alternative tool by investigating the causality in frequency domain, while standard causality tests focus only on the time domain. Using 1998-2015 quarterly data, we show that the impact of oil price on stock returns is not uniform across the investigated countries. Even though the slowly (quickly) fluctuating components of oil price exert a significant influence on real stock returns in Brazil and Russia (India and South Africa), medium and long term hidden factors were found as potential contributors of Chinese share market. The oil dependence profile, the distribution of market share between companies, the financial system efficiency and the effectiveness of regulation in securities markets have been offered to explain the heterogeneous responses of BRICS equities.

News Agencies, Development, and the State: models of the BRICS countries

News agencies have had a privileged role in the development of national and international communication systems, particularly at the periphery of capitalism, being primarily responsible for circulation in the information economy. In countries of Africa, South Asia, Eurasia and Latin America, they constituted prioritised foundations whilst building the institutional structure of the state, designed to boost development. Different models supplied determinants to policies in those countries, such as the choice between public or private ownership, independence or links to global agencies, import or export of information. Taking into account these paradigms and their hybrids, this paper examines the various models of constitution and operation of news agencies that were adopted in emerging countries in the 21st century, nominally the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), particularly in regards to the State, to ownership and business, and to their respective roles in strategies for national development.

News Agencies, Development, and the State: Models of the BRICS Countries

News agencies have had a privileged role in the development of national and international communication systems, particularly at the periphery of capitalism, being primarily responsible for circulation in the information economy. In countries of Africa, South Asia, Eurasia and Latin America, they constituted prioritised foundations whilst building the institutional structure of the state, designed to boost development. Different models supplied determinants to policies in those countries, such as the choice between public or private ownership, independence or links to global agencies, import or export of information. Taking into account these paradigms and their hybrids, this paper examines the various models of constitution and operation of news agencies that were adopted in emerging countries in the 21st century, nominally the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), particularly in regards to the State, to ownership and business, and to their respective roles in strategies for national development.

Knowledge Cooperation Opportunities between Saudi Arabia and the BRICS

It has been emphasized that building global knowledge societies enhances the human capital and that this would lead to the promotion of peace and development for the benefit of the whole world. This paper introduces a knowledge assessment framework based on the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) knowledge society paradigm, and on available international indicators. The framework provides an index that consists of “28 indicators,” with “4 sub-indices”; and a criterion for comparing the measured values of the indicators and identifying prioritized knowledge cooperation opportunities. The framework is used to investigate these opportunities between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It has been found that KSA enjoys high level of knowledge society enablement from which the BRICS can gain; while the BRICS enjoy high level of knowledge productivity from which KSA can gain. Bridging the gap between the two sides will be useful to both, and to building global knowledge societies.

Member states’ pact and industry co-movements in the BRICS markets

ABSTRACTThrough the existence of supply chain relationships among BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), we explore the industry return co-movements of the BRICS markets and the impacts of BRICS-related events on the time-varying conditional correlation and volatility. We find that BRICS-related events have increased industry co-movements and substantially reduced volatility. An asymmetry in industry return co-movements shows a strong response to good news. The first formal BRICS summit in 2009 is the most dominant event influencing BRICS industry co-movements, while there is a significant decline in correlations during the 2013 BRICS event. The financial industries of BRICS have the highest co-movements among sampled industries.

Confronting Health Inequalities in the BRICS: Political Institutions, Foreign Policy Aspirations and State‐civil Societal Relationships

AbstractThe BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have emerged as potentially robust economies with considerable international influence. Nevertheless, essentially all of these nations have fallen short of simultaneously developing strong economies and health care systems, contributing to the emergence of health care inequalities, such as inadequate access to medicine, health care treatment and out‐of‐pocket spending. This is puzzling considering that most of these nations’ economies burgeoned during the 1990s and early‐2000s, thus potentially providing additional revenue for health care spending, while constitutional guarantees of universal access to health care and the presence of democratic electoral institutions in most nations should have incentivized governments to successfully address these inequality issues. Nevertheless, with the exception of South Africa, this study finds that waning political commitment to health care spending, increased foreign aid commitments and tenuous state‐civil societal relationships accounted for these ongoing inequality challenges.

CO2 emissions and logistics performance: a composite index proposal

The importance of good logistics performance for low/no fossil-carbon economies is widely recognized, especially because the transport sector is responsible for a substantial portion of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. This research evaluates efficiency in the relationship between transport logistics performance, as measured by the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), and CO2 emissions from the transport sector. The slacks-based measure (SBM) of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to construct a low carbon logistics performance index (LCLPI) ranking a group of 104 countries that were selected using the available data. The empirical model adopted one input (CO2 emissions for the transport sector) and seven outputs (gross domestic product [GDP] and the six components of the LPI). GDP has been included as a non-discretionary output because CO2 emissions are directly dependent on a country's economic production, while the LPI is a qualifier. To evaluate how the composite index evolved over time, we used an approach that combines the techniques of window analysis and the Malmquist index. Considering the DEA results, the countries that performed best in terms of the LCLPI were Japan, Germany, Togo, Benin, and the United States and the more evolved countries were Luxemburg, Ireland, Lebanon, and Honduras. For the purposes of LCLPI validation and analysis, the performances of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries were analyzed, especially China, which is the world's second largest CO2 emitter. The proposed composite index and the ranking of countries in terms of logistics performance and CO2 emissions can help identify the best performing countries in low carbon logistics.

ATCI vs. BRICS: consecuencias sobre la geopolítica y las relaciones internacionales del siglo XXI

La ATCI es una propuesta en negociaciones entre la UE y EEUU para crear el más grande área de libre comercio internacional por extensión, población y volumen de intercambio comercial, de todas las existentes. A nuestro juicio, la ATCI sería la respuesta geoeconómica a los BRICS como espacio geopolítico, comercial y de cooperación en otros ámbitos como el militar en tanto que la ATCI reproduce a escala comercial la alianza político-militar ya existente entre buena parte de la UE y EEUU por la OTAN. En este artículo trataremos de exponer por qué la posible rivalidad ATCI vs. BRICS reproduciría en el siglo XXI los esquemas de “Guerra Fría” heredados del siglo XX, que a su vez reproducían los enfrentamientos geopolíticos derivados de la teoría del área pivote de Haltford McKinder y la tradicional contraposición entre imperialismos talasocráticos (gobierno sobre los mares y océanos) e imperialismos telurocráticos (gobierno sobre una extensísima porción de tierra emergida). Asímismo, trataremos de mostrar por qué a nivel de dialéctica de Estados aquellas sociedades políticas más pobladas, más extensas territorialmente y con mayor cantidad de recursos serán las que tengan mayor capacidad para imponer un determinado modelo de relaciones internacionales y de hegemonía geopolítica a escala universal atendiendo a este viable enfrentamiento ATCI, más ATCE, vs. BRICS.

China and emerging economies in global financial governance: Legitimacy, accountability and democracy

Global financial governance refers to the way in which global financial affairs are managed. As there is no global government, global financial governance typically involves a range of actors including states, as well as regional and international organizations aimed at negotiating responses to problems that affect more than one state or region, far from only providing the public good of financial stability through global economy integration and global financial legislation. In geopolitical context of the 21st century, emerging economies still have maintained a low profile in global financial governance, despite their growing economic power and the rhetoric of being a responsible great power, and there is little evidence that they will seek international leadership. Moreover, compared to the other emerging powers in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group, China has under-participated in global governance in terms of contributing personnel, finance and ideas to major multilateral institutions and programs. It is really an interesting question in international economics and politics area. Firstly, this paper examines comparative data on the emerging economies countries’ participation in global financial governance and explains the reason why China has relatively low involvement in global financial governance. Secondly, this paper analyzes norms and legitimacy in global financial governance, and thus outlines the emerging economies constraints on public policy of global financial market integration in the light of the foregoing analysis of legitimacy, accountability and democracy. Finally, some global financial governance development strategy and possible policy solutions are discussed as well.

Determinants of Growth in Fast Developing Countries: Evidence from Bundling and Unbundling Institutions

Purpose – We assess growth determinants in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) fast-developing nations for the period 2001-2011. Particular emphasis is laid on the bundling and unbundling of ten governance dynamics. Design/methodology/approach – Contemporary and non-contemporary Fixed- and Random-Effects regressions are employed as empirical strategies. GDP growth and real GDP output are used as dependent variables. The governance variables are bundled by means of principal component analysis. Findings – The following are some findings. First, governance is more positively significant in non-contemporary specifications as opposed to contemporary regressions. Second, there is some interesting evidence on the heterogeneity of political governance as a driver. Political governance and its constituents (political stability and voice & accountability) are significantly positive in GDP growth but insignificant in real GDP output regressions. Third, the other governance dynamics are more significant determinants of real GDP output, as opposed to GDP growth. Accordingly, they are insignificant in contemporary regressions and negatively significant in non-contemporary regressions for GDP growth. Fourth, the constituents of economic governance have the highest magnitude in the positive effects of governance dynamics on real GDP output.Practical implications – The following are some practical implications. First, lag determinants are necessary for growth targeting or timing of growth dynamics. Growth drivers for the most part are more significantly determined by past information. Second, political governance is the most important driver of economic growth, with the significance of effects more apparent in non-contemporary regressions. Third, economic governance and institutional governance are more positively predisposed to driving real GDP output than GDP growth. Originality/value – As far as we have reviewed, it is the first study to investigate growth determinants in the BRICS and MINT nations. It has strong implications for other developing countries on the contemporary and non-contemporary dynamics of governance in driving economic prosperity.

Re-emerging Powers and the Impasse in the UNSC over R2P Intervention in Syria

The article examines the influence of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) members that acts as an important condition of success for implementation of the three-pillared Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle in case of Syrian conflict. Analysis has revealed two distinctive features of the BRICS’s positions. Firstly, BRICS has placed particular emphasis on there being a reasonable prospect of success before supporting intervention. Secondly, BRICS’s opposition to military intervention arises perhaps not so much from the regime change issue in Libya as the reality that many of the draft resolutions sponsored by the United States–France–United Kingdom (P3) alliance accused President Bashar Assad’s regime of mass atrocity crimes without levying the same accusation against the rebels fighting the regime.

Middle power or muddling power? Canada's relations with emerging markets

The introduction to this special issue on Canada and emerging markets introduces some of the key concepts and theoretical perspectives developed in the issue. The rise of emerging markets, especially the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) poses serious challenges to the conduct of Canadian foreign and economic policy. In this special issue, we review Canada's record of relations with these countries (including the 2013 Global Markets Action Plan), and identify some of the main obstacles to improved relations. All of the authors argue that the response to this challenge to date has been inadequate, and that Canada is falling behind in the reshuffling global order. This introductory article describes changes in Canada's global economic position and identifies literature on institutions and cognitive commitments, global bricolage and the relationship between “old” and “new” middle powers which provide some guidance for evaluating the challenges and limitations of Canada's relations with emerging markets.

Structural change, catching up and falling behind in the BRICS: A comparative analysis based on trade pattern and Thirlwall’s Law

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have gradually become more than an acronym as their governments have been engaging in international and political negotiations as if they were a regional economic group. The main goal of this paper is to compare the structural change of the BRICS using econometric evidence based on estimates of Thirlwall’s law for the period 1995-2013. Thirlwall’s equations have become powerful indicators to evaluate whether a country is in a catching-up or falling-behind long-term path. Our basic assumption is that the way in which each country engages in international trade and global capital flows affects, positively or negatively, structural change and the catch-up trajectory. Though our results cannot confirm Russia’s long-term growth trajectory, they do confirm that over the period analysed China and India have shown a rapid catching up path, while Brazil and South Africa have entered into a falling behind path. JEL: 011; 014; 019; 047; P52

Macro News and Exchange Rates in the BRICS

This paper examines the effects of newspaper headlines on the exchange rates vis-a-vis both the US dollar and the euro for the currencies of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The data are daily and cover the period 03/1/2000- 12/5/2013. The estimated VAR-GARCH(1,1) model allows for both mean and volatility spillovers and for the possible impact of the recent financial crisis as well. The results differ across countries, but provide in a number of cases evidence of significant spillovers, whose strength appears to have increased during the crisis. Further, given the increasingly global role of these countries, their FX markets have become more responsive to foreign news.

Monetary Expansion and the Banking Lending Channel

This paper examines the bank lending channel, which considers how monetary authority actions affect the variation of loans. We focus on the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) totalizing 1254 banks from five countries in the period 2000–2012 (totalizing 13 years). The empirical results show that the effect of money supply growth on the growth of loans is non-linear and inverted U-shaped. In this context, our results show empirical evidence expansionary monetary policies do not increase the propensity of economic agents to systematically take greater risks on the market. After a certain level of money stock, increases in the money supply do not lead to increased negotiated credit.

Competitiveness of the BRICS Countries on the Field of International Higher Education

The aim of this study is to examine the higher education of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries from the perspective of international student mobility and international competitiveness. The WEF-GCI, the UNESCO and the QS database provided data for the analysis. The extracted data were analyzed using descriptive statistical comparative and time series analysis methods. The study reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the higher education systems of the BRICS countries. The higher education of this group of countries could not be considered homogeneous. Brazil, China and South Africa are the strongest on the subfield of academic reputation, Brazil and China in the employer reputation, India in the citations per faculty while Russia in the faculty-to-student ratio and reception of students outside of the country. However, internationalization in general is a strategic area that needs improvement in all these countries. The goal of this research is to give a brief summary of the position of the BRICS countries in the field of international student mobility.

Scientific collaboration and high-technology exchanges among BRICS and G-7 countries

Over the last two decades, emerging countries located outside North America and Europe have reshaped the global economy. These countries are also increasing their share of the world's scientific output. This paper analyzes the evolution of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and G-7 countries' international scientific collaboration, and compares it with high-technology economic exchanges between 1995---1997 and 2010---2012. Our results show that BRICS scientific activities are enhanced by their high-technology exports and, to a larger extent, by their international collaboration with G-7 countries which remains, over the period studied, at the core of the BRICS scientific collaboration network. However, while high-technology exports made by most BRICS countries to G-7 countries have increased over the studied period, both the intra-BRICS high-technology flows and the intra-BRICS scientific collaboration have remained very weak.

Global financial crisis and spillover effects among the U.S. and BRICS stock markets

This article examines the spillover effect between the U.S. market and five of the most important emerging stock markets namely those of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and draws implications for portfolio risk modeling and forecasting. It gives consideration to periods before and after the recent global financial crisis (GFC). To this end, the bivariate DCC-FIAPARCH model, the modified ICSS algorithm and the Value-at-Risk (VaR) are employed to capture volatility spillovers, detect potential structural breaks and assess the portfolio market risks. Using the U.S. and the BRICS daily spot market indices for the period from September 1997 to October 2013, our empirical results show strong evidence of asymmetry and long memory in the conditional volatility and significant dynamic correlations between the U.S. and the BRICS stock markets. Moreover, we find several sudden changes in these markets with a common break date centered on September 15, 2008 which corresponds to the Lehman Brothers collapse. The Brazil, India, China and South Africa markets are strongly affected by the GFC, supporting the hypothesis of recoupling (with increased linkages). In contrast, the hypothesis of decoupling is supported for the Russian stock markets only. Finally, the skewed Student-t FIAPARCH models outperform and provide more accurate in-sample estimates and out-of-sample forecasts of VaR than the normal and Student-t FIAPARCH models in almost all cases. These results provide helpful information to financial risk managers, regulators and portfolio investors to determine the diversification benefits among these markets.

The Uneven and Crisis-Prone Development of Capitalism: A Review of the Tenth Forum of World Association for Political Economy

The development of capitalism is always uneven and crisis-prone. The gap between developed countries and developing countries has grown wider since the 1980s, while the emerging economies including BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have grown faster than developed countries, occupying a growing share of world GDP especially since the 2008 world economic and financial crisis. But developed countries still take most surplus value in the world through various financial powers and rigged trade deals which favour them over emerging economies and transfer and deepen all kinds of contradictions in ecology, class, race, and gender to developing countries. At this juncture, June 2015, world scholars of Marxism gathered together in Wits University, South Africa, to discuss the uneven and crisis-prone development of capitalism from the perspective of Marxian economics. Topics to be discussed include the current situation of uneven development, its forms and representations, and causes and solutions both theoretically and practically.

Asymmetric Linkages between BRICS Stock Returns and Country Risk Ratings: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Threshold Models

AbstractThis study investigates the asymmetric linkages between the five BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries’ stock markets and three country risk ratings (financial, economic and political risk) in the presence of major global economic and financial factors. Using the dynamic panel threshold models, we find evidence of asymmetry in most cases. However, the significance and the signs of the effects of these risk ratings on the BRICS market returns differ across the lower and upper regimes. Furthermore, improvements in the global stock, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and gold markets enhance the BRICS stock market performance. Increases in implied volatility indices lead to drops in the BRICS markets.