Economic Reform Plan Research Articles

Exploring the Reform of Japanese Labor Practices

In order to revitalize the Japanese economy, the second Abe Cabinet implemented an economic reform plan known as the "Three Arrows," with labor practice reform being an important component. To improve the relatively poor working conditions of employees, uphold their dignity and legal rights, and promote a positive cycle of economic and social development, Japan has undertaken labor practice reforms with legislative prioritization, government leadership, and cooperation between the public and private sectors. The core policies of these reforms focus on improving long working hours, reducing disparities between regular and non-regular workers to ensure fair employment, and achieving diverse and flexible labor practices. Through these reforms, Japan has enhanced its ability to cope with global economic competition, increased worker motivation and creativity, and partially achieved the integration of economic and social benefits. Some workers have experienced improved working environments, increased income, and the preservation of their dignity. However, challenges remain, such as the differential treatment of regular and non-regular workers and the need for optimization in the labor market structure. The experience of labor practice reform in Japan has certain reference significance for China's transition from relying on demographic dividends to talent dividends and achieving high-quality population development.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT THROUGH TAKING “100 CONCRETE STEPS”: AN OUTSIDER’S ASSESSMENT

In this article, the author seeks to examine the economic development in Kazakhstan through the lens of his prior research about the Middle East and East/Southeast Asia. This article has a two-fold objective. Firstly, it will reflect on the wider economic reform plans in the country and considers if those fit into some existing economic theories on growth. Secondly, it will use two specific reforms as put forward by the “100 Concrete Steps” as examples of further reflection, namely establishing the Astana International Financial Center and tackling corruption. In this research, the author will employ mainly a comparative method but also supplemented by other methods such as historical approach, induction reasoning and use of pre-existing empirical evidence. In its comparison, the article will consider the experiences of other financial centers which have transplanted common law such as the Dubai International Financial Center and the lessons of Hong Kong and Singapore in successfully tackling corruption. This article contends that together with other ongoing reforms, the path of Kazakhstan seems to now prompt along the lines of a Western model of growth in which democracy, low corruption and rule of law are the emphasis, but with an understanding that it is not necessarily the only path Kazakhstan can undertake.

From COVID-19 Pandemic to Patient Safety: A New "Spring" for Telemedicine or a Boomerang Effect?

During the Covid-19 health emergency, telemedicine was an essential asset through which health systems strengthened their response during the critical phase of the pandemic. According to the post-pandemic economic reform plans of many countries, telemedicine will not be limited to a tool for responding to an emergency condition but it will become a structural resource that will contribute to the reorganization of Healthcare Systems and enable the transfer of part of health care from the hospital to the home-based care. However, scientific evidences have shown that health care delivered through telemedicine can be burdened by numerous ethical and legal issues. Although there is an emerging discussion on patient safety issues related to the use of telemedicine, there is a lack of reseraches specifically designed to investigate patient safety. On the contrary, it would be necessary to determine standards and specific application rules in order to ensure safety. This paper examines the telemedicine-risk profiles and proposes a position statement for clinical risk management to support continuous improvement in the safety of health care delivered through telemedicine.

Wisdom from Arabian Creatives: Systematic Review of Innovation Management Literature for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Region

Innovation management (IM) for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region poses unique socio-economic challenges due to the multi-faceted nature of Arab and Islamic countries. Additionally, proposals for indigenous initiatives, sustainability transitions and outward-oriented strategies in economic reform plans of the GCC add further complexity to IM scholarship and practice with imperatives to harness the potentials of these strategic visions. Yet, there is an absence of a systematic review to scrutinize IM literature on the GCC region. This paper systematically reviews the IM literature whose subject involve the GCC countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The review scrutinizes theories, trends and targets in this literature, covers the period from 1980 to 2019, and involves 110 journal papers from high quality IM-related publication outlets. Using insights from the review, the paper develops theoretical foundations for creative complementarities, institutional-pumps and a ripple model of regional innovation. The review also details some methodological, theoretical, conceptual and topical directions for future regional IM research studies.

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

In the last decade, rapid growth, the fastest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and strong policies to address poverty have yielded a remarkable improvement in living standards. But the debt-financed public investment-led development model has reached its limits, amid a buildup in external vulnerabilities, as illustrated by severe foreign exchange shortages and high premia on the parallel market, as well as debt and likely financial sector vulnerabilities. Recognizing these vulnerabilities, the authorities have prepared a “Homegrown Economic Reform Plan”. Their reform agenda is appropriately ambitious and wide-ranging, encompassing macroeconomic reforms, structural reforms to ease institutional and structural bottlenecks to productivity and job growth, and sectoral reforms.

Sustainable Development approaches in Egypt

In conjunction with the current Egyptian sustainable and economic reform plan to enrich the country resources and face future challenges, the megaprojects have been pursued to improve the infrastructure and encourage investment. Starting with renewable energy planets and passing by 14 new sustainable cities all over Egypt to absorb the future expected population and improve the living standards of the Egyptian citizens. One of those cities is the New Administrative Capital which is being built as a smart city on an uninhabited strategic area between the Suez Canal and the Nile River and it will become the new administrative and financial capital of Egypt, housing the main government departments and ministries, as well as foreign embassies. This paper attempts to review the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the Egyptian megaprojects with a special focus for the Egyptian New Administrative Capital city.

On the Two Main Lines of China’s Economic Reform

In the autumn of 1987, the State Commission for Restructuring the Economic System organized eight units including the Research Group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) to submit reports providing an outline economic reform plan for China for 1988-1995. The CASS Research Group recommended that enterprise reform and pricing and ownership reforms and their operational mechanisms should be carried out alongside each other in a two main lines approach. China’s deepening economic reforms have adhered to these two main lines throughout the last forty years. The first main line includes the revival and development of the individual economy, followed by the private economy, the introduction and utilization of foreign capital, and the reform of public ownership, including the state-owned system. In 1997, the 15th National Congress of the Party proposed the establishment of a socialist basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and simultaneous development of multiple forms of ownership. “Public ownership as the main body” is reflected in the dominance of public assets among total social assets and the fact that the state-owned economy controls the lifeline of the national economy and plays a leading role in economic development. The dominant role of public ownership has not changed in the forty years of reform and opening up. The second main line covers price reform, building a modern market system, reforming macro-control mechanisms and perfecting the macro-control and regulation system. From 1979 to 2017, our GDP grew at an average annual rate of 9.5 percent, while the CPI grew at an average annual rate of less than 5 percent: a perfect match. The two main line approach is in line with the provisions of economic reform in the new era proposed in the report at the 19th National Party Congress, which focuses on improving the property rights system and market-oriented factor allocation. There is no distinction of primary or secondary in the role of the two main lines; both are equally important. They are united in the establishment and improvement of the socialist market economic system.

Assess the policy to raise fuel prices in the local market within the framework of the Saudi economic reform plans: تقييم سياسة رفع أسعار الوقود في السوق المحلية ضمن إطار خطط الاصلاح الاقتصادي السعودي

The present study was attempt to investigate the impact of the pricing policies of petroleum products, especially fuel (gasoline and diesel oil), on their local consumption rates implied in the economic reform plans. It utilized the historical, analytical descriptive, and inductive methods. Results revealed that there was an increasing local consumption rate of petroleum products, especially fuel that may be catastrophic in the short term. The continuous oil subsidization to maintain social security network led to such high inflation in the Saudi local market and lack of allocating the subsidization to the poor resulted in the maximized benefit of the rich. Additionally, there was a dramatic increase in the number of vehicles that caused an increase in the local market and the environmental pollution. The study recommended taking planned actions to control the big demand for petroleum products, especially gasoline and diesel oil, in the Saudi local market. It concluded that a plan shall be made to adjust the pricing policy of fuel, reflecting its production costs to rationalize consumption and not to affect the competition of the economic sectors. Furthermore, a subsidization shall be allocated for the low- income population in order not to increase the unreasonable cost of living due to adjusting fuel prices.

From Washington to Moscow: US-Soviet Relations and the Collapse of the USSR

<i>From Washington to Moscow: US-Soviet Relations and the Collapse of the USSR</i>

: (Employment Policies in Low Growth Period: Case Studies and Empirical Analyses on European Countries)

Korean Abstract: 현재 한국이 직면하고 있는 고용률 제고의 문제는 1990~2000년대 유럽 국가들이 직면한 문제와 유사한 측면을 갖고 있다. 유럽 각국은 고속성장을 기대할 수 없는 상황에서 실업률 감소 및 고용률 제고를 위해 장기실업을 억제하고자 다양한 정책을 실시한 바 있다. 그리고 이러한 노력은 고용정책의 성과에 대한 엇갈린 의견에도 불구하고 EU의 평균 고용률이 69%로 한국보다 높은 수준이며, 일부 국가의 경우 고용개혁과 정책추진을 통해 고용률을 대폭 높이는 데 성공하기도 했다. 본 보고서는 유럽 주요국의 고용정책 방향과 내용을 분석하고, 고용유지 및 창출에 초점을 둔 지원정책을 연구함으로써 청년, 여성 및 고령층의 국내 고용률 제고정책 강화에 기여하는 데 목적을 두고 있다. English Abstract: This report suggests policy implications to enhance employment of youth, women and the elderly by researching and analysing the European Union (EU) and its member countries' employment related policies. Currently, Korea is facing problems with employment, as the European countries did during the 1990s and 2000s. In response to the situation, the European countries enforced various policies to reduce unemployment and to increase employment rate. At present, the employment rate of the EU is at around 69%, which is higher level than that of Korea. By implementing labour reforms and policies, several European countries have been successful in improving their employment rates beyond initial expectations. The unemployment rate in Korea is 3.7%, which is the second lowest amongst the OECD member countries after Norway. It is also lower than the half level of the OECD’s average unemployment rate. On the other hand, employment rate in Korea is approximately 65.3%, which is slightly lower than the OECD average, and compared to those of developed countries the gap becomes even wider. Another issue is to improve employment rate of the vulnerable groups, such as youth, women, and the elderly. Accordingly, the Korean government is planning to boost employment rate to 70% by 2017 through the Roadmap for 70% Employment Rate, 2014-2017 and the Three year Economic Reform Plan. In a related move, the Korean government aims to increase the number of jobs by 2.4 million through part time work, or so called flexible employment. To this end, the government is planning to create approximately 930,000 part time jobs. Moreover, the Korean government is emphasising work life balance through child care leave and increased child care services, while improving the employment level of women by expanding social awareness on gender equality. Then, what features do the EU's strategies and policies have to lift employment rate, particularly considering youth, women and the elderly? The deepening of the EU integration has enhanced the role of the EU. In this sense, EU's policies and strategies for employment became an important guideline to project the future direction of the EU member countries' policies. Based on research and interviews with the experts, the key features of employment in the EU are Active Labour Market Policy (ALMP), Vocational Education and Training (VET), and Apprenticeship. First of all, ALMP is an important method with respect to reducing the burden of employers and employees during the period of low economic growth. At the same time, it encourages the unemployed to return to the labour market as soon as possible. In particular, social policies and employment policies are implemented complementarily. Services related to job offering, such as EURES, have been strengthened so that the EU could minimize the job mismatch between the jobseekers and the employers. VET is one of the key policy areas that the EU is focusing on to improve the employment conditions of the disadvantaged groups. However, we can further improve youth employment by implementing VET and Apprenticeship simultaneously. Moreover, it is important for the employers to show willingness to educate the employees. The possibility of an employee changing jobs within the same field would hamper the investment in apprenticeship by the employers, even though the effectiveness of apprenticeship has been fully recognised. Finally, in order to improve employment of the disadvantaged groups, social understanding should be made that a simple employment policy cannot act alone.

Restructuring and Forgiveness in Financial Crises A: The Mexican Peso Crisis of 1994-1995

Following a year in which repeated political turmoil sapped investor confidence in Mexico, putting pressure on the peso and draining the country’s foreign exchange reserves, on December 22, 1994 the Mexican government sparked a financial crisis by unexpectedly abandoning its policy of anchoring the peso to the US dollar and instead allowing it to float freely. The resulting collapse of the peso left Mexico with $40 billion to $50 billion in external debt (much of it dollar-indexed) coming due in the near term and almost no foreign exchange reserves. Faced with the prospect that Mexico would either default on its obligations or impose exchange controls (with either scenario being seen by many as likely to result in contagion), officials from both the US and abroad scrambled to craft a response to what had been dubbed “the first financial crisis of the twenty-first century” because of its origins in an emerging market economy within globalized financial markets. On January 31, 1995, an assistance package comprised primarily of funds from the US and the IMF was announced. Backed by $20 billion from the US Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) and a $17.8 billion stand-by arrangement from the IMF, Mexico met its immediate obligations, restructured short-term debt into longer-term debt and implemented a strict economic reform plan. While the country experienced significant economic hardship in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, by 1996-1997 the economy had rebounded and by 2000 Mexico had paid back all outstanding obligations under the assistance package.

Energy price reform and food markets: the case of bread supply chain in Iran

AbstractReforming energy price is the core of Iranian economic reform plan during 2010–2014. However, increasing price of energy may have adverse effects on the agricultural and food markets. This study was conducted to address these problems in the most important food of Iranian people “bread” by developing a spatial supply chain model. Results show that consumers’ welfare would experience a sharp decrease though the impacts on farmers are trivial. Also, results indicate that the key to success the reform without political backlash in the short‐run is the cash transfer program under which the government redistributes part of the reform's benefits among consumers. Per capita compensation payments would be equal to 51.50 and 46.09 US$ per year for a typical rural and urban person, respectively. Moreover, the results provide more detailed information about the market characteristics and the payments both in nationwide and regional scale as well as in different income groups.

El Plan de Estabilización español de 1959: Juan Sardá Dexeus y la economía social de mercado

The Spanish Stabilization Plan of 1959, contained in the Law of July 21, has been widely studied by prominent Spanish economists, although there are few studies that analyze in depth its ideological roots. To explore this question, this article examines the figure of Juan Sardá Dexeus, chief architect of the implementation of the plan, and the influence he received from the Social Market Economy —whose ideas were used to design both the German Economic Plan of 1948 in Europe, as well as that of the French in 1958—, focusing on the role of monetary policy to achieve price stability in the Spanish plan reforms. After comparing both economic reform plans, we conclude by noting the strong similarities between them.

An evaluation of the welfare effects of reducing energy subsides in Iran

Energy prices in Iran have traditionally been heavily subsidized by the Government, and as a result, energy consumption per capita in Iran is close to the European Union level. The welfare effects of efforts to raise energy prices closer to world levels are examined in this paper. Reform of energy prices is an important element of the “Economic Reform Plan” (2010–2014) for Iran. We first analyze the relationship between energy consumption, energy and non-energy prices by estimating the household expenditure function. The results show that a higher energy prices will decrease energy consumption by Iranian households. Second, we evaluate the impact of a rise of energy prices on the household welfare by measuring the compensating variation (CV) in five steps with a compensating payment. The results show that Iranian household welfare will increase with a 100% or 200% rise in energy prices, if the government pays 20%, 30% or 50% of the $20 billion income resulting from removing energy subsidies. While, in contrast, Iranian household welfare will decrease with a 400% and 500% rise in energy prices, if the government payment is 20% or 30% of $20 billion income.

The Basic Income Road to Reforming Iran's Price Subsidies

Iran has become the first country in the world to provide a de facto basic income to all its citizens. This article reviews the development of the main component of Iran’s economic reform plan – the replacement of fuel and food subsidies with direct cash transfers to the population – and shows how a system of universal, regular and unconditional cash transfers emerged almost by default as a by-product of an attempt to transform an inefficient and unfair system of price subsidies. The main features of the cash subsidy system are compared with those of a basic income; then some lessons from this experience are drawn that may enhance the prospects of basic income as a realistic proposition.

The chasm in the transition: A CGE analysis of Chinese economic reform

Based on the characteristics of the two-tier plan-market system in the current Chinese economic reform, this article presents a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to measure quantitatively the chasm in terms of the changes in sectoral labor demand caused by a shock therapy proposal in the transition process from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. If radical economic reform were implemented, a high unemployment rate would be inevitable. Because the reallocation of labor is expected to be very costly both economically and socially, the pace of economic reform relies on the scale of unemployment caused by the reform and the government's financial situation. The gap in sectoral labor demand between the current economic system and counterfactual equilibrium in the CGE model can be used to measure the pressure of unemployment. In addition, reformers may use the CGE framework to improve their proposals or to find an alternative path should a rapid transition appear to be too dangerous. These findings have numerous implications for those countries currently undergoing economic reform. They can use our model with some modifications to work out their own realistic economic reform plans, radical or moderate.

Economic Reform and Dynamic Political Constraints

In this paper, we examine the impact of political constraints on economic reform plans, with special reference to the transition from centrally planned to market economies. We analyse the problem of an agenda-setting reform-minded Government facing a bureaucracy or industrial sector for which allocative efficiency requires redundancies and an increase in work intensity. The Government also tries to minimize the rents conceded to its heterogeneous workforce. We examine two types of political constraints: unanimity rule and majority rule, both in a one-period and a two-period horizon. The main results are the following. First of all, we show how adverse selection and time-consistency may generate the widely-observed feature of gradualism as an ingredient of an optimal reform. Second, under a majority rule, it is shown to be possible for the Government to obtain a majority vote for a reform scheme that intertemporally hurts majority interests. Indeed, the Government can improve rent extraction through the strategic use of the threat of future proposals: the group which expects to be in the minority tomorrow may accept concessions, while its votes can be used to extract rents from another group. These results suggest that, in a dynamic context, democratic constraints should not be overestimated as an obstacle against efficiency-enhancing economic reforms. The results of this paper may throw some light on the political economy of current reforms in Eastern Europe. Governments, and political decision-makers in general, always face political constraints when elaborating reform proposals. They know that the need to overcome potential opposition from various groups of the population constrains proposals for change. Political constraints vary, depending on the specific institutional structure of society, and are clearly different under a military dictatorship than under a parliamentary democracy. The role of political constraints seems particularly important in Eastern Europe today, where new democratic governments face the huge task of achieving the transition to a market economy. While the introduction of democracy may have removed some important obstacles to economic change (namely, the veto-power of a powerful nomenclatura under communist one-party rule), fears are expressed that it could potentially jeopardize economic reforms which may, during the transition period, hurt a majority of the population.' What can economic theory tell us about optimal economic reform under political constraints? This paper starts addressing this ambitious question by looking at structural reform, focusing on a restructuring of economic sectors which requires massive redundancies and a significant rise in labour productivity. Our model illustrates the case of planning