Main Institutional Changes Research Articles

How Inflation is a Policy Nowadays

"After World War II, democracies witnessed trans formations that were and are much more lenient vis-à-vis the rise in inflation. The main institutional changes that have occurred gradually ever since and can combine nowadays to fuel inflation refer to (i) the shift in ideas referring to equality and redis tribution, (ii) the labor market policies, (iii) bringing man’s natural environment to the level of impor tance of the social environment, with a particular focus on climate, and (iv) preserving a large capacity of the government to produce inflation in a context in which political power has granted independence to the central bank in terms of monetary policy. We show how features of society listed under items (i)- (iv) had combined to lead to low and stable inflation during 1982-2008, to lower than desired inflation during 2009-2020, and to the high inflation starting with 2021. The inflation-taming efforts succeeded only when three elements acted jointly: (A) raising the interest rate while no longer considering the in flation-unemployment tradeoff, impacting features (ii) and (iv); (B) adjusting budget deficits and stabi lizing fiscal expectations, impacting feature (iv); (C) measures for reviving economic freedom, with an impact on features (i), (ii), and (iii)."

ИСТОРИОГРАФИЯ ПОСТСОВЕТСКОГО ПЕРИОДА ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ПСИХОЛОГИИ: К ПОСТАНОВКЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ

The article draws attention to the problem of scarcity of historical and psychological research on the post-Soviet period of Russian psychology. Based on the analysis of the content of textbooks, dissertation research, and scientific publications, a conclusion is made about the insufficient coverage of facts, personalities, events, and factors of the formation of psychological science, practice, and education in the specified period. The paper notes the fragmented nature of the available data in publications devoted to individual personalities or subject areas and identifies the publications that can be regarded as laying groundwork for the development of the historiography of the period. It is shown that in recent decades the historiography of Russian psychology has mainly focused on the tasks of rediscovering and rethinking the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods. Assumptions are made about the determinants of the historiographical gap of the period under consideration, including the following: the illusion of modernity in the last three decades; the historical and political incompleteness of the period; methodological and axiological unpreparedness of the psychological community for a holistic, open-minded, and multivariate discussion of the period. The objectives of the holistic panoramic historiography of the post-Soviet period are as follows: the identification of the main features of the context, factors of influence, events, microperiods, and leading personalities of the period; the identification of the main institutional changes in the organization of science, psychological education, and practice; systematization of the main advances and losses, innovations and contradictions. To solve the tasks set, in addition to traditional methods of documentary analysis being employed, it is proposed to actively use the methods of autobiography and interviewing living witnesses of the post-Soviet period. The difficulties of the historiography of the period include: the uncertainty of the temporal depth of the «beginning of history»; the need to substantiate the status of the event behind selected historical moments; the importance of choosing the proper historical, axiological, and methodological approaches to analysis and generalization; the recognition of the possibility of alternative versions of history in multiple interpretations of facts and personal assessments of contemporaries.

Reformuvannia instytutsiinoi systemy Yevropeiskoho Soiuzu za Lisabonskym dohovorom

The article examines the process of reforming the institutional system of the European Union from the creation of the first Communities to the modern European Union. The main constituent acts of the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community have been studied and established. It is stated that in 1965, when the Merger Treaty was signed, the governing bodies of all the Communities were merged into joint institutions: The Commission, the Council, the Assembly and the Court of Justice. This common structure for the three different Communities is considered to be one of the main institutional changes of the European Union. The Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon treaties are considered. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the Lisbon Treaty of 2007, which introduced significant changes to the institutional system of the European Union. The EU Treaty identifies seven main institutions: The European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the Accounting Chamber. It has been established that in the special institutional structure of the European Union, the European Council, which brings together leaders at national and EU level, sets broad EU priorities. Elected Members of the European Parliament represent European citizens in the European Parliament. The interests of the EU as a whole are defended by the European Commission, which is an executive body. The members of the European Commission are appointed by national governments. Governments defend their country’s national interests in the Council of the European Union. It is determined that within the European Union the bicameral legislature is the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. The EU Court of Justice, which is the EU’s highest court, regulates differences between EU Member States and the EU itself, between institutions and upholds the rule of European law. It is established that the process of reforming the EU institutional system will continue.

Supranationalism as a taboo

This article assesses the development of Mercosur’s institutions across its 30 years of history. It aims to stress how the insertion of supranational instances in the bloc was historically disregarded by Member States, in the context of both right and left-wings governments. However, the creation of a Technical Secretariat, a Permanent Review Tribunal, and a regional parliament (Parlasur) institutionalized non-executive forums, which have become autonomous regional arenas, despite their marginalized position within the bloc’s decision-making system. Although these bodies have never seriously challenged Mercosur’s intergovernmental, and even interpresidential, institutional design, they have enabled the bloc to expand its agenda beyond the governments’ priorities. Thus, this article aimed to unveil the causes of Mercosur’s resistance to supranational institutional change. The qualitative methodological approach is based on specialized literature, but also draws on primary sources and the normative analysis of official documents and reports which have gone through a deductive assessment. First, the article will introduce the main institutional changes seen in Mercosur during its 30 years of existence. Secondly, we argue that these transformations have maintained Mercosur’s intergovernmentalism as its main institutional feature, although additional non-executive bodies were set up in the 2000s. Afterwards, it reflects upon the current circumstances of the bloc, addressing whether future institutional reforms would alter Mercosur’s structural configurations.

The impact of the institutional environment on the development of the rural economy in the Belgorod region of Russia

Abstract This article deals with the problems in the development of agriculture in Russia caused by an imperfect institutional environment. The characteristics of institutional conditions and their influence on the development of agriculture is discussed. The main institutional changes which have taken place in Russia over the past 20 years are described, including the ownership of the means of production, commodity-money relations, access to and distribution of profits and competition. The main body of the article presents an analysis of the development of agriculture in the Belgorod region in relation to the status of the institutional environment.

Openness to Globalization and Regional Growth Patterns inCEECountries: From theEUAccession to the Economic Crisis

AbstractIn the last decades a deep process of institutional reforms and economic reorganization took place in central and easternEUcountries (CEE). These changes occurred in a context of general economic integration. On the one hand, theEuropeanUnion enlargement programme was launched and allCEEcountries applied to becomeEUmember between 1994 and 1996. On the other hand, the globalization of the world economy characterized this historical phase. This article explores to what extent openness to global markets mediated the impact ofEUintegration on the economic performance ofCEEregions in different periods. The periods examined are defined by the main institutional changes that occurred on the road towardsEUintegration. Results show that globally open regions performed better than the others, at least in the first two periods analyzed.

Direitos trabalhistas e organização dos trabalhadores num contexto de mudanças no mundo do trabalho: efeitos sobre os trabalhadores da saúde

This paper presents the main institutional changes in labor relations in Brazil, highlighting their impact on the organization of workers. A more recent central change is the regulation of outsourcing by the Labor Judiciary. Research into claims in the Superior Labor Court, guidelines from the Labor Prosecution Office, and trade union lawsuits, show that outsourcing and working hours are subjects which have directly affected health workers. By addressing the institutional principles of justice in contracts, it was concluded that labor reform should deal with the inequality of rights that have characterized the Brazilian labor market.

Is There an Equity Premium Puzzle in Italy? A look at Asset Returns, Consumption and Financial Structure Data over the Last Century

This paper reconstructs the series of the real returns on Italian equities, bank and Post Office deposits and long-term government bonds from 1860 to today. In the long-run the return on shares was much higher than that on government securities and also that on bank and Post Office deposits. However, this summary assessment is considerably influenced by the exceptional falls in the real value of government securities and bank deposits caused by the hyperinflation that occurred in conjunction with the two world wars. Within the period, there were alternate phases, paralleling the economic cycle and the main institutional changes, in which the return on shares was higher than those on the other two instruments and vice versa. Overall, the Italian equity market provided long-run returns to investors comparable to those of other major countries, although a large fraction of the risk premium for the whole period can be accounted for by the performance following of the hyperinflation episodes of the wars. However, the risk-return trade-off, owing to much larger volatility, compared unfavourably with other markets. Moreover, the Italian equity market in the last 30 years (up to 1994), when equity prices barely kept up with inflation, looks very different. The econometric analysis suggests the presence of an equity premium puzzle in Italy during the estimation period, 1892-1993. In contrast, for government securities the observed returns were approximately in line with the theoretical values. The estimates show that both the returns on government securities and those on shares include an inflation risk premium. For government securities, this was estimated at around 0.8 percentage points. The inflation risk premium was smaller for shares.

The WTO's Environmental Progress

The linkage between trade and the environment stands out as an important challenge in global economic governance. Over the past decade, the WTO devoted considerable attention to this issue and included it on the agenda of the Doha Round. In parallel, the jurisprudence on trade and the environment has experienced significant advances. This study provides an overview of the main institutional changes at the WTO and of the developments in the jurisprudence most relevant to the interaction between the environment and trade. Specifically, this study focuses on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XX and takes note of many positive (and a few negative) features of the key Appellate Body decisions.

The influence of integration processes in nonferrous metallurgy on costs and prices of enterprises

The metallurgical industry of Russia was the object of investigation. The subject of the investigation were the mechanisms of managing costs and the price level for metal production, which is very topical from the viewpoint of maximizing them, and the main directions in the development of nonferrous metallurgy and the nonferrous metals market. Based on the results of studies on the main tendencies in the development of world and Russian nonferrous metallurgy, the influence of these factors on costs and prices is analyzed. Examples of the industry’s main institutional changes in the Russian Federation are presented. These investigations resulted in the development of a procedure that improves the mechanism of controlling costs and price level for metal production taking into account the situation in this field and on the nonferrous metals market.

Labour Market Reform in China (review)

Reviewed by: Labour Market Reform in China Sarah Cook (bio) Xin Meng. Labour Market Reform in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 238 pp. Hardcover £45.00/$69.95, ISBN 0-521-77126-9. This book examines the main institutional changes in China's labor market during the first two decades of economic reform. It presents a series of analyses of key components of China's segmented labor market—the rural, urban, and migrant- labor sectors. It also examines related issues of enterprise and social-security reform that are essential for a well-functioning labor market. The central thesis of the book is that economic growth has not been accompanied by adequate labor market reforms, particularly within the urban state sector, and that a more systematic restructuring of China's labor arrangements is essential if high growth rates are to be sustained. In developing her argument, the author draws on a series of empirical studies undertaken during the 1990s, using several data sources from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Many of the studies have already been published in some form, mainly as journal articles. A short introductory chapter lays out the pre-reform labor arrangements that produced extreme immobility of labor and disincentives to productivity, and provides the context for assessing how far China has moved in each sector toward a competitive labor market characterized by mobility of labor and rewards to productivity. A "conventional" neoclassical model thus provides the basis for evaluating the extent of China's labor market reforms and the areas where further change is required. Through each piece of analysis the author builds up a picture of different degrees of convergence with the neoclassical model, showing variation from the more competitive labor markets found in the rural agricultural sector to constrained and imperfect urban labor arrangements. The key findings of each chapter are as follows. First, rural agricultural labor markets are reasonably competitive, with evidence of rewards to human capital and with labor supply becoming responsive to changes in wage rates—which was not the case in the pre-reform era. Second, in the rural nonagricultural (Township and Village Enterprise— TVE) sector, wages are related to experience and firm tenure, although the results are less clear for education. For those finding jobs through market channels, however, education is rewarded. Overall, then, the TVE sector retains features that diverge from the expectations of a neoclassical model but with some movement toward greater rewards to productivity. Third, despite the apparent ease of labor mobility between the rural agricultural and nonagricultural sectors, we do not see a convergence of wages between them, a result that is explained by institutional factors and technological dualism. [End Page 216] Turning to the urban labor market, the main problem identified is the constraint on labor mobility, which in turn is posited to reflect more fundamental problems with the state-sector ownership structure. Reforms over the period examined in this book had not led to a productivity-related wage-determination system; instead, overstaffing continued, with wages determined by the profitability of the enterprise rather than labor productivity. The enterprise-linked social-security system was a major barrier to mobility. In terms of rural-urban migration, a significant rural-urban wage gap remains, although with regional variations, and migration remains constrained by institutional factors, including poor information flows. Relaxing these constraints would, in the author's view, lead to significant economic gains. While the findings tell a credible story of a labor market undergoing an uneven transition process, it is perhaps unfortunate that the completion of the book coincided with some major policy changes—to which the author's arguments point. From around 1998, new efforts were initiated to grapple with state-sector restructuring and social-security reform; workers were laid off in much larger numbers; efforts to provide labor-market information and training for alternative forms of employment were dramatically expanded; and there has been a gradual and ongoing dismantling of some of the institutional barriers to migration. While the reforms are far from resolving all the problems highlighted in this volume, China's labor market looks significantly different in 2003 from when many of these analyses were undertaken. At the same...

The Yugoslav Self-managed Firm in Historical Perspective

Any discussion of the Yugoslav self-managed firm must stress the historical changes which it has undergone. It is obvious that the theory of the self-managed firm must take into account real-life experience if it is to provide an explanation for what is happening. This paper will therefore present the main institutional changes in the development of Yugoslav self-management and the main characteristics of self-managed production units in each individual period. The discussion here is organized as follows:1 (1) a discussion of the role that self-managed production units played in particular periods (i.e. the process of decision-making, organization of the enterprise, role of management, relations to the environment); (2) a presentation of some basic characteristics in the development of Yugoslav selfmanagement which might be of importance for the theory of the selfmanaged firm and the possible future direction of Yugoslav selfmanagement as it is practiced.