Please login to be able to save your searches and receive alerts for new content matching your search criteria.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's most populous state and its largest economy, was deeply affected by the economic crisis of 1997–1998. Its economic contraction in 1998, of over 13%, was the sharpest among all four crisis-affected East Asian economies. This followed three decades of virtually uninterrupted, rapid economic growth. The country's economic crisis was accompanied by regime collapse, resulting in the departure of then President Suharto after 32 years of authoritarian rule. This paper examines the country's socioeconomic development in the decade since the crisis, in the context of the earlier growth, and the very different institutions of economic governance operating under the new democratic regime of weakened central authority and many more economic policy actors. The main conclusions are that growth and macroeconomic stability have been restored surprisingly quickly, but that microeconomic policy and the investment climate are less predictable.
This paper first provides a brief review of the global financial tsunami. It then explains why the quantitative easing in the US and the unique characteristics of the Asian property markets have contributed to the formation of property bubbles in some Asian economies. Thereafter, it discusses the possibility of a bursting of property bubbles in Hong Kong, Singapore or another Asian economy a few years from now, and highlights that the bursting of the property bubble in that economy could trigger severe corrections of property prices in this region through the contagion effect. After pointing out that the implied crisis could be more severe than that during the Asian Financial Crisis, it (i) discusses policies that could mitigate the damages of the potential crisis and (ii) draws important lessons and conclusions that could pre-empt similar disasters in the future.
Due to rigid rules, incomplete institutions and concentration on short-run fiscal discipline, economic and institutional diversity and insufficient reforms caused the progressive segmentation of the Eurozone. Insufficient integration process is due to lack of trust among member countries and the need to keep a hard budget constraint of national budgets to avoid uncontrolled inflationary pressure and moral hazard. Although understandable in the short run, this situation is causing serious economic and social costs and damages to the development of vulnerable countries. The paper enquires possible solutions to this dangerous stalemate, that could also provide useful suggestions for other countries.
In this paper we propose that a crisis can be avoided by taking countermeasures, which are informed by an Early Warning System. An Early Warning System can help lessen the impact of crisis episodes and provide a systematic approach to the response of small business owners to challenges in their business environment. Following a review of the literature, we undertook data collection in two stages. In stage one, focus groups were conducted with small business owners in four European countries. In stage two we worked with an expert panel to refine and develop a set of indicators for an Early Warning System. It is envisaged that the set of indicators will serve as the basis for further thought and empiricism. We argue that a delay in crisis recognition curtails the scope and time for corrective action.
This paper investigates the impact of foreign bank entry on Thai domestic banks by using panel data on 17 domestic commercial banks from 1990 to 2002. The study examines different factors affecting bank performance, including changes in the foreign ownership of banks, financial regulations, and market structure. The results show that an increase in the presence of foreign banks has led to a rise in overhead expenses, a decline in profits, and an increase in the interest spreads of domestic banks. In the short run, increased competition from foreign banks seems to have negative effects on domestic banks.
This work aims to inspect the common debate about the implication of derivative instruments in amplifying the last financial crisis. To reach this goal, the study chooses a sample of banks entirely from emerging countries — over the whole period 2003–2011 — in which we examine the impact of derivatives simultaneously on performance, risk and stability during the ordinary period “the pre-crisis period”, 2003–2006, and the unstable period “the crisis and post crisis period”, 2007–2011. The regressions are estimated by generalized methods of moments (GMM) as developed by Blundell and Bond (1998). The major conclusion reveals that only swaps can be considered as implicated in the intensification of the last financial crisis. Therefore, the rest of derivatives instruments cannot be responsible in the amplification of the recent financial crisis. Indeed, the widespread idea accusing all derivatives to be in part responsible of the intensification of the last financial crisis should be revised.
In this paper, we compare the performance of Islamic stock indices (ISI) and conventional stock indices (CSI) from FTSE, DJ, MSCI, S&Ps and Jakarta series using common risk-return metrics. The sample consists of 64 ISI and CSI, and covers the period from 2002 to 2017. The majority of the stock indices are from the Pacific Rim countries’ stock markets. Additionally, we employ the GARCH-M model to examine the impact of past volatility on spot returns. Findings suggest that the ISI are less sensitive to the average market movements compared to the CSI, but surprisingly offer similar raw returns suggesting primary support for the low risk-high return paradox. On further examination, results reveal that M2, Omega, Sharpe and Treynor measures indicate that ISI underperform CSI while Jensen’s alpha and Sortino ratio put ISI ahead of CSI. Moreover, findings show that pre-crisis winners (CSI) were losers during the 2008 crisis but subsequently recovered and ended up with higher returns than ISI. Findings also show that the previous volatility of stock returns can be potentially used for predicting future returns.
This paper discusses the economic growth and technological change of the Thai banking industry in relation to a post financial crisis, based on Schumpeter's economic development theory. It is argued that the structural changes of the Thai banking industry reflect Schumpeter's gales of creative destruction. The circumstance in which Thailand has to let the ailing banks and financial institutions go bankrupt and renew the process of growth through mergers and acquisitions represents an adjustment phase of an economy undergoing technological change. Using Porter's Competitive Forces Model, this paper aims to understand banks' pursuit of strategies to survive and increase competitiveness under the financial liberalization policies. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for the Thai banking industry to manage innovations under a competitive pressure after the financial crisis.
In this paper, we explore preparedness strategies for the initial response to crisis-driven innovation, in the context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Using insights from semi-structured interviews with public health strategists, we apply analytic induction to investigate preparedness to innovate, and the main forms of crisis-driven innovation applied in the initial COVID-19 response. We thematically analyze measures of preparedness for the initial COVID-19 response and propose a framing aimed at boosting readiness for crisis-driven innovation. Our study finds themes on COVID-19 preparedness strategies involving combat-inspired public policies from assessed security, cyclic-oriented public projections of actionable safeguards, and continuity-driven public provisions for anticipated situations. The study also captures themes on crisis response as crisis-driven innovation in relation to digitalized, integrated, and tailored public services, initiatives, and systems. Our paper concludes with discussions on the implications of innovation intelligence for crisis preparedness, “ripple-inspired inside-out” view of crisis-driven innovation, “response as innovation” framings, and suggestions for further studies.
During the recent health crisis, certain small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) successfully developed and commercialized new products, sometimes outside their usual business sector. What practices were adopted to carry out these product innovations? To answer this question, an exploratory case study was conducted with two SMEs to learn about their motivations, practices and challenges. The results show that they engaged in innovation to survive, using a succinct and flexible innovation process, combining the principles of the stage gate system with certain aspects of the Xpress and Agile versions. During a crisis, SMEs can deploy an innovation process quickly and with agility if resources and skills are accessible and collaborations possible.
This paper characterises the joint impacts of intra- and extra-organisational contexts on innovation development during the socio-economic crisis in Portugal. The characterisation of these contexts in 309 firms of the Information and Communication Technology services sector allowed for the identification of two profiles via a cluster analysis. These were mostly discriminated by financial resources and clients and not by science and technology activities. Subsequently, these profiles were related to innovation, top managers’ perceptions and expectations for the future. The data shows that under favourable contexts, innovation increases, the firm is perceived to drive innovation and confidence in the companies’ future emerges. In more unfavourable scenarios, innovation is compromised, the environment is perceived to block innovation and confidence is halted. This paper establishes companies’ profiles for the first time in Portugal and suggests that intra- and extra-organisational contexts have to be jointly tackled to foster present innovation and promote future activities.
Exogenous shocks and environmental changes may force small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to change and innovate their business models. However, their readiness and ability to do so could depend on firm-level characteristics. This paper investigates how two firm-level factors—size and age—impact SMEs’ engagement in business model innovation in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Using World Bank Enterprise Survey data covering 2,115 SMEs from 12 countries, this study shows that the age of an SME is negatively associated with business model innovation. The finding also shows that, contrary to the hypothesis posed in this study, the size of an SME impacts business model innovation positively. The study contributes to the understanding of antecedents of business model innovation in times of environmental change and uncertainty.
The global crisis has not invalidated everything about macroeconomics. However, it has highlighted some of mistakes of the discipline's dominant intellectual framework. Post-macroeconomic thinking recommended in this paper should not be understood as another metanarrative of the end of metanarratives. The use of the prefix post here suggests and emphasises much more than temporal posterity. Post-macroeconomics should follow from macroeconomics more than it follows after macroeconomics. The theorising of post-macroeconomics is therefore neither systematically oppositional, nor hegemonic. It does not advocate a "dialectic opposition" between macroeconomics and post-macroeconomics. Rather, it suggests that the latter builds on the former and goes beyond it.
This chapter examines the impact of COVID-19 news in the USA on the volatility of financial markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) zone. We examine the effect of surprises from financial markets announcements relating to new, confirmed, and death cases of COVID-19 in each country in the sample. We use the GARCH (1.1) specification by incorporating the surprise component in the estimated model during the period from January 1, 2019 until December 31, 2020. The empirical findings show that the evolution of the daily returns and volatilities of the stock indexes of the MENA zone used in our research shows very significant peaks in particular in the first three months of 2020 during the most significant spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. We show that the announcements of new cases of COVID-19 in the United States (NCUSA) have a significant impact on the Lebanon stock index and on Tunisia’s stock index. Announcements of confirmed cases (CCUSA) of COVID-19 present a relative and insignificant impact on all stock market indices of the MENA zone used in our research. Finally, the announcements of the death cases of COVID-19 in the United States (DCUSA) have a significant impact on the stock market index of Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. This chapter is the first to examine the effect of surprises from financial markets announcements relating to new, confirmed, and death cases of COVID-19 on the volatility of financial markets in the MENA zone.
After reading this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
Cooperatives have been given much-needed attention now by the Indian government through forming a separate Ministry of Cooperation. However, a lot has to be done before taking pride in the same. This chapter emphasises on the cooperative model to promote local institution-building in the post-COVID-19 era. Influenced by the institutional theory, the chapter discusses the gaps at the ground level and also provides suggestions to strengthen the cooperative sector in the country. A case is discussed from the successful dairy cooperatives in India that played a significant role in times of the COVID-19 crisis. The findings of the case discuss the interventions of the cooperatives in generating awareness towards safety, solidarity, accountability, providing stability, maintaining the value chain, securing finances, and supporting community welfare even during the time of the pandemic. Through this, the chapter highlights the cooperatives’ abilities in generating inclusive development in the country even during the time of crisis. This chapter is based on the primary information collected through a qualitative research method that includes in-depth interviews with the cooperative members.
This chapter provides an in-depth examination of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Lebanon, with a specific focus on the pivotal role played by women. Offering both a historical overview and a contemporary reality check, it establishes an overarching framework within which entrepreneurship in Lebanon is comprehensively described and explored. The narrative delves into the emergence and evolution of the ecosystem against the backdrop of a turbulent environment, shedding light on the progressively evolving role of women entrepreneurs. A detailed analysis of the current status of women in Lebanon highlights the challenges and barriers that female entrepreneurs encounter. This chapter also emphasizes the active engagement of women entrepreneurs in various sectors and concludes with an outlook on the future.