After the World War II, there has been rapid growth in international trade in both goods and services, resulting in various transactions across national borders for the purpose of satisfying the needs of individuals and organisations. The result of this global competition has forced organisations to expand their business by finding out new markets at home and foreign countries making them ‘Transnational firms’. Transnational Corporations (TNC) is defined as a firm that has power to co-ordinate and control operations in more than one country, even if it does not own them. The significance of TNC lies mainly in its ability to co-ordinate and control different transactions within transnational production networks, ability to take advantage of distribution factors of production and ability to be flexible in locations. The growing TNCs led to various patterns and trends in international business like rapid growth in world trade and investment, cross border mergers and Continue reading
International Economics
Use of Exchange Controls to Eliminate a Nation’s Balance of Payments (BoP) Deficit
The exchange control refers to a set of restrictions imposed on the international transactions and payments, by the government or the exchange control authority. Exchange control may be partial, confined to only few kinds of transactions or payments, or total covering all kinds of international transactions depending on the requirement of the country. The main features of a full-fledged exchange control system are as follows: The government acquires, through the legislative measures, a complete domination over the foreign exchange transactions. The government monopolizes the purchase and sale of foreign exchange. Law eliminates the sale and purchase of foreign exchange by the resident individuals. Even holding foreign exchange without informing the exchange control authority’s declared illegal. All payments to the foreigners and receipts from them are routed through the exchange control authority or the authorized agents. Foreign exchange payments arc restricted, generally, to the import of essential goods and service such Continue reading
Commodity Price Stabilization in International Business
Many developing nations exports are concentrated in only one or a few primary products and thus unstable export markets, worsening terms of trade, and limited access to world markets for the products can significantly reduce export revenues and seriously disrupt domestic income and employment level. In addition, many developing nations feel that developed nations tend to insist that developing nations open their markets to industrial products from the developed world, yet refuse to open their markets to agricultural goods from the developing world. For example, United States have used aggressive antidumping and countervailing duties to limit access to their markets. As noted, the export prices and revenues of developing countries can be quite volatile. In an attempt to stabilize export revenues and prices, International Commodity Agreements (ICA) have been formed by producers and consumers of primary products about matters such as commodity price stabilization, assuring adequate supplies to consumers, and Continue reading
Inflation in a Developing Economy
Basically, inflation is supposed to occur after reaching the stage of full employment, for till that stage is reached an increase in effective demand and price level will,be followed by an increase in output, income and employment. It is after the stage of full employment when all men are employed that a rise in the price level will not be accompanied by an increase in production and employment. Theoretically, therefore, it is not possible to imagine an inflationary situation existing side by side with full employment. It is in this context that the question of inflation in a developing country, which has both widespread unemployment and underemployment is raised. Bottlenecks of Inflation It is interesting to observe that Keynes himself visualized the possibility of an inflationary situation even before full employment was reached. Such a situation can arise even in advanced countries, if there are difficulties in perfect elasticity of Continue reading
Pigovian Tax – Meaning and Definition
Neo-classicals uphold perfect competition as the ideal state of the market. But in truth, the economy is fraught with market failures. Therefore, we need government interference to correct many of these market failures. Pigovian Tax (also spelled Pigouvian tax) imposed by the government is one such course of intervention. It helps to curb negative externalities (e.g. pollution) and reduce the burden on the society caused by the externalities (social costs of production and consumption). Moreover, it attacks over-consumption, bringing it closer to the socially optimal level of production and/or consumption. What is Pigovian Tax? Pigovian tax is a kind of tax, which is levied to correct a negative cost that is created by the actions of any business firm, but that is not considered in a firm’s private costs or profits. Also known as ‘sin tax’, it is a tax placed on an action with a negative externality, to correct Continue reading
Keynesian Theory and Underdeveloped Countries
Lord John Maynard Keynes wrote the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money as a solution to the problem of periodic unemployment faced by developed industrial nations of the West during the great depression of the thirties. Keynesian theory singles out deficiency of effective demand as the major cause of unemployment and low level of income in industrial economy operations under a laissez faire system. Deficiency of effective demand is a prominent feature of economies undergoing depression and in order to improve the level of effective demand in an economy. Keynes suggested policy measures like cheap money policy, government’s compensatory investment spending, deficit financing and other fiscal methods. In essence, therefore, Keynesian economics turn out to be economics of depression applicable to developed countries. Its applicability in underdeveloped countries is very limited. To quote Joan Robinson: “ Keynes’s theory has little to say directly, to the underdeveloped countries, for Continue reading