The Developing Economies
Volume 42, Number 3 (September 2004)
■ The Developing Economies Volume 42, Number 3 (September 2004)
■ B5
■ 105pp
■ September 2004
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CONTENTS
Latin American Export Specialization in Resource-Based Products: Implications for Growth (472KB) / Jorge Chami Batista
Interrelational Income Distribution in Brazil (129KB) / Manfred Lenzen and Roberto Schaeffer
Determinants of Angola's Real Exchange Rate, 1992-2002 (401KB) / Enrique Gelbard and Jun Nagayasu
Ownership and Nonperforming Loans: Evidence from Taiwan's Banks (422KB) / Jin-Li Hu, Yang Li, and Yung-Ho Chiu
Efficiency of Chinese Township and Village Enterprises in the 1990s Based on Micro Data for Wuxi City, 1991-97 (467KB) / Maho Shiraishi and Go Yano
Book Reviews
Abstract
Jorge
Chami
Batista,
"Latin
American
Export
Specialization
in
Resource-Based
Products:
Implications
for
Growth,"
pp.
337-70.
Given
Latin
America's
general
specialization
in
resource-based
products,
this
paper
focuses
on
the
question
of
whether
or
not
a
country
specialized
in
resource-based
products
can
have
high
rates
of
export
and
economic
growth.
To
examine
this
question,
an
attempt
is
made
to
develop
and
apply
a
new
taxonomy
to
a
sample
of
resource-based
products
exported
by
Latin
American
countries
to
the
United
States.
This
taxonomy
is
based
on
the
role
played
by
prices
in
the
mechanism
through
which
countries
compete
in
specific
international
product
markets.
Resource-based
products
are
then
classified
as
homogeneous,
differentiated,
or
highly
differentiated
goods.
The
paper
argues
that
exports
of
countries
specialized
in
differentiated
or
highly
differentiated
goods
tend
to
be
much
more
dynamic
than
of
those
specialized
in
homogeneous
goods.
Manfred
Lenzen
and
Roberto
Schaeffer,
"Interrelational
Income
Distribution
in
Brazil,"
pp.
371-91.
We
extend
Miyazawa
and
Masegi's
original
idea
of
disaggregated
interrelational
income
multipliers
with
regard
to
three
aspects.
First,
we
examine
the
effect
of
system
closure
on
the
inter-income-group
matrix.
Second,
we
formally
include
inter-household
transactions,
or
the
informal
economy,
into
Miyazawa's
calculus.
Third,
we
extend
the
interrelational
multiplier
to
environmental
factors.
These
extensions
are
applied
to
the
Brazilian
economy
of
1995.
Multiplier
matrices
excluding
and
including
the
informal
economy
are
presented
and
interpreted,
and
the
redistributive
process
of
transfer
payments
is
traced
through
consecutive
spending
rounds
for
various
scenarios.
Finally,
these
redistributive
processes
are
enumerated
in
terms
of
transport
fuel
and
electricity
use.
Our
results
indicate
that,
because
of
the
distribution
of
ownership
of
productive
capital,
the
income
formation
process
is
heavily
skewed
toward
the
highest
incomes.
Whether
the
existing
process
and
potential
redistributive
policies
alleviate
environmental
pressure
depends
on
the
factors
as
well
as
the
population
segment
appraised.
Enrique
Gelbard
and
Jun
Nagayasu,
"Determinants
of
Angola's
Real
Exchange
Rate,
1992-2002,"
pp.
392-404.
This
paper
estimates
Angola's
equilibrium
parallel
market
real
exchange
rate,
during
the
period
1992-2002,
taking
into
account
possible
structural
shifts
in
the
data.
Our
results
fail
to
support
the
purchasing
power
parity
hypothesis
and
indicate
that
two
exogenous
variables-the
price
of
oil
and
the
foreign
interest
rate-explain
most
of
the
variation
in
the
equilibrium
real
exchange
rate.
These
results
contrast
with
the
tenet
that
the
exchange
rate
is
mainly
influenced
by
rapid
monetary
growth,
and
we
suggest
that
the
current
flexible
exchange
rate
regime
is
likely
to
be
more
appropriate
for
Angola
than
a
fixed
exchange
rate
regime.
Jin-Li
Hu,
Yang
Li,
and
Yung-Ho
Chiu,
"Ownership
and
Nonperforming
Loans:
Evidence
from
Taiwan's
Banks,"
pp.
405-20.
We
first
derive
a
theoretical
model
to
predict
that
the
relation
between
nonperforming
loan
ratios
and
government
shareholdings
can
be
downward-sloping,
upward-sloping,
U-shaped,
and
inversely
U-shaped.
An
increase
in
the
government's
shareholding
facilitates
political
lobbying.
On
the
other
hand,
private
shareholding
induces
more
nonperforming
loans
(NPLs)
to
be
manipulated
by
corrupt
private
owners.
We
adopt
a
panel
data
set
of
40
Taiwanese
commercial
banks
during
1996-99
for
empirical
analysis.
The
results
show
that
the
rate
of
NPLs
decreased
as
the
ratio
of
government
shareholding
in
a
bank
rose
(up
to
63.51
percent),
while
the
rate
thereafter
increased.
Bank
size
was
negatively
related
to
the
rate
of
NPLs.
Rates
of
NPLs
are
shown
to
have
steadily
increased
from
1996
to
1999.
Banks
established
after
deregulation,
on
average,
had
a
lower
rate
of
NPLs
than
those
established
before
deregulation.
Maho
Shiraishi
and
Go
Yano,
"Efficiency
of
Chinese
Township
and
Village
Enterprises
in
the
1990s
Based
on
Micro
Data
for
Wuxi
City,
1991-97,"
pp.
421-52
We
examine
the
(technical)
efficiency
of
collective-owned
township
and
village
enterprises
(COTVEs)
in
Wuxi
City,
China,
after
1990
to
study
whether
the
acknowledged
success
of
township
and
village
enterprises
continued
in
the
late
1990s.
Our
results
suggest
that
COTVEs
did
not
decline
in
relative
efficiency
compared
with
other
types
of
enterprises
in
the
late
1990s,
but
that
their
productivity
leveled
off
or
declined.
Furthermore,
we
find
that
COTVEs
faced
with
a
more
serious
shortage
of
working
capital
had
a
lower
efficiency
after
the
mid-1990s
recession.
These
findings
cast
doubt
on
the
view
that
the
vaguely
specified
property
rights
of
COTVEs
are
responsible
for
their
declining
performance
problems
during
the
period
just
before
1998
when
massive
privatization
began.
Privatization
of
COTVEs
without
other
macroeconomic
policy
changes
may
now
be
insufficient
to
cope
effectively
with
their
declining
productivity.