The Unassuming Economist

From a book chapter by Mark Hibben (ed.), Bessma Momani (ed.):

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a pivotal multilateral institution in global economic governance tasked with ensuring monetary stability and preventing financial crises through promoting balanced trade, economic growth, and poverty reduction. IMF research and expertise also play a powerful normative role in shaping the contours of economic policy choices of its 190 member states. Fallout of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic reveal that the IMF sits at a critical moment in its history. On one hand, reaction to these crises has produced an IMF that is more flexible, open to critique and reform, and arguably thus better equipped to meet its global economic governance mandates effectively. However, power within the IMF remains concentrated among advanced economies, hindering trust that the institution treats all its members in an even-handed manner. Resurgent geopolitical tensions, the rise of populist nationalism, and economic imbalances further strain the IMF’s ability to uphold liberal internationalism. Drawing from leading IMF scholars, IMF staff and management, and CSO representatives, the Handbook on the IMF engages with these challenges from a diversity of perspectives and proposes policy recommendations that the IMF should implement to successfully meet the increasingly complex landscape of 21st-century global economic governance.”

From a book chapter by Ayse Kaya:

“Employing text data analysis on over 6,500 International Monetary Fund (IMF) documents from different operational units of the organization, this chapter first finds that the IMF’s approach to inequality has changed over the past two decades, but in a manner that is uneven across the different constituent parts of the organization. This evidence lends further support to the notion of IMF and IO “fragmented change” developed by Kaya and Reay (2019). Second, the chapter finds that while inequality now is more prominent in the IMF’s policy advice, it matters only insofar as inequality is related to core macroeconomic issues—institutional change has occurred in a “mission-consistent” manner. Thus, the IMF has more focus on inequality in institutional thinking but less in institutional output.”

From a paper by Shehla Arif:

“In this chapter, we examine larger systems of oppression encapsulating all aspects of life including engineering practice and education. We describe a direction for engineering education with the goal of building a socially just and peaceful society. The particular focus is on ‘transitions’ from ‘business-as-usual’ to equitable societies living within the planetary limits, termed ‘just’ by multiple intersectional grassroots social movements. We uncover the underlying assumptions in current engineering practice and associated education building on ideas expressed in Chap. 1 and demonstrate how engaging with social movements in the realm of engineering education provides a pathway towards creating a just and peaceful world.”

From a paper by Fahmida Mostafiz:

“This paper explores the connection between industrial policy and New Structural Economics (NSE) from the perspective of a transitioning economy. The NSE emphasizes that by leveraging comparative advantages, investing in infrastructure and human capital, diversifying the industrial base, and enacting institutional reforms, transitioning economies can achieve sustainable economic development. For industrial policy to be effective, it must align with these principles. Using Bangladesh as a case study, this paper proposes a theoretical framework that links industrial policy with NSE to foster sustainable economic growth. The framework emphasizes the critical role of government intervention in resource allocation, benefit distribution, and industrial growth, all of which are driven by targeted industrial policies. Additionally, it categorizes Bangladesh’s industries into five groups, prioritizing leading-edge sectors focused on technological advancement and skill development over catching-up industries that address productivity gaps. This paper contributes to the understanding of Bangladesh’s industrial policy through the lens of NSE, shedding light on the underlying dynamics that shape the country’s industrial structure, competitiveness, and future economic trajectory.”

From a paper by Abdisalan Aden Mohamed:

“This paper aims to empirically examine the relationship between GDP and unemployment in Somalia from 2000 to 2021. The study also estimates Okun’s coefficient. To evaluate the association between the unemployment rate and economic growth, we employ the Hodrick–Prescott (HP) filter detrending technique, the Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) test, ordinary least squares (OLS), and fully modified OLS. The findings of this study demonstrate that the series is stationary at the level. However, the results confirm a statistically insignificant negative relationship between unemployment and economic growth. Consequently, our findings suggest that Okun’s law does not apply in Somalia. For robustness, we employ fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), canonical cointegrating regression (CCR), and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS). Nevertheless, the relationship between the GDP gap and unemployment is not strong enough to be considered statistically significant, and other factors may also influence unemployment. Therefore, policies aimed at reducing unemployment should take into account various factors, including education and training, labor market regulations, and social protection measures.”