Arne Bigsten

Krisåren har urholkat Europeiska unionens politiska och ekonomiska resurser. Samtidigt står Europa inför avgörande utmaningar på den världspolitiska arenan, där nya regionala maktcentra är på väg att etablera sig. Klimathot, fattigdom och människohandel är några av de problem som vittnar om allvarliga globala obalanser. I Europaperspektiv 2014 diskuterar tio ledande forskare inom ekonomi, juridik och statsvetenskap vår tids viktigaste globala frågor och EU-samarbetets betydelse för att driva dem framåt. Klarar EU att upprätthålla sin ambitionsnivå i arbetet med klimatåtgärder, frihandel, bistånd och mänskliga rättigheter? Hur utvecklas EU:s strategiskt viktiga relationer till Afrika, Kina och Ryssland? Har Cathrine Ashton och EU:s nya utrikestjänst lyckats ge unionen en starkare röst i världspolitiken, trots de allt djupare politiska skiljelinjer som krisen skapat mellan medlemsländerna? Deltagande författare: Lisbeth Aggestam, Arne Bigsten, Sanja Cogojevic, Ole Elgström, Magnus Henrekson, Anna Jonsson Cornell, Ari Kokko, Andreas Moberg, Tino Sanandaji, Anke Schmidt-Felzmann

In a broad survey this issue of Current African Issues presents a multifaceted picture of the current state of the African economy. After a period of falling per capita incomes that started in the 1970s, Africa finally saw a turnaround from about 1995. The last few years have seen average per capita incomes in Africa grow by above 3 per cent per year on average, partly due to the resource boom but also due to improved economic policies. Africa receives more aid per capita than any other major region in the world and there is a significantly positive effect of aid on growth

Årets rapport från SNS Välfärdsråd utreder i vilken utsträckning och i vilken form globaliseringen hotar den svenska välfärdsstaten.Globaliseringen för med sig en mängd utmaningar för den svenska välfärdsmodellen. Kommer vi att klara av att finansiera vår, internationellt sett, stora offentliga sektor? Kan den svenska arbetsmarknadsmodellen överleva fullt ut i en globaliserad värld? Finns det några vinnare och förlorare i globaliseringsprocessen?Ur innehållet: Den svenska välfärdsstatens särdragGlobalisering från svensk horisontGlobaliseringens drivkrafter och konsekvenserAvvägningen mellan effektivitet och jämlikhetGlobalisering, lokalisering och inkomsterGlobalisering och riskGlobalisering och institutionerMigration och välfärdsstatenVilka blir marginaliserade av globaliseringen?Hur kan välfärdsstaten bättre möta globaliseringens utmanare?Bokens författare: Karolina Ekholm (ordförande), Torben Andersen, Arne Bigsten och Jonas Vlachos.

Zambia is highly dependent on copper exports, which makes the country very vulnerable to fluctuations in its price. From independence in 1964 until the mid-1970s Zambia had reasonable growth, largely resulting from on good revenues from copper exports, but it remained a highly dualistic economy. In the 1970s the country was hit by oil-crises and by a copper-bust, which dramatically changed the fortunes of the country. Since the government assumed that the fall in copper prices was a temporary setback, they chose to avoid serious adjustment measures, and instead borrowed money on the international financial markets. It is from this period onward that Zambia's large debt was built up. From 1983 the government initiated some stabilisation and structural adjustment measures, with very limited success. This study first discusses the structural problems Zambia and the policies of adjustment that have been tried. It then uses a computable general equilibrium model to analyse the impact of various strategies with regard to external resource transfers. It compares the impacts of foreign loans or grants to the private and the public sectors, as well as the impact of a turnaround of the country's fortunes with regard to its external terms of trade. The results of the policy analysis show that the scope for growth is highly dependent on the tightness of the external resource constraint. Of course, many of the growth constraints are domestic in nature, but a relaxation of the foreign exchange constraint will also make it easier to address the domestic policy problems. With the debt burden that Zambia carries, debt service tends to dominate the policy-making machinery.

Uganda in the 1970s and early 1980s was one of Africa's more tragic economic stories. Emerging from civil war, it had to embark on reform in the early to mid-1980s from a position of severe political weakness. In the study, the effects of economic policy at the aggregate level are discussed in detail, but 'snapshot' empirical analyses of responses at the household level, both urban and rural, are also presented. Uganda was for many years considered to be Africa's 'worst case'; its recent recovery thus provides hope for similar countries in the region.