Money Matters
The Stabilization of Poland’s Exchange Rate since Communism: A 30 Year Retrospective
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Larissa Adamiec
The stabilization of Poland’s exchange rate and the increased wealth per capita is deconstructed with the Lucas barter economy model from the marginal utility generated from underlying basket of goods with Poland’s counterparty. The marginal utility of consumption exchange rate is applied to the Lucas wealth model to dismantle domestic/foreign investment and drivers of exports/imports. The level of GNI per person in Poland has increased from $2,040 (1992) to $12,680 (2016), generating an average growth of 2.17%. As Poland ranks as the world’s 19th largest exporter, Poland stands to achieve mature economy status by 2020 having gained a GNI of $15,000 per person. Poland’s wealth is evaluated by comparing Poland to their top five exporter counterparts (Germany, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, France and Italy); representing 50.3% of the exports and their top five importer counterparts (Germany, China, Italy, Netherlands and Czech Republic); representing 57.4% of their imports as well as against the United States and the Euro region as a whole. Inflation is accounted for within domestic/foreign investments as well as marginal utility of consumption of both Poland’s goods as well as Poland’s counterparties. Tariffs, fiscal policies, monetary policies are incorporated as constraints on the wealth equation. The drivers of wealth are found by using balance of payment data, market exchange rate, aggregate wealth accounting for the population growth and the utility of consumption.
The Public Health Impact of Oil Pollution in Nigeria
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Isidore Udoh
There is a growing recognition of the urgency to clean up oil-related pollution in Nigeria’s Niger Delta in order to avert a looming public health disaster. Oil spills in the Niger Delta occur daily, involve a cumulatively larger volume of oil, and span nearly sixty years of oil production. It is quite plausible, therefore, to conclude that the damage to the environment and the public health impact of oil spills in this environment is quite significant. Immediately after the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) published its landmark report on the environmental assessment of Nigeria’s Niger Delta in 2011, there was global optimism that the Nigerian government might finally clean up the area’s environment. Upon receiving the report, the Nigerian government promptly constituted the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project (HYPREP) agency to oversee the cleanup project. Further action has stalled, however, and the severe pollution-related environmental and public health challenges enumerated in the report persist. The goal of this research was to assess the impact of oil pollution on the health and human development of the residents of the Niger Delta. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted among participants in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Oil pollution has been blamed for a number of persisting public health challenges, including poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, high child and under-five mortality rates, and a dismal life expectancy. The UNEP has urged the Nigerian government to act expeditiously to limit and remedy the health risks associated with oil pollution in the oil producing region.
Socialist Built, Capitalist Bought: Steel Cities of the Former Eastern Bloc
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nicholas Levy
When East European socialism collapsed in 1989-91, among its legacies were an enormous amount of industrial infrastructure. While much that was obsolete followed abruptly in the footsteps of Western Rust Belts and another portion was quickly cannibalized by market forces or mismanagement, select production sites survived the fall of planned economies to rise again as pieces of massive transnational corporate networks. This paper tells the entangled story of two such sites: Huta Katowice in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland, and Kryvorizhstal in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. The former built in the 1970s on the basis of Soviet technology and the promise of ore from enormous deposits surrounding the latter, both were bought up by the Indian-owned conglomerate Mittal Steel in the 2000s (now ArcelorMittal after the company’s further expansion in Western Europe – including plants that supplied crucial imported components for both of these Eastern Bloc mills). Part of a dissertation project that focuses on East European industrial cities experiencing rapid transformation – first under state socialism and again in its aftermath – the proposed paper explores and compares shifts in management and meaning at a local level. How was being a node in an international socialist economic geography of the late twentieth century different from (or similar to) being a cog in the transnational capitalist machinery of the early twenty-first? When told through the lens of Huta Katowice, Kryvorizhstal, and ArcelorMittal, the purported ‘end of history’ sounds more like a key change in a longer opera of industrial development.
A Possible Economic Relationship Between the United Kingdom-European Union after Brexit
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Suleyman Cihan, Murat Colak
On 23 July 2016, British people voted for leaving EU narrowly with 51.9%. The result was a shock for EU and the world. The United Kingdom leaving the EU invokes Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which gives the two sides two years to agree the terms of the withdrawal. Theresa May triggered this process on 29 March, 2017, meaning the UK should leave by 29 March, 2019. It remains unclear how the United Kingdom will establish a model of relationship as a result of the negotiations with the EU after the withdrawal. There are a number of non-EU member countries that have economic cooperation with the EU such as Canada, Turkey, Switzerland and Norway. Among these countries, EU-Canada Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is the most probable economic model between EU and the UK in the light of Brexit negotiations. On the other hand, Turkey has customs union with EU since 31 December 1995 and has the least advantaged trade agreement with EU. Turkey’s kind of agreement is not possible between EU and the UK since third countries that sign a free trade agreement with the EU have automatic access to the Turkish market, without opening their own markets for Turkish goods. In this study, CETA and Turkey’s Customs Union with EU is analyzed. After analyzing these trade agreements, possible trade agreement for the UK is discussed, and in what terms Turkey may boost economic relations with EU after Brexit withdrawal agreement.
