Research under International Political Economy
(IPE) is coordinated by Dr Deborah Elms.
It comprises three programmes: financial
integration, trade negotiations and economic
development. Staff members have been working
on an integrated research agenda, collaborative
teaching, and increased international networking.
Important research projects for 2006
have included an in-depth examination
of the Bank
of Indonesia from 1945-2003, an examination
of the East Asian automobile industry,
a focus on regional and bilateral
trade agreements,
behavioral foundations of trade negotiations,
and the development of different forms
of capitalism in OECD states.
IPE faculty worked collaboratively with
staff members from the Multilateralism
and Regionalism
Programme on the 2006 Sentosa Roundtable.
The working paper for the December conference
was drawn up by IPE to serve as a springboard
for discussions.
IPE staff members participated in the
IMF/World Bank annual meetings, held
in Singapore
in September 2006. IDSS was also represented
at a conference held in Amsterdam in
September 2006 as part of the European
collaborative
GARNET research programme. The second
leg of a three-part series on “Globalisation
and Economic Success: Policy Options for
Africa,” was held in November 2005
in Cairo, Egypt. The conference was co-hosted
with the Brenthurst Foundation of South Africa,
the Konrad Adenauer Foundation of Germany
and Egypt’s Information and Decision
Support Centre. IDSS was also represented
at the Emerging Dynamic Global Economies
(EDGE) Network Conference in Canada in November
2006.
Topics in the IPE monthly seminar series
have included China’s management of
risk, the perils of regional or bilateral
trade agreements, and an assessment of the
World Trade Organisation’s Doha development
round’s failure.
Upcoming projects in IPE include
the following:
Two separate conference projects
on the 10th anniversary of the
1997 Asian
Financial
Crisis.
The first brings together central
bank and finance ministers from
the time
period for
a retrospective review of events.
The second is an academic project
intended
to consider
policy changes in the decade
since the crisis.
Another two-track conference series
to be held in late 2007 and early
2008 will
bring
together policy makers and academics
to consider the Uruguay Round
negotiations under the
General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT). The primary focus
will be on
the
process
of reaching agreements in agriculture,
services, intellectual property
rights, and dispute
settlement.
Finally, the last installment
of the conference series on “Globalisation and Economic
Success: Policy Options for Africa” funded
by the Brenthurst Foundation will be held
in late 2007 in South Africa. The series
will present findings to policymakers drawn
from across Africa.
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