Market, Regulations and Finance

This Contributed Volume s primary contribution to the field of Economics is that it addresses the issue of inter-linkages between money, finance and macroeconomics with a broad analytical perspective that has commonality with the Post-Keynesians. In an attempt to assess the consequences of economic reforms and the fallout of the global financial crisis on India and the world around, the book argues that with the onset of the global financial crisis, as in most advanced economies, debates and discussions in India have been concerned with three main issues: (a) monetary policy and asset prices, (b) financial stability and (c) macro-prudential regulation. Three related issues which are also considered important in the Indian context are (i) rule vs. principle-based supervision (ii) integrated financial supervision and (iii) regulatory and supervisory independence. The book argues that global financial crisis highlighted the inadequacies of macro-prudential regulatory structure which mainly addresses idiosyncratic risks specific to individual financial institutions. The global financial crisis precipitated an extensive debate on the role of national regulatory and supervisory authorities in crisis prevention and crisis management via macro-prudential regulations which involves a general equilibrium approach to regulation aiming at safeguarding the financial system as a whole.§The book then argues that the crisis led to a paradigm shift in macroeconomic theory and policy. This shift has been categorized into four specific areas: (i) monetary policy, (ii) financial regulation, (iii) corporate governance and (iv) globalization. The book analyses how the characteristics of each of these four categories have changed from the pre-crisis to the post-crisis situation. The book also delves into the phenomenon of rising global commodity prices following global financial crisis. Three important factors have been identified to explain this surge in global commodity prices: (i) increased demand for commodities from emerging market economies, (ii) financialization of commodities and the role of speculation, particularly by institutional investors such as hedge funds, pension funds and (iii) lax monetary policy in advanced countries and resulting abundance of liquidity. In the context of global financial crisis, the book also deals with an analysis of its impact on employment in the US economy, by simulating a macroeconomic model developed by the Cambridge Department of Applied Economics in the 1980s.§Then the book addresses the impact of reforms in India particularly on employment, profitability, commodity prices and overall growth trajectory of the economy. It highlights that employment growth has come down since the first half of 2000 in spite of more or less consistent increase in growth rate of GDP. A critical analysis of this phenomenon shows that the problem has been generated because of a shift in the composition of the output towards commodities which are produced by labour saving techniques. Drawing data on select tradable commodities, it has been observed that they vary significantly across regions of India. The book highlights the importance of local factors such as local taxes, existence of entry barriers due to local monopolies, local supply shocks and so on, in price formation in India. It also makes a dissection of the anatomy of fiscal policy pursued since 1991. There was evidence of successful fiscal correction during 1991-92 to 1996-97 in terms of a significant reduction in the fiscal deficit indicators. Since then there has been a significant reversal of trend till 2002-03. A state-wise analysis of revenue receipts and revenue expenditures identifies the states with lowest revenue deficits. The book also focusses on the contribution of the corporate sector on the overall growth process and disentangles the role played by the stand-alone firms vis-a-vis the group-affiliated firms in this process.§The book raises question on