World Institute for Development Economics Research December 1998 No. 2/98 BY INVITATION Amartya Sen, a Founder of UNU/WIDER, Why We Need a World Wins Nobel Prize Financial Authority by John Eatwell and Lance Taylor utcher shops and banks make an interesting contrast, as the late Cuban-American economist Carlos Diaz- AlejandroB pointed out. Both may sell tainted products, and both are subject to public inspection and controls. The difference is that the butcher can only poison his customers, while the bank- ers wares can be based on non-performing assets anywhere in the world. Their own failure can damage the economic health of us all. This is why national financial regulation is necessary to protect the system. The regulator must detect systemic risks arising from a position that an individual firm - say the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund in the United States a he director and staff of UNU/ few months ago - cannot cover. Thanks to good surveillance WIDER are delighted by the and a timely injection of liquidity, LTCMs uncovered debts newsT that Professor Amartya Sen, a did not bring down Wall Street, although the funds erstwhile founder of the Institute, has been principals will have to live with their collapsed personal for- awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize for eco- tunes for quite some time. Effective regulation stemmed con- nomics. Professor Sen was a member of tagion. the original mission that established UNU/WIDER, and has made major con- The IMF and the World Bank were established 50 years tributions to the Institutes research pro- ago to handle balance of payments and development gramme. problems worldwide. They are not the right organiza- tions to deal with todays capital markets. His UNU/WIDER publications include a series of highly influential books on famine and its causes, together with stud- The surveillance, regulatory, and intervention capabilities on ies of Indias development, the quality view in the case of LTCM do not grow on trees. The develop- of life, and social security in developing ment of liberal financial markets in national economies, in- countries. Professor Sen, who is Master cluding the 19th century USA, was accompanied by exactly of Trinity College, University of Cam- the same sort of volatility and contagion currently afflicting bridge, is the fifth Nobel Prize winner the economies of Asia and Latin America. The response was to contribute to the work of UNU/ the establishment of national banking and securities regula- WIDER. The others are: Robert William tors, deposit insurance, and lenders of last resort. The creation Fogel, John C. Harsanyi, Douglass C. of these authorities permitted the growth of healthy financial North, and Robert Solow. markets, which would have been impossible without them. (continued on page 2) The United Nations University (continued from front page) banks in the 1980s to which all 13 National regulators are neces- then BIS members agreed to ob- sary to maintain efficient na- serve, and to keep out of their mar- tional capital markets. A World The current global situation kets foreign banks not adhering to Financial Authority is necessary closely resembles that of indi- the requirements. for the survival of an efficient vidual industrialized economies international regime. in the past. Existing international The result was that more countries agencies are not up to the task of voluntarily signed on to BIS stand- regulating the system. The IMF ards in order to achieve market cred- and World Bank were established ibility. World Financial 50 years ago to handle balance of payments and development Recent events have demonstrated Reform: Key problems worldwide. They are that these first steps toward global Points not the right organizations to deal regulation were not adequate. First, with todays capital markets. For- no link has been forged between ef- tunately, there is an organization fective regulation and bail-outs, a Effective regulation is es- that can do the job. It is the Bank vital precondition for minimization sential to avoid financial for International Settlements of moral hazard or the temptation contagion (BIS) based in Basle, Switzer- that high-risk projects pose for in- land. vestors who think they can count on Transform the Bank for In- public financial support. Second, ternational Settlements into The BIS should be transformed surveillance powers are (as we all a World Financial Authority into a World Financial Authority, have seen) inadequate. Third, capi- (WFA) with major new powers to estab- tal requirements and best-practice lish best practice financial regu- Give the WFA powers to risk management techniques such as establish best practice fi- lation and risk management computer simulation of worst case throughout international finan- nancial regulation across scenarios (an exercise that LTCM the world cial markets. Its mandate should apparently did not undertake) need be expanded by giving it new to be generalized from banks across WFA should enforce regu- powers and responsibilities be- the now seamless financial services latory standards backed by yond its present tasks of simply industry. high profile surveillance setting capital standards for WFA could monitor and banks and co-ordinating interna- If there had been a WFA to enforce mediate the imposition of tional regulation in investment regulatory standards, backed by capital controls and insurance markets. high-profile surveillance, then some of the horrors revealed in the Asian The WFA is needed because three collapse would have been picked up decades of international financial much earlier (many of them were in liberalization have removed al- fact flagged by the BIS, but its warn- most all distinctions between na- ings were ignored). John Eatwell and Lance Taylor are co- tional and international capital authors of The Performance of Lib- markets. If liberal finance is to The WFA could also monitor and eralized Capital Markets (available thrive, the same regulatory tasks mediate the imposition of capital on the website www.newschool.edu/ required in national markets are controls by national governments. At cepa). John Eatwell is President of now needed internationally. That the moment, a rash of new controls Queens College at the University of is why the BIS pioneered inter- is spreading, and the end of the at- Cambridge, Chairman of the Institute of Public Policy Research in London, national financial regulation with tack on functioning markets is not and a member of the House of Lords. the formation of the Committee yet in sight. By negotiating the need Lance Taylor, the Arnhold Professor on Bank Supervision and Regu- for temporary measures, and adju- of International Cooperation and De- lation in 1975. It was that Com- dicating disputes, the WFA could velopment at the New School for So- mittee which formulated the capi- prevent the attack from escalating cial Research in New York, is also the tal adequacy requirements for into a beggar-my-neighbour disaster. Director of its Center for Economic Policy Analysis. 2 BY INVITATION Women Are the First Victims of the Asian Crisis by Noeleen Heyzer and Martin Khor he debate on the Asian crisis continues. There areT two sets of reasons given to ex- plain why the Asian Miracles have so quickly become crisis econo- mies, with rising poverty including hardship for women. One view emphasises domestic causes; weak financial institutions and regulatory mechanisms; invest- ment in very risky projects (espe- cially real estate); weak corporate governance; and a credit boom, which led to very large foreign debts. Another viewpoint argues that the Asian Miracles were not Women Micro-entrepreneurs are severely affected by the crisis fatally flawed. The crisis arose out nied the turmoil in Indonesia ear- by creating jobs and supporting of an uncontrolled global financial lier this year. community initiatives have concen- system, and currency speculation. trated mainly on public works, ig- These factors led to large When societies experience such noring the sectors where most destabilizing flows of capital in the pressure, women face especially in- women work. Women are therefore Asian region. The quality of IMF tense demands to devise ways of doubly victimized: they are hardest policy advice in the initial stages of coping for their families and com- hit in a crisis not of their making and the crisis has also been questioned. munities. Yet women are the first to are by-passed by the economic re- be hit by economic crisis. The la- covery process. Whatever its causes, the Asian cri- bour of women is seen as flexible sis has demonstrated the dangers of to the needs of a competitive global The Chinese character for crisis con- volatile capital flows to the eco- market (in the electronics and tex- sists of two components: an element nomic and social stability of devel- tile export sectors for example) and of danger and an element of oppor- oping countries. Small and me- they are often the first to be fired in tunity. We have experienced the dan- dium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a downturn. Women are the major- gers. How do we seize the opportu- have gone bankrupt due to high in- ity of owners and workers in SMEs, nity to move forward? We cannot terest rates, currency devaluation and are therefore hit by the contrac- wish away globalization. The chal- and the credit squeeze. The social tion of the SME sector. Women have lenge is therefore to understand and consequences include mass unem- the main responsibilities for chil- reshape the globalization process - ployment, return migration to the dren and the care of the sick and eld- trade, investment, finance and tech- rural areas, food riots, cutbacks in erly, and therefore they feel the im- nology - to make it more people- education and health services, mediate effects of cuts in basic serv- centred and sustainable. What kind shortages of basic goods, and ris- ices; this raises their workload and of globalization will support stable ing crime.