Market integration

Abstract: In a "nutrition transition", the consumption of foods high in fats and sweeteners is increasing throughout the developing world. The transition, implicated in the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases worldwide, is rooted in the processes of globalization. Globalization affects the nature of agri-food systems, thereby altering the quantity, type, cost and desirability of foods available for consumption. Understanding the links between globalization and the nutrition transition is therefore necessary to help policy makers develop policies, including food policies, for addressing the global burden of chronic disease. While the subject has been much discussed, tracing the specific pathways between globalization and dietary change remains a challenge. To help address this challenge, this paper explores how one of the central mechanisms of globalization, the integration of the global marketplace, is affecting the specific diet patterns. Focusing on middle-income countries, it highlights the importance of three major processes of market integration: (I) production and trade of agricultural goods; (II) foreign direct investment in food processing and retailing; and (III) global food advertising and promotion. The paper reveals how specific policies implemented to advance the globalization agenda account in part for some recent trends in the global diet. Agricultural production and trade policies have enabled more vegetable oil consumption; policies on foreign direct investment have facilitated higher consumption of highly-processed foods, as has global food marketing. These dietary outcomes also reflect the socioeconomic and cultural context in which these policies are operating. An important finding is that the dynamic, competitive forces unleashed as a result of global market integration facilitates not only convergence in consumption habits (as is commonly assumed in the "Coca-Colonization" hypothesis), but adaptation to products targeted at different niche markets. This convergence-divergence duality raises the policy concern that globalization will exacerbate uneven dietary development between rich and poor. As high-income groups in developing countries accrue the benefits of a more dynamic marketplace, lower-income groups may well experience convergence towards poor quality obseogenic diets, as observed in western countries. Global economic polices concerning agriculture, trade, investment and marketing affect what the world eats. They are therefore also global food and health policies. Health policy makers should pay greater attention to these policies in order to address some of the structural causes of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases worldwide, especially among the groups of low socioeconomic status.

Abstract: Contagion is usually defined as correlation between markets in excess of that implied by economic fundamentals; however, there is considerable disagreement regarding the definition of the fundamentals, how they might differ across countries, and the mechanisms that link them to asset returns. Our research starts with a two-factor model with time-varying betas that accommodates various degrees of market integration. We apply this model to stock returns in three different regions: Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In addition to examining contagion during crisis periods, we document time variation in world and regional market integration and measure the proportion of volatility driven by global, regional, and local factors.

Abstract: The authors empirically evaluate the relationship between stock market development and long-term growth. The data suggest that stock market development is positively associated with economic growth. Moreover, instrumental variables procedures indicate a strong connection between the predetermined component in the long run. While cross-country regressions imply a strong link between stock market development and economic growth, the results should be viewed as suggestive partial correlations that stimulate additional research rather than as conclusive findings. Careful case studies might help identify causal relationships and further research could be done on the time-series property of such relationships.

Abstract: The World Development Report (WDR) 2002 is about building market institutions that promote growth and reduce poverty, addressing how institutions support markets, what makes institutions work, and how to build them. This theme is a natural a natural continuation of the WDR 2000/01, which discussed the central role of markets in the lives of poor people, leaving important issues for the WDR 2003, which will focus on the development of human, natural, and environmental capital. This report emphasizes on building institutions to support the development of markets, and its main messages address supplying effective institutions, and creating the demand for them, through: a design that complements institutions, human capabilities, and available technologies; innovations that identify institutional successes, and weaknesses, by experimenting with, and recognizing local conditions, and differences, ranging from social norms, to geography; a connection of communities of market players, by opening information flows, and trade; and, the promotion of competition among jurisdictions, firms, and individuals. The report is an introspective analysis about how do institutions support markets, growth, and poverty reduction, defining institutional work as a channel of information about market conditions, goods, and participants; as a mean to enforce property rights, and contracts; and, as a tool to increase competition in markets. The report offers lessons derived from experience in institutional evolution, and, although it does not address all possible institutional problems, it does focus on sets of institutions from many fields, to show that the framework, and messages can be applied regardless of the sector.