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Papers by Jamal Ibrahim Haidar

Improving the environment for business is an important part of the growth strategy of Abenomics. ... more Improving the environment for business is an important part of the growth strategy of Abenomics. As the goal for this effort, the Abe Administration aims to improve Japan’s rank in the World Bank Doing Business Ranking to one of the top three among OECD. This paper clarifies what it takes for Japan to achieve the goal. By looking at details of the World Bank Doing Business ranking, we identify various reforms that Japan could implement to improve the ranking. Then, we classify the reforms into six groups depending on whether the reform requires legal changes and on political resistance that the reform is likely to face. By just doing the reforms that do not require legal changes and are not likely to face strong political opposition, Japan can improve the ranking to 13th. To be in the top 3, Japan would need to implement all the reforms that are not likely to face strong political resistance. The conclusions, however, are based on the assumption that the conditions in the other countries do not change, which is unrealistic. Thus, Japan would need to carry out all the reforms including those
with high political resistance to be among the top three.

Economic Policy, 2017

Do export sanctions cause export deflection? Data on Iranian non-oil exporters between January 20... more Do export sanctions cause export deflection? Data on Iranian non-oil exporters between January 2006 and June 2011 shows that two-thirds of these exports were deflected to non-sanctioning countries after sanctions were imposed in 2008, and that at this time aggregate exports actually increased. Exporting firms reduced prices and increased quantities when exporting to a new destination, however, and suffered welfare losses as a result.

Recent literature tried to explain the Indian growth miracle in different ways, ranging from trad... more Recent literature tried to explain the Indian growth miracle in different ways, ranging from trade liberalization to industrial reforms. Using data on Indian manufacturing firms, this paper analyzes the relationship between firm's productivity and export market participation during 1991–2004. While it provides evidence of the self-selection hypothesis by showing that more productive firms become exporters, the results do not show that entry into export markets enhances productivity. The paper examines the explanation of self selection hypothesis for total factor productivity differences across 33,510 exporting and non-exporting firms. It uses propensity score matching to test the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. In line with the prediction of recent heterogeneous firm models of international trade, the main finding of the paper is: more productive firms become exporters but it is not the case that learning by exporting is a channel fuelling growth in Indian manufacturing.

There is a large literature that finds that common law countries perform better than civil law co... more There is a large literature that finds that common law countries perform better than civil law countries in various aspects of the institutional environment. This article extends these findings to another dimension of institutional quality—the cost of registering property. In a sample of 121 countries, we find that the cost of registering property is lower by 26 percent of the world average in common law compared with civil law countries, a result largely driven by differences in non-notary costs of registering property. We provide plausible explanations for these findings.

Using objective measures of investor protections in 170 countries, I establish that the level of ... more Using objective measures of investor protections in 170 countries, I establish that the level of investor protection matters for cross-country differences in GDP growth: countries with stronger protections tend to grow faster than those with poor investor protections.

While it is early to mourn the euro, it would be unwise to ignore the magnitude and significance ... more While it is early to mourn the euro, it would be unwise to ignore the magnitude and significance of the changes now taking place in the Eurozone. No doubt, the economic and financial problems in the Eurozone are serious and plentiful. The area is in the midst of multiple, frequently overlapping and mutually reinforcing crises. First, a fiscal crisis is centred
in Greece but visible across the southern Eurozone and Ireland. Governments in Greece and Italy have been replaced in the space of a week because they were unable to guarantee the
rapid implementation of economic reforms. Second, a competitiveness crisis is manifest in large and persistent pre-crisis current-account deficits in the Eurozone periphery and even larger intra-Eurozone current-account imbalances. Italy has accepted IMF and EU monitoring of reforms including deep liberalisation measures that had so far seemed out of reach, notably on labour legislation. Third, a banking crisis was first evident in Ireland but is now spreading throughout the Eurozone via accelerating concerns over sovereign solvencies. Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece are undertaking fiscal and structural adjustment measures – in Ireland, these are already paying off in terms of economic performance and credibility. However, one of the fascinating aspects of the European debt crisis has been the resilience of the euro, suggesting
these fears are overblown. The euro is still a reserve currency, oblivious to the chaos ravaging European economies. As the Euro zone debt crisis enters a new uncertain year, the
question about whether the euro can survive rises. This paper argues that the European crisis is political, and even largely presentational. The paper shows that the Euro can survive as the policymakers in the Eurozone still have various tools to use. These tools include creating exit rules, implementing new stabilisation rules and instruments, adopting new fiscal policy, introducing conditional Eurobonds, using inflation differentials and providing more independence to the European Central Bank.

The analytical framework of currency valuation is an intellectual challenge and of influence to e... more The analytical framework of currency valuation is an intellectual challenge and of influence to economic policy, the smooth functioning of Financial markets and the financial management of many international companies. The Economist magazine argues that its Big Mac Index (BMI), based on the
price of a Big Mac hamburger across the world, can provide ‘true value’ of currencies. This paper provides ten reasons for why the BMI cannot provide a ‘true’ value of currency, and it proposes adjustments to specific misalignments.

It is argued that compared with large countries, small countries rely more on trade and therefore... more It is argued that compared with large countries, small countries rely more on trade and therefore are more likely to adopt liberal trading policies. The present paper extends this idea beyond the conventional trade openness measures by analyzing the relationship between country size and the number of documents required to export and import, a measure of trade facilitation. Three important results follow.
First, trade facilitation does improve as country size becomes smaller; that is, small countries perform better than large countries in terms of trade facilitation. Second, the relationship between country size and trade facilitation is nonlinear,much stronger for the relatively small than the large countries. Third, contrary to what existing studies might suggest, the relationship between country size and trade facilitation does not appear to be driven by the fact that small countries trade more as a proportion of their gross domestic product than the large countries.

Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2012

Empirical Economics, 2012

Economic Modelling, 2012

The Eurozone recent crisis has shown how balance of payments problems in less developed European ... more The Eurozone recent crisis has shown how balance of payments problems in less developed European Monetary Union (EMU) member countries can affect EMU trading partners, spreading the crisis to a larger group of countries. This paper introduces a three-country dynamic general equilibrium model to analyze whether and how terms of trade effects can generate a spillover effect or a currency crisis transmission between countries. Specifically, using a two period model, it incorporates world market clearing conditions for tradables into a new theoretic model, analyzes net capital flow movements between countries, and establishes cross-border macroeconomic linkages. This paper shows how a currency crisis can transmit through the real (trade) sector channel of the economy.

Journal of Economic Policy Reform, 2009

The paper shows that the effect of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) is ambiguous. ... more The paper shows that the effect of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) is ambiguous. It discusses the benefits and costs of mark‐to‐market valuation and design of executive pay package policies within the US 2009 EESA. It highlights how the mark‐to‐market valuation standard influenced financial institutions, explains why mark‐to‐market policy suspension proponents can support the EESA, and realizes how the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) can count on the EESA while assessing the need and cost of the mark‐to‐market policy. Also, the paper discusses the promise of executive wage caps within the EESA. Moreover, it differentiates between executive pay packages pre‐ and post‐EESA policies.

Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis, 2008

International Journal of Arab Culture, Management and Sustainable Development, 2008