Showing papers by "KIMEP University published in 2004"

Is Kazakhstan a Market Economy Yet? Getting warmer….

Abstract: Transition from planned to a market economy is an evolutionary process. Evolutions do not have finite beginning and ending points. We may look to the beginning of transition in 1991 when the Soviet Union broke up, or we may see it as beginning earlier, when the Soviet Union began to allow its firms to engage in private sales of output that exceeded state plans and to independently take part in international trade agreements. At what point do we say that transition is complete? Hence, it is quite difficult to say when any country begins and completes its transition. The United States and the European Union have categorized Kazakhstan differently with regard to its degree of transition. The United States removed "non market economy" status from Kazakhstan, whereas the EU gave Kazakhstan an intermediate status. The first question that this work asks is how do these political bodies rank a country's market orientation, and how did they arrive at different conclusions? These results are then compared to what transitional economists have to say on the evolution from a planned to a market economy. The second question is, how do theoretical, academic economists differ in their analysis of the transition process? By creating unique criteria sets from several papers, can one say that, according to any set, Kazakhstan is a market economy? We conclude that the reform process in Kazakhstan is still underway. The government and the economy have experienced many radical reforms, but none completely satisfies the necessary conditions for being categorized as a market economy.

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION IN SITUATIONS OF CONFLICT AND POST-CONFLICT: A case study of Angola

Abstract: This paper considers the effectiveness of Angolan government and United Nations (UN) and non-governmental attempts to protect human rights in Angola from early 1998 to date, during and in the immediate aftermath of the recent conflict. Angola has suffered from one of the longest-running conflicts in Africa. The country was originally a battleground for a proxy war between the Cold War superpowers, but the conflict developed its own self-sustaining dynamic in the 1990s, fuelled by revenue from oil and diamonds. The impact of the war on the Angolan people was severe—at its height in early 2002 over four million were internally displaced and around 450 000 lived in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. Increasing violence caused by rebel attacks and government counter-insurgency activities fuelled forced displacement and created one of the largest humanitarian crises of the 1990s. The international community responded with UN Security Council-mandated sanctions against UNITA, extensive humanitarian activi...

GARCH-Type Processes in Modeling Energy Prices

Abstract: High price volatility is a long-standing characteristic of world oil markets and, more recently, of natural gas and electricity markets. However, there is no widely accepted answer to what the best models and measures of price volatility are because of the complexity of distribution of energy prices. Complex distribution patterns and volatility clustering of energy prices have motivated considerable research in energy finance. Such studies propose dealing with the non-normality of energy prices by incorporating models of time-varying conditional volatility or using stochastic models. Several GARCH models have been developed and successfully applied to modeling energy prices. They represent a significant improvement over models of unconditionally normally distributed energy returns. However, such models may be further improved by incorporating the Pareto stable distributed error term. The article compares the performance of normal GARCH models with the statistical properties of unconditional distribution models of energy returns. We then present the results of estimation of energy GARCH based on the stable distributed error term and compare the performance of normal GARCH and stable GARCH.

Brussels I Regulation (EC) 44/2001: Application to Financial Services under Article 5(1)(B)

Abstract: This article investigates a single multi-faceted question: is a "financial service," such as a bank loan, extension of credit or sale of securities, a "service" within the meaning of the Brussels I Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 ("Regulation"), Article 5(1)(b) second indent, on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters? [FN1] The answer to that single question matters for conflicts law and the international banking system. The creation of the internal market is designed to augment cross-border financial services. Since "financial services" cover a broad range of products, it is likely, in the absence of a choice of forum clause, that Article 5(1)(b), if applicable to "financial services," will determine which court has jurisdiction over a dispute arising under financial service contracts. [FN2] Although the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") will resolve existing ambiguities under the Regulation, financial service providers, nevertheless, need to predict their risks now and shape policies that conform to law and reduce transaction costs. Therefore, an explanation of the effects of Article 5(1)(b) on financial service providers and their customers is important. [FN3] Consequently, this article examines how Article 5(1)(b) should be applied in the case of financial services