African Journals Online
African Finance Journal

Volume 2, Part 1 2000
ABSTRACTS

TRADE BLOCS: BARRIERS OR STEPPING STONES FOR GLOBAL TRADE

Jeffrey A. Frankel 
Harvard University 
USA

Should the Clinton Administration put higher priority on multilateral trade liberalization or on regional trade liberalization? Before I attempt to answer that question, I begin with the case for trade liberalization in general, and a statement of Clinton Administration policy. I will then address two big questions regarding the current regionalism. First: how great an influence is these arrangements having on the actual patterns of trade flows? Second: is regionalism good or bad? The second question in turn breaks down to two parts. Within the approach of traditional customs-union theory, which takes as given the level of trade barriers between blocs, is the within-bloc liberalization good or bad? Then: after, taking into account the possible effects of regional liberalization on global liberalization, I will consider the question again. 


MALAYSIA AND THE ASIAN FINANCIAL CRISIS
A VIEW FROM THE FINANCE PERSPECTIVE

Ser-Huang Poon
Lancaster University
United Kingdom

In early 1997, the Malaysian stock market index began a downward spiral together with stock markets of several ASEAN countries. On 14 July 1997, Bank Negara of Malaysia gave up the defence of the Malaysian ringgit after jacking up the short rate to 50% and spending US$10 billions on unsuccessful monetary operations. Two years on, much has happened and the Asian crisis appears to be history. However, in many respects, the Asian crisis has had a much greater and more adverse impact on Malaysia than the world market crash in October 1987.

This paper analyses the Malaysian share of the 1997 Asian crisis. The Malaysian stock market, often classified as an emerging or developing stock market together with other Asian markets, is shown to possess characteristics distinct from the developed stock markets in the US and the UK. A strong contagion effect in the region was present although it is debatable if it was due to investor herding behaviour or the interrelated cross border trade. There is no evidence that many useful techniques, such as diversification across time, stripping dividends and hedging, have been implemented in the Malaysian context.

The Malaysian government has managed the crisis well under the circumstances. In some respects, South Africa has many features similar to those of Malaysia; the close tie with the neighbouring countries, the internal racial conflict, the rich natural resources and the potential for strong growths. There are many useful lessons to be learnt from the experience in Malaysia.


CORPORATE FINANCIAL REPORTING REGULATION IN ZIMBABWE

Stephen Owusu-Ansah 
King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals
Saudi Arabia

This article analytically examines the legal and institutional frameworks for regulating corporate financial accounting and reporting in Zimbabwe. It also describes the processes of setting accounting standards and adopting international accounting and auditing standards and the mechanisms for monitoring published accounts and enforcing compliance with accounting standards in Zimbabwe. The features of the regulatory framework in Zimbabwe are compared with those of the UK. An amendment to the Zimbabwean Companies Act has changed the country's strong tradition of professionalism in the practice of accounting to a more prescriptive, legally enforceable regulatory framework. Zimbabwe generally has an elaborate regulatory framework. But, as reported by Owusu-Ansah (1998, 2000), the enforcement of the reporting requirements is not stringent.


ETHNICITY, NEPOTISM AND EMPLOYMENT IN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES 
IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: A THEORETICAL NOTE 

Richard U. Agesa
Marshall University
USA

The sanctuary of regulation has allowed managers in state owned enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa the latitude to preferentially hire workers on the basis of non-productive attributes-ethnicity and nepotism-rather than their operational skills. This paper models such behaviour; indeed, the model predicts that managers may hire a disproportionately large number of workers on non-productive attributes.