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- Chair:
-
Temirlan T. Moldogaziev
(Indiana University)
- Discussant:
-
Don Van Atta
(University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
- Format:
- Panel
- Theme:
- Economics
- Location:
- William Pitt Union (WPU): room 527
- Sessions:
- Friday 20 October, -
Time zone: America/New_York
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 20 October, 2023, -Paper abstract:
Central Asia is well-suited to renewable energy development (World Bank 2020). Kazakhstan is rich with natural resources and it is home to extensive land for wind and solar projects (GSA 2020; GWA 2019). Its mines, though currently under unsustainable mining practices, contain metals essential for low-carbon technology (Bogdetsky 2001; Hughes 2012; OECD 2019), and there are more yet to be tapped for their resources. With the right policies, Kazakh big cities and monotowns could improve their own ecology and create economic models built around sustainable development models. Hopeful onlookers see these opportunities as a pathway to other benefits: technology spillovers, human capital growth and institutional build-up to meet Sustainable Development Goals.
This paper investigates how and why, despite its failure to attain sustainable economic growth, prosperity and equity, neoliberalism’s strange non-death (Crouch, 2011) has continued to undermine sustainability and obstruct the emergence of new socio-economic agenda in Kazakhstan. As the recent case with a small monotown, Ekibastuz, has demonstrated, these outcomes are uncertain (Dechezleprêtre, Martin and Mohnen 2017; Garret-Peltier 2017). This winter has witnessed complete collapse of the town’s thermal power plant which left without heating more than 200 houses and provoked talks about evacuation of the entire town population. Beyond this technological disaster, many Kazakh cities face all the marks of underdevelopment: extensive ecological damage, rising regional inequality, exodus of people who cannot find decent jobs, dilapidated infrastructure and city slums. Since the early 1990s when Kazakhstan has undergone through a radical neoliberal restructuring, Kazakh monotowns were turned into the sources of ‘initial capital accumulation’ that have been used for upward and outward wealth and income redistribution. Both transnational and national comprador capital have employed neoliberal socio-economic paradigm to institutionalize current status-quo. The latter, in turn, is legitimized by the mainstream development agenda that includes neoclassical economics concepts such as the importance of foreign direct investments, economic growth and ‘green capitalism’. The paper argues for new approaches in socio-economic development and the need to build alternative paradigms that will promote truly sustainable development for the monotowns and the whole region.
Paper abstract:
In the past decade, and particularly since the onset of the global COVID pandemic, care has emerged as an important economic and policy issue. In Kazakhstan and Central Asia, this is an urgent, and at the same time, unmentionable/underestimated problem, the solution of which could contribute to the economic empowerment of women, improve the quality of life of the entire population and to economic growth. In Kazakhstan, long maternity leaves with social support for mothers and a well-developed wide network of preschool organizations to support the full employment policy were part of the Soviet heritage. The childcare system has undergone significant changes in the post-Soviet period. Similarities remain, including relatively long paid time off for maternity leave and family care, and a lack of institution care for children under 3, but new gaps have emerged in the context of the market economy and the shrinking role of government. The gaps emerge as significant factors as the government of Kazakhstan seeks to increase both fertility and women’s labor force contributions, including under the 2016 Concept of Family and Gender Policy of RK.
The paper explores the care of children under 3 years of age as the least-developed and least-studied, but very important area in the national care system. A pragmatic research paradigm was utilized to survey around 600 respondents rendering unpaid childcare services in the cities of Almaty, Astana, Karaganda and Pavlodar, as well as in rural areas of Almaty, Akmola, Karaganda, and Pavlodar oblasts. These were complemented with an analysis of the existing legislative norms and public childcare support. The study examines how care for the children under 3 is provided, how provision is affected by evolving state policy, household preferences related to this care, and implications for care givers. The study identifies care for children ages 18 months to 3 years as a key gap, which may leave mothers without access to decent work. A regression model examines factors associated with the probability that a woman caring for a child will go to work. The paper concludes with detailed recommendations in the examined preferences and needs, drawing on proposing actions for the government and developing indicators/programs for preschool enrollment and further care development.
Paper abstract:
Financial literacy is seen as a key factor in increasing financial well-being, as measured by capital accumulation and retirement planning. However, in the face of the risks of slowing economic growth, the availability of financial services and individually perceived inflation, the result of an insufficient level of financial literacy is an increase in the debt burden of the population, a decrease in public confidence in the financial system and involvement in illegal financial and investment pyramids.
We found that women, young people and people with a low level of education have lower levels of financial literacy and are most at risk when planning a pension. To better understand the relationship between financial literacy and retirement planning, we conduct an individual survey of a representative sample of 1,000 Kazakhstanis. Our goal is to collect data on financial skills by age of the respondent, as well as understanding of the country's pension reforms. We will evaluate this data to model retirement planning. Our findings will greatly advance our understanding of financial literacy and the implications of retirement planning.
Paper abstract:
Three decades of independence Kyrgyzstan lived within the paradigm of the neoliberalism, privatizing property, liberalizing trade and actively adjusting to the globalization agenda. It signed agreements with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, along with other international institutions, on cooperation and assistance and strictly followed their advice. In 1990-s and early 2000-s Kyrgyzstan was often referred as an island of democracy and a star student of the IMF and World Bank. Actually, all the efforts failed flat. By 1995 the GDP of Kyrgyzstan shrank by half, making up just 50.6% to the level of 1990. The level of poverty soared to 60% (official data, while in reality it was even higher). The social reality caused series of destabilization in Kyrgyzstan, with the coups in 2005, 2010 and 2020. Despite all the hardships, before 2020 Kyrgyzstan never stepped aside of the neoliberal agenda. While after 2020 revolt Kyrgyzstan has started slow motion to a kind of its own “New Deal” with the policies it never did since 1990-s: (re)constructions of roads, factories, and electric networks restarted; construction of housing for policemen, military, teachers and doctors was declared; the government started giving non-collateral interest-free loans (one hundred thousand soms) to the poorest farmers in Kyrgyzstan. The government is trying to intensify foreign investment (for example, after signing border agreement with Uzbekistan, Uzbekistani car assembling, pharmaceutical and other factories are expected) and widen budgetary expenditures.
Within this paper we will discuss the factors that capacitated to the switch to such kind of policies, evaluate if these policies could be sustainable and analyze what outcomes the republic could expect as a result.