Transition Economies Research Forum
TERF was established in 1997 with a grant from UWO's Academic Development Fund. It is a component of the Centre for the Study of International Economic Relations (CSIER). TERF is interdisciplinary and meant to bring together faculty and students across the university who have been or wish to be involved in scholarly activities in this area. The co-directors of TERF are Terry Sicular and John Whalley.
TERF activities fall into two broad categories: (a) workshops, conferences and travel by experts at Western and visits from elsewhere for presentation of new research and to stimulate exchange and interaction, (b) support for new research initiatives, including funding for travel, seed money for grant applications, and acquisitions of research materials.
Institutional Base, Research Materials, Working Papers
TERF is housed in an office/resource room (SSC 4036), which contains the research collection, desks, a telephone, and a computer hook up. Leslie Kostal provides part-time secretarial support, and Jane McAndrew, who runs the Economics Department's Reference Centre, manages the TERF research collection and working paper series.
TERF's collection of serials, books and reports includes journals and monographs, as well as data resources. Monographs include titles such as the World Bank collection of reports on China, China 2020, the UNDP's Human Development Report: The Russian Federation, 1998, G. Jefferson and I. Singh, Enterprise Reform in China (Oxford University Press, 1999). TERF also paid for the purchase by the Social Science Faculty of the network CD-ROM World Development Indicators. This CD-ROM contains time-series data from 1978 through 1998 on economic and social indicators for 210 countries, including many countries undergoing transition. This data base is available to all students and faculty through the Social Science Computer Network.
The working paper series to date includes four papers which have been sent out jointly with the Economic Department's regular working paper series. These papers are "Capital flight and foreign investment: Two tales from China and Russia," by T. Sicular; "Privatization, the market liberalization and learning in transition economies," by R. Goodhue, G. Rausser and L. Simon, and A. J. Bowlus and T. Sicular, "Household Structure and Labour Demand in Agriculture: Testing for Separability in Rural China." In addition, the Political Economy Research Group (PERG) Working Paper Series included a joint TERF/PERG sponsored paper by James Robinson titled "A Theory of Political Transitions."
Workshops/Speakers
TERF sponsors (jointly with the Political Economy Research Group) a speaker series titled "The Fall of Communism: Ten Years Later." Speakers in the series each speak on the transition process in a different country. Speakers have included Professor Gordon H. Skilling (University of Toronto), Professor David Marples (University of Alberta), Professor Barry Naughton (University of California at San Diego), Professor Barry Ickes (Pennsylvania State University), and Professor John Whalley (University of Western Ontario).
Visitors/Travel
TERF has provided support for several visitors, including Professor Guoguang Liu. Professor Liu is an active scholar and influential policymaker in China. In the past he has served as Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and a member of the Finance and Economic Commission.
In addition, TERF has helped support travel to transition countries by faculty and students. For example, it provided travel funding to Vlad Ivanenko, a Ph.D. student in Economics, for a research trip to Russia and to Marta Dyczok, an Assistant Professor in History, for a research trip to the Ukraine.
Collaborative Projects
TERF has provided institutional and travel support for a series of ongoing collaborative research projects. Madan Ghosh and John Whalley are engaged in a joint project on modelling Vietnamese policy reform with the Institute of Information Technology, Vietnam Academy of Sciences, Hanoi. This project receives funds from IDRC to cover research support, travel and other costs. A joint paper on this work was presented at an IDRC conference in Kathmandu in November, 1998.
John Whalley coordinated a joint Gorbachev Foundation research project with the Institute of Economics Moscow. The focus of this work was on capital flight from Russia. Terry Sicular, Ron Wintrobe, Uzi Segal, and Dan Vincent (past and present members of the Dept. of Economics at UWO) were involved in this project, as was Konstantin Loukine, a former Western Ph.D. student. Visits to Russia took place, and a report released at a press conference attended by Mr. Gorbachev attracted major international attention.
A second Gorbachev Foundation application has also received funding. This grant request is for $100,000 for joint support to Western and our partner institution in Russia, the Institute of Economics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, for a study of Russia's taxation and public finance. Participants on the Canadian side include John Whalley, Ron Wintrobe, Jim Davies, Terry Sicular, Joel Fried and John Burbidge (McMaster).
Also from this web page:
