Dissertation Research: Federalism and Economic Adjustment

本博士论文研究支持项目分析了政治联邦制对新兴市场和发展中国家国民经济调整能力的影响。现有文献强调了国家层面的政治动态对调整努力的影响，在很大程度上忽视了市场导向改革与联邦政治体制中固有的政治和财政权力分散之间的复杂关系。相比之下，该研究的理论出发点是政治权力的地域划分对生产和金融市场全球化的经济调整的潜在负面影响。指导这项研究的中心假设是，经济稳定和调整的能力随着国家内部不同级别政府之间政治利益的分歧而下降。他们提出了一些具体的假设，以回答联邦制国家的调整是否不如中央集权国家成功，联邦制系统中的哪些制度激励鼓励成功的调整，以及哪些因素影响联邦国家内部个别州的调整能力。这些问题将在包含统计和实地研究方法的广泛比较框架中加以解决。

This Doctoral Dissertation Research Support project analyzes the impact of political federalism upon the capacity for national economic adjustment in emerging market and developing nations. Existing literature has emphasized the national level political dynamics shaping adjustment efforts, largely ignoring the complicated relationship between market-oriented reform and the decentralization of political and fiscal power inherent in federal political systems. In contrast, the research has as its central point of theoretical departure the potentially negative consequences of the territorial division of political power for economic adjustment to the globalization of production and financial markets. The central hypothesis guiding the research is that the capacity for economic stabilization and adjustment decreases with the divergence of political interests across different levels of government within nations. A number of specific hypotheses are developed to answer whether or not nations with federal arrangements adjust less successfully than centralized nations, what institutional incentives across federal systems encourage successful adjustment, and what factors influence the capacity of individual states to adjust within federal nations. These questions will be addressed in a broad comparative framework that incorporates statistical and field research methods.