Neoprotectionism in the international economic policy.

Abstract

The thesis is focused on solving an important theoretical and applied problem of substantiating theoretical and methodological grounds for the international economic policy through identifying the patterns and novel forms of protectionism, and substantiating the integral scientific concept of neo-protectionism. The objective of the thesis is to develop theoretical and methodological grounds of protectionism, and to create, on this basis, an integral scientific concept of neo-protectionism in the international economic policy in the context of liberalizing global economic relations, to formulate an integrative conceptual approach to the application of neoprotectionism in the economic development policy of Ukraine.

The interdisciplinary multi-criteria approach to defining protectionism from the perspective of ideology, idea, policy and practice is proposed, which allowed for investigating the transformation of its manifestation forms in the process of evolutionary development of the international economic relations. The international economic policy was studied as an unbroken continuum of the economic and political practice of the states by methodological tools of the international political economy. It is found that from the international political economy perspective a choice between protectionism and free trade as the principles for implementation of the economic policy of the state is conditional on the pattern of global economic processes with their immanent contradictions, the specifics of regionalization and integration processes, and the global economy tendencies. The choice between the government’s commitment to the policy of minimizing costs and maximizing benefits, and the character of its participation in the international economic cooperation is determined by the pattern of international trade and international movement of production factors, on the one hand, and determine it, on the other hand. It is demonstrated that the choice of protectionist policy, as follows from the international political economy discourse, is conditional on: operation of public and non-public economic entities; effects from the implementation of national economic policies; the coordinating equilibrium between national, regional, interstate and global level of decision making; the existing mechanisms for global control of international economic interests.

Interpretation of the international economic policy by the methodological tools of the international political economy allowed to identify the endogenous character of the external economic policy (recognizing thereby the protectionism as a policy that can be potentially demanded by the public (represented by voters), business people (represented by lobbying groups), government (which implements economic interests of the nation), and to reveal the variety of entities involved in the international economic relations, which have exogenous impact on the policy implemented by national governments (by signing trade agreements), limiting thereby the conditions for the protectionist policy implementation.

Theoretical modeling of protectionist intentions in the international economic cooperation on the basis of the interdisciplinary economic-political approach laid grounds for rethinking the conclusions made by the classical and neo-classical theories of trade and the theory of correlation of production factors about the unconditional impact of the free trade principle on the population’s welfare as a derivative from the function of consumption. The analysis of two groups of protectionism theories – the ones based on studies of the structure of protectionism within the countries, and the ones investigating the level of protectionism between countries in time – demonstrated that the voters’ welfare or the so called “win of the majority” are the determinants of protectionist initiatives. The factors underlying the voters’ demand for protectionism are highlighted: welfare measured by economic as well as social and ecological effects; social solidarity; social protection; commitment to social values; commitment to national identity; adherence to ideological principles of the policy of economic nationalism; mitigation of effects from the information asymmetry of rational voters. The pressure by lobbying groups on the choice of the principle underlying government’s implementation of the external trade policy is explained by: phase of business cycle; hysteresis effects in the economy; the level of competitiveness in export-oriented sectors; the extent of import dependence in the economy; distributive and allocation effects of the economic activities.

The author’s concept of neo-protectionism in the international economic policy is substantiated, which is defined as a complex hierarchical set of principles, rules and instruments of protective, stimulating, discriminative and restrictive nature, implemented at mega-, meta-, macro- and mesolevel of the international economic policy. A multilevel typology of neo-protectionism is proposed, based on specific features: the level of international economic policy, generating entities, manifestation environment, instruments for the international economic policy with indirect impact. It was used to identify its essential characteristics in all the forms of manifestation of the international economic relations; to define the functions of neo-protectionism by its type (ideological, institutional, integrative, conjuncture-formative, factor-based, infrastructural, monetary, currency-based, financial, debt-based, fiscal) and sub-types (ecological, migrational, sectoral, based on primary commodities, resource-based, energy-based, technological, innovative, informational, digital, investment-based). This allowed to identify the purpose for applications of neo-protectionism at mega-, meta-, macro- and mesolevel of the international economic policy, and to visualize the degree of its functional and structural complexity and dimensionality as a phenomenon and a process, which realization varies depending on the entities applying it, the objects for which it is applying, its coverage and objectives.

A theoretical and methodological approach for macro- and meta-level assessment of the international economic policy based on neo-protectionist instruments is developed. Its application enabled for outlining and describing the policy of economic nationalism (which motivation basis is formed by domination, expansion, domestic extended reproduction by creating new comparative advantages), and the policy of economic patriotism (which motivation basis is formed by rehabilitation of economic growth, curbing of the expansionary potentials of partner countries, creating new comparative advantages and achieving sustainable development), with distinguishing its sub-types: supranational, local, liberal, and conservative. The distinctive features of neo-mercantilist policy are defined, and the ways of its implementation are revealed. It is shown that the neo-mercantilist policy generates anti-competitive market distortions affecting not only foreign producers, but domestic ones as well, considering the scales of the latter involvement in global value added chains, and causes market imbalances resulting from the unfair competition. Theoretical and methodological grounds for studies of the international economic policy are improved, which is based on the principles of stability, hierarchy, adaptability, complementarity, subsidiarity, and balance, by including legitimation as a novel principle of the international economic policy implementation, which involves a combination of regulatory, de-regulatory and re-regulatory mechanisms of impact on the international economic relations, and results in the implementation of the institutional norms and rules that directly or indirectly ignore/deny/distort the agreements that exist at international/regional level, lead to anti-competitive market distortions, trade and investment imbalances, and open up opportunities for gaining new comparative advantages. Self-legitimation is defined as an attributive characteristic of the entities involved in the international economic policy at mega-, meta- and macrolevel, which enables for implementation of the neoprotectionist policy.

The thesis substantiates multiple combinations in implementation of neoprotectionism through multidirectional manifestations of deregulation-regulation, integration-disintegration, coordination-de-coordination, expansion-fragmentation, balancing-unbalancing, stimulation-restriction, protection-discrimination, and the reasonability of neo-protectionist measures in the economic development policy of Ukraine.

The structural components of the global economy as an environment for neoprotectionist manifestations are revealed: production and investment activities, research and development, international monetary relations. The functions of neoprotectionism within the international economic system are revealed: allocative (sectoral neo-protectionism; infrastructural neo-protectionism; factor-based neoprotectionism; integrative neo-protectionism; financial neo-protectionism; investment-based neo-protectionism); distributive (institutional neo-protectionism; fiscal neoprotectionism; financial neo-protectionism; investment-based neo-protectionism); stabilizing (monetary neo-protectionism; currency-based neo-protectionism; debtbased neo-protectionism; financial neo-protectionism; investment-based neoprotectionism). The instruments for the international economic policy with indirect impact, enabling for the implementation of neo-protectionism, are outlined as follows: fiscal, monetary and currency policies.

Modeling of clustering processes in the Ukrainian economy by use of Boston matrix and Leontiev model enabled to identify four productive clusters: innovation (manufacturing of computers, electronic and optical devices; telecommunications; computer software design, consulting and information services; professional, R&D activities; information and telecommunications; printing and publishing activities; production of movies and video-films); auxiliary (supply of electricity, gas, steam and conditioned air; wholesale and retail trade; repair of automobiles and motorcycles; hotels and restaurants; financial and insurance activities); traditional (agriculture, forestry and fishing; mining and quarrying; manufacturing industries; construction; transport; storage; postal and courier services; production chemical substances and chemical products; car making and mechanical engineering; light industry), and to define the industries driving the economic growth, generating net income and having direct impact on the rates of GDP growth.

A methodological approach to the assessment of the effectiveness of tax preferences and other preferences provided for residents of industrial parks is proposed, which, contrary to the existing approaches, uses applied models of the overall equilibrium for identifying the industries that have to be priority recipients of government assistance through the network of industrial parks, in the context of the intensified and leading development of the country by key macroeconomic indicators, and for quantitative optimization of the preferences considering the stable revenues of the public budget, which enabled to substantiate the nomenclature of efficient stimuli for residents of industrial parks, to achieve the objectives: to make the national industry move up in the value added chains and create a closed-loop innovation cycle in Ukraine.

The system of tax and other preferences for residents of industrial parks, intended to recover and further the innovation-driven development of the production and export capacities of the Ukrainian economy, is assessed, which enabled to adapt international experiences of using the mechanism of free economic zones to the domestic practice, to create a favorable investment environment for high tech productions in the national economy for the period required by them to form competitive advantages.