Missed opportunity: Canada's re-engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean
(with Y. Shamsie)
Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies , 35(69), May 2010, pp. 171-99
Abstract: In 2007, Canada announced it was making Latin America and the Caribbean a foreign policy priority. This article provides an initial assessment of Ottawa's re-engagement with the region, focusing on the tensions associated with its stated position on democracy, human rights, and poverty reduction and its continued adherence to a neoliberal policy set. It argues that support for this economic template, coupled with the fact that Ottawa's relations with the region are governed by, and regularly subverted to, powerful economic and security interests - strategic alignment with U.S. hemispheric priorities would fall in this category - undermine its efforts to address social and democratic development goals in the region. The "pink tide" that is sweeping the region and the efforts by governments of various stripes to find their distinct responses to the social, economic, and ecological crises that envelop the region make Ottawa's free-trade-driven approach seem tired and out of step with sentiments and circumstances in the region.
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Placing democracy and sovereignty at the top of the policy agenda in Canada
Canadian Dimension , 37(5), September-October 2003, pp. 35-36
Abstract: The need to revitalize Canadian democracy and to protect our sovereignty is as urgent a goal as there ever was. The threats to Canadian democracy were intensified in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Canadian government responded to U.S. security and global geopolitical concerns by engaging with the U.S. on a policy agenda that appeared to focus on border security and free cross-border trade, but in reality promoted corporate-driven integration with the U.S. It is urgent for progressive forces to mobilize against the dangers implicit in this agenda, and to construct a vision of, and policies for, an alternative path. All the major proposals advance a customs union to various degrees. In a customs union all restrictions on mutual trade are removed and a common external tariff is adopted, thus eliminating the need for rules of origin. Yet it is doubtful whether this would neutralize the major instruments of U.S. protectionism, like countervailing duties and anti-dumping measures. Moreover, Canada would have to give up much of its policy space, and the danger is that our trade policy would effectively be set in the U.S., resulting in severe impacts on our country.
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NAFTA and the political economy of Mexico's external relations
(with M.A. Cameron)
Latin America Research Review , 31(3), 1996, pp. 161-188
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Learning rational expectations in an asset market
(with L. Booth and W. Hejazi)
Journal of Economics - Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie , 61(3), 1995, pp. 215-243
Abstract: Will traders in a risky asset market learn Muthian expectations when they initially lack the necessary information? If some traders learn from their observations, will market dynamics depend only on "fundamentals," as implied by the Efficient Market Hypothesis? This paper shows that at any finite point in time the answer to these questions is "no". The context is a constant absolute risk aversion model with two kinds of traders and asymmetric information. The market converges asymptotically to a rational expectations equilibrium where prices depend only on fundamentals and the market is efficient.
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