Professor Kunibert Raffer (born 1951) is a development researcher. His main contributions are on international economic relations and the problems of unequal exchange

Unequal exchange

Unequal exchange is a much disputed concept which is used primarily in Marxist economics, but also in ecological economics, to denote forms of exploitation hidden in or underwriting trade...

. From 1979-1980 he was Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Vienna

University of Vienna

The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...

 and from 1983-84 consultant to UNIDO. He was a visiting lecturer (1986–89) at the University of Klagenfurt

University of Klagenfurt

The University of Klagenfurt was founded in 1960 in Klagenfurt, Austria. It began as a College of Educational Studies . Since October 2004 the official German name is Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt in order to stress the intercultural connections between the Alpine regions and the Adriatic Sea...

 and then Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex

University of Sussex

The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....

. He spent 1990-93 as Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Commerce, University of Birmingham

University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

 and in 1998 participated in the UNDP's research project "International Development Cooperation and Global Public Goods". Since 2002 he has been Senior Associate of the New Economics Foundation

New Economics Foundation

The New Economics Foundation is a British think-tank.NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth creation, based on equality, diversity and economic stability"....

 (London), with a winter term (002-03) as visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of International Institutions (CSI), SOWI Faculty, University of Innsbruck.

His articles on Chapter 11 of US Title 11 (Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

) in the context of the problem of sovereignty created a veritable flood of international reactions. In 1987 Raffer proposed to internationalise the basic features of the US Chapter 9, maintaining that its essential points can be applied to sovereign borrowers immediately and without problems. There were numerous academic responses.

International reception

Raffer was given the opportunity to discuss his ideas with Members of the European Parliament on 7 December 2005 as a guest speaker at the Workshop on the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, and on 9 June 1992 at a Roundtable with MPs on international insolvency at Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

. In the US, Raffer's proposal was incorporated into the "Global Development Resolution", initiated by Rep. Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders

Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He previously represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives...

 (for the 106th Congress, 1st Session). Other legislative assemblies, reciting to Raffer's proposals, were the Argentine Parliament in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, the Uruguayan Parliament (Palacio Legislativo),and the Indonesian Parliament in Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

. On 18 March 1999, Raffer was invited to present his ideas at a consultative meeting between the international Jubilee 2000

Jubilee 2000

Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of third world debt by the year 2000. This movement coincided with the Great Jubilee, the celebration of the year 2000 in the Catholic Church...

 campaign, representatives of the G-7 governments and the Bretton Woods

Bretton Woods system

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states in the mid 20th century...

 institutions on developing countries' debt

Developing countries' debt

The debt of developing countries is external debt incurred by governments of developing countries, generally in quantities beyond the governments' political ability to repay...

s in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Major publications

• The economic North-South divide six decades of unequal development. Singer, Hans Wolfgang: Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, US : Edward Elgar, 2001

• The foreign aid business: economic assistance and development co-operation . Singer, H. W: Cheltenham, UK ; Brookfield, Vt., US : E. Elgar, 1996

• Unequal exchange and the evolution of the world system: reconsidering the impact of trade on North-South relations. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1987

• Reinforcing divergence between North and South : unequal exchange and the WTO framework. Journal für Entwicklungspolitik, ISSN 0258-2384, Bd. 21 (2005), 4, S.6-24

• Applying musgrave's branches of government expenditures to ODA : tentative estimates. Journal für Entwicklungspolitik, ISSN 0258-2384, Bd. 20 (2004), 1, S.104-118

External links

• http://homepage.univie.ac.at/kunibert.raffer/