International Economics Commons^™

Import Quota Allocation Between Regions Under Cournot Competetion, Abdessalem Abbassi, Lota Tamini, Ahlem Dakhlaoui

abdessalem abbassi

The paper analyzes the impact of import quotas on the welfare of different regions belonging to a single country. The regions compete with one another using Cournot conjectures and international trade is hindered by import quotas. Our results can help the country to determine the optimal import quotas and the best way to allocate import permits between regions. Wefind three mains results. First, we show how the world price, the difference in production costs between regions and the relative market size determine the allocation of import quotas, the interregional trade and the rent of import permits holders. Second, we show …

La Efectiva Integración Del Mercosur. Estado Actual Del Proceso. Avances Y Desafíos, Francisco Carlos Ruiz Diaz

Francisco Carlos Ruiz Diaz

El Mercosur se encuentra actualmente en un equilibrio que no es su condición de equilibrio de largo plazo. Su agenda comercial con pocos avances. Se han incluido dos nuevos socios, lo cual implica menos concentración (poder en las negociaciones) por parte de los socios mayoritarios (Argentina y Brasil). En los próximos años el Mercosur tendrá como desafíos: fortalecer y completar las instituciones para la libre circulación, retomar los esfuerzos para potenciar los temas comerciales, conectividad física e infraestructura, profundizar el relacionamiento externo (problemas de «agregación de preferencias), consolidar la coordinación macroeconómica y recuperar la credibilidad del sistema de solución de …

Reversing Ethiopia's Intellectual Capital Flight, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Recently, the Ethiopian Government drafted a five year plan (2010 to 2015) to achieve the country’s economic growth. When Ethiopia’s Growth and Transformation plan was analyzed in light of the new growth theory and traced historically in terms of the push and pull factors that contributed to the flight of skilled Ethiopians to more advanced countries, it was found that over the years Ethiopia has funded the education of its nationals only to see them contributing to the growth of developed countries. Being stripped of skilled human capital, leaving it ill prepared to face globalization and survive in the new …

Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla

Sarosh Kuruvilla

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region …

Receiving The Headian Legacy: International Lawyers, South-To-North Resource Transfers, And The Challenge Of International Development, Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Written over fifteen years ago by Ivan Leigh Head, a highly distinguished Canadian international lawyer, foreign policy expert, and international development thinker, the words contained in the above quotation point firmly at this great man's analytic incisiveness and hint at the sheer depth of his fairness of mind. For although the net transfer of resources from the much poorer geopolitical "South" to a far richer "North" remains to this day one of the most important obstacles to international development, rarely have the dominant accounts of international development given this phenomenon the pride of place that it surely deserves.

Notes On The Seminar On African Economic Outlook 2015, Held On The 8th Of October 2015 At The House Of The Estates Of Finland, J. G. A. Saviranta

Akseli Saviranta

The following document presents summarised key notes from the United Nations University – World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) seminar titled “African Economic Outlook 2015 – Unlocking the potential of local economies for inclusive growth”. The seminar presented the 2015 report titled “African Economic Outlook 2015 – Regional Development and Spatial Inclusion”, produced by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Centre, and the United Nations Development Programme. The African Development Bank, UNU-WIDER, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland were the co-organisers of the Seminar.

Sector Inmobiliario Y Debilidad De La Zona Euro, Jaime Luque

Jaime P. Luque

No abstract provided.

Cartelizing Taxes: Understanding The Oecd's Campaign Against Harmful Tax Competition, Andrew P. Morriss, Lotta Moberg

Andrew P. Morriss

Formed in 1961 to promote global economic and social well-being, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has become the collective voice of rich countries on international tax issues. After an initial focus on improving commerce through addressing double taxation issues, the organization shifted to a focus on restricting tax competition and increasing automatic exchanges of tax information. In this paper we analyze the reasons for this shift in policy focus. After describing the history of the OECD's work on taxation, we examine the OECD's project against "harmful tax competition" as it has played out since its launch in …

The Real Sdr And Indirect Redeemability, Warren Coats

Warren Coats

Small Firms And Domestic Bank Dependence In Europe's Great Recession, Mathias Hoffmann, Bent E. Sorensen

Mathias Hoffmann

The paper studies the role of small businesses (SME) in the transmission of the Eurozone crisis to member countries and whether regions or countries with many SMEs were less able to share risk. Our analysis draws attention to domestic bank dependence---defined as the share of domestic private credit originated by domestic banks---as a key variable modulated the impact of shocks on bank-dependent SMEs and thus on the real economy. We argue that Eurozone banking integration in the years after the creation of the single currency was lopsided in the sense that, until 2008, cross-border lending between banks increased markedly while …

Parity And Non-Parity Determinants Of Exchange Rates In Latin American Economies, Catherine S.F. Ho, Mohamed Ariff

Mohamed Ariff

This paper reports how non-parity fundamental factors together with parity factors are correlated with exchange rate movements. Seven Latin American countries were included in this study using a selection criterion that for a pair of countries to be included, the pair must have more than 50 per cent of trade with the group chosen. The econometric methods applied are appropriate to this topic and include pooled time series regression and seemingly unrelated regression. The findings show that there is support for short and long-run effects on exchange rates from inflation and interest rates. We entered non-parity factors suggested in recent …

Globalization And Inequality An International Comparison Between Sweden And The Us, Sergio A. Berumen

Sergio A. Berumen

In this paper we first review the concepts of Globalization and Inequality, paying special attention to the conclusions reached previously by other economists. Later on, we carry on with an international comparison between Sweden and the United States for the period 1913-2012. We depict the evolution in inequality levels for both countries, based in two main indicators: the Gini Index and the top 1% income share. Our findings point out that inequality has strongly risen in the United States whilst Sweden’s level of inequality is not far from the one presented immediately after the World War II. These results may …

Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla

Eli D Friedman

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region …

Getting Through The Hard Times Together? Chinese Workers And Unions Respond To The Economic Crisis, Eli D. Friedman

Eli D Friedman

How do post-socialist unions respond to market crisis? And what are the implications of this response for labor representation? Drawing on literature on post-socialist labor and union democracy, I argue that economic crisis affects not just labor – capital and labor – state relations, but also the relationship between union representatives and workers. Such a dynamic is highlighted by an empirical account of the divergent activities of workers and All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) unions in China following the economic crisis of 2008. While the union responded to mass unemployment with an administrative and policy-oriented strategy, workers took to …

Insurgency And Institutionalization: The Polanyian Countermovement And Chinese Labor Politics, Eli D. Friedman

Eli D Friedman

Why is it that in the nearly 10 years since the Chinese central government began making symbolic and material moves towards class compromise that labor unrest has expanded greatly? In this article I reconfigure Karl Polanyi's theory of the countermovement to account for recent developments in Chinese labor politics. Specifically, I argue that countermovements must be broken down into two constituent but intertwined "moments": the insurgent moment that consists of spontaneous resistance to the market, and the institutional moment, when class compromise is established in the economic and political spheres. In China, the transition from insurgency to institutionalization has thus …

The Sfa Business Review Vol. 3 No. 2, M. Dudley Stewart, Janelle C. Ashley, John D. Whitt, Marlin C. Young, Ralph White

Ralph E. White

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Expanding Universe Of International Treaties On Foreign Investment-- Creation And Use Of A Critical Index, Julien Chaisse

Julien Chaisse

Impact Of Political And Economic Integration On Labour Mobility In The Arabian Peninsula, J. G. A. Saviranta

Akseli Saviranta

The main question that this work tackles is the extent of the impact that political and economic shifts might have had on the labour market structure and regulations.

Measuring Offshore Outsourcing And Offshoring: Problems For Economic Statistics, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Missing Pieces: A New Report To Congress Details Biases And Gaps In Economic Statistics Resulting From Globalization, Susan N. Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Trade, Competitiveness And Employment In The Global Economy, Susan Houseman

Susan N. Houseman

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Global Competitiveness, Human Development, And Corruption On Inward Foreign Direct Investment, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna L. Rhoades, Tom Griffin

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which of Dunning's location-specific advantages of host countries, presented as composite indices for Global Competitiveness, Human Development and Corruption Perception, better predict the level of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). A stepwise multiple regression method was applied on a sample of 129 countries, which was further divided into two subgroups: OECD members and non-OECD members. The study provides evidence that global competitiveness and the level of corruption of the host country are important determinants for inward FDI. For non-OECD countries the Human Development index appears to be an additional FDI determinant. More …

Patent Protection And The Industrial Composition Of Multinational Activity: Evidence From U.S. Multinational Firms, Olena Ivus, Walter Park, Kamal Saggi

Olena Ivus

Using data on U.S. firms' technology licensing to local agents in developing countries, this paper examines the impact of patent protection on internal and arms-length technology transfer. The effects of protection vary across products according to their complexity. Consistent with theories of internalization, we find that patent reforms enable local firms to attract more arms-length technology transfer, especially of simple products which are relatively easy to imitate. Affiliated licensing also rises among simple products, but falls among complex products. The results withstand several robustness checks, including controlling for endogeneity by using colonial origin as an instrument, and are equally strong …

Does Stronger Patent Protection Increase Export Variety? Evidence From U.S. Product-Level Data, Olena Ivus

Olena Ivus

Proponents of global intellectual property rights (IPRs) reforms have argued that developing countries' weak IPRs limit their access to foreign innovative products and technologies. Central to our understanding of the effects of IPRs on product access is the influence of national differences in patent protection on corporate behavior and business strategy of multinational firms. Using detailed product data on U.S. exports from 1990 to 2000, this paper assesses the impact of strengthening IPRs in developing countries on product variety of U.S. exports. Colonial origin and cross-industry variation in patent effectiveness serve to identify the impact. The results show that the …

The Political Economy Of Special Economic Zones, Lotta Moberg

Lotta Moberg

Special economic zones (SEZs) are a wide-spread and increasingly popular tool for economic growth. Big or small, secluded or isolated, they are areas where a government allows for different rules to apply than the rest of the country. Most commonly, this means granting fiscal privileges to investors in the zones. Exemptions from taxes, tariffs, and sometimes regulations mean that SEZs form islands of economic liberalization in a country. A common attitude to zones is therefore that while broader liberalization is preferred, SEZs always benefit a country as long as they bring about this marginal improvement. The skeptical view of SEZs …

The Time Is Right: An Analysis Of Timing In Bilateral Agreements Implementation, Luca Salvatici

Luca Salvatici

No abstract provided.

Exchange Rates As Shock Absorbers: The Role Of Export Margins, Lilia Cavallari

Lilia Cavallari

No abstract provided.

Roads And Resources: Groundwater Depletion In Lankao Country In The North China Plains, Ujjayant N. Chakravorty, Xiangzheng Deng, Yazhen Gong, Martino Pelli, Zhang Qian

Ujjayant Chakravorty

China produces most of its food grains in the North China Plains. However, there is evidence that groundwater aquifers in this region are being overexploited. We use a unique GIS-referenced dataset of the depth of the water table for all the 12,000 odd tube wells in Lankao county. We find that the construction of new highways has led to a depletion of the water table in wells close to the highways. This relationship is robust to a variety of controls, including distance to river and primary canals, village and township fixed effects, the date of drilling of the well and …

Efectos Regionales Del Libre Comercio: El Caso Del Noreste De México, Gaspare M. Genna, Edgardo Ayala Gaytán, Joana Chapa Cantú, María De Lourdes Treviño Villarreal, Marcos Pérez Estrella

Gaspare M Genna

This work documents trade and productivity flows between Northeastern Mexico, US States, and Canadian provinces. It quantifies the effect of NAFTA on exports, investment foreign direct and total productivity of Northeastern Mexico and, through the combination of a general equilibrium model and time series techniques, analyzes the effects of structural change generated by the NAFTA on value added, employment and welfare.

It's All In The Mail: The Economic Geography Of The German Empire, Florian Ploeckl

Florian Ploeckl