Political Economy Commons^™

From Ruins To Rival: How The Japanese Economic Miracle Forged A Global Power, Elizabeth Rips

The Dialogue

The Japanese Economic Miracle (1950-1975) represents one of the most sustained periods of rapid economic growth in modern history. This paper examines the extent to which political policies contributed to Japan’s transformation into a leading global industrial power during the postwar era. While some historians emphasize the decisive role of U.S. occupation reforms and American economic support, this paper argues that Japan’s rise resulted from the interaction of multiple factors. Focusing on political institutions such as the Yoshida Doctrine, the dissolution of zaibatsu’s, and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the paper analyzes how state-led industrial policy fostered …

Can Argentina Overcome The Lithium Natural Resource Curse? A Case Study Into Argentina's Institutional Framework For Lithium Supply Chain Development And Innovation, Colby Greene

Senior Theses

Through the analysis of the natural resource curse, the development of institutional frameworks in societal contexts, the nature of natural resource-based industry value chains, and value creation through institutions and value chains, all in the context of Argentina’s lithium industry, this paper finds that Argentina has failed to implement the necessary institutions and promote proper policy to promote value addition and real economic growth through the conduit of the development of the lithium industry, yet it is not actively a victim of the natural resource curse. In the hierarchical nature of mining value chains, Argentina has permitted their vast lithium …

From Index To Impact: How Vietnam’S Provincial Competitiveness Index Shapes Governance, Investment And Reform, Edmund J. Malesky

Asian Management Insights

Why business leaders should watch Vietnam’s subnational reform experiment closely.

From Reclamation To Restoration: Remaking Nature On Portland's Peninsula, Theus Richards

University Honors Theses

This environmental history of the North Portland Peninsula is a critical case study of a landscape in transition, where new "natures" have been constructed through shifting projects of reclamation and restoration. The Port of Portland, who controlled the Peninsula, transformed the marshy bottomlands near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to accommodate greater networks of industrial infrastructure and expand their capacity for global trade. Beginning in 1967, the Port began dredging operations to fill Ramsey Lake to make way for the construction of Rivergate Industrial District. Through this process, Smith & Bybee Lakes were set aside as a …

Protection Vs. Progression: A Macroeconomic Approach To Military Expenditure Direct Effects On Social Outcomes Using Ihdi Measures, Connor Graham

Global Tides

This study examines whether military expenditure reduces inequality-adjusted human development and how national governance quality moderates these effects. Using panel data covering 121 countries from 2010-2023, two-way fixed effects models are employed to estimate the relationship between military spending and the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI). Three key findings emerge from the analysis based on the resulting data. First, a one percentage point increase in military spending reduces IHDI by 0.0012-0.0015 points. Second, the effects prove seven times larger in developed countries than in developing ones, which runs contrary to expectations and prior literature. Lastly, political stability emerged as a …

The Chainsaw Of Liberty: Reversing The Road To Serfdom Through Empirical Austrian Policy In Argentina (2024–2026), Pedro José Ruíz

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This research analyzes the strategic management of "Social Backlash" risk during the implementation of radical "shock therapy" economic reforms in Argentina. For decades, Argentina served as a cautionary tale of interventionism and hyperinflation; however, the 2023 election of Javier Milei transitioned the nation into a real-world laboratory for Austrian Economic principles. This study examines how the administration navigated the friction of institutional resistance—what F.A. Hayek described as the "security trap"—by prioritizing fiscal responsibility and monetary stabilization.

The analysis leverages 2026 empirical data to demonstrate the efficacy of these reforms. Key findings include a dramatic reduction in annual inflation from 211.4% …

Offside Trap: African Football As A Mirror Of Global Structural Inequality, Ellen Busolo Milimu

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

Football in Africa, as a legacy of European colonialism, is undeniable. The export of football through colonization resulted in the popularization of the sport while also creating a system of economic exploitation and impoverishment that is the cause of considerable problems for African society. This economic system positioned African  countries as dependents of former colonizers even after achieving independence. Sports, specifically football, provide a unique perspective to explore the no-win     situation in which Africa exists within the global economic system. Always chasing the elusive ‘development’ goal that is dictated by others and shifts without the interests of African countries. The …

Converting The Social Security Trust Fund Into A Sovereign Wealth Fund: A Proposal To Secure The Future, Keanu Moore

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis proposes the conversion of the Social Security Trust Fund into a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), paired with the phased creation of a mandatory retirement savings system for all working-age Americans. In response to forecasts projecting Trust Fund depletion by 2034, the proposed portfolio shift would diversify assets beyond U.S. Treasuries into global equities, real estate, alternatives, and fixed income, with the goal of enhancing long-term returns while remaining passively managed. While this reform would extend the Fund’s solvency, it is not, on its own, a permanent fix. To ensure structural sustainability beyond the exhaustion date, the thesis proposes …

From Farm To Fork, And Beyond: The International Politics Of Food Standards, Julia E. Srnec

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

Food safety standards are incredibly politically charged due to how much they can differ between countries and how implementing new standards in a country can impact the economy of those depending on the exports of food products. The political division regarding food safety standards can begin to be understood once the impacts on national and international economics, as well as the consequences of regulations beyond the economy, are considered. Nongovernmental organizations such as the World Health Organization help to mitigate conflict over trade policy disagreements, however some divisions persist.The use of non-tariff barriers on the imports of food-related goods can …

Opportunities, Challenges, And Conspicuous Absences: An Integrative Review Of The Social Work Literature On Artificial Intelligence, Michael J. Massey, Ian G. Williams, Grace C. Polistina, Eathan A. Breaux

Publications and Research

INTRODUCTION: Social work discourse regarding artificial intelligence (AI) in practice, research, and education has proliferated over the last 5 years, reflecting both excitement over its potential and ambivalence about its ethical challenges. However, the extent to which social work is fully engaging with the structure of AI and its enormous impacts on the environment, labour, and distribution of power remains unclear.

METHODS: An integrative review of social work literature from 2020–2024 was conducted to address two research questions: 1) What is the nature of the social work discourse related to AI? 2) To what extent is the discourse …

Art Pricing And Anti-Corruption Campaigns: Evidence From Repeat Sales Of Chinese Paintings, Yihan Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

My dissertation investigates the impact of China’s anti-corruption campaign on the pricing of traditional Chinese paintings, leveraging a unique dataset of repeat sales transactions. Since the 1990s, China’s art market has experienced explosive growth, becoming the world’s largest by 2011. However, this market is characterized by extreme opacity, facilitating elegant bribery (“ya hui” in Chinese), where artworks serve as vehicles for implicit corruption through inflated auctions or disguised gifts to officials. The launch of the "Eight-point Regulation" in December 2012 marked a significant intensification of anti-corruption efforts, raising the critical question of how such political shocks affect asset pricing in …

Notes On The Marxian Notion Of Competition 2, Anwar Shaikh Phd

Archives of Anwar Shaikh

This collection includes:

• Shaikh, A. (n.d.). Notes on the Marxian notion of competition [Unpublished manuscript]. Anwar Shaikh, PhD.

Navigating Radical Indeterminacy In The Struggle For A Global Collective Consciousness: The Question Of Eco-Justice And Law Or Universalize The Pluriverse: A Manifesto, More Or Less, Omar Auf

Theses and Dissertations

The processes of interpretation, communication, and re-interpretation leads to the emergence of an approximated collective consciousness, for which it may be struggled and contested by hegemonic. The dominant forces of this contest, capitalism and nationalism, lead to an interdivided world: one that possesses the tools to empathize with each other but is instead leading people to keep their heads down and focus on surviving their own contexts, perceived as existing within different historical times on the same timeline. This leads to legal and justice systems that fail their claim to universality and/or impartiality. Incorporating an ecological lens to justice within …

Digital Public Service Delivery As An Institutional Outcome: Data Governance And Interoperability In The Egyptian Public Sector, Waad Hegazy

Theses and Dissertations

Moving beyond technology-centered theories of digital transformation, this thesis examines the institutional and governance factors shaping digital public service delivery in Egypt. It analyzes how governance structures, data governance arrangements, and interoperability frameworks influence the extent to which digital transformation initiatives result in integrated, scalable, and citizen-facing public services. Using a qualitative research design, the study draws on an analysis of relevant policy and program documents and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in digital transformation initiatives in Egypt. The findings indicate that persistent challenges in digital public service delivery are driven less by technological constraints than by fragmented governance …

How Operational And Disclosure Complexity Shapes The Conglomerate Discount, Feng Dong, John A. Doukas, Son Wilson, Rongyao Zhang

Finance Faculty Publications

This study examines how firm operational diversification and disclosure complexity jointly drive the conglomerate discount. We disentangle disclosure complexity, which is determined by managerially influenced financial transparency, from accounting complexity, which is a direct informational consequence of operational complexity. We find that operational diversification is consistently associated with significant conglomerate discounts, while disclosure complexity independently reduces firm value and amplifies the magnitude of the discount when diversification is high. These findings suggest that transparent disclosures can mitigate valuation costs, offering important implications for managers seeking effective communication, investors assessing complex firms, and policymakers aiming to enhance disclosure quality and market …

Trade Openness And Economic Growth In Africa: Goods Or Services?, Fe Doukouré Charles

Journal of African Trade

This study examines the impact of trade openness in goods and services on economic growth across Africa, utilizing panel data for all 54 countries from 1980 to 2022. The analysis, conducted at both continental and regional economic community levels, finds that trade openness generally exerts a positive effect on economic performance. However, a significant regional heterogeneity emerges. Notably, a decoupling is observed between goods trade expansion and strong GDP growth in Central and East Africa, a weaker relationship in Northern and Southern Africa, and a similarly decoupled pattern for services trade and GDP growth in most regions, except for a …

But Who Are The Victims? Reassessing The 568 Higher Education Cartel, James V. Koch

Economics Faculty Publications

Thirty prestigious independent American institutions of higher education were at some time members of the 568 higher education group (often labeled a cartel). Seventeen of them were sued by the U.S. Government and representative students who alleged that their meetings and deliberations resulted in collusion that caused students to pay higher prices. Twelve of the seventeen institutions subsequently settled their cases and by 2024 collectively had paid $284 million to do so. However, an inspection of these institutions' pricing reveals that the median 568 Group institution lowered its average real net annual cost to its undergraduate students by 19.07% between …

The Environmental Justice Implications Of Industry Consolidation: Evidence From U.S. Landfills, Hui Zhou, Shan Zhang, Matthew D. Gordon

Economics Faculty Publications

Over the past three decades, the number of U.S. landfills has fallen by 41%, while average capacity has risen by 130%. This paper studies the distributional consequences of this consolidation. We show these changes coincide with waste disposal shifting toward locations with lower population density and higher shares of low-income, Black, and Hispanic residents. Event studies of landfill openings rule out large effects on migration, though new landfills are sited in places with fast-changing demographics. Using a novel measure of regulation built from large-language-model classifications of state statutes, we show evidence that increased state regulations may contribute to increasing disparities.

Representation Of Indigenous Spiritualities In The Ontario Grade 11 World Religions Curriculum: A Discourse And Textual Analysis, Katelin A. Chavez

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Jenna Abdel-Kader, Hannah Desjardine

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.