Political Economy Commons^™

Party Polarization, Political Alignment, And Federal Grant Spending At The State Level, William B. Hankins, Gary Hoover, Paul Pecorino

Research, Publications & Creative Work

Research on the distribution of federal expenditures has provided mixed evidence showing that states with more legislators who belong to the president’s party and states with more legislators in the chamber majority tend to receive a larger allocation of federal funds. We add to this research by considering how political polarization and political alignment impact these presidential and congressional determinants of how the domestic US budget is distributed to the states. Our results show that states with a larger percentage of senators in the majority can secure a larger share of federal grant expenditures per capita when political polarization is …

Inside The Black Box: Political Economy Of The Trans-Pacific Partnership's Encryption Clause, Han-Wei Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Among other provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, a new clause on encryption technology (‘Encryption Clause’) is particularly noteworthy. By tracing the history of decades-long encryption control, this article underscores how this clause implicates international order. Modern encryption technology was conceived and developed during World Wars. Painted by such a war-time legacy, encryption has been treated as a ‘dual-use’ technology and has been subject to export control since the end of World War II via the Coordinating Committee for the Control of Multinational Trade (COCOM) and, later, the Wassenaar Arrangement. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Western …

Conflicted Commons: A Local Makerspace In The Neoliberal City, Caitlin Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

The commodification of culture, space, and resources is incentivized by neoliberal urbanism. In response, we have seen an attempt to develop collectively organized, oppositional spaces within urban places. The tensions that arise when considering the production of commons in the development of the neoliberal city are the central focus of this paper. As I will observe, these spaces are subjected to commodification as they become increasingly de-politicized through neoliberal ideologies. In order to theorize about these contradictory elements, I observe a makerspace in Richmond, Virginia called HackRVA. Specifically, I consider HackRVA as an urban commons. Through in-depth interviews and participant …

Moneys' Legal Hierarchy, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter discusses the way in which money is legally constructed and hierarchically structured. In financial markets, participants trade different forms of money, some of which is state-issued and some privately issued. A form of money is closer to the “apex” of the system the closer it is to entities that can issue liquid means or determine acceptable forms of payment, such as central banks and governments. During financial crises, market participants close to the “apex” are systematically advantaged. Various legal devices, e.g. property rights, collateral rights, or trust law, contribute to hierarchically structuring the financial system, by granting preferential …

The Political Economy Of Conflict In Liberia, Sierra Leone, And Côte D'Ivoire: Foreign Economic Intervention And The Spatial Distribution Of Violent Conflict, Sarai-Anne N. Ikenze

Master's Theses

Between 1989 and 2011, the three neighboring West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire each experienced at least one major civil conflict; and the combined devastation of the conflicts claimed over a million lives, generated millions of refugees, and crippled infrastructure in ways that continue to impact the development of the sub-region today. The occurrence of conflict in the three countries and the fact that they share borders has raised questions about whether the conflicts were caused by domestic factors or were the result of transborder processes of conflict diffusion. This paper will assess the causes of …

An Analysis Of Mongolia’S Resource-Led Development: The Impact Of Foreign Direct Investment In The Extraction Industry, Belguun Bat-Erdene

Master's Theses

It has been 26 years since Mongolia transitioned to democracy. I decided to evaluate the progress of Mongolia’s development since the transition to evaluate whether the country of only 3 million people with vast land and natural resources successfully implemented policies to attain growth and societal wellbeing. In order to evaluate Mongolia’s development progress, this thesis uses FDI in Mongolian development since 1990 as a case study to examine the relationship between FDI, state development strategies, and development outcomes. My research questions encompass a series of interrelated inquiries including 1) whether human development can be achieved through extraction industries 2) …

Emigration, Repatriation And The Reality Of Returned Youth In El Salvador, Isabel C. Duarte Vasquez

Master's Theses

According to US Customs and Border Protection, over 59 thousand unaccompanied minors from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) have been detained at the US border, of those 59 thousand, 17 thousand are from El Salvador. El Salvador is home to some of the most dangerous and ruthless gangs of the twenty-first century. Their ruthlessness comes from 1980s guerrilla warfare experience. In addition, El Salvador serves as a transshipment point for illicit substances from South America into Mexico. These dynamics fuel the homicide rate of the region as local gang members must protect their territory by any means …

Slavery, Migration, And Local Development In The Western Us, Colin Q. Sharpe

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the effects of migration from eastern slave states in the 19th century on the subsequent development of counties in the Western US. I find that increased migration from slave states has a large, statistically significant negative effect on 2010 income, and no significant effect on racial inequality or overall income inequality. These findings are robust to a variety of specifications, including controls for geographic factors, state fixed effects, and various county level social and economic conditions. Data on individual migrants suggest that the cause of the negative income effect is the lower average human capital endowment of …

Solar Urban Planning: Addressing Barriers And Conflicts Specific To Renewable Energy Policy And The Current Field And Practice Of Urban Planning Within The Context Of A Changing Climate, Toryl P. Hanna

Capstone Collection

The world is in a period of rapid urbanization while experiencing unprecedented rise in global temperature as a result of climate change. Questions have been raised as to how strategies for urbanization will be able to address the fetish for energy, while halting carbon emissions produced by traditional energy sources for urban inhabitants around the world. First, this paper seeks to look to cities, at the intersection of solar energy and the field of urban planning, looking into the opportunities and challenges that are currently surfacing. Conflicts and barriers in traditional urban land use patterns emerge as a topic of …

A Dollar A Day: Child Sponsorship And The Marketization Of Human Development, Taylor Hallett

Capstone Collection

Child sponsorship as a method of international development offers child sponsors a personal connection to the process of alleviating poverty in the global South. As a form of human development, child sponsorship is constituted by neoliberal principles of marketization and social entrepreneurship. How does child sponsorship, in this context, require us to rethink the ethics of international development in light of ongoing debates about neoliberalism? In this research, I argue that child sponsorship reifies the binary of the “developed” and “undeveloped” worlds. Through undertaking a content analysis of three organizations (Compassion International, World Vision, and UNICEF) and applying post-structural critique …

The Economic Impacts Of Undocumented Immigrants In The United States, Abdulaziz Alangari

Honors Papers and Posters

There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., of which all are not granted a work permit. Thus, in order to survive, these immigrants seek jobs that do not require legal status but have wages significantly lower than minimum. In short, by having these immigrants work in low-wage jobs, the U.S. economy benefits by providing a diverse market to U.S. residents and thus creates a vast economy. My research paper will be talking about how the presence of undocumented immigrants is a significant factor in creating and shaping the diverse U.S. economy.

The Impact Of Culture, Institutions, And The Euro On Trade Flows In Europe, James Aylward

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper sets out to study the role of cultural and institutional differences across European countries in explaining patterns of bilateral trade within Europe by using a gravity model approach on panel data for 24 European countries, covering the years 2002 through 2006. It may be expected that cultural and institutional “distance” between Eurozone countries would have a comparatively smaller impact on bilateral trade flows by virtue of the countries’ shared currency relative to the impact of such determinants on bilateral trade flows between two countries that do not share a currency. Alternatively, such determinants could have a significant impact …

Crafting Chaos: The Classification Of Unilateral Transfers Under The Current Account At Bretton Woods And Its Impact On Remittances To The Indian State Of Kerala, Anish Gawande

Undergraduate Economic Review

This essay aims to analyse the classification of unilateral transfers under the current account at Bretton Woods despite significant opposition from larger delegations of major Allied powers, bringing to the forefront the global liquidity of remittances in the post-War years permitted by their fully currency convertible nature. Using the example of the Indian State of Kerala, this paper charts the relevance of their sustained uninterrupted flow to their subsequent exponential growth in the last three decades, using the case study as a pivot to argue for better policy measures that maximise their multiplier effect.

The Public Interest And Mongolian Digital Television Transition, Undrah Baasanjav

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Since 2010 Mongolian television has been in transition from analogue to digital.

This article introduces the process of digital transition of television, and then

discusses challenges television stations face in terms of the audio-visual market and

policies. The Mongolian media market has structural constraints typical to those

in the small media states. In addition, new challenges like the financial dependency

on the mining sector tax, an unsustainable number of politically affiliated

commercial television stations, and the remnants of socialist institutional routines

in media organizations also shape the television sector in Mongolia. The study

also explores the state of public interest …

Gleaning As A Transformational Business Model For Solidarity With The Poor And Marginalized, Bruce D. Baker

SPU Works

“Gleaning” refers to the mandate within the Mosaic Law that harvesters should leave behind “gleanings” for the sake of the poor who subsist on the literal and figurative margins of society. Although this biblical mandate is generally neglected and considered irrelevant in modern business practice, it holds powerful lessons to help guide modern businesses into transformational solidarity with the poor and marginalized. This paper interprets the biblical significance of gleaning, to discern how the principles of gleaning, though rooted in ancient agrarian culture, might be applicable to modern business which is generally far removed from agriculture. The exegesis and analysis …

Front Matter

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

No abstract provided.

A Strange Revolution: Mock Compliance And The Failure Of The Oecd’S International Tax Transparency Regime, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Special Issue: Examining Relationships In The Portuguese Speaking World, Dan Paracka, Robert Simon

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

No abstract provided.

Macau's Trade With The Portuguese Speaking World, Paul B. Spooner

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Macau has boomed over the last decade as its gaming industry has provided the massive Chinese economy with the only legal casino gambling services in the nation. But, recent Chinese political changes have resulted in a sharp downturn in Macau’s gambling revenues despite a major expansion of its gaming facilities. This may negatively impact efforts to promote a relationship between Macau and the Portuguese Speaking World. Portugal with its former Ultramar, to which Brazil has been added, is now termed “Lusophonia.” Initiated by China in Macau in October 2003, the efforts to promote a Lusophone trade and economic relationship with …

Full Issue

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

No abstract provided.