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2451. The Economics and Culture of Financialisation

Author:
Jan Toporowski
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper examines some of the social, economic and political consequences of financial inflation for the activities of companies and the operations in debt markets of an increasingly financial middle class. In this paper ‘financialisation’ is broadly defined as the inflation of capital markets. The first section of the paper explains the Kalecki-Steindl theory of enforced company indebtedness in a middle-class society. The second section of the paper shows how financial inflation makes companies over- capitalised, resulting in a decline in the trend of long-term investment. The third section shows how forced company indebtedness is modified when the middle classes start to operate in inflating asset markets. A conclusion sketches out some of the consequences of this financialisation for politics, social policy, and moral and cultural attitudes.
Topic:
Culture, Finance, Social Policy, and Middle Class
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2452. Exploring Universal Rights: A Symposium

Author:
Jamie Mayerfeld, Henry Shue, Jack Donnelly, Kok-Chor Tan, Charles Beitz, and Brooke A. Ackerly
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Human Rights and Human Welfare - Review Essays
Institution:
Josef Korbel Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
Abstract:
The struggle for human rights has been shadowed by philosophical doubt. Can we assert universal human rights without engaging in moral imperialism? Can we have confidence in the moral beliefs that underlie human rights claims? Can we justify human rights to those who do not believe in the intrinsic value of autonomy? Which Rights Should Be Universal?, the first of two projected volumes on human rights, is a significant contribution to this literature. In a series of original and mind-opening arguments, William Talbott, a professor of philosophy at the University of Washington, lifts us over one philosophical impasse after another. Admirers of Which Rights Should Be Universal? will find their thinking about human rights enlarged and enhanced by a wealth of new concepts; critics will be kept busy in answering the book's copious arguments. From any perspective, Professor Talbott's book moves the conversation about human rights onto a new plane.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Gender Issues, Human Rights, Political Economy, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2453. Can Scientific Codes of Conduct Deter Bioweapons?

Author:
Jeanne Guillemin
Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
At least since the First World War, when the German army sabotaged the Allies’ pack animals with anthrax and glanders, worldwide concern about biological weapons has focused on how to improve legal restraints against biological weapons (BW). Over these same years, the major powers have vacillated in their willing- ness to promote international treaties and laws against BW programs. At the end of the Cold War, hopes were high for a global consensus to strengthen the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), making it a standing organization comparable to that of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention and an expanded man- date to ensure compliance. Instead, in the name of national security, the United States has recently promoted an emphasis on voluntary measures. One of these, the international adoption of biosecurity codes of conduct, puts the burden on elite scientists to solve a prob- lem of weapons proliferation that can be better addressed by effec- tive legal restraints.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Science and Technology, Military Strategy, and Biological Weapons
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2454. Security Matters

Author:
Centre for European Security Studies
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Centre for European Security Studies
Abstract:
After fact-finding missions to Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2006, we began running Starlink training courses on democratic governance in the security sector in those countries in February 2007. The first was in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and our partner was Dr Leila Aliyeva. We took the opportunity to officially open the Starlink programme with a high-level meeting, after which we ran the first training event. Senior representatives of various ministries and members of parliament participated in the high-level meeting, as well as the OSCE presence in Azerbaijan. The interest of the media was lively and spawned several newspaper articles and bulletins on national television. The first Starlink course on defence took place on the following days with an enthusiastic, pro-active and diverse group of participants.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2455. Security Matters

Author:
Centre for European Security Studies
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Centre for European Security Studies
Abstract:
This issue of Security Matters is mostly devoted to Turkey. It carries three articles that were presented as papers at a workshop on Turkey and the European Security and Defence Policy, held in Istanbul on 12-13 June 2006 and organised by CESS in cooperation with the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanci University. In late 2006, our programme on Governance and the Military in Turkey came to an end, and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved the funding for a new CESS programme, called ‘Reforms in Turkish Civil-Military Relations: Measuring Progress and Building Capacities’. As before, IPC will be our main Turkish partner. Despite the difficult political climate, the Netherlands government wants to continue to provide constructive support for democratic reforms in Turkey. These are important for Turkey, for Europe, and for the successful integration of Turkey into the European Union.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2456. The Unemployment Impact of Immigration in OECD Countries

Author:
Sébastien Jean and Miguel Jimenez
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
This paper assesses the consequences of immigration for natives' unemployment in OECD countries and investigates the role played by product and labour market policies in the economy's adjustment to immigration inflows. The estimations, combining a skill-level and an aggregate approach using data for males, cover eighteen OECD countries over the period 1984-2003. While no significant long-run impact is found, an increase in the share of immigrants in the labour force is estimated to raise temporarily natives' unemployment, over a period of approximately five to ten years. Anticompetitive product market regulations are found to increase both the magnitude and the persistence of this impact, while more stringent employment protection legislation magnifies its persistence, and a higher average replacement rate of unemployment benefits increases its magnitude.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Immigration, Developing World, and Unemployment
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2457. Migration in OECD countries Labour Market Impact and Integration Issues

Author:
Sébastien Jean, Orsetta Causa, Miguel Jimenez, and Isabelle Wanner
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
immigration for natives' labour market outcomes, as well as issues linked to immigrants' integration in the host country labour market. Changes in the share of immigrants in the labour force may have a distributive impact on natives' wages, and a temporary impact on unemployment. However, labour market integration of immigrants (as well as integration of second-generation immigrants - both in terms of educational attainments and of labour market outcomes) remains the main challenge facing host economies. In both cases, product and labour market policies have a significant role to play in easing the economy's adjustment to immigration.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Immigration, and Employment
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2458. Integration of Immigrants in OECD Countries Do Policies Matter?

Author:
Orsetta Causa and Sébastien Jean
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
This working paper assesses the ease of immigrants' integration in OECD labour markets by estimating how an immigration background influences the probability of being active or employed and the expected hourly earnings, for given individual characteristics. Applying the same methodology to comparable data across twelve OECD countries, immigrants are shown to significantly lag behind natives in terms of employment and/or wages. The differences narrow as years since settlement elapse, especially as regards wages, reflecting progressive assimilation. Strong differences in immigrant-to-native gaps are also observed across countries, and the paper shows that they may, to a significant extent, be explained by differences in labour market policies, in particular unemployment benefits, the tax wedge and the minimum wage. In addition, immigrants are shown to be overrepresented among outsiders in the labour market and, as such, highly sensitive to the difference in employment protection legislation between temporary and permanent contracts.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Immigration, Employment, and Social Services
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2459. Globalisation and Higher Education

Author:
Simon Marginson and Marijk van der Wene
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Economic and cultural globalisation has ushered in a new era in higher education. Higher education was always more internationally open than most sectors because of its immersion in knowledge, which never showed much respect for juridical boundaries. In global knowledge economies, higher education institutions are more important than ever as mediums for a wide range of cross-border relationships and continuous global flows of people, information, knowledge, technologies, products and financial capital. Even as they share in the reinvention of the world around them, higher education institutions, and the policies that produce and support them, are also being reinvented. For the first time in history every research university is part of a single world-wide network and the world leaders in the field have an unprecedented global visibility and power. Research is more internationalised than before and the mobility of doctoral students and faculty has increased. The specifically global element in academic labour markets has gained weight, especially since the advent of global university rankings. This working paper explores the issues for national policy and for individual institutions. Part I provides an overview of globalisation and higher education and the global responses of national systems and individual institutions of higher education. Part II is focused on certain areas of policy with a strong multilateral dimension: Europeanisation, institutional rankings and typologies and cross-border mobility.
Topic:
Education, Globalization, Multilateralism, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2460. Reducing Risks from Global Imbalances

Author:
Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development
Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Conference Board
Abstract:
This report traces the evolution of the current large global trade and financial imbalances, examines their sources, and makes recommendations that, if adopted, will help ensure continued growth in the global economy.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Economy, Global Political Economy, and Risk
Political Geography:
Global Focus