Search

Begin New Search Topic Economics Publication Year within 25 Years

3221. Brazil: Keeping the Lights On

Author:
Susana Moreira
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
In 2001, Brazil endured severe power shortages that resulted in mandatory rationing and ultimately, in a significant reduction of GDP growth. Worse than the personal inconvenience and economic contraction was the embarrassment all Brazilians felt for what had happened. The “country blessed by God” had shown the world, once again, that it was unable to put its vast natural resources to good use. Brazil barely escaped forced electricity rationing; however, there is widespread belief among energy experts that rationing may yet occur within the next four years.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Brazil

3222. Law Markets: A model for Predicting Laws, Governments, and Institutions

Author:
Graham Lawlor
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations
Institution:
School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University
Abstract:
Law Markets is a positive economic model, which treats laws as tradable goods, citizens as consumers of laws, and governments as producers of laws. This model borrows heavily from the fields of Public Choice, which models political actors as economic agents, and from New Institutional Economics, which analyzes social contracts in the presence of transaction costs. The financial fields of Efficient Markets Theory and Behavioral Finance provide tools to measure transaction costs and empirical studies to demonstrate long-term trends.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Law

3223. Kumasi Marketing Strategy: Tourism

Author:
Dario Cacciatore, Andre Le, Nicholas Levi-Gardes, Antonio Lopez Reus, and Kenny Sai-Kin Hsu
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
Kumasi needs to position itself strategically as a cultural destination, communicate its attributes more effectively to tourists already in Ghana and differentiate itself from other cities and attractions Position should entail marketing a larger cultural region than just Kumasi Several positioning statements can transmit Kumasi's new marketing strategy: Kumasi - Heart of the Kingdom of Ashanti. Ashanti - The Hidden Kingdom. Kumasi - Come and See! Kumasi is well placed to capitalize on the growth of tourism in Ghana due to its status as a cultural capital The financial impact of tourism growth is potentially significant for the city and its surrounding districts The creation of the Ashanti Region Marketing Corporation is fundamental to proper coordination among stakeholders.
Topic:
Development, Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
Political Geography:
Africa

3224. Assessing Infrastructure Constraints on Business Activity in Kumasi, Ghana

Author:
Ginger Baker
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
The development of urban infrastructure is intimately connected with the process of economic growth. Businesses depend on reliable water and electricity sources, affordable and plentiful land for expansion and modern transportation networks to reach the markets they serve. Inadequate infrastructure can deter investments and lead to a general climate of economic decline.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Markets, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

3225. Sociology, Economics, and Gender: Can Knowledge of the Past Contribute to a Better Future?

Author:
Julie A. Nelson
Publication Date:
08-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
This essay explores the profoundly gendered nature of the split between the disciplines of economics and sociology which took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emphasizing implications for the relatively new field of economic sociology. Drawing on historical documents and feminist studies of science, it investigates the gendered processes underlying the divergence of the disciplines in definition, method, and degree of engagement with social problems. Economic sociology has the potential to heal this disciplinary split, but only if the field is broadened, deepened, and made wiser and more self-reflective through the use of feminist analysis.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, Political Economy, Political Theory, and Sociology

3226. EU-Turkey Trade: A Case of Deep Integration

Author:
Luigi Narbone and Agnieszka Skuratowicz
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
The 1963 Ankara agreement established the framework for the relations between Turkey and the European Economic Community. A key intermediate objective was setting up a customs union, which was established in 1996. From a long-term trade perspective the customs union has had a positive impact on EU-Turkey bilateral trade, its growth and its composition. The subsequent pre-accession process has further fostered trade integration, facilitated structural reforms and boosted the country's economic potential. The increasingly close political and economic relations have also promoted stability and growth in the Turkish economy. These positive developments have been linked, however, to the prospects of Turkey's EU accession and could be undermined by uncertainty over the eventual outcome of this process.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Europe

3227. Palestinian Islamism: Conflating National Liberation and Socio-political Change

Author:
Khaled Hroub
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
For many decades, mainstream Palestinian Islamists have oscillated between two agendas: Islamising their own society and resisting the Zionist project in Palestine. Prioritising one over the other has always been problematic even if responsive to context and capabilities. Though they emerged in Palestine in the 1940s as the Palestinian chapter of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, it was not until 1987 with the forming of Hamas that these Islamists moved to the forefront of Palestinian politics. Hamas' project espouses "resistance" as a priority, yet without marginalising socio-religious activism, an effective formula that has enabled Hamas to compete with the PLO for Palestinian leadership, culminating in its victory in the 2006 elections.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Palestine and Egypt

3228. Time to Deradicalise? The European Roots of Muslim Radicalisation

Author:
Amel Boubekeur
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The International Spectator
Institution:
Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:
When European Muslim citizens are involved in social conflicts or when they contest the place that is given them in Europe, these political claims are often seen as radical and inspired by external influences. If an attempt is made to understand what part the influences of the so-called Muslim "countries of origin" play in the way Muslims contest European models of society and integration, it turns out that the roots of radicalisation are often purely European. The idea that it is the Islamic and communitarian nature of the European Muslim way of life which is at the base of their failing integration has to be challenged. Indeed, the initiatives of religious actors have failed to channel the radicalisation of European Muslims' political demands. The role of the religious variable is of much less importance in political radicalisation than the lack of an institutional response to the demands for greater social and economic integration.
Topic:
Economics and Islam
Political Geography:
Europe

3229. Deeper Than Kelo: The Roots of the Property Rights Crisis

Author:
Eric Daniels
Publication Date:
09-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Objective Standard
Institution:
The Objective Standard
Abstract:
On June 23, 2005, the United States Supreme Court's acquiescence in a municipal government's use of eminent domain to advance "economic development" goals sent shockwaves across the country. When the Court announced its decision in Kelo v. City of New London, average homeowners realized that their houses could be condemned, seized, and handed over to other private parties. They wanted to know what had gone wrong, why the Constitution and Fifth Amendment had failed to protect their property rights. The crux of the decision, and the source of so much indignation, was the majority opinion of Justice John Paul Stevens, which contended that "economic development" was such a "traditional and long accepted function of government" that it fell under the rubric of "public use." If a municipality or state determined, through a "carefully considered" planning process, that taking land from one owner and giving it to another would lead to increased tax revenue, job growth, and the revitalization of depressed urban areas, the Court would allow it. If the government had to condemn private homes to meet "the diverse and always evolving needs of society," Stevens wrote, so be it. The reaction to the Kelo decision was swift and widespread. Surveys showed that 80 to 90 percent of Americans opposed the decision. Politicians from both parties spoke out against it. Such strange bedfellows as Rush Limbaugh and Ralph Nader were united in their opposition to the Court's ruling. Legislatures in more than forty states proposed and most then passed eminent domain "reforms." In the 2006 elections, nearly one dozen states considered anti-Kelo ballot initiatives, and ten such measures passed. On the one-year anniversary of the decision, President Bush issued an executive order that barred federal agencies from using eminent domain to take property for economic development purposes (even though the primary use of eminent domain is by state and local agencies). The "backlash" against the Court's Kelo decision continues today by way of reform efforts in California and other states. Public outcry notwithstanding, the Kelo decision did not represent a substantial worsening of the state of property rights in America. Rather, the Kelo decision reaffirmed decades of precedent-precedent unfortunately rooted in the origins of the American system. Nor is eminent domain the only threat to property rights in America. Even if the federal and state governments abolished eminent domain tomorrow, property rights would still be insecure, because the cause of the problem is more fundamental than law or politics. In order to identify the fundamental cause of the property rights crisis, we must observe how the American legal and political system has treated property rights over the course of the past two centuries and take note of the ideas offered in support of their rulings and regulations. In so doing, we will see that the assault on property rights in America is the result of a long chain of historical precedent moored in widespread acceptance of a particular moral philosophy.Property, Principle, and Precedent In the Revolutionary era, America's Founding Fathers argued that respect for property rights formed the very foundation of good government. For instance, Arthur Lee, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, wrote that "the right of property is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive a people of this, is in fact to deprive them of their liberty." In a 1792 essay on property published in the National Gazette, James Madison expressed the importance of property to the founding generation. "Government is instituted to protect property of every sort," he explained, "this being the end of government, that alone is a just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own." Despite this prevalent attitude-along with the strong protections for property contained in the United States Constitution's contracts clause, ex post facto clause, and the prohibition of state interference with currency-the founders accepted the idea that the power of eminent domain, the power to forcibly wrest property from private individuals, was a legitimate power of sovereignty resting in all governments. Although the founders held that the "despotic power" of eminent domain should be limited to taking property for "public use," and that the victims of such takings were due "just compensation," their acceptance of its legitimacy was the tip of a wedge. The principle that property rights are inalienable had been violated. If the government can properly take property for "public use," then property rights are not absolute, and the extent to which they can be violated depends on the meaning ascribed to "public use." From the earliest adjudication of eminent domain cases, it became clear that the term "public use" would cause problems. Although the founders intended eminent domain to be used only for public projects such as roads, 19th-century legislatures began using it to transfer property to private parties, such as mill and dam owners or canal and railroad companies, on the grounds that they were open to public use and provided wide public benefits. Add to this the fact that, during the New Deal, the Supreme Court explicitly endorsed the idea that property issues were to be determined not by reference to the principle of individual rights but by legislative majorities, and you have the foundation for all that followed. . . .
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
United States, America, and London

3230. From the Editor

Author:
Craig Biddle
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Objective Standard
Institution:
The Objective Standard
Abstract:
No abstract is available.
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
America