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5191. One Path or Several? Understanding the Varied Development of Tripartism in New European Capitalisms

Author:
Sabina Avdagic
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
Are newly established institutions capable of shaping actors' strategies and coordinating behavior on a single path? Contrary to punctuated equilibrium analyses, this paper suggests that the constraining capacity of a range of newly established institutions in new European capitalisms is weak and that their very interpretation is subject to contention. Focusing on peak-level tripartism – a formally similar institution whose functioning has varied across national contexts – this paper proposes an actor-centered framework to elucidate the logic and consequences of actors' ongoing strategic maneuvering for the interpretation, enactment, and development of these young institutions. Combining insights of rational choice and historical institutionalism, the paper develops a heuristic model which, by focusing on strategic choices of government officials and union leaders, links the varied enactment of tripartism to different power balances that become mutually accepted in the course of their repeated interactions. In offering a set of falsifiable propositions, the paper provides a guideline for building analytical narratives to evaluate empirically this model.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

5192. Central Asia Between Competition and Cooperation

Author:
Yu Bin
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
Great power competition in Central Asia ebbs and flows in a timeless and tireless fashion. Unlike in Europe and East Asia during the Cold War and after, the fault line for the current jockeying for position in Central Asia between Washington and Beijing is not easily discernible. Instead, fluidity, uncertainty, and even outright reversal of fortunes among the major players have been the norm.
Topic:
Cold War, Diplomacy, Economics, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe, Washington, Central Asia, and East Asia

5193. Strategic Partnership or Strategic Competition

Author:
Bonnie Glaser and James Nolt
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
As part of our China Focus, we asked two leading scholars to reflect on the tensions and possibilities in U.S.-China relations. Bonnie Glaser is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. James Nolt is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute. We asked them first about the potential for a strategic security partnership between the United States and China, then about their economic relationship.
Topic:
Security, Economics, and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Asia

5194. Oil Trip

Author:
Emira Woods
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Foreign Policy In Focus
Abstract:
It is almost impossible to imagine, as we sit in a well-lit, fully functioning gas station on Main Street, USA, that a community blessed with oil riches under its soil could look as impoverished as Yenagoa in the Nigerian state of Bayelsa.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, Energy Policy, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States

5195. The Missing Links between Foreign Investment and Development: Lessons from Costa Rica and Mexico

Author:
Kevin Gallagher and Eva Paus
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
A developing country will derive long-lasting development benefits from FDI only, if there is the right coincidence between its location-specific assets and TNCs\' global interests, and the right match between the country\'s national linkage capability and TNCs\' strategic interest in domestic sourcing. We argue that Costa Rica and Mexico have been very successful in attracting high-tech FDI due to the cumulative results of past development policies, proximity to the U.S., and trade arrangements. However, a combination of pervasive market failures, government inaction, and changes in TNC strategies explains why the two countries have not been able to reap lasting benefits from high-tech FDI. We conclude that pro-active government policies have to be an integral part of any FDI-linked development strategy. Pro-action is needed to attract FDI, to promote indigenous linkage capability, and to enhance key location-specific assets on an on-going basis in the context of a coordinated policy framework.
Topic:
Economics and Markets
Political Geography:
Central America, North America, and Mexico

5196. Taxing Development: The Law and Economics of Traffic Impact Fees

Author:
Edward P. Stringham, Benjamin Powell, and Jack Estill
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
Should developers be charged fees for negatively impacting residents? New development often uses existing (or requires new) infrastructure including roads, sewers, refuse collection, parks, fire, police, and schools. When developers provide this infrastructure to users for “free,” who should pay? Over the past fifty years governments have increasingly charged new development impact fees for imposing costs on communities. California is one of the leaders in the development of impact fees. The modern Pigovian idea is that government can set a fee at the value of the impact to internalize externalities and encourage the economically efficient amount of development. While developers can often provide the necessary infrastructure within their own developments as part of the construction process, additional impacts from new development may spill over into existing communities that necessitate additional capital improvements. Local government can hypothetically charge the development a fee that is equal to this impact, thereby internalizing this externality. If the exact value of the external impact is known and implemented as a fee, this process can encourage the economically efficient amount of development. Despite the increasing popularity of development impact fees, several issues make the government's “economically efficient” solution easier said than done.
Topic:
Civil Society, Development, Economics, and Education
Political Geography:
California

5197. Somalia After State Collapse: Chaos or Improvement?

Author:
Benjamin Powell, Alex Nowrasteh, and Ryan Ford
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Independent Institute
Abstract:
Many people believe that Somalia's economy has been in chaos since the collapse of its national government in 1991. We take a comparative institutional approach to examine Somalia's performance relative to other African countries both when Somalia had a government and during its extended period of anarchy. We find that although Somalia is poor, its relative economic performance has improved during its period of statelessness. We also describe how Somalia has provided basic law and order and a currency, which have enabled the country to achieve the coordination that has led to improvements in its standard of living.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

5198. China's Economic Growth, 1978-2005: Structural Change and Institutional Attributes

Author:
Dic Lo and LI Guicai
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
China's sustained rapid economic growth over the era of its systemic reform is of general importance for late development under globalization. This paper seeks to construct an explanation of the experience, which centers around the notion of an evolving "regime of accumulation", or development path, that emboddies an uneasy mix of the attributes of allocative and productive efficiency. In this light, the analytical findings of the paper give rise to two main propositions. First, in contrast to the general direction of market reform in the institutional dimension, China's actual path of industrialization and economic growth has rather tended to contradict the principle of comparative advantage - it has been in the direction of capital deepening, especially since the early 1990s. Second, China's reformed economic institutions have encompassed both market-conforming and market-supplanting elements, represented by non-state-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises, respectively, with the former accounting for the improvement in allocative efficiency while the latter accounting for the improvement in productive efficiency. The paper concludes with a discussion on the social implications of the findings and propositions.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
China

5199. Making Sense of China's Economic Transformation

Author:
Dic Lo
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
China's sustained rapid economic growth over the post-1978 reform era, which is also the era of globalisation, is of worldwide importance. This growth experience has been based mainly on China's internal dynamics. In the first half of the era, economic growth was propelled by improvement in both allocative efficiency and productive efficiency. From the early 1990s until the present time, however, economic growth has been increasingly based on dynamic increasing returns associated with a growth path that is characterised by capital deepening. In both periods, the growth paths and their associated long-term-oriented institutions contradict principles of the free market economy - i.e., doctrines of globalisation. In the form of an analytical overview, this article seeks to explain and interpret the historical background, logic of evolution, and developmental and social implications of China's economic transformation. The analytics draws on a range of relevant economic theories including Marxian theory of economic growth, Post-Keynesian theory of demand determination, and Neo-Schumpeterian theory of innovation. It is posited that these alternative theoretical perspectives offer better insights than mainstream neoclassical economics in explaining and interpreting China's economic transformation.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
China

5200. Export-Oriented Policies, Women's Work Burden and Human Development in Mauritius

Author:
Myriam Blin
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper, looking at the case study of Mauritius, attempts to understand the factors affecting the relationship between EOP, women's work burden along different social backgrounds. The analysis is based on between-method triangulation consisting of a quantitative survey in the industrial sector and a qualitative survey in the industrial and services sectors. The main result shows that women and the social reproductive process were not affected in the same way depending on the socio- professional background of the woman.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Mauritius