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5402. Behind the Myth of the Mittelstand Economy. The Institutional Environment Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Germany
- Author:
- Jorg Meyer-Stamer and Frank Waltring
- Publication Date:
- 08-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Development and Peace
- Abstract:
- The existence of highly dynamic and successful small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is one of the characteristic features of the German economy. They have been, and continue to be, a growth and a job machine. Their strong performance has raised interest in other countries, with less dynamic SME, which are keen to strengthen their SME sector. Learning from the German experience appears as a promising exercise.
- Topic:
- Economics and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
5403. Key Factors of Structural Change in North Rhine-Westphalia
- Author:
- Claudio Maggi
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Development and Peace
- Abstract:
- Recent years have seen the re-emergence of industrial policies and policies for the promotion of economic activity in both industrialised and developing countries, flanked by regional and national strategies for enhanced integration into increasingly globalised international markets, improved competitiveness and sustainably dynamic economic growth. The growing popularity of these policies is also a reflection of recent currents in international economic debate, notably the argument that the recipes for stability staunchly championed by neo-liberals, which gave rise to the Washington Consensus in the early eighties, need to be complemented by more committed policies designed to strengthen international competitiveness.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Globalization, Government, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Washington, and Westphalia
5404. 2nd IAI-SWP Review Conference on the Mediterranean
- Author:
- Daniela Pioppi
- Publication Date:
- 06-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- In the opening session the two directors of the IAI-SWP exercise, Roberto Aliboni and Volker Perthes, together with Franco Zallio (Fintesa Studi Paese) gave a first overview of the main issues and problems faced by the Euro-Med Partnership (EMP). Volker Perthes' introduction focused on more political issues. He started by underlining the fact that the EMP is an experiment of 'regional governance' (expression taken from 'global governance'). However, the region comprised by the EMP is not a geographical expression. The EU decided who was to be included (i.e. Libya and the Balkans are excluded, but Jordan or EU non-Mediterranean countries are comprised). Therefore, the problem remains: what is a proper region for the EMP undertaking?
- Topic:
- Security, Economics, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, Balkans, and Jordan
5405. Euro Spectator 2000 - Italy
- Author:
- Silvia Nenci and Marina Mancini
- Publication Date:
- 01-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- According to the “Eurobarometer” survey (Eurobarometer No 54), conducted in November and December 2000 among more than 16,000 citizens of the European Union, 55% (-3% in comparison with spring 2000) of Europeans support the single currency, whilst 37% do not. The Member States in which support is strongest are Italy (79%), Luxembourg (75%), Belgium (72%), Greece (70%), Ireland (69%), Spain (68%) and the Netherlands (64%). The majority of public opinion is against the Euro in Sweden (26%), the United Kingdom (21%), Denmark (41%) and Finland (45%). Looking at Italy, results show that 79% of citizens are in favour of the Euro (-2% in comparison with previous six months), 17% are against it (+ 3%) and the remaining 4% are indifferent.
- Topic:
- Economics and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom, Europe, Finland, Greece, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Ireland, and Luxembourg
5406. Globalization and Its Impact Across Sectors
- Author:
- Gerald A. Hendrickson
- Publication Date:
- 03-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Studies Association
- Abstract:
- Globalization is not a topic that immediately attracts the attention of most public administrators. However, understanding the implications of globalization for labor markets across economic sectors can affect the way public sector managers approach personnel planning. This paper attempts to enhance this understanding in three ways. It will carefully examine some of the issues around globalization, subject the ideas from the dominant perspectives to empirical testing and propose alternative hypotheses. In the end, the mission of this paper is to provide some insight into the kind of labor environment that public sector managers will encounter as their plans come to fruition in the future.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, and International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- United States
5407. Israel's Major Economic Challenge: Closing the Gap in the Field of Business Economics
- Author:
- Manfred Gerstenfeld
- Publication Date:
- 12-2000
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
- Abstract:
- Why is it that Israel's per capita GNP still lags substantially behind that of the leading countries of the world? Why is it likely to take decades for the Israeli economy to catch up? This is while the Israeli papers are full of news about very promising high-tech start-ups, and we even hear occasionally about payments of billions of dollars by major foreign firms to acquire Israeli businesses which were founded a few years ago and have at most several hundred employees.
- Topic:
- Security, Economics, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Israel
5408. New Answers To Old Questions: Explaining The Slow Adoption Of Ring Spinning In Lancashire, 1880-1913
- Author:
- Timothy Leunig
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- This paper re-examines theories previously advanced to explain Lancashire's slow adoption of ring spinning. New cost estimates show that although additional transport costs and technical complementarities between certain types of machine reduced ring adoption rates, these supply side constraints were not dominant. Instead what mattered most were demand side factors. Lancashire produced far more fine yarns than other countries and that yarn was better spun on mules. Furthermore, Lancashire had a sizeable export yarn trade, a market again more suited to mule spinning. Low ring adoption rates were a positive response to demand patterns dominated by high quality goods.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom
5409. The 'Labour Question' in Nineteenth Century Brazil: Railways, Export Agriculture and Labour Scarcity
- Author:
- Lucia Lamounier
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- This paper examines changing patterns of labour relations in nineteenth-century Brazil associated with the building of railways and expansion of export agriculture. It addresses the 1850s-1880s period, decades when the `labour question' became a pressing issue for contemporaries. The extinction of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1850 posed the problem of finding alternative supplies of labour at a time of increasing agro-export production. In 1852 effective action to start the building of railways was taken. As part of efforts to improve conditions in the sugar and coffee sectors, several concessions were approved. From the middle of the century through to the 1870s, the expansion of coffee cultivation and railway construction were closely inter-related phenomena in the southern provinces of Brazil and shaped the debate about labour. The 1870s was a key decade. First, these years witnessed a `railway mania' - a great fever of building new lines and branches in various regions of the country, especially in the new coffee districts. Second, concern about the labour question intensified with the approval in 1871 of the Rio Branco Law which provided for the gradual emancipation of slaves. From then until 1888, when slavery was finally abolished, several policies were implemented trying to solve the problem of labour supply and to set new patterns of labour relations. This involved the arrival of thousands of immigrants in the 1880s, imported with government aid, to support the near-continuous expansion of coffee cultivation.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and South America
5410. Distribution Dynamics: Stratification, Polarization and Convergence Among OECD Economies, 1870-1992
- Author:
- Philip Epstein
- Publication Date:
- 10-2000
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- Since the 1980s the debate about economic convergence has dominated empirical work about the dynamics of growth. Economic historians have been attracted, in particular, by stories of club convergence. However, the analytical foundations of most of the work in this area have rested on linear, or more usually log-linear, regression analysis. Thus, the results tend to be dependent on a conditional average in which time is the dominant player. This is surprising as space, and issues of distribution, have long been important to both theorists and historians. A notable exception to the 'regression school' has been the work on distribution dynamics pioneered in a series of papers by Danny Quah (1993, 1996, 1997). He believes that only by considering the issues of growth and distribution simultaneously can we understand their underlying dynamics. He has argued, for example, that there is no simple causal relationship between the concepts of β-convergence and σ- convergence and that similar stories of global (or club) convergence may be driven by very different stories of individual economy mobility. This is an approach that should appeal to economic historians (both because it can encompass a rich diversity of individual economy experience and because it emphasises that same diversity). We hope to illustrate this by considering the experience of some of the leading OECD economies since 1870 within an explicit distribution dynamics framework.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom