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322. Socio-Psychological Motives of Socially Responsible Investors
- Author:
- Julia M. Puaschunder
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The 2008/09 World Financial Crisis underlined the importance of social responsibility for the sustainable functioning of economic markets. Heralding an age of novel heterodox economic thinking, the call for integrating social facets into mainstream economic models has reached unprecedented momentum. Financial Social Responsibility bridges the finance world with society in socially conscientious investments. Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) integrates corporate social responsibility in investment choices. In the aftermath of the 2008/09 World Financial Crisis, SRI is an idea whose time has come. Socially conscientious asset allocation styles add to expected yield and volatility of securities social, environmental and institutional considerations. In screenings, shareholder advocacy, community investing, social venture capital funding and political divestiture, socially conscientious investors hone their interest to align financial profit maximization strategies with social concerns. In a long history of classic finance theory having blacked out moral and ethical considerations of investment decision making, our knowledge of socio-economic motives for SRI is limited. Apart from economic profitability calculus and strategic leadership advantages, this article sheds light on socio-psychological motives underlying SRI. Altruism, need for innovation and entrepreneurial zest alongside utility derived from social status enhancement prospects and transparency may steer investors' social conscientiousness. Self-enhancement and social expression of future-oriented SRI options may supplement profit maximization goals. Theoretically introducing potential SRI motives serves as a first step towards an empirical validation of Financial Social Responsibility to improve the interplay of financial markets and the real economy. The pursuit of crisis-robust and sustainable financial markets through strengthened Financial Social Responsibility targets at creating lasting societal value for this generation and the following.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Sociology, and Financial Crisis
323. Bribe Payers Index 2011
- Author:
- Deborah Hardoon and Finn Heinrich
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Transparency International
- Abstract:
- This report presents the fifth Transparency International Bribe Payers Index. The index ranks 28 of the world\'s largest economies according to the perceived likelihood of companies from these countries to pay bribes abroad. It is based on the views of business executives as captured by Transparency International\'s 2011 Bribe Payers Survey. The countries and territories ranked in the Index cover all regions of the world and represent almost 80 per cent of the total world outflow of goods, services and investments.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Economics, Government, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Law Enforcement
324. Energy Risks in North Africa and the Middle East
- Author:
- Anthony H. Cordesman
- Publication Date:
- 03-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- Any estimate of energy risk is highly uncertain. The reality can vary sharply according to national and global economic conditions, politics, war, natural disasters, discoveries of new reserves, advances in technology, unanticipated new regulations and environmental issues, and a host of other factors.
- Topic:
- Economics, Energy Policy, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Arabia, and North Africa
325. Country Forecast: Global outlook
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Abstract:
- Three years after the global economy reached its lowest point in three-quarters of a century, the recovery remains incomplete and the outlook uncertain. On March 9th 2009, the capitalisation of Morgan Stanley\'s global stockmarket index fell to US$26trn, nearly 60% below its 2007 peak. Today, the value of the world\'s stockmarkets has yet to return to the pre-crisis level—nor has the confidence of most consumers and businesses. The excesses of the last ten years—the personal debt accumulated early in the last decade and the public debt added during the recession—have saddled many countries with weak economic foundations and little or no resilience to shocks. This has left the US economy, in particular, struggling for a third straight year to lock in faster growth. It has left debt-ravaged Europe in recession and China manoeuvring unsteadily to deflate a bubble. On the brighter side, the global economy will grow again this year and the imbalances that built up over the past decade will continue to unwind. But global growth will be slower this year than last, and a host of risks—from elevated oil prices to war in the Middle East, to the collapse of Europe\'s single currency—will weigh on confidence and reduce spending and investment.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, Markets, Global Recession, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, Europe, and Middle East
326. Stirring up the South China Sea
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- The conflicting mandates and lack of coordination among Chinese government agencies, many of which strive to increase their power and budget, have stoked tensions in the South China Sea. Repeated proposals to establish a more centralised mechanism have foundered while the only agency with a coordinating mandate, the foreign ministry, does not have the authority or resources to manage other actors. The Chinese navy\'s use of maritime tensions to justify its modernisation, and nationalist sentiment around territorial claims, further compound the problem. But more immediate conflict risks lie in the growing number of law enforcement and paramilitary vessels playing an increasing role in disputed territories without a clear legal framework. They have been involved in most of the recent incidents, including the prolonged standoff between China and the Philippines in April 2012 in Scarborough Reef. Any future solution to the South China Sea disputes will require a consistent policy from China executed uniformly throughout the different levels of government along with the authority to enforce it.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Markets, and Maritime Commerce
- Political Geography:
- China and Israel
327. The Migration Industry and Future Directions for Migration Policy
- Author:
- Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen and Ninna Nyberg Sørensen
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Migration has become business, big business. Over the last few decades a host of new opportunities have emerged that capitalise on migrants' desire to move as well as on governments' attempts to manage migratory flows. Across the globe we are witnessing a wide assembly of actors whose existence depends on money paid either to facilitate or to constrain migration mobility – specialised transportation companies, visa facilitation agencies, labour recruiters, security contractors, human smugglers and NGOs. The businesses involved in this migration industry range from small migrant entrepreneurs using their own experience to assist others making the journey, to big multinational companies who compete in the booming market of government contracts to carry out migration management. The commercialisation of international migration is evident at every step of the migratory process and takes place in virtually every country of emigration, transit and immigration. As such, the migration industry is not only an important phenomenon in and of itself, it also fundamentally impacts migratory flows and governments' attempts to manage or regulate migration.
- Topic:
- International Trade and Finance, Markets, Migration, and Immigration
- Political Geography:
- Europe
328. Future Marketplace: Free and Fair
- Author:
- Hanns Kuttner
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hudson Institute
- Abstract:
- In any market, buyers seek out the seller who offers the lowest prices and best terms. Government can distort markets by decreasing or increasing prices through subsidies, taxes or regulation. Compared to a free market, distortion means different sellers get the sale and at different prices.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Science and Technology
329. A Rapidly Changing Energy World, Or Perhaps Not
- Author:
- Irwin M. Stelzer
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hudson Institute
- Abstract:
- Slow growth here and in China, and recession in Europe are reducing demand for oil. Inventories in the U.S. are at a 22-year high. The Federal Reserve Board's QEs that pumped paper money into the economy and drove up the nominal price of oil have come to an end. And the twelve OPEC oil cartelists, who between them supply 40% of the world's oil, are producing 1.6 million barrels in excess of the agreed daily quota of 30 million barrels. As a result, U.S. benchmark crude oil prices are now closer to $80 per barrel than to the $110 they reached only four months ago.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Oil
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, and Europe
330. Tableau de bord des pays d’Europe centrale et orientale et d’Eurasie 2012 (Volume 1 : Europe centrale et orientale)
- Author:
- Jean-Pierre Pagé, Jacques Rupnik, Céline Bayou, Edith Lhomel, and Catherine Samary
- Publication Date:
- 12-2012
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
- Abstract:
- L’Europe centrale et orientale ne se porte globalement pas aussi mal qu’on l’écrit parfois et, d’une certaine manière, nettement mieux que l’Europe occidentale et que la zone euro en particulier. Avant la crise déjà, elle se singularisait par une croissance élevée, qui atteignait 4 % par an en 2008 pour les dix nouveaux membres de l’Union européenne (UE), contre 0,5 % pour les quinze pays de la zone euro. Son taux de chômage était inférieur d’environ 6,5 % à celui constaté dans ladite zone. En outre, dûment chapitrée par les institutions financières internationales, elle pouvait faire état d’une discipline exemplaire en matière de finances publiques, avec une dette qui ne dépassait pas 30 % du PIB pour la grande majorité des seize pays étudiés ici (voir les tableaux synthétiques à la fin de ce chapitre) et était très inférieure à ce niveau pour plusieurs d’entre eux. Quant au déficit des finances publiques, calculé à partir de la moyenne des seize pays, il était inférieur à 3 % du PIB. A tout cela s’ajoute la bonne tenue d’ensemble d’un jeune système bancaire qui, pourtant dépendant de maisons mères occidentales ayant subi le choc de la crise, ne s’est pas effondré malgré les sinistres avertissements des Cassandres : les pays baltes ont bénéficié de liens très forts avec les riches systèmes bancaires de l’Europe du Nord, les pays de l’Europe centrale (à l’exception de la Slovénie) ont su constituer au cours de la transition des banques saines, et les établissements de l’Europe du Sud-Est ont été, au moins momentanément, sauvés par l’action conjuguée des institutions financières internationales dans le cadre des deux « Initiatives de Vienne ».
- Topic:
- Markets, Political Economy, Politics, Governance, Finance, and Regional Integration
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, Latvia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Central Europe, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina