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971. International — Weak Dollar

Publication Date:
05-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
This week's piece is on the international implications of a weaker US dollar. Seventeen weeks of dollar weakness raise the questions of whether the dollar is on a sustained path of decline, and what the implications are internationally. The 6% nominal effective decline in the dollar since January 31 might be sustained due to US financial and macroeconomic factors. Overall, the effect would be positive for Europe and the United States, and might encourage domestic demand growth in export-oriented Asian economies.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

972. International — Global Economy

Publication Date:
04-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
A textbook approach to economic growth suggests the world is in for a difficult period. However, there are reasons to believe that the global economy will defy convention. The global economy will continue to support US external imbalances for the medium term, barring marked deterioration in certain areas of US weakness. However, European integration and Asian development could provide alternative sources of global demand, relieving the current imbalance of global dependence on the US economy.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

973. European Union — Insecure Recovery

Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
This week's piece examines the outlook for euro-area economic performance. Despite some indications of improvements in the global and euro-area economies, it is too early to assume that these signify a lasting recovery.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe

974. United States/European Union — WTO Sanctions

Publication Date:
02-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
US trade officials said last week that EU estimates of damages arising from US export subsidies were exaggerated. EU trade officials have asked the WTO to approve 4 billion dollars worth of trade sanctions against the United States, after the latter lost an appeal before the WTO on the tax treatment of foreign-source income — judged to be illegal export subsidies. Washington must amend its tax laws or face the prospect of retaliatory trade restrictions.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Washington

975. European Union — ECB Policy

Publication Date:
01-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxford Analytica
Abstract:
This week's piece examines the ECB's monetary and communication policy. The Governing Council of the ECB has appeared fairly unmoved either by widespread criticism of its communication policy or by growing pressure for lower interest rates. The ECB has no choice but to remain committed to its price stability mandate, despite the change in economic climate. However, in doing so, it remains vulnerable to the dilemmas posed by the combination of strong independence and a narrow mandate.
Topic:
Economics and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

976. Substitutability Cross-Stream Between Oriented Markets: Conventions in the Wine Sector of France

Author:
Harrison C. White
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
Abstract:
I explicitly model the social mechanism that constructs markets. Producers array along a market profile along which buyers trade off quality for volume. Outcome features can be predicted from two ratios of parameters, yielding a MAP. Five distinct families of market cultures correspond to its regions. As previous work showed, Supply equaling Demand is transmuted into matchings across local variabilities of valuation with volume and with quality. Such matching is vulnerable to unraveling, but it can be achieved with market oriented either upstream or downstream.
Topic:
Economics and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Europe and France

977. A Private Hero for a Privatized Country

Author:
Leon Aron
Publication Date:
06-2002
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The most interesting phenomenon on Russia's literary scene today is the popularity of the Erast Fandorin mysteries by Grigoriy Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, who writes as Boris Akunin.
Topic:
Democratization, Economics, and Emerging Markets
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Asia

978. Europeanization and the Retreat of the State

Author:
Volker Schneider and Frank M. Häge
Publication Date:
03-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
Is the state on the retreat? We examine this question through an analysis of changing patterns of government involvement in infrastructure provision, which is generally considered to be one of the primary functions of the modern state. Based on an analysis of the extent of privatization of infrastructure companies between 1970 and 2000 across twenty-six OECD countries, we find that there is indeed a general trend towards less public infrastructure provision visible in all of the countries and that the main factors associated with the extent of privatizations are EU membership and government ideology. We argue that the trend of privatizing infrastructure companies was triggered by a change of the prominent economic discourse in the 1970s and that a rightist party ideology and EU membership fostered the adoption and implementation of these ideas in domestic settings.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Europe

979. Spain in the EU: fifteen years may not be enough

Author:
Miguel Sebastian
Publication Date:
11-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
Europe has been the driving force of economic policy in Spain over the last four decades and the key factor behind the modernization and globalisation of the Spanish Economy. The accession to the EEC in 1986 was a crucial step in the process of economic and political integration.
Topic:
Economics and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Europe

980. Temporary work agencies and equilibrium unemployment

Author:
Michael Neugart and Donald Storrie
Publication Date:
10-2002
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Abstract:
A striking feature of OECD labor markets in the 1990s has been the very rapid increase of temporary agency work. We augment the equilibrium unemployment model as developed by Pissarides and Mortensen with temporary work agencies in order to focus on their role as matching intermediaries and to examine the aggregate impact on employment. Our model implies that the improvement in the matching efficiency of agencies led to the emergence and growth of temporary agency work. We also show that temporary agency work does not necessarily crowd out other jobs.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe