Number of results to display per page
Search Results
52. Three Worlds of Working Time: Policy and Politics in Work-time Patterns of Industrialized Countries
- Author:
- Brian Burgoon and Phineas Baxandall
- Publication Date:
- 09-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Given the underdeveloped attention to political and policy origins of aggregate work time patterns in the work-time literature, and the lack of any significant attention to work-time in the broader comparative political economy literature, this paper has pursues a broad mandate: to bring more politics into the study of work-time, and work-time into the study of politics. Using data allowing better comparison among OECD countries, we argue that study of working time needs to consider annual hours per employee and per working-age person, shaped by a range of social as well as direct work-time policies. We also argue that union interest in work-time reduction is more ambiguous than customarily supposed, with union interests likely mediated by a range of other conditions, especially female labor market participation and female union membership. Finally, we argue that attention to party systems and policy clusters should begin with consideration of Social Democratic, Liberal and Christian Democratic worlds of work time. We support these arguments with cross-section time-series study of 18 OECD countries, and brief qualitative studies of work-time in Finland, the United States, and the Netherlands.
- Topic:
- Economics and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Netherlands
53. The Spanish Experiment: A Social Democratic Party-Union Relationship in a Competitive Union Context
- Author:
- Javier Astudillo Ruiz
- Publication Date:
- 05-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- A close relationship with a Social Democratic party has traditionally been regarded as one of the best strategies unions have to defend workers' interests. This conclusion still seems valid today, since the changes in the economic and social structure in the advanced capitalist societies alter the traditional content of their relationship, not the reason for cooperation. However, this belief assumes among a unitary labor movement. The experience of Southern Europe shows, on the contrary, that, when the union movement is divided according to different partisan preferences, union leaders are forced to choose between their relationship with their parties, or cooperating among themselves and being effective in the labor market. In addition, the divorce between the Spanish Socialist party and the Socialist Union reveals that, no matter how strong these organizations are, and despite their history of close ties, inter-union competition and a growing economy make their relationship even more damaging for the union's interests.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Welfare, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
54. Restructuring "Germany Inc." The Politics of Company and Takeover Law Reform in Germany and the European Union
- Author:
- John W. Cioffi
- Publication Date:
- 04-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- The reform of German company law by the Control and Transparency Law ("KonTraG") of 1998 reveals politics of corporate governance liberalization. The reforms strengthened the supervisory board, shareholder rights, and shareholder equality, but left intra-corporate power relations largely intact. Major German financial institutions supported the reform's contribution to the modernization of German finance, but blocked mandatory divestment of equity stakes and cross-shareholding. Conversely, organized labor prevented any erosion of supervisory board codetermination. Paradoxically, by eliminating traditional takeover defenses, the KonTraG's liberalization of company law mobilized German political opposition to the EU's draft Takeover Directive and limited further legal liberalization.
- Topic:
- Government and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
55. Sustaining Media Pluralism in Democratizing Societies
- Author:
- Craig L. LaMay
- Publication Date:
- 03-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- In 1974 a global "third wave" of democratization began when a military coup in Portugal ended the dictatorship of Antonio Salazar, who himself had come to power in a military coup in 1926. Over the course of the succeeding 15 years, about 30 countries changed from various forms of nondemocratic regimes to nominally democratic ones, most dramatically in South America and Central and Eastern Europe. During this period, notable transitions from nondemocratic rule also occurred in Africa and Asia.
- Topic:
- Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, and Portugal
56. Constitutional Causes for Technological Leadership: Why Europe?
- Author:
- Jurgen G. Backhaus
- Publication Date:
- 08-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Independent Institute
- Abstract:
- In a paper circulated towards the end of 1997 under the title Why Europe?, Gordon Tullock poses a simple question and provides a tentative, yet provocative answer. The question is why the technological take off took place in Europe and in the 19th century when well into the 18th century other areas of the world, and notably China, looked much better poised for technological and scholarly leadership than Europe. His tentative answer turns on the constitutional composition of the landscape of political entities in Europe. This essay tries to provide some further underpinnings to aspects of Gordon Tullock's preliminary answer.
- Topic:
- Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- China and Europe
57. Meet Me Halfway but don't Rush—Absorptive capacity and strategic R investment revisited
- Author:
- Leo A. Grünfeld
- Publication Date:
- 12-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- In this paper, we analyse how R investment decisions are affected by R spillovers between firms, taking into consideration that more R investment improves the ability to learn from competing firms - the so-called absorptive capacity effect of R The model in this paper is an extension of d'Aspremont and Jacquemin (1988), where they show that exogenous R spillovers reduce the incentive to invest in R when firms compete in a Cournot duopoly. Our model treats R spillovers as endogenous, being a function of absorptive capacity effects. Contrary to earlier studies, we show that absorptive capacity effects do not necessarily drive up the incentive to invest in R This only happens when the market size is small or the absorptive capacity effect is weak. Otherwise firms will actually chose to cut down on R Furthermore, absorptive capacity effects also increase the critical rate of spillovers that determines whether participating in research joint ventures leads to lower or higher R investment. Finally, we show that strong learning effects of own R are not necessarily goodfor welfare. Moreover, if the market size is large, welfare will be at its highest when the learning effect is small.
- Topic:
- Economics, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Europe
58. Alternative Models of Dynamics in Binary Time-Series-Cross-Section Models: The Example of State Failure
- Author:
- Nathaniel Beck, David Epstein, Simon Jackman, and Sharyn O'Halloran
- Publication Date:
- 08-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University
- Abstract:
- This paper investigates a variety of dynamic probit models for time-series–cross-section data in the context of explaining state failure. It shows that ordinary probit, which ignores dynamics, is misleading. Alternatives that seem to produce sensible results are the transition model and a model which includes a lagged latent dependent variable. It is argued that the use of a lagged latent variable is often superior to the use of a lagged realized dependent variable. It is also shown that the latter is a special case of the transition model. The relationship between the transition model and event history methods is also considered: the transition model estimates an event history model for both values of the dependent variable, yielding estimates that are identical to those produced by the two event history models. Furthermore, one can incorporate the insights gleaned from the event history models into the transition analysis, so that researchers do not have to assume duration independence. The conclusion notes that investigations of the various models have been limited to data sets which contain long sequences of zeros; models may perform differently in data sets with shorter bursts of zeros and ones.
- Topic:
- Economics and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe and France
59. Decentralized Cooperation and the Future of Regulatory Reform
- Author:
- Pepper D. Culpepper
- Publication Date:
- 01-2001
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Faced with the fact of sweeping regulatory reform, how do companies decide how to respond to a new set of policies? This paper argues that this problem requires a new conception of policymaking: a conception that recognizes the analytical primacy of achieving coordination under uncertainty. I call this challenge the problem of securing decentralized cooperation. Negotiated reforms are a common leitmotif of the current wave of reforms taking place in various European countries, whereas American attempts to reinvent government opt to replace the state with the market. There are general lessons in this approach for both strategies. Unlike the earlier attempts to establish neo-corporatist bargains at the national level in European countries, the success of bargained pacts in Europe will depend increasingly on allowing private actors to design the best solutions to centrally identified problems. The challenges of bringing private information to bear on public policy will increase in the future, and not only in supply-side economic policy reforms. One such area is environmental regulation, which is typically viewed as an area of pure state regulation. This is also an area where market-based solutions are frequently proposed as the most efficient solution to problems of pollution. As I demonstrate through the initiative of the Chesapeake Bay Program in the United States, the challenges identified above for areas of economic policymaking are now relevant to environmental initiatives, even in liberal market economies such as the US and the UK. The extent of government success in such initiatives will be determined by the ability of governments to understand the importance of private information and their capacity to develop private sector institutions that can help procure it. Attempts to replace a malfunctioning state with a market solution, currently very much in vogue in certain quarters in the United States, will fail, as long as they do not recognize the distinctive problems inherent in securing decentralized cooperation.
- Topic:
- Economics and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Kingdom, and Europe
60. 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