COMPETITIVENESS OF NATIONS IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA: IS THE (IN)EXISTENCE OF A COLLECTIVE STRATEGY RELEVANT?

Economic globalization puts businesses and countries facing new opportunities and challenges and engenders a high degree of uncertainty/risk. Portugal, facing this new global environment, has been experiencing poor economic performance, growing in the last decade at a rate lower than the European Union’s average. How to seize opportunities and overcome challenges, while at the same time ensuring the desired convergence? This challenge is put in terms of the relations between the regulatory and economic policies of States and the competitiveness of nation-States. Using concrete examples, in particular the Portuguese case, we will attempt to answer the question: does the existence (or absence) of a collective strategy, understood as a concerted strategy between the State and companies, their associations and other institutions, produce significant impact on the competitiveness of Nations? To answer this question, the analysis will focus on the following topics: challenges posed by globalization in terms of competitiveness of countries; evolution of the Portuguese economy, between 1975 and 2007, compared to those of Finland, Ireland and South Korea, countries of recognized success in the context of globalization; lessons that can be drawn concerning the presence or absence of a collective strategy and its impact on the competitiveness of these countries.globalization; competitiveness; institutions; total factor productivity; collective strategy; Portugal

Visible success and invisible failure in post-crisis reform in the Republic of Korea : interplay of the global standards, agents, and local specificity

The reform package in post-crisis Korea was one of the most comprehensively designed and decisively implemented. Though impressed by the quick recovery, many are now raising doubts about real changes in the economy, as the result of a cost-benefits analysis: While the business climate is more stable and supportive, the economy is suffering from weak investment and rising unemployment. This study views the Korean story as one of"visible success and invisible failure,"based on the following findings: First, while some new laws were enacted and several quantifiable targets met, little real progress was made in changing institutional conventions, habits, and beliefs, such as enhancing transparency in management or trust in labor relations. Second, the reform process involved tension between global standards and local specificity, which accounts for the mixed results. Third, special interest politics at the implementation stage, plus the complexities caused by increasing democratization and globalization, have undermined the authorities'implementation capacity, which accounts for uneven outcomes of the reform. While globalization necessitates increasing flexibility, Korean managers are now facing much stronger labor unions. The outcome is not a fully flexible but segmented labor market, divided between the core, unionized workers and unorganized peripheral workers, and between the one overprotected and the other underprotected. Fourth, it is important to have an effective system of legislative bargaining to help resolve disputes. Only with this institutional vehicle will special interest groups reach some consensus. Korea tried to overhaul its financial system and achieve substantial financial liberalization in the early 1990s but those attempts were partly aborted and partly distorted, which paved the way for the financial crisis in 1997. This was due to the lack of clear consensus, without which reforms are more likely to be aborted or be unsuccessful. Fifth, implementation problems stem from institutional complementarities and inappropriate sequencing. One logical sequence might be banking reform, corporate governance, labor relations, and then finally business restructuring. Now, an emerging question is whether the reform blueprint was right. Post-crisis Korea just tried to be more market- or Anglo-Saxon model-oriented without paying attention to growth potential. While firms have now lowered their debt ratios, they are not borrowing to fund investments. The issue of right or wrong blueprint underscores the need to define the reform goal correctly. The goals of reform should not just be a move toward a market-oriented economy but toward a growth-oriented one or a pro-growth market-oriented one.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Children and Youth,Economic Theory&Research,National Governance

Comparison of Approaches to Management of Large Marine Areas

In order to learn more about the different approaches to managing large-scale marine areas, their comparative merits, and the synergies and overlaps between them, Conservation International (CI) commissioned this independent analysis of several widely applied models. Since 2004, CI, together with a multitude of partners, has been developing the Seascapes model to manage large, multiple-use marine areas in which government authorities, private organizations, and other stakeholders cooperate to conserve the diversity and abundance of marine life and to promote human well-being. The definition of the Seascapes approach and the identification of the essential elements of a functioning Seascape were built from the ground up, informed by the extensive field experience of numerous marine management practitioners. Although the report was commissioned by CI, the views expressed in this report are those of the authors; they were charged with providing a critical examination of all the assessed approaches, including the Seascapes approach. This analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. This will help us -- and, we hope, other readers -- to identify ways to work together to achieve even greater results through synergistic efforts

Corporate governance, the big business groups and the G-7 reform agenda: A critical analysis

Since the Asian crises which began in Thailand in summer of 1997, issues of corporate governance and corporate organisation in emerging markets have acquired an international dimension. They constitute an important part of the reform agenda of G-7 countries in their plans to institute a new international financial architecture which would forestall future crises. The central G-7 argument is that the proposed reforms of the corporate and financial systems of developing countries are essential to make the global markets function properly. The implicit suggestion is that the recent financial crises in these countries were not the outcome of market failures but rather the failure of developing country governments and institutions which did not provide accurate and adequate information to markets, as well as imposed other distortions on the latter. This thesis is not universally accepted by economists, but nonetheless, such reforms were pressed on the crisis-affected Asian countries as part of IMF conditionality and are now being advocated for other developing countries. This paper concentrates on the reform of corporate systems in emerging markets, an issue which has not received as much public and academic attention as the reform of the financial sector in these countries. The reform of the non-financial corporate sector necessarily involves issues of corporate governance and organisation including the role of the big business groups. The latter, as we shall see, are ubiquitous in emerging countries.corporate governance; G-7; emerging markets; asian crisis

The Politics of Exhaustion: Immigration Control in the British-French Border Zone

Within a climate of growing anti-immigration and populist forces gaining traction across Europe, and in response to the increased number of prospective asylum seekers arriving in Europe, recent years have seen the continued hardening of borders and a disconcerting evolution of new forms of immigration control measures utilised by states. Based on extensive field research carried out amongst displaced people in Europe in 2016-2019, this article highlights the way in which individuals in northern France are finding themselves trapped in a violent border zone, unable to move forward whilst having no obvious alternative way out of their predicament. The article seeks to illustrate the violent dynamics inherent in the immigration control measures in this border zone, characterised by both direct physical violence as well as banalised and structural forms of violence, including state neglect through the denial of services and care. The author suggests that the raft of violent measures and micro practices authorities resort to in the French-British border zone could be understood as constituting one of the latest tools for European border control and obstruction of the access to asylum procedures; a Politics of Exhaustion

A Set of Limited Asian Pacific Corporate Governance Standards After Financial Crisis, Corporate Scandals and Manipulation

Up to now there are some researches done in the field of giving a framework of implementation of corporate governance standards after corporate scandals, negative market manipulation during the post-crisis periods. This paper mainly concentrates on empirical research for findings in this field. First, it comes up with four (4) groups of findings on corporate governance subjects in the post-crisis and post-scandal time. It found out that companies in these periods have certain corporate governance issues such as how to better organize an information disclosure system. Second, it compared and identified differences in current and latest corporate governance standard system in four (4) countries in Asian Pacific region: Japan, Australia, Philippines and Korea. Third, this paper provide with a short summary of evaluation of current corporate governance principles in these four countries which can enable corporations to seek and to compare to their current codes. Last but not least, it aims to realize a limited general set of standards of Asian Pacific corporate governance and give proper recommendations to relevant governments and organizations.Corporate governance structure, CEO, Chair, principles, Board of Directors, Compliance, Internal audit

Corporate governance, competition, the new international financial architecture and large corporations in emerging markets

This paper examines from the developing countries perspective important analytical and policy issues arising from: a) the current international discussions about corporate governance in relation to the New International Financial Architecture; b) changes in the international competitive environment being caused by the enormous international merger movement in advanced countries. The paper's main conclusions include: the thesis that the deeper causes of the Asian crisis were the flawed systems of corporate governance and a poor competitive environment in the affected countries is not supported by the evidence; emerging markets, as well as European countries, have successful records of fast long-term growth with different governance systems, indeed superior to those of Anglo-Saxon countries; corporate financing patterns in emerging markets in the 1990s continue to be anomalous, as they were in the 1980s; and the claim that developing country conglomerates are inefficient and financially precarious is not supported by evidence or analysis.Corporate governance, competition, emerging markets.

Corporate Governance, Competetion, The new International Financial Architecture and Large Corporations in Emerging Markets

This paper examines from the developing countries perspective important analytical and policy issues arising from: a) the current international discussions about corporate governance in relation to the New International Financial Architecture; b) changes in the international competitive environment being caused by the enormous international merger movement in advanced countries. The background to a) above is the emergence of corporate governance as a key issue in the current G7 proposals for the New International Financial Architecture. The G7 emphasis on corporate governance can be traced back to the thesis that the ‘deeper’ reasons for the Asian crisis lay in the microeconomic behaviour of corporations and businesses in the affected countries. The failings of the corporate governance mechanisms and distortions in the competitive process have received special scrutiny in such analyses. With respect to b) above, the context is that the largest corporations in advanced countries are currently in the process of potentially cartelising the world market place through a spate of cross-border mergers and take-overs. This huge merger movement raises serious policy concerns for developing countries. The paper's main conclusions are: 1. The thesis that the deeper causes of the Asian crisis were the flawed systems of corporate governance and a poor competitive environment in the affected countries is not supported by evidence. 2. The Anglo-Saxon model of widely held corporations with dispersed share ownership is by far the exception in developing countries and in much of continental Europe. Empirical evidence suggests that emerging markets, as well as European countries such as Italy, Sweden or Germany have successful records of fast long-term growth with different governance systems, indeed superior to those of Anglo-Saxon countries. 3. Empirical evidence does not support the view that the Asian crisis 1997 to 1999 was caused by crony capitalism. 4. Corporate financing patterns in emerging markets in the 1990s were broadly similar to those observed in the 1980s. Unlike their counterparts in advanced countries, large developing countries firms continued to rely overwhelmingly on external sources to finance their growth of total assets. 5. The analysis of this paper does not support the claim that developing country conglomerates are inefficient, financially precarious and necessarily create moral hazard. It also indicates that contrary to widely held beliefs, product market competition in emerging countries is no less intense than in advanced economies. Acknowledgements Please do not quote without permission from the authors. Comments are most welcome.Competition; Corporate Governance; Emerging Markets

Workshop series on the role of institutions in East Asian development: Institutional foundations of innovation and competitiveness in East Asia

The discussion paper summarizes the results of a workshop that focussed on the institutional foundations of innovation and competitiveness in East Asia. The following papers are contained: 'Transitional Institutions, Institutional Complementarities and Economic Performance in China. A "Varieties of Capitalism" Approach', 'The Current State of Research on Networks in China's Business System', 'Recent Changes to Korea's Innovation Governance', 'Standardization and Institutional Complementarities in Japan - Empirical Results from SAP R/3 Implementations in Japanese Automotive Suppliers'. --East Asia,Japan,China,Korea,institutional change,competitiveness,innovation

From the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis to the 2008-09 global economic crisis: lessons from Korea’s experience

East Asian countries were hit hard by the financial crisis in 1997 and have shown significant and remarkable recovery with far-reaching economic and regulatory reforms since then. A decade later, the Asian countries are suffering again from the on-going global economic crises beginning in the summer of 2007. If this current crisis is not managed effectively, the Asian economic situation could escalate into a more serious crisis mode than that of 1997-8. Due to the increased globalization of financial markets, crises tend to become more severe and contagious even if the effected countries have strong macroeconomic fundamentals. This paper focuses on the Korean economy, which experienced the hardest crisis hit as well as most successful recovery from the 1997 crisis, and discusses interrelated and general policy lessons from the 1997 and 2008 crises to help prevent from the reoccurrence of similar financial crises and economic downturns in the future. Specific lessons, among many, to be analyzed in this paper are drawn on 1) monitoring international capital flows and conducting better international debt management, 2) maintaining a competitive, efficient and well-regulated financial system to be protected from international contagion, 3) establishing an effective nonperforming asset management mechanism, such as the Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) of Korea, and 4) enhancing regional financial cooperation among the East Asian countries, like a renewed Chiang Mai Initiative, to provide a short-term liquidity support, defend Asian currencies from speculative attack, and assist long-term economic growth in the East Asian region. In deriving the main policy lessons, both the commonalities and uniqueness of the two crises-old in 1997 and new in 2008-are examined from the perspective of the Korean economy.Asian financial crisis; Global economic crisis, Korea