The EU’s ‘strategic partnership’ with China in a post-Brexit world:Recalibrating internal dynamics and facing up to external challenges

The UK has played a critical role in shaping EU–China relations. Policymakers need to carefully consider the extent to which Brexit will weaken the EU’s collective power – shifting the balance in China’s favour – and impact prospects for increasing EU involvement in East Asia. Brexit arrives at a moment when negotiations for an ambitious bilateral investment agreement continue – with an eye on an eventual free trade agreement – while EU policymakers increasingly perceive challenges arising from the expansion of China’s global presence, exemplified by the Belt and Road Initiative, the creation of alternative international institutions, and its behaviour in the South China Sea disputes. As both the EU and China emerge as global powers, the significance of their relationship’s trajectory extends beyond bilateral confines. I analyse how the relationship’s contemporary dynamics are playing out and likely to evolve. Assessing the impact of Brexit on the relative power balance, specifically the EU27’s collective economic, military and political power, sets the scene for mapping out the ‘state of play’ in four crucial issue areas, highlighting the UK’s preferences and input. This leads to consideration of how the loss of resources and shifting constellation of preferences among the EU27 could affect the attainment of strategic objectives. I argue that while Brexit does not fundamentally disrupt the EU–China relationship, it will weaken the EU’s capacity to respond to China’s rise and necessitates a recalibration to the new constellation of Member State preferences and reduced resources

FDI, terrorism and the availability heuristic for U.S. investors before and after 9/11

We record the existence of an availability heuristic that is reflected in disaster myopia of U.S. investors and exists prior to the attacks of 9/11. We argue that this is fueled by an aggregate experience hypothesis effect, resulting in a pronounced increase in the sensitivity of U.S. stock prices to terrorist attacks on foreign soil. After 9/11, stock prices react proportionally to the size of an attack and the share of FDI stock held in the region by the sector in which firms operate. This effect, non-existent prior to 2002, has become increasingly strong in recent years

MEASURING MARKET INTEGRATION IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

The increased level of market integration in the processed food industry through trade, foreign direct investment, and the expanded use of intellectual property rights are an observed phenomenon of the past three decades. Measurement of market integration is problematic, and the role of FDI in market integration has not been adequately taken into consideration. This study measures the growth in the market shares of multinationals in selected countries and industries to indicate the degree of market integration. We also employ a market share convergence type model to estimate whether the market shares of the multinationals and domestically owned firms in key markets have converged to some steady state during the years 1991 to 2003.Processed food industry, global integration, market shares, Argentina, Brazil, U.S., International Relations/Trade,

The politics of Chinese trade and the Asian financial crises : questioning the wisdom of export-led growth

Between 1987 and 1996 Chinese exports increased by an average of 14% each year. During this decade, export growth became a crucial determinant of overall economic growth. However, as a consequence of the East Asian financial crises, Chinese export growth slowed, threatening the successful implementation of plans to restructure the domestic Chinese economy. This paper traces the reasons for the rapid growth and subsequent slowing of Chinese exports, and asks whether the strategy provides a solid basis for the long term development of the Chinese economy. In particular, the paper focuses on the role and significance of the processing trade in boosting Chinese exports. The high proportion of imported components in processed exports questions whether China is really benefiting as much from export growth as aggregate trade figures seem to suggest

Private Equity Investment in the BRICs

This Article investigates the legal and economic environment for private equity investments in Brazil, Russia, India and China (“BRIC”). In contrast with disappointing returns in the 1990s, private equity investment has soared in developing countries over the past decade. To explain what has led to the recent success of private equity in the BRICs, this Article will first give an overview of the challenges faced generally when investing in portfolio companies in developing markets and then analyze the legal and economic framework for each of the four BRICs. This Article finds that Brazil and China offer the best opportunities for private equity because investors can rely on strong domestic capital markets for the exit. While India is not far behind, Russia still has room for improvement, particularly with regard to the reliability of its legal system and the attractiveness of its capital markets

The Recession and its Impact on Foreign Direct Investment Flows into the Food System of Less Developed Countries

This study investigates the effects of the current recession on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the food sectors of developing countries. The study tests the hypothesis that the economic recession adversely affects FDI flows in the food sector. The specific objectives are: to identify determinants that influence FDI inflows; to develop an econometric model to estimate changes in FDI inflows as influenced by factor determinants, including the present recession; and to compare the impact of the recession on FDI in the food system in different developed and developing economies.Recession, FDI, Developing countries, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade,

Corruption and its Effect on Economic Development in Chile, Mexico, and Brazil

In this paper, the effect of the perception of corruption on economic development will be explored. The research question addressed in this paper is: how does the perception of political corruption in Mexico, Brazil, and Chile affect their economic development? Economic development has increased significantly for all three states since 1990s, but for two of them it has been coupled with rampant corruption. The research question will be explored through a review of the current literature, a discussion of the methods, the presentation of the data and results, and finally a discussion about the results. In order to assess whether frequent corruption scandals affect economic development, the perception of corruption data was be collected from Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index on all three countries spanning from 1995 to 2017. To measure its effect on economic development, bivariate correlations between the perception of corruption, GDP per capita, Human Development Index (HDI) scores, and FDI in-flows were run to first test to see if there are relationships between the variables at all. Following this, two linear regressions were run, one with GDP per capita as the dependent variable and the other had HDI. The results showed mixed results, as it found a strong positive relationship between the perception of corruption and HDI yet found a strong negative relationship between the perception of corruption and GDP per capita