New institutionalism meets international political economy: a new approach to the study of regional integration dynamics in- and outside of Europe

"Regional integration in- and outside Europe is a theoretical and empirical puzzle for Political Scientists. After 50 years of integration studies, there is still a gap in the academic discussion. On the one hand, New Institutionalism mainly discusses the successful example of European integration and argues about the influence of supranational vs. intergovernmental institutions. On the other hand, International Political Economy debates the emergence of more and more preferential trade agreements around the world, but neglects the dynamic of regional integration. In order to overcome these deficits, this paper proposes a new approach to regional economic integration, which simultaneously overcomes the Eurocentrism of Institutionalism and the static nature of Political Economy approaches. According to this view, regional economic integration results from demand and supply factors. Thereby, demand and supply of regional integration needs not be the same as in Europe. Whereas comparative cost advantages and economies of scale are important factors for the demand for regional integration in Europe and North America, the attraction of foreign direct investments and development aid may be more important for regions of the South. And whereas common institutions are a driving force behind integration in Europe and South America, regional integration in North America and Southern Africa may be more supplied by regional hegemony. Integration dynamic may evolve if feedback effects occur and one or more of the demand and supply factors are reinforced due to previous integration steps. But such 'spill-over' may also look different than the European example, as the economic and institutional preconditions differ. After developing such a theoretical approach, the proposed paper will illustrate its hypotheses using the example of the EU, the NAFTA, the MERCOSUR, the SADC and the ASEAN." (author's abstract

Supranational regulatory agencies between independence and control: the EMEA and the authorization of pharmaceuticals in the European Single Market

"The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) represents a new type of supranational regulation. Formally, it merely advises the Commission and a member state committee on the authorization of pharmaceuticals. In practice, however, it dominates decision-making and operates much like an independent agency. Based upon a brief discussion of the merits of independent regulation and the necessity to control regulatory activities, the article explores the institutional arrangement in which the EMEA is embedded and seeks to explain how tight oversight is compatible with quasi-independent action. It argues that the multi-tiered oversight mechanism restricts the non-scientific actors involved in the authorization of pharmaceuticals more than the agency – as long as the agency adheres to its mandate of producing scientifically convincing decisions." (author's abstract

Two logics of regionalism: the importance of interdependence and external support for regional integration in Southern Africa

"Existing theories of European integration and political economy usually assume that economic interdependence is an important precondition for successful regional integration. This includes that regional integration among developing countries is unlikely to be successful, because their economies are usually more dependent on developed countries in the North than on their neighbours in the South. However, this article argues that developing countries use regional integration more in order to improve their standing vis-à-vis other world regions in the global economic system than to govern intraregional interdependence. Thus, the progress of regional integration in the South is at least as dependent on the feedback from other regions as it is on developments within the own region. This argument will be illustrated at the example of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which made important steps towards regional integration in the last decade. It centralised its institutional structure in 2001 and announced a Free Trade Area in 2008. This development can partly be explained by interdependence between the less developed countries of the SADC and the relatively well developed Republic of South Africa, but it was also favoured by external support from other world regions, especially the European Union (EU). Nevertheless, further regional integration towards a customs union is disturbed by external influence, because the EU currently negotiates different Economic Partnership Agreements with the SADC member states, which prevents the harmonisation of tariffs for imports from outside the region." (author's abstract)"Bestehende Theorien der europäischen Integration und der internationalen politischen Ökonomie gehen in der Regel davon aus, dass intraregionale Interdependenz eine Bedingung für erfolgreiche regionale Integration von Volkswirtschaften ist. Dies würde bedeuten, dass regionale Integration zwischen Entwicklungsländern zum Scheitern verurteilt ist, da diese normalerweise mehr von entwickelten Ländern des Nordens als von ihren Nachbarn im Süden abhängig sind. In diesem Artikel wird jedoch argumentiert, dass Entwicklungsländer regionale Integration vor allem dazu nutzen, um ihre Position gegenüber anderen Regionen zu stärken. Daher ist der Fortschritt von regionaler Integration im Süden in hohem Maße von dem Feedback aus anderen Weltregionen abhängig. Dieses Argument wird am Beispiel der Southern African Development Community (SADC) illustriert. Die SADC hat in den letzten zehn Jahren erhebliche Integrationsfortschritte gemacht, sieht sich aktuell jedoch mit erheblichen Problemen konfrontiert, da die Verhandlungen über Economic Partnership Agreements mit der EU die weitere Integration erschweren." (Autorenreferat

Interdependence vs. dependence:: a network analysis of regional integration projects in Africa, America, Asia and Europe

"Integration theories usually either implicitly or explicitly assume that regional integration is driven by intraregional economic interdependence, which allows for the utilisation of economies of scale or comparative cost advantages within the region. However, following the new regionalism of the 1990s, it has become clear that regional integration may also be used by the respective member states to improve their standing in the global economy, to become more attractive for foreign direct investment and development aid, or to be more powerful in international trade negotiations. In this paper, we argue that the latter motive is more important for developing countries than the former two, because developing countries are more dependent on economic relationships with other regions than on those with their neighbours. Thus, in order to understand regional integration in the Southern hemisphere, integration theory needs to incorporate interregional relationships and the resulting positive feedback for regional integration projects among developing countries. To support this argument, we present network analyses of intraregional and interregional trade of the European Community (EC), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Association of Southeast-Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Common Market of South America (MERCOSUR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)." (author's abstract

Single market regulation between technocratic independence and political control: the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products and the authorisation of pharmaceuticals

"The paper explores the successful European scheme for the authorisation of pharmaceuticals within the Single Market. Theoretically, it argues that successful regulation requires the exclusion of parochial interests from the decision process and the strict limitation of the agency's opportunities to adopt arbitrary decisions. Empirically, it holds that these conditions are fulfilled in the European authorisation scheme. The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) enjoys a strong agenda-setting power, while it is locked into a control arrangement that precludes arbitrary decisions. Moreover, all actors involved in the decision-making process are bound to a coherent and detailed set of legally binding decision-making criteria as well as subject to judicial review." (author's abstract

Decision Accuracy for the Relevant_Irrelevant Screening Test: Influence of an Algorithm on Human Decision_Making

"The Relevant-Irrelevant (RI) has been used as a polygraph screening technique by several decades longer than any other. It has demonstrated practical value in prompting self-report from applicants and employees of behaviours of interest to employers. The RI has certain strengths that have made it an attractive alternative (Krapohl & Shaw 2015). With no comparison questions, the RI is not subject to criticisms that the examiner must manipulate the examinee in some fashion to make the technique effective, as probable-lie comparison question techniques may. It is more flexible than most other methods, accommodating from two to five relevant questions in a single test series. The RI may also be more resistant to countermeasures, at least of the type in which examinees induce reactions to comparison questions. "(...