Aid, Governance, and Private Foreign Investment: Some Puzzling Findings and a Possible Explanation

Does offcial aid pave the road for private foreign investment or does it suffocate private initiative by diverting resources towards unproductive activities? In this paper we explore this question using data for a large number of developing and emerging economies. Controlling for countries’ institutional environment, we find that, evaluated at the mean, the marginal effect of aid on private foreign investment is close to zero. Surprisingly, however, the effect is strictly positive for countries in which private agents face a substantial regulatory burden. After testing the robustness of this result, we offer a theoretical model that is able to rationalize our puzzling observation.

The Macroeconomic Effects of Foreign Aid: A Survey

Research on the macroeconomic effects of aid has expanded rapidly in recent years. In this paper, we provide a survey of this literature. We start by reviewing some theoretical models that suggest a positive impact of aid on investment and growth. We then discuss the empirical evidence, giving particular attention to the role of institutions and policies in determining aid effectiveness. As a general conclusion, we suggest adopting a more disaggregate perspective with respect both to different types of aid and to various aspects of governance.foreign aid, economic growth, institutions, governance

How the 2015 migration crisis shaped the bordering preferences of EU citizens

In 2015, EU countries struggled to cope with a sharp increase in the number of migrants and refugees entering Europe. But how did the crisis affect public opinion toward free movement within the EU? Drawing on a new study, Philipp Lutz finds that contrary to expectations, the crisis did not result in citizens turning away from free movement. Rather, there has been an increase in support for stronger external controls on immigration from outside the EU

Inside the Migration State: The Quest for Democratic Legitimacy

In many European democracies immigration has become a key issue of political contestation. International migration is the most visible consequence of globalisation and at the same time the main reason for a political backlash against deeper international integration. This thesis investigates politics in times of contested globalisation by studying immigration policy-making from a perspective of democratic legitimacy: How do liberal democracies reconcile the economic imperative for open borders and the political imperative for closed borders? The thesis develops a novel argument that immigration policy-making can neither ignore economic needs nor political demands without jeopardising political support and that therefore policy choices on immigration follow the available room to manoeuvre: Governments prioritise economic needs in the external dimension of immigrant admission where they face significant constraints and prioritise political demands in the internal dimension of immigrant integration where they enjoy significant discretion. This argument is first tested with an analysis of policy choices in 18 West European democracies between 1980 and 2014. The results show that admission polices have become more liberal following economic needs regardless of who is in the government, whereas integration policies have become more restrictive and partisan in response to domestic politicisation. The second empirical part consists of a case study on a 2014 anti-immigration referendum in Switzerland exposing the political dilemma: The popular vote to reintroduce immigration quota clashed with Switzerland’s international treaty of free movement of people with the EU and its access to the European Single Market. The analysis using media content and population survey analysis shows that the dilemma was resolved not by restricting immigrant admission but by strengthening domestic labour market integration, a decision largely accepted by the public. These findings paint a consistent pattern that Western Europe has increasingly liberalised the admission of immigrants to fulfil economic needs despite a critical public, and shifted to domestic integration policies to respond to increasing political demands from their constituents. This bears important implications for the understanding of contemporary migration politics and democratic legitimacy in times of contested globalisation

What Distinguishes the Strength and the Effect of a Lewis Acid: Analysis of the Gutmann–Beckett Method

IUPAC defines Lewis acidity as the thermodynamic tendency for Lewis pair formation. This strength property was recently specified as global Lewis acidity (gLA), and is gauged for example by the fluoride ion affinity. Experimentally, Lewis acidity is usually evaluated by the effect on a bound molecule, such as the induced 31P NMR shift of triethylphosphine oxide in the Gutmann–Beckett (GB) method. This type of scaling was called effective Lewis acidity (eLA). Unfortunately, gLA and eLA often correlate poorly, but a reason for this is unknown. Hence, the strength and the effect of a Lewis acid are two distinct properties, but they are often granted interchangeably. The present work analyzes thermodynamic, NMR specific, and London dispersion effects on GB numbers for 130 Lewis acids by theory and experiment. The deformation energy of a Lewis acid is identified as the prime cause for the critical deviation between gLA and eLA but its correction allows a unification for the first time

Misperceptions about immigration: reviewing their nature, motivations and determinants

Across Western democracies, immigration has become one of the most polarizing and salient issues, with public discourses and individual attitudes often characterized by misperceptions. This condition undermines people's ability to develop informed opinions on the matter and runs counter to the ideal of deliberative democracy. Yet, our understanding of what makes immigration so prone to misperceptions is still limited-a conundrum that this review seeks to answer in three steps. First, we take stock of the existing evidence on the nature of misperceptions about immigration. Secondly, we borrow from diverse bodies of literature to identify their motivational underpinnings and elaborate on how the protection of group identity, the defence of self-interest and security concerns can lead to distorted perceptions of immigration. Thirdly, we highlight relevant determinants of misperceptions at the level of both contextual influences and individual predispositions. We conclude that misperceptions about immigration are ubiquitous and likely to remain a key element of immigration politics

Credit constraints, energy management practices, and investments in energy saving technologies : German manufacturing in close-up

We analyze the drivers and barriers that influence investments increasing the energy efficiency of firms' production processes or buildings in the German manufacturing sector based on microdata. In particular, we shed light on the relationship between financial barriers (e. g. credit constraints), information and knowledge (e. g. energy management practices), salience of energy-related topics, and the investments in energy saving technologies. A better understanding of firms' investment behavior regarding energy saving technologies is crucial to design efficient policy measures, which are necessary to achieve the imposed ambitious climate and energy policy targets. We use data from 701 structured telephone interviews in combination with commercial and confidential firm-level data. Our results suggest that energy management practices have a statistically significant positive relationship with investment decisions on energy saving technologies for production processes and buildings. Credit constraints are a barrier to investments in the energy efficiency of firms' production processes. Furthermore, high energy cost shares of heating or cooling, high energy intensity, energy self-generation and structured internal decision making processes influence the investments in energy efficiency positively

Die Evaluations-Matrix: Ein Tool zur Bewertung antriebs- und kraftstoff-technologischer Innovationen in der Automobilindustrie

Das Automobil ist nicht nur mit Abstand der Verkehrsträger Nummer 1, sondern es ist ein integraler Bestandteil moderner Gesellschaften und ein Symbol für Status, Wohlstand, Freiheit, Dynamik und Fortschritt. Der harte technische Kern des Autos besteht in einer über hundert Jahre alten Verbrennungsmotorik, bei der fossile Brennstoffe aus der Natur importiert und Treibhausgase in die Natur exportiert werden. Dieser harte technische Kern erweist sich zunehmend als problematisch, und zwar sowohl im Hinblick auf die Verfügbarkeit von fossilen Brennstoffen als auch in Bezug auf die Emissionen und deren Folgen. Im letzten Jahrzehnt wurde deshalb weltweit eine Vielzahl von Innovationen in Angriff genommen, um die fossile Verbrennungsmotorik zu optimieren und zu substituieren. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Versuch unternommen, dieses breit gefächerte Feld antriebs- und kraftstofftechnologischer Innovationen aus einer interdisziplinären Perspektive zu systematisieren und zu evaluieren. Im Zentrum steht dabei die Entwicklung einer Evaluations- Matrix. Mit dieser Matrix werden zwei Ziele verfolgt. Erstens sollen die Innovationen mit Hilfe technischer, ökonomischer und ökologischer Parameter quantifiziert werden. Aufbauend darauf werden diese Innovationen dann zweitens im Hinblick auf die Erreichung gesetzlicher Zielvorgaben miteinander verglichen und bewertet. -- Not only is the automobile the world's number one transportation vehicle, it is also a vital part of modern societies. It is a status symbol representing prosperity, freedom, and progress. The main technical component of the automobile is the more than a century old internal combustion engine which, in order to function, requires fossil fuels. Despite this dependency on nature, the toxic gases it produces are responsible for an important part of the pollution to our environment. Thus the internal combustion engine is increasingly becoming a problem due to the limitation of the fossil fuels it requires, on the one hand, and to the toxic emissions and subsequent environmental pollution it produces on the other. For the past decade, a multitude of technical innovations has been presented and implemented worldwide in order to optimize or even provide a substitute for the internal combustion engine. It is the purpose of this paper to attempt to analyse this wide variety of innovations in the fields of alternative fuels and new engine types from an interdisciplinary perspective. This analysis is centred around the development of an evaluation matrix. This matrix has two aims, the first of which is to quantify these innovations by using technical, economical and ecological parameters. Based on these parameters, the innovations are then compared and evaluated with regard to meeting the statutory objectives.