Political Business Cycles and Independent Central Banks. German Governments and the Bundesbank (1960-1989)

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020

Trade Globalization, Economic Performance, and Social Protection: Nineteenth-Century British Laissez-Faire and Post World War II U.S.-Embedded Liberalism

How have market and state shaped the long-term coevolution of economic performance and social protection during the nineteenth century and post World War II waves of globalization associated with British laissez-faire liberalism and U.S.-embedded liberalism? Under the impulse of seemingly ever-intensifying globalization, this question is emerging at the core of a novel body of political economy research that seeks to compare the two waves of globalization to draw useful lessons from the past. This research also reflects the concerns recently voiced by neoliberals and neointerventionists about the long-term stability and viability of post World War II embedded liberalism. Satisfactory investigations of how market and state shape the long-term coevolution of economic performance and social protection in the two regimes remain lacking. Cointegration analyses of the two hegemonic powers that shaped the evolution of the two regimes nineteenth-century Great Britain and post World War II United States demonstrate that the complementarity of market and state in embedded liberalism is associated with better long-term economic performance and social protection.I thank the following people for their help and support in developing this project: Katarina Juselius, Soren Johansen, Mike Artis, Ilijan Georgiev, Suzanne Perry, Ed Mansfield, Dennis Quinn, Lars-Erik Cederman, Ron Jepperson, Mark Kesselman, Luis Moreno, Martin Rhodes, Benedicta Marzinotto, Ron King, David Clinton, and the participants in the Nordic Project funded by the Danish Social Sciences Research Council. Two anonymous reviewers provided valuable suggestions. A Jean Monnet Fellowship from the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute provided financial support for the project. Any errors are my own.

European Integration and Income Inequality

Globalization has attained a prominent place on the sociological agenda, and stratification scholars have implicated globalization in the increased income inequality observed in many advanced capitalist countries. But sociologists have given much less attention to a different but increasingly prevalent form of internationalization: regional integration. Regional integration, or the construction of international economy and polity within negotiated regions, should matter for income inequality. Regional economic integration should raise income inequality, as workers are exposed to international competition and labor unions are weakened. Regional political integration should also raise income inequality, but through a different mechanism: where the regional polity advances market-oriented policies, political integration should drive welfare state retrenchment as states adopt liberal policies in a context of fiscal austerity. Evidence from random-effects and fixed-effects models of national income inequality in Western Europe supports these arguments. The significant effects of regional integration on income inequality are net of several controls, including two established measures of globalization, suggesting that a sociology of regional integration adds to our understanding of rising income inequality in Western Europe

Enabling future nanomanufacturing through block copolymer self-assembly: A review

Self-assembly approaches, e.g. colloidal, emulsion and polymer phase separation, provide scientists withan exotic yet direct platform to access technologically desired nanostructures at competitive costs. Inparticular, soft nanomaterial systems such as block copolymer (BCP) materials present a powerful meansto tailor templates and spatially controlled systems that are amenable to large scale manufacturing practices.BCP nanoarchitectures in bulk, solution and thin film form can act as structural motifs to templateforeign materials and pave the way towards important applications across industry and society. Whileextensive literature and research efforts exist on electronic device uses using BCPs, we look at nascentapplications outside the integrated circuit realm. Recent reports are discussed including for example;light-harvesting (energy – section 2), metasurfaces (photonics – section 3), nanofiltration membranes(environmental – section 4) and antibacterial activity (biological – section 5). We endeavour to illustratethe window of opportunity presented through BCP self-assembly for nanomanufacturing. We believe thehighlights discussed will aid in directing new research initiatives and facilitate the large-scale integrationof BCP materials with broad societal impact