Power And Global Economic Institutions

What is the relationship between states\u27 economic power and their formal political power in multilateral economic institutions? Why do we see variation in states\u27 formal political power across economic institutions of the same era? In this book, Ayse Kaya examines these crucial under-explored questions, drawing on multiple theoretical traditions within international relations to advance a new approach of \u27adjusted power\u27. She explains how the economic shifts of our time, marked by the rise of Brazil, Russia, India, China and other emerging economies, have affected and will impact key multilateral economic institutions. Through detailed contemporary and historical analyses of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the G20, and the International Trade Organization, Kaya shows that the institutional setting mediates the significance of the underlying distribution of economic power across states. The book presents both case studies and key statistics

Individual Attitudes towards the Impact of Multinational Enterprises on Local Businesses

Individual attitudes towards multinational enterprises (MNEs) remains relatively understudied compared to individual attitudes towards other dimensions of globalization, particularly trade and immigration. In order to illuminate individual attitudes towards MNEs, this paper utilizes a large cross-country dataset (2003 International Social Survey Program) to examine individual perspectives on the impact of MNEs on local businesses. The paper draws on literature that studies the economic impacts of MNEs on local businesses, such as the transfer of technology from foreign affiliates to local businesses. Based on this literature the paper tests hypotheses to analyze how individuals’ skill-level (reflected in their educational attainment and occupational group) and the sector in which they work affects their perceptions of MNEs’ impact on local businesses. Conforming to expectations from the literature, the paper finds that highly skilled individuals who are senior-level managers, legislators, and officials are less likely to think MNEs are damaging local businesses. Also, private sector employees are less likely than public sector employees to see MNEs’ impact on local businesses as negative. The paper also finds variation in these attitudes across developed countries, developing countries, and formerly communist states in Central and Eastern Europe. In order to explore non-economic determinants of individual attitudes towards MNEs, the paper additionally explores how feelings of nationalism, confidence in democracy, and attitudes towards international affairs affect individual perspectives on MNEs. The paper additionally shows that retired citizens’ previous sector of employment and occupation influences their perception of the MNEs’ impact on local businesses and that type of FDI (M&A versus Greenfield investment) influences individual attitudes towards the impact of MNEs on local businesses.

What Were They Thinking? The Federal Reserve In The Run-Up To The 2008 Financial Crisis

The Federal Reserve (the Fed) is responsible for monitoring, analyzing and ultimately stabilizing US financial markets. It also has unrivalled access to economic data, high-level connections to financial institutions, and a large staff of professionally trained economists. Why then was it apparently unconcerned by the financial developments that are now widely recognized to have caused the 2008 financial crisis? Using a wide range of Fed documents from the pre-crisis period, particularly the transcripts of meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), this paper shows that Fed policymakers and staff were aware of relevant developments in financial markets, but paid infrequent attention to them and disregarded significant systemic threats. Drawing on literatures in economics, political science and sociology, the paper then demonstrates that the Fed\u27s intellectual paradigm in the years before the crisis focused on ‘post hoc interventionism’ – the institution\u27s ability to limit the fallout should a systemic disturbance arise. Further, the paper argues that institutional routines played a crucial role in maintaining this paradigm and in contributing to the Fed\u27s inadequate attention to the warning signals in the pre-crisis period

Integration of Market and Entrepreneurial Orientations; and Their Impact on Export Performance: A Contingency Approach

Globalization has promoted worldwide exporting levels to soar and to account for more than 10% of global activity. Technological advances in information and communication technologies, production methods, transportation, and international logistics have led to the increase in the exporting activity. However, these advances have also resulted in highly competitive and turbulent markets, and sophisticated and demanding customers, which in return has required exporting firms to be both entrepreneurial- and market-oriented. A review of the market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and exporting literature revealed three gaps that the dissertation sought to fill. First, the relationship between market orientation and entrepreneurship was not clear. Second although market and entrepreneurial orientations were seen as necessary requirements for long-term survival of the firms, these two orientations, their interactions and their performance implications had rarely been explored in the context of exporting. Third, ambiguous and conflicting findings existed in the literature on the performance implications of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to integrate market and entrepreneurial orientation in the context of exporting by: (1) investigating the relationships between the different components of market and entrepreneurial orientations; (2) examining the link between both orientations and export performance, and identifying organizational, environmental and strategic contingency variables that moderate this link. The model and hypotheses were tested with data collected from 150 export managers. Based on the analysis of the data results indicated that the three components of market orientation had different impact on the components of entrepreneurial orientation. For example, whereas customer orientation had a negative impact of proactiveness and risk-taking of an organization, competitor orientation had a positive impact. Similarly, although customer and competitor orientations had a negative impact on innovativeness, interfunctional coordination had a positive impact. Moreover, while market orientation positively impacted export performance, entrepreneurial orientations had no significant effect on export performance. Furthermore, the results revealed that the strength of the market orientation—export performance relationship did not change under different organizational and environmental conditions. Based on the study findings, managerial implications, study limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed

Investigation of therapeutic effect of Saccharomyces boulardii and translocation in immunsupressed rats infected with Shigella sonnei

Aim: To investigate the therapeutic effects of Saccharomyces boulardii (S. boulardii) and detect blood and tissue penetrations of S. boulardii and Shigella sonnei (S. sonnei) in immunocompromised rats infected with S. sonnei. Methods: Forty rats were divided into four groups: Group A (immunosuppressed, not-treated); Group B (immunosuppressed, treated-with- S. boulardii); Group C (immunosuppressed, infected-with-S.sonnei, treated-with- S. boulardii); Group D (immunosuppressed, infected-with-S. sonnei). After taking samples for blood cultures, the rats were sacrificed. Large bowel, liver, spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) were removed for microbiological examination. Results: S. boulardii in group B and S. sonnei in group D were isolated from blood in some rats. Statistical analysis of our data, showed that the numbers of translocated colonies in the liver and spleen were relatively higher for S. boulardii in Group B and for S. sonnei in Group D, without reaching levels of statistical significance. For MLN, colony counts in Group B was higher than Group C and A showing statistical significance. Conclusion: The administration of S. boulardii showed promising results for the therapy of S. sonnei infection in immunosuppressed rats, but therapeutic usage of S. boulardii should be carefully assessed by taking into consideration the risk it poses versus potential benefits in risk groups

Rival globalizations?: An analysis of US-EU post-Cold War trade disputes.

This dissertation examines how the USA and the EU shape, or try to shape, globalization in divergent ways. In other words, it seeks to understand whether the two powers produce rival globalizations. Towards this end, the thesis utilizes US- EU trade disputes at the World Trade Organization (WTO) as case studies. The WTO provides a good basis to study the manifestations of globalizations. Moreover, WTO disputes provide for good data-the documentation on the disputes illuminates the positions of the USA and the EU in a dispute. The two specific disputes the thesis studies are the conflicts over bananas and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In addition, the dissertation investigates the two powers' bilateral and regional trade agreements (RTAs). While the first two case studies analyze specific disputes, the third case study investigates rival globalizations from a general perspective. The variables of analysis in the case studies are core of the dispute and competing outlooks. In operationalizing rival globalizations, the dissertation examines the two powers' impact on the WTO and explores whether the two powers utilize international organizations other than the WTO as well as trading partners divergently. In each of these case studies, the discussion investigates the assumption that two powers produce rival globalizations. Also, the dissertation examines how the two powers impact on globalization divergently. Moreover, the thesis enquires as to whether the presence of rival globalizations is relatively more pronounced in some situations. If so, it explores the reasons as to why this may be the case. The dissertation pursues empirical over theoretical analysis. Nevertheless, it was inspired by and relates to a theoretical debate. It relies on a combination of the transformationalist approach to globalization with a basic realist understanding of international relations

Government size, unemployment, and inflation nexus in eight large emerging market economies

Using a panel of eight large emerging market economies from 1980 to 2015, this paper seeks to assess the causal linkages between government size, unemployment, and inflation. Overall, our results suggest that the government size is positively associated with both unemployment and inflation. The Granger causality runs from the government size to unemployment and to inflation. From our analysis, two aspects stand out. First, the effects of government size on unemployment and inflation depend essentially on how the government size is measured. As long as government consumption spending is considered as the proxy measure of the government size, the government size is significantly and positively correlated with unemployment, and with inflation. Second, indirect taxes, like government consumption spending, have a positive as well as statistically significant association with unemployment. However, the direct taxes solely exert a strong effect on inflation in the countries considered.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio