Globalization trends and regional development - dynamics of FDI and human capital flows

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in [European Journal of Development Research]. The definitive publisher-authenticated version [European Journal of Development Research 26, 160-161 (January 2014)] is available online at: http://www.palgravejournals.com/ejdr/journal/v26/n1/full/ejdr201354a.htmlApparently rendered irrelevant by globalization, regions have been rediscovered as a force in economic and social development by both scholars and policymakers. Localized inter-personal ties and networks are seen as important resources (Woolcock and Narayan, 2000), and the local supply of entrepreneurs has emerged as a key determinant of future economic growth (Chatterji et al, 2013)

Solid State Physics

Contains reports on three research projects

Solid State Physics

Contains reports on five research projects

Product Differentiation Costs and Global Competition

The growing competitive intensity on the markets determines the emergence of competition costs that are expressed at a corporate level and have implicit repercussions for the supply system. This type of costs makes it possible to identify a close link between competition costs and supply differentiation costs. Classification by competitive intensity presupposes that the analysis performed identifies the classification of company costs as the discriminating element, in terms of the competitive pressure of the context in which the firm operates. The emergence of competition costs is linked to an attempt to squeeze them as an aspect of vertical, or more specifically, horizontal cooperation strategies.Product Differentiation; Differentiation Costs; Over-Supply; Global Competition; Marketing; Market-Driven Management; Global Corporations; Global Markets DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.4468/2005.1.06garbelli

Solid State Physics

Contains reports on three research projects

Moebius strip enterprises and expertise in the creative industries: new challenges for lifelong learning?

The paper argues that the emergence of a new mode of production – co-configuration is generating new modes of expertise that EU policies for lifelong learning are not designed to support professionals to develop. It maintains that this change can be seen most clearly when we analyse Small and Medium Size (SMEs) enterprises in the creative industries. Drawing on concepts from Political Economy - ‘Moebius strip enterprise/expertise’ and Cultural Historical Activity Theory - project-object’ and the ‘space of reasons’, the paper highlights conceptually and through a case study of an SME in the creative industries what is distinctive about the new modes of expertise, before moving on to reconceptualise expertise and learning and to consider the implications of this reconceptualisation for EU policies for lifelong learning. The paper concludes that the new challenge for LLL is to support the development of new forms expertise that are difficult to credentialise, yet, are central to the wider European goal of realising a knowledge economy

Leeway for the loyal: a model of employee discretion

This article examines the factors underlying task discretion from an economist's perspective. It argues that the key axis for understanding discretion is the trade-off between the positive effects of discretion on potential output per employee and the negative effects of greater leeway on work effort. In empirical analysis using matched employer-employee data, it is shown that discretion is strongly affected by the level of employee commitment. In addition, discretion is generally greater in high-skilled jobs, although not without exceptions, and lower where employees are under-skilled. Homeworking and flexitime policies raise employee discretion. The impact of teamworking is mixed. In about half of cases team members do not jointly decide about work matters, and the net effect of teams on task discretion in these cases is negative. In other cases, where team members do decide matters jointly, the impact is found to be neutral according to employees' perceptions, or positive according to managers' perceptions. There are also significant and substantial unobserved establishment-level factors which affect task discretion

The Japanese model in retrospective : industrial strategies, corporate Japan and the 'hollowing out' of Japanese industry

This article provides a retrospective look at the Japanese model of industrial development. This model combined an institutional approach to production based around the Japanese Firm (Aoki's, J-mode) and strategic state intervention in industry by the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). For a long period, the alignment of state and corporate interests appeared to match the wider public interest as the Japanese economy prospered. However, since the early 1990s, the global ambitions of the corporate sector have contributed to a significant 'hollowing out' of Japan's industrial base. As the world today looks for a new direction in economic management, we suggest the Japanese model provides policy-makers with a salutary lesson in tying the wider public interest with those of the corporate sector

Economic precariousness: A new channel in the housing market cycle

Abstract: Demographic and institutional elements, as important drivers of the housing market, should not be neglected since it is not only financial and monetary elements that matter in the case of the housing market. In this context, one relationship, which still remains unclear, is the relationship between the housing and the labour markets. Some research has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that high rates of homeownership lead to high unemployment via increases in the reservation wage. However, further research is needed to address the possible implications of the institutional settings of the labour market in the dynamics of the housing market. The aim of this paper is to bring some light on the link between both markets. In particular, this contribution explains how the housing cycle could be ‘amplified’ via a new channel, i.e. economic precariousness, which is closely related to job insecurity. Subsequently, we provide evidence in the case of five developed economies, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, over the period 1985-2013.Not appicabl

Economic crisis and the construction of a neo-liberal regulatory regime in Korea

A consistent theme of the literature on the ontology of the 1997 South Korean crisis is the key role played by regulatory failures and the growing weakness of the state. This paper seeks to briefly highlight both the insights and the limitations of this approach to understanding the crisis. Having done so, we shall set out the argument that the crisis created an opportunity for reformist Korean élites to advance their longstanding, but previously frustrated, project to create a comprehensive unambiguously neo-liberal regulatory regime. This paper will also seek to highlight the implications of our reading of the development of the Korean political economy for broader debates on economic liberalisation, crisis and the future of the developmental state