The EU, investment protection and TTIP

peer-reviewe

What’s the use of a transatlantic free trade area?

peer-reviewe

Trade Policy Formation when Geography Matters for Specialisation

In this paper, trade policy formation is incorporated into an economic geography model. The political setup used is a modi- fied version of that introduced by Grossman and Helpman (1994) in which policy makers may be influenced by lobbying contributions. On the basis of the underlying trade framework, lobbying activity is performed in benefit of capital interests. Optimal policy outcomes indicate that the largest countries and countries that are disadvantaged by trade regulation favour trade liberalisation. Moreover, the optimal domestic policy is more open to trade when the local and global competition facing domestic firms is less fierce, the welfare dependency on manufacturing imports is larger and when there is a more intense preference for variety in consumption. It is shown that lobbying in‡uence on policy is increasing in the concentration of capital ownership in the population. It is also revealed that, in the cases when domestic special and general interests do not coincide, lobbying activity is performed to liberalise trade. In addition, this actually implies that the presence of lobbying in‡uence on policy raises the long-run national welfare.Economic Geography, International Specialisation, NationalWelfare, Lobbying Contributions, Market Access Reciprocity

What’s the use of a transatlantic free trade area? Jean Monnet Policy Brief 05/2013

No abstract

The Arab Spring in Comparative Perspective

peer-reviewe

Paris Bordone's Athena Scorning the Advances of Hephaestus

Includes bibliographical reference

Ordering in weakly coupled random singlet spin chains

The influence of bond randomness on long range magnetic ordering in the weakly coupled S = 1/2 antiferromagnetic spin chain materials Cu(py)2(Cl1-xBrx)2 is studied by muon spin rotation and bulk measurements. Disorder is found to have a strong effect on the ordering temperature TN, and an even stronger one on the saturation magnetization m0, but considerably more so in the effectively lower-dimensional Br-rich materials. The observed behavior is attributed to Random Singlet ground states of individual spin chains, but remains in contradiction with chain mean field theory predictions. In this context, we discuss the possibility of a universal distribution of ordered moments in the weakly coupled Random Singlet chains model

Bolivie – Chronique d'un affrontement annoncé

Les nouvelles des confrontations violentes dans les départements contrôlés par l’opposition en Bolivie marquent une dégénération accélérée de la confrontation politique autour des enjeux de l’autonomie départementale et de la ratification de la nouvelle constitution du pays, au point où beaucoup craignent maintenant l’éclatement d’une guerre civile. Le blocage du système politique bolivien se manifeste ces derniers temps par référendums interposés, chacun des deux grands ensembles de forces politiques opposées – d’un côté le gouvernement du Mouvement vers le Socialisme (MAS) et ses alliés, de l’autre, la bourgeoisie et ses organisations politiques d’opposition parlementaire et régionale – s’évertuant à démontrer la légitimité de son projet de l’heure par le biais du vote populaire. Chronique des assises d’un conflit qui germe depuis des mois