Corporate governance is on the reform agenda all over the world. How will global economic integration affect the different systems of corporate ownership and governance? Is the Anglo-American model ...of shareholder capitalism destined to become the template for a converging global corporate governance standard or will the differences persist? This reader contains classic work from leading scholars addressing this question as well as several new essays. In a sophisticated political economy analysis that is also attuned to the legal framework, the authors bring to bear efficiency arguments, politics, institutional economics, international relations, industrial organization, and property rights. These questions have become even more important in light of the post-Enron corporate governance crisis in the United States and the European Union's repeated efforts at corporate integration. This will become a key text for postgraduates and academics.
Europeanization has often been conceived as a top-down process, necessitating implementation and adjustment at the national level. However, Europeanization can also be conditioned by bottom-up ...national initiatives. While recent endeavors in comparative political economy have emphasized the resilience of coordinated market economies, few detailed empirical studies have examined to date exactly how different European systems of political-economic governance cope with and respond to an European impetus for liberalization. This original study of the impact of the EU-induced liberalization of service provision on member states argues that innovative national re-regulatory strategies may be implemented in response to Europeanization. In permitting any company registered in an EU member state to provide services throughout Europe, new possibilities were created for the transnational posting of workers from low-wage to high-wage countries. However, high-wage countries could re-regulate the wage levels applicable to such employees. The exact nature of such response strategy is coloured by the respective institutional power that labour market interest associations like trade unions and employer associations command. Therefore, different institutionalised varieties of capitalism generate distinct re-regulations of the Single European Market. Drawing on detailed case studies of ten European countries, this volume bridges the gap between the rapidly unfolding scholarly debate on Europeanization and varieties of capitalism. It argues that both strongly neocorporatist systems of political-economic governance and statist systems are capable of creating swift, comprehensive and thorough national re-regulations. This applies to Austria and France, but also Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. By contrast, countries with less strongly embedded neocorporatist structures, in which due to organizational deficiencies trade unions face difficulties blocking employer demands, create liberal response strategies, permitting a stratification of wage levels. Hence, both Germany and the Netherlands implemented liberal business-friendly re-regulations. The volume makes the case for important amendments to existing accounts of Europeanization and varieties of capitalism. Scholars of Europeanization need to incorporate bottom-up re-regulation into their conceptual framework, particularly in response to 'negative integration'. Recent strides in comparative political economy have placed great emphasis on continued divergence, yet this study suggests that even within the presumably unified group of 'non-liberal' coordinated market economies important institutional differences produce very distinct responses in the face of European liberalization. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/politicalscience/9780199551033/toc.html
This book contributes to the understanding of gender and regional inequalities in developing countries. First, it deals with social institutions related to gender inequality and proposes new ...composite indices to measure them. Using these indices, some interesting empirical connections between social institutions related to gender inequality and several relevant development outcomes are examined at the cross-country level. The second part of the book is concerned with the historical development of another type of inequality which is relevant for developing countries: inequality between regions. The topic of regional convergence in Colombia during the last quarter of the 20th century is analyzed using different approaches and focusing on both income and social indicators.
This book aims to answer a number of important questions. To what extent have European countries converged or diverged with EU-wide economic and social indicators over the past 20 years? What have ...been the drivers of convergence? Why do some countries lag behind, while others experience continuous upward convergence? Why are these trajectories not always linear? Particular attention is paid to the role of institutions, actors and industrial relations – focusing on the resources and strategies of governments, employers and trade unions – in nudging EU countries onto an upward convergence path.
Opening with the powerful imagery of incarceration as evoked by an anonymous letter-writer in fifteenth-century Italy, this analysis foregrounds the importance of sustained scholarly attention to how ...the states of exile and imprisonment were experienced, recorded, and endured in medieval and early modern Europe. On the face of it, these two states seem diametrically opposed. However, this approach argues that they were intertwined and discrete experiences. An overview of select relevant scholarship contextualises the contributions to this Special Issue which, together, illuminate the subtleties and complexities in the interaction of convergence and difference between exile and imprisonment in the period.
The goal of this monograph is to assess the course of convergence processes occurring in European housing markets and to identify the effects of this convergence. The publication is part of research ...on the housing sector carried out in many countries. However, it presents not only the most frequently conducted studies on price convergence but is also characterised by a broader perspective, taking into account real and institutional convergence of housing markets. An attempt has been also made to indicate the reasons for this phenomenon and its effects.It is addressed to a wide audience: people researching the theory of economic growth, individuals professionally interested in the issues related to the functioning of real estate markets, and especially to students of programmes that have included real estate issues in their curricula.
An integrated approach to the economics of sovereign default Fiscal crises and sovereign default repeatedly threaten the stability and growth of economies around the world. Mark Aguiar and Manuel ...Amador provide a unified and tractable theoretical framework that elucidates the key economics behind sovereign debt markets, shedding light on the frictions and inefficiencies that prevent the smooth functioning of these markets, and proposing sensible approaches to sovereign debt management. The Economics of Sovereign Debt and Default looks at the core friction unique to sovereign debt—the lack of strong legal enforcement—and goes on to examine additional frictions such as deadweight costs of default, vulnerability to runs, the incentive to "dilute" existing creditors, and sovereign debt's distortion of investment and growth. The book uses the tractable framework to isolate how each additional friction affects the equilibrium outcome, and illustrates its counterpart using state- of-the-art computational modeling. The novel approach presented here contrasts the outcome of a constrained efficient allocation—one chosen to maximize the joint surplus of creditors and government—with the competitive equilibrium outcome. This allows for a clear analysis of the extent to which equilibrium prices efficiently guide the government's debt and default decisions, and of what drives divergences with the efficient outcome.Providing an integrated approach to sovereign debt and default, this incisive and authoritative book is an ideal resource for researchers and graduate students interested in this important topic.
Royuela V. and García G. A. Economic and social convergence in Colombia, Regional Studies. Gross domestic product (GDP) has usually been used as a proxy for human well-being. Nevertheless, other ...social aspects should also be considered, such as life expectancy, infant mortality, educational enrolment and crime issues. This paper investigates economic and social convergence between regions in Colombia in the period 1975-2005. The main results confirm that there is convergence in Colombia in key social variables, although not in the classic economic variable, GDP per capita. It is also found that spatial autocorrelation reinforces convergence processes through deepening market and social factors, while isolation condemns regions to non-convergence
The multilateral trading system faces numerous challenges that are more profound than at any time in its seven-decade history. It has become commonplace to ask whether the system is in terminal ...decline. More than a dozen issues facing the WTO are identified in the paper, eight of which are defined as systemic. That is because they permeate and debilitate multiple facets of the workings of the WTO, including the capacity to negotiate, enforce disciplines, monitor policies, and ensure transparency. In no prioritized order, systemic issues arise in the areas of dispute settlement, development, decision-making, transparency, relations between states and markets, subsidies, emerging issues including climate change and digitalization, and trade and health. Other outstanding issues may not be as pervasive in impact, but can nevertheless undermine WTO relevance and effectiveness. All WTO members stand to lose in the absence of predictable multilateral trade rules that pre-commit parties to certain policies and processes. But in today's world, full convergence of all trade rules is a pipe dream. The system needs to balance convergence with managed divergence. Does the non-discrimination principle need to be layered by prior agreement in ways that ensure mutual gains from exchange?
The creation of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992 and decentralization in 1999 mark the state restructuring in Indonesia. This book analyses the impact of state restructuring on regional economic ...development in Indonesia between 1993 and 2010. Regional economic analysis shows persistent and severe regional disparities throughout the period. Particularly, econometrics study found that decentralization has accelerated regional disparities whilst the AFTA effect is insignificant on regional economic growth.
Furthermore, historical institutionalism analysis on two cities - the manufacturing industry in Batam and the creative economy in Bandung - shows that past and embedded local institutions provide the capacity to adapt and create new development paths. The book suggests the importance of local-specific policies that embrace local knowledge and institutions to develop regional specialization and competitive advantage. This book fills the gap in Indonesian literature that lacks studies on the integrated impact of decentralization and trade liberalization, both economically and politically.
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