Not only Covid‐19 has spread all over the world—the policies responding to this pandemic have also diffused rapidly across countries. In this research note, we present findings from an original ...dataset that features mobility restrictions in all EU/EFTA states as well as the United Kingdom during the first wave of the pandemic. We find that most countries adopted restrictions within a few days only and that restrictions on internal mobility had been introduced prior to restrictions on cross‐border mobility, but that the latter have been more persistent. Furthermore, we observe an evolution from great variation of policy choices at the outset of the pandemic towards convergence. Analyzing the mobility restrictions through a policy diffusion lens, we find tentative evidence for interdependent policy‐making especially in the temporal patterns of adoption. Our research note can serve a basis for future research on policy‐making and policy diffusion in times of crisis.
Zusammenfassung
Nicht nur hat sich Covid‐19 über die ganze Welt verbreitet – auch die politischen Massnahmen in Reaktion auf die Pandemie haben sich rasch über Landesgrenzen hinweg ausgebreitet. Im vorliegenden Forschungsbeitrag präsentieren wir Erkenntnisse aus einem neuen Datensatz zu Mobilitätsbeschränkungen in allen EU/EFTA‐Staaten und Grossbritannien während der ersten Welle der Pandemie. Es zeigt sich, dass die meisten Staaten innerhalb von wenigen Tagen Beschränkungen beschlossen haben, wobei die Beschränkungen der internen Mobilität vor den Beschränkungen der grenzüberschreitenden Mobilität eingeführt wurden, letztere aber länger andauerten. Ausgehend von einer grossen Variation hinsichtlich der Mobilitätsbeschränkungen zu Beginn der Pandemie entwickelt sich eine Konvergenz der Massnahmen gegen Ende der ersten Welle. Wir analysieren die Mobilitätsbeschränkungen aus der Perspektive der Politikdiffusion und finden insbesondere in den zeitlichen Mustern der Einführung Hinweise auf Interdependenz politischer Entscheidungen. Unser Beitrag kann als Grundlage für künftige Forschung zur Politikgestaltung und Politikdiffusion in Krisenzeiten dienen.
Résumé
Non seulement la Covid‐19 s’est propagée dans le monde entier, les politiques de lutte contre cette pandémie se sont aussi rapidement diffusées entre pays. Nous présentons ici les résultats de l’analyse d’une base de données originale qui fait état des restrictions de mobilité dans les États de l’UE/AELE ainsi qu’au Royaume‐Uni lors de la première vague de la pandémie. Nos résultats indiquent que la plupart des pays ont adopté des restrictions en l’espace de quelques jours seulement et que les restrictions à la mobilité interne ont été introduites avant les restrictions à la mobilité transfrontalière, mais que ces dernières ont été plus persistantes. En outre, la grande variation de choix politiques au début de la pandémie a évolué vers une convergence des pratiques. En analysant les restrictions à la mobilité selon une optique de diffusion des politiques, nous trouvons des indices suggérant une certaine interdépendance des politiques, notamment en ce qui concerne la chronologie d'adoption des mesures. Notre contribution peut inspirer de futures recherches sur l'élaboration et la diffusion des politiques en temps de crise.
The global financial crisis affected the flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). This study focuses on two countries in the midst of the financial crisis: Iceland with IMF backup, and Ireland with ...ECB backup. The research focus is on the situation from the broad perspective of international economics and political atmosphere, combining government decisions with economic consequences. We analyze inward foreign direct investment, incorporating factors like economic size and stock market firms, receiving portfolio investment, rather than FDI. Our findings indicate that before the crisis the economic wealth in the domestic market to have positive effects on FDI, and firms receiving portfolio investment on the stock market are competing with FDI. This is the case for both Ireland and Iceland. However, after the crisis, these factors have insignificant impact on FDI.
European states have not only joined several regional organizations (ROs) over time, but ROs’ policy competencies have also broadened in scope. As a result, states are exposed to overlapping ...regionalism, defined as the extent to which ROs share member states and policy competencies at the same time. First, this article identifies patterns of overlapping regionalism in Europe. In second step, it sheds light on consequences from overlapping regionalism for RO effectiveness, more particularly non-compliance. We argue that an increase in the extent to which a member state is exposed to overlapping regionalism increases its probability for violations of RO norms and rules, which reduces RO effectiveness. When states have joined more ROs with similar policy competencies, the number of rules and norms that need to be complied with is higher. Non-compliance also becomes more likely when these rules and norms are not identical or even incompatible.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
ABSTRACT
When the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was founded 60 years ago, the contracting parties established a dispute settlement procedure that sought to strike a balance between the need ...to supervise compliance with the EFTA Convention and the need to respect the sovereignty of the member states. The procedure of Article 31 empowered the EFTA Council to hear interstate complaints, establish examining committees, issue recommendations, and authorize retaliation. This article investigates the successes and failures of this mechanism on the basis of historical documents from the EFTA archives. It provides an overview of the complaints that were brought under Article 31 and analyses how the Council exercised its functions in dealing with these cases. The article evaluates why the complaints procedure quickly fell into disuse, finding that it failed to provide a real alternative to ordinary discussions in the Council. The article argues that lessons can be drawn from this understudied chapter of European integration, concluding that systems of dispute settlement in international economic law should avoid fusing diplomatic and judicial elements if this might preclude an independent evaluation of the legal questions raised in the context of a concrete dispute.
As the formal process of Brexit has already started, there is much uncertainty about Brexit's impacts on Britain's social, political and economic future. This paper examines the economic impact. ...After briefly discussing some significant EU treaties that serve as the background materials, it presents the key arguments advocated by the leave and remain camps. The economic impact depends critically on the negotiation outcomes. Aside from the debate on the divorce costs, there are numerous issues that must be negotiated, such as immigration, trade in goods, services, agriculture, fisheries and financial regulations. We discuss various scenarios of possible new trade regimes, resulting in different impacts on the UK economy. With each side having its bargaining chips to play, the trade‐offs between “give and take” in the negotiation game are analysed. Considering various strategic options, this paper urges rationality and cooperation, especially weighing both sides’ entwined economic interests, in addition to their mutual security, defence, environmental and world concerns. The potential gains and losses in the event where the UK contemplates new trade arrangements with the non‐EU countries are analysed in the Appendix.
Articles 101 and 102 TFEU have become a pattern for competition rules provided in Articles 53 and 54 of the EEA Agreement, which entered into force on 1 January 1994. Both EU competition law and EEA ...competition law can be enforced before national courts. Lodging damage claims in the EU was facilitated by Directive 2014/104/EU. The so-called Antitrust Damages Directive was highly inspired by the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Although Directive 2014/104/EU has not been incorporated into the EEA law, damage claims resulting from violations of EEA competition rules are judged by national courts in the EEA Member States, which is why some aspects of private enforcement of competition law have become a point of interest for the EFTA Court, being – together with the Court of Justice of the European Union – the EEA court. Firstly, the article aims at checking if the EFTA Court jurisprudence on antitrust damage claims follows the guidelines formulated in the case law of the Court of Justice. Since the positive answer to this question is highly probable, secondly, the article aims at identifying the extent of the impact of EU jurisprudence in private enforcement cases on judgments of the EFTA Court. The article concludes that the EFTA Court’s activities regarding antitrust damage claims follow the route indicated by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Four identified judgments regarding – directly or indirectly – antitrust damage claims (Nye Kystlink, Fjarskipti, Schenker I and Schenker V), delivered by the EFTA Court, seem to strengthen its position as an institution that is able to guarantee a coherence between EEA and EU competition law. EFTA Court’s judgments in private enforcement cases are also a point of interest and reference for EU Advocates General and can become an inspiration for both EU and national case law.
Internasjonal handel har helt siden vikingtiden vært viktig for norsk økonomi. Selv om enigheten om hovedlinjene i norsk handelspolitikk har vært stor, finnes det også motsetninger. Ett dilemma er at ...offensive og konkurransedyktige eksportnæringer (som sjømat) ønsker en liberal handelspolitikk for å få tilgang til andre lands markeder, mens defensive næringer (som landbruk) frykter konkurranse og ønsker beskyttelse. Hvordan skal politikere og myndigheter ta hensyn til begge næringer på en gang? Er Norges beskyttelse på landbruksområdet til skade for eksportnæringer som sjømat, eller kan de ulike interessene ivaretas i full harmoni? Denne boken presenterer for første gang en dyptgående og tverrfaglig analyse av interessekonflikter i norsk handelspolitikk, med bidrag fra økonomi, historie og statsvitenskap. Den spenner fra historiske til dagsaktuelle problemstillinger, og inneholder omfattende materiale om norsk handelspolitikk de siste 150 år. Økonomiske virkninger av proteksjonisme og avveininger mellom offensive og defensive interesser blir analysert, samt organiseringen av forhandlinger og effekten av å koble sammen forskjellige saksområder.
The 1950s were a frenetic moment in the European integration process during which the European Economic Community (EEC), the ultimately abortive Free Trade Area (FTA), and subsequently the European ...Free Trade Association (EFTA) were all negotiated. Trade unions showed keen interest in these schemes; moreover, their own highly institutionalised cooperation suggested they might come to play a key role in shaping them. And yet scholars have argued how divergent traditions and domestic pressures precluded the emergence of a coherent trade union platform on European unity. While not rejecting the structural weaknesses of union internationalism in this regard, this article asks why union centres nevertheless continued to engage with one another on the integration question. Focusing on the British Trade Unions Congress (TUC) and deploying a transnational approach to best understand the interaction between the national and international levels, it shows that union linkages still offered the TUC and its counterparts a valuable chance to learn from and persuade others - and even their governments - of their views, objectives and affairs. Such trade union diplomacy was thus in and of itself valuable despite wider union spats and misgivings, and did at times impact the broader language and approach of the countries involved.
This paper analyses Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) investment in Ireland and Iceland from other European countries during two periods, i.e., the pre-financial crisis period of 2000-2007 and the ...financial crisis period of 2008-2010. The aim of this research is to determine what made the countries interesting to foreign investors in both good and bad times; and, secondly, to examine whether European Union membership (and the Euro) made a difference in this respect. The results were obtained by using data from the OECD, the World bank, and other sources. The model constructed for the study applies the inverse hyperbolic sine transformation of the gravity model, which is a novel approach. The results demonstrate that before the financial crisis of 2008, European Union (EU) membership did not help Ireland attract more FDI from other EU countries. However, once it had been hit by the crisis, Ireland attracted more FDI from other EU countries. Iceland, on the other hand, which is not an EU country, attracted FDI from non-EU countries rather than from EU countries before the financial crisis. After the crisis, however, the origin within Europe, of FDI in Iceland had no significant effect on the flow of FDI into the country.
This article investigates the effects of innovation attempts on the venture capital and investment activity in the cases of the selected European Union plus European Free Trade Agreement countries ...using annual panel data and by controlling for real income growth and business sophistication. Our findings suggest that innovation has positively significant effects on venture capital in the cases without opt-out countries (United Kingdom and Denmark); however, these effects become negative in the cases with opt-out countries. Policy implications are provided in the conclusion section of this study.
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