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The article offers information on the publication policy for the special issue of the "Business & Society" journal concentrating on the concept of united nations global compact.

This article develops the concept of "smaller-scale platforms," distinguishing them from both large-scale, infrastructural platforms (such as Silicon Valley giants and Chinese infotech monopolies), and small, single-use platforms. To do so, it presents an ethnographic case study of the Chinese-owned, multinational entertainment live-streaming platform, Bigo Live. The article argues that smaller-scale platforms, positioned at the fringe of the internet business ecosystem, are non-infrastructural yet still serve as integral components of the larger, global platform economy and international trade. The ethnography presented shows how smaller-scale platforms target niche and occasionally unconventional markets, offering specialized services within agile, cross-platform, and transnational business sectors. The ethnography also depicts the naturalization of the Chinese "internet thinking" business model, as well as unusual and even extreme events among Chinese expatriate platform personnel, local non-Chinese employees, guilds of live-streamers, the live-streaming audience, and other stakeholders operating within complex geopolitical contexts. Finally, the paper delineates prospective research trajectories stemming from the theorization of smaller-scale platforms, articulating potential inquiries that could enhance scholarly understanding within this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates the long-term impact of Chinese RMB exchange rate movements on the trade balance between China and the Eastern African Belt and Road Initiative countries. The Pedroni cointegration analysis and the fully modified and dynamic OLS techniques are applied to the dataset from UNComtrade and China Statistical Yearbook 2019. Some specification novelties are the use of imports and exports as independent variables. By so doing, the paper proposes an alternative measure of the trade balance. We find that the RMB exchange rate movements are stable during the sample period and slightly affect the trade balance between China and the Eastern African BRI countries. Additionally, the study does not find evidence supporting the J-curve effect in China-East Africa trade balance. The empirical results suggest that the Eastern African BRI countries would gain much more trading collectively with China than individually. Therefore, the study strongly recommends that the East African Community accelerate its integration process and establish Export Quotas for trade outside the bloc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the theoretical concept of perceived resource access security in order to assess the link between natural resource scarcity and interstate conflict. It develops the hypothesis that resource access through international trade is an important determinant for conflict behaviour of states arising from resource concerns, implying a shift in focus away from endowments and towards competition for access. The main analysis is conducted in the form of a unit fixed effects logistic regression covering country-dyads of the period 1962–2010 with military interstate dispute (MID) initiation as dependent variable. The empirical findings consistently demonstrate that a diversified position in resource supply networks mitigates the conflict propensity of states characterized by outside dependence for access to natural resources, and thereby help to determine conditions under which trade reduces conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's manufacturing industry has emerged as a major contributor to both the nation's economic growth and global trade. Achieving high-quality development in this sector is not only crucial for China's sustainable progress but also holds significant implications for the global economy. Considering the importance of Chinese manufacturing industry, this paper establishes a framework for exploring the mechanism of manufacture industry's high-quality development in China's three economic regions based on the Driver-Pressure-State-Response (DPSR) model and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). SEM is established for analyzing the multiple paths of manufacture industry's high-quality development in the eastern, middle and western economic region of China. The findings reveal distinct patterns in each region. In the eastern region, a unidirectional path of "Driver-Pressure-State-Response" is confirmed, with a particular emphasis on quality improvement and efficiency increase. The middle region exhibits a leapfrog path characterized by "Driver-Pressure-State" and "Pressure-Response," where quality improvement and dynamic conversion play critical roles. Conversely, the western region demonstrates an interrupt path of "Pressure-State-Response," highlighting the significance of structural rationalization and dynamic conversion. Based on these results, sustainable solutions and suggestions for promoting high-quality development in the manufacturing industry are proposed, providing valuable targeted insights for the transformation and advancement of China's manufacturing sector. This study makes a novel contribution by developing a DPSR-SEM model and expands literature and knowledge in high-quality development of manufacturing industry. Practically, this study can guide decision-makers, managers, and stakeholders in understanding the interactions between driving forces, pressures, states, and responses in the context of manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global trade is seafaring commerce; 90% of traded goods are carried by maritime transport, which has become vulnerable to security risks. This has led governments to initiate security programs serving tens of thousands of members worldwide. This paper studies the government's incentive design and the interaction between Customs inspection capacity and the incentives offered in security programs. Using the theory of incentives, we investigate the value of a partnership in improving the security of containerized supply chain. We developed a sequential game featuring the government, firms, and an adversary. The government selects the inspection capacity and incentives to foster the partnership, namely, an operational benefit in the form of a reduced inspection rate, and a security benefit obtained through reductions in the risks of adversarial infiltration. Firms subsequently decide on a collaboration level, followed by a strategic adversary's decision to infiltrate. Using the adversary's best response, we show that, in equilibrium, the government ranks all the firms and induces collaboration with only a subset of them. We demonstrate that, in equilibrium, while security incentives may benefit all participants, tailored operational incentives should be offered strictly to foster collaboration. The required condition to implement the inspection‐free lane for members is also characterized. Our results also inform practice to help security policymakers understand the underlying interaction between Customs inspection capacity and incentive design in forging collaboration with private firms. In particular, as firms opting for collaboration experience lower inspection rates, this further reduces overall congestion, which, in turn, creates a positive externality for nonmember firms. Therefore, having an excess inspection capacity may result in shorter wait times that could dissuade firms from collaborating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the development of China's economic ties with Southeast Asia over the last two decades, culminating in the inauguration of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) in 2010. Particular reference is made to China's trade ties with Indonesia. Although two-way trade between China and Indonesia has grown rapidly since 2000, Indonesian exports to China are dominated by primary products, while imports from China are dominated by manufactures. While this pattern might reflect short-term comparative advantage in both economies, it is causing some concern in Indonesia. The paper assesses these concerns, and possible political reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the positioning of Vietnam in international trade. It addresses the key question of how Vietnam uses its participation in international trade agreements as a tool to ensure and advance national interest and security through increased economic power. The paper first examines how Vietnam participates in the international integration of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), and then looks at the importance for Vietnam to be outward-looking; that is, to participate in trade agreements outside the South-East Asian region. Finally, I examine how reforms required under international trade agreements push Vietnam into domestic economic reforms. My conclusion is that the political elite of Vietnam has identified trade, export-oriented growth and international economic integration as international policy preferences and has used international trade integration as a strategic instrument to maximise these national priorities within the regional and international trade system. Therefore, Vietnam has a very strategic view on international trade integration and uses it as an instrument to ensure its national interest and security through increased economic power. Through careful selection of trade agreements, Vietnam aims to position itself in a strategically advantageous position vis-à-vis other economies of the AEC, to ensure continued economic growth through preferential access to key markets and to push through some of the more difficult and sensitive domestic economic reforms, using its commitments under external trade agreements as a lock-in mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's growing presence in Africa is not news: the expansion of bilateral trade and investment ties has garnered intense media and political focus over the past decade. However, less is known about the people accompanying these increasingly intensive flows of goods and capital. This paper focuses on Zambia, drawing on multiple primary datasets to shed light on both the scale and nature of Chinese migration to the continent. Two years of Department of Immigration employment-permit data serve as the basis for the first quantitative analysis of the "Chinese" in "Africa," illuminating the increasing diversity of this population flow. While the growing Chinese presence in Africa is often viewed as a coherent neocolonialist strategy planned and implemented by the Chinese state, this paper demonstrates that it is in fact typified by a multitude of both public and private actors with independent motives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to industrial management. The Annual International Labour Process Conference remains a leading forum for critical discussion of major issues in the study of work, including capitalist and post-communist restructuring, gender and other social divisions in the workforce, the impact of new technologies, the state and employment practices, contemporary management strategies, work place democracy, occupational change and class relations, the meaning and nature of work, trade unions and worker resistance, globalization and multinationals. A workshop titled "Changing forms of Economic Organization: Firms, Markets and Work Organization," will be organized by the European Science Foundation on April 21-23, 1995. The workshop will examine the changing relations between work systems and governance structures of economic actors in different European countries as international competition increases and the number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions grows.

In this paper ABARE's Global Trade and Environment Model (GTEM) is used to analyse the potential of international emissions trading as a mechanism for helping to achieve the abatement commitments agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol. The prospect of two emission trading blocs, one consisting of the European Union and eastern Europe and the other consisting of many of the remaining Annex I regions, is also considered. The analysis shows that the carbon penalty varies significantly across regions when no emissions trading is allowed. In aggregate, the cost of abatement to Annex I regions falls with emissions trading. Under the assumption of the two trading blocs, the carbon penalty in the European bloc is higher than with full Annex I trading. The paper also considers the impact on developing countries and the role of carbon leakage in determining the economic impacts on Annex I regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Political Science Review is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The comparative advantage theory perspective has been extended to the public innovation and trade openness of OECD and Non-OECD countries by focusing on the role of tariff and asymmetric effect of trade openness by comparing imports and exports growth with the causal relationship among the respective factors. The study's findings indicate that trade openness, innovation, and tariffs are linked in developing countries more than in developed countries due to the difference in economic perspectives and policies, which disprove the idea of the tariff being ineffective for developed nations. The causality effectiveness in developed and underdeveloped countries has resulted among public innovation toward openness of trade and tariff but not in case of tariff to trade openness. Additionally, the results hold up to sub-indicators and measures of public innovation, evaluating that input sub-index is more impactful than output sub-index, and both are even stronger in developing countries than developed countries. Finally, this study implied the usefulness of monetary policy to encourage the governments to lower import tariffs, paved the way to increased investment in research and development and collaboration between foundations, businesses, and academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe's dependence on Russian gas imports has been the subject of increasing political concern after gas conflicts between Russia and Ukraine in 2006 and 2009. This paper assesses the potential impact of Russian unreliability on the European gas market, and how it affects European gas import strategy. We also study to what extent Europe should invest in strategic gas storage capacity to mitigate the effects of possible Russian unreliability. The European gas import market is described by differentiated competition between Russia and a - more reliable - competitive .fringe of other exporters. The results show that Russian contract volumes and prices decline significantly as a function of unreliability, so that not only Europe but also Russia suffers if Russia's unreliability increases. For Europe, buying gas from more reliable suppliers at a price premium turns out to be generally more attractive than building strategic gas storage capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results of simulating a more collusive behavior of a group of natural gas producing and exporting countries, sometimes called GASPEC. We use the World Gas Model, a dynamic, strategic representation of world gas production, trade, and consumption between 2005 and 2030. In particular, we simulate a closer cooperation of the GASPEC countries when exporting pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas; we also run a more drastic scenario where GASPEC countries deliberately hold back production. The results show that compared to our Base Case, a gas cartel would reduce total supplied quantities and induce price increases in gas importing countries up to 22%. There is evidence that the natural gas markets in Europe and North America would be affected more than other parts of the world. Lastly, the vulnerability of gas importers worldwide is further illustrated by the results of a sensitivity case in which price levels are up to 87% higher in Europe and North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Africa Spectrum is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates how far OPEC influences world oil markets. We ask the question: What is the impact of the decisions of the OPEC Conference, the supreme authority of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, on world oil prices? Extracting the Conference's decisions from the communiqués of fifty meetings from 1984-2001, these decisions were compared with the subsequent market developments. The result is that this impact is weak at best, and if at all then restricted to meetings recommending a price increase. However, the opposite claim (found in the literature) -- the Conference is simply following the market -- was also not supported either. Another interesting observation is the little autocorrelation between the decisions of the Conference. This suggests that the ministers' decisions accommodate quickly and efficiently recent events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2023, the grain deal was denounced by Russia. Its termination was followed by massive bombing of Ukraine's grain infrastructure. However, its signature in July 2022 had been welcomed by international organisations as good news for global food security. This article discusses the relevance of the concept of food security for understanding the difficulties of the grain deal. Ultimately, it suggests a theoretical revision of the concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the hierarchical market economy (HME) category does not provide an adequate starting point for addressing capitalist diversity in Latin America. Building from a critical perspective on the global commodity chain (GCC) and global production network (GPN) approaches, it instead considers the impact of firms’ transnational relations and the often neglected role of working-class struggles. It will argue that capitalist diversity can only be understood at the nexus of these ostensibly global and local phenomena; and by specifying the strategic decisions taken by firms in Argentina’s automobile industry, it will account for the failure of that sector. Finally, it examines the role of working-class struggles in the industry in Córdoba, Argentina, arguing that these were vital in shaping the specific and unstable form of capitalist diversity in Argentina, as well as potential alternatives to it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the evolution of gross retail margins for automotive fuels in Spain between January 2001 and February 2013. We firstly empirically test for breaks in the time series of gross margins. Our results indicate that there is only one break-point, in mid-2008, just when the demand for automotive fuels drops due to the economic crisis and the difference between the Spanish and the European retail margins increase notably. In addition, a regression analysis shows that the gross retail margins were higher during the recessive period of the Spanish economy (2008-2013) than before. Furthermore, we examine the causes of the break-point and of the subsequent evolution of margins. We find no evidence to support either the prohibition of using retail price maintenance (RPM) and recommended prices in the supply contracts or a supply cost change of automotive fuels as the cause of the evolution of retail margins. In addition, empirical evidence indicates that retail prices respond symmetrically to changes in wholesale prices. Instead, we show that the data are consistent with some firms exercising market power during the recessive period of the Spanish economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether oil price volatility affects bilateral trade between two countries around the world. Using the gravity econometric model with 1,995 country-pairs covering 117 countries from 1984 to 2009, the empirical results suggest that oil price fluctuations significantly decrease bilateral trade volumes. The negative impact is more prominent the greater the distance between the two trading countries. As geographical distance is one of the measures of transport cost, our results also suggest that a potential channel through which oil price volatility hurts trade volumes is the uncertainty in transport cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seaborne steam coal market has changed in recent years; demand has grown fast, important players have emerged, and since 2007 prices have increased significantly and remained relatively high. In this paper, we analyze steam coal market equilibria in the years 2006 and 2008 by testing for two possible market structure scenarios: perfect competition and an oligopoly setup with major exporters competing in quantities. The assumed oligopoly scenario cannot explain market equilibria for any year. While we find that the competitive model simulates market equilibria well in 2006, the competitive model is yet not able to reproduce real market outcomes in 2008. The analysis shows that not all available supply capacity was utilized in 2008. We conclude that either unknown capacity bottlenecks or more sophisticated non-competitive strategies were the cause for the high prices in 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's foreign policy has been characterized in the last decade by a heightened interest in reaching out to Latin America, particularly to countries rich in natural resources and with potential markets for Chinese exports, and Chile is one of these countries. The paper shows that even though the Chilean economy has benefitted from the signing of the FTA, it also faces potential risks. To continue to benefit, Chile needs to boost exports in other potential export sectors (value-added products or services) and should attempt to attract more Chinese FDI to Chile's export industry. The export of raw materials (particularly nonrenewable ones) is not always sustainable in the long term. The roles of the Chilean state and the private sector in attracting Chinese investment and enhancing diversification of exports of value-added products are crucial for the future of the economy of Chile and its relationship with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the commercial relationship between Mexico and China in the context of the liberalization policies enacted by both countries. The policies were developed in the framework of economic globalization and worldwide strategic military power, starting from the end of the Cold War. Against this backdrop, the paper analyses the current trade relations between China and Mexico. The text emphasizes the public policy of both countries, presenting similarities and asymmetries along with the results of their commercial policies and specific business practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's footprint in African trade grows larger by the day, the need to contextualize this rise through comparative analysis becomes ever more necessary. This paper contrasts the sub-Saharan trade relations of both China and Europe with their respective designated stereotypes: those of a dragon and a dove. The article compares the trade dynamics on four levels: the policies and institutional mechanisms that shape the relationship; the composition of the trade flows; the geographic distribution of trade dominance; and the influence of norms and values on the trade pattern. It concludes that although there are empirical grounds behind these stereotypes, Chinese and European trade relations with sub-Saharan Africa are becoming more similar, partly due to a more hawkish European stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to bring out the effect of economic reforms introduced in India on the direction of virtual water trade (through trade of agricultural products). The study also identifies the dual role that virtual water has in an economy. It is a source of export earnings (benefit side), but at the same time there is a loss of virtual water (cost side) through agricultural trade. The study is novel in the sense that it not only identifies the trade-off between benefits and costs of virtual water trade for India, but also tries to capture the impact of phases of globalisation on the trade-off. The cost side has serious implications on sustainability and territorial equity. In order to address the issues more coherently, we have to introduce a concept of virtual water miles. Then we argue with intuitive reasoning about the possible effects of virtual water trade on sustainability as well as on territorial equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which future United States demand for natural gas is satisfied by imports of LNG is contingent on the adequacy and cost competitiveness of North American supplies. One of the cheaper and more important sources of natural gas supply is accounted for by reserve appreciation, i.e., reserve growth, in known fields. Based on an extensively applied methodology developed by Arrington (1960), the increase in proved ultimate recovery is presumed to increase at a diminishing rate with the age of the field. In this paper, a single equation model of natural gas reserve growth in the Gulf of Mexico is developed and estimated. The results strongly suggest that the annual growth rate in the reserves of afield is significantly affected by initial discovery size, price, water depth, and unobserved field-specific effects. Hence, estimating oil and gas reserve growth using an Arrington based approach may underestimate the response of reserve growth to changes in economic fundamentals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interdependence of electricity and natural gas is becoming a major energy policy and regulatory issue in all jurisdictions around the world. The increased role of gas fired plants in renewable-based electricity markets and the dependence on natural gas imports make this issue particular important for the European energy market. In this paper we provide a comprehensive combined analysis of electricity and natural gas infrastructure with an applied focus: We analyze three different scenarios of the long-term European decarbonization pathways, and analyze the interrelation between electricity and natural gas markets on investments in the long run and spatial aspects in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the colonial period, Laos welcomed the smallest overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, communities that almost disappeared after the communist forces seized power in Laos in 1975. Yet, this landlocked country shares a long history with China and even experienced a Golden Age thanks to the thriving caravan trade between Yunnan and mainland Southeast Asia. The Greater Mekong Subregion initiative, a development programme launched by the Asian Development Bank, has revitalized these historical trade routes, causing thousands of Chinese migrants to pour onto the new roads of Laos, channelled through the North-South Economic Corridor linking Kunming to Bangkok. Depicted as "an army of ants" that plunders the natural resources of this poor country, these Chinese migrants are also the main drivers of development. The paper seeks to examine the specificity of China's engagement in Laos. I suggest that this small and forgotten country can provide insightful lessons to better understand the current changes taking place in Chinese migration worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the economic impacts of China's reemergence on Brazil, looking at both the direct effects of China on Brazil in terms of bilateral trade and investment flows and the indirect effects through increased competition in export markets for manufactured goods and higher world prices for primary commodities. Despite a surge in Chinese FDI in Brazil in 2010, the main driver of bilateral relations is trade. While bilateral trade has grown rapidly, the pattern that has emerged has given rise to concern because Brazil's exports are concentrated in a small number of primary products while imports from China are almost entirely of manufactured goods that are becoming more technologically sophisticated over time. Brazil has benefitted in the short term from the high prices of primary commodities (partly caused by growing Chinese demand), but has lost export markets to China in manufactures, contributing to the "primarization" of the country's export basket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European natural gas market is characterized by declining indigenous resources, particularly in the UK and the Netherlands, and a growing dependence on a small number of large exporters who, as a consequence, see their market power increasing. In this paper we analyze long-run scenarios for the European natural gas markets in a model, NATGAS, that explicitly includes both factors, resource constraints and producers' market power. Finite resources lead to interdependencies of current production decisions and future opportunities. These decisions in turn depend on the potential for large producers to set market prices above marginal costs. We analyze the impact of conditions on the global LNG market on market shares of pipeline gas suppliers, as well as on the speed of depletion of indigenous European resources. We focus on how shadow prices of resource constraints affect substitution patterns in the various scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a quantitative framework for discussing the gas pricing policy in the countries of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) where gas prices are set directly or indirectly by the governments. It concludes that the price of gas in most MENA countries is substantially below its economic cost, resulting in wasteful use of gas and electricity, deployment of inefficient technologies, and huge burden on government budgets. The low gas price also causes a bias in favor of gas export projects while at the same time reduces investors' interest in the upstream and downstream gas sector. The implications are most interesting about four countries -- Algeria, Qatar, Egypt and Iran -- where each country has to revisit its gas allocation policy and where each government is trying to de-link investors' interest from domestic gas prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

* AIMS This paper examines changes in alcohol import in Denmark between 2003 and 2006, after the excise tax on spirits in Denmark was lowered by 45% on October 1, 2003, and travellers' allowances for alcohol import were increased on January 1, 2004. Additionally, the paper seeks to develop a profile of alcohol importers and analyse the relation between the distance to the German border and import behaviour, as Germany is the main alcohol import country for Denmark. DATA Cross-sectional and panel data from Denmark, from 2003 to 2006, were analyzed. Samples were collected by telephone interviews, using random digit dialing. * RESULTS While the percentage of people who imported alcohol fell over time, the amount of alcohol purchased rose for those who did import. Distance to the German border was inversely related to the likelihood of importing and the level of imported amounts. Heavy drinkers and those with higher incomes were more likely to import, and heavy drinkers imported higher amounts than moderate drinkers or abstainers. * CONCLUSION Distance of residence from the German border', socio-economic status and drinking behaviour are related to private alcohol import in Denmark. Policy changes resulted in a shift to fewer people importing higher amounts of alcohol so that the overall import level did not change substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the transition from plan to market China achieved great benefits from adopting a gradualist approach, and avoided many of the issues that plagued those countries in Eastern Europe which pursued a 'big-bang' model of reform. Nevertheless, economic change in China has been very rapid, and has accelerated since China joined the WTO in 2001. It is now clear that major problems and imbalances have been building up within China's framework of 'sustained gradualism' - sustained and cumulative opening to market forces and to private agents, both Chinese and foreign, combined with only limited evolution of the institutions, structures and policies to govern and shape the market. As a result, the Chinese Government has decided that a major reorientation of development strategy is now required. This paper discusses aspects of this critical issue, with particular emphasis on the federalism and governance issues and on health reform as a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews several themes from the writings of W. Arthur Lewis, both the first black Nobel Laureate in Economics and the first from a developing country, and examines them from the perspective of two to five decades of hindsight. The paper emphasizes three main interrelated aspects; economic growth, economic dualism, and “the evolution of the economic order”—the forces that drive the prices of goods and relative incomes across countries. Lewis’s messages still resonate today, as he foresaw the rise of industrial exports from developing countries—and also that it would not end the large gaps among nations’ standards of living. The paper both documents these rises and asks whether one could have predicted it from information available in the 1960s, or whether additional prescience was necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first of a two-part paper introducing a risk-based global coordination system in a distributed environment for collaborative design. Part I presents the basic concepts and a theoretical framework, and Part II describes the implementation and practical application to a National Science Foundation supported collaborative network. In a distributed environment, local negotiations within a stakeholder group (intra-stakeholder) and global negotiations among stakeholders (inter-stakeholder) co-exist. Strategic support is necessary to facilitate the integrative negotiation at the both intra- and inter- levels for effective distributed decision making. The challenge is that the distributed stakeholders have different subjective risk perceptions, interpretations and evaluations, which can be inconsistent and incoherent from a global perspective, and thus create considerable barriers for effective negotiation and coordination. Our approach is to (1) understand and capture heterogeneous risk evaluations at intra- and inter-levels, (2) represent and quantify all participants' subjective risk evaluations using a uniform structure, and (3) facilitate the negotiations through a risk-based coordination mechanism designed to achieve a globally consistent risk assessment (building consensus). The long-term goal of this work is to achieve a more fundamental understanding and develop useful tools for effective collaborative design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the informational efficiency, of the Alberta electricity market and also the issue of whether interchange transactions (power flows between markets) are becoming increasingly significant factors in electric power markets. In doing so, we use hourly data for all hours, peak hours, and off-peak hours over the period from January 1st, 1999 to July 31st, 2005. In testing the efficiency of the Alberta power market, we use a statistical physics approach -- namely the 'detrending moving average (DMA)' technique, introduced by Alessio et al. (2002) and further developed by Carbone et al. (2004a, 2004b), and recently applied to energy futures markets by Serletis and Rosenberg (2007), In analyzing the relationship between power imports and exports and pool prices, we assess whether regulatory, changes have modified the causal relationship between import/export volumes and the pool price. According to our results, the electricity market in Alberta is highly inefficient and cross-border trade of electricity between Alberta and neighbouring jurisdictions helps predict the price dynamics in Alberta's electricity market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the challenge of regulation across national borders using the example of the shipping industry. It examines the success of different global regulatory strategies in the sector; specifically the implementation of smart regulation and enforced self-regulation. In doing so it draws upon empirical research into the enforcement of labour standards via port-State control in India, Russia and the UK, and the regulation of training in Singapore, Philippines and the UK. It concludes that effective global regulation faces considerable challenges. Within the relatively conducive environment of shipping it finds that smart regulation has been vitiated by perceived inconsistency in inspection practice and that enforced self-regulation has been rendered less effective by cross-national differences in resourcing and regulatory commitment, compounded by the difficulties of paper-based validation. It argues that, in relation to issues of effective global governance, the shipping industry may stand as a critical case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies three defining features of globalisation that have been habitually misrepresented by the anti-globalisation movement. First, that globalisation entails a universal shift towards economic liberalisatlon, rather than a selective liberalisation with particular disadvantage to the Third World. The movement also bewails the erosion of traditional economic functions in Northern governments, thus diminishing their agency in globalisation and largely absolving them of responsibility for it. Instead, the focus of protest should shift from international financial institutions (IFIS) to the state-IFI interface. Finally, the movement fails to engage with the ever-changing nature of capitalism's structural search for expanding profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade in e-commerce is well known to have benefited individuals, firms and countries in the developed world. However, according to organizations including the WTO, OECD and UNCTAD, as well as the USA and EU, trade in e-commerce is also a means of improving the overall economic growth and performance of less developed nations. In fact, the WTO considers e-commerce to be the key force in integrating LDCs into the multilateral trading system. This paper sets out to problematize this view, not by arguing that e-commerce cannot make an important contribution to development, but by querying the assumptions that underpin current thinking. We start by repairing these defects: the absence of any role for the state; the underestimation of polarization in society and its effect on economic growth; and the failure to distinguish between types of e-commerce. Employing the participation and enhancement classification of e-commerce adoption, we consider whether developing states are ready for the participation phase of e-commerce, if developing countries have the kinds of industries that might act as demand-pull sectors for e-commerce growth, and whether social, political and institutional arrangements are in place to encourage and sustain e-commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is perhaps understandable that until the fall of the Soviet Union, the study of Marxism within the discipline of international relations was restricted largely to discussion of the state ideology Marxism-Leninism. The events of 1989, and the spectacular rise of the sub-discipline of international political economy in the context of globalisation, have, somewhat paradoxically, led to a resurgence of interest in critical, open forms of Marxism. Attempts to break away from the dogmatism of Marxism-Leninism whilst avoiding the complementary error of humanistic subjectivism have, of course, a long tradition in marxist thought.[1] Consistent with the 'open', critical tradition is the work produced by, amongst others, Luxemburg, Korsch, Bloch, Rubin, Pashukanis, Rosdolsky, the Italian tradition of 'autonomist' Marxism and the work of contributors to debates on value and the state held in the early years of the Conference of Socialist Economists.[2] This paper briefly outlines the contribution the 'CSE tradition' offers to the study of international relations and the fashionable analysis of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tariff rate quota (TRQ) is a widely utilized market access instrument in global agricultural trade that allows a predetermined quantity of a product to be imported at a lower tariff rate than the usual rate. This study examines the design and administration of TRQ systems from an operations management perspective and analyzes their impact on market access, fill rates, and revenue for policymakers. We investigate the two most common TRQ administration methods, namely, licensing and first‐come, first‐served (FCFS) systems. We characterize the Nash equilibria (NE) of importers' strategies and observe how information delays and lead times can result in under‐utilization (i.e., imports being less than the quota limit) in licensing and over‐utilization (i.e., imports exceeding the quota limit) in FCFS TRQ systems. We introduce a dual TRQ system and demonstrate its superiority over licensing and FCFS systems. We study the effects of stock‐keeping options through customs‐bonded warehouses and the choice of logistics channels on arrival patterns and fill rates. We conduct a case study of the United Kingdom and the European Union imported beef market using customs data. Our numerical study provides an explanation for the suboptimality of the current TRQ systems and proposes modifications to transform the existing systems. Our findings offer practical directions for agricultural traders to reassess their supply chain strategies by considering the logistical implications of TRQ systems and understanding their competition. This study also urges policymakers to adopt an integrative approach in (re)designing TRQ systems, recognizing the pivotal role of supply chains in global agricultural trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the economic impacts of carbon abatement programs proposed under the Kyoto protocol: the distribution of economic burden across countries and regions, the implications for international competitiveness, and the consequences of international permit trading. Our analysis is based on a dynamic global trade model which accounts for systematic differences in the energy efficiency of production in industrial and developing countries. Emission limits adversely affect the welfare of industrial and some developing countries, including all of the oil-exporting countries. Imports from Annex-B countries become more costly while demand for most developing country exports is reduced. Oil prices simultaneously fall, so the net impact on oil-importing developing countries is ambiguous. Energy-intensive industries have a strong economic incentive to relocate production to low-energy cost developing countries. Global trading in emission rights provides the lowest cost path to Kyoto, but it is unclear whether there are incentives for all non-Annex B countries to participate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has three purposes: 1) to identify the near-term costs to the United States of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol; 2) to assess the significance of the Protocol's "flexibility provisions"; and, 3) to evaluate the Kyoto targets in the context of the long-term goal of the Framework Convention. We find that the short-term U.S. abatement costs of implementing this Protocol are likely to be substantial. These costs can be reduced through international trade in emission rights. The magnitude of the costs will be determined by the number of countries participating in the trading market, the shape of each country's marginal abatement cost curve, and the extent to which buyers can satisfy their obligation through the purchase of emission rights. Finally and perhaps most important: unless the ultimate concentration target is well below 550 ppmv, the Protocol seems to be inconsistent with a long-term strategy for stabilizing global concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument of this paper is that successful economic development within the 'Third World' depends on the ability of a state to lead its national society to controlled participation in the world market. The first part of the paper produces a model of the requisite state capacity. What matters is 'bounded autonomy': states need to be, at one and the same time, autonomous from and yet constrained by their societies. The second part of the paper examines the recent economic performance of five major regions -- East Asia, India, China, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa -- in the light of the model, thereby lending empirical support to its basic contours. The conclusion notes that the factors used to create the model must be placed in historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about various news items related to management. Both business and non-profit organizations are faced with accelerating changes in their environments. These changes can be observed in the political, social, economic and technological environments. The expansion and increasing integration of the European Community changes the condition for competition among enterprises. Regional integrations have been emerging in other continents as well. Globalization of business activities is also an emerging trend which needs adequate responses from firms. Papers may focus on different aspects of managing in a global economy including issues of policy and strategy, human resource management, industrial relations, trade, structure of organizations, productivity, technological innovation, social and cultural issues, and issues arising out of Europe's present and future integration and their implications for increasingly global economies. Papers are invited on the general topic of organizational complexity. Five themes will be developed at the conference: theoretical perspectives on organizational and institutional complexity; research methodologies for the study of organizational complexity; models of organizations and institutions as complex evolving systems; practical tools, methods and approaches testing the application of complexity in organizational processes; an open category for changing concepts and critical approaches in the study of complexity in the organizational sciences.

The European internal market has increased politicians' interest in the implications of the new international situation for public administration. In particular, collaboration between regional and local authorities is regarded as important in order to accomplish economies of scale and scope. In this context, the Euregion Maas-Rhine - an area consisting of five regions in three nations, encompassing three languages - is a peculiar and complex example. Using network ideas as a theoretical framework, this paper describes and analyzes attempts to generate collaboration in this region. It highlights various recommendations for the practice of transborder interorganizational cooperation and considers the implications for the further development of network theory, a branch of organization theory which is becoming increasingly important for both business and public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the first "second-generation" free trade agreements that address indirect and non-tariff barriers, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is likely to serve as an international model. CETA, however, highlights significant challenges for Canadian federalism in both the negotiation and implementation processes of this and any such future trade agreements. While the inclusion of sub-federal governments allows for provinces/territories to help shape the provisions that fall within their jurisdictions, this paper argues that subsequent challenges arise in conveying a unified Canadian commitment to implement the agreement. Overall, the CETA negotiations demonstrated the significant institutional weaknesses of current federal-provincial/territorial relations with respect to international trade agreements. In the Canadian context, this suggests a need for ''summit federalism'' to ensure that all federal-provincial/territorial governments align their terms and interests and convey a unified commitment to fulfilling Canada's current and future international trade agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical offices frequently use cutoff sampling to determine which businesses in a population should be surveyed. Examples include business surveys about international trade, production, innovation, ICT usage and so on. Cutoff thresholds are typically set in terms of key variables of interest and aim to satisfy a minimum coverage ratio–the share of aggregate values of reporting units. In this article we propose a simple cost-benefit approach to determination of the sampling cutoff by taking into account the response burden. In line with existing practice, we use the coverage ratio as our measure of accuracy and provide either analytical or numerical solutions to cutoff determination. Using a business survey on response burden of reporting trade flows within the EU (Intrastat), we present an application that illustrates our approach to cutoff determination. An important practical implication is the possibility to set industry-contingent cutoffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]