Search

The international recovered paper trade serves two important functions: increasing raw material availability in the paper and board industry and providing economic incentives to recycle. The purpose of this paper is to shed further light on emerging patterns in this trade by empirically analysing the changes in the bilateral trade flows of recycled paper between 1992 and 2008. According to our estimations, two important changes occurred in the 1990s and 2000s. First, the growing importance of developing economies in global recycled paper trade plays a significant role in import demand as a determinant of trade flows. Second, the changes in global trade patterns necessitate investigating the transportation cost measures used in applied research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to establish the extent to which Oman is capable of attracting more of the foreign direct investment (FDI) through dunning model instruments. The results of the analysis are determined using responses provided by the foreign companies concerning the features of Oman. Data used in the analysis were collected from 30 different foreign companies operating in Dhofar region of Oman using questionnaires. ANOVA test, Chi-square tests and Friedman's mean ranks were carried out to test the homogeneity and magnitude of the responses given by the respective companies. the findings of Effect size analysis indicate that Oman's system structure, Policy framework, provision of facilities and ease of access are strongly contributing in attracting FDI. However, Oman needs to focus on the improvement of business friendly environment and compassionate policy formation in favor of investors.

This paper examines the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) "PISA for Schools," a new variant of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that compares school-level performance on reading, math and science with international schooling systems (e.g., Shanghai-China, Finland). Specifically, I focus here on a professional learning community--the "Global Learning Network" (GLN)--of U.S. schools and districts that have voluntarily participated in PISA for Schools, and how this, arguably, helps to normatively determine "what works" in education. Drawing suggestively across diverse thinking around contemporary modes of governance, and emerging topological spaces and relations associated with globalization, and informed by interviews with 33 policy actors across the PISA for Schools policy cycle, my analyses suggest that GLN allows the OECD to discursively and normatively constrain how "world-class" schools and systems, and their policies and practices, are defined. However, and in light of the productive capacities of power relations, I also argue that GLN provides opportunities for local educators and leaders to undertake meaningful collaboration and sharing, and to find policy spaces outside of those defined by more performative discursive framings of school accountability. To this end, I explore how GLN may help to foster alternative policy spaces from which educators can "talk back" to national and state authorities, and potentially promote more "authentic" understandings of, and possibilities for, schooling accountability.

The Irish Economy is at an interesting and dynamic phase of its development and people are faced with major decisions that will impact on the Irish society for many years to come. These decisions are and must be made by all who are in a position to influence. Economic evolution or revolution is not new and is most certainly not new to these shores. The Irish Economy has undergone a number of significant evolutions and revolutions since the 1950s. In the 1990s people started to see the emergence of the "knowledge economy" and the "Dot Com" companies. The Iona Technology Organisation comes to mind, along with the Intels of this world. In the first decade of this millennium people have been introduced to a new phenomenon--the Service Economy. While people can debate the time of the various evolutions and the impact of each, they need to accept that this evolution is part of the changing Irish Economy. In this article, the author discusses the debate about the impact of the changing Irish Economy and what can be done to influence the impact of the changes that are thrust upon by the evolution. The author offers some suggestions to open the debate.

The Food Safety Knowledge Network (FSKN) is a collaboration between Michigan State University, the Global Food Safety Initiative of the Consumer Goods Forum, and other food industry and public sector partners. FSKN's goal is to help strengthen the food industry's response to the complex food safety knowledge and training challenges that affect emerging markets by providing free access to high-quality, standardized learning resources. The resources were designed to be available on demand and as a structured learning experience which can support face-to-face training and fully online training. The pilots thus far have shown that participants in FSKN training demonstrate a significant increase in knowledge. The paper will share the processes used to set up an efficient open educational resources initiative including understanding licensing, using open software, establishing competencies and working with corporate and other international partners. (Contains 2 figures.)

In the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011--2015), the Chinese Committee of Science, Technology and Education, the main body for the central government's innovation policy, highlights the strengthening of the scientific--technological base and the upgrading of domestic innovative competences, and places the industrial focus on seven new strategic industries. Available data show that the transition is underway, from a Chinese growth model based on the availability of inexpensive land, investments, exports and a very large low-cost workforce to science-based and innovation-driven growth. However, the poor outcomes from public S&T expenditures suggest that future growth will depend on a different growth formula and that the greatest impact will come from an innovative innovation model. This paper focuses on an emerging Chinese innovation model that applies elements of cluster theory and the regional innovation systems approach to the next development stage of Chinese Special Economic Zones. The model also adopts features of the Triple Helix model of university--industry--government relations such as "systemness" and entrepreneurial universities to enforce regional innovativeness. The author outlines the management and governance challenges associated with the policy objective of moving from imitation to innovation. The paper is based on a study on cluster management for the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) 2009--2013 and on empirical research in collaboration with the Chinese Association of Developmental Zones (CADZ) in 2012. The study used 15 expert interviews with managers of Tianjin Wuqing Development Zone in the Beijing--Tianjin Corridor and with senior officials of CADZ, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology, at the Second China German Innovation Forum held in Berlin on 26 and 27 November 2012. (Contains 13 notes.)

Historically, a policy of enforcement in internationalisation processes is still seen by many as an approach to solve certain economic crises. However, Portugal's solution for this problem is part of a greater problem, namely trying to solve a European problem that has recently worsened and is largely uncontrolled. This paper aims to contribute, firstly by mentioning the Portuguese economic context and also possible ways of internationalisation and, secondly, by measuring a set of variables/factors that should support the development of the Portuguese economy. The results of the interviews which supported this study's methodological basis show that the Portuguese economy's poor dynamism and low demand by alternate markets are the two critical variables for the country's weak competitiveness. The suggestions of those surveyed propose that the Portuguese economy's dynamics should be characterised by a hybrid model, joining factors connected to the Nordic school's behavioural model, Dunning's eclectic paradigm (1997), and Buckley and Casson's model of internationalisation theory (1976).

The "multilingual turn" brings questions of language ownership to the forefront of debates about linguistic minority governance. Acadian minority cultural producers construct language ownership using multiple languages and targeting multilingual publics, but use ideologies of monolingualism to situate Acadian authenticity in place and time. As globalization brings minority language governmentality onto global terrains, cultural workers manage the tension between multilingualism and ownership through affective registers. This paper contributes to theorizing language and governmentality by understanding affect as a discursively produced register that serves to legitimate the distribution of resources. I follow the role affect plays in constructing linguistic minority subjects as agents of globalization. I flip cultural entrepreneurs' understanding of themselves as liberal agents of linguistic change and show how they are constrained by the political salience of monolingualism. I draw on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in the field of linguistic minority cultural production in Acadie to track moments when questions of ownership appeared. I pay attention to the role affect played in navigating the tensions between the economic value of multilingualism for global markets and the remaining political salience of monolingualism for minorities. Affect served to reproduce the minority speaker as a particular type of subject, one "attached" to a community constructed as ideally monolingual, either in the past, present, or future. I then map out global linguistic minority governmentality to show how knowledge production on language is embedded in the tensions experienced by linguistic minority cultural producers.

This article proposes the concept of an extractive regime to understand Indonesia's developmental trajectory from 1966 to 1998. The concept contributes to world-systems, globalization, and commodity-based approaches to understanding peripheral development. An extractive regime is defined by its reliance on extraction of multiple natural resources in the formation of an economic and political order that is also supported by global and regional forces. After elaborating the concept of an extractive regime, the article illustrates it through examination of Indonesia's developmental trajectory from its formation in the post-World War II era to its firm establishment during Suharto's New Order. Although a comprehensive study would necessitate attention to the full panoply of commodities, the study illustrates some of the workings of the extractive regime in the timber and fisheries sectors, which share spatial extensivity and other characteristics. The article concludes by considering the future of the extractive regime in Indonesia amid democratization and continued class domination and by offering suggestions for further application, specification, and extension of the extractive regime concept. (Contains 1 table and 14 footnotes.)

Social enterprise and fair trade are seen increasingly as redefining capitalist relationships through revaluing social impact and ownership in enterprise activities. One of the dilemmas in such activities is the tension between operating a viable and commercially-sustainable enterprise and maximising social and developmental impacts. This article explores this tension through an engagement with the phenomena of volunteer travel and pro-poor tourism in the developing world. It argues for a fair trade labelling system for organisations involved in volunteer travel. (Contains 9 notes.)

History matters. It matters not only because people can learn from the past, but because the present and the future are connected to the past by the continuity of a society's institutions. Today and tomorrow's choices are shaped by the past. And the past can be made intelligible only as a story of institutional evolution. This story focuses on the problem of human cooperation--specifically, the cooperation that permits economies to capture gains from trade. Economic growth depends upon the evolution of institutions that create a hospitable environment for cooperative solutions to problems associated with trade. Not all human cooperation is socially productive, of course; twentieth-century history provides many examples of cooperative efforts undertaken in the service of ill-advised or destructive goals. In analyzing human cooperation, therefore, people also need to be concerned with the evolution of institutional frameworks that induce economic stagnation and decline. The purpose in each case is to explain the structure and performance of economies over time. In this article, the author argues that the U.S. Constitution is one example of an enduring institutional framework. (Contains 2 notes.)

The economy's need for workers originates in the demand for the goods and services that these workers provide. So, to project employment, BLS starts by estimating the components of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020. GDP is the value of the final goods produced and services provided in the United States. Then, BLS estimates the size--in inflation-adjusted dollars--of the five major categories of production. The categories are as follows: (1) Personal consumption expenditures; (2) Gross private domestic investment; (3) Government consumption expenditures and gross investment; (4) Exports; and (5) Imports. Next, BLS breaks down these major categories into more detailed ones, such as the production of automobiles or the provision of medical services. Changes in the level and composition of goods produced and services provided often affect industry employment levels. Industry employment levels are also affected by changes in labor productivity--the amount an employee produces per hour of work. This paper presents growth charts that show annual rates of change instead of the percent change over the entire projections decade. To show changes in demand more accurately, dollar amounts in these charts are given not in current dollars but in 2005 chain-weighted dollars. This means that amounts have been adjusted for changing prices over time.

This article explores the origins of an identified cognitive disconnect between Bermudians and the International (Re)Insurance Centre after the latter's establishment in 1993. Quantitative analysis is used to map the relationship between employment and capital growth. It shows that capital growth is not a sufficient cause of employment growth. The way in which capital is deployed seems to determine the relationship. This article follows the sudden and unexpected change in capital deployment beginning in 1993. This change saw rapid capital growth in Bermuda, paired with employment growth. This period closed in 2009, and now appears exceptional. This paper suggests that considering the employment-capital relationship over time allows for an understanding of the cognitive disconnect as an unfortunate but unintended consequence.

This paper considers China's economic development and place in the world economy. The People's Republic of China is becoming the most powerful country in the world in terms of GDP. Nowadays, China is an important partner in world trade both as an exporter and importer. Thus far, the United States has been the leading force in managing and coordinating the global economic and especially financial system, but now the economically advancing socialist China is a challenge to the USA. The Chinese model, socialism with Chinese characteristics, is discussed and compared with earlier stages of socialist construction, e.g. the NEP experiment of Soviet Union. The paper ends with notes about environmental and ecological problems, stressing the importance of socialist answers to these challenges. In this regard there are encouraging aspects in the current political program of the Chinese leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores problems inherent in the international transfer of business-administration programs. While managerial know-how is important in economic restructuring, it is difficult to organize efficiently and is punctuated with a number of difficulties. Three areas are proposed for improving efficiency of transfer programs: reconsidering transfer objectives; reexamining balance between education and training; and attention to practically-oriented educational objectives. (Author/MSE)