Search results for " integrati"
showing 10 items of 1088 documents
The determinants of increasing equity market comovement: economic or financial integration?
2010
This paper investigates to what extent the substantial increase in exposures of local European equity market returns to global shocks is mainly due to a convergence in cash flows (“economic integration”), to a convergence in discount rates (“financial integration”), or to both. We find that this increased exposure is nearly entirely due to increasing discount-rate betas. This finding is robust to alternative ways of calculating discount-rate and cash-flow shocks.
Western European Studies: Economics
2004
In this entry, we overview major developments of Western European studies in Economics in the last two decades. Given the richness of contributions in this field, we decided to restrict our discussion to three general topics: the theory of economic and financial integration; the economics of unemployment and the microeconomic foundations of market regulation. In the Section 1, we present the evolutions of thought on European monetary and economic integration, with particular emphasis on the discussion of exchange rate regimes, the role of policy authorities, and the cost–benefit analysis related to the establishment of a European monetary union. In Section 2, we examine some results produce…
Shallow and Deep Integration
2021
The concepts of shallow and deep economic integration are introduced and discussed as to their pertinence. The conflicting results of successive rounds of global trade negotiations for developing and least developed countries are examined in the context of deep integration attempts in North-South agreements. It is established as a guiding principle that North-South agreements should normally not go deeper or run faster than South-South agreements. In light of observed global trends, upcoming inter-regional trade deals will differ from current preferential North-South trade agreements, and Northern partners will be adamant that future agreements should go deep, as the chapter critically disc…
Cambios políticos y Psicología en la Argentina
2006
This paper has the purpose of characterizing the narrations in the design of Psychology considering his theoretical and academicals debates; his applied institutions, the indications of systematic professional formation and the periodical publcations. Such narrations will be analized according to the political and economic changes that took place in Argentine, since 1900 to 1957, when the formation in psychology gets his universitary inscription in Buenos Aires University. The peculiar instability of the political, social and economic situation imposes constant reorientations to the different propositions connected to the political, social and economic behavior of the actor-subject. This co…
Final Assessment of the EU-Africa Trade Deals—Ways Out?
2021
Based on the emerging country configurations (EPA groups) and the content of the EU-Africa trade arrangements, the chapter reviews the political impasse between the EU and Africa following the highly contested implementation start of the bi-regional trade agreements. Regional economic integration in Africa is considered to be in present danger with regard to the engendered fragmentation of main African RECs, namely the emerging customs unions. Suggestions are reviewed on how these and other North-South agreements can be either replaced by treaties that will be more beneficial for African countries and regions (‘grand alternatives’) or at least substantially improved (‘repair work’). New are…
On the African Continental Free Trade Area
2021
Africa-wide integration projects have competed with step-wise regional integration since independence. This chapter examines the new project of an African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The project’s potential to become an economic game-changer for Africa is analysed alongside the likely pitfalls of the arrangement. We conclude that while a well-staged AfCFTA can resolve a number of critical issues associated with intra-African integration, it cannot replace existing RECs, especially not with respect to negotiating extra-regional trade agreements. It is argued that to avoid undercutting the entire process, the entrenched logic of exceptions and exclusions from tariff liberalization m…
The Reality of African Trade Integration—Challenges of Implementation
2021
In the course of their evolution on the stylized path of economic integration, African RECs face a number of implementation challenges, beginning with a range of typical domestication issues for trade agreements. A fundamental problem is that African regional trade arrangements (RTA) are all based on two GATT/WHO clauses which do not require full internal liberalization. The chapter analyses how RTA implementation on this basis has led to a general logic of exclusions and exemptions in Africa’s trade relations and traces how entrenched empirical practice meant to serve developmental purposes—protection of the weakest economic actors—often caters to vested interests. Inconsistency is aggrava…
Regional Integration in Trade Theory
2021
Given widespread scepticism in trade economics about the value of RECs comprised of developing countries, the formal theory of regional economic integration is critically examined in four stylized configurations. Based on the overarching logic of trade creation and diversion, the usual diagrammatic treatment of tariff effects is critically discussed in terms of its numerous shortcomings. A single-country and REC-wise diagrammatic treatment of tariffs in the presence of increasing returns is proposed to allow quantitative assessment of the arguably most promising case for South-South RECs. Building on the literature, the cases of full and incomplete specialization within a regional group are…
The Logical Sequence of Regional Economic Integration
2021
Globally, regional economic communities are classified in what is customarily called the linear model of integration. The question arises as to where African RECs stand on a stylized linear path of economic integration and to what extent this model can provide guidance for further integration steps. The factual nonlinearity of the ‘model’ is discussed and the ensuing challenges for economic integration are identified in terms of monetary unions, non-tariff measures/barriers (with a new typology) and harmonization of standards. In a final step, the ‘model’ itself is amended and critically discussed in the light of the question of whether a scheme largely inspired by the European experience c…
Trade Liberalization and Heterogeneous Technology Investments
2015
We propose a trade model where heterogeneous firms decide on a productivity-enhancing technology investment. The model analyzes the impact of multilateral trade liberalization on firm- and industry-level productivity. Freer trade increases the incentives to invest in technology by raising export profits. It also dampens these incentives, however, as profits stemming from domestic sales are reduced. Only exporters benefit from the former positive effect. The shape of the distribution of efficiency draws, the level of trade costs and the technology intensity of the industry are key elements removing the ambiguities regarding the net impact of trade liberalization.