Search results for "Liberalization"

Trade Openness and Income: A Tale of Two Regions

2015

In this article we present evidence of the long-run effect of trade openness on income per worker for two regions that have followed different liberalization strategies, namely Asia and Latin America. A model that re-examines these questions is estimated for two panels of Asian and Latin American countries over the 1980-2008 period using a novel empirical approach that accounts for endogeneity as well as for the time series properties of the variables involved. From an econometric point of view, we apply recent panel cointegration techniques based on factor models that account for two additional elements usually neglected in previous empirical literature: cross-dependence and structural bre…

Politics, Economics and Tourism Development in Egypt: insights into the sectoral transformations of a neo-patrimonial rentier state

2008

This article challenges claims that liberalising state-regulated markets in developing countries may induce lasting economic development. An analysis of the rise of tourism in Egypt during the past three decades suggests that the effects of liberalisation and structural adjustment are constrained by the neo-patrimonial character of the Egyptian political system. Since the decline of oil-rent revenues during the 1980s tourism development has been the optimal strategy to compensate for the resulting fiscal losses. Increasing tourism revenues have helped in coping with macroeconomic imbalances and in avoiding more costly adjustment of traditional economic sectors. Additionally they provided th…

Open It And They Will Come? The Impact of Fallen Barriers on Securities Market Participation

2017

Various barriers may prevent people from entering a market. Will they participate in the market despite their inexperience once the barriers fall? I exploit the socalled German reunification experiment in order to assess the impact of removed market barriers on participation rates: While East Germans were deprived of the possibility to participate in capitalist securities markets before 1989, the reunification of Germany offered access to those markets. I estimate that a person is, ceteris paribus, by 25–30 percentage points less likely to participate over a 3–7 years horizon after being initially excluded from the securities market, suggesting a prominent role of financial experience in ex…

Efficient Port Pricing: A New Methodology Applied to Spanish Commercial Ports

2000

This paper presents a methodology for determining efficient tariffs for the services provided by commercial ports. With this method, efficient unit profits can be obtained for the services offered and their margins of sensitivity can be found. This allows port authorities to determine what actions should be taken with regard to tariffs and/or variable costs in order to optimise their economic results. At the same time, shadow prices of port resources and their limits of sensitivity can be obtained, thus providing port authorities with orientation regarding which resources should be augmented and by how much. In the early 90's, this methodology was applied to all Spanish commercial ports and…

A more targeted approach to foreign direct investment: the establishment of screening systems on national security grounds

2018

The process of liberalization of international trade and of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has constituted a broadly accepted trend during the last few decades and FDI inflows have expanded constantly since the end of the 1980’s. However, signs of a certain crisis of the positive and one-way attitude towards international trade and FDI exist nowadays. The increase in the flux of FDI coming from developing and emerging countries to developed economies, the sudden relevance of foreign sovereign investors, the changing environment for national security or the quest to protect technologies and sectors of the economy considered vital for the host country, its sovereignty and competitiveness are…

Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity, by Kathleen Thelen. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014, 264 pp., ISBN…

2015

Trade and Interlegality

2019

The idea that the WTO legal system and its institutional bodies (especially the judicial branch) have developed a single-sided ides of what is good and would attempt to impose a deep-rooted liberalization agenda on the rest of world is hardly corroborated by an empirical analysis. Quite the contrary, recourse to a series of legal techniques has made it possible to leave open a space for reciprocal understanding and debate with other circuits of legality.

1959: The Stabilization Plan and the End of Autarky

2020

This chapter analyses the contribution of the 1959 Plan de Estabilizacion (Stabilization Plan) to the economic changes that occurred in Spain during the 1960s. Economic growth improved in the 1950s after a decade of stagnation, but it was autarkic growth and the country accumulated serious imbalances. By reducing interventionism, initiating a process of liberalization and creating an appropriate economic framework, after two decades of autarky, the Plan contributed to promoting economic growth and helped change attitudes and mentalities. Moreover, the Plan had a long-term impact by allowing Spain to take advantage of a favourable international context during the 1960s. However, the dictator…

Financial Market Development in Emerging Asia: the Corporate Governance Perspective (Presentation Slides)

2018

Presentation on why Asia is different from Europe and the USA from a corporate governance perspective: weak formal institutions (e.g. law enforcement), diverse informal institutions (e.g. in terms of social elite) and with institutional dynamism (ongoing development of regulations, e.g. privatization) using economic liberalization as primary engine of growth.

Internationalisation process of Spanish banks: strategic orientation after the mergers

2003

The present globalisation of the economy is one of the main forces driving the internationalisation process of firms, a phenomenon that has been one of the most widely studied in the literature and which has given rise to numerous explanatory theories. The manufacturing sectors of machinery, food, textiles, furniture have already consolidated their presence in international markets, induced by the increased competition deriving from liberalisation of foreign trade and the desire to conquer new markets. If in manufacturing sectors globalisation has been high, the service sector has not been far behind. One of the sectors that has been most influenced by changes in the competitive framework i…