Search results for "REGION"

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…

Sub‐regional integration in the MENA region and the euro‐mediterranean free trade area

1999

The creation of a new Euro‐Mediterranean region in which to build a shared prosperity area requires existing North‐South economic integration to be complemented by South‐South trade liberalization. Trade links among the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries have remained at a very low level. There is room for greater commercial integration, although the scope for an increase in intra‐regional trade volume is limited. Trade liberalization could lead to a relocation of resources according to comparative advantage and to the growth of intra‐industry trade. However, some economic instruments are required both in order to allay political fears and in order to upgrade transport, communicat…

ASSESSMENT OF EUROPEAN COMISSION’S REGIONAL POLICY IMPACT ON REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT IN A POST-SOVIET CITY: CASE STUDY OF SELECTED NEIGHBOURHOODS IN R…

2012

Europe 2020 strategy, the replacement of Lisbon strategy for jobs and growth, is an “umbrella strategy” for development of all policy areas in countries of European Union, EU setting concrete target aims to be reached until year 2020 that are ambitious than the previous Lisbon strategy. All other policies of European Commission, EC or Commission, are supporting the Europe 2020 strategy, including the EC’s regional. Nowadays, growth and development at a local level within EU is seen as part of Commission’s regional policy aimed at contributing to the “umbrella strategy”. Its purpose is to help to achieve the overall goals of Europe 2020 strategy.  EC’s regional policy in point of fact is an …

Clustering and innovation: firm-level strategising and policy

2017

Efectos de la crisis económica sobre el emprendimiento en empresas de economía social en España: un análisis espacial

2017

En los últimos años, la desfavorable evolución de la coyuntura económica ha provocado intensos cambios estructurales y espaciales en la creación de empresas que cuestionan la validez de algunos supuestos básicos sobre dinámica emprendedora y desarrollo territorial. Por ello, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la existencia de patrones espaciales de creación de empresas de economía social en España y estudiar su evolución temporal durante dos etapas de intensos cambios: una de crecimiento (2002-2007) y otra de profunda crisis generalizada (2008-2013). A partir de la definición de un índice de agrupación de empresas de economía social aplicamos técnicas estadísticas basadas en econometrí…

Assessment of the Insolvency Risk in Companies Listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange

2019

Abstract The present study presents, from the theoretical and pragmatic point of view, 6 of the established score models regarding the assessment of the insolvency risk, belonging to the Anglo-Saxon, Continental and Romanian schools. The research sample is made up of 26 companies belonging to the hotel industry and restaurants, listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The research was carried out over a period of 11 years (2007-2017). Following the application of the score models, it was found that during the period covered by the research, a number of 14 companies had a relatively high insolvency risk and 12 of them had a relatively low insolvency risk.

Credit demand and supply shocks in Italy during the Great Recession

2018

In this article, we use Structural VAR analysis to disentangle credit demand and supply shocks and their effect on real economic activity in Italy during the 2008 to 2014 crisis period. The three endogenous variables considered are the loan interest rate, the loans growth rate and the employment to population ratio. The data are observed at annual frequency for each of 103 Italian provinces. The empirical evidence suggests that the variance of the shocks varies across four Italian macro-regions: North, Centre, South and Islands, and hece heteroscedasticity is used to identify (ex ante) the structural shocks. Sign restrictions are used to interpret shocks ex post. The empirical findings sugg…

El papel de las cooperativas de crédito en el sostenimiento de la España vaciada a través del capital social

2021

El sistema bancario viene experimentando grandes transformaciones, marcadas por la disminución del número de entidades y la concentración del negocio. Las cooperativas de crédito han logrado mantenerse relativamente aisladas de las turbulencias financieras de la pasada crisis gracias a políticas de inversión prudentes y la clara vocación territorial y de proximidad con el entorno, características que, junto con su carácter cooperativo, se han convertido en las principales fortalezas de este tipo de entidades de crédito. Por otra parte, la creciente desatención del sistema bancario hacia los territorios en retroceso demográfico ha propiciado la exclusión financiera de sus habitantes. En este…