Search results for "policy"
showing 10 items of 4513 documents
External effects of domestic regulations: comparing internal and international barriers to trade
2001
Abstract In a world in which barriers to trade at all levels—international and internal—are mostly a by-product of the implementation by governments of different regulatory policies to deal with “domestic” or “local” problems such as environmental degradation, health, and labor standards, the article purports to show how the mechanisms that are set in motion by the operation of competition among the governments inhabiting the different jurisdictional tiers of federal countries lead to outcomes that are different from those generated by the ‘agreed-upon’ rules that govern the relations of national governments with each other in matters of international trade.
Public Spending and Trade Liberalization: The Compensation Hypothesis Revisited
2013
Despite a widespread fascination with the so called compensation hypothesis – i.e. the proposition that governments have to provide insurance against the risks of open markets to make integration into the international economy politically feasible – there appears to exist a complete lack of research where a rather straightforward implication of this theoretical mechanism is concerned, namely that liberalization of the trade regime should become more likely with a larger public sector and more social spending already in place. In this paper, we test this hypothesis that can be regard as a complement to existing research on the compensation hypothesis. We draw on a theoretical model that link…
Europäische Handels- und Agrarpolitik gegenüber Afrika Mit einem kritischen Blick auf den Beitrag der Wirtschaftswissenschaften
2018
Abstract European trade policy with Africa is in deep trouble. We observe a triple policy failure. (1) The EU tries to draw African partner countries into comprehensive deep integration agreements, far more than these countries can arguably support. (2) For trade in goods, safeguard clauses in the EPAs are patchy. They cannot satisfy African needs for smart protection of agricultural and industrial businesses. Facing the refusal of some African governments to sign, the EU has no answer. Ensuing fragmentation of African regional economic communities is a disaster. Rapid repair work of the existing regional EPA drafts looks more promising than a grand solution with the new African Continental…
Investigating Aid Effectiveness in Developing Countries: The Case of Nepal
2020
Foreign aid serves as an important source of capital for any developing or under-developed country. It is very important to see how the recipient country can utilize this aid in the economic upliftment of the nation. Taking a case of Nepalese economy, this paper investigates the effectiveness of foreign aid in developing countries. The result from Johansen’s cointegration test reveals that foreign aid independently is not adequate for the economic growth. Increased capital and technological infrastructures, improved skills on human capital, on the other hand, significantly changes the result for the positive aid impact on growth in the long run. Therefore, we can conclude that a good policy…
On Capturing Rent from a Non-Renewable Resource International Monopoly: A Dynamic Game Approach
2005
In this paper we model the case of an international non-renewable resource monopolist as a dynamic game between a monopolist and n importing countries governments, and we investigate whether a tariff on resource imports can be advantageous for the consumers of the importing countries when the monopolist sets the price and the importing countries governments act in a non-cooperative way. We find that a tariff is advantageous for the consumers even when there is not commitment to the trade policy although the part of the rent that can be reaped by the importing countries decreases substantially with the number of importing countries. The optimality of the tariff in our dynamic game is explain…
Regulation and efficiency: the case of European railways
2001
Abstract During the long period of regulation of the railway system in Europe (1950s–1990s) the companies notably improved their levels of productivity. However, parallel to this, the state of their financial accounts also significantly worsened. In order to explain this fact we have estimated both cost and revenue frontier functions, calculating the losses associated with both cost and revenue inefficiencies as well as inefficiencies on the cost side. The results obtained show the existence of significant potential losses of revenue, which can be explained above all by the strong policy of regulation and intervention reigning in this period. A better commercial policy and a supply adapted …
The Politicization of European Union Trade Policy: Radical-Left Euroskeptic Opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
2021
This study aims to analyze the correlation between radical-left Euroskeptic (RLE) activity and European Union (EU) trade policy by focusing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At the beginning of TTIP negotiations, the agreement was not high on political agendas and was not a major concern within European society. Thus, its salience was low. This initial lack of interest stemmed from the fact that the TTIP, as an economic and technical issue, did not draw public attention. This study shows that RLEs profoundly affected public opinion on the TTIP by increasing its salience during the European parliamentary elections in 2014 in France and Germany. Second, RLEs involv…
The National Bilingual Programme in Colombia: Imposition or Opportunity?
2011
The National Bilingual Programme, created by the Colombian Ministry of Education in 2004, offers all students in the county the possibility of becoming bilingual in English and Spanish as part of a vision of increased productivity in a globalised world. However, the language and education policies promoted within this framework tend to foreground the development of English at the expense of bilingual competence in Spanish and English. This bilingual policy has been strongly criticised by several Colombian academics with regard to what they consider as the imposition in the Colombian context of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the disregard of local knowledge and exp…
Hard currency indebtedness of the developed socialist countries
1985
In recent years the problems of the indebtedness of the communist countries have been driven somewhat into the background by the high foreign indebtedness of many developing countries and the attention attracted by the balance of payments crises in Brazil and Mexico. Yet there are many indications that the need for the socialist debtor nations to adjust their balance of payments policy has not lessened but, to a large extent, simply been deferred. It is therefore not unlikely that the 1980s will witness a new need to solve the problems of those nations and their creditors in the West.
Evaluating the Reform of Healthcare System in Sicily: variations of efficiency and appropriateness between 2008 and 2010
2022

 
 Background. Sicilian government has developed a very ambitious Reform through the Regional Law n. 5 (14th April 2009). Hospitals were requested to ensure the quality of care through monitoring of appropriateness and quality of service. The aim of this study was to assess variations of efficiency and organizational appropriateness of healthcare delivery before and after this Reform and to show patterns associated to different types of healthcare delivery organizations.
 Methods. This study was based on repeated cross-sectional data for 118 (out of 129) short-term, acute-care, non teaching-and-research Sicilian hospitals, in 2008 and 2010. Congestion and slacks analysis was…