Urban economics and development

China’s policy of opening the door to foreign business has sometimes aroused excessive expectations. Both in China and abroad, overoptimism has now been replaced by a more realistic appraisal of what can be achieved in economic terms. Nonetheless, Deng Xiaoping’s aim of quadrupling industrial and agricultural output¹ by the year 2000 is still being pursued. Urban regions have been allocated a key role in this as the powerhouse of development. In the light of regional economic analyses,²this article examines whether the intended economic reforms go far enough to enable the conurbations to perform this function.     

Regional policy in the EC

On December 31, 1973 ends the first phase of the gradual realisation of an economic and monetary union which the EC-states undertook to form between themselves¹. Till then the Ministerial Council will still have to take a number of basic decisions, which are regarded as essential for a succesful conclusion of the first phase.     

Has the EC reached the point of no return?

Even according to a report by the EC-Commission the economic divergencies between the individual EC member countries have shown an increase during the last three years¹. A protracted disintegration movement would inevitably lead to a weakening and even to the end of the free social and economic systems such as we know them in West Europe today. Has the EC already reached the point of no return?     

The failure of economism in western and eastern integration policy

The proposition that economic integration can help to smooth the way to political integration has been described by Wilhelm Röpke on many occasions as a dangerous manifestation of economism¹. The experience of the EC and the CMEA tends to bear out this opinion.     

Twenty years of agricultural policy review and forecast

In a lecture on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of his Institute for Rural Structural Research in Frankfurt Professor Dr Hermann Priebe, the agronomist and economist, subjected the agricultural policy of the EC to a critical review¹. For the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is socially and financially unsustainable in its present form, he proposed changes which make economic sense and are not politically unattainable.     

Towards adopting a global perspective in the field of consumer studies

Abstract Using economic principles to explain the nuances of consumer decisions with global implications does not adequately capture the reality of modern consumption. Embracing a global perspective would enable consumer studies professionals to compensate for this shortcoming as it consists ‘of the information, attitudes, awareness, and skills which taken together, can help individuals understand the world, how they affect others, and how others affect them’ (p.19).¹ As this paper explains the essence of a global perspective, it reinterprets a collection of economic principles towards global sensitivity. Six ideas are suggested to facilitate a dialogue among consumer studies professionals about practising from a global perspective.     

Dumping and anti-dumping measures

In recent times, the number of dumping actions has shown a striking correlation with the respective level of economic activity.¹ The following observations convey an overall picture of the dumping actions currently pending and the anti-dumping measures implemented, and look into the current problems faced by the international anti-dumping system.     

China’s open-door policy and its significance for transformation of the economic system

The open-door policy of the People’s Republic of China is entering its 14th year in 1993. Petra Pissula and Dieter Lösch¹ presented a report in 1990 in which they took stock of the successes and failures of this policy by taking the special economic zones as an example, and they tended to assess China’s future foreign trade activities pessimistically. Further progress has occurred in the open-door policy since that time, so that a revised evaluation is necessary. The aim of the present article is to show the more recent developments and problems and to examine the relationships between reforms and the open-door policy, particularly from the point of view of system transformation.     

Jamaican ambassador Richard L. Bernal on Jamaica's contemporary business environment

Natural beauty is often thought to be the Caribbean's real resource. Jamaica, located in the Caribbean Sea, benefits from this natural splendor of mountains, plains, plateaus, and waterfalls, but also from its people, whose charm and elegance are unsurpassed. Historically, there has been considerable global interest in the Caribbean Sea in general and in Jamaica in particular because of the natural, social, strategic, and economic resources which this region possesses. Today, the contemporary global business environment and the dynamics of hemispheric free trade in the Americans create new and complex challenges for the region's natural and human resources. This article will first present a background to the recent economic and political events which have placed Jamaica as a critical, stable, and important player in the Caribbean Basin economy. The remainder of the article will be based on an interview with Ambassador Richard L. Bernal,¹ who will offer an assessment of Jamaica's commitment to economic stabilization, infrastructure capability, foreign investment incentives, financial and trade services, and democratization. In addition, Dr. Bernal provides an evaluation of the relationship of Jamaica and the Caribbean Basin with the United States in the post-cold war liberal economy. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Revisiting an Evasive Concept: Introduction to the Special Issue on Competitiveness

The term competitiveness stems from the analysis of firms and is usually thought to be well defined at the firm level. Today, however, the notion competitiveness has become a prominent concept in the assessment of countries, regions and locations. The competitive advantage of nations and the competitiveness of locations have become important topics in economic policy. Interest in this field has been notably stimulated by the work of Michael Porter. Although the diversity of approaches presented in this issue may appear large to the reader, it is in reality dwarfed by the multiplicity of concepts, articles and books which have been written in reference to the term competitiveness. The vagueness of the general term, the lack of theoretical background, implicit preferences and prejudices, and finally the scope of policy recommendations made in reference to this term have induced outstanding researchers to warn that the term competitiveness of a nation could be dangerous, obsessive, elusive or meaningless.¹ The articles presented in this volume share some elements of this critique, but also demonstrate that research is being continued, and that it is indeed relevant to the design and evaluation of economic policy, most notably, the so-called Lisbon Strategy of the European Union.     

A french view of trends in the international division of labour

The French ideas on the future international division of labour and a new international economic order are presented in the following article on the basis of a recently published study of the French Ministry of Industry and Research¹.     

Building National Competitive Advantage: Rwanda's Lessons from Singapore

Despite its recent tragic history of genocide and continuing threats to political stability, Rwanda has made significant strides in improving its competitive position compared to its African neighbors and to other countries at an equivalent economic level. The Rwandan business and political leadership have explicitly taken Singapore as a model for rapid economic growth, with the aim of positioning Rwanda as a regional hub for transportation and advanced services. This article, based in part on fieldwork conducted in Rwanda by the lead author, ¹ analyzes Rwanda's development strategy using the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness framework and evaluates its potential for success in emulating Singapore's development pathway. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Germany’s enduring current account surplus

The Federal Republic of Germany’s balance of payments has been in the black for years, a record unparallelled by any other major country since the Second World War. Proceeding from status quo assumptions, the surpluses are unlikely to decline in the medium term, either.¹ Can they be endured? Do they really pose no serious problem, as current debate on national economic policy suggests?     

A Two-Component Compliance and Ethics Program Model: An Empirical Application to Chilean Corporations

The rise of ethical scandals in the business world urged corporations to allocate time and resources to emphasize the ethical behavior of their managers and employees. The Model of Ethical Behavior in this article has three main assumptions: (1) the institutionalization of a Compliance and Ethics Program Model is done in terms of just two components: one Explicit and the other Implicit, (2) both components have a significant and direct influence over the ethical behavior of employees, which is represented in the model by two variables: Value Consistency and Presence of Ethical Conflicts, and (3) proper ethical behavior is perceived by employees to have a positive impact over the economic results of the firm. Reliable scales are developed to measure all these variables from the data collected by the “Barómetro de Valores y Ética Empresarial^©,” a survey applied in 2009 to 12,321 employees from 54 Chilean corporations. The empirical analysis showed that there are three very distinctive components in the Presence of Ethical Conflicts variable: (1) what the company does that affects the employee, (2) what the company does that affects other people, and (3) what the employee does that affects the company. Finally, the Explicit and Implicit components of a Compliance and Ethics Program are shown to have a significant and positive impact over: (1) Value Consistency in employees’ behavior; (2) the Presence of Ethical Conflicts in organizations; and (3) the perceived importance of ethics as a key factor to improve economic performance.     

US foreign aid trends: A reassessment

Two years ago an article of this author appeared in these pages¹, showing that US economic assistance was rapidly declining and outlining rather a bleak future. Foreign aid was being subjected to a great deal of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum², and a foreign assistance bill had actually been defeated in the US Senate by an “unholy alliance of Old Guard conservatives and ‘dovish’ liberals.” But now the author is inclined to believe that together with greater realism and more reliance on multilateral rather than bilateral aid a modest improvement has taken place during the past couple of years.     

Effects of German development aid on the internal economy

The importance of economic cooperation with the Third World for the internal economy is attracting increasing attention in the discussion of development aid topics in the Federal Republic of Germany¹. In this context it is of interest how the German development aid bears on the internal economy of the Federal Republic through feedbacks (in the form of contracts for German firms) from its bilateral and multilateral development aid payments. The following article presents the results of a relevant inquiry for the year 1976².     

Industrial innovation and foreign trade in the 80’s

The 1980’s will be decisive for Europe. But Europe, to use Valéry’s phrase, seems to be entering the future backwards. Not a few Europeans are beginning to worry about their political, economic and cultural future. Poor in raw materials and energy, burdened with a considerable downward trend in the economy and rising unemployment, confronted with a shift in the international division of labour, politically fragmented and only to a limited extent capable of action, Europe seems to many to be heading for “the decline and fall” which was forecast more than 50 years ago. But anxiety can be a creative force, provided we have the courage to analyse its causes and to transform it into tangible proposals for action.¹     

Ten years andean pact: A reexamination

On May 26 the heads of state of five Andean countries—Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela¹—celebrated in Cartagena (Colombia) the tenth anniversary of the so-called Cartagena Agreement which forms the legal base of economic integration within this Latin American subregion. Has the Andean approach to integration proved to be feasible in the first decade of its application? What have been the main achievements and failures, and what are the future perspectives of cooperation within the subregion?     

World economic situation remains precarious

Global production increased at a rate of just 2% in 1998, half the previous year's growth. The USA and the EMU member countries in particular were spared a recession thanks to robust domestic demand. With continuing volatility on the financial markets, the world economic situation remains precarious.¹ How can we expect the world economy to develop in the next two years?     

The decline and fall of US foreign aid

Foreign aid, once hailed as “the most unsordid act in history”, is in deep trouble. Despite the exhortations of the Pearson Report¹, the call for sweeping reform by various governmental commissions and the annual plea to Congress of the Agency for International Development (AID), economic assistance is rapidly declining, and the future looks even bleaker.