Liberalising the Movement of Natural Persons: A Lost Decade?

Liberalisation of international trade in services through the Movement of Natural Persons (Mode 4) remains one of the least negotiated issues of trade policy among the 144 members of the World Trade Organisation. Economists believe that there is a basic convergence of economic interest between the developed and the developing world for liberalising Mode 4. Yet the multilateral trading system has not facilitated greater worker mobility between the labour‐surplus and labour‐scarce countries. Is there any economic logic as to why cross‐border movements of workers have not followed the pattern predicted by international trade theory? Or are there strong socio‐political barriers that have come in the way of liberalising Mode 4? These are some of the questions the paper attempts to answer. The paper shows that the economic arguments against the free movement of natural persons are based on the narrow perspective of the welfare of domestic workers while ignoring the benefit it brings to the economy as a whole. Further, non‐economic arguments miss the point that the movement of workers under Mode 4 of GATS is temporary in nature, and so unlikely to have any lasting social and cultural spillovers. The paper gives specific illustrations from the recent past where temporary import of workers from labour‐surplus countries has enabled both developed and developing countries sustain their economic growth. It concludes by arguing that the environment for renegotiating WTO commitments under this important sector of international trade in services is better than ever before, even though the current world economic slowdown may delay actual negotiations for a while.     

Economic Sanctions Against Iran: Is the Third Decade a Charm?

This paper provides background and history of economic sanctions on Iran. Particular attention is paid to the effectiveness of the sanctions and to factors that have mitigated their effectiveness. The United States and other countries have joined in a coalition to impose the sanctions, but it will be difficult to maintain the coalition and get cooperation of nonparticipant countries if there is a major oil price increase. Measures are recommended to reduce this risk and maintain the effectiveness of the sanctions.     

Is FDI Integrating the World Economy?

FDI's spectacular growth, in diverse forms, during the past two decades represented an important force generating greater economic integration. FDI increased substantially in relation to global productive capacity, cross border mergers and acquisitions component of FDI put domestic corporate laggards on notice, and the spread of FDI to non‐tradable service sectors generated the possibility that these traditionally low productivity sectors would be brought closer to the standards of international efficiency. Yet, FDI did not perform an integrating role in a more fundamental sense. There is little evidence that FDI served to speed up income convergence across countries. This was the case for two reasons. First, FDI flows remained highly concentrated. Second, the benefits from FDI appear to have accrued principally where conditions were already conducive to investment and growth. Hence, though cross‐country disciplines through bilateral, regional and multilateral efforts are important in reducing the distortions that lead to misallocation of capital, domestic efforts to raise absorptive capacity will ultimately be critical. Efforts to increase labour mobility, as foreseen, for example, under GATS, could have a significant effect in raising the benefits from FDI as the more mobile labour serves to bridge the cultural, institutional and contractual differences across nations.     

The World Is Curved：Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy

It＇s just a small story really, about among other things： a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery……     

Europe’s Place in the Global Economy — What Does the Last Half Century Suggest for the Future?

When Intereconomics was founded 50 years ago, the world was very different. In this contribution, we describe some of the major developments in the global economy and provide an outlook for the medium-term future until 2030. We assess broad demographic trends for major regions of the world, then look at GDP growth and trade, before we turn to human capital and innovation.     

Czech Republic： A Typical and Flexible European Economy for Trade with China

During the early time of July, Martin Tlapa, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Czech Republic visited China. During his visit, arranged by Czech Embassy, China's Foreign Trade had an exclusive interview with him. The follows are the answers of Mr. Martin Tlapa to China's Foreign Trade.     

Why the Real Economy Is More “Hollowing-out” ?

In recent years,in face of a slowdown in the domestic and global economy and a remaining high cost of labor,raw material and financing,more and more Chinese entrepreneurs decide to remove or reduce the once profityielding real industries while shifting their focus     

The Constitutional Structures of the National Political Economy: Barrier to or Precondition for European Integration?

The Court of Justice of the European Union is increasingly dedicated to the pursuit of economic efficiency. As this article will demonstrate, this has led to diagonal conflict between European legal pronouncements on the free movement of labour within a services regime and national jurisprudence on democratically-legitimated public procurement policies within distinct state aids regimes. Where once the CJEU treated public procurement as a distinctive part of the EU’s state aids regime, or one which might be reconciled with redistributive ethical and social concerns maintained at national level, the application of the EU services regime to procurement has placed this traditional understanding in doubt. This re-alignment, however, as well as the supranational-national conflict that it has created, reflects both the deeper mismatch both between European economic and national social competences, as well as friction between national and European conceptions of constitutional legitimacy. Such tensions must be overcome in order to secure continuing legal integration within Europe.     

What Is the Economy Really Doing, and Where Is It Going?

China's official GDP statistics say the economy grew 8.9％ in Q4-2011,and 9.2％ for the year -pretty quick Given widely held expectations of a slower Q4 and general scepticism on Chinas economy,some might wonder whether these numbers are accurate.At times of stress,we know that China's GDP numbers can appear a little weird.In late 2008,we recommended a number of growth proxies to watch in case the GDP numbers became less reliable,including electricity production,freight traffic,and production of key industrial goods.All of these proxies suggested a deeper downturn in late 2008 and early 2009 than the official GDP numbers showed.In this note,we check in on those proxies,and they suggest that the economy is indeed continuing to expand,albeit at a more moderate pace than in 2011.     

What Is the Economy Really Doing,and Where Is It Going?

China's official GDP statistics say the economy grew 8.9％ in Q4-2011,and 9.2％ for the year -pretty quick.Given widely held expectations of a slower Q4 and general scepticism on Chinas economy,some might wonder whether these numbers are accurate.At times of stress,we know that Chinas GDP numbers can appear a little weird.     

Challenges facing European labour markets: Is a skill upgrade the appropriate instrument?

The financial and economic crisis shattered the Lisbon Strategy’s attempt to increase the EU’s employment rate to 70% among 15–64 year olds by 2010. The new Europe 2020 strategy envisages a 75% adult employment rate by 2020; however, this goal also seems unrealistic in light of the economic crisis which has caused the EU’s employment rate to drop significantly below 70%. A crucial question now is whether a skill upgrade of the European labour force would help to increase the employment rate, especially among youth. This Forum explores the relationship between education and employment throughout the EU.     

How Global Are Boundaryless Careers and How Boundaryless Are Global Careers? Challenges and a Theoretical Perspective

Recent discourse in the career studies literature suggests that careers become more boundaryless and more global. The scope of these phenomena and the possible association between them remains unclear. We add to the discussion by suggesting a set of propositions to further develop the global careers discourse and use examples from contrasting global and cultural contexts. Our contribution offers a two‐dimensional framework, where not all global careers are boundaryless, and not all boundaryless careers are global. It will encourage scholars to critically reflect on national, cultural, structural, and regulatory constraints. It challenges individuals and organizations to delve into how individuals interpret their way out of their contextual systems to engage in global careers and how different contextual aspects influence the desire for and the perception of global careers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Tri-Country Marketing Project – Preparing Students for the Realities of a Global Marketplace

With rapidly increasing globalization, business students are required to understand complex global markets and adapt to the rapid changes in the global landscape. This paper discusses a project where students from International Marketing courses in Pakistan, the United States, and France used an interactive platform as a base to jointly explore the marketing of brand-name products across the three countries to better understand the realities of global marketing strategies. The results are discussed as are the difficulties and the recommendations for future projects.     

Is a European Recovery Possible Without High-Tech Public Corporations?

Intereconomics - Pervasive new technologies associated with information and communication technologies and software are dominated by a restricted oligopoly of US-based corporations. The challengers...     

Is microcredit a blessing for the poor? A meta-analysis examining development outcomes and contextual considerations

Increasing efforts aim at economic development and the reduction of poverty in developing countries through microcredit-enabled entrepreneurship. Following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Prof. Yunus, microcredit lending has risen to prominence and the volume of microcredit loans has increased substantially. However, theory on the outcomes of this financing form is controversial. Furthermore, the academic community lacks conclusive empirical evidence about the impact of such programs. Primary empirical studies report fragmented and to a large extent contradictory results. In this meta-analysis, we empirically synthesize a total of 545 quantitative empirical findings from 90 studies conducted to date. Our findings reveal a positive impact of microcredit on key development outcomes at the level of the client entrepreneurs. Additionally, we scrutinize how the development context influences the effectiveness of microcredit and find that microcredit generally has a greater impact in more challenging contexts. With our findings we contribute to research on the nexus of entrepreneurship and economic development, and offer recommendations for practitioners and academics working on this promising frontier.     

Japanese Economy: Two Lost Decades and How Many More?

Intereconomics - By introducing wealth preference to a dynamic macroeconomic model, instead of those market distortions, we can deal with the secular deficiency of aggregate demand and a...     

Zhangjiagang's Strategies for the Export-oriented Economy

Following its fast development over the past dozen years, especially the past three years, Zhangjiagang, a coastal city in Jiangsu Province has established conditions for the further advance of its export-oriented economy. An official of the city announced to the press in Beijing recently that with the aim of building Zhangjiagang into a modern port city by the end of the century, the following three strategies have been adopted: