The ‘Rise of the South’: Global Convergence at Last?

This article offers a political economy review of the literatures and the empirical evidence concerning the ‘Rise of the South’. The study focuses on global convergence (in the long-term, in the last 30 years, and in the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis), economic decoupling between developing and advanced economies, and the economic strategies which may help catching-up, especially the ‘flying geese’ paradigm and industrial policies supporting manufacturing sector growth. It shows that the mainstream literature suffers from significant weaknesses; that empirical claims concerning convergence and decoupling have been exaggerated, and that flying geese-type strategies are severely limited. Examination of the drivers of growth in the South and the policies implemented in key converging countries support the claim that political economy approaches can offer valuable policy insights to countries grappling with the challenges of long-term growth and development.     

A Comment on “Economic Inefficiency: A Failure of Economists”

This comment argues that the Staten-Umbeck critique of welfare economics, published earlier in this journal, is useful in that it challenges economists to carefully specify the assumptions of welfare analysis, but its primary point is only that welfare analysis is not methodologically positive.     

A Comment on “The Dilemmas of Technology”

This paper documents Hohfeld's influence on interwar American institutionalism. We will mainly focus on three leading figures of the movement: John Rogers Commons, Robert Lee Hale, and John Maurice Clark. They regarded Hohfeld's contribution on jural relations as a preliminary step toward the understanding of the adversarial nature of legal rights. Albeit with substantial differences in style, method and emphasis, Hohfeld's schema provided a powerful analytical and rhetorical tool for their analysis.     

A Comment on ‘The Measurement of Prices of Production’ by Peter Flaschel,Reiner Franke & Roberto Veneziani

After giving a summary of the Cambridge debate, the comment criticizes the proposal by Flaschel, Franke and Veneziani to base the classical approach on systems of production with unequal rates of profit both theoretically and on empirical grounds: The classical gravitation of market prices towards normal prices is hard to defend, if there are persistent differentials of profit rates, but the profit rate differentials in the paper are not even stable. The comment further defends the idea of representing states of knowledge about technology by means of input-ouput tables against objections regarding the transferability of methods between countries and discusses alternative approaches to the treatment of fixed capital. It is shown that the data used by the authors for capital stocks are not supported by the data of the German Statistical Office. I agree with the authors in the most essential point, however: Contrary to the position taken e.g. by Joan Robinson, we all believe that the problems of capital theory raised in the Cambridge debate must be analyzed not only in abstract theory but also at the applied level. We all were surprised to find that empirical wage curves tend to be close to straight lines so that double intersections of such wage curves, hence reswitching and reverse capital deepening, must be rare. This phenomenon needs to be explained; a possible explanation can be derived from the random nature of the input-output matrices, and, so far, no other explanation has been proposed.     

‘A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall’: The Global Financial Crisis and Developing Countries

The global financial crisis of 2008–09 is the deepest downturn in the world economy since the Great Depression of 1929–33. Though its effects have been felt most noticeably in the developed countries, it has affected many developing countries. This article assesses what we know about the impact of the crisis on developing countries, and how the crisis may affect long-term development outcomes. It also examines the implications of the crisis for some key issues in development policy and thinking.     

A Critique of ‘Neoliberal Autonomy’: The Rhetoric of Ownership Society

The rhetoric of the Ownership Society defined by the Cato Institute has been integral to framing the motivation behind the Social Security reform introduced by George W. Bush. This motivational frame involves a fierce advocacy of what we will call ‘neoliberal autonomy’ in a Hayekian and Friedmanite sense. For Hayek and Friedman, the social adequacy component of Social Security is problematized in the name of self-reliance and individual choice, which rejects any authoritative standards as morally indefensible. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of the Ownership Society, though it glorifies the neoliberal notion of autonomy, does not explicitly question the moral basis of Social Security. Rather, by defining the terms of debate, it frames the meaning of Social Security along neoliberal lines in an attempt to make a supposedly detached economic case for private retirement accounts. In this ‘pro-privatization’ framework, the social adequacy component of the Social Security system fades away as individual equity, or actuarial fairness, comes to the fore as the chief theme. We suggest a ‘pro-social’ rhetoric that recognizes the pursuit of social standards as providing the element of autonomy.     

The ‘Global Food Crisis’ and the Geopolitics of Food Security

Growing anxieties over food security have recently brought sharp geopolitical overtones to debates about the agro-food sector. Contending that this ‘geopolitical moment’ highlights the mutually constitutive nature of geopolitics and political economies of food, we examine how dominant geopolitical framings of food security extend and deepen neoliberal models of agro-food provisioning, and highlight the need for further attention to these dynamics from political geographers. We develop a preliminary research agenda for further work in the field, focusing on the recent spate of global farmland acquisitions, questions of agro-food governance, the securitisation of hunger and obesity, and the environmental impacts of dominant agro-food systems. Throughout, we highlight the value of a counter-geopolitics of food security for re-situating agro-food politics outside hegemonic policies and institutions, and of the alter-geopolitics of food pursued by communities embodying concrete alternative food production and consumption systems.     

A Critique of ‘Neoliberal Autonomy’: The Rhetoric of Ownership Society

The rhetoric of the Ownership Society defined by the Cato Institute has been integral to framing the motivation behind the Social Security reform introduced by George W. Bush. This motivational frame involves a fierce advocacy of what we will call ‘neoliberal autonomy’ in a Hayekian and Friedmanite sense. For Hayek and Friedman, the social adequacy component of Social Security is problematized in the name of self-reliance and individual choice, which rejects any authoritative standards as morally indefensible. Nevertheless, the rhetoric of the Ownership Society, though it glorifies the neoliberal notion of autonomy, does not explicitly question the moral basis of Social Security. Rather, by defining the terms of debate, it frames the meaning of Social Security along neoliberal lines in an attempt to make a supposedly detached economic case for private retirement accounts. In this ‘pro-privatization’ framework, the social adequacy component of the Social Security system fades away as individual equity, or actuarial fairness, comes to the fore as the chief theme. We suggest a ‘pro-social’ rhetoric that recognizes the pursuit of social standards as providing the element of autonomy.

Pasinetti's ‘Structural Change and Economic Growth’: A Conceptual Excursus

A clear and organic exposition of Pasinetti's theoretical framework of Structural Change and Economic Growth has been prevented by misunderstandings and ambiguities concerning basic categories and terminology. The pre-institutional character of the approach, the nature of its equilibrium paths and the significance—and normative character—of the ‘natural’ economic system are some of the most controversial issues. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual excursus of the model to establish a solid foundation for fruitful discussions to be held with other Classical approaches.     

The Geo-Social and Global Geographies of Power: Urban Aspirations of ‘Worlding’ African Students in China

This paper conceptualises the geosocial by examining the transnational connections of African student migrants and their educational experiences in Chinese cities. While there is now an established scholarship on Chinese migration to Africa, new research on the concurrent flow of African migration to China is emerging. Recent publications on African migrants in China tend to focus on the experiences of African traders, drawing out issues of illegality, ‘low-end’ globalisation and their impacts on Chinese trading cities. In comparison, this paper shifts the analytical lens to African educational migration in Chinese cities, foregrounding how global householding patterns reflect and leverage on the geopolitical and geo-economic dimensions of China-Africa relations. The paper shows that individual and family goals are negotiated through educational migration that, on the one hand, is concerned with accumulating human and cultural capital through a learning stint in Chinese cities, and on the other hand, is framed by perceptions of China-Africa relations. The paper argues that through educational migration, transnational social reproduction links Africa with China, but the social differentiation and everyday sociality that the African students experience in Chinese cities reinforce racial coding and development asymmetries. In so doing, the paper draws out how the geosocial reflects and constitutes the geopolitical and geo-economic dimensions of transnationalism.     

The Application of Sensitivity Analysis on Comprehensive Transportation Evaluation

Comprehensive transportation evaluation objects using multi-objective decision method is a process of choosing the best one from a few objects through calculating, analyzing, and comparing the index system. The result may be different because of the difference of the index weight and index value. Therefore, sensitivity analysis should be one of the necessary parts of the decision-making. It is desired to give the index with higher sensitivity and its varying scope to control the index strictly during the execution process. This paper derives transfer index weight, which changes the rank evaluation order of the projects. Meanwhile, a simple, effective and practical method based on sensitivity district and sensitivity matrix is proposed for the sensitivity analysis of decision-making. As an example, the index sensitivity in decision-making of some provinces comprehensive transportation objects, and their influence on the final decision are discussed.     

The Nordic Model on the Global Market of Ideas: The Welfare State as Scandinavia’s Best Brand

This article analyses the contemporary deployment of the Nordic welfare state model as a centrepiece of Nordic competitive identity and strategic communication on the global market of ideas. First, it looks at the interrelated phenomena of global competition, competitive identity and region branding. Second, it studies the interplay between Nordic transnational public diplomacy and national public diplomacy of individual Nordic countries, in particular Sweden, on the one hand and international media outlets’ reporting on the Nordic countries on the other. In analysing this cross-fertilizing genre, the article identifies how the welfare state is being repackaged for export along with a set of “progressive values” which are coded as specifically “Nordic.” The article discusses (1) the interaction between outer images and inner visions; (2) the place and significance of the Nordic model, progressive values and the welfare state in today’s Nordic branding; and (3) the possible function of outward competitive identity as a kind of “compensatory imagination” directed inward as well as outward.     

Producing Airpower: The Rise and Fall of Neo-Liberalism’s Defence Agenda

ABSTRACT

Few policy issues are more challenging than complex weaponry’s procurement and employment. Technology drives weapon costs upwards faster than economies are growing and militaries struggle to maintain increasingly sophisticated arms. Certain governments have adopted a reform agenda rooted in neo-liberal economic theory to address these challenges. Two broad policies – enhancing inter-firm competition for contracts and outsourcing activities to the private sector – emerged as central to this reform agenda. Although rarely presented as such, these reforms present a significant intellectual challenge to the hitherto predominant statist model for military power’s provision. Surprisingly, in light of neo-liberal policies’ adoption by militarily active states, no study has systematically examined these reforms’ content and impact. My article fills this lacuna by examining the state – the United Kingdom – that most consistently enacted neo-liberal defence reforms. To preview the conclusion, neo-liberal reforms initially generated small initial efficiencies, but then produced significant adverse consequences when pursued beyond a certain minimal level. Britain’s competition policy, for example, ultimately incentivized firms to consolidate into monopolies, which narrowed the scope for future competition and prevented the state from upholding fixed price contracts. Outsourcing, likewise, proved detrimental once policymakers sought to extend its scope beyond a limited range of simple services.     

Marginal WTP and Distance Decay: The Role of ‘Protest’ and ‘True Zero’ Responses in the Economic Valuation of Recreational Water Quality

We evaluate the sensitivity of distance decay in individuals’ stated willingness to pay (WTP) for water quality improvements in eutrophied lakes. We extend the standard model of contingent valuation (CV) by allowing individuals to adopt a sequential evaluation process consisting of two decision stages. In the first stage respondents decide whether they are ‘protesters’, have a WTP   \(=\)   ‘true zero’ or a \(\hbox {WTP}>0\) . Conditioned on a strictly positive WTP, we use Lee’s selectivity-corrected model to determine the magnitude of their WTP in the second stage. Using CV survey data from Norway we find significant distance decay in the first stage classification of respondents as ‘protesters’, ‘true zero’ WTP, or positive WTP. In the second stage model for positive WTP responses, we find little or no significant relationships when correcting for selection. Results suggest that previous findings of significant distance decay in contingent valuation of lake and river water in Europe may be driven by the definition of ‘protest’ and ‘true zero’ respondents. We find that WTP for water quality may be more useful as a qualitative indicator of political support for user financed water quality measures, than as a cardinal measure of marginal utility of water quality improvements.     

The Dynamic ‘Diamond’: A Technological Innovation Perspective

A firm's local environment can constitute a source of national or regional cornpetitive advantage. An important question, therefore, is how these environments come about and how they can be lost. In this paper, we argue that a local environment is a function of the process of technological evolution. It is a function of how certain initial and prevailing conditions, the type of innovation, and chance events, influence the processes of uncertainty resolution, capabilities building, and survivor selection that are characteristic of technological evolution. We also argue that a region can lose its advantage when a dominant design emerges or when a technological discontinuity obsoletes the localized technological capabilities of not only manufacturers, but also of their suppliers, customers and related industries. The environment is dynamic as firms and nations, in response to their performances, also influence it by changing their strategies or policies.