The Soviet Union’s attitude

The Soviet Union will not be represented at the North-South Summit in Cancún, even though both the developing countries and the Western industrialised countries would have liked to see it participate in the talks on solving the problem of underdevelopment. What are the USSR’s reasons for its negative attitude? Are there any prospects of involving the Soviet Union and its CMEA partners in joint development cooperation?     

Adjustment to changing international conditions

The structural changes in the world economy have made themselves increasingly felt in the Federal Republic of Germany over the past few years. For the first time since 1965 there is again a current account deficit, since merchandise trade is no longer able, due to the worsened terms of trade, to finance the traditional deficits on services and transfers. What policy should the Federal Government follow in order to help German industry adjust to these changes?     

Determinants of export performance

Comparative advantage, government incentives and entrepreneurial dynamics as determinants of a country’s export performance are discussed in this article. The author’s particular attention is focussed on the present situation and future perspectives of the less developed countries.     

Host country competition,labor skills,and technology transfer by multinationals

Host Country Competition, Labor Skills, and Technology Transfer by Multinationals. — This paper examines the impact of local competition and the availability of skilled labor on the technology imports of foreign MNC affiliates in Mexican manufacturing industries. The authors find that proxies for local competition and labor skills are positively related to the recorded technology imports of foreign owned affiliates. The effects of competition appear to be particularly strong in intermediate and consumer goods industries, while the availability of skilled labor seems to be particularly important in durable and capital goods industries. Thus, government policies aiming to create a competitive climate and improve labor quality may also promote inflows of modern technology.     

Sharing versus collaborative economy: how to align ICT developments and the SDGs in tourism?

Great hopes have been placed in the sharing economy to provide a new business model based on peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges of underutilized assets. As a model, the sharing economy has been expected to make significant contributions to sustainability, providing new opportunities for entrepreneurship, more sustainable use of resources, and consumer co-operation in tight economic networks. However, in recent years, digital platforms have turned into the most important actors in the global sharing economy, turning global corporations, such as AirBnB, Booking, or TripAdvisor into intermediaries controlling and profiting from most transactions. Focused on accommodation, this paper conceptualizes the sharing economy in comparison to the wider collaborative economy, and discusses its social, economic, environmental, and political impacts in comparison to the sustainable development goals. It concludes that the sharing economy has great potential to make very significant contributions to sustainability, though the model is increasingly being replaced by the collaborative economy, which performs as an extension and acceleration of neoliberal economic practices.     

Can tourism be part of the decarbonized global economy? The costs and risks of alternate carbon reduction policy pathways

Global leaders agree on the need to substantially decarbonize the global economy by 2050. This paper compares potential costs associated with different policy pathways to achieve tourism sector emission reduction ambitions (?50% by 2035) and transform the sector to be part of the mid-century decarbonized economy (?70% by 2050). Investment in emissions abatement within the tourism sector, combined with strategic external carbon offsets, was found to be approximately 5% more cost effective over the period 2015–2050 than exclusive reliance on offsetting. The cost to achieve the ?50% target through abatement and strategic offsetting, while significant, represents less than 0.1% of the estimated global tourism economy in 2020 and 3.6% in 2050. Distributed equally among all tourists (international and domestic), the cost of a low-carbon tourism sector is estimated at US$11 per trip, equivalent to many current travel fees or taxes. Exclusive reliance on offsetting would expose the sector to extensive and continued carbon liability costs beyond mid-century and could be perceived as climate inaction, increasing reputational risks and the potential for less efficient regulatory interventions that could hinder sustainable tourism development. Effective tourism sector leadership is needed to develop a strategic tourism policy framework and emission measurement and reporting system.