the rise and fall of the washington consensus as a paradigm for developing countries abstract the introduction of the washington consensus involved not simply a swing from state led to market oriented policies but also a shift in the ways in which development problems were framed and in the types of explanation through which policies were justified key changes were the partial globalization of development policy analysis and a shift from historicism to ahistorical performance assessment the main challenge to this approach is a latent southern consensus which is apparent in the convergence between east asian developmentalism and latin american neostructuralism the demise of the washington consensus is inevitable because its methodology and ideology are in contradiction

the location of foreign direct investment an empirical analysis in this piece of research those factors are analysed which determine the choice of location for fdi the analysis is conducted using two models a multicountry model containing seven industrializ

bureaucratic rationality and the developmental state there has been a resuscitation of the view that the state can play an important role in the industrialization process but for states to be successful in fostering development they need a considerable degree of internal cohesiveness which is generally supplied by the presence of a robust weberian bureaucratic corps this article argues that while internal cohesiveness is indeed critical bureaucratic rule following can produce results in the opposite direction depending on the interagency relations that obtain within the state the effect of interagency relations is demonstrated through an examination of india and korea both have worked to foster industrialization and both are endowed with relatively healthy bureaucracies however the indian state was paralyzed and fragmented while its korean counterpart did secure the requisite internal coherence not only did the culture of rule following fail to generate a cohesive state in india but it in fact worked against such an outcome

bureaucracy and growth a cross national analysis of the effects of weberian state structures on economic growth the role of bureaucratic authority structures in facilitating economic growth has been a sociological concern since max weber s classic contributions almost 100 years ago using a recent and original data set we examine the characteristics of core state economic agencies and the growth records of a sample of 35 developing countries for the 1970 1990 period our weberianness scale offers a simple measure of the degree to which these agencies employ meritocratic recruitment and offer predictable rewarding long term careers we find that these weberian characteristics significantly enhance prospects for economic growth even when we control for initial levels of gdp per capita and human capital our results imply that weberianness should be included as a factor in general models of economic growth they also suggest the need for more attention by policymakers to building better bureaucracies and more research by social scientists on variations in how state bureaucracies are organized

disaggregate level evidence on monetary neutrality existing tests of the neutrality hypothesis focus on aggregate level economic activity however failure to examine disaggregate level effects can lead to incorrect inferences concerning anticipated and unanticipated money growth impacts disaggregate level testing of neutrality is limited also receiving inadequate attention is the impact upon test inferences of the use of generated regressors in the widely used two step estimation procedure this research tests neutrality across eleven manufacturing industries and aggregate gnp incorporating a correction for generated regressors into gls estimation the research finds non neutrality of anticipated money at the disaggregate level under two general money forecasting specifications

foreign direct investment and the political economy of protection this paper makes the point that an import competing industry may not want maximal protection the reason is that a high level of protection encourages inward foreign direct investment which could be even less desirable than import competition a government captured by the domestic import competing industry consequently will set the level of protection low enough to limit direct foreign entry this paper also establishes results regarding the form of protection voluntary export restraints are shown to be the domestic industry s desired means of protection because leaving export rents with foreigners inhibits foreign direct investment

toward an economic model of the japanese firm i owe a great deal to professor moses abramovitz who suggested that i write this article i appreciate his constant encouragement and guidance which aided me throughout its preparation i am also indebted to three anonymous referees of the journal and to professors ryutaro komiya and michael riordan for their critical comments and helpful suggestions needless to say i am solely responsible for the views expressed in this paper

some aspects of japanese corporate finance in this paper we attempt to blend economic theory with an understanding of the historical context and regulation of japanese financial markets particularly during the 1950s and 1960s the historical and regulatory context is critical since it represents the framework within which the economic forces operated that is we are interested in examining how a particular structure characterized by controlled interest rates segmentation of markets and functions and limited entry gave rise in understandable ways to distinctive corporate financial practices there have been a number of recent publications that attempt to describe and explain the japanese corporate financial system 1 perhaps the most discussed topics are the relatively high degree of financial leverage for the typical japa nese firm and the predominance of bank financing for the external funding of large corporations there also has been discussion of such apparent peculiarities in the equity markets as the issue of shares at a par value of 50 yen when their market value is 1 000 yen or more as well as the extensive cross holdings of shares between corporations the role of a firm s main bank as not only len der and financial advisor but in some cases exercising management control also has received attention before we address these issues we wish to make two points first the structure of the japanese financial system changed radically after world war ii as a consequence of legislation introduced by the occupation authorities and the need to rebuild for example with respect to high debt to equity ratios and heavy dependence on bank loans nakamura 26 cites evidence that equity comprised 67 percent of gross capital total assets for manufacturing industries in 1935 in a related vein kurosawa 22 provides figures that external funding by japanese corporations during the 1931 1936 period was only 4 percent from bank loans with 96 percent through stocks and industrial bonds

dependency disarticulation and denominator effects another look at foreign capital penetration less developed countries desparately need capital to develop but countries dependent on foreign capital face slower economic growth higher income inequality and possibly impaired domestic capital formation these conclusions emerge from a reassessment of glenn firebaugh s broad critique of capital dependency research which exposed an important error in earlier studies the solution charts new theoreticall ground by factoring dependency effects into the differential productivity of foreign and domestic investment and the negative externalities from foreign capital penetration the revised formulation is applied to cross national analyses of economic growth decapitalization and income inequality the findings consistently support capital dependency theory

a microeconomic test of money neutrality conventional empirical studies of money neutrality have focussed on the response of aggregate economic measures to anticipated and unanticipated money supply shocks the present paper uses data from the u s pork industry to test for money neutrality at the microeconomic level the appeal of the pork industry stems largely from the homogeneity of the product we consider and the fact that the product is traded in what are essentially auction markets we find that current unanticipated but not anticipated money supply shocks have real effects in the industry

government policies market imperfections and foreign direct investment the internalization eclectic theory of foreign direct investment includes the important insight that government policies create market imperfections which make foreign direct investment an economically rational strategic alternative for firms this paper reexamines the effects of government policies on market imperfections and foreign direct investment fdi it broadens and refines the analysis of the impact of government policies by developing the following arguments 1 there is a wide range of government policies that affect firms fdi decisions via their effects on market imperfections 2 there are numerous dimensions of variability in government policies that need to be identified in order to understand fully the effects of government policies on market imperfections and hence fdi flows 3 some of the effects of government policies on market imperfections and fdi are the opposite of those previously noted in the fdi literature 4 the effects of government policies vary across the several individual components of fdi flows the paper thus examines the following variables and relationships more extensively and precisely than has the previous literature government policy variables as causal factors affecting fdi market imperfection variables as intervening factors in the causal connections between government policies and fdi and the multiple indicators of the various dimensions of fdi as dependent variables

the rebirth of the liberal creed paths to neoliberalism in four countries1 since the 1970s market based economic policies have been institutionalized as a nearly global policy paradigm using four national case studies this article shows that economic and financial globalization played a critical role in fostering the transition to neoliberal policies but that local institutional conditions were decisive in shaping the nature and meaning of the shift while the analysis finds that developing countries appear more dependent upon direct external pressures than developed ones it also shows that institutionalized patterns of state society relations determined the way in which neoliberal transitions were carried out somewhat irrespectively of the level of economic development in chile and britain poorly mediated distributional conflict created the ideological conditions for a monetarist revolution in mexico and france on the other hand neoliberalism was understood mainly as a necessary step to adapt the country to the international economy

recombinant property in east european capitalism recombinant property is a form of organizational hedging in which actors respond to uncertainty by deversifying assets redefining and recombining resources it is an attempt to hold resources that can be justified by more than one legitimating principle property tansformation in postsocialist hungary involves the decentralized reorganization of assets and the centralized management of liabilities together they blur the boundaries of public and private the boundaries of enterprises and the boundedness of justificatory principles enterprise level field research data on the ownership structure of hungary s 220 largest enterprises and banks and an examination of the government s recent debt consolidation programs suggest the emergence of a distinctively east european capitalism that will differ as much from west european capitalism as do contemporary east asian variants

top executive rewards and firm performance a comparison of japan and the united states this paper studies top executive turnover and compensation and their relation to firm performance in the largest japanese and u s companies japanese executive turnover and compensation are related to earnings stock returns and to a lesser extent sales performance measures the fortunes of japanese top executives therefore are positively correlated with stock performance and current cash flows or with factors contributing to such performance the relations for the japanese executives are generally economically and statistically similar to those for their u s counterparts there is some evidence however that the fortunes of japanese executives are more sensitive to low income but less sensitive to stock returns than those of u s executives

culture meaning and institutions executive rationale in germany and japan this paper contributes rare primary empirical evidence to one of the major research questions in the social sciences today namely the linkage between national cultures and institutional structures of national business systems drawing on the work of redding we explore the thinking or rationale of senior executives of leading german and japanese firms about the ideal structure of the economy we find considerable variation in rationale across the two countries and in comparison with the shape of the business system of the united states our study has implications for our understanding of the meaning of economic activity in different countries and of the evolutionary trajectories of national business systems

diversity between and within varieties of capitalism transnational survey evidence one of the central debates in contemporary socio economics concerns the relationship between institutions and firm level practices and the persistence of a number of alternative viable models for economic development we examine diversity within and between specific types of capitalism using data from a transnational survey incorporating 14 organizational level practices in a sample of six capitalist archetypes constituting 27 countries and some 6503 firms we focus on one of the key defining features of different varieties of capitalism the interdependence of employers and employees we find that there are clustering tendencies consistent with the literature but also considerable diversity within as well as between the varieties although we did not find diffuse diversity or homogeneity the analysis supports a complex and nuanced relationship within and between varieties of capitalism that has not been previously captured in the literature

in defence of degrowth abstract this article defends the proposal of sustainable degrowth a starting premise is that resource and co2 limits render further growth of the economy unsustainable if degrowth is inevitable the question is how it can become socially sustainable i e a prosperous and stable rather than a catastrophic descent pricing mechanisms alone are unlikely to secure smooth adaptation a full ensemble of environmental and redistributive policies is required including among others policies for a basic income reduction of working hours environmental and consumption taxes and controls on advertising policies like these that threaten to harm the economy are less and less likely to be implemented within existing market economies whose basic institutions financial property political and redistributive depend on and mandate continuous economic growth an intertwined cultural and political change is needed that will embrace degrowth as a positive social development and reform those institutions that make growth an imperative sustainable degrowth is therefore not just a structuring concept it is a radical political project that offers a new story and a rallying slogan for a social coalition built around the aspiration to construct a society that lives better with less

the economics of degrowth economic degrowth is ecologically desirable and possibly inevitable but under what conditions can it become socially sustainable how can we have full employment and economic stability without growth what will happen to public spending and to public debt how would production be organised in a degrowing economy and under what plausible socio political conditions could such grand changes happen standard economic theories and models ignore these questions for them economic growth is an axiomatic necessity this article reviews recent contributions in the economics of degrowth and identifies research avenues for ecological economists

international corporate governance a review and opportunities for future research we review four decades of research about the corporate governance of multinational corporations mncs which we label international corporate governance icg we identify and discuss three main streams of research that draw on different conceptualizations and theoretical lenses of corporate governance after synthesizing their respective findings we propose several avenues for future research that integrate these three streams of research with the goal of developing a more nuanced understanding of icg we hope this review article will inspire international business scholars to continue examining how corporate governance can be an effective tool for mnc success

capital market development and firm restructuring during an economic shock we conceptualize capital markets in terms of resource access and governance and argue that more developed capital markets facilitate firm restructuring through more effective provision of capital and governance of transactions we then develop a contingency model that specifies that the effects of capital market development on restructuring vary by 1 types of restructuring 2 the nature of the economic environments and 3 firms access to resources we evaluate a broad range of restructuring actions among independent firms and business group affiliates in singapore and south korea before and during the economic shock of 1998 1999 results support our predictions of the impact of capital market development and of contingencies and highlight the value of incorporating an external capital markets perspective to complement internally focused theoretical explanations for firm restructuring

a comparative analysis of layoff announcements and stock price reactions in the united states and japan downsizing and layoffs are an important mechanism for u s firms to cope with their strategic and economic environment in contrast the japanese tradition of lifetime employment limits the ability of firms to employ layoffs as a strategic measure relegating its use to conditions of financial distress this paper provides the first comparison of layoffs in japan and the united states and examines stock price reactions to layoff announcements in each country from 1990 to 1994 agency theory and aoki s cooperative game theory are employed to discuss differences in the governance structures of u s and japanese firms and their implication for stock price reactions results show that layoff announcements trigger negative returns for both u s and japanese firms specifically layoff announcements of u s firms are associated with a negative 1 78 percent abnormal return while layoff announcements for japanese firms are associated with a negative 0 56 percent abnormal return to better understand the impact of layoffs this study examines the relationships between stock price reactions and various layoff characteristics such as whether the layoff is proactive or reactive or whether the layoff is the first in the industry implications of the findings are discussed 1997 john wiley sons ltd

careers in foreign owned firms in japan this article examines how organizational environments affect labor market processes in japan i hypothesize that labor market inequality is generated through workers being positioned in either domestic or in foreign firms i apply the concept of social versus economic exchange to distinguish the nature of transactions between domestic and foreign firms i argue that foreign firms operate under an institutional context that is conducive to the economic mode of exchange which has enormous consequences for their personnel practices and reward systems using a dataset of japanese workers collected in 2000 i examine the extent to which employment practices in foreign firms deviate from the benchmark features observed in the japanese labor market my results confirm that employment in foreign firms significantly affects career outcomes the highcommitment culture commonly associated with the japanese workforce is an outcome of the organizational environment i find little evidence of japanese employment pra

trade strategy and the dependency hypothesis a comparison of policy foreign investment and economic growth in latin america and east asia the role of state policy in the industrialization of third world nations has become the subject of increasing interest in recent years in the past the debate over economic development has either focused on the traditional modernization approach or the dependency theory of underdevelopment 2 dependency theorists base their model of development on the belief that foreign investment from core countries is harmful to developing nations long term economic growth economic relationships between the core and the periphery are structurally detrimental for the latter because of the inherent dynamics of international capitalism yet despite the claims of dependency theory the recent experience of the east asian newly industrialized countries suggests a wider range of development possibilities which include government policies specifically designed to attract foreign investment these countries appear to have structured their domestic economies in order to mitigate the pernicious effects of dependent relationships with core countries this raises new questions about the development process and the role of policy and foreign investment in the economic transactions between core and peripheral countries dependency theory a neo marxist predecessor of world systems research claims that first world nations become wealthy by extracting surplus labor and resources from the third world capitalism perpetuates a global division of labor which causes the distortion of developing countries domestic economies declining growth and increased income inequality 3 those countries on the periphery cannot become fully modernized as long as they remain in the capitalist world

the effect of national culture on the choice of entry mode characteristics of national cultures have frequently been claimed to influence the selection of entry modes this article investigates this claim by developing a theoretical argument for why culture should influence the choice of entry two hypotheses are derived which relate culture to entry mode choice one focusing on the cultural distance between countries the other on attitudes towards uncertainty avoidance using a multinomial logit model and controlling for other effects the hypotheses are tested by analysing data on 228 entries into the united states market by acquisition wholly owned greenfield and joint venture empirical support for the effect of national culture on entry choice is found

money neutrality at aggregate and sectoral levels the natural rate hypothesis nrh implies that unanticipated but not anticipated money stock changes can affect real economic activity recently the nrh has been given a strong theoretical foundation by the new classical macroeconomics building from micro foundations authors such as barro 4 assume that industry supply functions are expectations augmented so that money stock changes which are anticipated have no effects on industry output aggregating across sectors yields the hypothesis that anticipated money changes will not alter real gross national product using aggregate data barro 5 and barro and rush 6 obtained results which were interpreted as supporting the neutrality of anticipated money growth the importance of barro s empirical findings led to subsequent tests of the hypothesis results of several studies provided further support for the nrh 2 3 17 while mishkin 14 and hoffman and schlagenhauf 12 obtained mixed results

reversal of fortunes democratic institutions and foreign direct investment inflows to developing countries does increased democracy promote or jeopardize foreign direct investment fdi inflows to less developed countries we argue that democratic institutions have conflicting effects on fdi inflows on the one hand democratic institutions hinder fdi inflows by limiting the oligopolistic or monopolistic behaviors of multinational enterprises facilitating indigenous businesses pursuit of protection from foreign capital and constraining host governments ability to offer generous financial and fiscal incentives to foreign investors on the other hand democratic institutions promote fdi inflows because they tend to ensure more credible property rights protection reducing risks and transaction costs for foreign investors hence the net effect of democracy on fdi inflows is contingent on the relative strength of these two competing forces our argument reconciles conflicting theoretical expectations in the existing literature empirical analyses of fifty three developing countries from 1982 to 1995 substantiate our claims we find that both property rights protection and democracy related property rights protection encourage fdi inflows after controlling for their positive effect through property rights protection democratic institutions reduce fdi inflows these results are robust against alternative model specifications statistical estimators and variable measurements

the long term effects of foreign investment dependence on economic growth 1940 1990 does dependence of a national economy on foreign investment promote economic growth or underdevelopment the recent exchanges between glenn firebaugh and william j dixon and terry boswell suggest the contentious nature of this debate this study analyzes models similar to those tested in previous research but with data from earlier time points to examine the long term effects of foreign capital penetration accumulated stocks of foreign capital gdp in 1938 have a short term five year positive effect on economic growth followed by a 20 year lagged negative effect on economic growth beginning in 1960 and lasting at least 30 years similar effects are found using a second indicator of foreign investment dependence debits on investment income for the 1950 90 period the international migration of capital has facilitated development of the world s natural resources and has been instrumental in transmitting the direct effects of the industrial revolution from area to area thereby it has helped to increase

income inequality development and dependence a reconsideration we reconsider the role of foreign investment in income inequality in light of recent critiques that question the results of quantitative cross national research on foreign capital penetration we analyze an unbalanced cross national data set in which countries contribute different numbers of observations with a maximum of 88 countries and 488 observations dated from 1967 to 1994 random effects regression models that control for unmeasured country heterogeneity are used to investigate effects of foreign capital penetration on inequality measured as the gini coefficient against the background of an internal developmental model of inequality we adapt firebaugh s 1992 1996 critique of the literature on the effect of foreign investment on economic growth to the study of income inequality and find that the stock of foreign direct investment has an effect on inequality that is independent of the mechanisms identified by firebaugh we explore tsai s 1995 claim that the effect of foreign capital penetration is spurious and find that foreign stock has a significant positive effect on inequality net of region specific differences an alternative interpretation of the findings of the foreign investment inequality literature is discussed in light of the discovery of an inverted u shaped relationship between income inequality and foreign investment stock per capita we conclude that thinking on the relationship between income inequality and investment dependence should be revised in light of an investment development path relating the inflow and outflow of foreign capital to economic development

host country reforms and fdi inflows how much difference do they make summary this study examines the effects of various policies on foreign direct investment fdi flows from the perspective of the eclectic theory of international investment and hence the advantages of foreign ownership host country location and internationalization host country policies can influence fdi flows primarily through their influence on the advantages of location in the host country pooled cross section and time series data for 49 less developed countries ldcs over 1970 95 are used to examine the effects of several different types of policy institutional variables including corporate tax rates tariff rates the degree of openness to international capital flows exchange rate distortions contract enforcement nationalization risk bureaucratic delay and corruption a multivariate analysis of the effects on fdi flows of each type of policy with and without controls for other relevant determinants is conducted two different sources of fdi data are employed as well as two different measures of capital controls although there are methodological problems in estimation and especially collinearity problems and relatively severe availability constraints for some of the relevant measures the results demonstrate the relevance and importance for fdi flows of many of the policy institutional variables under study they also indicate that the results from panel methods yield results that differ rather significantly from those obtained from pure cross section analysis because of complementarity between the various elements of a healthy investment climate the effects of some policy reforms estimated from models which do not control for changes in other policies may overstate the effectiveness of individual policy reforms

is there convergence across countries a spatial approach we analyze convergence across countries over the last half century as a result of globalizing forces drawing on theories of modernization dependency the world system political trade blocs and the world society we consider economic demographic knowledge financial and political dimensions of convergence using a new methodology we calculate the minimum volume ellipsoid encompassing different groupings of countries finding that during the 1960 2009 period countries have not evolved significantly closer or similar to one another although groups of countries based on their core periphery status or membership in trade blocs exhibit increasing internal convergence and divergence between one another

market structure and the effectiveness of monetary policy a cross industry study empirical rejections of the strong form of the new classical macroeconomics at the aggregate economy level leave open the extent to which it is the rational expectations or short run market clearin

how do corporate governance model differences affect foreign direct investment in emerging economies this study examines the impact of national corporate governance models on inward foreign direct investment fdi in emerging economies we consider three potential mechanisms and conduct an empirical test of how family ownership and control in large group affiliated firms in taiwan affect joint venture investment from us and japanese firms during the period 1988 1998 results support the neo institutional perspective of fdi developed in this study the home country corporate governance models are likely to shape foreign firms choice of local partners

boon or bane reassessing the productivity of foreign direct investment we assess the effects of foreign and domestic capital on economic growth using the latest data and better models of economic growth than those previously used we explicitly consider the role of human capital in the process of economic development we find no evidence that foreign direct investment harms the economic prospects of developing countries the flow of foreign capital from 1980 to 1991 spurred growth in gross domestic product per capita while the level of foreign stock or foreign penetration had no discernible effect indeed new foreign investment was more productive dollar for dollar than was capital from domestic sources previous suggestions that foreign investment flows are less beneficial than domestic ones were based on a misinterpretation moreover foreign direct investment stimulates investment from domestic sources consequently developing countries have no reason to eschew foreign capital as dependency theorists urge

natural office vacancy rates some additional estimates excerpt in our recent paper shilling et al 2 we examined the rent adjustment process for 17 u s office markets and provided the first estimates of the natural vacancy rates in his comment voith 3 argues that our specification of the rent vacancy relationship is biased since we introduced an interaction term to capture the effect of risks associated with higher vacancy levels he suggests that an alternative specification would be to enter a vacancy squared term to capture this risk effect

a clash of capitalisms foreign shareholders and corporate restructuring in 1990s japan this article examines the clash between stakeholder and shareholder based business systems resulting from an increase in foreign portfolio investment in the japanese economy during the 1990s an analysis of 1 108 firms between 1991 and 2000 shows that as foreign institutional investors who were more interested in investment returns than in long term relationships replaced domestic shareholders one fundamental pillar of japan s stakeholder capitalism began to crack japanese firms began to adopt downsizing and asset divestiture practices more characteristic of anglo american shareholder economies the influence of foreigners however was weaker in firms more deeply embedded in the local system through close ties to domestic financial institutions and corporate groups thus foreign investors were influential primarily in firms less embedded in the existing stakeholder system this research contributes to debates on globalization and convergence of business systems institutional change and corporate

a theory of privatisation public enterprises around the world have proved to be highly inefficient primarily because they pursue strategies such as excess employment that satisfy the political objectives of politicians who control them privatization of public enterprises can raise the cost to politicians of influencing them since subsidies to private firms necessary to force them to remain inefficient are politically harder to sustain than wasted profits of the state firms in this way privatization leads to efficient restructuring of firms moreover privatization is more effective when combined with a tight monetary policy and when the new owners of firms are profit maximizing investors rather than their employees or even managers copyright 1996 by royal economic society

perceived organizational support pos across 54 nations a cross cultural meta analysis of pos effects the authors meta analyze relationships of perceived organizational support pos with attitudinal and behavioral outcomes in western i e horizontal individualistic and eastern i e vertical collectivistic cultures the social exchange perspective suggests that pos effects are stronger in western cultures because employees are more likely to see the self as independent and understand their relationship with the organization in terms of reciprocity however the social identity perspective suggests that pos effects are stronger in eastern cultures because employees are more likely to see the self as interdependent and are more attuned to organizational support as an identity related cue addressing these competing hypotheses meta analytic results from 827 independent samples n 332 277 across 54 countries show support for both perspectives in the west pos was more strongly associated with social exchange processes than organizational identification processes in contrast in the east pos was more strongly associated with organizational identification processes than social exchange processes overall pos was more strongly related to job attitudes and performance in the east than in the west cultural differences in pos effects on attitudinal outcomes were found to be increasing over time we discuss the implications of these findings for organizational support theory and research

microeconomic degrowth the case of community supported agriculture in this paper we attempt to build a new microeconomic approach that could be considered as a basis of the degrowth macroeconomic view as degrowth is a critique of the dominant macroeconomic model of the endless search for economic growth its microeconomic foundations can be built by searching a relevant grass root economic initiative to theorise our approach is based upon the case study research of a self harvesting community supported agriculture in belgium the mainstream microeconomic model is based on the well known homo economicus assumption of individual self interest and competitive behaviour by contrast our model is based on a holistic approach of producers and consumers based upon trust cooperation and ecologically responsible behaviours this contribution participates to the flourishing literature on degrowth in ecological economics we begin by reviewing the debate on degrowth and economic behaviour we discuss the case study and its accounting expression that departs from the capitalist profit seeking model we conclude by explaining the limits and challenges of our model that implements degrowth on a small scale and in a capitalist environment

green growth degrowth and the commons the concepts of green growth and degrowth occupy central positions in the public debate on the relationship between economic growth and the environment while proponents of the former approach claim that environmental measures can promote growth by for example more efficient use of natural resources proponents of the latter maintain that environmental integrity can only be upheld by slowing down growth this paper argues that both approaches constitute inadequate foundations for public policy as they fail to appropriately conceptualize social welfare we show how policy aimed at social welfare can be understood as managing a portfolio of capital stocks some of which exhibit the characteristics of commons i e common pool resources and public goods we then propose a programme of welfare diagnostics which aims at establishing minimum thresholds for capital stocks essential to welfare as a guide for real world policy formulation and discuss the role of appropriation of natural resource rents for its practical implementation we conclude by highlighting the central role of scientific policy advice in determining how different conceptions of welfare would be reflected in setting targets and choosing the means to achieve them

uncertainty risk and trust russian and american credit card markets compared the strategies that russian and american banks use to evaluate the creditworthiness of prospective credit card holders are compared drawing on knight s theory of risk and uncertainty the authors argue that uncertainty inherent in any credit transaction can only be reduced to measurable risk if there are institutions that create stability over time categorize events properly and allow for verification and accumulation of information in the united states the gradual evolution of institutions underpinning rational calculation permits the transformation of uncertainty into risk in russia however such institutions are absent and a great degree of uncertainty prevails in consumer credit using data from original fieldwork in moscow this study demonstrates that when actors face uncertainty and are unable to calculate risk they rely on trust russian banks use and extend their existing social ties or in some cases build new ties they also exploit cardholders own networks unrelated to the bank to increase their accountability through anchoring these strategies however keep the market embedded limited in size and uninsurable the authors conclude that calculation of probabilities and economic rationality in its formal sense is not an innate human ability but a social capacity that exists courtesy of institutional arrangements

the pattern of direct foreign investment and economic growth abstract this paper examines the relationship between the sectoral pattern of direct foreign investment dfi and growth using theoretical and empirical analysis the theoretical analysis suggests that different patterns of dfi because of their differential effects on the north south terms of trade and on southern technological development can be expected to affect growth in host countries differently the empirical analysis using crosscountry growth equations however is unable to detect any effects of the pattern of dfi on growth it is argued that detailed case studies of particular countries would be valuable for exploring the empirical issues involved

predicting stakeholder orientation in the multinational enterprise a mid range theory as the reach of corporations increasingly extends across borders a key research question is whether overseas subsidiaries adopt a shareholder centric orientation centered on maximizing shareholder wealth or a stakeholder centric orientation centered on creating value for a broader range of stakeholders existing theories addressing the corporate level of analysis focus on forces exogenous to the firm local resource pressures and institutional norms using a combination of induction and fuzzy set analysis i draw on documentary evidence and 298 interviews with managers and stakeholders to build theory about the conditions that shape subsidiaries stakeholder orientations two major findings emerge first although theory emphasizes external stakeholders control over resources internal control through the corporate parent can crowd out the voices of local stakeholders second although institutional theory proposes isomorphism with local norms and standards some corporations are subject to scrutiny by global stakeholders and their subsidiaries face higher requirements for social engagement than their peers these findings are the foundation of a mid range theory that combines conventional explanations focused on environmental factors and an internal stakeholder perspective based around the roles of the parent corporation as owner and resource provider to predict stakeholder orientation

the price adjustment process for rental housing and the natural vacancy rate institute of a university of ii business and california economic research berkeley center for real estate and urban economics working paper series working paper 82 53 the price adjustment process for rental housing and the natural vacancy rate by kenneth t rosen lawrence b smith these ers are preliminary in natu heir purpose 39 to stimulate discussion comm therefore t are n ted or q d in any pub on wit the express permissi the author graduate school of business administration

the analysis and prediction of urban office rents the focus of this paper is the analysis and prediction of local office rents and in particular the development of econometric models for two uk cities edinburgh and glasgow this paper reviews the

growth effects of foreign and domestic investment over tha past few years numerous studies in sociology have concluded that foreign investment harms poor nations these studies have focused on the coefficient for foreign capital stock controlling for flow new investment and defying logic have inferred that a negative coefficient for stock reflects dependency effects that retard economic growth since capital stock is the denominator for investment rate the greater the stock the lower the investment rate for a given level of new investment hence the negative coefficient for capital stock found in dependency studies indicates a beneficial investment effect not a harmful effect this point is demonstrated by reanalysis of the data used in dependency studies in these data foreign investment spurs growth earlier analysts have concluded otherwise only because their conclusions have belied their findings

the global economy as instituted process the case of central and eastern europe i argue that economic globalization indicated by the tremendous rise in world foreign direct investment fdi in recent decades is not driven simply by investor considerations of economic risk and return but is significantly shaped by the construction of demand for foreign capital by receiving states states signal this demand through the levels of formal and substantive legitimacy they grant to fdi they institutionalize globalization in formal rule as a normatively desirable development strategy states substantiate this commitment by providing domestic and foreign actors with ideational and organizational resources to facilitate fdi to illustrate this argument i use the case of central and eastern europe which was largely closed to global capital before the collapse of communism analyses of quantitative and qualitative data show that substantive legitimacy granted to fdi by host states more than formal regulations determined the size of foreign capital flows into postsocialist countries in the

running out of steam a political incentive perspective of fdi inflows in china drawing on the sociological literature of state bureaucracy we develop a political incentive perspective on fdi inflows we argue that political term as a core feature of career advancement in state bureaucracy influences the incentives of newly appointed government officials and in turn their efforts toward achieving the state s goal of attracting fdi due to the mandatory retirement age which limits the career advancement officials in their first terms perceive that they have better chances of promotion and hence have stronger incentives to work toward advancement than those continuing to serve in the current position for the following term we test this argument by examining chinese city government leaders and fdi inflows in their cities from 2003 to 2010 using a difference in differences design the results show that first term leaders who are newly appointed after political turnover attract more fdi inflows than continuing leaders the difference is smaller when the new leaders are close to retirement but greater if they are appointed to cities with low prior gdp performance this study offers a new perspective on intra country fdi variations and extends the literature on the role of political institutions by investigating the political incentives of government officials

through the contested terrain implementation of downsizing announcements by large u s firms 1984 to 2005 since the 1980s leading u s firms have announced massive downsizing plans in the name of maximizing shareholder value but some observers are skeptical about how serious firms are in implementing

price adjustment process for rental office space abstract this paper analyzes the price adjustment process for rental office space in 17 cities across the united states over the time period 1960 to 1975 the results confirm much of what economic theory suggests landlords react to fluctuations in demand by building up or drawing down inventories of unlet or vacant office space other things equal higher levels of vacant office space mean that landlords lower their rents and reduce the difference between desired and actual vacancies empirical evidence is also presented on the normal vacancy rate across different cities

the governance impact of a changing investor landscape within the backdrop of comparative corporate governance research we draw on the managerial reporting and impression management literatures to examine how the type level and nature of foreign shareholders infused with their own governance logic influence initial managerial earnings optimism and how foreign ownership shapes earnings guidance in a stakeholder oriented setting drawing on japanese data and addressing endogeneity concerns our results show that under the presence of foreign owners managers are more optimistic in their initial earnings forecasts but that in subsequent revisions they are more likely to provide timely adjustments of their earnings forecast and avoid making last minute adjustments this research illustrates how foreign practices travel across borders and contributes to understanding triggers to governance and strategic changes

market culture and authority a comparative analysis of management and organization in the far east three frameworks purport to explain industrial arrangements and practices a market approach that emphasizes economic characteristics a cultural approach that sees organization as the expression of patterned values and an authority approach that explains organization as a historically developed structure of domination the efficacy of each approach is tested in explaining the organizational structures of three rapidly growing east asian economies japan south korea and taiwan the paper argues through comparative analysis that organizational growth is best explained by market and cultural factors but that authority patterns and legitimation strategies best explain organizational structure

degrowth and techno business model innovation the case of riversimple there is an emergent understanding that humanity has precipitated an anthropocene such that we are now operating in a reduced space for humanity in which urgent action is required this case study paper links degrowth technological innovation business model innovation and corporate governance the arguments are illustrated with the case of an embryonic vehicle and mobility business called riversimple the paper shows that radical technology innovations in the vehicle itself are achieved by underlying principles that focus on mass decompounding powertrain de coupling whole system design and low volume production systems the characteristics of the technologies are fundamental to and in part derive from the business model adopted by the case and the governance structures designed to avoid the primacy usually afforded to returns to financial shareholders while the case is embryonic the paper argues that an important possible contribution is the ability to commence a disruptive transition to a degrowth future from within existing legal frameworks social practices cultural expectations and physical infrastructures

keiretsu governance and learning case studies in change from the japanese automotive industry thekeiretsu structuring of assembler supplier relations historically enabled japanese auto assemblers to remain lean and flexible while enjoying a level of control over supply akin to that of vertical integration yet currently there is much talk of breakdowns inkeiretsu networks this paper examines some recent developments in japanese parts supplykeiretsu we argue thatkeiretsu relationships are drifting from hybrid or network i e keiretsu governance modes toward the extremes of arms length contracting and top down administration these changes are best understood through a combination of transaction cost and learning perspectives on alliance consistent with transaction cost economics the shift in purchase supply relationships can be traced to changes in the nature of parts transactions andkeiretsu governance structures a learning perspective on alliance complements and extends transaction cost theory providing additional explanation of the sources of change and the specific governance choices being made our first two cases document a drift in toyota skeiretsu supply network toward a hierarchical form in the management of parts supply transactions toyota has effectively internalized its transactions with daihatsu by taking a controlling interest toyota s strategy toward long term partner denso on the other hand was very different toyota built from the ground up an in house capability in electronic components thus scaling down its dependence on denso a third case considers a general trend in the japanese auto industry toward greater standardization of parts with the routinization of quality reliability and speed in supply management the need forkeiretsu style governance has declined the withering ofkeiretsu obligations is also traceable to globalization and the continuing weakness of the japanese economy which have prompted japanese firms to question received business practice