the international telecommunications regime the political roots of regimes for high technology the international telecommunications regime provided a multilateral framework that reinforced domestic monopolies and bilateral cartel arrangements in the global market the regime s epistemic community believed that telecommunications services and equipment were best supplied by national monopolies and that international communications by telephone telegram and telex should be jointly provided by monopolists strong domestic political incentives reinforced this cognitive framework when technological innovation triggered a successful political attack on the domestic regulation of telecommunications in a few key countries the stage was set for a global challenge to the intellectual and political foundations of the regime two paths to reform have emerged their significance can be assessed by looking at changes in the distribution of benefits from the regime changes in the manner in which governments delegate power to the regime and shifts in the epistemic community associated with the regime

use and impact of information technology in indonesian commercial banks abstract efforts in 1983 by indonesia to liberalize its financial markets produced a competitive atmosphere that was a stimulus to computerization particularly in banking within four years commercial banks had applied information technology to a range of back office tasks although they still lagged behind us banks in applying it to product development and marketing the impact on productivity was negligible partly due to shortages of personnel skilled in it and inadequate telecommunications infrastructure but also because banks had not yet accumulated sufficient managerial capabilities necessary for a more competitive environment manual banking systems remain viable but probably not for long since it driven systems will eventually yield greater gains in productivity

korean telecommunications development achievements and cautionary lessons abstract telecommunications in south korea have grown rapidly under an aggressive government strategy with three components massive investment in telecommunications network alliances among government research institutions business and the academic community and policy measures to foster efficiency in managing the telecommunications sector among the accomplishments are a modern network the development of time division electronic switching tdx technology and rapid growth of value added services the korean path may not be the one to replicate changes in technology mean it is now possible to do in a more decentralized way with greater private participation what previously had been undertaken through the government

cost of living clauses in union contracts determinants and effects this study investigates for the period 1969 81 the determinants of the incidence and strength of cost of living adjustment cola clauses in u s manufacturing and the effect of those clauses on wage inflation the sample includes approximately 5 570 union contracts in over 2 600 bargaining relationships the authors find that both union bargaining power and inflation uncertainty positively affected the probability that a cola clause was adopted as well as the strength of the clause adopted negatively influencing the incidence and strength of cola clauses during the period studied were unanticipated changes in an industry s prices the authors also find evidence that wage inflation was greater under contracts with uncapped colas than under all other contracts a result that also was positively influenced by the amount of unanticipated inflation from these results the authors suggest a number of possible trends in the use and effects of cola clauses

performance and potential of information technology an international perspective abstract rising information content of economic activity worldwide is making the use of information technology it increasingly relevant in a broad range of countries and activities effective planning and organizational capabilities are essential to successful adoption of the new technologies authors in this issue have concluded that managerial skills and entrepreneurship are key to effective use of it in addition to human capital development it diffusion requires a strategy for generating large investments in telecommunications while proactive measures at accelerating the diffusion of it have their place they need to be complemented by reduction of barriers to the international flow of services and investment

wage indexation and discretionary monetary policy since the early 1970 s both academic researchers and policymakers have devoted considerable attention to the macroeconomic effects of wage indexation however these two groups have focused on different effects starting with jo anna gray 1976 and stanley fischer 1977a formal models emphasize the role of indexation in stabilizing or destabilizing output in contrast informal policy discussions usually focus on the allegation that indexation is inflationary e g arthur okun 1971 mario simonsen 1983 eliana cardoso and rudiger dornbusch 1987 to reduce this gap this paper presents a model of the effects of indexation on inflation and asks whether indexation raises economic welfare when these effects are taken into account until recently it was difficult to formalize the argument that indexation is inflationary because economists lacked models of the sources of inflation this paper applies the insight of robert barro and david gordon 1983a that with discretionary policy the employment gains from surprise inflation tempt the monetary authority to create positive trend inflation as stressed by fischer and lawrence summers 1989 policies that reduce the costs of inflation such as indexation cause barro gordon policymakers to choose higher inflation indeed inflation can rise so much that welfare falls despite greater protection against inflation this effect is appealing because it captures the common argument that indexation weakens policymakers will to fight inflation 1 this is not the end of the story however because wage indexation has a second effect it reduces the employment effects of surprise inflation that is unlike most policies to reduce the costs of inflation such as indexation of interest rates wage indexation steepens the phillips curve in the barrogordon model a steeper phillips curve reduces the temptation to inflate and hence reduces equilibrium inflation since indexation has one inflationary effect lower costs of inflation and one anti inflationary effect a steeper phillips curve the net effect appears ambiguous even if the net effect on inflation is determined the welfare effect may remain unclear if inflation rises the welfare loss might or might not be outweighed by the lower cost of a given amount of inflation 2 these ambiguities cannot be resolved with the barro gordon model alone because the phillips curve and the effect of inflation on welfare are ad hoc it is plausible that indexation affects these relations but the relative strengths of the effects are unclear resolving the ambiguities requires a more structural model in which the effects of indexation are derived rather than assumed this paper studies such a model specifically we use a model of staggered wagesetting based on gray 1976 fischer 1977a b and john taylor 1980 the degree of indexation is an explicit parameter and so we can derive its net effects on inflation and welfare section i of this paper presents our basic model and derives equilibrium inflation in

the determination of escalator clauses in collective agreements u ntil very recently the literature on the wider usage of escalator clauses has dealt mainly with their impact on inflation unemployment the trade balance and the exchange rate it is equally important however to understand why and in what circumstances employers and labor unions agree to incorporate such clauses in work contracts in the past few years shavell 1976 azariadis 1978 and blinder 1978 have outlined a theoretical framework for explaining the emergence of indexation to the best of our knowledge however none of the assumptions deriving from these models have been subjected to empirical testing the purpose of this paper is first to develop and test a number of these assumptions and second to consider the problem of simultaneity between two types of adjustments to inflation indexation versus shorter contract duration in the first section we summarize the contributions of the three aforementioned authors to the theory of wage indexation and extract from them a number of verifiable assumptions the second section provides an empirical framework since adjustments to uncertainty about inflation can take the form of shorter contract duration or indexation those two variables are simultaneously determined to overcome the problem of dummy endogenous variables in a simultaneous equation system we have applied the method suggested by heckman 1978 based on the use of maximum likelihood estimators in the third section we analyse the results and in the conclusion we draw their implications for economic policy

installed base and compatibility innovation product preannouncements and predation a good is often more valuable to any user the more others use compatible goods the authors show that this effect may inhibit innovation if an installed base exists and transition to a new standard must be gradual early adopters bear a disproportionate share of transient incompatibility costs this can produce excess inertia the installed base however is stranded if the new standard is adopted this may create excess momentum these dynamic effects have strategic implications temporary price cutting can permanently prevent entry and product preannouncements can be critical in innovation these strategic actions have ambiguous welfare effects

unemployment and domestic violence theory and evidence is unemployment the overwhelming determinant of domestic violence that many commentators expect it to be the contribution of this paper is to examine theoretically and empirically how changes in unemployment affect the incidence of domestic abuse the key theoretical prediction is that male and female unemployment have opposite signed effects on domestic abuse an increase in male unemployment decreases the incidence of intimate partner violence while an increase in female unemployment increases domestic abuse combining data on intimate partner violence from the british crime survey with locally disaggregated labor market data from the uk s annual population survey we find strong evidence in support of the theoretical prediction

optimal wage re negotiation in a closed and open economy abstract this paper investigates an economy in which there are short term wage contracts that are re negotiated under certain conditions the paper determines the optimal frequency of wage re negotiation and shows that it depends positively on measures of aggregate variability and phillips curve slope the role of optimal wage re negotiation is to mitigate the output effects of various shocks in the context of an open economy it is shown that the desirable exchange rate regime in an economy with optimal wage re negotiation depends on the stochastic structure of the economy

payoffs from investment in information technology lessons from the asia pacific region abstract this paper examines the factors influencing investment in information technology it and the payoffs from investment in it use on productivity and economic growth in 12 asia pacific countries for 1984 1990 it finds a significant positive correlation between growth in it investment and growth in both gdp and productivity over the seven year period countries with higher growth rates in it investment achieved consistently higher growth rates of gdp and productivity this finding is consistent with the notion of it led development it challenges the so called productivity paradox or the notion that investment in it has not paid off in productivity improvements

solar energy applications and development in nigeria drivers and barriers abstract in this study current perspectives of solar energy utilization as a renewable energy option in nigeria are examined and discussed from the standpoint of sustainable development the country being a world crude oil and natural gas producer is over dependent on these energy sources for electricity generation and other energy applications this has currently put the country at a risk of impending energy crises in view of the fast diminishing fossil reserves inadequate refining capacity to meet domestic consumption and serious cases of energy insecurity in restive regions where exploitations exist in spite of the vast fossil based energy reserves a meager electricity production capacity that is put at 4517 6 mw as at december 2012 is generated to support the economy of a teeming population of approximately 170 million people nigeria is naturally endowed with abundant deposit of renewable energy resources of which solar energy from the sun being the world s most abundant and permanent energy source has for decades been enjoying very high level utilization by rural dwellers for agricultural processings in the country it is vastly deposited with an estimated 17 459 215 2 million mj day of solar energy falling on the country s 923 768 km2 land area approximate range of 12 6 mj m2 day in the coastal region to about 25 2 mj m2 day in the far north the different applications to which solar resources have been put and the extent of utilization including details of existing projects in the country were thoroughly investigated and discussed the possible motivations for extensive development of solar energy conversion systems in nigeria are also discussed and some of the barriers and challenges are presented steps and policy measures to overcome the barriers and facilitates the utilization of this resource are suggested

the interaction between indexation contract duration and non contingent wage adjustment a model of the elasticity of indexation contract duration and non contingent wage adjustment is estimated using canadian wage agreements results suggest that the degree of indexation and contract duration are interdependent and are affected by their past values labour market conditions and inflation uncertainty the correlation between the industry product prices and the cpi affects the degree of indexation non contingent wage adjustment depends on expected inflation uncompensated past inflation duration and indexation values past and present and labour market conditions this model explains total wage adjustment as well as more aggregative models designed solely for that purpose

exploiting information technology a case study of singapore abstract while many developed nations and newly industrializing economies have major initiatives to promote information technology it singapore has perhaps had the most comprehensive and coordinated effort of all singapore s experience represents a good example of a very proactive government strategy elements of the government strategy include skills development state of the art telecommunications funding for small to medium sized it companies an international approach to standardization and special demonstration projects singapore s success with it could be largely attributed to its compactness however one can also take the view that singapore s highly sophisticated it infrastracture is an early indication of the infrastructure requirements in developing countries

is equilibrium indexation efficient this paper investigates the welfare properties of equilibrium indexation in a decentralized economy if indexation is costless so all firms index then the equilibrium degree of indexation is efficient but if indexation is costly and this leads some firms not to index equilibrium indexation is inefficient because indexation has externalities for nonindexed firms firms choose too little indexation if labor demand is more responsive to movements in real money than to movements in real wages the results do not depend on the relative importance of real and nominal shocks

interests power and multilateralism multilateralism characterizes to varying degrees patterns of interaction among states and the formal organizations they construct the utility of multilateral norms or organizations varies with the type of cooperation problem states confront thus the functional logic of international cooperation leads to hypotheses about the conditions under which the institution of multilateralism may be a feasible and efficient solution as in coordination problems and those under which it will not as in collaboration problems within these constraints powerful states choose institutions that will serve their interests with multilateral arrangements becoming more attractive as the future is valued more highly multilateral institutions should be stable in circumstances of changing distributions of power relative to more hierarchical institutions the vulnerability of patterns of international cooperation to various exogenous changes depends on the type of strategic interaction underlying state behavior

real wage determination and rent sharing in collective bargaining agreements the microeconomic forces that influence real wages are not fully understood this paper studies pay determination using data on approximately 600 labour contracts it finds that the real wage is an increasing function of past profitability in the employer s industry and a decreasing function of the level of unemployment in the employer s region these results are consistent with rent sharing theories

an empirical model of wage indexation provisions in union contracts this paper describes the responses of index linked wage rates to concurrent price increases for a sample of canadian union contracts and then analyzes theseresponses in terms of a simple model of indexation to the aggregate price level the model highlights the importance of aggregate price movements in conveying information about industry specific prices the empirical analysis confirms that industry specific correlations between input and output prices and the consumer price index are important determinants of the flexibility of wages to prices across indexed contracts

the indexation of wages and bonds in brazil this paper analyses the dynamic relationship between the degrees of indexation of wages and public bonds in brazil a simple model is constructed to show that both degrees of indexation are determined simultaneously we apply cointegration techniques and estimate error correction representations to assess the temporal causality between them our results provide empirical support for the existence of simultaneity in the degrees of indexation in brazil in the period 1980 93

contractual union firm agreements and the theory of the firm under uncertainty abstract this article analyzes the consequence of introducing union firm contractual agreements in the theory of the firm under uncertainty generalizing the works on the labor managed firm it is shown that the risk averse firm produces more than the risk neutral firm or the firm operating under certainty as long as equilibrium employment is negatively related to union wages that is when union power over wages is higher than that over employment

insurance within the firm we evaluate the allocation of risk between firms and their workers using matched employer employee panel data unlike previous contributions this paper focuses on idiosyncratic shocks to the firm which are the correct empirical counterpart of the theoretical notion of diversifiable risk we allow for both temporary and permanent shocks to output and find that firms absorb temporary fluctuations fully but insure workers against permanent shocks only partially risk sharing considerations can account for about 15 percent of overall earnings variability the remainder originating from idiosyncratic shocks to individual workers our welfare calculations indicate that firms are an important vehicle of insurance provision

internal bargaining labor contracts and a marshallian theory of the firm the theme of this paper is due to alfred marshall who states that nearly the whole income of a business may be regarded as a composite quasi rent divisible among different persons in the business by bargaining supplemented by custom and by notion of fairness and the division of quasi rents entails de facto some sort of profit loss sharing between almost every business and its employees principles of economics 8th ed book vi ch viii sec 10 pp 520 21 marshall emphasizes that a significant portion of composite quasi rent is derived from the organization of business and would be lost if employer employee connections were dissolved in this view bargaining can even be tacit insofar as there is an organizational basis which ensures agreement among the concerned parties consequently internal bargaining models of the firm may be applicable to the analysis of european style codetermination and japanese style labor management also as the relative bargaining strength between labor and management changes such a view of the firm admits as its extrema the organization of a labor managed firm lmf and the textbook case of a profit maximizing firm pmf masahiko aoki 1980 1982 and jan svejnar 1982 have recently explored models of an internal bargaining firm their analyses however consider the firm s long run behavior only under restricted circumstances without market uncertainty the relevance of the internal bargaining approach to profit sharing and labor management would be enhanced if we integrated the firm s short run wage employment policies with its long run plans for the rate of growth and capital labor substitutions this i do by underscoring the firm s organizational basis which is essentially a long term contractual association between workers and management i combine costas azariadis 1975 and martin baily s 1974 apparatus of labor contracting with efficient bargaining to investigate the effect of varying degrees of labor s bargaining power upon the firm s shortand long run policies under uncertainty these results are then contrasted with the empirical findings of collective bargaining for example richard freeman and james medoff 1981 conventional results of lmf models jaroslav vanek 1970 benjamin ward 1958 and the recent macroeconomic approaches to wage employment adjustments ian mcdonald and robert solow 1981

cost of living escalators in major union contracts this paper analyzes the price indexation provisions of a sample of major canadian collective bargaining agreements concluded between 1968 and 1975 under these contracts escalated wage increases comprised about one third of total wage increases and represented a major source of erosion in the relative wages of skilled workers the author argues that indexation provisions are usefully characterized by the marginal elasticity of the contractual wage rate to increases in prices measures of this responsiveness indicate that on average contractual wage rates are only slightly less than unit elastic with respect to price increases there is considerable variation across industries however in the extent to which wages respond to price changes

cost of living adjustment clauses in union contracts a summary of results our paper provides an explanation why cost of living adjustment cola provisions and their characteristics vary widely across u s industries we develop models of optimal risk sharing between a firm and union to investigate the determinants of a number of contract characteristics these include the presence and degree of wage indexing the magnitude of deferred noncontingent wage increases contract duration and the trade off between temporary layoffs and wage indexing preliminary empirical tests of some of the implications of the model are described one key finding is that the level of unemployment insurance benefits appears to influence the level of layoffs and the extent of cola coverage simultaneously

domestic institutions and international regulatory cooperation comparative responses to the convention on biological diversity international regimes develop in three general ways through coercion convergence harmony or mutual state choice lasting coercive cooperation is rare 1 harmony is of limited interest 2 in the majority of cases and those of the greatest theoretical and practical significance regimes arise through explicit state choices to cooperate this article explores state choice toward international regulatory regimes for environmental protection regulatory regimes are frequently aimed at diffuse private actors and behaviors international regime rules are commonly transformed into binding domestic rules or standards regulatory cooperation and environmental cooperation in particular is marked by the degree to which this process of implementation relies upon and is shaped by existing domestic institutions and political structures because regulatory regimes at the international level are nearly always administrated through regulatory regimes at the domestic level the latter in conjunction with the politics new regulation end page 482 engenders are central to understanding state choice while many analyses have examined the role of domestic politics in international cooperation i focus on domestic institutions this article shows how institutions in conjunction with the interests of key societal actors and the political incentives faced by governments help to determine the expected political economic and legal impact of international commitments given that states are collectively the architects of international institutions and these anticipated effects thus partly endogenous the domestic regulatory structures of powerful states can also be critical influences on the scope structure and terms of international institutions to develop these claims i examine an important recent case of international environmental cooperation the protection of global biological diversity biodiversity and analyze the divergent responses of two leading states to the core agreement of the new regime while the united kingdom signed and ratified the convention on biological diversity cbd 3 negotiated as one of the keystones of the 1992 united nations conference on environment and development unced the united states refused to do so both states were active participants in the negotiations and shared a host of similarities the likelihood both of harm from biodiversity loss and of gain from biodiversity protection positions as economic powers intensity of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries antiregulatory leadership and positions on critical issues like intellectual property protection two theoretical perspectives that examine areas of potential difference are used to explore this divergence in choice toward the cbd building on the seemingly central role played by science and scientists in the formation of environmental regimes peter haas and others have developed a prominent knowledge based account of state behavior in which epistemic influence built on positive and normative understandings shared by an elite community of experts explains much of the observed intergovernmental coordination in environmental affairs 4 an alternative perspective that i term regulatory politics proposes that variations in core domestic institutions critically shape the anticipated impact of regime rules and hence the domestic politics of international cooperation

nash equilibria of over the counter bargaining for insurance risk redistributions the role of a regulator this paper proposes a way to optimally regulate bargaining for risk redistributions we discuss the strategic interaction between two firms who trade risk over the counter in a one period model novel to the literature we focus on an incomplete set of possible risk redistributions this keeps the set of feasible contracts simple we consider catastrophe and longevity risk as two key examples the reason is that the trading of these risks typically occurs over the counter and that there are no given pricing functions if the set of feasible strategies is unconstrained we get that all nash equilibria are such that no firm benefits from trading a way to avoid this is to restrict the strategy space a priori in this way a nash equilibrium that is interesting for both firms may exist the intervention of a regulator is possible by restricting the set of feasible strategies for instance a firm has to keep a deductible on its prior risk we characterize optimal regulation by means of nash bargaining solutions

prudence in bargaining the effect of uncertainty on bargaining outcomes abstract we investigate the outcome of bargaining when a player s pay off from agreement is risky we find that a risk averse player typically increases his equilibrium receipts when his pay off is made risky this is because the presence of risk makes individuals behave more patiently in bargaining strong analogies are drawn to the precautionary saving literature we show that the effect of risk on receipts can be sufficiently strong that a decreasingly risk averse player may be better off receiving a risky pay off than a certain pay off

governing the transition to renewable energy a review of impacts and policy issues in the small hydropower boom abstract the transition to renewable energy technologies raises new and important governance questions with small hydropower shp expanding as part of renewable energy and climate mitigation strategies this review assesses its impacts and identifies escalating policy issues to provide a comprehensive literature review of small hydropower we evaluated over 3600 articles and policy documents this review identified four major concerns 1 confusion in small hydropower definitions is convoluting scholarship and policy making 2 there is a lack of knowledge and acknowledgement of small hydropower s social environmental and cumulative impacts 3 small hydropower s promotion as a climate mitigation strategy can negatively affect local communities posing contradictions for climate change policy and 4 institutional analysis is needed to facilitate renewable energy integration with existing environmental laws to ensure sustainable energy development for readers interested in small hydropower we clarify areas of confusion in definition and explain the corresponding impacts for distinct system designs for a broader readership we situate small hydropower implementation within international trends of renewable energy development the contradictory impacts of climate change policy emerging dynamics in energy finance and reliance on market mechanisms our paper provides a timely contribution to scholarship on small hydropower and the transition to renewable energy

why are products sold on sale explanations of pricing regularities this paper reports on interesting changes in markdown pricing practices over time and differences in the pricing within a product line the price discrimination and the uncertainty hypotheses appear to better explain the data than the peak load hypothesis fashion has become more important over time and appears to explain the greater seasonal variation in retail apparel prices in recent years differences in uncertainty also explains differences in the pricing of different types of men s dress shirts

determinants of the adoption of information technology a case study of electrical and electronic goods manufacturing firms in india abstract this study measures the intensity of adoption of information technology it and identifies its determinants in this paper it is argued that the degree of it adoption will be determined by the variables such as entrepreneurship skill intensity government policy openness of economy competitive environment and other firm specific factors the results of ordered probit model suggest that the qualification and information base of entrepreneurs and their attitude towards innovative activities and market share are significant determinants of the degree of it adoption the results also indicate that size of operations and skill intensity of the firms influenced the extent of it use

indexation and incomes policy a study of wage adjustment in unionized manufacturing data from nearly 200 collective bargaining units are used to study the frequency of wage change from 1957 to 1978 it is shown that incomes policies during the kennedy johnson and nixon administrations encouraged changes in the length of time between wage adjustments inflation often thought to be responsible for fluctuations in the coverage of indexing provisions is found to play virtually no role the conclusion is that government intervention in the wageprice process aroused fears that the government will intervene again in the future in the presence of this uncertainty the wage adjustment provisions of collective bargaining contracts were changed

coordination versus prisoners dilemma implications for international cooperation and regimes the study of political institutions in general and international cooperation in particular has been beneficially influenced by the prisoners dilemma pd game model but there is a mistaken tendency to treat pd as representing the singular problem of collective action and cooperation by relaxing the assumptions of 2 2 games and developing an alternate model of the coordination game i show how some cooperation problems have very different properties from those found in pd the analytical results of the two games are compared across several important dimensions number of strategies available number of iterations of the game numbers of players and the distribution of power among them the discussion is illustrated with specific problems of international cooperation and the implications of alternative cooperation problems for the formation and performance of international regimes are explored the basic solutions for pd and coordination have divergent ramifications for the institutionalization stability and adaptability of regimes and for the role of hegemony in the international system however the coordination model does not replace the pd model but complements and supplements it as a way to understand the diversity of political institutions these results are widely applicable to areas of politics beyond international relations

towards understanding the benefits and challenges of smart micro grid for electricity supply system in nigeria the poor state of electricity supply system in nigeria is threatening the welfare and security of life and properties of millions of individuals with adverse economic consequences for the country the inadequacy of the national grid especially the inability of the electricity generation capacity to match increasing demand in the country has led to increasing agitation for increased penetration of renewable energy sources ress into the electricity supply mix while great attention has been focused on the potential of ress for electricity generation in the country little or no attention has been given to the application of smart micro grid sm g technologies to the ageing nigeria grid infrastructures and electrification of the rural areas the aim of this paper is to bring into focus the benefits and challenges of enabling sm g in the electricity supply system in nigeria sm g will bring benefits to the electricity stakeholders in form of improvements in reliability efficiency economics environment security and safety the paper gives an overview and reviews the current state of the electricity supply system in the country it discusses the sm g concepts and associated technologies and highlights how they can help address the electricity problems in the country the challenges of applying these concepts in nigeria context are also discussed enabling sm g in the country will not only lead to improvement in the quality efficiency and reliability of the electricity grid but also promote the provision of electricity supply to the remote rural areas using ress

internationalization of information technology services and public policy implications abstract world telecommunications traffic grew at a rate of over 15 a year in the 1980s substantially faster than merchandise or service trade the growth of such traffic is linked closely to the international flow of services and investment economizing on time inventories and financial balances are important considerations in the use of international telecommunications networks at the same time network providers are engaging in international alliances to supply a variety of telecommunication services across borders these alliances will influence strongly the further evolution of national and international regulatory regimes an international regime more open in the trade of services and movement of investment is called for

toward a positive theory of international institutions regulating international aviation markets the regulation of postwar international aviation markets suggests that existing approaches to international institutions cannot adequately account for important elements of international institution building in particular scholars have neglected how domestic politics shapes the incentives of national governments to create and maintain international institutions and the impact of domestic politics on the scope and functions of international institutions drawing on positive theories of regulation and the literature on property rights i argue that national politicians use international institutions to increase the wealth available for domestic redistribution in short national politicians create and maintain international institutions to maximize domestic political support i present a domestic political model that explains how when and why national politicians create international institutions the model is applied to the creation of institutions governing international aviation markets in the late 1940s and the reformulation of these institutions over the past two decades

small hydropower shp development in nigeria an assessment this paper evaluates small hydropower shp development and examines the current situation in nigeria with respect to the established policies and energy power sector reform epsr act 2005 hydropower sector witnessed about 360 growth between 1971 and 2005 and yet only about 5 of the vast small hydropower shp potential is tapped by the few plants built between 1923 and 1964 operating and maintenance costs are in favor of shp development in the country being the lowest when compared with the situation in european countries the nigerian government has taken steps to diversify energy sources in order to promote renewable energy development by encouraging private investments in the energy sector through reforms but this may not be adequate as there remain barriers against shp development in the country it is concluded that government must incorporate subsidies feed in tariffs and framework for price purchase agreements ppa into the policies in order to further promote renewable energy and attract both indigenous and foreign investments for quick adoption and rapid expansion of shp technologies

when is cheap cheap enough to bridge the digital divide modeling income related structural challenges of technology diffusion in latin america summary the article presents a model that shows how income structures create diffusion patterns of information and communication technologies icts the model allows the creation of scenarios for potential cuts in access prices and or required subsidies for household spending in mexico uruguay brazil and costa rica one analyzed scenario would require the reduction of ict prices to as low as 4 of the current price levels to us 0 75 per month or alternatively a subsidy as high as 6 2 of gdp a figure comparable to public spending on education plus health this is the income reality of the poor neither existing technological solutions nor existing financial mechanisms are sufficient to cope with this economic reality the alternatives such as a prolonged period of public access are discussed

managing the global commons when should internationally shared resources be subdivided and property and management rights to parts of the resource be distributed among nation states subdivision leads to inefficient exploitation and to an arbitrary division of benefits under three conditions when property rights cannot be economically enforced when the size and the value of the resource are unknown and when exploitation involves external economies the efficient use of such common property resources requires private or public regulation voluntary private regulation is likely to be effective only when few users are involved in other cases public regulation is called for some attributes of an intergovernmental organization designed to achieve efficient equitable and stable exploitation are presented current proposals for managing ocean resources the orbit spectrum resource and antarctica are considered

power and interdependence revisited ten years ago we published power and interdependence 1 the passage of a decade makes this an appropriate time to reread and reevaluate that book and to take stock of the research program to which it contributed in doing this we hope to deepen and enrich scholarly understanding of the politics of interdependence and to stimulate reflection on directions for the field of international relations over the next decade 2 such a reappraisal seems particularly opportune given the changes in world politics and especially in american policy that have marked the intervening years stanley j michalak commented in 1979 that the authors may cringe from the analogy but power and interdependence may well become the politics among nations of the 1970s 3 but from the perspective of the late 1980s the world may look different while the 1970s were seen as the decade of interdependence many observers regard the use of force and concern for security as characteristic of the 1980s indeed the view is widespread in some circles that the 1980s resemble the 1950s more than the 1970s and that hans j morgenthau s work is more relevant to contemporary issues of world politics than power and interdependence

between free trade and protectionism strategic trade policy and a theory of corporate trade demands conventional theories of the political economy of trade argue that industries in import competing businesses favor protectionism while multinational firms and export dependent corporations advocate unconditional free trade however many multinational industries have recently advocated strategic trade policies that is they are willing to support free trade at home only if foreign markets are opened or foreign governments reduce subsidies to their firms if demands for strategic trade policy were adopted by the united states they could represent a threat to the general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt and the multilateral trading system this article seeks to explain the emergence of these new corporate trade demands and thereby broaden theories of the political economy of trade the article begins with the widely supported position that multinational and export oriented firms prefer unconditional free trade building on concepts from theories of industrial organization and international trade the article then hypothesizes that rising economies of scale and steep learning curves will necessitate that these firms have access to global markets via exports if growing dependence on world markets is combined with foreign government subsidies or protection the trade preferences of firms will shift from unconditional free trade to demands that openness at home be contingent on openness overseas the manner in which firm demands then get translated into industry demands will vary with the industry s structure if the industry consists of firms with symmetric strategies it will seek strategic trade policy but if the industry is highly segmented it will turn toward protectionism the article concludes with a preliminary test of these hypotheses in four brief studies of the politics of trade in the semiconductor commercial aircraft telecommunications equipment and machine tool industries

international investment location decisions abstract in international location tournaments governments compete for foreign investment with tax and other short run incentives such tournaments can be won if agglomeration economies are sufficiently powerful to overcome investors desire to spread investments as a hedge against risk we focus on manufacturing investments by u s multinationals in the 1980s our econometric results suggest that agglomeration economies are indeed the dominant influence on investor calculations paradoxically short run incentives have limited apparent impact on location choice we conclude that high cost tournament play is unnecessary for countries with good infrastructure development specialized input suppliers and an expanding domestic market

global communications and national power life on the pareto frontier regime analysis has focused on issues of market failure the resolution of which depends upon knowledge and institution building global communications regimes however have been concerned either with issues of pure coordination or with coordination problems with distributional consequences outcomes have been decided by the underlying distribution of national power in those areas where power was asymmetrically distributed and there was no agreement on basic principles and norms radio broadcasting and remote sensing no regime was formed in those areas where distributional issues could not be unilaterally resolved allocation of the radio spectrum and telecommunications regimes were created although both principles and rules changed with alterations in national power capabilities

the incidence and intensity of wage indexation an empirical analysis variables suggested by theoretical studies of indexation are considered with a view to examining their utility in the context of the decision to index incidence and the desired degree of indexation when escalator clauses are put into effect intensity the tobit model which can address both of these issues suggests that most of the effects of explanatory variables on the regressand occur by modifying the incidence of indexation not its intensity however the tobit model is itself rejected in favour of separate probit and truncated regression investigations of incidence and intensity respectively the results obtained indicate that the standard list of explanatory variables which one thinks of in the context of the theoretical literature as dealing primarily with intensity perform well in explaining incidence but very poorly in accounting for the non limit observations the latter are influenced by bargaining power proxies such as the unemployment rate and union density a very clear trade off be