what determines bits abstract similar to bilateral or regional preferential trade agreements ptas bilateral investment treaties bits have proliferated over the past 50 years the purpose of this study is to provide the first systematic empirical analysis of the economic determinants of bits and of the likelihood of bits between pairs of countries using a qualitative choice model in a manner consistent with explaining ptas we develop the econometric specification for explaining the two based upon a general equilibrium model of world trade and foreign direct investment with three factors two products and trade and investment costs among multiple countries in the presence of national and multinational firms the empirical model for bits and ptas is bivariate in nature and supports a set of hypotheses drawn from the general equilibrium model using the preferred empirical model for a sample of 12 880 country pairs in the year 2000 we predict correctly 88 of all pairs with a bit and a pta 81 with a bit but no pta and 84 with a pta but no bit

quantitative restrictions and the welfare effects of capital inflows abstract this paper explores the welfare effects of capital inflows when some imports are subject to quantitative restrictions it is shown that in a heckscher ohlin model where all imports are restricted by quotas and some fraction of the initial domestic capital stock is foreign owned a capital inflow is welfare improving regardless of the ranking of sectoral factor intensities with sector specific capital stocks and both tariff ridden and quota restricted imports the consequences of direct foreign investment in any sector are uncertain and depend upon whether the two imports are compensated substitutes or complements as well as the characteristics of production

degree of scale economies and congestion a unified dea approach abstract there are increasing concerns about how increase in congestion can adversely affect output as well as about the relative benefit cost ratio or return on investment associated with alternative projects or policies to address those problems regardless of what policy strategies are used to address congestion the fact remains that we cannot assess the economic benefits of congestion reduction strategies unless we are able to measure the extent to which congestion affects productivity in general and scale economies in particular this paper makes a novel attempt to suggest a method in a non parametric framework to measure scale elasticity in production in the presence of congestion

third world indebted industrialization international finance and state capitalism in mexico brazil algeria and south korea the past fifteen years have seen two important developments in the international economic system the rapid industrialization of many less developed countries ldcs and their increasing indebtedness to private financial institutions massive bank loans have been used to fund industrial growth in many ldcs international financial markets have replaced multinational corporations as the third world s most important source of private foreign capital in four major borrowing countries mexico brazil algeria and south korea the process of indebted industrialization has its roots in the internationalization of finance the increasing role of the state and the use of funds raised on the international capital markets to finance industrial development the results include rapid expansions of ldc industrial production and ldc exports of manufactured products as well as the formation of an implicit partnership between private financial institutions and state capitalist elites in the third world

some models for estimating technical and scale inefficiencies in data envelopment analysis in management contexts mathematical programming is usually used to evaluate a collection of possible alternative courses of action en route to selecting one which is best in this capacity mathematical programming serves as a planning aid to management data envelopment analysis reverses this role and employs mathematical programming to obtain ex post facto evaluations of the relative efficiency of management accomplishments however they may have been planned or executed mathematical programming is thereby extended for use as a tool for control and evaluation of past accomplishments as well as a tool to aid in planning future activities the ccr ratio form introduced by charnes cooper and rhodes as part of their data envelopment analysis approach comprehends both technical and scale inefficiencies via the optimal value of the ratio form as obtained directly from the data without requiring a priori specification of weights and or explicit delineation of assumed functional forms of relations between inputs and outputs a separation into technical and scale efficiencies is accomplished by the methods developed in this paper without altering the latter conditions for use of dea directly on observational data technical inefficiencies are identified with failures to achieve best possible output levels and or usage of excessive amounts of inputs methods for identifying and correcting the magnitudes of these inefficiencies as supplied in prior work are illustrated in the present paper a new separate variable is introduced which makes it possible to determine whether operations were conducted in regions of increasing constant or decreasing returns to scale in multiple input and multiple output situations the results are discussed and related not only to classical single output economics but also to more modern versions of economics which are identified with contestable market theories

energy efficiency and congestion assessment with energy mix effect the case of apec countries abstract to save energy and improve the environment has become a general consensus in the whole asia pacific economic cooperation region this study focuses on the issue of energy congestion which has been considered as one of the key factors influencing energy efficiency we employ a two stage data envelopment analysis model to assess the energy efficiency and congestion of asia pacific economic cooperation countries from 1995 to 2013 it is worth pointing out that the model takes undesirable outputs into account and is able to recognize energy mix effect on energy congestion there are some discussions which based on the empirical results it indicates that energy congestion has led to almost 20 percent of energy waste in asia pacific economic cooperation countries the conclusions are as follows in general energy efficiency of developing countries is lower than that of developed countries besides energy congestion mainly comes from fossil energy use however the congestion of non fossil energy shows a rising trend in recent years in addition a multiple liner regression analysis indicates that energy consumption and industry value added per gdp have positive effects on energy congestion and gdp per capita has negative effect on energy congestion at last we promote several policy recommendations to improve energy efficiency

the dynamics of trade unionism and national economic performance i test two theories of the political processes of trade unions the first argues that wage moderation depends on a centralized labor movement the second contends that institutional conditions permitting unions coordination of bargaining strategies is sufficient coordination is most likely to he achieved when there are small number of unions that do not compete for members that is when union monopoly is high important empirical anomalies may be resolved by analyzing the effects of union centralization and monopoly separately rather than combining them into a composite index of corporatism reanalyzing comparative data from organization of economic cooperation and development countries between 1963 and 1985 largely corroborates the hypothesis that monopoly is more important than either centralization or composite indices of corporatism for national economic performance the conceptual rationale underlying indices of corporatism should be reexamined

dependency revisited international markets business cycles and social spending in the developing world while increased exposure to the global economy is associated with increased welfare effort in the organization for economic cooperation and development oecd the opposite holds in the developing world these differences are typically explained with reference to domestic politics tradables unions and the like in the developing world are assumed to have less power or interests divergent to those in the oecd interests that militate against social spending i claim that such arguments can be complemented with a recognition that developed and developing nations have distinct patterns of integration into global markets while income shocks associated with international markets are quite modest in the oecd they are profound in developing nations in the oecd governments can respond to those shocks by borrowing on capital markets and spending countercyclically on social programs no such opportunity exists for most governments in the developing world most of which have limited access to capital markets in tough times more significant incentives to balance budgets and as a result cut social spending at the times it is most needed thus while internationally inspired volatility and income shocks seem not to threaten the underpinnings of the welfare state in rich nations it undercuts the capacity of governments in the developing world to smooth consumption and particularly consumption by the poor across the business cycle the author would like to thank steph haggard kristin bakke wongi choe tim jones and seminar participants at duke university penn state university washington university mit and the university of new mexico for their helpful comments nancy brune mark hallerberg and rolf strauch and nita rudra were very generous in providing their capital account oecd fiscal and potential labor power data respectively

increasing returns to scale in financial intermediation and the non neutrality of government policy a general equilibrium model of imperfectly competitive financial intermediaries is constructed and used to study the effects of some standard policy experiments one time increases in the growth rate and in the level of the stock of money have non neutral and sometimes surprising effects on interest rates the quantity of intermediated borrowing and lending the number of intermediary firms inflation and the price level optimal government macroeconomic policy is shown to reflect a tradeoff between public sector frictions and the capital market distortion created by increasing returns to scale and imperfect competition in private intermediation

bringing capital back in or social democracy reconsidered employer power cross class alliances and centralization of industrial relations in denmark and sweden the political domination of social democrats in denmark and sweden beginning in the 1930s was stabilized by the absence of intense opposition by capital to reformist programs aggressively opposed by business and the right elsewhere in the world this quiescence was not a symptom of weakness or dependency rather it was a product of a class intersecting cross class alliance behind institutions of centralized industrial relations that served mutual interests of sectoral groupings dominating both union and employer confederations well organized and militant and backed by social democrats employers in the two countries used offensive multi industry lockouts to force centralization on reluctant unions analysis of these cross class alliances and their pay distributional objectives is used to challenge a widely held view that centralization and social democratic electoral strength are sources of power against capital it also occasions a reassessment of conventional understandings of farmer labor coalitions and the decline of industrial conflict in scandinavia in the 1930s according to the alternative view presented here capital was included rather than excluded from these cross class alliances and industrial conflict subsided dramatically in part because employers achieved politically what they had previously tried to achieve with the lockout

efficient energy saving targets for apec economies abstract energy saving target ratios estr for 17 apec economies during 1991 2000 are computed in a total factor framework all nominal variables are transformed into real variables by the purchasing power parity ppp at the 1995 price level the data envelopment analysis dea approach is used to find the energy saving target est for apec economies without reducing their maximum potential gross domestic productions gdps in each year energy labor and capital are the three inputs while gdp is the single output our major findings are as follows 1 china has the largest est up to almost half of its current usage 2 hong kong the philippines and the united states have the highest energy efficiency 3 the energy efficiency generally increases for apec economies except for canada and new zealand 4 chile mexico and taiwan have significantly improved their energy efficiency in the last 5 years 5 an inverted u shape relation exists between per capita est and per capita gdp 6 estr has a positive relation with the value added percentage of gdp of the industry sector and a negative relation with that of the service sector

on the welfare effects of trade and investment liberalization abstract using a three factor knowledge and physical capital model of trade and multinational activity we consider a set of policy experiments to assess the welfare effects of trade and investment liberalization in general equilibrium specifically we address the question of whether and under which circumstances a single versus a combined trade investment liberalization strategy or a unilateral versus a bilateral policy change is preferable from a single country s and the world s point of view the focus of this paper is to look at three relevant questions first when is investment liberalization beneficial and when is it harmful for a single economy or the whole world second is pure investment liberalization a welfare maximizing strategy third when is either kind of liberalization trade investment or both welfare improving and when neither of them

editorial to the special issue sustainable energy policies in northeast asia abstract paris agreement in 2015 made a great milestone toward the sustainable development worldwide based on the bottom up market and performance oriented mechanism new climate regime on the paris agreement provides the optimal path control for toward the below 2 c target from pre industrial levels by decreasing substantial ghg emissions unfortunately the withdrawal of the usa from paris agreement may result in 13 gtco2 higher than its original 56 gt target 23 increase nonetheless the strong commitment by china and pro active participation of the northeast asian countries made a new hope against the global warming this special edition shall shed the light on the efforts by these countries based on the comparative analysis to result in the oriental model for the sustainable development and its energy policies especially urbanization became one of the hottest issues for the special issue and the differentiated diverse efforts by the governments are much emphasized in this issue

government partisanship labor organization and macroeconomic performance governments of the left and right have distinct partisan economic policies and objectives that they would prefer to pursue their propensity to do so however is constrained by their desire for reelection we argue that the ability of governments to further their partisan interests and preside over reelectable macroeconomic outcomes simultaneously is dependent on the organization of the domestic economy particularly the labor movement we hypothesize that there are two different paths to desirable macroeconomic performance in countries with densely and centrally organized labor movements leftist governments can promote economic growth and reduce inflation and unemployment conversely in countries with weak labor movements rightist governments can pursue their partisan preferred macroeconomic strategies and achieve similarly beneficial macroeconomic outcomes performance will be poorer in other cases these hypotheses are supported by analysis of pooled annual time series data for 16 advanced industrial democracies between 1967 and 1984

dea congestion and returns to scale under an occurrence of multiple optimal projections abstract economic implications of congestion have been recently discussed in many dea data envelopment analysis studies in addition several previous research efforts have explored a theoretical linkage between returns to scale rts and the concept of congestion because the two economic concepts are closely connected to each other tone and sahoo tone k sahoo b k 2004 degree of scale economies and congestion a unified dea approach european journal of operational research 158 755 772 have published the theoretical linkage in this journal all of the previous studies including their research 2004 assume a unique optimal solution in the investigation on dea based congestion when multiple solutions occur in dea based congestion measurement the economic implications of congestion obtained from the previous research are all problematic from both theoretical and practical perspectives to deal with the issue this study explores how to deal with the occurrence of multiple solutions in the dea based congestion measurement this study proposes a new approach for the congestion measurement and theoretically compares the proposed approach with tone and sahoo 2004

congestion measurement for regional industries in china a data envelopment analysis approach with undesirable outputs abstract the industry in china has been developing extensively in the last few decades large investments in china s industry may cause congestion because congestion is a widely observed economic phenomenon in such a scenario in order to know the performance and allocate resources well it is necessary for the chinese government to measure congestion of the industry many scholars have studied this topic by means of data envelopment analysis dea however previous studies only pay attention to the framework of desirable outputs in fact undesirable outputs often accompany desirable outputs in production thus in this study a new approach for measuring congestion with undesirable outputs is proposed and applied to analyzing congestion of the industry in 31 administrative regions of china the results show that five regions have congestion in their industry in 2010 besides the regions located in the east of the country perform the best in ecological efficiency followed by regions in central and west china based on these findings this paper proposes some political schemes to improve regional industrial efficiency

total factor energy efficiency of regions in china abstract this paper analyzes energy efficiencies of 29 administrative regions in china for the period 1995 2002 with a newly introduced index most existing studies of regional productivity and efficiency neglect energy inputs we use the data envelopment analysis dea to find the target energy input of each region in china at each particular year the index of total factor energy efficiency tfee then divides the target energy input by the actual energy input in our dea model labor capital stock energy consumption and total sown area of farm crops used as a proxy of biomass energy are the four inputs and real gdp is the single output the conventional energy productivity ratio regarded as a partial factor energy efficiency index is computed for comparison in contrast to tfee our index is found fitting better to the real case according to the tfee index rankings the central area of china has the worst energy efficiency and its total adjustmentof energy consumption amount is over half of china s total regional tfee in china generally improved during the research period except for the western area a u shape relation between the area s tfee and per capita income in the areas of china is found confirming the scenario that energy efficiency eventually improves with economic growth

economic crisis and policy choice the politics of adjustment in the third world the acute economic pressures of the 1980s have forced virtually all of latin america and africa and some countries in asia into painful austerity programs and difficult economic reforms scholars have intensively analyzed the economics of this situation but they have given much less attention to the political forces involved in this volume a number of eminent contributors analyze the politics of adjustment in thirteen countries and nineteen governments drawing comparisons not only across the full set of cases but also within clusters selected to clarify specific issues why do some governments respond promptly to signs of economic trouble while others muddle indecisively for years why do some confine their response to temporary macroeconomic measures while others adopt broader even sweeping programs of reform what leads some countries to experiment with heterodox approaches while most however reluctantly pursue orthodox courses why confronted with intense political protest have some governments persisted while others have altered or abandoned course the answers to these questions are political not economic and they are examined here by thomas m callaghy stephan haggard miles kahler robert r kauman joan m nelson and barbara stallings

the elasticity of scale and the shape of average costs different concepts of returns to scale the first which is most widely used for defining returns to scale is the relative increase in output as all input quantities are increased proportionally along a ray through the origin the second which is the more relevant concept for micro economic analysis is the increase in output relative to costs for variations along the expansion path where input prices are constant and costs are minimized at every output 2 as it turns out these two concepts yield equal measures for the elasticity of scale3 e at every minimum cost point in the input space however the change in e with output is generally different for the two concepts 4 since expansion paths do not coincide with rays unless the production function is homothetic 5 but it is the change of e along the expansion path and not along the raywhich determines the shape of the average cost curve ac and which is therefore relevant for the analysis of firms and industry behavior under competition 6 these relations are stated and analyzed below it is shown that assumptions made in the literature7 which are related to the behavior of e along rays or to the slope of the technically optimal surface where returns to scale are locally constant are irrelevantbeing neither necessary nor sufficient for implying classical u shaped average cost curves the following definitions and results are used here

the congestion total factor energy efficiency of regions in taiwan abstract this study applies the congestion total factor energy efficiency model to analyze the energy efficiency of 20 administrative regions in taiwan from 2004 to 2013 by studying four kinds of energies amount of electricity for manufacturing industry use amount of electricity consumed for lighting amount of gasoline sales and amount of diesel sales the main findings are that i in terms of these four energies only taipei city taitung county and penghu county among the 20 administrative regions exhibit no phenomenon of energy input congestion during the whole data period ii more attention should be put on energy efficiency improvement in diesel use than on electricity for manufacturing industry use electricity consumption for lighting and gasoline usage and iii the energy efficiency outcomes in taiwan correlate to the country s regional development features such as its tourist regions including taitung county and penghu county which have nature green and environmental protection characteristics

congestion and returns to scale in data envelopment analysis congestion indicates an economic state where inputs are overly invested evidence of congestion occurs whenever reducing some inputs can increase outputs return to scale is another related important economic implication of dea efficiencies in this research we discuss together the problems of congestion constant return to scale increasing return to scale and decreasing return to scale by output oriented dea models c2r model bc2 model fg model st model and a modified model we identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for the evidence of congestion constant increasing and decreasing returns to scale we show the exclusive relationships between the concepts of congestion and returns to scale numerical examples are provided for illustration

exchange rate theory and practice this volume grew out of a national bureau of economic research conference on exchange rates held in bellagio italy in 1982 in it the world s most respected international monetary economists discuss three significant new views on the economics of exchange rates rudiger dornbusch s overshooting model jacob frenkel s and michael mussa s asset market variants and pentti kouri s current account portfolio approach their papers test these views with evidence from empirical studies and analyze a number of exchange rate policies in use today including those of the european monetary system

union density and political strikes why do trade unions organize antigovernment strikes in some countries but not in others this article argues that there is a curvilinear relationship between union density and political strike activity political strikes are rare in countries with low union density since effective protests require a basic level of organizational capacity they are also rare in countries with high union density since a government that faces a strong union movement has powerful incentives to adjust its policies in order to avoid open confrontation but political strikes are relatively common in countries with moderate levels of union density since it is difficult for governments and unions to find viable compromises when the strength of the unions is not secure the empirical part of the article estimates the relationship between union density and the likelihood of political strikes in two samples of advanced democracies

industrial energy efficiency and driving forces behind efficiency improvement evidence from the pearl river delta urban agglomeration in china abstract improving energy efficiency of industrial sectors is essential to achieve energy conservation in the pearl river delta urban agglomeration prdua in china this study adopted stochastic frontier analysis sfa to evaluate the industrial total factor energy efficiency tfee of nine cities in prdua during 2004 2016 and then to decompose the growth of tfee into technical change tc technical efficiency change tec and economies of scale sc effects results show that the tfee of industrial sectors of prdua had an overall downward trend during the study period and that technical change was the major driving force behind the growth of tfee the tobit model was then adopted to further investigate the determinants of energy efficiency improvement and test the robustness of empirical results the main contributions of this study to the existing literature lie in showing that 1 the degree of openness local government spending foreign direct investment factor input structure environmental regulation strength and gdp per capita have positive impacts on the industrial tfee 2 enterprise scale and energy consumption structure have a negative impact on industrial energy efficiency finally we address policy implications for energy management regarding their economic and environmental aspects in industrial sectors of the prdua

monopolistic competition nonhomotheticity and the stability of the chamberlinian tangency solution the focal point in the recent literature on international trade and monopolistic competition is to recast the chamberlinian partial equilibrium theory in a general equilibrium framework using a similar setting this paper asks whether the chamberlinian tangency solution is stable under general equilibrium paradoxical results follow when entry occurs profit per firm can increase and the tangency solution can be unstable a necessary and sufficient condition for stability is obtained the concepts of average and marginal factor intensities play an important role in obtaining the stability copyright 1990 by economics department of the university of pennsylvania and the osaka university institute of social and economic research association

factor mobility trade and welfare abstract the paper develops a north south model which is driven by scale economies in the modern sector the model predicts that skilled and unskilled labor migrate from south to north and capital migrates from north to south migration of skilled labor and capital exhibits complementarity with trade while migration of labor may exhibit complementarity or substitutability if the terms of trade effects are ignored small movements of all factors affect the welfare of the population in south negatively and of that in north positively the effects of migration on the terms of trade are ambiguous in general

foreign investment incentives and international cross hauling of capital this note shows how international tax competition can give rise to special tax breaks for foreign investment discriminatory tax treatment of outside investment can give rise to socially harmful cross flows of international investment paradoxically an increase in the costs associated with foreign investment can increase welfare

monopolistic competition and the stability of industrial equilibrium abstract we consider a two sector economy consisting of the differentiated goods and the homogeneous goods industries where the former is monopolistically competitive with scale economies we show that the chamberlinian tangency solution is unstable when the supply side is characterized by the heckscher ohlin two factor model

from populism to neoliberalism labor unions and market reforms in latin america in the late 1980s populist labor parties which had advanced protectionism and state intervention in the postwar period implemented market oriented reforms in argentina mexico and venezuela in all three countries market reforms hurt their union allies the interaction between allied unions and governing labor parties however varied across countries and across sectors within the same country while some unions endorsed neoliberal reforms others rejected them despite their long term alliance with governing parties while some unions obtained concessions others failed to do so this article argues that the incentives created by partisan loyalties partisan competition and union competition explain these interactions partisan loyalty results from the long term affiliation of unions with a political party partisan competition takes place among union leaders affiliated with different political parties for the control of unions union competition occurs in diverse national and sectoral contexts among labor organizations for the representation of the same workers loyalty derived from a long term affiliation with the incumbent party facilitates collaboration between labor unions and the government yet if partisan competition makes loyal union leaders afraid of being replaced by activists affiliated with the opposition parties their incentives for militancy increase as a way of showing their responsiveness to the rank and file hurt by market reforms union competition for the representation of the same workers makes coordination more difficult thereby weakening unions and making them less likely to obtain concessions from the government despite their partisan loyalty the article presents empirical evidence from eighteen cases including national confederations and individual unions in five economic sectors in argentina mexico and venezuela to test this theory

international macroeconomic policy coordination when policymakers do not agree on the true model the authors relax the assumption of the literature on international coordination that policymakers know the true model t wo countries will still be able to agree on a cooperative policy pack age that each believes will improve the objective function relative t o the nash noncooperative solution however the bargaining solution may move the target variables in the wrong direction these points ar e illustrated with monetary and fiscal multipliers taken from simulat ions of ten leading econometric models out of 1 000 possible combina tions of models that could represent u s beliefs non u s beliefs and the true model monetary coordination improves u s welfare in on ly 546 cases copyright 1988 by american economic association

globalization taxation and burden shifting in latin america most researchers interested in the relationship between global markets and public policy focus on advanced industrial democracies in contrast we examine competing hypotheses as to globalization s effect on governments by expanding the scope of the discussion to include developing nations more specifically we investigate the relationship between international market integration and the evolving burden of taxation on capital as well as the subsequent response of markets to shifts in tax policy in latin america since the late 1970s consistent with our theoretical expectations we find that global market forces are more constraining vis a vis tax policy in latin america than in the world s wealthiest nations despite these market based pressures however national politics continue to influence tax policy in latin america in a manner consistent with findings on advanced industrial democracies as such developing nations continue to have some room to manipulate policy though within the context of a more strictly neoliberal context than their counterparts in advanced industrial democracies

national tax systems versus the european capital market capital taxation alberto giovannini the current structure of taxes on capital income across ec countries can be exploited by corporations to reduce tax burdens skilled individuals can indulge in tax avoidance too the liberalization of capital movements stands to turn tax avoidance into a cottage industry this article provides a primer on capital income taxes and describes strategies which reduce the tax burden from a policy perspective the question is how to avoid massive tax evasion after 1992 there is no need to harmonize if the right taxation principle is adopted two principles are contrasted the territorial principle according to which taxes are levied on domestic investment irrespective of the country of residence of the beneficiary and the worldwide principle according to which taxes are levied on domestic savings irrespective of where they are invested it is shown that the worldwide principle involves much fewer distortions than the territorial principle a strict application of this principle would effectively solve the problem of tat evasion in europe without requiring full harmonization of the tax systems its full implementation would require the abolition of withholding taxes the elimination of tax deferrals which are quite pervasive throughout europe and an in depth review of blocking and secrecy laws

comparisons and evaluations of alternative approaches to the treatment of congestion in dea abstract this paper examines the two approaches that are presently available in the data envelopment analysis dea literature for use in identifying and analyzing congestion the first approach due to fare et al fare r grosskopf s lovell c a k 1985 the measurement of efficiency of production kluwer nijhoff boston has been extensively employed to identify congestion in areas such as the provision of health services the latter approach due to cooper et al cooper w w thompson r g thrall r m 1996 annals of operations research 66 3 45 was subsequently extended by brockett et al brockett p l cooper w w shin h c wang y 1998 socio economic planning sciences 32 1 20 to treat tradeoff possibilities between employment and output in chinese production when congestion is present in contrast with cooper et al examples are provided in this paper which show that the fare et al approach can fail in both modes it can show congestion to be present when this is not consistent with the observed behavior it can also fail to exhibit congestion when the data show it to be present suggestions are offered both for i taking precautions before using the fgl approach and for ii overcoming these shortcomings

the unexpected challenges of using energy intensity as a policy objective examining the debate over the apec energy intensity goal aims energy intensity energy demand per unit of economic output is one of the most widely used indicators of energy efficiency in energy policy discussions yet its application in real world policymaking can be surprisingly problematical this paper aims to provide guidance to governments and organizations considering using energy intensity as a policy objective scope in 2007 the apec community adopted then in 2011 revised an apec region wide energy intensity improvement goal this paper presents a case study of that experience focusing on three key lessons learned these lessons are not original findings however none of them have received the recognition they deserve and consequently they came as a surprise to many of those involved in apec s policy discussions conclusions the three lessons are as follows 1 energy intensity improvement is happening surprisingly quickly but not quickly enough to meet the world s energy challenges 2 it is difficult to find a definition of energy intensity that can make it suitable for use as an indicator of regional energy efficiency 3 whether the gdp s of individual economies are converted to common currency using market exchange rates or purchasing power parity ppp can dramatically change regional energy intensity improvement calculations

invested interests the politics of national economic policies in a world of global finance capital moves more rapidly across national borders now than it has in at least fifty years and perhaps in history this article examines the effects of capital mobility on different groups in national societies and on the politics of economic policymaking it begins by emphasizing that while financial markets are highly integrated within the developed world many investments are still quite specific with respect to firm sector or location it then argues that contemporary levels of international capital mobility have a differential impact on socioeconomic groups over the long run increased capital mobility tends to favor owners of capital over other groups in the shorter run owners and workers in specific sectors in capital exporting countries bear much of the burden of adjusting to increased capital mobility these patterns can be expected to lead to political divisions about whether or not to encourage or increase international capital market integration the article then demonstrates that capital mobility also affects the politics of other economic policies most centrally it shifts debate toward the exchange rate as an intermediate or ultimate policy instrument in this context it tends to pit groups that favor exchange rate stability against groups that are more concerned about national monetary policy autonomy and therefore less concerned about exchange rate stability similarly it tends to drive a wedge between groups that favor an appreciated exchange rate and groups that favor a depreciated one these divisions have important implications for such economic policies as european monetary and currency union the dollar yen exchange rate and international macroeconomic policy coordination