New openings and old problems of China's economic cooperation : global uneven development and stagnation in the Philippines

There has been a resurgence in activity by non-traditional donors (NTDs) since 2000. These flows of foreign development assistance (FDA) are a reflection of the global shift in production and income towards semi-peripheral economies, above all the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC has also adopted its “peaceful rise” and “non-interference” policies with a strong emphasis on South-South cooperation. Some even foresee these changes as opening the space for more public-investment focused development policies, with NTDs providing ready access to capital with few conditionalities. Little attention, however, has been focused how these changes are already impacting in Southeast Asia. The PRC has now become the second largest source of FDA in the Philippines, funding major rail and other infrastructure projects and this trend is set to continue. The experience so far, however, suggests that the Philippine “soggy state” – where the state lacks autonomy from elite classes and processes that hinder development processes - has meant little benefit has accrued from the availability of concessional finance. Despite the rhetoric of “non-interference” in PRC policy, there is evidence that these FDA flows may indeed be aggravating processes of social and political exclusion.

Global eT@axation : competing visions

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) places the issue of taxation of cross-border e-commerce transaction as one of its top four projects for investigation. In January 2001, some member countries agreed to a series of guidelines on how to apply existing tax treaties to Web transactions. After discussing potential threats and challenges facing etax administrators and possible solutions, the researchers report on the global momentum towards Extranets for collaborative knowledge management. Previous research indicated a need for a global etaxation Extranet for knowledge management based on the principles of the Cochrane Collaboration in the health sciences. These preliminary findings have been strengthened by parallel moves by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in setting up a global Extranet. The global imperative for harmonization of Internet commerce tax initiatives is reflected in contemporary interest in Europe in the redefinition of business requirements and processes related to corporate tax obligations.

Bridging the gap between anecdotal and empirical evidence in the international education market : insights from the US and UK

Education is an industry which has seen rapid growth in its trade over a short period of time. From the import and export of textbooks to international examinations such as the British Advanced and Ordinary levels and the American GMAT, GRE, LSAT, TOEFL and others, international trade in education has truly become a multidimensional phenomenon (Liston and Reeves, 1985). While all these aspects have largely contributed to the development of the so called “academic trade” (McMahon, 1988), it is the cross-border migration of international students which however remains the most visible aspect of this trade (Bourke, 2000). Indeed, recent estimates by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggest that nearly 1.9 million students were abroad in 2002 (OECD, 2004). There are probably thousands more foreign students involved in lower level education, language training and the like, but at the time of writing, no comprehensive statistics is yet available on international students enrolled in non-tertiary level institutions (Knight, 2002). As a result, it is vital to stress at the outset that this paper focuses exclusively on cross-border tertiary education but parallels can be drawn for lower level education.

The impact of political behaviours on internationalisation : the case of Australian companies internationalising to China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test a model of cooperation between internationalising businesses and local and host country governments in the context of Australian companies internationalising to China.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a model for the political dimensions of internationalising based on corporate political theory and the cooperative view of management. Data were collected from personal interviews with representatives from 40 Australian organisations with businesses or operations in China. The data were analysed using NVivo.

Findings – Assistance provided by the Australian government was often sought and was perceived to be beneficial. Most participants experienced policies and regulations which affected their entry modes. In ten cases they acted as barriers and significantly influenced entry mode choice. The majority of participants viewed the development of relationships with the Chinese government as important and employed a variety of relationship behaviours. Over half of the participants identified the need to understand and deal with the psychically distant government structures of the Chinese government, namely government intervention in business.

Practical implications – The model links the organisational objectives of businesses internationalising to China, understanding the political/regulatory environment, selecting an entry mode and developing/maintaining a successful business. To achieve these objectives corporate political behaviour must reflect the sovereign powers in place at the time.

Originality/value – The paper presents a model which develops the literature for the political dimensions of internationalisation. It also presents empirical data on the political dimensions of internationalising into China. These findings will assist businesses in understanding political factors when internationalising to China.

False economies : a global health crisis

Recommends measures to combat global epidemics and collapsing health care systems. Global aid to health; Greater market access for developing countries; Reversal of the brain drain; Development of better drugs and vaccines.

Awkward states and regional organisations: the UK and Australia compared

 

Equity and marketisation: emerging policies and practices in Australian education

The conjunction of equity and market logics in contemporary education has created new and different conditions of possibility for equity, both as conceived in policy discourses and as a related set of educational practices. In this editorial introduction, we examine how equity is being drawn into new policy assemblages and how, in the context of marketisation, equity is evolving and being enacted in new ways across education sectors. Different conceptions of equity are considered, including the increasingly influential human capital perspective promoted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We argue that, separate from critiques of neoliberalism and its deleterious effects on equity in education, it is necessary to analyse carefully the increasing rationalisation of equity agendas in economic terms, the associated effects on education governance and policy-making, as well as on the work of educational institutions and educators. Providing an overview of the contributions to this Special Issue, we direct particular attention to the multiple, complex and often contradictory effects of the current education reform agenda in Australia, which has prioritised equity objectives and intensified performance measurement, comparison and accountability as means to drive educational improvement and reduce disadvantage.

Towards a sociology of measurement in education policy

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has developed impressive machinery to produce international comparative data across more than 70 systems of education and these data have come to be used extensively in policy circles around the world. In many countries, national and international comparative data are used as the bases for significant, high-stakes policy and reform decisions. This article traces how international comparability is produced, using the example of equity measurement in OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It focuses on the construction of the objects of comparison and traces the struggles to produce equivalence and commensurability across diverse and complex worlds. Based on conversations with a number of measurement experts who are familiar with the OECD and PISA, the article details how comparability is achieved and how it falters and fails. In performing such an analysis, this research is not concerned with ‘exposing’ the limitations of comparison or challenging their validity. Rather, based on the work of Steve Woolgar and other scholars, it attempts to mobilise a ‘sociology of measurement’ that explores the instrumentalism and performativity of the technologies of international comparisons.

Empirical essays on international trade.

The thesis comprises four essays on the effects of free trade agreements and regional economic cooperation on trade flows in Africa, comparison of the effects of migration on trade in Africa and Asia, and the causal effects of service trade on service income at the cross-country level.

A comparative study on economic factors of construction industries in Australia and China

The construction sector produces the facilities needed for a large majority of the production of goods and services, in which a sizeable proportion of Gross Domestic Product is generated. Recent trends in the globalisation of construction markets indicate that many countries consider construction industry competitiveness as crucial, and are working to increase construction productivity, in particular where the construction industries play an important role in their economic development. This paper first points out the research importance in international construction. Based on economic analyses of construction industries, a study is then carried out to focus on the economic sizes and benefits of the Chinese construction industry and to compare them with the Australian construction industry. Results derived from such an international construction comparison will assist in the Australian construction communities understanding the construction markets and industries in China and will benefit in international construction participation and cooperation.

Evolution of cooperation in reputation system by group-based scheme

Reputation systems are very useful in large online communities in which users may frequently have the opportunity to interact with users with whom they have no prior experience. Recently, how to enhance the cooperative behaviors in the reputation system has become to one of the key open issues. Emerging schemes focused on developing efficient reward and punishment mechanisms or capturing the social or economic properties of participants. However, whether this kind of method can work widely or not has been hard to prove until now. Research in evolutionary game theory shows that group selection (or multilevel selection) can favor the cooperative behavior in the finite population. Furthermore, some recent works give fundamental conditions for the evolution of cooperation by group selection. In the paper, we extend the original group selection theory and propose a group-based scheme to enhance cooperation for online reputation systems. Related concepts are defined to capture the social structure and ties among participants in reputation system, e.g., group, assortativity, etc. Also, we use a Fermi distribution function to reflect the bounded rationality of participants and the existence of stochastic factors in evolutionary process. Extended simulations show that our scheme can enhance cooperation and improve the average performance of participants (e.g. payoff) in reputation system.

Balancing act : competition and cooperation in US Asia-Pacific regionalism

While the United States is an important Asia-Pacific actor, its engagement with the region is complex and often difficult. Not only must US regionalism balance the diverse requirements of an ambitious policy agenda, but also US policy norms and priorities often clash with those of other regional actors. This has important implications for the capacity of the United States to provide regional leadership. Recent years have seen growing policy convergence between the United States and other Asia-Pacific actors, particularly in economic terms, but US regionalism continues to feature competition alongside collaboration.

Winds of change in Myanmar? Implications for international cooperation In poverty alleviation

We are witnessing the beginnings of what could well be significant change in Myanmar. Elections in November 2010 were quickly followed by the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, then by the resignation of Senior-General Than Shwe, dissolution of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the opening of parliament, and the inauguration of Thein Sein as President on 30th March 2011. Thein Sein's inauguration speech called for national reconciliation and an end to corruption, promised a more market-oriented economy, and vowed to create employment opportunities. He also pledged to develop the health and education sectors in cooperation with international organisations, and to alleviate poverty. While some fear this may only be rhetoric, a growing number of indications suggest that major political and economic reform may indeed be getting underway. This paper traces these recent developments and the possibility of significantly improved international development cooperation in Myanmar, particularly as it affects the prospects of poverty alleviation efforts and cooperation with Western INGO and multilateral agencies. It analyses the implications of this reform on international development assistance and cooperation from the perspectives of humanitarian needs, international relations theory, development theory, and political philosophy.

Economic crisis in Korea and the degraded developmental state

This article analyses the Korean developmental state since the late 1990s, and argues that the state has continued to play a weighty role in the economy. The state guided industrial and financial restructuring after the Asian economic crisis, and intervened to stimulate the economy during the 2008 global financial crisis. In doing so, state elites have displayed a distinctive form of economic leadership that is largely consistent with the developmental state. Rather than focusing predominantly on performance-related indicators of state strength such as growth rates, this article analyses the deeper aspects of the developmental state, specifically its internal functions and its collaboration with business. The article brings politics back into analysis of the developmental state by questioning the assumption that strong economic performance is necessary for the maintenance of close ties between the state and chaebol. Instead, economic performance is better understood as a predictor of patterns of conflict and cooperation. Longstanding ties between the state and big business have endured two significant economic crises, even if the performance of the developmental state has been degraded compared to earlier decades.