The political economy of corruption in Brazil

This article is the first part of a research on corruption in Brazil and it is theoretical. Despite this, it provides an economic interpretation of corruption using Brazil as a case study. The main objective of this research is to apply some microeconomic tools to understand the "big corruption"��. However, I am going to show that corruption is not simply a kind of crime. Rather, it is an ordinary economic activity that arises in some institutional environments. Firstly, some corruption cases in Brazil will be described. This article is aimed at showing that democracy itself does not ensure control over corruption. Secondly, I am going to do a very brief survey of institutional changes and controls over corruption in some Western Societies in which I am going to argue that corruption, its control and its illegality depend on institutional evolution by streamlining the constitutional and institutional framework. Thirdly, I am going to explain how some economic models could be adopted for a better understanding of corruption. Finally, I will present a multiple-self model applied to the public agent (politician and bureaucrat) constrained by institutions and pay-off systems.

Health expenditures in the OECD: A political economy analysis using structural breaks

A Masters Thesis, presented as part of the requirements for the award of a Research Masters Degree in Economics from NOVA ��� School of Business and Economics

The Political Economy of Resource Rent Distribution

I model the link between political regime and level of diversification following a windfall of natural resource revenues. The explanatory variables I make use of are the political support functions embedded within each type of regime and the disparate levels of discretion, openness, transparency, and accountability of government. I show that a democratic government seeks to maximize the long-term consumption path of the representative consumer, in order to maximize its chances of re-election, while an authoritarian government, in the absence of any electoral mechanism of accountability, seeks to buy off and entrench a group of special interests loyal to the government and potent enough to ensure its short-term survival. Essentially the contrast in the approaches towards resource rent distribution comes down to a variation in political weights on aggregate welfare and rentierist special interests endogenized by distinct political support functions.

Introduction : la normalisation des services dans la mondialisation

This book examines the role of technical standards in the regulation of services at the international level. It brings together scholarship in international political economy, French regulation theory, and economic sociology in order to discuss the following questions: Which services are most likely to be internationalised and what actors are the most concerned by the phenomenon? What is the relationship between the internationalisation of services and their institutional environment? What is more particularly the role of technical standards in delivering and using services? The introductory chapter presents a comprehensive analysis of cutting edge research on these questions. It argues that technical standards shape new forms of collective action and transnational authority. The chapter suggests some hypotheses for a new research agenda.

Conclusion : les usages possibles et contestables des normes et des institutions dans l'internationalisation des services

The conclusion of this volume on technical standards in the regulation of services reviews the authors' contributions to understanding the relation between tertiarisation, internationalisation and standardisation from three distinct perspectives : theoretical, institutional, and sectorial. It argues that conventional views on conditions for standardisation and internationalisation of service activities are overly restrictive, making them dependent on sectorial and institutional specificity. In emphasizing the possible and contestable uses of service standards, the volume opens a critical debate on service offshoring, underlining the social and historical constructions of its transnational logic.

Savoir s'assurer : ��conomie politique internationale des normes de services et mondialisation du march�� de la (r��)assurance

The significance of the insurance industry in the functioning of the world economy is often underestimated, with premiums reaching 7.5 % of world gross domestic product (GDP), three times as much as worldwide military expenses. Insurance services mutualise risks in such a way as they provide a form of private governance that complements or makes up for guarantees otherwise supplied by the State. This case study of international standards developed for the insurance market provides evidence that deviates from conventional accounts considering service standards as heavily dependent of national environments and industry specificities. The chapter examines the relationship between tertiarisation, internationalisation and standardisation of contemporary economies by highlighting the complementarity between institutionalist approaches of the French regulation school and international political economy scholarship shedding light on the polarisation in the possible use of standards, notwithstanding thesectoraland institutional specificities of the activities concerned.

The "New Political Economy": Two Recent Books

This paper reviews two recent books on Political Economy by Allan Drazen and Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini. It discusses some problems of the recent Political Economy literature.

The street and children���s informal economy in Cape Verde

Since the 1990s Cape Verde has undergone dramatic economic and political transformations that have brought about growing social class distinction. The two main towns (Praia and Mindelo) have grown rapidly in the last decades and their urban structure today reflects the increasing polarisation of the population. Middle and upper class families occupy the older parts of town and the recently built planned areas, while spontaneous neighbourhoods spread without planning on the less valuable land. It is in these latter areas that most social issues associated with childhood and youth have become highly visible in the last decade. In this article I will focus on children���s reasons for going to live on the streets of Mindelo, arguing that it is in terms of autonomous mobility within a non-heterogeneous and profoundly divided urban and social space that we can better understand what is commonly defined as the phenomenon of street children.

Male beach workers and western female tourists : livelihood strategies in Kenya's south coast region

Recent years have seen an emerging knowledge base and increasing public interest and awareness of sexual-economic relationships between local men and Western women, in different touristic regions around the world. However, to date, Western perspectives on the phenomenon make up the bulk of the existent literature. Questioning the dominant discourse of 'romance tourism' and representations of male participants as 'victims-opportunists', this dissertation explores male beach workers' experiences with, and perspectives on sexual-economic relationships between Kenyan men and visiting Western women in Kenya's South Coast region. The men were not considered in isolation; their experiences and perspectives are situated in relation to their family ties, social networks and the political economy of beach tourism. The study shows that locally these relationships are clearly understood as livelihood strategies for the visited. Men seek to establish long-term intimate relationships with female tourists as a means to accessing life's basic necessities for themselves and for their families and overall to improve their standards of living. It is argued that these relationships are a response to the poverty and inequalities generated by socio-economic changes over time. They are also a response to local gender role prescriptions that hinge male social value on men's capacity to marry, procreate and provide intergenerational social and economic support. The men's parallel quest for non-sexual economically motivated friendships with visiting foreign tourists termed "family friends" is a salient finding, that serves to reinforce the finding that the sexual- economic relationships are above all livelihood strategies. R��sum�� Ces derni��res ann��es ont vu l'��mergence d'une base de connaissance, ainsi que d'un int��r��t et d'une prise de conscience accrue du public, �� l'��gard des relations ��conomico-sexuelles entre hommes locaux et femmes occidentales, dans diff��rentes r��gions touristiques du monde. Cependant, �� ce jour, des perspectives occidentales sur ce ph��nom��ne constituent l'essentiel de la litt��rature existante. En remettant en question le discours dominant du ��romance tourism�� (tourisme sentimental) et les repr��sentations qui con��oivent les hommes participants comme ��tant 'victimes-opportunistes', cette th��se explore les exp��riences, et les visions qu'ont les travailleurs de plage sur les relations ��conomico-sexuelles entre hommes Kenyans et femmes Occidentales dans la r��gion de la c��te sud du Kenya. Les hommes n'ont pas ��t�� consid��r��s de mani��re isol��e; leurs exp��riences et leurs perspectives sont situ��es par rapport �� leur liens familiaux, leur r��seaux sociaux et aussi par rapport �� l'��conomie politique du tourisme baln��aire. L'��tude montre que sur place ces relations sont clairement con��ues comme des strat��gies de survie pour les participants h��tes. Les hommes cherchent �� ��tablir des relations de long dur��e avec des femmes touristes comme moyen d'acc��der �� des biens et des services qui constituent des n��cessit��s de bases, pour eux et pour leur familles et globalement pour relever leur niveau de vie! L'��tude fait valoir que ces relations sont une r��ponse �� la pauvret�� et aux in��galit��s sociales cr��es par des dynamiques socio-��conomiques au fil du temps. Elles sont aussi une r��ponse au prescriptions sociales locales par lesquelles la valeur sociale masculine est d��finie �� travers la capacit�� des hommes �� se marier, �� procr��er et d'assurer un soutien interg��n��rationnel social et ��conomique. La qu��te, en parall��le, de relations d'amiti��s non-sexuelles �� motivation ��conomique, d��nomm�� �� family friends ��, par des hommes, est un r��sultat saillant de cette ��tude qui vient renforcer l'observation que les relations ��conomico-sexuelles rel��vent avant tout des strat��gies de survie.

Political economy of municipal water service privatization in Spain: a duration model analysis

This empirical work applies a duration model to the study of factors determining privatization of local water services. I assess how factors determining privatization decision evolve as time goes by. A sample of 133 Spanish municipalities during the six terms of office taken place during the 1980-2002 period is analyzed. A dynamic neighboring effect is hypothesized and successfully tested. In a first stage, private water supply firms may try to expand to regions where there is no service privatized, in order to spread over this region after having being installed thanks to its scale advantages. Other factors influencing privatization decision evolve during the two decades under study, from the priority to fix old infrastructures to the concern about service efficiency. Some complementary results regarding political and budgetary factors are also obtained

The Political Economy of Active Labor-Market Policy

Active labor-market policies (ALMPs) have developed significantly over the past two decades across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, with substantial cross-national differences in terms of both extent and overall orientation. The objective of this article is to account for cross-national variation in this policy field. It starts by reviewing existing scholarship concerning political, institutional, and ideational determinants of ALMPs. It then argues that ALMP is too broad a category to be used without further specification, and it develops a typology of four different types of ALMPs: incentive reinforcement, employment assistance, occupation, and human capital investment. These are discussed and examined through ALMP expenditure profiles in selected countries. The article uses this typology to analyze ALMP trajectories in six Western European countries and shows that the role of this instrument changes dramatically over time. It concludes that there is little regularity in the political determinants of ALMPs. In contrast, it finds strong institutional and ideational effects, nested in the interaction between the changing economic context and existing labor-market policies.

Monnaie, citoyennet�� et globalisation financi��re. Les citoyens entre protection sociale et promesses de la capitalisation boursi��re

La monnaie a ��t�� ��tudi��e par des ��conomistes h��t��rodoxes, des sociologues et des historiens qui ont soulign�� ses rapports �� l'ordre collectif, mais elle n'est que rarement analys��e sous l'angle de la citoyennet��. Notre th��se propose une r��flexion th��orique sur quatre types de fonctions (politique, symbolique, socio��conomique et psychoaffective) qui permettent �� la monnaie de jouer un r��le de m��diation de la citoyennet��. A partir d'une perspective qui combine les apports de l'��conomie politique internationale et de l'��cole de la r��gulation, nous montrons que cette m��diation ne mobilise pas seulement des m��canismes sociopolitiques nationaux, mais aussi des m��canismes internationaux qui r��troagissent sur la sph��re domestique des ��tats et affectent leur capacit�� �� d��finir leur r��gime de citoyennet��. Cette relation est analys��e dans le contexte de l'institutionnalisation du syst��me mon��taire international de Bretton Woods (1944) et du d��veloppement de la globalisation financi��re depuis les ann��es 1970. Si la monnaie a ��t�� mise au service d'un principe de protection des droits sociaux des citoyens contre les pressions financi��res ext��rieures apr��s la Seconde guerre mondiale, elle contribue aujourd'hui �� l'ouverture de la sph��re domestique des Etats aux flux de capitaux transnationaux et �� la cr��ation d'un ordre politique et juridique favorable aux droits des investisseurs. Cette dynamique est impuls��e par l'essor de nouveaux interm��diaires financiers (notamment les agences de notation et les investisseurs institutionnels) et l'��mergence concomitante d'une nouvelle forme d'Etat l��gitim��e �� partir d'un discours politique n��olib��ral insistant sur la qu��te de comp��titivit��, la r��duction de la protection sociale et la responsabilisation individuelle. Elle se traduit par la privatisation des r��gimes de retraite et le d��veloppement des politiques d'��ducation financi��re qui incitent les citoyens �� se comporter en �� preneurs de risques �� actifs et responsables, assurant eux-m��mes leur s��curit�� ��conomique �� travers le placement de leur ��pargne retraite sur les march��s financiers. Nous soulignons toutefois les difficult��s institutionnelles, cognitives et socio��conomiques qui rendent cette transformation de la citoyennet�� contradictoire et probl��matique. Money has been studied by heterodox economists, sociologists and historians who stressed its relationship to collective order. However, it has hardly been analysed from the viewpoint of its relationship to citizenship. We propose a theoretical account of four types of functions (political, symbolic, socioeconomic and psychoaffective) enabling money to operate as a mediation of citizenship. From a perspective that combines the contributions of international political economy and the regulation school, we show that this mediation mobilises not only national sociopolitical mechanisms, but also international mechanisms which feed back on the domestic sphere of states and affect their capacity to define their regime of citizenship. This relationship is analysed in the context of the institutionalisation of the international monetary system of Bretton Woods (1944) and the development of financial globalization since the 1970s. If money has served to protect the social rights of citizens against external financial pressures after the Second World War, today it contributes to the opening of the domestic sphere of states to transnational capital flows and to the creation of a political and legal order favorable to the rights of investors. This dynamic is driven by the rise of new financial intermediaries (in particular rating agencies and institutional investisors) and the simultaneous emergence of a new form of state legitimized from a neoliberal political discourse emphasizing the quest for competitiveness, reduced social protection and individual responsibilization. It results in the privatization of pension systems and the development of policies of financial education that encourage citizens to behave as active and responsible �� risk takers ��, ensuring their own economic security through the investment of their savings retirement on financial markets. However, we emphasize the institutional, cognitive and socioeconomic difficulties that make this transformation of citizenship contradictory and problematic. - Money has been studied by heterodox economists, sociologists and historians who stressed its relationship to collective order. However, it has hardly been analysed from the viewpoint of its relationship to citizenship. We propose a theoretical account of four types of functions (political, symbolic, socioeconomic and psychoaffective) enabling money to operate as a mediation of citizenship. From a perspective that combines the contributions of international political economy and the regulation school, we show that this mediation mobilises not only national sociopolitical mechanisms, but also international mechanisms which feed back on the domestic sphere of states and affect their capacity to define their regime of citizenship. This relationship is analysed in the context of the institutionalisation of the international monetary system of Bretton Woods (1944) and the development of financial globalization since the 1970s. If money has served to protect the social rights of citizens against external financial pressures after the Second World War, today it contributes to the opening of the domestic sphere of states to transnational capital flows and to the creation of a political and legal order favorable to the rights of investors. This dynamic is driven by the rise of new financial intermediaries (in particular rating agencies and institutional investisors) and the simultaneous emergence of a new form of state legitimized from a neoliberal political discourse emphasizing the quest for competitiveness, reduced social protection and individual responsibilization. It results in the privatization of pension systems and the development of policies of financial education that encourage citizens to behave as active and responsible �� risk takers ��, ensuring their own economic security through the investment of their savings retirement on financial markets. However, we emphasize the institutional, cognitive and socioeconomic difficulties that make this transformation of citizenship problematic.