A critical reflection on Irish industrial policy:a strategic choice approach

Abstract: This paper offers a critical evaluation of recent Irish industrial policy (IP) experience. It argues that whilst Ireland managed to get some things “right” through its IP, substantial tensions arose through making foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction the centrepiece of policy, without at the same time adopting a more holistic approach in IP which inter alia also placed an emphasis on indigenous firms and entrepreneurship more generally. In particular, greater efforts should have been made much earlier in attempting to embed transnational corporation (TNC)-led activity better into the wider economy, in fostering domestic small firms and entrepreneurship, in promoting clusters, and more generally in evaluating IP more fully – notwithstanding the context which mitigated against such actions. As a result, Ireland as an economy remained vulnerable to strategic decisions made elsewhere by TNC decision makers, with IP effectively contributing to a situation that can be characterised as institutional and strategic failure. Overall, the paper suggests that wholesale emulation of the Irish IP approach is problematic.

Industry–academic links:a new phase in Ireland’s FDI-led industrialisation strategy

We analyse industry–academic links in the context of a dual economy (or disarticulated industrial structure) in Ireland, as an example of a peripheral territory in the EU. The duality found in the Irish industrial structure is the result of a FDI-led industrialisation strategy which has resulted in two distinct economic sectors – foreign and indigenous, respectively – with weak interactions between the two. Through increased public funding of academic research, the Irish government aimed to attract and embed new waves of higher-value foreign direct investment and increase the dynamism of its indigenous enterprise base. Based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, the paper analyses a crucial aspect of Ireland’s recent emphasis on STI policy – industry-academic linkages – and finds that the measures introduced reproduce in the public research system the uneven development found in Ireland’s productive system between indigenous industry and the foreign-owned industrial base.

Tőkebefektetések Magyarországon = Capital investments in Hungary

A tanulmány megvizsgálja Magyarország integrációs kapcsolatainak alakulását a tőkebefektetések területén, feltárja annak pozitív és negatív hatásait. Az 1990-től 2010-ig tartó periódust három fő szakaszban elemzi, ezek a szakaszok: a rendszerváltás ideje, az EU csatlakozásig, valamint a csatlakozás óta eltelt évek. Kitér a tanulmány arra, hogy a hét évvel ezelőtti uniós csatlakozás hogyan hatott a tőkebefektetések alakulására, az integráció előtti kapcsolatok milyen mértékben maradtak fent, illetve változtak, mennyire vagyunk nyitottak a külföldi tőke előtt és a 2008-ban kezdődő gazdasági világválság milyen hatással volt ezekre a folyamatokra. / === / The purpose of the study is to examine the standing of Hungary's relations within the integration especially focusing on foreign direct investment, as well as to explore its positive and negative consequences. The period between 1990 and 2010 will be discussed in three main parts, namely as the time of the political transformation, the time preceding Hungary's accession to the European Union, and that of the years passed since then. Apart from the above mentioned it is also necessary to analyze the impact made by the integration which took place seven years ago on the state of foreign direct investment, and, to have a look at the relations formed prior to it, to see the extent to which they have altered or remained the same. We need to know how much our economy is open to foreign capital and we have to understand the measure Hungary has been affected by, since the crisis that began in 2008 has made itself plausible.

Transnational Capital and the Politics of Global Supply Chains

In the latest phase of globalization, transnational corporations based in the U.S. have worked closely with U.S. foreign policymakers to secure favorable foreign direct investment provisions within U.S. domestic legislation and within U.S. trade agreements. These interactions between transnational firms and the U.S. state have provided many of the preconditions for an expansion of foreign direct investment connected to capital liberalization and the growth of global supply chains from the 1980s to the present. This relationship is best conceptualized as representing a “transnational interest bloc,” whose policy objectives are incorporated within investment provisions in US-backed trade and investment agreements.

Restrição externa, dependência estrutural de commodities primárias e o investimento direto externo no Brasil

As the beginning of the discussion about the reprimarization process of the Brazilian exportations, or about a deindustrialization process of the country foreign sales, this study purpose that the discussion, actually, should be about the existence of the commodities structural dependence as a way to face the foreign restrictions. Therefore the intention is to show that, historically, the way that the Brazilian economy has crossed for its development depends of the foreign capital, mainly in its way of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and in the balance generated by the primary products, which make us try to understand the impact of this capital for the equilibrium of the Brazilian Payment Balance and also for the economy. These points were discussed not only based on the Brazilian classic writers as Francisco Oliveira, Caio Prado Jr. and Celso Furtado, but also using the newest studies which contributes to point the causes and consequences of the external capital dependence in the actual scenario. The conclusions acquired in the end of the study, indicates the fact that the Brazilian specialization in products of low aggregated value is not recent. Brazil is, historically, a competitive country in primary products. At the same time, the country importation always was a pressure factor of the National Payments Balance, being composed by products with more aggregated value. According to some authors, this characteristic of the Brazilian Economy will be surpassed with the economic opening process, which will attract external capital making possible the modernization of the Brazilian productive sector. Therefore, we can claim that the FDI, in the way it has been inserted in the country, does not offer the opportunity to get out of the commodities dependence, as generators of the payment balances, because the country international competitive standard didn t get any important changes, keeping itself out of the step related to the global standard which has been intensified in products with more aggregated value. The changes in the national insertion standard directed to more technological products is really important to surpass the historical scenario of commodities dependence, making the country less vulnerable to external crisis.

The Causal Links between FDI and Economic Growth in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Republic of Rwanda

The study examines the short-run and long-run causality running from real economic growth to real foreign direct investment inflows (RFDI). Other variables such as education (involving combination of primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment as a proxy to education), real development finance, unskilled labour, to real RFDI inflows are included in the study. The time series data covering the period of 1983 -2013 are examined. First, I applied Augmented Dicky-Fuller (ADF) technique to test for unit root in variables. Findings shows all variables integrated of order one [I(1)]. Thereafter, Johansen Co-integration Test (JCT) was conducted to establish the relationship among variables. Both trace and maximum Eigen value at 5% level of significance indicate 3 co-integrated equations. Vector error correction method (VECM) was applied to capture short and long-run causality running from education, economic growth, real development finance, and unskilled labour to real foreign direct investment inflows in the Republic of Rwanda. Findings shows no short-run causality running from education, real development finance, real GDP and unskilled labour to real FDI inflows, however there were existence of long-run causality. This can be interpreted that, in the short-run; education, development finance, finance and economic growth does not influence inflows of foreign direct investment in Rwanda; but it does in long-run. From the policy perspective, the Republic of Rwanda should focus more on long term goal of investing in education to improve human capital, undertake policy reforms that promotes economic growth, in addition to promoting good governance to attract development finance – especially from Nordics countries (particularly Norway and Denmark).

‘Black Settlers’: Hybridity, Neoliberalism and Ecosystemic Change Among Tonga Farmers of Southern Zambia, 1964-2008

This dissertation examines a process of indigenous accumulation among Tonga farmers in Zambia’s Southern Province. In the 1970s multiple authors concluded that capitalist farmers had emerged among Tonga agro-pastoralists, predominantly within private titled holdings. Relying on archival research, newspapers, secondary sources and extensive oral testimony this thesis fills a 35-year gap on the topic, providing insights into the social and environmental impacts of neoliberal policy among African peasants and capitalist farmers. In contrast to dominant narratives of the post-independence period, this study argues that Zambia did experience a developmental process post-independence, which saw significant achievements made in the agricultural sector, including the doubling of national cattle stocks. The data reveals a painful process of disarticulation beginning in the late 1980s. Following neoliberal adjustment, we observe significant heterogeneity in production systems, some regional specialization, and processes of migration. Most importantly, the thesis uncovers processes of overwhelming ecosystemic change that contributed to livestock epidemics of severe scale and scope. Amazingly, this went largely undocumented because of the simultaneous crisis of the state, which left the national statistics office and other state bodies incapable of functioning from the late 1980s into the 2000s. In response, the Zambian state has introduced a number of neodevelopmental initiatives in the sector, yet the lack of animal traction remained up to 2008 and agricultural production declined, while more capitalized farmers (largely white, and/or with foreign direct investment) have become more significant players in the country. This thesis provides compelling evidence to challenge dominant economic thinking of the Washington institutions as well as many of the common Marxian formulations.

Impacts of FDI Renewable Energy Technology Spillover on China's Energy Industry Performance

Environmental friendly renewable energy plays an indispensable role in energy industry development. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in advanced renewable energy technology spillover is promising to improve technological capability and promote China’s energy industry performance growth. In this paper, the impacts of FDI renewable energy technology spillover on China’s energy industry performance are analyzed based on theoretical and empirical studies. Firstly, three hypotheses are proposed to illustrate the relationships between FDI renewable energy technology spillover and three energy industry performances including economic, environmental, and innovative performances. To verify the hypotheses, techniques including factor analysis and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are employed to quantify the FDI renewable energy technology spillover and the energy industry performance of China, respectively. Furthermore, a panel data regression model is proposed to measure the impacts of FDI renewable energy technology spillover on China’s energy industry performance. Finally, energy industries of 30 different provinces in China based on the yearbook data from 2005 to 2011 are comparatively analyzed for evaluating the impacts through the empirical research. The results demonstrate that FDI renewable energy technology spillover has positive impacts on China’s energy industry performance. It can also be found that the technology spillover effects are more obvious in economic and technological developed regions. Finally, four suggestions are provided to enhance energy industry performance and promote renewable energy technology spillover in China.

Energy efficiency in the Chinese provinces: a fixed effects stochastic frontier spatial Durbin error panel analysis

Energy efficiency improvement has been a key objective of China’s long-term energy policy. In this paper, we derive single-factor technical energy efficiency (abbreviated as energy efficiency) in China from multi-factor efficiency estimated by means of a translog production function and a stochastic frontier model on the basis of panel data on 29 Chinese provinces over the period 2003–2011. We find that average energy efficiency has been increasing over the research period and that the provinces with the highest energy efficiency are at the east coast and the ones with the lowest in the west, with an intermediate corridor in between. In the analysis of the determinants of energy efficiency by means of a spatial Durbin error model both factors in the own province and in first-order neighboring provinces are considered. Per capita income in the own province has a positive effect. Furthermore, foreign direct investment and population density in the own province and in neighboring provinces have positive effects, whereas the share of state-owned enterprises in Gross Provincial Product in the own province and in neighboring provinces has negative effects. From the analysis it follows that inflow of foreign direct investment and reform of state-owned enterprises are important policy handles.

Las relaciones económicas y comerciales entre América Latina y Asia-Pacífico: el vínculo con China

Incluye Bibliografía

Economic and trade relations between Latin America and Asia Pacific: The link with China

Includes bibliography

Negócios internacionais: Estratégias de investimentos no contexto luso-brasileiro

Este ensaio descreve e analisa novos desafios e oportunidades no âmbito dos negócios internacionais no contexto Luso-Brasileiro. Inicialmente, o ensaio desafia a hegemonia do conhecimento acadêmico em negócios internacionais alcançado por conexões Anglo-Americanas para sustentar que a valorização das conexões Luso-Brasileiras em um mundo globalizado pode promover conexões mais sólidas com outros países e regiões. A seguir, o ensaio descreve e analisa dados referentes aos fluxos de entrada e saída de investimentos direto externo no contexto Luso-Brasileiro com propósito de destacar, dentre os desafios e oportunidades contemporâneos, a crescente internacionalização das empresas portuguesas e brasileiras nas últimas duas décadas. Como considerações finais, o ensaio sustenta que a intensificação das conexões Luso-Brasileiras em termos de fluxos de investimentos requer estudos interdisciplinares entre os âmbitos de economia política internacional, negócios internacionais e gestão internacional.

EL IMPACTO DE LA CRISIS ECONÓMICA MUNDIAL SOBRE LA ECONOMÍA COSTARRICENSE: los efectos macroeconómicos

ResumenLa economía costarricense es una economía pequeña pero muy abierta al exterior, por ello, lo que ocurre en el resto del mundo nos afecta de alguna manera. Cuando estalló la crisis en los Estados Unidos, sus repercusiones se hicieron notar poco a poco alrededor del mundo. En un principio el principal efecto sobre nuestro país se vio reflejado en la inflación, sin embargo, conforme transcurrió el tiempo los efectos saltaron al sector real de la economía, es decir, a la producción y al empleo. En este artículo se analizan los principales efectos que hasta el momento ha tenido la crisis económica mundial en nuestro país, entre ellos se mencionan, la inflación; el decrecimiento en la actividad económica de los sectores construcción, industria, comercio y hoteles, principalmente; la caída en el turismo, las remesas, la Inversión Extranjera Directa (IED), las exportaciones e importaciones y, por último, la reducción en el empleo.Abstract Costa Rican economy is a very small open economy; therefore, what happens in the rest of the world affects us in some way. When the crisis in the United States exploded, its impact was slowly evident around the world. At first, the main effect on our country was reflected in inflation; however, the effects were then clear on the real sector of the economy, i.e. production and employment. This article examines the main effects which so far have been the global economic crisis in our economy, including inflation, and the decline in the economic activity in the construction sector, industry, commerce and hotels, primarily; as well as the fall in tourism, remittances, Foreign Direct Investment, exports and imports, and finally the reduction in employment.

Análise comparativa das experiências portuguesa e espanhola na União Europeia : integração económica entre países com níveis diferenciados de desenvolvimento

Mestrado em Economia Internacional

A internacionalização de empresas portuguesas para Cabo Verde : investimento directo e as estratégias competitivas

A presente investigação procura estudar a internacionalização das empresas portuguesas para Cabo Verde, através de investimento direto, e as estratégias competitivas que elas adotaram. Na sequência da revisão da literatura, a fim de obter respostas para a pergunta de pesquisa, analisamos a internacionalização das empresas portuguesas, a sua evolução, o investimento português no estrangeiro, e a evolução dos fluxos do Investimento Direto Estrangeiro (IDE) em Cabo Verde, a partir de dados estatísticos recolhidos na literatura publicada. De seguida foram recolhidos dados primários, através da aplicação de dois questionários direcionados para o mercado cabo-verdiano (clientes) e empresas portuguesas que investiram em Cabo Verde. A amostra é constituída por 157 clientes, 77 do sexo feminino e 80 do sexo masculino, e a outra amostra é constituída por 10 empresas portuguesas que investiram em Cabo Verde através de Investimento Direto. Os resultados do presente estudo mostram que a estratégia de adaptação não contribuiu significativamente para melhorar a opinião do mercado cabo-verdiano sobre as marcas portuguesas e que, as empresas adaptaram naquele mercado principalmente as variáveis distribuição e preço. As empresas portuguesas podem seguir estratégias de padronização do produto e da promoção/comunicação, precisando apenas adaptar o preço aos diferentes fatores de custo e a distribuição à natureza insular do mercado. Concluímos que, de uma forma geral, a proximidade cultural, geográfica e histórica entre os dois países é responsável pela não necessidade da estratégia de adaptação por parte das empresas portuguesas quando internacionalizam para Cabo Verde. /ABSTRACT: The present investigation aims to study the internationalization of portuguese companies to Cape Verde, through direct investment, and their competitive strategies. Following the literature review, in order to answer the research question, the internationalization of Portuguese companies was analyzed, as was the Portuguese investment abroad, and the evolution of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows in Cape Verde, with statistical data collected from the literature. Primary data was collected through the use of two questionnaires directed to the Cape Verdean market (customers) and to the Portuguese companies that have invested in Cape Verde. The sample consists of 157 customers, 77 females and 80 males, and the other sample consists of 10 Portuguese companies that have invested in Cape Verde through Direct Investment. The results of this study show that the adaptation strategy did not help improve Cape Verdean market's opinion about the Portuguese brands, and those, companies adapted primarily the distribution and price variables. The Portuguese companies can follow standardization strategies of the product and the promotion I communication, just needing to adjust the price to the various cost factors and the distribution to the insular nature of the market. We conclude that, in general, the cultural, historic and geographical proximity and the close relationship between the two countries lessens the necessity of adaptation strategy by the Portuguese companies when they internationalize to Cape Verde.