Can British multinational enterprises finance economic development in South East Asia?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the debate about the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and public policy in fostering economic development. Specifically, can the capital inflow of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the ability of the subsidiaries to raise funds locally help promote development? This paper addresses this issue by examining the capital structure and financing sources of foreign subsidiaries of MNEs. Design/methodology/approach – This paper integrates the capital structure theories in finance with internalization theory in international business. It uses an original primary dataset collected by a survey of 101 foreign subsidiaries of British MNEs in six emerging economies in the ASEAN region. Findings – There are three significant findings. First, these subsidiaries rely heavily on internal funds generated within the MNEs and less on external debts raised in the host countries. Second, the foreign subsidiary's capital structure is influenced by the home country of origin of the parent firm and the parent firm's financing sources. Third, these subsidiaries have used the financial resources to develop business networks with local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which contribute to economic development of the host countries. Originality/value – This paper examines the internal capital market within the MNE. It provides theoretical and empirical support for the capital structure theory of the hierarchy financing approach and also for internalization theory by addressing FDI inflows by MNEs and the raising of funds locally. These findings have important implications for public policy, namely the facilitation of MNE entry to encourage economic development.

Appraisal and conclusions from the 1994-2009 review of the implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action in the Caribbean

Incluye Bibliografía

Dollars in Latin America; an old problem in a new setting,

Mode of access: Internet.

Speculative attacks on debts and optimum currency area: a welfare analysis

Traditionally the issue of an optimum currency area is based on the theoretical underpinnings developed in the 1960s by McKinnon [13], Kenen [12] and mainly Mundell [14], who is concerned with the benefits of lowering transaction costs vis-à- vis adjustments to asymmetrical shocks. Recently, this theme has been reappraised with new aspects included in the analysis, such as: incomplete markets, credibility of monetary policy and seigniorage, among others. For instance, Neumeyer [15] develops a general equilibrium model with incomplete asset markets and shows that a monetary union is desirable when the welfare gains of eliminating the exchange rate volatility are greater than the cost of reducing the number of currencies to hedge against risks. In this paper, we also resort to a general equilibrium model to evaluate financial aspects of an optimum currency area. Our focus is to appraise the welfare of a country heavily dependent on foreign capital that may suffer a speculative attack on its public debt. The welfare analysis uses as reference the self-fulfilling debt crisis model of Cole and Kehoe ([6], [7] and [8]), which is employed here to represent dollarization. Under this regime, the national government has no control over its monetary policy, the total public debt is denominated in dollars and it is in the hands of international bankers. To describe a country that is a member of a currency union, we modify the original Cole-Kehoe model by including public debt denominated in common currency, only purchased by national consumers. According to this rule, the member countries regain some influence over the monetary policy decision, which is, however, dependent on majority voting. We show that for specific levels of dollar debt, to create inflation tax on common-currency debt in order to avoid an external default is more desirable than to suspend its payment, which is the only choice available for a dollarized economy when foreign creditors decide not to renew their loans.

Speculative attacks on debts, dollarization and optimum currency areas

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discussion of the financial aspects of dollarization and optimum currency areas. Based on the model of self-fulfilling debt crisis developed by Cole and Kehoe [4], it is possible to evaluate the comparative welfare of economies, which either keep their local currency and an independent monetary policy, join a monetary union or adopt dollarization. In the two former monetary regimes, governments can issue debt denominated, respectively, in local and common currencies, which is completely purchased by national consumers. Given this ability, governments may decide to impose an inflation tax on these assets and use the revenues so collected to avoid an external debt crises. While the country that issues its own currency takes this decision independently, a country belonging to a monetary union depends on the joint decision of all member countries about the common monetary policy. In this way, an external debt crises may be avoided under the local and common currency regimes, if, respectively, the national and the union central banks have the ability to do monetary policy, represented by the reduction in the real return on the bonds denominated in these currencies. This resource is not available under dollarization. In a dollarized economy, the loss of control over national monetary policy does not allow adjustments for exogenous shocks that asymmetrically affect the client and the anchor countries, but credibility is strengthened. On the other hand, given the ability to inflate the local currency, the central bank may be subject to the political influence of a government not so strongly concerned with fiscal discipline, which reduces the welfare of the economy. In a similar fashion, under a common currency regime, the union central bank may also be under the influence of a group of countries to inflate the common currency, even though they do not face external restrictions. Therefore, the local and common currencies could be viewed as a way to provide welfare enhancing bankruptcy, if it is not abused. With these peculiarities of monetary regimes in mind, we simulate the levels of economic welfare for each, employing recent data for the Brazilian economy.

Trends in LDC external debt /

Description based on: 1983-89.

Preservation Of The External Jugular Vein In Bilateral Radical Neck Dissections: Technique In Two Cases And Review Of The Literature.

Context. The possibility of cephalic venous hypertension with the resultant facial edema and elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure continues to challenge head and neck surgeons who perform bilateral radical neck dissections during simultaneous or staged procedures. Case Report. The staged procedure in patients who require bilateral neck dissections allows collateral venous drainage to develop, mainly through the internal and external vertebral plexuses, thereby minimizing the risks of deleterious consequences. Nevertheless, this procedure has disadvantages, such as a delay in definitive therapy, the need for a second hospitalization and anesthesia, and the risk of cutting lymphatic vessels and spreading viable cancer cells. In this paper, we discuss the rationale and feasibility of preserving the external jugular vein. Considering the limited number of similar reports in the literature, two cases in which this procedure was accomplished are described. The relevant anatomy and technique are reviewed and the patients' outcomes are discussed. Conclusion. Preservation of the EJV during bilateral neck dissections is technically feasible, fast, and safe, with clinically and radiologically demonstrated patency.

Combined External Pressure And Cu-substitution Studies On Bafe2as2 Single Crystals.

We report a combined study of external pressure and Cu-substitution on BaFe2As2 single crystals grown by the in-flux technique. At ambient pressure, the Cu-substitution is known to suppress the spin density wave (SDW) phase in pure BaFe2As2(TSDW ≈ 140 K) and to induce a superconducting (SC) dome with a maximum transition temperature [Formula: see text]. This [Formula: see text] is much lower than the Tc ∼ 15-28 K achieved in the case of Ru, Ni and Co substitutions. Such a lower Tc is attributed to a Cu(2+) magnetic pair-breaking effect. The latter is strongly suppressed by applied pressure, as shown herein, Tc can be significantly enhanced by applying high pressures. In this work, we investigated the pressure effects on Cu(2+) magnetic pair-breaking in the BaFe2-xCuxAs2 series. Around the optimal concentration (xopd = 0.11), all samples showed a substantial increase of Tc as a function of pressure. Yet for those samples with a slightly higher doping level (over-doped regime), Tc presented a dome-like shape with maximum Tc ≃ 8 K. Remarkably interesting, the under-doped samples, e.g. x = 0.02 display a maximum pressure induced Tc ≃ 30 K which is comparable to the maximum Tc's found for the pure compound under external pressures. Furthermore, the magnetoresistance effect as a function of pressure in the normal state of the x = 0.02 sample also presented an evolution consistent with the screening of the Cu(2+) local moments. These findings demonstrate that the Cu(2+) magnetic pair-breaking effect is completely suppressed by applying pressure in the low concentration regime of Cu(2+) substituted BaFe2As2.

Internal and external time conflicts in adolescents: sleep characteristics and interventions

Daytime fatigue and lack of sleep seem to increase throughout adolescent years. Several environmental, psychological, and biological factors have been associated with the development of sleep across adolescence. The aim of the present article is to summarize these factors and to give examples of various outcomes in sleep patterns among adolescents studied in different cultural settings. It is obvious from earlier work that many adolescents have displaced circadian rhythms and lack of adaptation to school hours due to an early school start or additional burdens for work. Several interventions have aimed to help the adaptation process by supporting sleep processes and changing scheduling, in this way promoting classroom alertness. In summary, adolescents worldwide shorten their sleep due to schoolwork hours and additional work, especially by disturbing their sleep due to circadian misalignment

Hard thermal loops in static external fields

We examine, in the imaginary-time formalism, the high temperature behavior of n-point thermal loops in static Yang-Mills and gravitational fields. We show that in this regime, any hard thermal loop gives the same leading contribution as the one obtained by evaluating the loop integral at zero external energies and momenta.

Classical noncommutative electrodynamics with external source

In a U(1)(*)-noncommutative gauge field theory we extend the Seiberg-Witten map to include the (gauge-invariance-violating) external current and formulate-to the first order in the noncommutative parameter-gauge-covariant classical field equations. We find solutions to these equations in the vacuum and in an external magnetic field, when the 4-current is a static electric charge of a finite size a, restricted from below by the elementary length. We impose extra boundary conditions, which we use to rule out all singularities, 1/r included, from the solutions. The static charge proves to be a magnetic dipole, with its magnetic moment being inversely proportional to its size a. The external magnetic field modifies the long-range Coulomb field and some electromagnetic form factors. We also analyze the ambiguity in the Seiberg-Witten map and show that at least to the order studied here it is equivalent to the ambiguity of adding a homogeneous solution to the current-conservation equation.

An external focus of attention results in greater swimming speed

We examined effects of attentional focus on swimming speed. Participants` task was to swim one length of a pool (16 m) using the front crawl stroke. In Experiment 1, intermediate swimmers were given attentional focus instructions related to the crawl arm stroke or the leg kick, respectively. Participants were instructed to focus on ""pulling your hands back"" or ""pushing the instep down"" (internal focus), or on ""pushing the water back/down"" (external focus), respectively. Swim times were significantly shorter with an external focus. In Experiment 2, a control condition was included. Times were significantly faster in the external focus compared with both the internal focus and control conditions. These findings have implications for enhancing performance in swimming.

Fuzzy risk index for power transformer failures due to external short-circuits

A novel methodology to assess the risk of power transformer failures caused by external faults, such as short-circuit, taking the paper insulation condition into account, is presented. The risk index is obtained by contrasting the insulation paper condition with the probability that the transformer withstands the short-circuit current flowing along the winding during an external fault. In order to assess the risk, this probability and the value of the degree of polymerization of the insulating paper are regarded as inputs of a type-2 fuzzy logic system (T2-FLS), which computes the fuzzy risk level. A Monte Carlo simulation has been used to find the survival function of the currents flowing through the transformer winding during a single-phase or a three-phase short-circuit. The Roy Billinton Test System and a real power system have been used to test the results. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

External shower, Sunshine Beach House, Sunshine Coast

View past timber shutter to external shower.