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Showing papers on "Globalization published in 2001"


Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the role of business in national economies and show that there is more than one path to economic success, and explain national differences in social and economic policy.
Abstract: What are the most important differences among national economies? Is globalization forcing nations to converge on an Anglo-American model? What explains national differences in social and economic policy? This pathbreaking work outlines a new approach to these questions. It highlights the role of business in national economies and shows that there is more than one path to economic success.

5,778 citations


Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: A number of schemas have been proposed to explain why countries have often been able to secure substantial rates of growth in different ways, often with relatively egalitarian distributions of income as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Scholarship on varieties of capitalism (VofC) explores the ways in which the institutions structuring the political economy affect patterns of economic performance or policy making and the distribution of well-being. Contesting the claim that there is one best route to superior economic performance, a number of schemas have been proposed to explain why countries have often been able to secure substantial rates of growth in different ways, often with relatively egalitarian distributions of income. Prominent among them is a VofC analysis focused on the developed democracies that distinguishes liberal and coordinated market economies according to the ways in which firms coordinate their endeavors. On the basis of institutional complementarities among subspheres of the political economy, it suggests that the institutional structure of the political economy confers comparative institutional advantages, notably for radical and incremental innovation, which explains why economies have not converged in the context of globalization. Although this framework is contested, it has inspired new research on many subjects, including the basis for innovation, the determinants of social policy, the grounds for international negotiation, and the character of institutional change. In this issue area, there is promising terrain for further research into the origins of varieties of capitalism, the factors that drive institutional change in the political economy, how institutional arrangements in the subspheres of the political economy interact with one another, the normative underlay for capitalism, and the effects of varieties of capitalism on multiple dimensions of well-being. Keywords: capitalism; political economy; globalization; politics; institutional change; economic growth; macroeconomics; innovation; complementarities; social policy

3,045 citations


01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the dimensions of poverty and how to create a better world, free of poverty, and explore the nature, and evolution of poverty to present a framework for action.
Abstract: This report focuses on the dimensions of poverty, and how to create a better world, free of poverty. The analysis explores the nature, and evolution of poverty, and its causes, to present a framework for action. The opportunity for expanding poor people's assets is addressed, arguing that major reductions in human deprivation are indeed possible, that economic growth, inequality, and poverty reduction, can be harnessed through economic integration, and technological change, dependent not only on the evolvement of markets, but on the choices for public action at the global, national, and local levels. Actions to facilitate empowerment include state institutional responsiveness in building social institutions which will improve well-being, and health, to allow increased income-earning potential, access to education, and eventual removal of social barriers. Security aspects are enhanced, by assessing risk management towards reducing vulnerability to economic crises, and natural disasters. The report expands on the dimensions of human deprivation, to include powerlessness and voicelessness, vulnerability and fear. International dimensions are explored, through global actions to fight poverty, analyzing global trade, capital flows, and how to reform development assistance to forge change in the livelihoods of the poor.

2,643 citations


Journal Article

2,638 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article argued that the defense of place by social movements might be constituted as a rallying point for both theory construction and political action, and argued that place-based struggles might be seen as multi-scale, network-oriented subaltern strategies of localization.

1,457 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
David Dollar1, Aart Kraay1
TL;DR: The evidence from individual cases and from cross-country analysis supports the view that globalization leads to faster growth and poverty reduction in poor countries as mentioned in this paper, and they conclude that the increase in growth rates that accompanies expanded trade translates on average into proportionate increases in incomes of the poor.
Abstract: The evidence from individual cases and from cross-country analysis supports the view that globalization leads to faster growth and poverty reduction in poor countries. To determine the effect of globalization on growth, poverty, and inequality, the authors first identify a group of developing countries that are participating more in globalization. China, India, and several other large countries are part of this group, so well over half the population of the developing world lives in these globalizing economies. Over the past 20 years, the post-1980 globalizers have seen large increases in trade and significant declines in tariffs. Their growth rates accelerated between the 1970s and the 1980s and again between the 1980s and the 1990s, even as growth in the rich countries and the rest of the developing world slowed. The post-1980 globalizers are catching up to the rich countries, but the rest of the developing world (the non-globalizers) is falling further behind. Next, the authors ask how general these patterns are, using regressions that exploit within-country variations in trade and growth. After controlling for changes in other policies and addressing endogeneity with internal instruments, they find that trade has a strong positive effect on growth. Finally, the authors examine the effects of trade on the poor. They find little systematic evidence of a relationship between changes in trade volumes (or any other measure of globalization they consider) and changes in the income share of the poorest-or between changes in trade volumes and changes in household income inequality. They conclude, therefore, that the increase in growth rates that accompanies expanded trade translates on average into proportionate increases in incomes of the poor. Absolute poverty in the globalizing developing economies has fallen sharply in the past 20 years. The evidence from individual cases and from cross-country analysis supports the view that globalization leads to faster growth and poverty reduction in poor countries.

1,381 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that any understanding of the global economy must be sensitive to four considerations: (a) conceptual categories and labels carry with them the dis- cursive power to shape material processes; (b) multiple scales of analysis must be incorporated in recognition of the contemporary'relativization of scale'; (c) no single institutional or organizational locus of analysis should be privileged; and (d) extrapolations from specific case studies and instances must be treated with caution.
Abstract: A vast and continually expanding literature on economic globalization continues to generate a miasma of conflicting viewpoints and alternative discourses. This article argues that any understanding of the global economy must be sensitive to four considerations: (a) conceptual categories and labels carry with them the dis- cursive power to shape material processes; (b) multiple scales of analysis must be incorporated in recognition of the contemporary 'relativization of scale'; (c) no single institutional or organizational locus of analysis should be privileged; and (d) extrapolations from specific case studies and instances must be treated with caution, but this should not preclude the option of discussing the global economy, and power relations within it, as a structural whole. This paper advocates a network method- ology as a potential framework to incorporate these concerns. Such a methodology requires us to identify actors in networks, their ongoing relations and the structural outcomes of these relations. Networks thus become the foundational unit of analysis for our understanding of the global economy, rather than individuals, firms or nation states. In presenting this argument we critically examine two examples of network methodology that have been used to provide frameworks for analysing the global economy: global commodity chains and actor-network theory. We suggest that while they fall short of fulfilling the promise of a network methodology in some respects, they do provide indications of the utility of such a methodology as a basis for under- standing the global economy.

1,007 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The author considers how software development is increasingly a multisite, multicultural, globally distributed undertaking.
Abstract: The last several decades have witnessed a steady, irreversible trend toward the globalization of business, and of software-intensive high-technology businesses in particular. Economic forces are relentlessly turning national markets into global markets and spawning new forms of competition and cooperation that reach across national boundaries. This change is having a profound impact not only on marketing and distribution but also on the way produces are conceived, designed, constructed, tested, and delivered to customers. The author considers how software development is increasingly a multisite, multicultural, globally distributed undertaking.

983 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the replications of the Schein research in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, and Japan provides the basis for a global look at the "think manager-think male" phenomenon as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the early 1970s Schein identified managerial sex typing as a major psychological barrier to the advancement of women in the United States. The globalization of management brings to the forefront the need to examine the relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics in the international arena. A review of the replications of the Schein research in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, and Japan provides the basis for a global look at the “think manager–think male” phenomenon. Implications of the outcomes, especially among males, for women's progress in management worldwide are discussed.

969 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Hummels and Levinsohn as mentioned in this paper investigated the relative effects of transport-cost reductions, tariff liberalization, and income convergence on the growth of world trade among several OECD countries between the late 1950s and the late 1980s.

938 citations


Posted Content
TL;DR: O'Rourke and Williamson as discussed by the authors present a coherent picture of trade, migration, and international capital flows in the Atlantic economy in the century prior to 1914, the first great globalization boom.
Abstract: Globalization is not a new phenomenon; nor is it irreversible. In Globalization and History, Kevin O'Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson present a coherent picture of trade, migration, and international capital flows in the Atlantic economy in the century prior to 1914--the first great globalization boom. The book's originality lies in its application of the tools of open-economy economics to this critical historical period--differentiating it from most previous work, which has been based on closed-economy or single-sector models. The authors also keep a close eye on globalization debates of the 1990s, using history to inform the present and vice versa.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article found that multinational ownership, multinational customers, and exports to developed countries increase self-regulation of environmental performance, and suggested that globalization might also have positive environmental effects because global ties increase selfregulation pressures on firms in low-regulation countries.
Abstract: Critics assert that globalization is detrimental to the environment because it encourages location of polluting industries in countries with low environmental regulations. We suggest that globalization might also have positive environmental effects because global ties increase self-regulation pressures on firms in low-regulation countries. Using survey data from firms in China we find that multinational ownership, multinational customers, and exports to developed countries increase self-regulation of environmental performance.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study the moderating role of uncertainty on top management team (TMT) demographic effects and find that TMT international experience, educational heterogeneity, and tenure heterogeneity are positively related to firms' global strategic postures, and functional heterogeneity exhibited a negative association.
Abstract: The complexity surrounding globalization offers a unique context in which to study the moderating role of uncertainty on top management team (TMT) demographic effects. In a sample of United States-based industrial firms, TMT international experience, educational heterogeneity, and tenure heterogeneity were positively related to firms' global strategic postures, and functional heterogeneity exhibited a negative association. However, when the level of uncertainty facing TMTs was accounted for, these associations were found to be nonlinear.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A growing body of work analyses globalisation processes from the perspective of "value chains" as mentioned in this paper, that is, international trade in goods and services should not be seen solely, or even mainly, as a multitude of arm's-length market-based transactions but rather as systems of governance involving multinational enterprises that link firms together in a variety of sourcing and contracting arrangements.
Abstract: Globalisation has become a catchword for the international economy at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The increasing importance of export-oriented industrialisation has made integration into the global economy virtually synonymous with development for a number of nations. However, there is an acute awareness that the gains from globalisation are very unevenly distributed within as well as between societies. A growing body of work analyses globalisation processes from the perspective of ‘value chains’; that is that international trade in goods and services should not be seen solely, or even mainly, as a multitude of arm’s-length market-based transactions but rather as systems of governance - involving multinational enterprises - that link firms together in a variety of sourcing and contracting arrangements. Understanding how these value chains operate is very important for developing country firms and policymakers because the way chains are structured has implications for newcomers trying to participate in the chain and to gain access to necessary skills, competences and supporting services. Most of the papers in this Bulletin build on the results of a workshop in Bellagio, Italy in September 2000, where all these issues were discussed.

Book
15 Nov 2001
TL;DR: From Global to Metanational describes the next level of how companies must compete in the global arena and shows how newcomers can leapfrog traditional competitors by rapidly building a new-style metanational corporation.
Abstract: From the Publisher: Becoming a global company once meant penetrating markets around the world. But the demands of the knowledge economy are turning this strategy on its head. Today, the challenge is to innovate by learning from the world . This book provides a blueprint for companies ready to embrace this new globalization challenge. In From Global to Metanational , international business and strategy experts Yves Doz, Jose Santos, and Peter Williamson introduce a radically different kind of company-the metanational-defined by three core capabilities: being the first to identify and capture new knowledge emerging all over the world; mobilizing this globally scattered knowledge to out-innovate competitors; and turning this innovation into value by producing, marketing, and delivering efficiently on a global scale. The authors explain why traditional global strategies are no longer sufficient to differentiate leading competitors, what the knowledge economy means for managers, and why opportunities to leverage globally dispersed knowledge are growing. Most important, they outline exactly how managers can build a metanational advantage for their own organizations by: * Prospecting for and accessing untapped pockets of technology and emerging consumer trends from around the world * Leveraging knowledge imprisoned in a multinational's local subsidiaries * Mobilizing this fragmented knowledge to generate innovations, profits, and shareholder value Drawing from the experiences of pioneering metanationals including STMicroelectronics, ARM, Acer, Nokia, Shiseido, and PolyGram, the book shows how today's multinationals can use their existing global networks to gain an important head start in the global game-and how newcomers can leapfrog traditional competitors by rapidly building a new-style metanational corporation. Must-reading for every leader-from the CEO of a new global venture, to the executive of a currently successful multinational, to the founder of an e-business startup getting ready to "go global"-this pathbreaking book shows how to reshape strategies to compete and win in the global knowledge economy. "From Global to Metanational brings fresh insights to the management of multinational enterprise in today's knowledge-intensive economy. Moving beyond the traditional view of promoting international expansion to win market access, this thoughtful yet practical book describes the next level of how companies must compete in the global arena. Written by three of the world's leading thinkers in the field of international management, this book will change the thinking of executives and scholars alike." —Christopher Bartlett, Daewoo Professor of Business Management and Chair of the Program for Global Leadership, Harvard Business School Author Biography: Yves Doz is Timken Professor of Global Technology and Innovation at INSEAD. Jose Santos is Professor of International Management at INSEAD. Peter Williamson is Professor of International Management and Asian Business at INSEAD's Euro-Asia Centre.[EBK1]

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the challenges of globalization and city-region development in the context of city-regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and present a collection of cities and regions in the world.
Abstract: PART I: OPENING ARGUMENTS PART II: ON PRACTICAL QUESTIONS OF GLOBALIZATION AND CITY-REGION DEVELOPMENT PART III: THE GLOBAL CITY-REGION: A NEW GEOGRAPHIC PHENOMENON? PART IV: THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF GLOBAL CITY-REGIONS PART V: GLOBAL CITY-REGIONS IN AFRICA, ASIA, AND LATIN AMERICA: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES PART VI: SOCIAL INEQUALITIES AND IMMIGRANT NICHES IN GLOBAL CITY-REGIONS PART VII: QUESTIONS OF CITIZENSHIP PART VIII: THE NEW COLLECTIVE ORDER OF GLOBAL CITY-REGIONS PART IX: CODA: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The sociological, economic, political, and anthropological literatures are devoting increasing attention to globalization. as mentioned in this paper discusses the various connotations of the term and puts it in historical perspective.
Abstract: The sociological, economic, political, and anthropological literatures are devoting increasing attention to globalization. This chapter discusses the various connotations of the term and puts it in historical perspective. Existing theoretical and empirical research on globalization is organized around five key issues or questions: Is it really happening? Does it produce convergence? Does it undermine the authority of nation-states? Is globality different from modernity? Is a global culture in the making? A plea is made for a comparative sociology of globalization that is sensitive to local variations and to how agency, interest, and resistance mediate in the relationship between globalization causes and outcomes. The bulk of the earth must not only be spherical, but not large in comparison with the size of other stars. —Aristotle (384–322 BC), as quoted by Dreyer (1953, p. 118)

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Sep 2001-Antipode
TL;DR: The authors reframes the discussion on globalization through a materialist focus on social reproduction by looking at the material social practices through which people reproduce themselves on a daily and generational basis and through which the social relations and material bases of capitalism are renewed and the havoc wreaked on them by a putatively placeless capitalism.
Abstract: A vagabond, as is well known, moves from place to place without a fixed home. However, vagabondage insinuates a little dissolution—an unsettled, irresponsible, and disreputable life, which indeed can be said of the globalization of capitalist production. This paper reframes the discussion on globalization through a materialist focus on social reproduction. By looking at the material social practices through which people reproduce themselves on a daily and generational basis and through which the social relations and material bases of capitalism are renewed—and the havoc wreaked on them by a putatively placeless capitalism—we can better expose both the costs of globalization and the connections between vastly different sites of production. Focusing on social reproduction allows us to address questions of the making, maintenance, and exploitation of a fluidly differentiated labor force, the productions (and destructions) of nature, and the means to create alternative geographies of opposition to globalized capitalism. I will draw on examples from the “First” and “Third Worlds” to argue that any politics that effectively counters capitalism's global imperative must confront the shifts in social reproduction that have accompanied and enabled it. Looking at the political-economic, political-ecological, and cultural aspects of social reproduction, I argue that there has been a rescaling of childhood and suggest a practical response that focuses on specific geographies of social reproduction. Reconnecting these geographies with those of production, both translocally and across geographic scale, begins to redress the losses suffered in the realm of social reproduction as a result of globalized capitalist production. The paper develops the notion of “topography” as a means of examining the intersecting effects and material consequences of globalized capitalist production. “Topography” offers a political logic that both recognizes the materiality of cultural and social difference and can help mobilize transnational and internationalist solidarities to counter the imperatives of globalization.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined the diffusion of state bureaucracies for gender mainstreaming and found that transnational networks composed largely of nonstate actors (notably women's international nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations) have been the primary forces driving the diffusion.
Abstract: How can we account for the global diffusion of remarkably similar policy innovations across widely differing nation-states? In an era characterized by heightened globalization and increasingly radical state restructuring, this question has become especially acute. Scholars of international relations offer a number of theoretical explanations for the cross-national convergence of ideas, institutions, and interests. We examine the proliferation of state bureaucracies for gender mainstreaming. These organizations seek to integrate a gender-equality perspective across all areas of government policy. Although they so far have received scant attention outside of feminist policy circles, these mainstreaming bureaucracies—now in place in over 100 countries—represent a powerful challenge to business-as-usual politics and policymaking. As a policy innovation, the speed with which these institutional mechanisms have been adopted by the majority of national governments is unprecedented. We argue that transnational networks composed largely of nonstate actors (notably women's international nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations) have been the primary forces driving the diffusion of gender mainstreaming. In an event history analysis of 157 nation-states from 1975 to 1998, we assess how various national and transnational factors have affected the timing and the type of the institutional changes these states have made. Our findings support the claim that the diffusion of gender-mainstreaming mechanisms has been facilitated by the role played by transnational networks, in particular by the transnational feminist movement. Further, they suggest a major shift in the nature and the locus of global politics and national policymaking.

Journal Article
TL;DR: Porter et al. as discussed by the authors used data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and emerging nations over the past quarter century to show the striking degree to which location matters for successful innovation at the global technology frontier.
Abstract: Innovation has become the defining challenge for global competitiveness. Traditional thinking about the management of innovation focuses almost exclusively on internal factors ? the capabilities and processes within companies for creating and commercializing technology. Although the importance of these factors is undeniable, the external environment for innovation is at least as important. For example, the United States has been an especially attractive environment for innovation in pharmaceuticals in the 1990s, while Sweden and Finland have seen extraordinary rates of innovation in wireless technology. Michael Porter, a leading thinker on competitiveness and Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard University, and Scott Stern, professor of management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, describe how managers can understand the role of location in innovation and evaluate the innovative capacity of both countries and regions. Using data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and emerging nations over the past quarter century, their findings show the striking degree to which location matters for successful innovation at the global technology frontier. Their analysis sheds light on why individual nations have registered sharp differences in innovative performance. The strong effect of location on innovation holds important implications for companies and creates a new broader agenda for innovation management. Choosing R&D location and managing relationships with outside organizations should not be driven by input costs, taxes, subsidies or even the wage rates for scientists and engineers, as they often are. Instead, R&D investments should flow preferentially to the locations with the greatest innovative capacity. Taking active steps to harness and extend locational advantages takes on equal weight with R&D process management. Locational advantages ? rooted in proprietary information flows, special relationships with local companies, and preferential access to local institutions ? are competitive advantages that are difficult for outsiders to overcome. They can help explain an apparent paradox of globalization: Ideas and technologies that can be accessed at a distance cannot serve as a foundation for competitive advantage. Effective management of locational advantages may ultimately prove more sustainable than simply implementing corporate best practices.

Journal Article
TL;DR: The World Investment Report 2000: Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Development as mentioned in this paper is the most recent edition of the World Investment Journal (WJJ) published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Abstract: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD): World Investment Report 2000: Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Development United Nations, New York and Geneva 2000. 1. Capsule Summary of the Book and Its Review The World Investment Report, published annually by UNCTAD, is celebrating this year its 10th anniversary. Over the years these publications have established themselves an important position within the FDI literature, contributing towards a better understanding of the role of FDI in the world economy and to the ongoing discussions on globalisation and its impact on firms and countries. They provide valuable insights into the activities of TNCs and its consequences for their home countries and for the countries that host them. This review focuses on the recently published World Investment Report 2000: Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions and Development. It starts by briefly describing the structure and content of this report, highlighting the main issues addressed in each of its sections, and assessing its specific contribution to the existing FDI literature. The review continues by examining some new features of this year's report and by suggesting possible additions and improvements that might be included in future reports. 2. Objective and targeted audience This year's report, like its predecessors, seeks to reach a wide audience interested in FDI-related issues, ranging from academics, national and international policy makers -- notably those with interests in and responsibility for developing countries -- and also, increasingly, practitioners. For this audience, it is a rich and most valuable source of different kinds of information (theoretical, anecdotal, and not least -- data!) on FDI. It adds an important dimension to the growing literature on FDI by contributing to filling a gap between purely academic and otherwise anecdotal research on FDI, and it reflects key aspects of the research agenda on TNCs. 3. Structures and Contents The first part of the report -- like its predecessors -- is devoted to a survey of general FDI developments over the last year at the global and the regional level, and to a description of the activities of the leading TNCs worldwide. In this part, the report documents the large increase in FDIs, which have reached new record in 1999 at $865 billion, an increase of 27% over the previous year. This increase is also presented via the growing number of TNCs world-wide, where about 63,000 parent firms are controlling an estimated 690,000 foreign affiliates. UNCTAD's report is the only source of FDI data which provide this latter kind of information, and in considerable details (broken by countries and regions). Documented is also the country breakdown of 1999 FDI, notably the lead of outward investment being taken this year by the UK, the continued, and rapidly growing, lead of the US as the largest, by far, host country for FDI. Another notable characteristic of the geographic distribution of FDI is the growth of inward flows to Japan, with the ratio between inward and outward becoming far more balanced than ever before. At the regional level, the report highlights the position of the EU as the world's most important source of FDI. The report emphasises the continued trend towards liberalisation of FDI regimes, as countries recognise its economic value for their economies, and seek to attract it. Most interesting is the analysis of the largest TNCs (by the value of their foreign assets), which comprises three parts - the top 100 worldwide, the 50 largest from developing countries and the 25 largest from Central Europe. The report provides illuminating information regarding the geographical and industrial distribution of these firms, in absolute (foreign assets) and relative (transnationality index) terms, and over time, covering the whole 1990s. The report emphasises that the driving force behind the 1999 increase of FDI activity continued to be cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). …

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a framework for assessing the interaction of global pressures and local dynamics in the production of human vulnerability is presented, and it is concluded that this is a critical time for small island developing states (SIDS) which must contend with ongoing developmental pressures in addition to growing pressures from risks associated with global environmental change and economic liberalisation that threaten their physical and economic security.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article reviewed the arguments and evidence for how globalization affects the convergence of regulatory policies, in particular the setting of labor and environmental standards, and argued that the theories of policy convergence, which rely on structural factors to induce policy convergence are largely unsupported by the empirical evidence.
Abstract: An implicit assumption of most policy analysts and some academics is that globalization leads to a convergence of traditionally national policies governing environmental regulation, consumer health and safety, the regulation of labor, and the ability to tax capital. Some claim that globalization leads to a race to the bottom, where concerns about the regulatory standards are sacrificed on the altar of commerce. Others argue that the growth of transnational governance structures leads to a negotiated convergence of ample regulation. This essay reviews the arguments and evidence for how globalization affects the convergence of regulatory policies, in particular the setting of labor and environmental standards. It argues that the theories of policy convergence, which rely on structural factors to induce policy convergence, are largely unsupported by the empirical evidence. Theories that grant agents autonomous decisionmaking power perform better but remain underspecified. Ironically, the realist paradigm, which has generally denigrated the globalization phenomenon, could prove a fruitful source for theories of improved policy convergence.

Book
01 Aug 2001
TL;DR: In this paper, a public role for the private sector explores the phenomenon of industry self-regulation through three different cases (environment, labor, and information privacy) where corporate leaders appear to be converging on industry selfregulation as the appropriate response to competing pressures.
Abstract: Increasing economic competition combined with the powerful threat of transnational activism are pushing firms to develop new political strategies. Over the past decade a growing number of corporations have adopted policies of industry self-regulation --corporate codes of conduct, social and environmental standards, and auditing and monitoring systems. A Public Role for the Private Sector explores the phenomenon of industry self-regulation through three different cases --environment, labor, and information privacy --where corporate leaders appear to be converging on industry self-regulation as the appropriate response to competing pressures. Political and economic risks, reputational effects, and learning within the business community all influence the adoption of a self-regulatory strategy, but there are wide variations in the strength and character of it across industries and issue areas. Industry self-regulation raises significant questions about the place of the private sector in regulation and governance, and the accountability, legitimacy and power of industry at a time of rapid globalization.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined the effects of globalization, democratization, and partisanship on social spending in fourteen Latin American countries from 1973 to 1997, using a pooled time-series error-correction model.
Abstract: This study examines the effects of globalization, democratization, and partisanship on social spending in fourteen Latin American countries from 1973 to 1997, using a pooled time-series error-correction model. The authors examine three sets of issues. First, following debates in the literature on OECD countries, they want to know whether social spending has been encouraged or constrained by integration into global markets. Within this context, they examine the extent to which such outcomes might be influenced by two additional sets of domestic political and institutional factors discussed in work on developed countries: the electoral pressures of democratic institutions and whether or not popularly based governments are in power.The authors show that trade integration has a consistently negative effect on aggregate social spending and that this is compounded by openness to capital markets. This is the strongest and most robust finding in the study. Neither democratic nor popularly based governments consistently affect overall social spending. The authors then disaggregate spending into social security transfers and expenditures on health and education. They find that popularly based governments tend to protect social security transfers, which tend toflowdisproportionately to their unionized constituencies; but they have a negative impact on health and education spending. Conversely, a shift to democracy leads to increases in health and education spending, which reaches a larger segment of the population. The authors conclude by emphasizing the contrasting political log-ics of the different types of social spending.

Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: Delanty as mentioned in this paper argues that in the knowledge society of today, a new identity for the university is emerging based on communication and new conceptions of citizenship, which will be essential reading for those interested in changing relationships between modernity, knowledge, higher education and the future of the university.
Abstract: Drawing from current debates in social theory about the changing nature of knowledge, this book offers the most comprehensive sociological theory of the university that has yet appeared The famous philosophical conceptions of the university from the Enlightenment to postmodern thought are discussed along with the major writings in modern social theory on the university, such as those of Weber, Parsons, Habermas, Gadamer, Lyotard and Bourdieu In this far reaching contribution to the sociology of knowledge, Delanty views the university as a key institution of modernity and as the site where knowledge, culture and society interconnect He assesses the question of the crisis of the university with respect to issues such as globalization, the information age, the nation state, academic capitalism, cultural politics and changing relationships between research and teaching Arguing against the notion of the demise of the university, his argument is that in the knowledge society of today a new identity for the university is emerging based on communication and new conceptions of citizenship It will be essential reading for those interested in changing relationships between modernity, knowledge, higher education and the future of the university

Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: Hertz's "The Silent Takeover" as discussed by the authors is one of the best books of the year by "The Sunday Times" of London, and already a bestseller in England, explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future.
Abstract: Named one of the best books of the year by "The Sunday Times" of London, and already a bestseller in England, Noreena Hertz's "The Silent Takeover" explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future -- and are threatening the very basis of our democracy. Of the world's 100 largest economies, fifty-one are now corporations, only forty-nine are nation-states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the GDP (gross domestic product) of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern Europe. Yet few of us are fully aware of the growing dominance of big business: newspapers continue to place news of the actions of governments on the front page, with business news relegated to the inside pages. But do governments really have more influence over our lives than businesses? Do the parties for which we vote have any real freedom of choice in their actions? Already sparking intense debate in England and on the Continent, "The Silent Takeover" provides a new and startling take on the way we live now and who really governs us. The widely acclaimed young socio-economist Noreena Hertz brilliantly and passionately reveals how corporations across the world manipulate and pressure governments by means both legal and illegal; how protest, be it in the form of the protesters of Seattle and Genoa or the boycotting of genetically altered foods, is often becoming a more effective political weapon than the ballot-box; and how corporations in many parts of the world are taking over from the state responsibility for everything from providing technology forschools to healthcare for the community. While the activities of business, frequently under pressure from the media and the consuming public, can range from the beneficial to the pernicious, neither public protest nor corporate power is in any way democratic. What is the fate of democracy in the world of the silent takeover? "The Silent Takeover" asks us to recognize the growing contradictions of a world divided between haves and have-nots, of gated communities next to ghettos, of extreme poverty and unbelievable riches. In the face of these unacceptable extremes, Noreena Hertz outlines a new agenda to revitalize politics and renew democracy.

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a communication-based model of global production fragmentation and discuss the causes and consequences of such a model and its application in the textile and clothing industry.
Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. A Framework for Fragmentation 3. Fragmentation Across Cones 4. A Communication Based Model of Global Production Fragmentation 5. Offshore Sourcing and Intra-Product Specialization in Preference Areas 6. Some Causes and Consequences of Fragmentation 7. Just How Big is Global Production Sharing? 8. Globalization and Fragmentation: Evidence for the Electronics Industry in Ireland 9. Foreign Direct Investment and International Fragmentation in Production 10. Will Italy Survive Globalization? 11. International Subcontracting in the Textile and Clothing Industry 12. Joining the Global Economy: Experience and Prospects of the Transition Economies

Book
01 Dec 2001
TL;DR: Collier and Dollar as mentioned in this paper assess the impact of globalization and examine the anxieties it has generated about rising inequality, shifting power, and cultural uniformity, and address how to make globalization work better for poor countries and poor people.
Abstract: Assesses the impact of globalization; examines the anxieties it has generated about rising inequality, shifting power, and cultural uniformity; and addresses how to make globalization work better for poor countries and poor people. Considers the new wave of globalization and its economic effects; measures to improve the international architecture for integration and to enable locations currently left out of globalization to participate and benefit; what should be done to strengthen domestic institutions and policies; and issues of power, culture, and the environment. Summarizes an agenda for action. Collier is Director, and Dollar is Research Manager, in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. No index.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined German corporate ownership patterns and restructuring events in the 1990's and found that ownership links among German firms constitute a "small world" that has consequences for understanding mergers and acquisitions.
Abstract: The globalization offinancial markets and the concomitant restructuring decisions of firms challenge the historical legacy of national systems of governance German corporate ownership patterns and restructuring events in the 1990's are examined here in this light The results show that ownership links among German firms constitute a "small world" that has consequences for understanding mergers and acquisitions Ownership links form closely-knit clusters offirms that are nonetheless highly connected across the network as a whole Restructuring events fall squarely in the center of this structure Despite increasing global competition, the German small world tends to replicate itself To illustrate this robustness, potential disruptions to the observed German network are simulated This simulation shows that the properties of the small world remain intact even when ownership ties are changed These findings suggest that a more global economy in Germany need not lead to the dissolution of the ownership structure, but rather may be associated with a deepening of network ties