<p>Explore factors that influence investors interested in investing in the electronic components sector in Thailand, with a focus on the consequences of Thailand‟s membership in the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement.</p>

Though rich in natural resources and wealth generating potential, West African nations are currently marred by war, political instability, and economic uncertainty. While many factors have contributed to this, there are solutions to alleviate the plight of West African people. As post-colonial West Africa struggles to organize its individual economies, human resources and infrastructure to adequately manage natural resources; I explore regional economic integration of nations, the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its regional functions, and postulate a synthesis for sustainable development, growth and stability through the promotion of a healthy and robust economy.

With the multiple globalization processes more and deeper Economic Integration in the world is being undertaken. The Asia-Pacific region has become the most dynamic and fast growing region in the world due to the rise of China, changing dramatically the way economic and political relations are conceived across the Pacific Ocean. Beijing’s new economic moves towards integration processes are sustained by the fact that China’s economy has become significantly intertwined with other regional economies over the past two decades. From this fact also arises the motivation of this research, which tries to analyze how China’s strategy regarding economic integration across the Pacific Ocean is being planned and developed, considering not only its economic, but especially its political implications and possible strategic motives. This last aspect constitutes the main purpose of this study. The hypothesis for this paper is based on the assumption that China is using its economic might as a means to enhance and expand its traditional sphere of influence in the Asia-Pacific region by achieving different kinds of trade arrangements. The ASEAN plus China FTA, together with the agreements between China and Australia, New Zealand and Chile are taken into account specifically; while some other possible future pacts are outlined as well. The methodological standpoint for the analysis is mainly built upon what is known as Political Economy, particularly its international or global strand, which helps to connect the world of politics and economics. The outcome for the question whether China is taking a leading role in regionalism just because of its growing need to coordinate and cooperate with other economies in order to keep its growth rate, or if it is also doing so because of its desire to enhance and further its traditional sphere of influence as a regional power; contemplates elements of both scenarios. The structure of this thesis consists of five chapters: (1) Scope of the Study, (2) Literature Review and Theoretical Framework, (3) A Political Analysis of an Economic Issue, (4) Main Outcomes and (5) Conclusions.

<p>This study was on the anticipated impact of GATS on the financial services industry in Africa. The paper examined the possible positive and negative impact of the GATS agreement on the financial services industry in the African countries. The research focused on the banking sector and the insurance sector as the main financial sectors under investigation.</p>

Scholars often address the process of enlargement as one-sided argument. This work provides a general theory of organizational expansion by including strategies and actions of both, applicant states and members of international organizations. It is argued that dependent on the domestic characteristics of states an organization strategically implement a set of conditions to avoid the application and admission of states, which are either not able to conform with the rules or not willing to pay the costs of membership. This process incorporates two stages. I test this theory by utilizing a Heckman-Probit-Selection Model, which accounts for this two-stage procedure. The results confirm that conditions are important to avoid costs in the process of expansion.

The eastward enlargement of the European Union will be the fifth enlargement since establishing the European Community in 1957. This paper gives an overview of the most recent undertakings to estimate the costs and benefits of EU enlargement in the framework of model analysis. This field of research is relatively young. Therefore only a few model simulations have been made so far. They can be classified into world models covering several world regions, and in single country models. In both cases, one finds computable general equilibrium - CGE - models as well as macro models. The major findings of world models are that the CE-ECs will be the winners whereas the EU incumbents can expect only small gains from enlargement. Taking into account the costs of enlargement the big question, is how the int e-gration gains are distributed among EU incumbents. As a rule, those countries will benefit the most which have already strong trade relations with the CEECs. In the case of the single country models, Austria is one of those countries with the longest tradition in making model simulations in the case of enlargement. A comparison of CGE model approaches with macro model simulations for Austria shows that the benefits of EU enlargement may be lower than those of the opening-up of Eastern Europe since 1989. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

EU's 2007 enlargement by Bulgaria and Romania is evaluated by applying a simple macroeconomic integration model able to encompass as many of the theoretically predicted integration effects possible. The direct integration effects of Bulgaria and Romania spill-over to EU15, including Austria and the 10 new member states of the 2004 EU enlargement. The pattern of the integration effects is qualitatively similar to those of EU's 2004 enlargement by 10 new member states. Bulgaria and Romania gain much more from EU accession than the incumbents in the proportion of 20:1. In the medium-run up to 2020, Bulgaria and Romania can expect a sizable overall integration gain, amounting to additional ½ percentage point real GDP growth per annum. Within the incumbent EU member states Austria will gain somewhat more (+0.05%) than the average of EU15 (+0.02%) and the 10 new EU member states (+0.01%), which joined the EU in 2004. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

This thesis studies the integration of South Africa into the global economy. It uses a structural dynamic factor model approach, instead of the well known structural vector autoregressive method, as it accommodates a large panel of time series variables characterized by a number of series significantly larger than the number of observations available. South African economic cycles show some comovement with cycles of its trading partners. But the synchronization with major trading partners has declined over time due to structural reforms initiated by the post-apartheid government. A new monetary regime, trade and financial openness, an increase in political stability together with reduced uncertainty have outweighed South African output comovement with the rest of the world. Shocks from advanced economies (the US and the EU) and East Asian countries, especially demand shocks, affect domestic variables significantly. The main channels are business and consumer confidence, trade variables, interest rates, and the exchange rate. Although South Africa comoves with Latin American countries, trade and financial linkages are still very weak. The level of development, perceptions of economic agents, and fluctuations of advanced economies (the US and the EU) are the main reasons contributing to the synchronization of their variables. South Africa’s position in Africa as economic leader starts to produce results leading to output synchronization with some of its partners’ from SADC. Similar to the Latin American scenario, the main reason is that the two sides share the EU as primary trading partner. Because of the vulnerability of the South African economy, policymakers must pay a particular attention and monitor closely developments in the global economy. In the same line, they should promote policies that enable the country to have access to international markets. Given the interdependence with the rest of the world, policymakers should monitor closely the performance of the global economy. Nevertheless, idiosyncratic features of the South African economy do play a role in the explaining fluctuations in economic activity. Hence, policies that lead to a structural transformation of the domestic economy are necessary. Reforms that allow labor market flexibility; promote competition; and support human capital formation through education, are imperative. / Doctor Francisco Nadal De Simone Professor Daniel Marais

Research submitted to the faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in International Relations, 2017 / Since the emergence of the global economic crisis the European Union has been confronted with many challenges. The European vision of stability, growth, prosperity and economic convergence is at stake as the mechanisms of European integration have been revolving around the influential theories of supranationalism and intergovernmentalism. Due to the economic crisis, European integration has turned out to be of interest in Europe therefore, an empirical analysis is important to identify the setbacks on collective action. A research method has been applied to present systematic and explanatory knowledge and track the decisions and resolutions from 2010 – 2015 made by the EU supranational body with respect to the impact this crisis had on the process of European integration. This research examines how effectively the EU responded to the Eurozone crisis, especially under its revised mechanisms outlined in the Lisbon treaty. The research looks at the EU’s decision making mechanisms in view of the crisis. Case specific expectations on the reactions to the Eurozone crisis were examined emphasising the Greek sovereign debt crisis to ascertain the weakness of governance in Greece and in the EU. / XL2018

Ao longo das décadas de 1990 e 2000, Brasil e Argentina passaram por mudanças estruturais em suas economias para poderem contornar as dificuldades impostas pelos novos cenários econômicos internacional e doméstico. Nesse contexto, já não havia a possibilidade de controlar os fluxos de capitais como em décadas anteriores para equilibrar déficits comerciais. A integração econômica passou a ser vista como uma forma de expandir o comércio dos parceiros, o nível de emprego e de crescimento econômico. Os ganhos após as negociações do bloco foram consideráveis, marcados por interrupções decorrentes de crises externas e internas a Brasil e Argentina. Durante as crises os setores ineficientes manifestaram-se para protegerem seus mercados e adiar a queda das barreiras comerciais e tornaram mais nítidas as limitações da estrutura regulatória do comércio. Entre 1994 e 2005, alguns setores inicialmente inexpressivos ganharam participação maior em relação ao total comercializado, demonstrando a importância da criação de novos mercados para o crescimento de segmentos anteriormente sem demanda, como foi o caso do setor de equipamentos eletrônicos para o Brasil. Pela observação dos setores envolvidos na relação comercial, pode-se observar a capacidade de geração de emprego, captação de divisas, expansão da demanda por produtos intensivos em tecnologia. Tanto para o Brasil quanto para a Argentina o setor de veículos automotores, reconhecidamente de alto valor agregado e intensivo em tecnologia, apresentou crescimento de vendas notável, utilizando-se das novas possibilidades oferecidas pela integração. / Throughout the decades of 1990 and 2000, Brazil and Argentina went through structural changes in their economies in order to face the restrictions imposed by the new domestic and international economic environment. It was not possible anymore to control capital flows as it was in previous decades to balance trade deficits. The economic integration became a way to increase trade between partners, the employment level and the economic growth. After negotiations, the gains were considerable and marked by interruptions as a result of domestic and international crises faced by Brazil and Argentina. At the same time, the inefficient sectors used the harsh moments to impose trade barriers, protect their market shares and postpone the liberalization process, making it clear the limitations of the regulatory structure. From 1994 to 2005 some sectors initially not much expressive expanded their participation on the total of trade, showing the importance of the creation of new markets for the development of sectors, as it was for the brazilian sector of electronics equipments. Analysing the sectors involved in the trade makes it possible to see their capacity to generate employment, obtain foreign exchange and increase the demand for high technology goods. As for Brazil and Argentina, the automobile sector, known as for being of high added value and intensive in technology, has demonstrated remarkable growth in sales, taking advantage of the new possibilites granted by the integration.