Casella (1996) derives theoretically the result that the gains from enlarging a trade bloc fall disproportionately on its small member states. Testing this hypothesis for the Member States of the European Community and its enlargements since 1973, we find mixed results, indicating that such a small country bonus may well exists, but that it is partly neutralized or dominated by economic forces that tend to favour large countries. / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Shockwaves from the 2007–2010 financial crises caused a huge economic downturn and impacted countries and market centres globally. This blemished the reputation of the banks with many blaming the global financial crisis on reckless banking and lending practices. As a result, there was an increased focus on regulatory reform. The Sub-Saharan Africa regional integration is aimed at strengthening the effectiveness and credibility of economic policies, economic performance and trade improvement. Africa embarked on global integration of economic and financial systems to reduce poverty and sustain economic growth. This research examines the adaptability and responsiveness of South African banking regulations in Sub-Saharan Africa in relation to regional economic integration. An improved understanding of this relationship provides key principles and a greater understanding for regulatory bodies and banks to enhance their management of regulatory change in emerging markets. Unstructured interviews were held in this research with banks and financial and regulatory authority members in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. The research results were inconclusive in terms of the adaptability and responsiveness of South African banking to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. Bank challenges were identified in terms of regulatory development, implementation and regional integration. The lack of empirical data indicated the need for quantitative research and understanding integrational factors that could be used to measure the rate of integration and adaptability. New categories were identified which need further research to gain a comprehensive understanding on the adaptability and responsiveness of South African banking to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

Orientador: Claudio Schuller Maciel / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T11:13:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mioto_BeatrizTamaso_M.pdf: 5565474 bytes, checksum: 0840ce91a25296528f24bdc84f10995c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Esta dissertação tem como objetivo central analisar a rede urbana de Santa Catarina nos anos pós- 1970, sob a égide do processo geral de desconcentração produtiva regional no Brasil. O tema é importante não apenas pelo fato de não terem sido escritos muitos estudos gerais sobre a rede urbana catarinense nas últimas décadas, mas também porque esta abordagem permite entender de forma ampla a articulação intra e inter-regional do território catarinense à economia nacional. O estudo está pautado, em primeiro lugar, no resgate do período de formação da rede urbana e integração do estado ao desenvolvimento brasileiro (que se estende até o início dos anos 1970). Tal período estabeleceu um padrão de (des)integração, cuja tônica era a articulação mais forte com espaços extrínsecos do que entre as ilhas do chamado "arquipélago regional" catarinense. Em segundo lugar, examinaram-se as transformações da estrutura econômica em direção à desconcentração produtiva regional no Brasil, que tiveram importantes implicações para a articulação da rede urbana do estado. Esses desdobramentos são discutidas na terceira parte do estudo, que descreve e qualifica as transformações da rede urbana de Santa Catarina a partir dos anos 1970. Para tanto se utilizou os estudos sobre as Regiões de Influência das Cidades (IBGE) e a evolução populacional que, em consonância às mudanças econômicas, forjaram um novo padrão de (des)integração. O sentido dessas mudanças foi, cada vez mais, a concentração na porção leste do território, onde, por um lado, passa a apresentar aglomerados produtivos e urbanos praticamente contíguos, dando maior complexidade à rede urbana litorânea. Por outro, subsistem regiões (como o Planalto Serrano, o Meio e Extremo Oeste) que continuam relativamente desintegradas, com uma rede urbana frágil e um quadro dramático de expulsão de população / Abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the urban network in Santa Catarina State since the 1970s, from the aegis of the general process of regional productive deconcentration in Brazil. The issue is important not only because there are not many general studies about the urban network in Santa Catarina in recent decades, but also because this approach provides a broad understanding of the intra- and inter-regional articulation of the Santa Catarina territory to the national economy. The study is based, in the first place, on a review of the time of the formation of the urban network and the integration of this state to Brazilian development (which extended until the early 1970s). This period established a pattern of (dis)integration, emphasized by the stronger articulation with extrinsic spaces than among the so called islands of Santa Catarina's "regional archipelago." Second, it examines the transformations of the economic structure in direction of a regional productive deconcentration in Brazil, which had important implications for the articulation of urban space in the state. These implications are discussed in the third part of the study, which describes and qualifies the transformations of the urban network of Santa Catarina since the 1970s. To do so, it uses studies about the Regions of Influence of the Cities conducted by the Brazilian census institute (IBGE) and the population changes, which, together with economic changes, forged a new standard of (dis)integration. These changes increasingly led to concentration in the eastern portion of the territory, which came to have nearly contiguous productive and urban agglomerates, giving greater complexity to the coastal urban network. In contrast, regions (such as the Mountain Plains, and the mid and far west) continued to be relatively disintegrated, with a fragile urban network and a dramatic framework of population expulsion / Mestrado / Desenvolvimento Economico, Espaço e Meio Ambiente / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

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The main objectives of the study was to determine the exclusivity of the objectives of the regional groupings within the SADC region and to assess the impact that membership overlaps has on the realization of specific regional grouping objectives.A qualitative research approach was adopted. Semi-structured in-depth expert interviews were used to determine the issues arising from regional membership overlaps in the SADC region.Due to limited literature around the subject of regional integration in the SADC region, work done by my supervisor Dr Jannie Rossouw were cited in some instances.Recent developments in the Western economies that have resulted in the refocusing of the SADC region have resulted in polarization amongst the regional groupings in Africa. Furthermore, existing regional groupings within the Southern Africa, have endenvoured on an ambitious regional integration agenda which has resulted in membership overlaps within the existing regional bodies. The study found that these regional overlaps are costing the affected member states in the form of monetary subscription and through the deployment of the rare human skilled resources to regional secretariats. The advent of the European Partnership Agreements has caused polarization within the SADC region through the signing of various bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements. Most importantly, this study found that structural overlaps exist within SADC itself. A lack of sufficient political will amongst SADC member states was also noted as an impediment to regional integration.However, the study also noted some positive performances of existing regional grouping despite membership overlaps. The Common Monetary Area was highlighted as a grouping that was performing in line with prescribed regional integration convergence indicators. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

This paper investigates how the introduce of single currency influence on the synchronization of business cycles in Central Eastern European Countries. The Hodrick-Prescott filter is applied to extract the cyclical component of real GDP for fifteen European countries and the Vector Autoregression models are applied to further investigate the influence of fiscal policy on regional economies. A database of quarterly real GDP for business cycles and quarterly current account for fiscal variables for the period: 1995Q1-2019Q4 is constructed. The main results of the study can be summarized as follows. The establishment of Economy Monetary Union has significantly increased the level of co-movement across euro area member states. There is a high degree of synchronization of business cycles in core countries than periphery countries after the introduce of common currency. For CEEC-7 including non-Eurozone countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) and Eurozone countries (Estonia, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia), clusters in correlation exist because their GDP reacts differently to the fiscal shocks especially after the global financial crisis and ongoing euro area crisis. Key words business cycle synchronization; Economic integration; Fiscal policy; VAR

MAAS / Department of Developmental Studies

Magister Legum - LLM / The East African Commu1nity (EAC) was re-established on 30 November 1999 by the Republics of Kenya and Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania1 signing the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (the Treaty). The Treaty came into force on 7 July 2000.2 The Republics of Burundi and Rwanda acceded to the Treaty on 18 June 2007 and became full members of the EAC with effect from 1 July 2007.3 The EAC was formed with the major aim of widening and deepening co-operation among the Partner States in political, economic, social and cultural fields4 that would lead to equitable economic development in the region.

The EU's lagging economic growth and global competitiveness require the pro- motion of technological innovation, the key determinant of long term economic growth. On the other hand, increasing disparities among EU member states require the promotion of convergence as they may threaten the EU's economic feasibility and political viability. Cohesion policy has adopted the dual role for the promotion of EU global competitiveness and EU economic cohesion; concepts incompatible by nature. The objectives of Europe 2020, specifically the promotion of technological innovation through investment in R&D, are as- sessed in terms of their compatibility with the objectives of Cohesion policy, specifically the reduction of disparities within the EU. An analysis of conver- gence in the EU determines that both beta convergence and sigma convergence are taking place, although large disparities in GDP per capita persist. An em- pirical analysis of the relative effects on GDP per capita of investment in R&D and investment in human capital determines that investment in human capital plays a significant role. Thus, key policy focus areas that meet the objectives of both Europe 2020 and Cohesion policy include investment in human capital as well as purposive diffusion of technology within the EU and the distribution of the...

The issue of unemployment and labour integration of immigrants into the labour market in host countries has always been a source of debate among the public and policymakers in the host countries. This study focuses on the economic integration of highly educated Iraqi immigrants into the Swedish labour market. Based on semi-structured interviews with eight Iraqi immigrants living in Malmö, who have higher education from Iraq, this study aims to illuminate the obstacles and opportunities for Iraqi immigrants to integrate into Swedish labour market, and to find out if their position in the Swedish labour market corresponds to their academic qualifications obtained from Iraq. The theoretical framework of this study explores the concepts of integration, human capital, social capital, and discrimination. Findings of the study revealed that, lack of fluency in Swedish language, family responsibilities, and devaluation of human capital function as main obstacles for highly-educated Iraqi immigrants’ integration into Swedish labour market. The social networks of Iraqi immigrants can be considered as a tool to avoid unemployment in Sweden, but at the same time, it provides access only to a certain categories of jobs that are not in par with higher education of these immigrants. Furthermore, the finding of this study also reveals that the positions of the highly educated Iraqi immigrants have acquired in the Swedish labour market are not commensurate with the educational qualifications they have from Iraq.