There has been a long search for the keys to development and economic growth in Africa. This study investigates the relationship between FDI and economic growth over the period 2000-2012 using data from 48 African countries. On the aggregate regional level FDI and economic growth were found to be positively correlated during this period. Using panel data econometric techniques and the Panel Granger Causality test, results revealed that a bi-directional causality relationship existed between FDI and GDP. Thus, the results suggest that GDP is a requirement for increased investment, and at the same time is the result of increased foreign investment. Thus, the conclusion is that African policy makers are justified in increasing their attempts to create an attractive business environment for foreign investors, as it is beneficial for economic growth.

This study examines post-apartheid South African foreign policy under former President Nelson Mandela, and the apparent ambiguities that were its recurrent feature in the period from 1994 to 1999. Its focus is on the inherent irreconcilability of the economic national interests and the foreign policy principles which included the promotion of and respect for universalist principles and interests such as human rights, democracy, international peace and security. In examining South African foreign policy during this period, it would appear that the country was trapped between two competing priorities: the need to promote "universalist" principles and the need to satisfy its national economic interests. The main aim of the study is to explain how this "irreconcilability" between universalist principles and national economic interests would later create ambiguities and contradictions in South Africa's foreign policy, weaken respect for its foreign policy principles, and ultimately lead to ideological failure among politicians who employed 'short-term gain' policy decision-making in dealing with 'pariah states'. The study further demonstrates that "realist" national interests are frequently short-term, realizable and vital for a country, while universalist interests are long-term, idealistic and usually not easily realizable. It will be argued, therefore, that a country faced with making decisions about its vital national interests, will not make efforts to pursue long-term universalist interests if that choice would in any way endanger its fundamental national interests. In order to better assess this ambiguity, this thesis will provide a case study of Pretoria's arms sales to 'pariah states' during the period. The purpose of this study is not to attempt to explain all of the issues around post-apartheid foreign policymaking, or even to argue whether the sale of arms to 'pariah states' was 'politically incorrect', but to provide a 'piece of the puzzle' which might explain how the social and economic situation may have compelled Pretoria to sell arms when these actions disregarded universalist principles of foreign policy. The conclusion seems to confirm the realist view that universal values and principles can be regarded only when they are in harmony with a state's perceived self-interests.

In order to assess the question as to whether the Southern African Development Community in principle attracts foreign direct investment, literature and data have been cited that compared the economic profiles and relative privatisation programs of member states of the Southern African Development Community with relative high inflows of foreign direct investment with the economic profiles and relative privatisation programs of member states with relative low inflows of foreign direct investment. Qualitative research has been conducted, and the author is of opinion that generally the member states with relative high foreign direct investment inflows had economic profiles and relative privatisation programs that encouraged foreign direct investment, and member states with relative low foreign direct investment inflows had economic profiles and relative privatisation programs that deterred foreign direct investment inflows. From the above the author has inferred that the Southern African Development Community in principle attracted foreign direct investment, but not to its full potential. The reason may be that although the member states’ economic profiles are favourable for foreign direct investment, their economic growths tend to fluctuate, and the future economic profiles are therefore unpredictable. With the above in mind this mini-treatise aims to address the question as to what steps the governments of the Southern African Development Community’s member states could follow in order to attract foreign direct investment. iii The author is of opinion that the member states should endeavour to maintain an annual average economic growth rate, and that the governments continue to engage into privatisation programs in order to encourage foreign direct investment.

The thesis deals with the issues of economic cooperation between China and the Euroepan Union. Particular emphasis is given to the economic relations which are presented in the results of economic cooperation from 1975 until present. Whereas the mutual relations cannot be almost purely considered as a resultant economic variables, the issue is supplemented by international political questions which are closely related to the issue as well. The observed economic data are used to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of economic relations of China and the European Union and threats and opportunities arising from them.

This thesis analyzes the current economic relations between China and India in the context of their general bilateral relations. Firstly, focuses on the common historical experience of the two countries in their bilateral relations and tries to identify the basic topics that are shaping them. It also deals with the current state of the economies of China and India. This thesis attempts to characterize current and future economic needs of both countries and their implications for the formation of economic relations. The ultimate goal is capturing the very nature of economic relations, prospects of further development and impact on the general bilateral relations.

Following the trends of the Globalization, the principles of Nondiscrimination, Transparency and Rule of Law, are all becoming the core principles of globalized norms of economic regulation, which have always known to be associated with GATT and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Following the accession of the People's Republic of China to the WTO, it is well understood that the requirements for the conformity of laws and regulations inside and outside of China to WTO are high, especially in terms of the conformity of China's regulatory system of economic regulations to WTO's Principles of national treatment, transparency, and rule of law. This paper will examine the conformity of WTO's Principles of National Treatment, Transparency, and Rule of Law with China's regulatory system of economic regulation, especially with a focus on the compliance of globalized norms of economic regulation with China's local norms and local values, and the legal and political culture. At the same time, this paper aims to discover the institutional approaches that protect and facilitate judicial independence. Attention is also paid to the influences of the institutions system on impartiality and accountability of judicial practice through facilitating judicial independence. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

The aim o this thesis is to determine whether there is a promising prospect of mutual economic relations between the Czech Republic and Mongolia, to analyze the Mongolian economy and to highlight potential possibilities and sectors that could represent a suitable opportunity for the Czech investors to do business in this region. The first part characterizes geographic, climatic, demographic, political and historical profile of Mongolia. The second part analyzes the Mongolian economy as a whole, its structure, foreign trade and foreign direct investments. In the third part is mapped position of Mongolia in Asia, Mongolian relations with neighboring states and foreign policy. The fourth part deals with the evaluation of economic relations between the Czech Republic and Mongolia, their history, present and prospects for the future.

Orientador: Daniela Magalhães Prates / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T09:11:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lima_HumbertoeSilvaRibeirode_D.pdf: 1802532 bytes, checksum: 2ae86df8a28af60e2ca89a62fce41bc1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A dependência econômica é um conceito desenvolvido com a contribuição de vários autores, sobretudo entre os anos 1940 e 1970. Esse conceito tem como mérito chamar a atenção para a relação centro-periferia, isto é, a relação hierárquica presente na Economia Internacional. Entretanto, a partir dos anos 1980, a utilização da abordagem da dependência perde força tanto na ciência quanto na política econômica. A hipótese defendida nesta Tese é que esse declínio deve-se não à perda de validade das preocupações e diagnósticos dessa abordagem mas sim à mudança da forma hegemônica de valorização do capital. Defende-se, portanto, que, há cerca de 30 anos, o capitalismo entra em uma nova etapa, caracterizada pela posição central ocupada pelo capital financeiro, o que condiciona mudanças fundamentais no comportamento e motivações dos agentes econômicos. Assim, sustenta-se que o núcleo da abordagem centro-periferia mantém-se válido, sendo necessário porém concatenar esse núcleo geral com a forma específica da dependência sob égide do capitalismo liderado pelas finanças. Esta Tese inova ao fazer esse relacionamento entre a questão centro-periferia e a dinâmica do capitalismo financeirizado, tendo como base dessa relação a hierarquia monetária, construída a partir de uma perspectiva marxista, e a ascensão da esfera financeira na determinação da moderna dependência / Abstract: The economic dependency is a concept developed by many authors, mainly between 1940 and 1970. This concept has as merit to appoint the core-periphery relation, namely, the hierarchy relation present at International Economy. However, from 1980s, the use of dependency approach has decreased in economic science and policy. The hypothesis defended in this Thesis is that this disuse is caused not by the losing validity of this approach cautions and diagnostics but by the change in the hegemonic form of capital valorization. So, it argues that, about 30 years ago, the capitalism has entered in a new phase, which is characterized by the central position occupied by financial capital, that conducts fundamental changes in the economic agents behaviors and motivations. Therefore, it claims that the heart of core-periphery approach remains valid but it needs connecting these general concepts with the specific form of the dependency under the egis of finance-led capitalism. This Thesis innovates by doing this relation between the core-periphery approach and the financialized capitalism dynamics using the monetary hierarchy concept, developed from a Marxist view, and the rise of finance sphere as the basis in the determination of modern dependency / Doutorado / Politica Economica / Doutor em Ciências Econômicas

Orientador: Eduardo Barros Mariutti / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T02:24:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Conti_ThomasVictor_M.pdf: 3220011 bytes, checksum: b64df3664aed31cb23272e914111f445 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: O tema desta pesquisa é uma análise mais profunda das conexões entre as estruturas econômicas da organização produtiva e suas contrapartidas no jogo político dos Estados modernos tal como se processaram no Longo Século XIX, com o objetivo de avançar na compreensão do fenômeno do imperialismo moderno. Partimos da discussão sobre os fundamentos da Hegemonia Britânica, argumentando como desde o seu início ela era baseada em sua preponderância no comércio internacional, o que atrelou seu posterior desenvolvimento econômico industrial às questões do setor de serviços, dos transportes e do poder naval. Contudo, ao dar vazão ao investimento ferroviário, a industrialização possibilitou a expansão por terra do espaço econômico a partir do qual novas indústrias poderiam surgir. Países como os Estados Unidos e a Alemanha tomariam as conexões ferroviárias como ponto de partida para articular economias nacionais em escalas maiores de produção, distribuição, capacidades organizacionais e científicas. Essa é a base econômica sobre a qual uma nova rivalidade política, fundada na simbiose entre o capital nacional e o Estado e crescentemente apoiada no nacionalismo, passaria a se expandir no final do século conforme inovações militares diminuíam as possibilidades de resistência. A concorrência entre capitais nacionais colocou em marcha um expansionismo político que dividiu o mundo em áreas de influência crescentemente hostis que, ao assumir uma forma bipolar, resultou na Grande Guerra / Abstract: The theme of this research is a deeper analysis of the connections between economic structures of productive organization and its counterparts in the political game of modern states as they developed in the Long Nineteenth Century, with the goal of advancing in the understanding of modern imperialism. Our discussion begins with the bases of Great-Britain Hegemony, where we argue how since its beginning it was based on its primacy in international commerce, which embedded its later economic-industrial development to the questions of the service sector, transportation and maritime power. However, by harnessing the railway investment, industrialization allowed a landed expansion of the economic space where new industries could emerge. Countries like the United States and Germany would take railways as a starting point to articulate national economies in larger scales of production, distribution and organization. There lies the economic root upon which a new political rivalry, based on the symbiosis between national capital and the state and supported by nationalism, would begin to expand by the end of the century as new military innovations diminished resistance possibilities. Competition between national capitals put forth a political expansionism that divided the world in areas of influence growingly hostile that, once in a bipolar form, resulted in the Great War / Mestrado / Historia Economica / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

Trade Facilitation Indicators have become important mechanisms of monitoring the ease of trade. Another issue of rising concern is the pervasive debate on genetically engineered organisms and the development of Genetically Engineered Restrictive Index to evaluate its implications on trade. With regards to these, the objective of the United States Trade Representative is to eliminate implicit trade barriers. Hence, this study examines the impact of TFIs on U.S. agricultural export and its efficiency. From the results, a 1% increase in destination’s Genetically Engineered Restrictive Index leads to a US$ 9,426.82 and US$ 74,268.04 decline in corn and soybean exports while wheat experiences a US$ 26,204.05 increase. The ‘I-State’ paradox was also revealed from the efficiency rankings. This research recommends that GE labelling policies should be synchronized to match the requirements of the destination countries. Furthermore, information on GE foods must be transparent and disseminated to change destinations’ negative perception.