The thesis deals with the external economic relations between the European Union and Canada. The aim is to analyze the current state of their bilateral partnership - whether the current tools used by the partners nowadays fulfil their potential of 21st century. The thesis also analyzes the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and its prospective impact on a character of the partnership between the EU and Canada as well its impact from a wider, global perspective.

The dissertation thesis focused on a topical issue of the economic diplomacy, its role in the current economic discourse and its implication for the Czech Republic. The main contribution of the thesis can be seen in linking traditional economic issues, such as external economic relations balance with political issues, for example the governance of economic diplomacy on the national level. Being placed between economics and politics is a typical feature for the economic diplomacy. The thesis analysed various aspects of economic diplomacy, predominantly the export promotion and foreign direct investments. The Czech economic diplomacy has a big potential for further development. The Czech entrepreneurs are quite successful on foreign markets, both in the developed countries and in the third World. If the identified weaknesses were eliminated and some improvement measures were adopted, the positive impact on the economy and the business environment will arrive soon. The economic diplomacy plays an important role in the open economy, which is also the case of the Czech Republic. It also hugely affects the external economic balance of the country. The thesis also showed that the governance of the Czech economic diplomacy suffers from major deficiencies, particularly in terms of the distribution of powers and responsibilities. This hinders an efficient functioning of the state system of export promotion. In addition, the state support is not targeted enough at the sector of SMEs that needs the most support. The level of awareness about the public services provided is low. On the other hand, the findings showed that another important element of the economic diplomacy, the state support of foreign direct investments is very instrumental in the competitiveness of the economy and thus substantively contributes to the economic growth. The comparative analysis of the governance systems in Germany, Austria, Finland and France revealed that although the Czech system of economic diplomacy governance is similar to a certain extent to the analysed countries, there are still some issues to deal with that negatively affects the efficiency. There are a number of suggestions for further improvement provided in the thesis that can be used by the policy makers.

Azerbaijan presents itself as a country with an independent foreign policy, refusing European requirements for democratic reforms within the Eastern Partnership. Yet, the European Union keeps developing mutual relations, especially in the field of energy cooperation. The EU has been criticized for betraying its fundamental values of democracy and human rights, and doubts arise if the EU can represent a normative power, as described by Ian Manners in 2002. This master thesis therefore analyzes the European policy in Azerbaijan from a normative perspective. It concludes that the European Union's policy in Azerbaijan is normative and the economic cooperation is not an obstacle. Nevertheless, the impact of the European policy is hampered, making it not possible to state that EU has normative power. The main reasons are insufficient efficiency of European means and Azerbaijan's hostile approach. Still, the current situation of Azerbaijan's economic problems provides Europe with potential to increase its normative influence.

Studies of the role of East-West trade in Soviet economic development often assume that Siberia and the Far East play an important role in trading relations, but few studies have examined the extent of that role and the relationship between trade and economic development within the region. This study addresses two interrelated questions: firstly, what is the role of Siberia and the Far East in trade with the West, and secondly, what is the role of East-West trade in Siberian development. Regional trade participation data are not available. The study therefore examines the composition of Soviet trade with the West and the industrial structure of the Siberian economy, in order to deduce the extent of regional participation in trade. Soviet exports to the West are dominated by natural resources, while imports from the West comprise machinery and equipment, manufactured goods and agricultural products. Analysis of the Siberian economy reveals a specialisation in the production and processing of natural resources. Estimates of export participation show that since the late 1970s the region has become the Soviet Union's most important source of foreign currency. Imports of Western technology are shown to play an important part in natural resource production and in the creation of Siberia's Territorial-Production Complexes. In many instances compensation agreements tie the use of imports to export production. Overall the value of Siberian exports exceeds the cost of imports of Western technology, so that the region generates a sizeable foreign currency surplus. In conclusion, a simple model of the trade and development process is presented which relates the pattern of foreign trade participation to the process of regional development. The impact of Western imports is felt mainly in the European core region where they provide additional resources to feed the population and renovate the industrial base; the impact of exports to the West is felt mainly in Siberia and the Far East where they increase demands for natural resource production. Thus, East-West trade serves to perpetuate the existing core-periphery pattern of Soviet regional development. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (M. Com. (Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / International trade has been identified by many economists to be an engine for growth and development. There has been an increase in the number of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements across the globe. Trade has gained significant attention among developed and developing countries and it hugely attributed to the impact of technology and globalisation. The study employs autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to analyse The effects of international trade on economic growth in South Africa from (2000Q1 to 2017Q1) and economic review. The quarterly time series data from 2000Q1 to 2017Q1 is sourced from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and Quantec Easy Data. This study is envisaged to provide a better understanding on the relationship between South African economic growth and international trade. The findings brought light on how growth can be improved in South Africa. The unit root tests indicate a mixture of I(0) and I(1) variables which implied the employment of the ARDL approach. The cointegration model emphasizes the long-run equilibrium relationship between the dependant and independent variables. The findings reveal that exchange rate and import are positively related with GDP while one export is negatively related to it. The conclusion from this work is that there is correlation between GDP and its regressors. Since the results show that South African export have negative impact on growth, it is recommended that South African government must promote trading of goods and services internally and not focus much on exporting its primary goods and services abroad because it weakens the economy. It is recommended that South Africa must produce or export according to the need of the industry, so that the country benefit in return. Lastly, it is recommended that South Africa must support local industries and firms to create more employment opportunities and start programmes that will make youth to be active in businesses and reduce over reliance to the government.

The question for this thesis is whether the four major stock markets--the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and Japan are interdependent or segmented. The study period runs from February 1979 to June 1987, with the Wall Street Journal as a source of data. The Granger causality test is used to test for relationships among the four major stock markets. The thesis is divided into five chapters-- 1) statement of the problem; 2) survey of literature; 3) methodology; 4) results and 5) conclusions. The overall findings of this thesis indicate that there are few or no comovement similarities among all the four stock markets. However, the findings do point out the significant influence of the United States stock market on the other three stock markets.

Diploma thesis "Comparison of the EU economic relations with India and the PRC from the nineties to the year 2006" is seeks to compare approach of the European Union to the two most populated countries of the World. It observes development of these two relations - their parallel points and differences - by the analysis of documents published by the EU and economic indicators. At the same time it tries to answer the question, why these relations are different, eventually why they are in some areas similar. The author also seeks to find out whether the mutual economic relations have been derived just from the economic level of India and the PRC or whether and how the economic relations with the EU have been influenced by their political organization. This work is concerned with these relations only on a level of the EU and monitored countries and its aim is not to watch policies of individual member states of the EU and their disputes about this topic. The author also seeks to predict possible development in the future from the recognized facts.

During the eastern enlargement of the EU four emerging countries of the Visegrád Group - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary - joined the community of European states. This significant event notably affected not only the transformation process in the countries mentioned above but also their relations with the EU member states. The aim of this master thesis is to research the impact of the eastern enlargement of the EU on economic relations between C.E. countries and Germany, and to answer the question whether the EU accession was the main decisive factor for the dynamic development of economic cooperation between the above mentioned states. The analysis of economic relations focuses on two key dimensions: trade relations and direct investment. The government's policy of supporting the investment activities both in Germany and C.E. countries is also taken into account. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first chapter intends to analyze the integration process of the C.E. countries in the '90s and its influence on the dynamic development of the economic cooperation between Germany and Visegrád Group. The second section deals with the theoretical aspects of international trade and foreign direct investment. This part intends to provide comparative criteria that will help in answering...

The study deals with Czech-German economic relations during 1991 - 2016, viewed from the perspective of the theory of asymmetrical dyads. The Czech-German relationship can be perceived as asymmetrical on the basis of inequality between the political-economic possibilities of Czech Republic (CR) - the weaker and Germany - the stronger. Despite this, there are many common aspects such as foreign policy orientation and the nature of the economy. CR and Germany are in many respects compatible with each other and economically complementary. They have similar culture, are geographically close and there are many transactions between them. At the same time, they are connected by a common past and by overcoming conflicts issues. Despite many qualities of Czech-German relationship, the Czech side has traditionally addressed securing its security, freedom and prosperity. After the fall of the "Iron Curtain", Germany engaged in the political-economic transformation of Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic, which turned into a democratic system with market- oriented economy. The development of Czech-German economic relations for the CR meant chance for economic growth, access to technology and, within the framework of business cooperation, to global markets, in addition to the identical institutional context of NATO...

This study empirically tested the two competing development theories--modernization and dependency/world-system. Theoretical and methodological approaches suggested by these two paradigms offer opposing interpretations of the incorporation of the Third World countries into the world capitalist system. Therefore, they provide conflicting and, at times, confusing guidelines on the ways available to enhance the well-being of the general populations in these countries. To shed light on the subject matter, this study uses a few specific indicators of economic growth and human development by comparing the outcomes based on the two conflicting paradigms. The comparative process allows us to confirm the one theoretical approach that best explains human conditions in Third World settings. The study focuses on specific aspects of foreign domination--foreign investment, foreign trade, foreign debt, and the resulting disarticulated national economies. The main arguement, here, conveys the idea that as far as Third World countries are tied in an inescapable and unilaterally benefitial (to the core countries of course) economic and political relations, there will be no hope for any form of sustainable economic growth. Human well-being in Third World countries might very well depend on their ability to develop self-reliant economies with the least possible ties to the world capitalist system.