The first part of the thesis concerns describing the main topics concerned when mentioning electroenergetics: peculiarities of electricity and specifics of this commodity as well as liberalization that took place within this sector and new patterns arisen from these changes mainly in terms of business not only in wholesale, but also with effects on retail. It also outlines the economic rationale behind these changes. The second part of the thesis is an empirical analysis of real wholesale market data, demonstrating results of correlation, convergence and cointegration in spot prices of wholesale electricity in particular European countries.

- Transformační proces v Alžírsku (1988-1999) Předkládaná práce analyzuje politické změny v Alžírsku po roce 1988, kdy byl po nepokojích v hlavním městě zahájen liberalizační proces a urychleny ekonomické tržní reformy. Politické reformy měly posílit postavení prezidenta Bendžedída a jeho spojenců na úkor konzervativních oponentů a zároveň obnovit legitimitu režimu. Autoři reforem každopádně nepočítali s výraznějším sdílením moci. Nečekaný úspěch islamistické strany mobilizoval konzervativce a protiislamisticky zaměřené armádní velení. Zrušení voleb kvůli jednoznačnému vítězství islamistů v lednu 1992 vedlo k eliminaci islamistické i sekulární opozice. Obnovený autoritářský režim dokázal dostat pod kontrolu islamistické povstání a s pomocí MMF i kritickou ekonomickou situaci. Návrat k ústavnímu režimu proběhl bez účasti islamistické i sekulární opozice, která byla fragmentovaná a režim ji dokázal částečně kontrolovat. Po roce 1996 byl nastolen autoritářský režim s omezenými pluralitními prvky s dominantním postavením prezidenta, které je však oslabováno výrazným vlivem armádního velení. Politické strany mohou působit, ale jejich vliv je omezen. Jisté limity má i svoboda tisku. Došlo k posílení soukromého sektoru, postavení státu je však stále výrazné a ekonomika je závislá na vývozu ropy a zemního...

The Covid-19 pandemic has generated a serious stress test for welfare states and welfare state institutions. This challenge has been met by unprecedented responses from governments, most notably countrywide shutdowns of substantial sections of economies to facilitate social distancing. Consequently, the health crisis was followed closely by an economic crisis. This situation has created a possibility study a process that predates the pandemic, namely liberalization. The thesis applies the theories of Thelen (2014), who claims that while there is an ongoing liberalization in welfare states, there are varieties of liberalization. She refers to the three trajectories of change deregulatory liberalization, dualizing liberalization and embedded flexibilization. The aim of the thesis is to enhance our understanding of how these varieties of liberalization are affected when countries are faced by massive external change. In pursuing this goal, I construct an analytical framework that illustrates the expected labour market policy responses for two of the three trajectory of change. I then conduct a comparative case study of labour market policy responses in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden. I compare the expected responses with the actual labour market policy responses to the crisis to detect how their responses relate to the trajectories of change towards liberalization. The findings suggest that while the countries have implemented rather similar responses to the crises, some countries’ path towards liberalization has been strengthened by their labour market policy responses, while other countries have diverted from their path towards liberalization during the Covid-19 crisis. The bigger take-aways from these findings are that the process of liberalization will be affected differently due to countries differing paths towards liberalization, as well as their inherent institutional structures. The findings thus highlight the significance of both path dependence and differing trajectories of change concerning the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on the process of liberalization.

[pt] Embora comércio internacional e práticas organizacionais sejam conhecidos determinantes da produtividade de firmas, a evidência empírica sobre a relação entre ambos é escassa. Este artigo explora variação exógena crível em redução tarifárias em setores da indústria para mostrar que firmas no Brasil, após o choque, são menos organizadas em termos de hierarquias. Consistente com a literatura de hierarquias baseadas em conhecimento, aumento de concorrência estrangeira reduz significativamente a parcela de gerentes e o número de camadas organizacionais em uma firma. Além disso, nós encontramos movimentos composicionais importantes dentro dos setores: apesar de possuírem tamanhos similares, firmas entrantes possuem menos gerentes e camadas do que as que deixam o mercado. Usando dados abrangentes com identificação mais crível que trabalhos anteriores na literatura, nosso artigo documenta fatos estilizados da organização de firmas em um país subdesenvolvido, assim como contribui para o estudo de um determinante potencialmente importante da produtividade no agregado. / [en] While it is known that international trade and organizational practices are determinants of firm productivity, empirical evidence on their relation to each other is scarce. This paper explores credible exogenous variation in tariff reductions across manufacturing sectors to show that firms in Brazil are less structured in terms of hierarchies following the shock. Consistent with the literature on knowledge-based hierarchies, increased foreign competition reduces significantly the share of managers and the number of organizational layers on a firm. Besides, we find notable compositional movements within sectors: although similarly sized, entrant firms have fewer managers and layers than leavers. By using comprehensive data with more credible identification than previous work in the literature, our paper documents stylized facts on firms organization in a developing country, as well as contributes to the study of a potentially important determinant of aggregate productivity.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between trade liberalization, measured using the Heritage Foundation’s Trade Freedom indicator, and human development, measured using the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index, in subSaharan Africa’s Least Developed Countries between 1990 and 2011 as data allows. In addition to exploring the relationship between these two variables, alternative factors that influence human development are examined in bivariate correlations with human development as well as used as control variables in a multiple regression analysis. Namely, this study includes government effectiveness, the percentage of the labor force employed in the agricultural sector, the percent of Gross Domestic Product made up of the sale of agricultural products, geography, and armed conflict as control variables. By conducting a cross-national bivariate correlation analysis as well as a cross-national multiple regression analysis for the years between 1990 and 2011, this study highlights how, when included in a model with control variables, trade liberalization goes from being a statistically significant predictor of human development index scores to losing its significance altogether. The results from this study indicate that trade liberalization, government effectiveness, and geography, more specifically being landlocked or not, do not have statistically significant effects on human development for LDCs in the region. However, this study finds that for every unit increase in the percentage of the labor force working in agriculture as well as the percentage of GDP made up by agricultural products, a lower human development score can be expected. Armed conflict also has a statistically significant, negative effect on human development.

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This thesis examines how the monarchial regime of the al-Khalifa dynasty of Bahrain has skillfully tailored the tools of statecraft, both in international diplomacy and domestic policy, for one primary objective: to restrain attempts for democratic reform in order to sustain the regime's wealth and power. The al-Khalifa regime has shaped statecraft policies into a unique set in order to limit democratic initiatives. The monarchy blurs the lines between at democratization as contrasted with taking a few steps toward liberalization in order to address the nation's continuing unrest. The regime exacerbates the Sunni-Shi`a divide by hiring Sunni foreigners to serve in the security forces and deliberately stokes sectarian conflict by blaming Iran for inciting the Shi`i population. The regime encourages the hiring of migrant workers, which benefits the monarchy's wealth and fosters competition for jobs between groups of workers; at the same time, the regime denies migrants steps toward citizenship. Through its foreign relations polices, the monarchy prudently balances its relationships with the United States and Saudi Arabia for the primary purpose of maintaining power. Unique circumstances, as revealed by Bahrain's history, have influenced the al-Khalifa's governance of the nation. These factors include: US military base on Bahrain's land, a Sunni minority ruling a Shi`i majority, a well-educated citizenry willing to protest for democratization and labor rights, dwindling oil resources, and a geopolitical position between two rival regional powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran. / History

This dissertation explores the process of foreign economic policy liberalization in Korea from 1980-2010. It accounts for variations in the degree of liberalization across sectors and issue areas through case studies centered on the policies related to trade, FDI, and finance. Sources of influences on this process such as democratization, the state’s developmental legacy, societal interests, ideational diffusion, and external stakeholders are incorporated into an analysis that identifies their impact on policy outcomes. This project looks at how significant changes in the internal and external parameters of the Korean economy generated coalitions favoring a more liberalized domestic economic order and those which sought to defend Korea’s state-centered, mercantilistic developmental model. It offers a detailed explication of the manner in which Korean policymakers sought to formulate political outcomes that accommodated a disparate array of actors with diverging preferences into the policy process, while seeking to serve their own particular multifaceted interests. It finds that while external and domestic proponents of reform were successful in pushing Korea into increasingly deeper levels of liberalization, these efforts were continually conditioned and often attenuated by the institutional legacies of the developmental era and the social forces that were unleashed by democratization. This left the Korean economy with a fragmented set of foreign economic policies that reflected the incomplete and highly contested liberalization reform initiatives that colored policymaking during this period. / Political Science