This study analyses the announcements of European mergers and joint ventures as forms of intra-European direct investment that affect the share prices of U.K. plcs. From a review of the theories of multinational enterprise and foreign direct investment in the context of European economic integration, the study emphasized the importance of the single market and its implications on foreign direct investment. A comparison is made between mergers and joint ventures as forms of foreign direct investment based on their theories and empirical evidences. The effects of the integration on European mergers and joint ventures are then examined by analysing the announcement effects. Using event study methodology, the study investigates the effects of announcements of UK plc acquisitions of European firms and their involvement in European joint ventures on the share prices of UK plcs. Both parametric and non-parametric techniques are used to measure the impact of these announcements in terms of abnormal returns and volatility of returns. The results show positive significant market reaction to the merger announcements on the announcement day for the abnormal return and on the day before the announcement for the volatility. However a significantly negative post announcement cumulative abnormal return is found. A shift of the market reaction after U. K. Is entry into the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) is also found. The market reaction to the joint venture announcements is not significant on the day of announcement. However a significant positive cumulative abnormal return is found a few days prior to the announcement of the joint venture. A positive significant relationship between cumulative market reaction and U.K. Is entry into ERM is also established. Profile analysis of the significant announcements also shows the relevance of certain factors that could explain the market impact of joint ventures.

This thesis first examines the overall development of the EEC-China trade and economic relations. It then analyses the changing Chinese economy, the non-market economy theory, its application and implication in EEC-China bilateral trade relations. It is suggested that China is no longer a traditional NME after ten years of reform; its economy is in a transitional stage changing from an NME towards a mixed economy. The thesis then reviews the 1978 EEC-China trade agreement. It is found that this agreement provides a highly restrictive MFN treatment between the parties, because China is not a member of the GATT, and is classified as an NME. The thesis analyses the legal framework and problems under the 1978 agreement, and its nature and possible legal effect both in the Community legal system and in the Chinese legal system. It then goes on to look at the Community internal regulations which govern imports from China. The thesis also reviews the 1985 economic cooperation agreement between the EEC and China. It analyses the background and development of the agreement; the areas for cooperation and the investment clause. The cooperation agreement, it is submitted, is more an expression of political goodwill rather than a comprehensive economic cooperation framework such as the home convention. A particular area, namely, antidumping, is separately discussed. This is not only because China is one of the principal targets of the EEC antidumping proceedings, but also the EEC employs a special set of rules against imports from China, as well as other NIlE countries. Trade in textiles is also special interested. It consists of major European imports from China, and as such has a special legal regime. The analysis suggests that trade in textiles between the EEC and China has become more restrictive since 1979. Finally, both the impacts of a single market in 1992 and China's efforts to rejoin the GATF are discussed. It is suggested that the EC should continue to be committed to free trade in theory and more importantly in practice, and to remove existing restrictions on imports from China; whereas China should continue its economic reform and gradually open up its own market to the EC.

The thesis examines European legitimacy and regulatory governance. The research analyzes the link between regulatory governance and legitimacy in EU regulation and evaluates whether governance tools in the form of qualitative administrative criteria can contribute to European regulatory legitimacy. Governance here refers to the exercise of delegated regulatory powers by the European Commission. The question of whether the adoption of qualitative regulatory governance practices can enhance the supranational regulatory legitimacy of the European Commission has been underexamined in the literature typically without distinguishing the analysis from the so-called ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU. Using a case study from the telecommunications sector, the thesis conducts such an examination using a documentary method. To create the analytical context, the thesis distinguishes the theoretical concept of legitimacy for a transnational regulator from that of a national regulator of a sovereign state. The choice is made to use a form of normative regulatory legitimacy drawn from the scholarship on regulatory governance theory. An analytical model is constructed that reflects criteria and values that bear upon legitimacy so as to constitute a meaningful alternative to democratic forms of regulatory accountability. Regulation was defined in the research to cover policy instruments, in the form of measures of positive and negative integration, adopted for the EU single market under Article 106(3) and Article 114 TFEU. The analysis evaluates the regulatory governance used by the European Commission over a twenty-three year time period in which the telecommunications sector was entirely liberalized and harmonized. Analysis revealed that, while the Commission has improved the quality of its regulatory governance in principle, its use of normative regulatory governance in practice requires further attention, notably in respect of improving the evidence base for policy proposals and in creating a meaningful form of empirical feedback in evaluating regulatory outcomes, corresponding to an ex post accountability mechanism. On the other hand, the research validated the premise that a transnational regulator could purposively use regulatory governance as a tool with which to construct a defensible form of regulatory legitimacy.

Using a sample of 10 European countries and 17 industries covering the period 1981 to 1999, we test whether the EU's Single Market Programme had a significant procompetitive effect in terms of a reduction in firms' markups over marginal costs. In the framework of the markup estimation method suggested by Roeger (1995), we employ a panel approach for each of the sectors to test for both an instantaneous structural change between 1989 and 1993 as well as a continuous change in parameters using smooth transition analysis. The results do not indicate a pervasive pro-competitive effect of the Single Market. While markup reductions are found for aggregate manufacturing as of 1993, it is also suggested that markups increased in several sectors in the pre-completion period around the end of the 80s. This is likely to be due to strong increase in concentration and average firm size at the EU level in the second half of the 1980s. After all, the Single Market's net effect on markups is likely to be negligible if not positive. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

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The aim of the thesis is to further explore the relationship between economic integration and firm mobility and investment, both from an empirical and a theoretical perspective, with the objective of drawing conclusions on how government policy can be used to strengthen the positive impact of integration on investment, which is crucial in moving and maintaining countries at the forefront of the technology frontier and accelerating economic growth in a world of rapid technical change and high mobility of ideas, goods, services, capital and labor. The first chapter aims to bring together the literature on economic integration, firm mobility and investment. It contains two sections: one dedicated to the literature on FDI and the second covering the literature on firm entry and exit, economic performance and economic and business regulation. In the second chapter I examine the relationship between the Single Market and FDI both in an intra-EU context and from outside the EU. The empirical results show that the impact of the Single Market on FDI differs substantially from one country to another. This finding may be due to the functioning of institutions. The third chapter studies the relationship between the level of external trade protection put into place by a Regional Integration Agreement(RIA)and the option of a firm from outside the RIA block to serve the RIA market through FDI rather than exports. I find that the level of external trade protection put in place by the RIA depends on the RIA country's capacity to benefit from FDI spillovers, the magnitude of set-up costs of building a plant in the RIA and on the amount of external trade protection erected by the country from outside the reigonal block with respect to the RIA. The fourth chapter studies how the firm entry and exit process is affected by product market reforms and regulations and impact macroeconomic performance. The results show that an increase in deregulation will lead to a rise in firm entry and exit. This in turn will especially affect macroeconomic performance as measured by output growth and labor productivity growth. The analysis done at the sector level shows that results can differ substantially across industries, which implies that deregulation policies should be conducted at the sector level, rather than at the global macroeconomic level.

5.Abstract Title: Legal aspects of a parallel trade in drugs within the EU Key words: single market, parallel trade, price regulation, pharmaceuticals Parallel trade is one of the most distinctive benefits of the European single market. In a simplified way, parallel trade is legal importing of drug from one country where it is legally marketed into a second country where the marketing authorization holder also markets that product, but without the consent of the marketing authorization holder. Price regulation of medical products makes parallel trade of drugs questionable. Final price for customer is not result of an independent decision of pharmaceutical company but it is given by relevant authority often regarding the spending power of citizens. Wholesalers are taking advantage of these price differences when they are buying cheap drugs in low-price countries and selling them with profit in countries where drug price are higher. In theory this practice should deliver significant saving for patient and national healthcare insurance system in destination countries due to lower price of parallel traded drugs. However many studies show minimum impact on drug price in these countries since wholesalers retain great part of the financial benefits. On the other hand, negatives of parallel trade are evident. Drug...

<p>The single market is one of the underlying ideas of the European Union. Free movement of goods and efficient competition are central for the function of the union and are therefore carefully protected by the Treaty of Rome. Exclusive rights of trademarks in the EU can be seen as a method of dividing the common market, preventing the free movement of goods and to be anti-competitive. What comes out of this is that there is a conflict between exclusive rights of trademarks and the rules of both free movement of goods and competition. The aim of this work is to see in which kind of situations the exclusive rights of trademarks can be a part of this conflict but also to study how this problem is resolved by the European Court. In conclusion, this thesis shows that an exclusive right of trademark is not by itself incompatible with the rules of free movement of goods and competition law. On the contrary; Europe needs strong industrial property rights to protect its innovations and remain competitive in the global knowledge-based economy of today. What comes out of this is the importance of finding the right balance between the protection of competition and the free movement of goods on one hand and the protection of trademark rights on the other hand. Nevertheless, trade barriers, anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position are subjects to a rigorous application of the European competitive rules. In fact, they are mostly seen as more imperative than the protection of trademarks.</p>

The steel industry is the foundation that country marches toward modern of development of civilization. According to the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) has announced that world crude steel output reached 1,239.5 million metric tons for the year 2006. In 1996, Mainland China produced 101.2 million metric ton of crude steel. By 2001 this had risen to 150.9 million metric ton, an increase of 49.1%. In 2006, China produced 418.8 million metric ton of crude steel, an increase of 313.8% in just ten years. China¡¦s share of world crude steel production has also increased exponentially. In 1996, China became the largest steel producing country in the world. China remains the largest single market and the strongest growth area. Steel use will increase by 13% in 2007 followed by another 10% in 2008 taking the total to 443 million ton by 35% of the world total. Subject that several important environments of steel marketing change, While China poses a severe threat to Taiwan in the Steel market, Taiwanese Steel manufacturers have to move to higher ground ahead of the rising tide of mainland competition. Grounded Theory (GT) is a research method most often associated with the social sciences, (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Thereafter Strauss in 1990 published Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques together with Juliet Corbin. Grounded theory was developed as a systematic methodology, and its name underscores the generation of theory from data. When the principles of grounded theory are followed, a researcher using this approach will formulate a theory, either substantive (setting specific) or formal, about the phenomena they are studying that can be evaluated. To research and investigate the changing of supply-chain by interviewing decisive persons in the business, its purpose is to make this thesis more deliberate in study structure and procedures and operational logic. This research can be classified into four main groups, such as raw material suppliers,horizontal competitor,down-stream user and co-opetition(co-operation and competition). The iron and steel industry is combined with four groups, this thesis focus on iron and steel producers. Taiwanese steel industry was forced to face several critical issues from market changing in Mainland China. 1. The industrial down-streamers in Taiwan move to Mainland China. 2.The developments of upper-streamers in China that brings an extra option for purchasing raw material. 3.An increasing stress comes from excess of new established steel companies in Mainland China. 4.The lower- cost substitutes in China invade worldwide steel market. But under the special political situation and common in language and culture, both Taiwan and China industries could have more strategically options in cooperation or competition. It is influencing the key element that this research is probing into China's Mainland and interacting with steel industry of Taiwan, utilize and take Grounded Theoretical research, sum up 129 open coding altogether , sum up 14 axial coding and five selective coding progressively . In order to understand the key elements of the steel industries of both sides of Taiwan Strait.

The single market is one of the underlying ideas of the European Union. Free movement of goods and efficient competition are central for the function of the union and are therefore carefully protected by the Treaty of Rome. Exclusive rights of trademarks in the EU can be seen as a method of dividing the common market, preventing the free movement of goods and to be anti-competitive. What comes out of this is that there is a conflict between exclusive rights of trademarks and the rules of both free movement of goods and competition. The aim of this work is to see in which kind of situations the exclusive rights of trademarks can be a part of this conflict but also to study how this problem is resolved by the European Court. In conclusion, this thesis shows that an exclusive right of trademark is not by itself incompatible with the rules of free movement of goods and competition law. On the contrary; Europe needs strong industrial property rights to protect its innovations and remain competitive in the global knowledge-based economy of today. What comes out of this is the importance of finding the right balance between the protection of competition and the free movement of goods on one hand and the protection of trademark rights on the other hand. Nevertheless, trade barriers, anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position are subjects to a rigorous application of the European competitive rules. In fact, they are mostly seen as more imperative than the protection of trademarks.