The economic crisis in the European Union has raised numerous policy questions. It has also raised many important questions for scholars. One of these is the question of why we have witnessed such radically divergent reform speeds in different countries under Economic Adjustment Programmes. Closer examination of these Programmes clearly shows their high degree of uniformity, so that the answer cannot be found in the nature of policy input. This thesis instead takes a Varieties of Capitalism approach. Looking in depth at the cases of Greece and Ireland, which represent polar opposites of the spectrum of economic models within the EU, this thesis argues that success of Economic Adjustment Programmes crucially depends on a country’s pre-existing economic model. This insight challenges the current approach to crisis resolution, which endorses a ‘one size fits all’ approach to structural reforms. An adapted version of Bruno Amable’s Varieties of Capitalism (VOC) approach is conducive to detailed analysis, as it permits disaggregating the structural reform agenda according to five institutional areas. Thus, reform patterns can be compared between countries as well as between institutional areas. The hypothesis put forward in this dissertation is that the reforms promoted in Greece and Ireland can be accurately described as a reform trajectory intended to take both countries closer to a market based variety of capitalism. The analysis, based on textual analysis of the Economic Adjustment Programmes, as well as interviews with Greek, Irish and European policy-makers, suggests that VOC predicts reform trajectories largely accurately. The application of Amable’s approach also revealed its weaknesses, particularly in underestimating the role of political decision making in times of crisis through a rather mechanistic conceptualisation of the EAP implementation process. This is addressed through the inclusion of Streeck and Thelen’s mapping of political responses to external change, adding an important component to the VOC literature and making it suitable to the analysis of reform in crisis conditions.

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This thesis analyses determinants for structural reforms in the euro area. First, it is theoretically scrutinized how the common monetary policy of the European Central Bank causes a reform bias between small and large countries. Second, it is examined how private market adjustment, structural reforms and their interaction affect the intra-euro area current account balances of euro area countries. Third, it is analysed how an asymmetric foreign asset and liability distribution across the euro area affects single countries need for structural reforms of labour markets. Fourth, the impact of fiscal stabilization policy on structural reform activity will be examined.

This thesis investigates the relationship between neoliberal market reforms and corruption in the developing countries. Against those approaches which consider market reforms and corruption as incompatible and mutually exclusive, it offers to look into the changing forms and functions that corruption and rent-seeking take in neoliberalism. The study aims to show that on the one hand corruption, rent-seeking and cronyism are used by neoliberal governments as a political strategy to implement their market reforms and on the other hand they functioned as an accumulation mechanism to strengthen big capital groups. In order to elaborate these arguments, a critical evaluation of the dominant methodological approach in the literature, new political economy is made and the changing state-business relations as well as the changing institutional framework in the neoliberal context of the selected countries of Latin America and Turkey are examined. The thesis is also arguing that the recent anti-corruption discourse assumed the function of legitimizing second-generation of structural reforms and the separation of the economic from the political.

This paper analyzes the experience of economic growth in Peru during the last five decades. It describes its principal characteristics, explains the changes along the period and predicts its future path. The methodological approach consists in a combination of accounting and econometric techniques, both based in comparisons between countries and periods of time. The study discovers that the most important turning points of the economic growth were caused by changes in the productivity of all inputs, instead of the simple accumulation of capital. Specifically, the paper finds out that the recover of the economic growth in Peru during the 1990’s was caused by the process of structural reforms and stabilization and lasts until now. The future growth of the economy depends on the continuation and deepness of this process. / Este artículo analiza la experiencia de crecimiento económico del Perú en las últimas cinco décadas. Describe sus características básicas, explica sus cambios a lo largo del tiempo y proyecta su comportamiento futuro. El enfoque metodológico consiste en una combinación de técnicas contables y econométricas, ambas basadas en comparaciones entre países y entre períodos de tiempo. El estudio encuentra que los virajes más importantes del crecimiento económico se han debido a cambios en la productividad total de los factores, más que a la mera acumulación de capital. Específicamente, el artículo concluye que la recuperación del crecimiento económico en el Perú desde los años 1990 se ha debido sobre todo al proceso de reformas estructurales y de estabilización que se comenzaron desde entonces. El futuro del crecimiento en el país depende de si este proceso se continúa y profundiza.

Cette thèse s’articule en trois essais qui contribuent à la littérature en économie politique des pays en voie de développement. Le premier chapitre étudie l’impact des distorsions dans la representation législative des provinces au sein du Congrès argentin dans la distribution des revenus fédéraux. Le chapitre 1 est coécrit avec Sebastián Galiani (University of Maryland) et Gustavo Torrens (University of Indiana). En utilisant trois types de variations exogènes dans la representation legislative des provinces on montre que des changements dans le nombre de sièges n’a aucun effet sur le montant de révenus fédéraux que chaque province reçoit. Le deuxième chapitre (co-écrit avec S. Galiani et G. Torrens) analyse la dynamique des réformes structurelles dans les pays en voie de développement, en présence d’organisations internationales pourvoyeuses de fonds. Nous développons un modèle dynamique où on montre que ces organisations modifient l’équilibre politique et peuvent induire des pays à sur-reformer et les exposer à un cycle de réformes et contre-réformes. Le troisième chapitre de cette thèse étudie l’impact des nouvelles technologies d’information sur le comportement politique des jeunes en Argentine. J’analyse l’impact d’un programme de distribution d’ordinateurs portables ciblé aux étudiants des écoles secondaires, qui ont voté pour la première fois après une baisse de l’age du droit de vote à 16 ans. Je trouve que l’accès au programme a un effet négatif dans leur taux de participation aux élections; des données complementaires montrent que l’utilisation qu’ils donnent aux ordinateurs est plutôt de divertissement, un fait qui conduit au désintérêt en politique. / This thesis consists of three essays on the political economy of developing countries. Chapter 1 « Fiscal Federalism and Legislative Malapportionment: Causal Evidence from Independent but Related Natural Experiments » (cowritten with S. Galiani and G. Torrens) investigates the impact of distortions in districts' representation in the Argentine Congress on the distribution of federal tax resources. Exploiting exogenous variations in the provinces' legislative representation, we show that changes in the share of seats do not result in changes in the share of federal tax resources each district gets. Chapter 2, entitled « International Organizations and Structural Reforms » (co-written with S. Galiani and G. Torrens), we analyze the dynamics of structural reforms in developing countries in the presence of international organizations that fund reforms. We develop a dynamic model in which we show that these organizations alter the local political equilibrium and may incentivize countries to over-reform. This, in turns, leaves countries prone to suffer violent cycles of reform and counter-reform. In chapter 3, « Computers and Youth Political Participation », I study the impact of new information technologies on the political behavior of young people in Argentina. I analyze the effect of a laptop distribution program aimed at high school students who voted for the first time after voting age was lowered to 16. My analysis show that exposure to the program is associated with a decrease in turnout rates of teenagers, and I present evidence that suggests that this may be due to increased entertainment use of computers, which eventually leads to apathy in politics.

This thesis analyses determinants for structural reforms in the euro area. First, it is theoretically scrutinized how the common monetary policy of the European Central Bank causes a reform bias between small and large countries. Second, it is examined how private market adjustment, structural reforms and their interaction affect the intra-euro area current account balances of euro area countries. Third, it is analysed how an asymmetric foreign asset and liability distribution across the euro area affects single countries need for structural reforms of labour markets. Fourth, the impact of fiscal stabilization policy on structural reform activity will be examined.

This work analyses industry level Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in order to find out if their determinants are the same for all industries or if they differ and how. The second important question is if various qualitative variables as labour market or product market liberalization or taxation determines flows to individual industries. I analyse seven industries by System GMM model for period from 1994 till 2009. The results suggests that inflows to each industry are driven by distinct set of determinants. While there are nearly non-significant determinants for agriculture among explanatory variables I used, there is many of them significant for services. Concerning qualitative variables, labour market liberalization influence FDI inflows to manufacturing and mining, product market liberalization influence inflows to transportation and electricity, gas and water industry. The level of taxation seem to be significant determinant of FDI inflows to manufacturing. Keywords FDI, Foreign direct investment by industry, Structural reforms, Labour Market, Lib- eralization, GMM, taxation 4

La crise de la dette externe latino-américaine des années 1980 a consacré le passage du modèle d’industrialisation par substitution des importations à un modèle de développement fondé sur la libéralisation de l’économie. La transition est provoquée par les politiques d’ajustement et de stabilisation macro-économique du FMI. Ces mesures vont être poursuivies, consolidées et approfondies par la Banque Mondiale et la coopération internationale au développement, à travers des réformes structurelles qui vont provoquer des bouleversements au sein des Etats et des sociétés. Cela a généré un malaise social qui s’est traduit par des mobilisations dans presque tous les pays de la région. Ces mobilisations sociales contre l’ajustement et la réforme structurelle néolibérale ont donné lieu à de nouveaux discours politiques. Parmi eux, le Buen Vivir qui a été incorporé aux Constitutions bolivienne et équatorienne en 2008. Le Buen Vivir rassemble et synthétise les revendications pour un modèle de développement solidaire, écologique et dans lequel les droits fondamentaux des êtres humains, parmi lesquels le droit à la différence radicale, sont respectés. Le discours du Buen Vivir récupère les critiques formulées par le post-développement et la décroissance en les intégrant en une nouvelle dimension qui donne une nouvelle place à l’altérité en économie. / The crisis of the Latin American external debt of the eighties meant the change of the model of industrialization by substitution of imports towards a model of sustained development in the liberalization of the economy. The transition was triggered by IMF macroeconomic adjustment and stabilization policies. These measures were continued, consolidated and deepened by the World Bank and International Development Cooperation, through structural reforms that brought about changes in the State and society. This generated social unrest that was expressed in mobilizations, claims and rejections in almost all countries in the region. These social mobilizations against neoliberal structural adjustment and reform gave rise to new political discourses. One of them is the Good Living (Buen Vivir), that was incorporated into the Political Constitution of Ecuador and Bolivia in 2008. Buen Vivir collects the demands for a model of friendly, supportive development, friendly to nature and in which the fundamental rights of human beings, including the right to radical difference, are respected. The discourse of Good Living reflects the criticisms of development made by post-development and decline, and integrates them into a new dimension, which refers to otherness in the economy.