This thesis examines the Chinese investment programme; the Belt and Road Initiative, through a post-colonial lens, to categorise whether it fits the postcolonial draining of emerging economies. The purpose of this research is to broaden the way we see post-colonial relationships and contribute to the notion that all advanced economies can have a draining relationship with emerging ones. This is done by examining the geographical and economical aspects of the BRI-projects in two states; Kenya and Sri Lanka, to detect draining. The thesis comes to the conclusion that China, through the Belt and Road Initiative, fits the post-colonial description of draining the examined states. The results hopefully mean a humble contribution to the broadening of what is included in the post-colonial theory.

There are three main chapters in the dissertation which fall in the areas of industrial organization and international economics. After the introduction and the literature review, I present two different models that highlight how the degree of substitutability between differentiated products on a market affects a new entrant's entry decisions. I further extend the benchmark model to discuss the implications of the government trade policy on the competition strategies. The last chapter investigates how the bilateral trade flows in various industries between the United States and China respond to Yuan/Dollar exchange rate fluctuations and a few other key variables. In the second chapter, I extend the Singh and Vivies (1984) model and the Hackner (2000) model by allowing for a multi-product duopoly, a domestic incumbent and a foreign entrant, with asymmetric costs in producing two differentiated products: high- and low-quality. If they engage in Cournot competition, in the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium, the foreign entrant will choose to supply both products when two varieties are more heterogeneous. If two varieties are more homogeneous, the foreign entrant tends to supply only one product. After extending the model to consider the tariff imposed on foreign imports, the simulation results suggest that, to increase domestic welfare, the government should allow cost-effective foreign entrants to enter, but keep cost-ineffective ones out of the domestic market. In the third chapter, I provide a thorough analysis of the Bertrand model with a setup that is similar to the Cournot model. When firms compete on prices, the SPNE differs significantly from that of the Cournot model. Depending on the relative marginal cost between two firms, there are circumstances under which the foreign entrant would choose to only enter into the low- or the high-quality market regardless of the degree of substitutability between two varieties. Furthermore, when the domestic government imposes a tariff on the foreign imports, the foreign entrant's entry decision changes with the tariff level. In the last chapter, unlike the existing literature which mainly look at the relationship between the exchange rate and the trade balance at the aggregate level, I attempt to investigate the short-run and the long-run impact of the Yuan/Dollar exchange rate on the US trade balance at the commodity level using a new methodology, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Bounds Testing approach. As most articles found no short-run and long-run relationship between the exchange rate and the trade balance at the aggregate level ("aggregation bias"), I argue that different commodities may respond to the exchange rate fluctuations differently. Therefore, this study would offer us a better understanding on which US industries are more vulnerable to the Yuan/Dollar exchange rate fluctuations and which ones are strong players against Chinese competitors. In addition, I further explore other possible contributors to the US trade deficit such as income levels, China FDI inflow, and the US FDI outflow. / Economics

South Korea is a country that is poor in natural resources and capital and remains behind many other nations in technological development; however, South Korea's unique development strategy has led its economy to high growth over the last three decades. During 1997, South Korea began to experience a serious financial crisis, including bankruptcies of many of its conglomerates, a drastic depreciation in the international exchange rate of the South Korean currency, and an increasing foreign debt. Currently South Korea is struggling to compete with products from both industrialized nations and newly industrializing nations. The current crisis has occurred as South Korea has been engaged in extensive market-opening. Knowledge is lacking about South Korea's intricate and rapidly changing political and economic climate. The purpose of this research was to explore and clarify the interrelated factors that have contributed to South Korea's present economic problems, especially those facing South Korea's retailing industry. The qualitative methodology of "grounded theory" was used in this study. Grounded theory is a general methodology for developing theory that is grounded in data which are systematically gathered and analyzed. Theory evolves during the research process through a continuous interplay between analysis and data collection. This research attempted to discover the factors, or themes, that have affected the South Korean economy and retailing industry. The following factors were identified: (1) foreign direct investment; (2) the price-gap between imported goods and domestic products; (3) South Korea's trade deficit; (4) perceived over-consumption of luxury items by South Korean consumers; and (5) the chaebol, or South Korean large conglomerates. The economic factors that have led to the current difficulties facing the South Korean retailing market are complicated and interwoven. South Korean retailers will have to address these factors in the future, and attempt to find solutions. It is hoped that the knowledge resulting from this will be of benefit to South Korea's attempt to compete in a global marketplace. / Master of Science

With the internationalization of financial markets, short-term capital flows to emerging market economies have become an important phenomenon in the world. The papers in this dissertation are concerned with investigating the effects of such flows in the receiving countries. The analysis is cast in a dynamic general equilibrium framework for small open economies. Two of the papers are quantitative investigations of the forces at work in small and relatively poor economies that liberalize trade and capital flows. The common approach of these papers is that of a computational experiment: calibrated simulations constitute a test of whether the models can explain certain dynamics which we observe in the data. The first paper investigates whether a calibrated two-sector neoclassical growth model can explain the magnitudes and the timing of capital flows in the Baltic countries after the fall of the Soviet Union. The results indicate that it can, and that the large and persistent trade deficits which we observe in the data need not be a reason to worry. However, the model also tells us that a reversal of capital flows and large sectoral adjustments lie ahead of the Baltic countries. In the second paper, the focus is on modelling the observed co-movement between consumption and the real exchange rate in Spain, which experienced large capital inflows following the entry into the European Community in 1986. In accordance with episodes of trade liberalization elsewhere, consumption in Spain boomed and the real exchange rate appreciated for several years after 1986. Standard two-sector models with traded and non-traded goods have problems accounting for these facts. The paper explores some mechanisms that can improve the standard modelling framework, and evaluates their quantitative importance in calibrated simulations for Spain. The third paper studies the government’s optimal bailout policy in an environment where sudden stops of capital flows cause financial crises in a small open economy. Real world events, such as the financial crises in the South East Asian countries in 1997, motivate the analysis. Compared to the previous essays, the paper is different in its nature in that it develops a highly stylized environment to analytically study the government’s optimal bailout policy. The paper shows that the government should optimally commit to a policy that only partially protects private debtors against inefficient liquidation. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2004

Au cours des 15 dernières années, la relation sino-africaine a profondément modifié le continent africain que de nombreux gouvernements occidentaux avaient abandonné. L'Afrique centrale possède de nombreuses matières premières notamment du pétrole, du cuivre, du cobalt et du minerai de fer. Beaucoup, y compris certains africains, soupçonnent ce qu'ils considèrent comme une prise de terre néocoloniale, dans laquelle l’état chinois illustré à travers ses 2200 entreprises, extraient des minéraux en contrepartie d'infrastructures. Néanmoins, il y a un consensus que la présence chinoise a surtout bénéficié à l'Afrique. Quelques chiffres illustrent le changement. En 2000, le commerce entre la Chine et l'Afrique était de seulement 10 milliards de dollars. En 2014, cela a augmenté de plus de 20 fois à 220 milliards de dollars, selon l'Initiative de recherche en Afrique de la Chine à l'École d'études internationales. Un intérêt qui se traduit par la présence d’acteurs chinois, publics et privés, de plus en plus nombreux, précisément dans les investissements directs (stocks de 10 à 45 milliards de dollars), selon les sources.Pourtant, il y a une inquiétude quant à la montée de l'influence chinoise. Plusieurs dirigeants politiques sont préoccupés par le fait que l'Afrique est passée récemment au déficit commercial avec la Chine. Les gouvernements africains contractent tellement de dette envers la Chine qu’ils pourraient occasionner une dépendance économique conditionnant l’avenir de leurs pays. Ma recherche explore l’incidence de la Chine sur le développement économique des pays d’ASS. Il s’agit de montrer comment les pays d’Afrique centrale notamment de la CEMAC qui accusent un retard comparé à d’autres régions d’ASS doivent se servir des changements complexes de l'économie chinoise pour doper leur croissance économique, dynamiser leur développement et attirer les investisseurs étrangers, créateurs d’emploi et acteur majeur de la dynamisation et de l’industrialisation des territoires. Nous avons analysé et comparé le choix du mode de localisation des IDE greenfield chinois et français en Afrique centrale. Nos résultats montrent le rôle décisif du potentiel marchand principal moteur des stratégies d’internationalisation des firmes chinoises en Afrique centrale. / Over the past 15 years, the Sino-African relationship has profoundly changed the African continent, which many Western governments have abandoned. Central Africa has many commodities including oil, copper, cobalt and iron ore. Many, including some African, suspect what they consider to be a neo-colonial landholding, in which the Chinese state illustrated through its 2,200 companies, extract minerals in return for infrastructure.Nevertheless, there is a consensus that the Chinese presence has mainly benefited Africa. A few figures illustrate the change. In 2000, trade between China and Africa was only $ 10 billion. By 2014, this has increased more than 20 times to $ 220 billion, according to the China Africa Research Initiative at the School of International Studies. An interest that is reflected by the presence of Chinese actors, public and private, more and more numerous, precisely in the direct investments (stocks of 10 to 45 billion dollars), according to the sources.Yet there is anxiety about the rise of Chinese influence. Several political leaders are concerned that Africa has recently shifted to the trade deficit with China. African governments are so indebted to China that they could cause economic dependence on the future of their countries.My research explores the impact of China on the economic development of SSA countries. The aim is to show how the countries of Central Africa, notably CEMAC, which lag behind other regions of SSA must use the complex changes in the Chinese economy to boost their economic growth and boost their development and attract foreign investors, job creators and a major player in the dynamization and industrialization of territories. We analyzed and compared the choice of the mode of location of Chinese and French greenfield IDEs in Central Africa. Our results show the decisive role of the main trading potential driving the strategies of internationalization of Chinese firms in Central Africa.