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- International Economics M.A. (87) (remove)
The annual demand for Christmas trees in Germany and Denmark is premised upon the seeds of Nordmann firs, which come exclusively from the Racha region in the Great Caucasus ridge of Georgia. It thus forms what is variously called a commodity chain, value chain or production network (as a phenomenon) and that can be accounted for with
different concepts including Global Commodity Chains, Global Value Chains and Global Production Networks. The analysis in the thesis is grounded in the Global production Network (GPN) approach, which in the literature also is associated with possibilities of “strategic coupling” and asks for an analysis of “value capture trajectories”. But can the promise of such as “value capture trajectory” be observed in the case of the Nordmann firGPN for the Racha region, from which the seeds of Christmas trees originate? Master thesis examines the prospects for regional development.
Unpaid care policies in the time of right-wing populism: a comparative analysis of Poland and Turkey
(2021)
In recent years, increasing political repressions on women that result with social unrests and street protests in Poland and Turkey arouse interest around the ties between unpaid care workers and the current governments. Rising conservative, right-wing and populist discourses and their effects relating to care work made a further exploration in this field inevitable. Thus, this thesis examines the impacts of current policies on unpaid care workers in social and economic terms. The hypothesis of this study suggests that unpaid care workers in Poland and Turkey are exploited to a greater extent by familialist policies during the right-wing and populist governments. The discourses and policies of the governments are analyzed in the light of previous literature on care work. The paper also applies an assessment developed by Leitner (2003) in order to classify Poland and Turkey together with six European countries according to their ways of providing childcare and elderly care services. The study clearly shows that unpaid care workers have been socially downgraded and not remunerated mainly through familialist policies either explicitly or implicitly under the hegemony of right-wing populist parties in Poland and Turkey.
Transnational Climate Change Governance Challenges and Prospects: The Case of Private Governance
(2021)
There are multiple environmental and social risks associated with climate change, which increases the severity of climate change and necessitates immediate actions to be taken. Responding to the challenge of climate change has traditionally been seen as the primary responsibility of nation-states. However, there is a surge of transnational actors consisting of non-state, sub-state actors, and private-public partnerships that claim governance responsibilities in climate change in recent years. The purpose of this thesis to identify circumstances and motivations that induced transnational climate governance practices. This research mainly focuses on private climate governance activities that are managed and regulated by the private sector and non-governmental organizations in the absence of a public authority. This thesis also aims to illuminate potentials and limitations of private climate governance mechanisms to scale up global climate action. Critical evaluation of the literature revealed that as United Nations-sponsored international climate change governance, architecture evolved from a top-down regulatory framework towards a flexible, bottom-up approach, from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement. This process rendered intergovernmental structures and states to delegate and orchestrate greater authority to non- state actors to take climate action. In addition to this, governance deficits and governance gaps associated with the United Nations-regulated international climate governance lead non- state actors to entrepreneurially engage in governance practices due to their dissatisfaction with the intergovernmental framework. Two case studies are conducted to analyze private governance mechanisms in the form of voluntary carbon markets and carbon disclosure, which exhibit this entrepreneurial action in the absence of formal public authority. Results revealed that private climate governance practices incentivize climate action in the short-run, yet they might not accrue actual environmental progress in the long-run. In that sense, it remains puzzling whether the private governance practices can expand the scale and reach of global responses to climate change.
Trade, foreign direct investments and inequality: development perspective for emerging markets
(2018)
Towards a Fiscal Capacity in the Euro Area. A Critical Assessment of the Recent Policy Proposals.
(2018)
This paper aims to introduce a new topic for the economic policies associated with financial instability, both theoretically and through data analysis, discussing the roots of instability and the policy recommendations in the literature of Minsky and examining the role of National Development Banks (NDBs) in the economy. The purpose of the work is to acknowledge NDBs as Thwarting Institutions in a Minskyian sense. These special financial institutions have two sides of effects in the economy, one side related to their financial nature, through their capacity to provide finance to key sectors of the economy, and the other related to the real effects the financing of development projects implicate. Due to these influences, National Development Banks can be considered strong pillars to strengthen the economy, providing additional mechanisms for economic policies for stabilisation and recovery purposes, which is the definition of Thwarting Institution. The study case of the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) provided a detailed data analysis of the general performance of the bank between 2000-2018, its importance for the economy and especially the countercyclical role of the bank after the 2008s’ financial crisis. The last section will provide the analysis of financial stability in Brazil, showing important variables both from the financial and real side of the economy, in accordance with the Minskyian theory.
This paper investigates third-party logistics from a European perspective based on outsourcing issues. The relationship between the consignors and consignees reached to its new era witnessing implication of a new intermediary, which is called third parties. A typical 3PL company is explained as a facilitator which aims to benefit partners financially and organizationally. In this research the role of outsourcing in 3PL companies, the main factors for stimulating the phenomena will be assessed. Finally, the article reviews company examples and general conditions in this market.
The Unhealthy Trade: The Expansion of the Food Industry in Latin America, case study of Mexico
(2019)
The text analyses the global and local inequalities that emerge because of the global food industry. More specifically, it analyzes how the consumption of food has changed affecting the health of the most vulnerable groups of people. In that sense, first, I analyze how the global food industry has expanded generating a health problem of obesity and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), especially in the Global South. The result is that global inequalities are wider between Global North and South. This is reflected in higher rates of obesity and NCDs in peripherical countries, while Global North companies have more profits. Second, I analyze how this expansion is impacting local inequalities in Mexico. There, socioeconomic dynamics shape the way that ultra-processed food and drinks are consumed generating differentiated impacts by gender, class, and age. Women, poor people, and children are the most affected. In the end, the expansion of the global food industry has been contributing to reinforce previous inequalities at global and local levels
The Role of Fintech in Promoting Financial Inclusion in Developing Countries: THE CASE OF MEXICO
(2019)
Financial inclusion is globally on the rise since 2011; however, still, nearly 1.7 billion adults worldwide do not have a bank account at a formal institution (Demirguc- Kunt et al, 2018). Supply, demand and societal factors may lead to barriers to financial inclusion, and accelerate voluntarily and involuntarily exclusions in the developing countries (World Bank, 2008; Beck and De La Torre, 2006; Beck el at, 2008). With the mobile phone technology and advancements in the innovations, the number of participants has increased with the entrance of new challenger i.e. Fintech startups, in the financial services market. The literature reveals that Fintech has a great
potential to broaden access to financial services through lowering costs, reducing information asymmetries, enabling more transparency, increasing competitiveness, etc. This thesis analyzes the role of Fintech in promoting financial inclusion with the case of Mexico, approaching the lack of financial inclusion issue from the perspective of the household. To approach this issue, one of the objectives of this thesis is to investigate the barriers refraining households from accessing and using financial services.
In Mexico, more than half of the adult population do not have a bank account at a formal institution including mobile money account (Demirguc-Kunt et al, 2018). The G20’s financial inclusion indicators revealed that account ownership as well as saving and borrowing at financial institutions has decreased since 2014. The main barriers are the difficulties to use financial services, financial illiteracy and insufficient financial infrastructure leads to barriers to
financial inclusion in Mexico. Ideally, Fintech has a great potential to reduce the barriers to financial inclusion and promote access to and use of financial services for the people who are excluded by traditional financial institutions due to prohibitive prices, lack of documentation, etc. However, Fintech alone is not sufficient to transmit its full potential benefits. Even though Fintech ecosystem is growing rapidly in Mexico, and seen as a potential solution for lack of financial inclusion issue in Mexico, this study reveals that Fintech ecosystem couldn’t achieve its potential in Mexico so far.
The role of a Universal Basic Income in addressing the socio-ecological crisis – a critical analysis
(2021)
Human induced environmental degradation and the continuous rise in inequality are two of the greatest and most pressing challenges currently facing society (UN, 2020). Climate mitigation, ecological sustainability, combating poverty and social inequality are considered prevailing imperatives to contemporary global policy. On the premise that the challenges of ecological sustainability and social inequality call for a collective response, many scholars claim that it requires alternative proposals designed to initiate a multi-disciplinary socio-ecological transition (SET) that can address both issues in an integrated way (Hall et al., 2019). This paper considers the proposal of a Universal Basic Income (UBI)1 that has long been discussed as redistributive economic policy and at present increasingly receives attention regarding strategies to improve ecological sustainability. Although Basic Income (BI) proposals have been put forward by Green and post-growth movements such as degrowth, the ecological case receives less emphasis as evidenced by the fact that hitherto research on the interface of UBI and the environment has been fairly limited (MacNeill & Vibert, 2019). The present paper will enlarge upon the question of how adequate the concept of a BI policy might be in addressing the socio-ecological crisis by critically discussing arguments that indicate its positive environmental impact. By doing so, the paper contributes to the current academic debate on BI that has been revitalized in recent years.
The road to the euro: Bulgaria’s economic development since 1989 under currency board conditions
(2018)
The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the key economic developments in Bulgaria over the last three decades, capturing the multidimensionality of the transition process and defining the current economic trajectory of the country under currency board conditions.
With the implosion of the socialist regime and the loss of its main external market the Bulgarian economy failed to regain lost ground and slipped into deep economic crisis. The aggravating macroeconomic imbalances culminated in a severe ‘triple’ crisis combining a crash in public finances, ruined banking system and foreign exchange crisis, as a result of a collapse of the currency, all of which gave rise to a hyperinflationary hike in early 1997.
Introduced as a stabilization instrument and disinflation device, following the severe economic crisis, the implications of the Bulgarian currency board for the economy have been mixed. On the one hand, living up to the expectations a remarkable turnaround in terms of inflation has been achieved and macroeconomic and financial stability has been restored. However, the disinflation came at the cost of enlarging external debt and appreciation of the real exchange rate, which is a primary prerequisite for potential loss of competitiveness of the economy.
The 2007/08 Global Financial Crisis is commonly attributed to the increased practice of securitization by nonbank financial intermediaries. Part of the New-Keynesian and Money View literature has focused on the imbalances of supply and demand for safe liquid assets as a demand-side explanation for the surge of such institutions. The demand of Institutional Cash Pools has attracted particular interest. This master thesis studies to which extent fiscal deficits have an effect on the portfolio rebalancing of Institutional Cash Pools in the institutional framework implemented after the crisis in the United States, considering the appropriate changes in regulation, and policy framework for monetary and fiscal policy. The theoretical background is based on the Institutionalist Post-Keynesian economics, highlighting the hierarchy of promises to pay and the liquidity-preference theory of interest. Moreover, the effects in the size of institutional investors derived from a stock-flow consistent perspective are considered. For this purpose, I propose a stock-flow consistent model where the size and portfolio of institutional cash pools is endogenous and fiscal policy is determined by exogenous parameters. The results show that fiscal expansion unambiguously increases the size of Institutional Cash Pools, whilst the composition is ambiguously affected depending on the way fiscal expansion occurs and other distribution parameters.
The objective of this master’s thesis paper is to investigate the middle class in China in a comprehensive way and examine the main defying elements of Chinese middle class. In addition to this, this master’s thesis attempts to dive deep and find the overlapping points between middle class and economic growth by talking about the middle class development issues. Historical analysis of middle class
development is also touched in this paper to understand what factors were behind its growth until these days.
In an overall view of my thesis work which is academically backed by previous researches and scholarly papers it is found that economic growth, achievements related to higher education and fair redistribution policies lead to reduced income inequality are the major elements that contribute to the growth of middle class. It is even more significant than social policies which explains class mobility. Based on the findings of my analysis of China, per capita income growth of Chinese people was the major element that expanded Chinese middle class by almost 75% through creating more open business market, and the rest of the factor was done due to inequality changes occurred in China. The growth was mainly occurred via creation of formal jobs which were fairer in payment and increased qualifications of labor force. There was also radical decrease in inequality of labor earnings which is the major factor for reducing income inequality among households. This can be explained by the fact that minimum wages kept rising throughout the 90’s which in turn modified the patterns of middle class consumption.
This thesis investigates the impacts of large-scale asset purchases (LSAPs), which are an unconventional monetary policy (UMP) used by the Fed in the response to the 2008 global financial crisis and recession, on gender and racial wealth inequality in the US. After demonstrating that monetary policies have gendered and racial impacts and that none of these studies have yet considered UMPs, the thesis will then explain theoretically what the transmission channels of LSAPs to the wealth distribution are. Empirical studies show that LSAPs created a wealth effect, through increasing the price of some asset owned by households, primarily stocks prices, and to a lesser
extent house prices. Current literature on the impact of LSAPs in the US is still in dissension over whether it increased net wealth inequality or not. However, there is ample evidence from the current gender and racial economic literature that the wealth distribution in the US is significantly unequal, and a hole in the literature on the impact of LSAPs on the highly gendered and racial US wealth distribution. The thesis then begins to fill in some of these gaps in the literature by investigating what has happened to the financial and non-financial wealth of households disaggregated by gender and race in the period of the LSAPs, and whether the LSAPs did contribute to or reinforce these wealth inequalities. Due to limitations in the data collection the thesis is not able to conclude that there was a net negative gender wealth inequality effect. Nevertheless, there is strong empirical evidence that the LSAPs did increase racial wealth
inequality, due to white households disproportionately owning stocks and having higher rates on homeownership.
The Causes of Original Sin - an Empirical Investigation of Emerging Market and Developing Countries
(2021)
This thesis aims at analysing the potential benefits and obstacles of an Employer-of-Last-resort(ELR) policy in the case of Germany. Three main conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. First, as a bottom-up approach an ELR policy can tackle the issue of unemployment on the macroeconomic, socioeconomic and individual level in a unique way and promotes social inclusion of the unemployed. An ELR addresses non-pecuniary costs of unemployment and has the potential to tackle further socioeconomic problems. Second, this work points out that an ELR’s impact on inflation depends on excess production capacities of economic sectors as well as wage bargaining structures. In this regard, trade unions, government and employer representatives must
cooperate comprehensively in order to adapt to a potential raise of workers’ class consciousness. Third, the institutional setup of the European union does not allow for the application of functional
finance and the necessary fiscal spending for financing an ELR. Hence, Germany would need to abolish or redefine the debt break strategy, e.g. in accordance to the so-called Golden Rule, in order to implement a comprehensive ELR policy.
This research analyses whether the amended European Union (EU) Securitisation Regulation that aims to revitalise the securitisation markets is effectively reducing concerns of financial stability. Securitisation activities are a substantial part of the universe of non-bank financial intermediation, elsewhere referred to as the ‘shadow’ banking universe. Securitisations were a channel of contagion during the global financial crisis (GFC). When highly rated assets that had been packaged in mortgage-backed securities began to default, investors tried to quickly dispose of these instruments. The distrust did not discriminate, instead spreading to other securitisation instruments. The consequence was that the market for securitisation froze. This was problematic, as asset-backed securities (ABSs) are used as collateral in interbank lending. Since the GFC, securitisation markets have only recovered slowly. ABS products should stimulate access to market-based finance for the non-financial sector, primarily for small- and medium-seized enterprises, as an alternative to bank-centred finance. This assessment of whether problems of financial stability of securitisations can be ruled out takes a twofold approach. First, it is found that the regulation takes a market
rational approach and attempts to rule out false incentives and moral hazard problems with’skin-in-the-game’ rules, due diligence requirements and stringent supervision. Nevertheless, the second approach of the assessment looks beyond market failure and finds that there are problems which cannot be ruled out. Securitisation comes with bank-like risks, such as maturity and liquidity transformation, potentially divergent expectations between debtors and lenders, asset price bubbles and excessive leverage, which continue to be a potential
source of systemic risk.
Fiscal policy is back in the academic and policy discussion as a tool to stabilize business cycle fluctuations and to stimulate output, which in turn has resulted into a new generation of fiscal multiplier estimates. Recent research shows that the macroeconomic effects of
fiscal policy are country-specific and potentially dependent on the state of the business cycle. Building upon the empirical literature on time-varying fiscal policy, I estimate the magnitude of public investment effects on output for 7 Eurozone countries, using a Bayesian time-varying parameters vector autoregression (TVP-VAR). The results show that public investment shocks have a positive effect on output growth in all countries; while the effect remained constant over time in Finland, France, Germany and the Netherlands, it exhibits time-variation in Italy, Spain and Portugal. The empirical evidence also suggests that public investment effects might not necessarily depend on the state of the business cycle, as they could also remain stable over time or vary due to other macroeconomic factors.
Necessity or Habit? A post-Keynesian Analysis of Rising Household Debt: The Case of Housing Market
(2021)
This paper investigates whether macroeconomic policy regimes contributed to the emergence and shifts in macroeconomic demand and growth regimes in the core Euro Area before and after the Eurozone crisis. Against the background of Post-Keynesian/ Kaleckian theory, it is argued that financialisation has led to higher income inequality, lower investment in capital stock, an increase in the potential for debt- and wealth-based consumption as well as high current account imbalances. These four characteristics entailed the emergence of unstable and extreme macroeconomic demand and growth regimes, in particular the export-led mercantilist and the debt-led private demand boom type, in financialised economies. In a qualitative analysis based on quantitative data, it is assessed by which regime type eleven core Eurozone economies were characterized in the periods 2001-2009 and 2010-2019. In a second step, the main transmission channels of economic policies, namely of fiscal, monetary and wage policies, as well as open economy conditions on aggregate demand are examined, and placed in the European policy context. Building upon findings of the first empirical part, the macroeconomic policy mix of four prototype and major Eurozone economies is analysed for the period before and after the crisis. It is found that macroeconomic policy regimes contributed to the emergence and shifts in macroeconomic demand and growth regimes in core Eurozone economies during the considered period.
Is an Interest Rate Cap Warranted in Kenya? An Assessment Through a Vector Error Correction Analysis
(2018)
This paper investigates whether policy rates have an impact on bank lending rates and whether bank lending rates have an impact on credit to the private sector in Kenya. The analysis is based on a vector error correction model (VECM) on a data sample for Kenya over 1996-2016. This investigation was motivated by the recent interest rate capping law that necessitated the reexamination of this channel of monetary transmission. The empirical evidence shows a significant and robust long-run relationship between the policy rate and the bank lending rate. The short-run relationship is significant though less
robust. Similarly there is a significant and robust long-run relationship between credit and the lending rate; the short run relationship is also significant but less robust. These results
indicate that monetary transmission from policy rates to credit is effective in the long run but less so in the short run. Therefore, the interest rate capping law may somehow be justified as a means of containing the cost of credit to stimulate access to credit.
This thesis looks at the potential role of the IG Metall, the biggest German trade union, in the Green Transition of the German automobile sector. The IG Metall’s power and influence in the political, social and economic sphere will be analysed based on the Power Resource Approach by Dörre and Schmalz (2014). The analysis will show that there are two tendencies within the union: a conservative and a progressive approach, differentiated by their goals. Consequently, both wings have different ways to approach the transition and are each relying and focusing on certain power resources. The result is a tightrope walk of the IG Metall, balancing both tendencies within one union in an environment that is as torn as the union itself.