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Begin New Search Topic International Political Economy Content Type Special Report Publication Year within 25 Years Publication Year within 10 Years

1. Business & Peace 2021

Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP)
Abstract:
Rather than asking what businesses can do for peace, this study differentiates itself by focusing on what peace can offer businesses. The Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) sees this as an important, but missing step in business analysis. In order for the private sector to engage with peacebuilding, investors first need to see the benefits of peace to their investment decisions. This work shows that economic performance can be predicted by movements in the same socio-economic developmental factors that affect peacefulness. These conditions are known as Positive Peace. The global economic impact of violence was $14.4 trillion in 2020. This is broadly equivalent to the entire economy of China. If humanity were to reduce violence by ten per cent per annum, the savings of $1.4 trillion would broadly equate to adding an economy the size of Russia’s or Brazil’s every year to the global fold. The burden of violence on an economy is self-evident. However, this report focusses on the converse perspective: countries that improve their underlying conditions, as gauged by IEP’s measures of peace, create the potential for a significant peace dividend for business.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Business, Peace, and International Business
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Should We Consider A Post-Covid-19 Reform Of The VAT In Cameroon?

Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic so far has had a profound impact on the global economy. The containment measures adopted by governments to curb the spread of the disease have curtailed business activities, making it impossible for companies to adequately meet their tax obligations. As a result, forecasts for customs revenues and internal tax resources have been revised downward, mainly due to the closure of borders. Collected both at the borders and within the country, Value Added Taxes revenues have naturally been very negatively affected by the crisis. In Cameroon, losses related to value added tax in 2020 were estimated at CFAF 298.017 billion, representing 50.73 percent of recorded tax losses, which is hardly surprising. Value-added taxes are identified as the main source of tax revenue in Cameroon. They were estimated at 44.73% of tax revenue in 2019 and about 7% more than in 2016. The importance of VAT in tax revenue mobilization requires an examination of the Cameroonian tax system, particularly the factors that could explain a reform of the tax. Moreover, given that Cameroon is at high risk of external debt distress (IMF, 2018), there is an urgent need to find new ways to ensure the continued sustainability of public finances. This Tax Policy Letter analyzes the rationale for VAT reform in Cameroon. First, we present the severity of the economic repercussions of the coronavirus health crisis at the level of VAT revenues in Cameroon. Noting that VAT is the main source of indirect tax revenue – 60.19% in 2019 compared to 54.54% in 2016, for example – we then examine the guiding principles that govern its collection and application in Cameroon. A careful examination of these principles has allowed us to analyze the benefits associated with a reform of this tax on final consumption.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Tax Systems, Macroeconomics, Fiscal Policy, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
Africa and Cameroon

3. Technology Solutions for Supply Chain Traceability in the Brazilian Amazon: Opportunities for the Financial Sector

Author:
Brodie Ferguson, Julia Sekula, and Ilona Szabo de Carvalho
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Igarapé Institute
Abstract:
The Amazon is reaching a point that may be irreversible, in which its biome, and with it the global climate, will suffer irreparable damage, negatively impacting not only local communities, but also entire regions and industries. In this article, the Igarapé Institute analyzes challenges around illegal deforestation and recommends measures that, when supported and adopted by financial institutions, will have a rapid, effective and large-scale impact on the control of illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. To this end, the article analyzes current practices in standards and benchmarking for soy farming, livestock and timber extraction. Although the financial sector has started the process of adopting policies against deforestation, few institutions make them mandatory for loan contracts or actively monitor them. This article also highlights some of the key technologies that support greater traceability of the supply chains needed to measure progress on ESG metrics. Remote sensing, big data and artificial intelligence now offer unprecedented ability to track specific environmental impacts of properties, licenses and concessions.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Science and Technology, Finance, Data, Supply Chains, and Deforestation
Political Geography:
Brazil, Latin America, and Amazon Basin

4. Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) and the Unequal Treatment of Companies in the Cameroonian Market

Author:
Egoh Aziz and Dr. Louis-Marie Kakdeu
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Nkafu Policy Institute
Abstract:
Economic partnership agreements are accords contracted by two or more countries to promote the free flow of goods and services between the parties. These accords can be bi-lateral or multi-lateral and carry along with certain advantages. For example, the elimination of trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas. Economic agreements act as conduits to the establishment of new markets for businesses, ease the manufacture of high-quality goods, and foster economic growth[1]. As the volume of trade increases due to trading agreements, favourable conditions are created pushing businesses in the member countries to have a greater incentive to venture into new markets. This article aims to discuss the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) Cameroon have signed, and the unequal treatment of Companies existing in the Cameroonian Market.
Topic:
International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and Economic Cooperation
Political Geography:
Cameroon

5. The role of Chinese finance in the City of London after Brexit: Background Report

Author:
Sarah Hall
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Research Institute, University of Nottingham
Abstract:
The competitiveness of London’s financial centre is shaped by the UK’s current adoption of EU regulations. The future development of London’s financial services sector is unknown as Britain’s relationship with Europe changes following the vote to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. This uncertainty arises because even if Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement is adopted, the UK will then have to choose whether to converge, seek equivalence with or diverge from EU regulations for financial services. Research by Professor Sarah Hall (University of Nottingham) argues that the implications of these regulatory decisions will impact London’s financial services sector’s relationship with financial markets globally. Her research focuses on how London’s role as the largest western financial centre for financial transactions denominated in China’s currency, the renminbi, could be adversely affected following changes in the regulatory alignment between the UK and the EU following Brexit.
Topic:
Economics, International Political Economy, Finance, and Financial Institutions
Political Geography:
Britain, China, and United Kingdom

6. Luck like the Irish: How emigration can be good for the Western Balkans

Author:
Alida Vračić
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
Abstract:
Western Balkans governments have failed to tap the potential of their vast diaspora – six million strong – around the world. This diaspora possesses the networks, skills, and assets that Western Balkans countries need to develop and to prosper in an age of fierce economic competition. Ireland’s experience sets the standard: today’s “Global Irish” population is a networked diaspora that champions Irish interests throughout the world and has made critical contributions to Ireland’s economic miracle. To follow in Irish footsteps, the Western Balkans urgently needs to gather data, including carrying out comprehensive labour force surveys, to understand the diaspora properly and learn how best to communicate with it. The EU must help. It should introduce circular migration programmes so that educated Western Balkans citizens in EU member states return to their home countries fully equippedto make an even greater contribution than they could have done before leaving
Topic:
International Political Economy and Brexit
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Strength In Numbers

Author:
Wendy Cutler
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Tensions in U.S.-China economic and trade relations have steadily increased over the past year, leading to the imposition of tariffs and counter-tariffs impacting nearly USD $400 billion in two-way trade. At the time of writing, a negotiated solution has yet to materialize, but the two sides have continued to make progress, with a deal seemingly imminent. At the heart of the conflict are challenges posed by China’s state-led economic model, including excessive and under-reported industrial subsidies and other financial assistance, operation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), opaque regulatory measures that advantage domestic producers, forced technology transfer, and centrally directed strategic guidance
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. Grading China’s Belt and Road

Author:
Daniel M. Kliman
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Abstract:
Since its launch in 2013, what China calls “One Belt, One Road” has emerged as the cornerstone of Beijing’s economic statecraft. Under the umbrella of the Belt and Road, Beijing seeks to promote a more connected world brought together by a web of Chinese-funded physical and digital infrastructure. The infrastructure needs in Asia and beyond are significant, but the Belt and Road is more than just an economic initiative; it is a central tool for advancing China’s geopolitical ambitions. Through the economic activities bundled under the Belt and Road, Beijing is pursuing a vision of the 21st century defined by great power spheres of influence, state-directed economic interactions, and creeping authoritarianism
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
China

9. Contested Spaces A Renewed Approach to Southeast Asia

Author:
Patrick M. Cronin
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Abstract:
As the competition between the United States and China to shape the course of the 21st century intensifies, Southeast Asia has become a contested space. A region where geopolitical orientations remain fluid, Southeast Asia lies at the front line of Beijing’s expanding diplomatic influence, economic leverage, and military capability. At stake is whether countries across the region can retain their economic sovereignty and freedom of decision, and whether governance in the region will broadly trend toward greater freedom and openness, or the opposite.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10. Negotiating With North Korea

Author:
Patrick M. Cronin and Kristine Lee
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Abstract:
fter a year of historic summits and negotiations, North Korea’s future remains mired in uncertainty. Kim Jong Un, in the lead-up his second summit with President Trump, has an opportunity to cast aside his country’s pariah status and jump headlong into economic development, but the diplomatic window is narrowing. Protracted stalemate may be unavoidable, but over the course of the next year or two the negotiating process is likely to be binary and head in one of two directions: Either sufficient progress is made to justify continuing the recent rapprochement, or frustrations over the lack of progress will effectively terminate the United States’ diplomatic opening with the Kim regime.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
North Korea

11. Understanding China's AI Strategy

Author:
Gregory Allen
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Abstract:
n the second half of 2018, I traveled to China on four separate trips to attend major diplomatic, military, and private-sector conferences focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI). During these trips, I participated in a series of meetings with high-ranking Chinese officials in China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, leaders of China’s military AI research organizations, government think tank experts, and corporate executives at Chinese AI companies. From these discussions – as well as my ongoing work analyzing China’s AI industry, policies, reports, and programs – I have arrived at a number of key judgments about Chinese leadership’s views, strategies, and prospects for AI as it applies to China’s economy and national security. Of course, China’s leadership in this area is a large population with diversity in its views, and any effort to generalize is inherently presumptuous and essentially guaranteed to oversimplify. However, the distance is large between prevailing views in American commentary on China’s AI efforts and what I have come to believe are the facts. I hope by stating my takeaways directly, this report will advance the assessment of this issue and be of benefit to the wider U.S. policymaking community.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

12. Financial Networks of Mass Destruction

Author:
Elizabeth Rosenberg and ​Neil Bhatiya
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Abstract:
The international community has long prioritized reducing the risk of weapons of mass destruction proliferation, whether from state actors such as North Korea and Iran, or from non-state actors, particularly criminals and transnational terrorist networks. Despite this concern, however, there remains a significant blind spot: the efforts to prevent the financing of WMD proliferation are only in their infancy. The legal framework to prevent the financing of proliferation is weak, and implementation across the world is spotty. These weaknesses derive from one overwhelming fact: The international community has not prioritized financial controls to fight proliferation. Very few countries have demonstrated the political will to put further emphasis on this threat to international peace and security.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

13. Preparing for uncertainty

Author:
Gregory Claeys
Publication Date:
07-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
Memo to the president of the European Central Bank. Grégory Claeys, Maria Demertzis and Francesco Papadia present the challenges that the next ECB president will face during the upcoming mandate, reinventing monetary policy in a system riddled with uncertainties.
Topic:
International Relations and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe

14. China and the world trade organisation: towards a better fit

Author:
Petros C. Mavroidis
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
China’s participation in the WTO has been anything but smooth, as its self-proclaimed socialist market economy system has alienated its trading partners. The WTO needs to translate some of its implicit legal understanding into explicit treaty language, in order to retain its principles while accommodating China
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
China

15. Europe – the global centre for excellent research

Author:
Michael Balternsperger
Publication Date:
05-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
This report, requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, analyses the EU’s potential to be a global centre of excellence for research as a driver of its future growth in a complex global S&T landscape, and how EU public resources can contribute to this
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Europe

16. U.S Recognition of Golan Heights Annexation: Testament to Our Times

Author:
Victor Kattan
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
On 25 March 2019, U.S. president Donald Trump signed a proclamation recognizing the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel. The Golan Heights proclamation, which endorses Israel’s annexation of the territory captured from Syria in the 1967 war, was issued two weeks before the Israeli general election in a photo-op with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Undermining internationally agreed-upon norms prohibiting states from recognizing the annexation of territory by force, the proclamation could have detrimental consequences for the international legal order, providing a precedent for other states to take steps to annex territory they claim is necessary for their defense.
Topic:
International Political Economy, International Affairs, and Occupation
Political Geography:
Israel and Palestine

17. BDS Supression Attempts in Germany Backfire

Author:
Shir Hever
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
German organizations are among the last Palestine solidarity groups in Europe to have embraced the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), launched in 2005. Pro-Israel German groups have been quick to respond with aggressive rhetoric equating a BDS-favorable stance with Nazism. The vilification of the movement has had the unintended consequence of inserting BDS into German politics, both at federal and local levels. Select case studies show that the BDS debate in Germany has developed somewhat differently than in other European countries, and that religious discourse is significant in shaping attitudes to Israel and Palestine. While the Palestine solidarity movement tends to single out the “Anti-Germans”—a pro-Israel formation that grew out of the Left after the reunification of Germany—as the major culprit, it is in fact conservative Christian, mostly Evangelical, organizations that are largely responsible for discouraging BDS activism.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Israel

18. Emerging Trends in India-U.S Oil and Gas Engagement

Author:
Sujata Ashwarya
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Oil and gas trade is emerging as a new area of engagement between India and the United States against the backdrop of increasingly complementary interests. The emergence of the United States as the world’s top oil and gas producer in the last few years dovetails perfectly with India’s energy-deficient status and growing demand. With high rates of economic growth and over 17 percent of the world’s population, India’s energy consumption growth is largely fed by foreign imports of fossil fuels.
Topic:
International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

19. A Silicon Curtain is Descending: Technological Perils of the Next 30 Years

Author:
Lindsay Gorman
Publication Date:
10-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS)
Abstract:
pal story of 1989 in Europe is a story about technology – of radio and information crossing the East-West divide to bring down the Berlin Wall. Indeed, the post-communist narrative became that more connectivity and more connection meant more freedom and more democracy. It was on the wave of this narrative that the Internet became the world’s ultimate connector.1 It has brought globalization and international commerce in an unprecedented and unimaginable way, given activists a platform and a megaphone, and made information about democratic governance available to anyone with a router. Or almost anyone.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Science and Technology, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Europe

20. The Decline of Employment Protection and the Rise of Precarious Work

Author:
Anne Marie Brady
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS)
Abstract:
By 1989, the employment landscape in the United States and Europe had changed significantly from the immediate post-Second World War decades. Between 1960 and 1973, the unemployment rate as a percentage of the total labor force averaged two percent or below in Western Europe’s big economies and 4.8 percent in the United States, but between 1990 and 1995, the average unemployment rate in the United States was 6.4 percent and between 7 and 10.7 percent in Germany, France, and the United Kindgom.1
Topic:
International Political Economy, Employment, and Income Inequality
Political Geography:
Global Focus