Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2012. The Black Media Entrepreneur and Economic Implications for the 21st Century
- Author:
- Emmanuel K. Ngwainmbi
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia International Affairs Online
- Abstract:
- This paper appraises communications as business and examines the impact of new information technology on the productivity of the black entrepreneur (African American (AAs) and African (ABs) mid-scale businesspersons) and provides insights into market conditions in both communities to the mindset of the African entrepreneur and implications for partnership management. Further, it describes the black entrepreneur's access to business information, implications for partnership and a background for strategic planning. Research shows there are potential mutual benefits for African and African American media entrepreneurs, with proper strategic planning and information sharing.
- Topic:
- Development, Emerging Markets, and Industrial Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa
2013. Glocalization, Local Urban Culture and Change in West Africa: Toward Negotiating Socioeconomic Understanding with Foreign Companies and International Organizaations
- Author:
- Emmanuel K. Ngwainmbi
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia International Affairs Online
- Abstract:
- The paper revisits the key problematics of conceptualizing culture, the ethnographic relevance of cross cultural communication in business management, and the theoretical and pragmatic differences between glocalization, Euro-American and West African business management ethics and socioeconomic change in NEPAD (The New Partnership for African Development) countries. Further, it examines the power dynamics of the local sub-cultures (manager, employee and local consumer) and the fundamental cultural differences between local and foreign managers and provides the contexts within which such core differences cultivate a hybrid business environment and enhance translocal negotiations. Finally, it discusses the triangular connection between hegemony, ICT and social change and identifies situations in urban W. African communities where local-foreign knowledge and technical resources promote globalization in the region.
- Topic:
- Development, Globalization, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Africa and America
2014. The Role of Health in the Fight against International Poverty
- Author:
- Lael Brainard
- Publication Date:
- 04-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- The end of the Cold War and disillusionment with aid's many failures led to widespread aid fatigue among donors during the 1990s. Total official development assistance (ODA) as a share of donor GDP fell by one third over the decade (from 0.32 to 0.22 percent). This was particularly pronounced in the United States, where a slash-and-burn approach reduced foreign economic assistance to just over one half of 1 percent of budget outlays, compared with over 3 percent at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. And U.S. per capita spending fell to last place among donor nations, ending the decade at $29, far below the average of $70.
- Topic:
- Development, Human Welfare, International Organization, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- United States and Cuba
2015. Andes 2020: A New Strategy for the Challenges of Colombia and the Region
- Author:
- Daniel W. Christman, John G. Heimann, and Julia E. Sweig
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Abstract:
- The democracies of the Andean region—Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia—are at risk. The problems that characterize other developing regions—including political instability, economic stagnancy, widening inequality, and social divisions along class, color, ethnic, ideological, and urban-rural fault lines—are all present in the Andes. Most important is the region's physical insecurity, due in some countries to ongoing or resurgent violent conflict, and in every country to the lack of state control over significant territory and to porous borders that enable the easy movement of drugs, arms, and conflict. Equally sobering, expectations for strong democracy and economic prosperity in the Andes remain unrealized. Recognizing its interests in the Andes, the United States over the past two decades has spent billions of dollars and significant manpower to stem the flow of illegal drugs from the region northward; to assist local security forces in the fight against drugs, terror, and insurgency; and to promote free markets, human rights, and democratic consolidation. Yet the region remains on the brink of collapse, an outcome that would pose a serious threat to the U.S. goal of achieving democracy, prosperity, and security in the hemisphere.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- United States, Colombia, South America, Latin America, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia
2016. Are the Balance of Payments Deficits in the Baltic Countries Sustainable?
- Author:
- Jorgen Drud Hansen and Morten Hansen
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- For almost a decade all three Baltic countries have witnessed substantial deficits on the current accounts of the balance of payments. This paper discusses whether this situation should be a matter of concern. Recent literature on the sustainability of balance of payments deficits is reviewed and put into a Baltic context. The main conclusion is that the recurrent large deficits in the Baltic countries pose a risk for the fixed exchange-rate policies until the countries adopt the euro. In the longer term, large deficits will influence the time path of convergence of living standards between the Baltic countries and the EU as a whole.
- Topic:
- Development and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Eastern Europe
2017. Measuring the Economic Impact of an EU–GCC Free Trade Agreement
- Author:
- David Kernohan and Dean A. DeRosa
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- Economic growth rates in the Gulf region have languished in recent years and need to be raised to accommodate the rapidly growing populations and social aspirations of the region. Using a simple model of world trade, this report investigates the economic impacts of the new customs union of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the GCC and European Union. The quantitative results suggest that the new customs union and proposed EU-GCC free trade agreement both appreciably expand trade and improve economic welfare in the GCC countries, with little significant economic impact on the EU. As expected, the FTA results in larger GCC economic gains than the customs union because it affords GCC consumers greater opportunity to enjoy imports at internationally competitive prices. Although welfare gains under the proposed FTA closely approximate those under open regionalism (concerted trade liberalisation on a most favoured nation basis), reducing the 5% GCC common external tariff to about 3% as part of the FTA negotiations would not only ensure near-maximum trade performance and welfare gains but also add further to the attractiveness of the GCC countries as a location for foreign direct investment.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Treaties and Agreements, and Population
- Political Geography:
- Europe
2018. Why Is There a Productivity Problem in the EU?
- Author:
- Francesco Daveri
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- Magazines and newspapers often refer to or even take for granted the economic decline of the EU, particularly when contrasting the EU data with US data. The first part of this paper poses the question of whether IT – as often alleged – is really the only cause for the EU's productivity slowdown. The conclusion is that it is not. The non-IT part of the economy has not only contributed to the slowdown but appears to have crucially contributed to the EU-US growth gap as well. There is thus little reason for the EU to target IT-diffusion as an intermediate goal, as implied by the Lisbon strategy. The second part of the paper, after showing that the growth slowdown comes from the reduction of non-IT capital deepening and the lack of acceleration in total factor productivity growth, argues that the slowdown of capital deepening will continue. The scarce resources available for enhancing growth should concentrate on providing incentives to R and innovation at large, rather than financing traditional infrastructures. This is at odds with the goals pursued by the EU within the framework of the European Growth Initiative.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe
2019. Financial Sector Reform in India: Is There a Grand Design?
- Author:
- Rajrishi Singhal
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for the Advanced Study of India
- Abstract:
- The Planning Commission of India, in its Approach Paper for the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2002- 07), set its sights on two lofty targets: doubling per capita income over the next 10 years—compared to similar goals over 20 years as was previously the norm—and reducing the incidence of poverty by five percentage points.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
2020. The mysteries of Vietnamese "socialist democracy". Evolution of the people's assemblies and of the legal system since the launch of the Dôi moi
- Author:
- Matthieu Salomon
- Publication Date:
- 05-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
- Abstract:
- Since the 1980s – and, more symbolically, since the 6th Communist party Congress - Vietnam has been engaged in reform, which is referred to as "dôi moi", i.e. renewal. While their aim is, first and foremost, to change the rules governing economic activity, these reforms have, since the 1990s, also been associated with political, institutional and legal change. Influenced, on the one hand, by endogenous constraints arising out of the necessary adaptation of the politico-legal environment and of the evolution of the power-legitimation processes and, on the other hand, by exogenous constraints born of the desire for integration into the international community and economy, the discourse of the Vietnamese authorities and the country's fundamental political texts have both been modified. It seems undeniable that, despite its weightiness and areas of permanence, the Vietnamese politico-legal system is, de facto, slowly evolving and becoming "normalised". The intention here is not to suggest that Vietnam is undergoing a "democratic transition" bringing it closer to a western model of reference. The aim of the regime may be defined thus: "to consolidate the single-party system while satisfying the demands for modernisation". By means of an analysis of the system of people's assemblies elected by the population and of the legal - i.e. juridical and judicial - system, this study attempts to provide an insight into the regime's capacity for politico-legal innovation and, notably, into its capacity to structure new arenas for debate. It examines the complex evolutions which have affected the rules and players of this too-often-neglected aspect of a changing Vietnam.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Southeast Asia