Victor Owusu-Nantwi and Christopher Erickson
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in countries in South America. Additionally, the study explores the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in countries in South America. Additionally, the study explores the causal linkage between FDI and growth in the region.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs Pedroni’s cointegration test to examine the long-run relationship between FDI and economic growth in South America. Further, the study employs the vector error correction model (VECM) to examine the long-run relationship, and the causal nexus between FDI and economic growth in South America for the period 1980–2015.
Findings
The Pedroni cointegration test establishes a long-run relationship between FDI and economic growth in a panel of ten countries in South America. The long-run estimates of the study find a significant positive impact of FDI on economic growth in the region. The VECM results find a short-run bidirectional causality between FDI and economic growth. The error-term is negative and significant. This indicates the presence of long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables.
Practical implications
Countries in South America should adopt policies that would substantially enlarge FDI inflows to enhance their growth and development.
Originality/value
Numerous studies have examined the impact of FDI on economic growth in the context of Latin America. This study fills a gap in the existing literature by providing an empirical evidence that focuses on South America. This additional perspective could form the basis for the evaluation of the investment policies, and help policymakers to pursue FDI policies that would enhance growth and development in South America.
Details
Keywords
This chapter focuses on the following conceptualization of union wage determination: that wage provisions in union contracts manifest significant longitudinal stability, or ‘wage…
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the following conceptualization of union wage determination: that wage provisions in union contracts manifest significant longitudinal stability, or ‘wage rules’ that hold across bargaining rounds despite differences in industry and company profits and prospects. The contracts between the major U.S. automobile assemblers and the UAW union over the period 1970–1999 are examined and found to provide support for this hypothesis. Particularly notable is the apparent return to a variant of the previous wage rules in the ‘post-concession’ era since the mid-1980s. Possible explanations for the emergence and persistence of such rules and implications for union wage determination, the overall wage structure, and the analysis of other economic aspects of human behavior are also discussed.
Focuses on the approach to interpreting earnings equality found in the writings of a variety of economists and in particular, technological change and its effects on the demand…
Abstract
Focuses on the approach to interpreting earnings equality found in the writings of a variety of economists and in particular, technological change and its effects on the demand skill resulting in earning inequality. Argues that the evidence in favour of the technological effect is weak and presents some alternatives for further consideration.
Details
Keywords
Shows how the US economy has witnessed both a massive influx of immigrant workers and a sharp decline in organized labour. Examines the struggles of Latino workers in Los Angeles…
Abstract
Shows how the US economy has witnessed both a massive influx of immigrant workers and a sharp decline in organized labour. Examines the struggles of Latino workers in Los Angeles, USA and shows just how immigrant workers and labour unions have a complicated relationship there. Explains how the problems were eventually eased.
Details
Keywords
This essay argues that Stuart Scheingold's finest book is The Rule of Law in European Integration, a version of his doctoral dissertation published in 1965 by Yale University…
Abstract
This essay argues that Stuart Scheingold's finest book is The Rule of Law in European Integration, a version of his doctoral dissertation published in 1965 by Yale University Press. It examines the argument of this book – that the European Court of Justice was largely responsible for creating the “new Europe,” and its constitution – and assesses the evidence that Scheingold adduced to support this claim. The conclusion is that Scheingold produced a unique and convincing and important book. The essay then shows that this book disappeared without a trace. It should have won awards and been celebrated for the breakthrough analysis it was. Instead it disappeared, and a discouraged Scheingold abandoned this project and turned to other scholarly interests. The essay advances three arguments as to why the book had no impact. First, it was so far ahead of its time that it failed even to have an audience, and what few readers it had failed to appreciate its significance. Second, it had the misfortune of being written in the jargon-heavy language of structural functionalism just as this theory disappeared from fashion virtually overnight. Third, the book focuses on a form of law that is not in fashion with sociolegal scholars, who are preoccupied with commands and rights, and not with courts’ abilities to create and empower new institutions. A final optimistic note is sounded in the face of this depressing account. When Scheingold abandoned his first field and turned to other scholarly interests, here too he made highly original and convincing arguments. But here, in contrast to his earlier experience with regional integration, this later work was widely recognized and praised, and the best of it is quite properly described as “classic.”
Susan Erickson, Kerry A. Dunne and Christopher C. Martell
This article presents the social studies practices continuum, which is a tool that supports social studies teachers in implementing inquiry-based practices in their classrooms. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This article presents the social studies practices continuum, which is a tool that supports social studies teachers in implementing inquiry-based practices in their classrooms. It was designed by the authors based on similar instruments found in science education and informed by the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies Standards.
Design/methodology/approach
The article describes the instrument's creation and describes its use with preservice teachers in teacher preparation programs, inservice teachers during district-based professional development.
Findings
The continuum has been used as a reflective tool for teachers and curriculum developers, and as a tool for instructional coaches and administrators to improve teaching practices.
Originality/value
This article offers a new tool for teachers and supervisors to use in improving instruction.
Details
Keywords
Fidel Costa, Christina Widiwijayanti, Thin Zar Win Nang, Erickson Fajiculay, Tania Espinosa-Ortega and Christopher Newhall
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of a comprehensive global database on volcanic unrest (WOVOdat) as a resource to improve eruption forecasts, hazard…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of a comprehensive global database on volcanic unrest (WOVOdat) as a resource to improve eruption forecasts, hazard evaluation and mitigation actions.
Design/methodology/approach
WOVOdat is a centralized database that hosts multi-parameter monitoring data sets from unrest and eruption episodes of volcanoes worldwide. Its online interface (https://wovodat.org/) allows interactive data analysis and comparison between volcanoes and eruption styles, which is needed during volcanic crises, as well as to perform basic research on pre-eruption processes, teaching and outreach.
Findings
WOVOdat aims to standardize and organize the myriad of monitoring data types at the global scale. Users can compare changes during a crisis to past unrest episodes, and estimate probabilities of outcomes using evidence-based statistics. WOVOdat will be to volcanology as an epidemiological database is to medicine.
Research limitations/implications
The success of eruption forecast relies on data completeness, and thus requires the willingness of observatories, governments and researchers to share data across the volcano community.
Practical implications
WOVOdat is a unique resource that can be studied to understand the causes of volcanic unrest and to improve eruption forecasting.
Originality/value
WOVOdat is the only compilation of standardized and multi-parameter volcano unrest data from around the world, and it is freely and easily accessible through an online interface.
Details
Keywords
When and why do organizations prefer high-status exchange partners? While past work has focused on status as a signal to the marketplace, this study shows that actors use the…
Abstract
Purpose
When and why do organizations prefer high-status exchange partners? While past work has focused on status as a signal to the marketplace, this study shows that actors use the selected organization's status as a signal to legitimate their own selection decision.
Design/methodology/approach
The context of the study is the selection of investment banks by local governments in the United States for the purpose of selling municipal bonds to investors. Hypotheses were developed through interviews with participants in the public and private sectors and were then tested using generalized estimating equations (GEEs). The models include 6,720 selection decisions nested within 1,032 local governments.
Findings
Interview data reveal that governmental decision-makers struggle with interdepartmental conflict and are concerned about the perceived legitimacy of decisions in the “political arena”. The quantitative results confirm that with respect to selection decisions, the social context of the local government matters. Specifically, racial/ethnic heterogeneity, political competition and functional complexity—contexts where actors must signal independence and objectivity in decision-making—are each associated with an increased likelihood of retaining a high-status investment bank.
Originality/value
The study shows that a preference for a high-status partner is not just market driven. Rather, it emerges also from the legitimacy demands of the organization's own participants. More broadly, the study reveals how organizational decision-making—even that pertaining to the external market environment—is embedded in an organization-specific social reality.