Die Anpassungspolitik Jugoslawiens an die weltwirtschaftlichen Veränderungen zwischen 1973-85 entstand als Kompromiß aus den divergierenden Positionen innerhalb der kommunistischen Partei. Es standen sich die ökonomisch liberalere (Einbeziehung westlichen Kapitals, erweiterte betriebliche Selbstverwaltung) und die administrativ, außenwirtschafts- und haushaltspolitisch restriktive Position gegenüber. Das Ergebnis war eine strukturelle Anpassungspolitik mit wechselnden Prioritäten. Die Aufrechterhaltung der politischen Ordnung und die Machterhaltung der regierenden kommunistischen Partei bildeten das politische Primat. (SWP-Bmt)
Die Nachkriegsordnung im internationalen Seeverkehr wird nach wie vor wesentlich durch die Dominanz und die nationalen Interessen der USA bestimmt. Im Massengut- und Tankerverkehr sind die USA an der Sicherung des status quo interessiert, im Linienverkehr an einem Aufbrechen des bisherigen Regimes zu ihren Gunsten. Die Theorie der "hegemonic stability" eignet sich zur Beschreibung und Analyse der damit verbundenen politischen Prozesse. Die Instabilität im internationalen Seeverkehr ist Ausdruck der Bestrebungen der USA, das bestehende Regime und ihr kurzfristiges nationales Interesse enger in Einklang zu bringen. (SWP-Spb)
How long-term relationship with their home governments in the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and West Germany affect big banks in their cross-border lending; based on seminar presentation.
Since China and India ("Asian drivers") and other "rising powers," especially Brazil and South Africa, began their steady climb, international cooperation has been faced not only with new opportunities, but also with a number of specific challenges. During the political debate new variants of colonial relations have also been identified from time to time. A sober look at South-South cooperation shows, however, that neither hasty condemnation nor euphoria is helpful: what is needed is an objective debate in which all the actors involved in development cooperation participate. To clarify the role of South-South cooperation, the following subjects are outlined: Current tendencies in South-South cooperation (trade, investment, finance) South-South cooperation: the role of the Asian drivers in African countries Prospects for South-South cooperation and recommendations for international cooperation. In the past decade South-South trade has expanded more quickly than North-South trade. South-South investment too has shown unprecedented dynamism. Investors from the South often have important regional know-how, use appropriate technologies and prove more willing to take business risks in a difficult political environment. A further indicator of the increased importance of South-South cooperation is the fact that countries in the South have become an additional source of official development assistance (ODA). The data on the actual scale of South-South development cooperation are still fragmentary, however.Current trade and investment flows between China and Africa are substantially driven by complementary structures in the two regions: African raw materials for Chinese industrial goods. In contrast, Indian trade and investment flows to Africa largely concern manufacturing industry and the service sector. Recently, however, India has similarly stepped up its foreign direct investment (FDI) in the oil sector. In China, India and most other countries in the South there is in fact no clear distinction between concessionary and commercial flows.In general, China's and India's development cooperation is well integrated into their foreign, economic and security policies. Conceptually, it is guided by the Bandung Principles, especially that of non-interference in the recipient country's internal affairs. Conditionality along the lines of the OECD/DAC's aid effectiveness concept is rejected by most countries of the South. While the positive sides of the current South-South dynamism are to be seen primarily in the increased inflows of resources, especially to the benefit of poor developing countries, many African states face major challenges because of increased dependence on raw materials and the greater pressure of competition from Asian countries in the case of light manufactures. The high-level dialogues between the G8 and the five leading anchor countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) announced during the Heiligendamm process may help considerably to ensure that benefits are derived from closer South-South cooperation and that conceivable risks are discussed openly.
This dissertation consists of an introduction and five self-contained studies analyzing different aspects of roundwood markets. Geographically it is focused on Sweden (paper 1-3) and Russia (paper 4-5). Four of the papers (1-2, 4-5) are explicitly considering international trade and its effects and possibilities in the domestic markets. The other paper (3), only implicitly takes account of the international market (for pulpwood), in that we see a loss of competitiveness in Sweden to foreign competition. In Paper 1 we consider the possibility of market imperfections in the Swedish pulpwood market. Two methods to measure market power are used, but the results reject market imperfections. In Paper 2 we measure the substitution between imported and domestic pulpwood. Using a variable cost function for the wood raw material input, we find that the substitution possibilities between the wood raw materials input in most cases seemed high. Further, the own and cross price elasticities were generally high, strongly supporting the argument that it is the relative price that is the main factor behind the imported volumes. In paper 3, it is found that the responsiveness to economic stimuli such as prices and costs are very low, in both short and long run. There is evidence of a reduced responsiveness, lower in the in the period 1976-1996 than in the period 1958-1975. Paper 4-5 investigates the possibilities for exploiting the vast Russian forest resources. Paper 4 uses the Porter framework to analyze what has happened in the Russian forestry between 1990 and 1998. We describe demand and factor conditions, the conditions in related industries, the role of government and finally the role of ownership conditions for the future prospects of the Russian forest industry. The result is a conception of the Russian competitiveness in the forest sector as relying heavily on factor conditions. Our findings are that this makes the Russian competitive advantage frail and that this advantage may vanish with further changes in the other determinants of Porter's framework. Finally, in paper 5, we investigate the key factors determining Nordic foreign direct investments (FDI) decisions in the Russian forest industry. The responses indicate that the prime motivation for investments made has been to serve local and regional markets, and not to take advantage of low labor and raw material costs. Access to well-developed physical infrastructure and prior contacts with future Russian partners have been important factors determining the location of the investment. The companies emphasize different institutional factors, such as an ambiguous legal system, difficulties in negotiating with local authorities, and general political instability. In paper 5 it is thus concluded that FDI into the Russian forest sector is likely to remain low until there is a fundamental change in the legal and political systems. ; Godkänd; 2000; 20070122 (ysko)
