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Economics as a discipline is currently in disarray. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, academic experts, students, commentators, practitioners and politicians all questioned the status of academic economics and many called for a 'new economic thinking'. Nearly a decade later, however, there is little evidence of a transformation in research and teaching. The present study first clarifies what is meant by a transformation of economics as a discipline, since this remains an ill-defined term and may be interpreted in very different ways. It then establishes the conditions of a successful transformation of the discipline in terms of intra-disciplinary and extra-disciplinary factors. The paper argues that economics as a discipline cannot be expected to trigger this transformation by itself (i.e. via self-regulation), since the 'market for economic ideas' is prone to market failure. In addition, the influence of external factors and actors on the market may serve to distort the congruence between the individual researcher's utility and societal welfare. External incentives are therefore required to establish constitutional guardrails that ensure fair competition between ideas.

This paper analyses the role of economists in advising political agents. Based on the experience in the recent financial crisis, it starts with the important role of expectations management. Economists should make clear that precise forecasts are not possible but that application of economic principles and careful analysis of data and historical events can substantially improve political decisions. In order to be effective, economic advisors have to be aware of the first best as well as of the political feasibility of proposals. Efficiency is the obvious benchmark, but a large part of policy advice is about finding the least inefficient of the feasible alternatives. The paper argues that a crucial precondition for being an effective policy advisor are communication skills; academics who become policy advisors should not try to impress their peers but rather translate insights in a language that is understandable for educated laypeople. The paper then looks at the special situation of economic policy advice in the Swiss direct democracy before concluding with a summary of the most important preconditions for being a successful policy advisor.

Energy efficiency is a common element in European energy and climate policies. In the EU energy policy, energy efficiency is a policy target, and in the EU climate policy, energy efficiency is a means to achieve the CO2 targets. In this paper, energy efficiency trends in the European Union and its 28 countries are analyzed during the period 1990–2015 by using the data provided by international Energy Agency (IEA). Total primary energy supply is decomposed into the effects of change in population, economic activity, final energy intensity, and the ratio between primary and final energy use. This paper introduces an incremental decomposition analysis method based on the Sun-Shapley method. Incremental decomposition provides information about annual changes. Information for longer periods can be obtained by summing up the necessary annual results. The empirical analysis carried out for the EU-28 countries clearly shows the effects of financial crisis 2008–09. When the whole period 1990–2015 is considered, despite of significant decrease in energy intensity, total primary energy supply has decreased only slightly in the EU. Differences between the countries are significant.

This study empirically investigates the relationship between economic growth and several factors (investment, private and government consumption, trade openness, population growth and government debt) in Greece, where imbalances persist several years after the financial crisis. The results reveal a long-run relationship between variables. Investment as private and government consumption and trade openness affect positively growth. On the other hand, there is a negative long-run effect of government debt and population growth on growth. Furthermore, the study addresses the issue of break effects between government debt and economic growth. The results indicate that the relationship between debt and growth depends on the debt breaks. Specifically, at debt levels before 2000, increases in the government debt-to-GDP ratio are associated with insignificant effects on economic growth. However, as government debt rises after 2000, the effect on economic growth diminishes rapidly and the growth impacts become negative. The challenge for policy makers in Greece is to halt the rising of government debt by keeping a sustainable growth path. Fiscal discipline should be combined with the implementation of coherent, consistent and sequential growth-enhancing structural reforms.

On one hand, this paper illustrates after the 1997 Asian financial crisis and signing ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) , China has become Thailand's most influential economic partner. And it drives Thai people to be keen on learning Chinese language. As same time, it highlights the Chinese government attaches great importance to establishing relations with leaders of Thai Chinese communities. By the way of example, this article introduces the Chinese government through various activities drew the leaders of Thai-Chinese communities to China's government side. On the other hand, due to the anti-China anti-communist policy during the Cold War and the impact of Western culture, most young generation Thai-Chinese do not speak Chinese. In addition, actually, Thai-Chinese mainly retain the Chaoshan (Teo Chiew) culture and do not understand Chinese culture. Hence, the young generation of Thai- Chinese are not interested in the ritual of ancestor worship in the Thai-Chinese Clan Association. In other words, the rise of the Chinese economy do not arouse the Thai-Chinese younger generation to pay attention to the ancestor worship in Thai-Chinese clan association.

International audience ; Economics as a discipline is currently in disarray. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, academic experts, students, commentators, practitioners and politicians all questioned the status of academic economics and many called for a 'new economic thinking'. Nearly a decade later, however, there is little evidence of a transformation in research and teaching. The present study first clarifies what is meant by a transformation of economics as a discipline, since this remains an ill-defined term and may be interpreted in very different ways. It then establishes the conditions of a successful transformation of the discipline in terms of intra-disciplinary and extra-disciplinary factors. The paper argues that economics as a discipline cannot be expected to trigger this transformation by itself (i.e. via self-regulation), since the 'market for economic ideas' is prone to market failure. In addition, the influence of external factors and actors on the market may serve to distort the congruence between the individual researcher's utility and societal welfare. External incentives are therefore required to establish constitutional guardrails that ensure fair competition between ideas.

In an increasingly globalized world, anti-immigrant sentiment has become more prevalent. Competitive threat theory suggests that anti-immigrant attitudes increase when adverse economic circumstances intensify competition with immigrants for scarce resources, but past studies using this approach are inconclusive. In this study, we investigate the impact of the Great Recession on perceived immigrant threat&mdash ; an index of seven items measuring attitudes toward immigrants&mdash ; using the 2013 International Social Survey Program survey. Using multilevel models, we analyze responses from 18,433 respondents nested within 22 countries. We create a country-level measure of the Great Recession Index comprised of four dimensions&mdash ; the housing crash, the financial crisis, economic decline, and employment loss&mdash ; and assess its impact on perceived immigrant threat. After controlling for a variety of individual-level and country-level covariates, we find that the Great Recession is positively associated with perceived immigrant threat. We also identify important interaction effects between the Great Recession Index and change in government expenditures, age, educational levels, citizenship, and urbanization. The study contributes to competitive threat theory by showing the effect of the Great Recession in exacerbating anti-immigrant sentiment.

In an increasingly globalized world, anti-immigrant sentiment has become more prevalent. Competitive threat theory suggests that anti-immigrant attitudes increase when adverse economic circumstances intensify competition with immigrants for scarce resources, but past studies using this approach are inconclusive. In this study, we investigate the impact of the Great Recession on perceived immigrant threat—an index of seven items measuring attitudes toward immigrants—using the 2013 International Social Survey Program survey. Using multilevel models, we analyze responses from 18,433 respondents nested within 22 countries. We create a country-level measure of the Great Recession Index comprised of four dimensions—the housing crash, the financial crisis, economic decline, and employment loss—and assess its impact on perceived immigrant threat. After controlling for a variety of individual-level and country-level covariates, we find that the Great Recession is positively associated with perceived immigrant threat. We also identify important interaction effects between the Great Recession Index and change in government expenditures, age, educational levels, citizenship, and urbanization. The study contributes to competitive threat theory by showing the effect of the Great Recession in exacerbating anti-immigrant sentiment.

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht das Investitionsverhalten von kleinen und mittelgroßen Unternehmen anhand der Bilanzkennzahlen deutscher Unternehmen für den Zeitraum von 2005 bis 2014. Hierbei zeigte sich, dass KMU, vor allem seit der Finanzkrise 2009/2010, weniger investieren als Großunternehmen. Das trifft insbesondere auf die Kleinstunternehmen zu. Trotzdem sind KMU - gemessen an den gängigen Performance-Kennzahlen - wirtschaftlich erfolgreich. Das legt nahe, dass sie sehr selektiv und effizient investieren, um ihre Eigenkapitalbasis zu stärken und unabhängiger von (Fremd-)Kapitalgebern zu werden. Die Einflussmöglichkeiten der Wirtschaftspolitik sind zumindest kurzfristig gering. Es empfiehlt sich daher auf eine punktuelle Investitionsförderung zu verzichten und stattdessen eine langfristige, wachstumsorientierte Wirtschaftspolitik zu verfolgen. ; Using balance sheet data from 2005 to 2014, we analyse the investment behaviour of German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results show that SMEs - and specifically micro-enterprises - have been investing rather less than large enterprises especially after the financial crisis in 2009/2010. At the same time, SMEs also show a good economic performance according to established balance sheet ratios. We therefore conclude that SMEs tend to invest more selective and efficient in order to strengthen their own equity capital base and to reduce dependencies on external investors. Hence, possibilities of economic policy to foster investments are limited in the short run for what reason long term and growth-oriented economic policies should be preferred.

Abstract
This paper studies the ritual of Ashura as performed by a group of Shia Pakistani migrants in Piraeus, Greece, inscribed in the context of the financial crisis that is currently shaking the country and its socio-political implications, notably the rise of the far-right. Based on participant observation, we start by unfolding the discourses through which our interlocutors attempt to legitimise their religious practices, by connecting the Karbala narrative with the current political oppression of Shiite minorities, but also by articulating a poetics of similarity with equivalent acts of faith from the Greek cultural context, rather than arguments on multiculturalist difference. We then turn our attention to the way Ashura is portrayed by Greek art and media, and we unpack how the poetics of similarity and the politics of difference are presented from different viewpoints. Finally, we study how the interrelations between this migrant Shiite community and ideas regarding the "national self" are manifested in symbolic uses of blood—from murderous threats received by Neo-Nazi groups, to their rejected proposal for a blood-donation campaign parallel to the Ashura.

ABSTRACTThe recent decade of scandals, financial crisis, and loss in moral values questioned the soundness of firms' governance structure and held them more accountable to their societies. This put corporate boards under increased pressure to acknowledge their monitoring needs and respond to societal obligations. This paper offers a deepened understanding of the CSR-firm welfare relationship by suggesting its reliance on the participation of independent directors on corporate boards. Our findings show that higher board independence increases social disclosures. We also show that the effect of social disclosure on the firm's risk and performance is favorably affected by the participation of independent directors on corporate boards. Accordingly, we demonstrate that board independence not only facilitates firms' CSR reporting, but also positively influences the CSR-firm performance association. Board independence enhances the efficacy of CSR reporting by elevating the reliability of the disclosed information and amplifying its signaling power regarding the firm's future prospects. Our empirical evidence supports the U.K. corporate governance code main principles encouraging higher board independence for effective discharge of responsibilities.

AbstractInfrastructure PPPs are now main‐stream. Both partnership language and its contractual forms have evolved over the past few decades, though. Compared to early optimistic promises, we now have a more nuanced and balanced view of what PPPs are and what they can achieve. Indeed, modern PPPs are tied more to seeking economic growth and political success rather than demonstrating 'one‐best‐way' to deliver efficient infrastructure. This article traces where the infrastructure PPP idea has come from and what it is now becoming. It takes a global perspective and places Australian and international experience in this context, particularly through the global financial crisis. It concludes that PPP can become an integrated part of infrastructure development around the world, assuming learning occurs from past experience. It presents several lessons on deepening partnerships; on the multiplicity of the PPP 'model' and its ingredients; on policy learning and on governing infrastructure in the medium term. And it also concludes that not only does the PPP brand today still offer manifold possibilities, even more public policy experimentation is currently warranted.

In an era in which scholars have become increasingly skeptical about the concept of exceptionalism, this article argues that instead of rejecting it, we should rework it: moving beyond seeing it primarily as a security practice by recognizing the crucial role of political economic exceptionalism. Drawing on Foucault's later lectures on security, population, and biopolitics, this article suggests that we can understand exceptionalist moves in both security and economic contexts as efforts to manage and secure a population. Focusing on three key moments in the production of exceptional politics – defining the limit of normal politics, suspending the norm, and putting the exception into practice – I examine the parallels, intersections, and tensions between political economic and security exceptionalism, using the concept of economic exceptionalism to make sense of the 2008 global financial crisis. Taking seriously Foucault's insights into the political economic character of liberal government holds out the promise of providing scholars in the fields of both critical security studies and cultural political economy with a richer understanding of the complex dynamics of exceptionalist politics – a promise that is particularly valuable at the present political juncture.

AbstractSince China acceded to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, the country's importance to and impact on the global economy has expanded rapidly. This has been particularly notable since the global financial crisis in 2008. While this has created new opportunities and benefits for Europe, it has also brought with it important new challenges. One such challenge is the impact of industrial overcapacity in industries like steel that have resulted from the allocation of capital on non‐commercial terms. Going forward the China Manufacturing 2025 (CM2025) initiative that was announced in 2015 is another. The latter represents an attempt by the Chinese authorities to maintain a position as 'masters' of China's economy instead of allowing the market to drive innovation and industrial upgrading. Since CM2025 also allocates capital on non‐commercial terms, including through subsidies and government‐backed investment funds, there is a risk that it will lead to overcapacity in advanced industries of importance to China's economy. This concern is further exacerbated by the fact that as Chinese investment rapidly expands in Europe, the authorities continue to deny European business reciprocity in the Chinese market.

AbstractWelfare states in many countries have, at least since the financial crisis, been under strong pressure from high levels of unemployment. We are expecting dramatic changes to labour markets. This article first presents the various arguments as to why there have or have not been substantial changes to labour markets, and whether there might be in the future, including arguments pro and con the possible impact thereof. The article thus provides a review of knowledge within the field, with a focus especially on how this can or might have an impact on welfare states, given the often strong connection between being on the labour market, access to a variety of welfare benefits and the ability to finance welfare states. It uses concepts such as under‐employment and new forms of jobs as indicators of change. These changes implying, more than ever, that having a job does not necessarily entail that a person has a stable and solid income above the poverty level. Lastly, the article discusses whether some welfare states regime types are more prepared than others.