The Italian welfare state after the financial crisis

The essential characteristics of the Italian welfare state as it developed after the Second World War generated social cleavages and inequities that affected the Italian economy and provided grist for future reforms. At the same time, the welfare state provided political actors with incentives and resources that constrained attempts at reform. With the financial crisis beginning in 2008, serious reform was no longer optional. But austerity politics have generated pressures for changes to the welfare state which are unlikely to moderate most of the underlying inequities generated by the post-war system. Going forward, Italian policymakers must chart a path that is informed by efforts to overcome the pathologies of the past without further undermining the social and economic health of the country.     

Economic crisis in Korea and the degraded developmental state

This article analyses the Korean developmental state since the late 1990s, and argues that the state has continued to play a weighty role in the economy. The state guided industrial and financial restructuring after the Asian economic crisis, and intervened to stimulate the economy during the 2008 global financial crisis. In doing so, state elites have displayed a distinctive form of economic leadership that is largely consistent with the developmental state. Rather than focusing predominantly on performance-related indicators of state strength such as growth rates, this article analyses the deeper aspects of the developmental state, specifically its internal functions and its collaboration with business. The article brings politics back into analysis of the developmental state by questioning the assumption that strong economic performance is necessary for the maintenance of close ties between the state and chaebol. Instead, economic performance is better understood as a predictor of patterns of conflict and cooperation. Long-standing ties between the state and big business have endured two significant economic crises, even if the performance of the developmental state has been degraded compared to earlier decades.     

青海应对后金融危机的难点及对策措施

面对国际金融危机带来的严峻挑战,青海省委省政府及时制定实施了一系列应对措施,并取得了积极成效。但是,由于国际经济形势仍不稳定、出口环境仍然偏紧等因素的影响,青海应对后国际金融危机仍然面临着诸多困难。为此,本文结合当前国内外宏观经济环境,从加大正面宣传力度、压缩政府公务支出、转变经济发展方式、加强国内外经济技术合作、强化公共财政职能等方面提出了对策措施。     

东南亚金融危机后的缅甸经济政策与华商

1997年东南亚金融危机后,缅甸政府为阻止经济恶化,采取了推进农业改革、加速国有企业私营化步伐、拓宽融资渠道和加强边贸发展等措施,为缅甸华商的发展创造了一定的机会,华人经济得到进一步发展。而缅甸动荡的政治局势、缅甸经济改革中存在的弊端和问题及中国新移民在缅甸的涌现,是缅甸华商未来发展必须应对的问题。     

Entrepreneurial industry structures and financial institutions as agents for path dependence in Southwest Norway: the role of the macroeconomic environment

ABSTRACT

Guided by an evolutionary perspective, we study how macroeconomic shifts as an exogenous factor contribute to the endogenous roles of financial institutions and the entrepreneurial industry structure as indicators for path extension or diversification in Southwest Norway. Path extension implies that new firm formation reproduces itself with limited variation. Path diversification implies a departure from existing paths, in that entrepreneurial activities expand into unrelated or related industries. Between 1992 and 1998, we observe a departure from path extension and an increase in entrepreneurial path diversification into unrelated industries, but this trend declines in the following years. The increase and decline are stronger for Southwest Norway than for the rest of the country. Throughout the whole period of observation (1992–2011), we observe a steady decline in path diversification into related industries. Thus, Southwest Norway, and the country as a whole, experiences an extension of an industry structure that increasingly reproduces itself, which implies stronger path dependence and decreasing diversification of related and unrelated entrepreneurial activity. Financial institutions mostly reinforce path extension, even in periods when abundant capital is available, but to some degree, they also induce related path diversification.