The European Union in the flows of international students: attractiveness and inconsistency

This paper aims to describe the overall pattern of flows of international students and to determine the factors that can explain the variation of countries' attractiveness. In a second step, it assesses the position of the European Union as a whole in these flows at the global level. Is the EU strong enough in the global competition to attract the best brains? Besides, it shows how attractiveness factors can vary according to the profile of a sample of European Union member countries. In the third section of the paper, we raise some reflexions on the relations of the EU with its neighbourhood with respect to the flows of international students. In fact, the EU may not be able to maintain its status as a major power if it does not better regulate its relations with neighbour countries, especially in the domain of higher education and students' mobility.     

Regional Trade Clusters in Promoting Eastward Enlargement of European Union

The paper aims to explore international trade flows of the countries that are involved in the EU eastward enlargement process, giving emphasis to exploring regional trade clusters and their possible role in supporting East-West (or new-old) trade integration. The empirical results of the study indicate that additionally to the traditional gravitational forces (the size of economy, level of economic development, and distance), the impact of which is expressed by the baseline gravity equation, the bilateral trade flows of the EU-25 countries are influenced by the cross-border activities, historical linkages and regional cooperation. From three regions (the Baltic Sea region, Central Europe and Mediterranean area) that consist of both earlier and newly associated EU members, the Baltic Sea region as a regional trade cluster can be clearly distinguished. This region has played a significant role in supporting the adjustment of the post-socialist countries with requirements of the EU enlargement and in establishing the relevant institutional base for joining the EU. The Baltic Sea Region is also providing valuable lessons for developing EU regional policies and predicting the possible outcomes of globalization.     

Business Perspectives in Southeast Europe

This paper deals with economic development in Southeast Europe and the effect of the European Union and its likely enlargement eastwards on socioeconomic expectations in the entire area. The EU factor introduced in the literature indicates that an EU enlargement could have a positive and significant impact on business and economic expectations of international investors. The acquis communautaire and the process of new candidate countries will be analyzed, as well as EU attention and a regional dimension of stability. The focus should be maintained on common fundamental issues, such as regional cooperation as a means that in effect could produce positive effects for promoting reconciliation and combating organized crime and corruption.     

Moving People and Knowledge: Scientific Mobility in the European Union1

This paper considers the relationship between highly skilled scientific migration (HSM) and the transfer of knowledge within the European Union (EU). To understand these processes we need to conceptualize the phenomenon and then develop appropriate operational tools. HSM engages two key concepts: (1) the concept of skill or knowledge; and (2) the concept of migration. nalysing the impact of HSM requires an understanding of who is moving (and the quality of their skills) and the nature of their migration. This might include consideration of the direction of flows; their frequency, duration, and permanency; and the propensity to return. In order to evaluate the impact of these processes on the regions concerned and develop appropriate policy responses, we need to examine the relationship between scientific mobility and the transfer of knowledge. Much existing literature focuses on the size and direction of migratory flows assuming a clear correlation between human mobility and the transfer of knowledge to identify the “winning” and “losing” regions. More recent work emphasizing “circulation”. questions these assumptions and suggests that flows may not be unidirectional, homogenous, or permanent and may be mitigated by certain “compensatory” mechanisms This article considers some of the issues raised in the literature and the ways in which the variables identified may interact to shape these relationships with important implications for sending and receiving countries and individual scientists. This article does not endeavour to present new conclusions. Drawing on a pilot project concerned with the mobility of Italian scientists, it begins to map out a research agenda capable of informing a new study of scientific migration in the context of EU enlargement that may potentially inform other research in this field.     

Migration and Policies in the European Union: Highly Skilled Mobility,Free Movement of Labour and Recognition of Diplomas

This article evaluates the relationship between highly skilled mobility (especially by individuals with university‐level degrees) and migration policies. Data from the European Union (EU) and Portugal (in particular) provide the empirical basis of the research. EU policies regarding the free circulation of individuals which aim to build the “common market” for economic factors (including labour) are reviewed, as are the more specific recognition of diplomas policies for professional and academic purposes, and recent levels of international mobility in both the EU and Portugal. The article also enumerates the main obstacles that, from a political and legal or social and cultural perspective, explain the low mobility revealed by those figures. Obstacles include the broad denial of citizenship rights; the necessity of assuring a means of sustenance; linguistic and technical exigencies for diploma recognition; the social attributes of work (more explicit in the service sector); and the institutional nature of national skilled labour markets. The main exception to the low mobility rule – movements of cadres in the internal labour markets of transnational corporations – together with flows in other multinational organizations, are also reviewed. In these, migrations are relatively exempt from political constraints and, significantly, avoid the recognition procedures adopted by the EU. In other words, it seems that the entry of highly skilled individuals in a transnational corporation, and not their citizenship in a Europe without frontiers, is what enables them to achieve effective mobility.     

China's development loans and the threat of debt crisis in Kenya

The increased access of African countries to external capital markets has rekindled interest in growing external borrowing and placed debt sustainability at the forefront of the continent's policy agenda. In this article, we discuss the conceptual link between external loans and debt challenges. In this article, the analysis is cast in the context of new sources of loans triggered by Sino–African co‐operation. The article examines the main sectors targeted for financing in Kenya, how the Chinese‐funded projects have been structured, the financial models adopted to deliver on the projects, and the overall gains from such projects. Ultimately, the article examines the external debt situation in Kenya and how Chinese loans are likely to precipitate a crisis of sustainability. The analysis shows that, although the external financial support plays a critical role in addressing the gap in Kenya's infrastructure development, the loans also pose risks of debt sustainability in the longer term, Chinese loans particularly are tied and lack transparency. The emerging debt challenges point to the need for policy reforms in favour of enhancing loans transparency and the beneficial impacts. This would enhance the repayment capacity of borrowing countries.     

Ignoring the elephant in the room? Assessing the impact of the European Union on the Development Assistance Committee's role in international development

This article studies the impact of the European Union (EU) on the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). While the literature thus far has focused on the external challenges for the DAC's role in international development, this study argues that the EU should be taken into account as well. By focusing on the cases of policy coherence for development and the concessionality of official development assistance (ODA) loans, we show that the EU poses a structural challenge for the DAC's role in international development given the strong overlap in membership between both institutions and the Union's changing nature as a development actor.     

Basic relationships between human capital,migration and labour markets in the Western Balkans: An econometric investigation

The high outward mobility that characterises the countries in the Western Balkan region—already for three decades—is often seen as tightly linked to labour market imbalances and persistently low utilisation of human capital over time. To shed light on these issues we analysed the effects of labour market determinants and human capital endowment on migration and vice versa by estimating simultaneously a system of equations that accounted for such relationships in the context of WB countries. The period under analysis is 2007–2019 and the destination countries are the EU15. The empirical results confirm the importance of wage gaps and their changes as an important pull factor for driving emigration. In addition, gaps in human capital emerge as a powerful determinant for explaining emigration into countries where returns to human capital are relatively higher.     

Human capital and innovativeness of the European Union regions

The objective of this article is to analyze and classify European Union (EU) regions according to human capital and innovativeness. Innovativeness of 225 EU NUTS-2 regions within 2008–2010 is analyzed with special attention paid to human capital. Eighteen indicators of innovativeness and human capital were adapted and transformed into four mutually orthogonal components, with use of factor analysis. The use of factor analysis eliminated the portions of information overlapping in indicators proposed in the beginning of the analysis. It is one of the beneficial differences between the approach presented in this article and the Regional Innovation Scoreboard. A second difference is the scope, for in this article the specific meaning of human capital in the innovation process was highlighted. On this basis the EU regions were classified in five homogeneous groups. It enabled the authors to draw conclusions concerning the areas of innovativeness which need specific support and the potential to be exploited. On the basis of our article concerning the issue of relatively poor innovativeness of some EU regions’ economies, it's worth stressing that underinvestment in the field of human capital is one of the basic causes which determine different results obtained in innovation activity.     

Territoriale Ungleichheiten in der erweiterten Eu

In a multi-level system like the European Union, social interests and conflicts are also defined in territorial categories. In this respect, the considerable regional disparities between Eastern and Western Europe may interfare with attempts at intensifying political cooperation within an enlarged European Union. They may give rise to considerable additional transfer payments or even endanger the further enlargement of the EU. This trilemma of enlargement, increased political cooperation and budgetary neutrality can only be overcome, if a polarization between East and West European interests can be avoided by a quick convergence of Eastern und Western performance levels or by a differentiation of the individual, interregional or international employment and income situation in Central and Eastern Europe. The growth rates of recent years and the economic structure of Central and Eastern Europe do not support the thesis of a quick convergence. However, the capital regions and the Western border regions in Central Europe are developing in a very dynamic way. A relatively permanent prosperity gap between Eastern and Western Europe as well as an increased regional differentiation within Central and Eastern Europe is to be expected. Historical dimensions of the economic and political differences between Eastern and Western Europe are analyzed. The relative stability of the European center-periphery structure does not support the thesis of a “deterritorialization” of social relationships. Instead, there is some evidence for a non-identical, path-dependent reproduction of long-established dependency relationships.     

A clash of civilizations? Examining liberal‐democratic values in Turkey and the European Union1

Turkey's proposed entry into the European Union (EU) has been undermined by Europeans’ perceptions of Turkish–European cultural differences, particularly regarding the liberal‐democratic values that the EU promotes (democracy, rule of law, and respect for and appreciation of minority/human rights). Yet, cross‐national research on values has not focused on Turkey, the EU, and these liberal‐democratic values, leaving assumptions of cultural differences and their explanations untested. Through analyses of World and European Values Survey data (1999–2002), this article asks whether people in Turkey have the same values regarding democracy, rule of law (versus religious and authoritarian rule), and minority/human rights as people in EU member and candidate states (as of 2000)? What factors explain these values? I find that people in Turkey support democracy to the same extent as people in EU member and candidate states, but people in Turkey are more supportive of religious and authoritarian rule and are less tolerant of minorities. Although the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis expects liberal values to be ordered according to countries’ religious traditions, with western Christian the most supportive and Islamic the least, only for tolerance of minorities values is this pattern found. Instead, economic development most consistently explains differences between Turkey and EU member and candidate states in support for these values. I conclude with calls for theoretical refinement, particularly of the clash of civilizations thesis, along with suggestions for future research to examine more Muslim and Orthodox countries; I discuss the debate over Turkey's EU entry.     

Economic,Financial and Geopolitical Governance: USA,European Union and China

The paper examines the policies, choices, structural reforms, regulatory rules, corporate and public administration matching the world standards, openness, innovation, competitiveness, fulfillment of multilateral obligations, integration and regional approach achievements and international relations conditionality in the “Global Governance and Geopolitics” of the main economic, financial and policy issues, with special focus on the new regional approaches pursued by America, the European Union and Asia and the role of the emerging and transition countries. After the US Dollar, now the Eurozone is under pressure and the main Asian countries fear a contagion effect. While somebody proposes a slow devaluation of the Euro in order to soften the public deficits of the group of most exposed countries and restore more competitiveness to the real economy, political leaders are thinking to adopt indirectly the Euro two speeds operative monetary strategy, through the introduction of the majority vote, instead of the full Members consensus, for the most important decisions at the ECB in Frankfurt. Aside these monetary and institutional measures, the binding of the single national fiscal policy to more strict EU parameters of compatibility with the Eurozone sustainability appear unavoidable. This paper represents the background of my lecture given on November 4 at the Beijing Forum 2011 “The Harmony of Civilizations and Prosperity for All: Tradition and Modernity, Transition and Transformation” () at the PEK University.     

The Mobility of Entrepreneurs and Capital: Taiwanese Capital-Linked Migration

Much of the literature concerning international investment focuses on the movement of capital or trade flows and does not cover the persons who migrate with the capital, even though in a globalizing economic system new conditions emerge for the international migration of capitalists. On the one hand, capital owners have been recruited directly by business migration programmes in countries such as Canada, Australia, and the US. On the other hand, global economic restructuring, one part of which entails increasing foreign direct investment from a wider range of countries, has induced the migration of an entrepreneurial/managerial class. This article analyses the relation between the mobility of capital and of entrepreneurs by investigating Taiwan's capital-linked migrations. It aims to show that people can integrate migration and capital investment as a strategy to best serve their interests. Although their moves are mediated and constrained by different migration channels (governmental policies, recruitment agencies, transnational corporations, etc.), capital-linked migrants are not passive players in international migration systems. They actively position themselves with regard to migration channels and select active strategies that best suit their objectives. Sometimes immigration serves capitalists' interest in capital accumulation, at other times capital investment serves as the means for securing a second nationality. In this way, Taiwanese capitalist mobility has been incorporated into the open-ended logic of flexible capitalism itself. Such understanding of the processes of capital-linked migration and its implications contribute to new theories of the relationship between international flows of capital and international migration.     

Poverty in the Enlarged European Union. A Discussion about Definitions and Reference Groups

The enlargement of the European Union (EU) has stirred discussion about the relevance of the traditional EU poverty indicator which measures poverty in relative and national terms. As a result of diverging living conditions of the poor in the old and new member states, some authors have argued in favour of alternative poverty measures. One line of thought is that the reference groups people use for evaluating their living standard have Europeanised and that a poverty measure should incorporate this evolution. Bowing on the rich literature on the conceptualisation of poverty and reference group theory, we argue that a distinction must be made between privately oriented reference groups and publicly oriented reference groups. Although research has mainly focused on the former type of reference groups, only the latter offers a norm to define the poverty threshold. We conclude with a research proposal to construct poverty lines driven by publicly oriented reference groups.     

Ukraine Economy and Finance in the Reform Process and the European Partnership: A Focus on Aerospace Industry

In spite of economic stabilization and the growth rate uprise since 2003, Ukraine has received less than EUR 5 billion in foreign direct investment over the last five years (from 2000 to 2004). This is less than other less FDI-attractive countries got, notwithstanding the fact that Ukraine has a steel industry of international significance, great agriculture potential, and an automotive industry which accounts for almost 6% of the value added generated by the industrial sector. The new government of Ukraine has declared the foreign investment flows into Ukraine among its top priorities. Unfair competition as a result of past bad government policies was the reason for the low FDI inflow. The former Ukrainian government promoted private interests of a limited group of businessmen. Unfair privatization sales with a limited access of other investors, as well as violent ownership takeovers, took place. The new government has committed to stop this practice. The role of independent courts will grow in dealing with conflicts, including the revision of unfair privatization sales. The determination to be integrated with the EU represents an ultimate goal. Such a step is expected to facilitate Ukraine's movement towards European standards in all spheres. I also present a brief inside evaluation on the aerospace industry, for both the civil and military sectors, starting from a sketch of the defense industry in 2000. The situation of civil and military aviation in Russia and Ukraine has many points in common and it could not be different after such a prolonged common history in the same military-industrial complex. Ukrainian industrial capacity is more or less completely secluded from international partners and markets. EU and NATO should not miss the opportunity to take into account the human capital and the technology achievement already accumulated by Ukrainian industries, research centres, academies, laboratories. The Ukraine aviation industry has suffered a serious decline over the last 15 years. Only recently new programs and major developments in the sector, which is undergoing a major restructuring, have reopened the perspectives of new projects in both civil and military aviation, as well as in space projects. The components sectors will be affected positively if the developments will be confirmed by concrete international partnerships and investments, first of all with the EU and the United States. Mergers and restructuring of the existent production plants are a real need. As experience shows in Europe and in the global market, no national way or revival of past alliances could help Ukraine to maintain a role in the aerospace sector.     

Public Debt Sustainability in Africa: Building Resilience and Challenges Ahead

The increased access of African countries to international capital markets has put public debt sustainability at the forefront of the continent's policy agenda. Utilising the ‘stabilising primary‐balance’ approach, this article finds that the actual primary balances exceeded those required to keep public debt at the 2007 level in about half the countries studied, and in several cases, those needed to reduce public debt‐to‐GDP to sustainable thresholds. The interest rate‐growth differential (IRGD) drove sustainability, underscoring the importance of growth and borrowing for growth‐enhancing outlays. As the IRGDs are likely to narrow over the longer term, fiscal policies will need to play a greater role.     

Contesting the neoliberal project for agriculture: Productivist and multifunctional trajectories in the European Union and Australia

The liberalisation of agricultural trade is strongly contested as an international policy project. In the context of the current World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha trade round, concerns revolve around the implications of freer trade for rural livelihoods and environments. Analysis of this complex and morally charged issue offers important insights into the nature of resistance to the neoliberal agenda. This resistance has been expressed in terms of perceived threats to the ‘multifunctionality’ of agriculture and its ability to provide public environmental and social benefits. We focus specifically on Australia and the European Union (EU), key players in the WTO process but diametrically opposed in their embrace of, or resistance to, agricultural neoliberalisation. While the EU has sought to maintain trade barriers in order to protect both marginal areas and the market advantages derived from a heavily-subsidised, productivist agriculture, Australia relies on ‘competitive productivism’ – unsubsidised, highly productive agriculture – to win markets. There is nevertheless evidence that the compatibility of market rule with agri-environmental (and, to a lesser extent, social) sustainability is being contested in both Australia and the EU, particularly at the regional scale. The nature and terms of this contestation are different, however, given the radically divergent macro-economic and socio-political contexts in which it is being framed. The debate about the socio-environmental implications of market opening within the agriculturally protectionist environment of the EU is largely anticipatory and risk-averting, while in the already market-exposed Australian context it is increasingly compensatory and harm-minimising. In this paper, we argue that neoliberalisation as a policy agenda is reshaped in different states and regions through processes of resistance and accommodation arising from particular geographical, historical, political and institutional contexts, and as a response to crises.     

Is it possible to give the territorial dimension more relevance for choices of competitiveness and sustainability policies?

In the past 10–15 years, several discussions and/or paradigmatic hypotheses have stemmed from the more relevant economic and territorial international scientific theories of the 90s, EU political reports, declarations and directives with regard to both competitiveness and sustainability. Recently, their critical revision has permitted a definition of the question of the discussion about the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy in Europe: how to be competitive in sustainability and review the concepts of sustainability and competitiveness in the European territorial dimension by new criteria and indicators of measure. This paper wishes also to evidence, as in order to apply the updated Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy goals it should be, to introduce a real territorial dimension into assessment processes, developing them by the new Structural Funds 2007–2013. An ex ante analysis of the impacts of these strategies 2000–2006 and a new methodological approach was useful for both these scopes. These ambitious goals were developed into the ESPON Programme, developing four key “determinants” or composite indicators as very significant expression of the two strategies.     

International Student Mobility and Tertiary Education Capacity in Africa

In Africa, 5.8 per cent of enrolled tertiary students go outside their homelands for tertiary study. No other world region has this high a share of outbound student mobility. In this study, I examined why African countries have larger student outflows than other regions and, in particular, I considered the importance of tertiary education capacity in the region for student mobility. I evaluated the determinants of student outflows from African countries for three different measures: the total number of tertiary students abroad, the percentage of the tertiary age cohort studying abroad and the percentage of total enrolled students abroad. In addition to showing that country rankings differ on these mobility measures, the findings indicate that their determinants also differ. The study premise was that student outflows should be lower from countries that have a greater supply of tertiary training capacity and that thesis received strong support in models that estimated the percentage of total enrolled students abroad. In models for that outcome, student outflows were also larger if countries had high tertiary demand and populations under 2 million. The findings for models that estimated total numbers abroad and share of the tertiary cohort abroad were similar after controlling for interactions between tertiary education supply and GDP per capita. In addition, population size and per capita GDP were stronger correlates of student mobility in those models, which suggests that it is more difficult for education supply and demand measures to account for student outflows when crude outflow measures are used. I concluded that strengthening tertiary education supply at home would be a cost‐effective way for African governments to increase their human capital and reduce brain drain losses.     

The dual role of R&D expenditures in European Union’s member states: short- and long-term prospects

The objective of this article is to assess a potential dual role of public expenditures in R&D upon economic growth and employment, using these dimensions as partial representations of the socioeconomic state of affairs in European Union’s Member States. First, we look into direct, short-term impacts arising from R&D expenditures, much in the sense of a multiplier effect. Second, we analyse impacts from the stage of development of National Innovation Systems (NIS) upon the macroeconomic conditions of interest, assuming that current stages of development are products of previous commitment to innovation, that is, a structural, long-term outcome of innovation-oriented investments. In order to empirically test our propositions, we have analysed 28 EU Member States (1990–2013) through three sets of econometric (static and dynamic panel data) models. Results highlight that EU countries’ governmental commitment to their respective innovation systems catalyses current and prospective economic growth and employment levels, suggesting a complementarity between Neo-Schumpeterian and Neo-Keynesian perceptions over governmental R&D involvement. This can bring innovation efforts closer to the macroeconomic debate on monetary and fiscal policies and function as a criticism to austerity measures, as this may not only affect the present socioeconomic situation, but also generate the cornerstone for a perennial state of divergence among EU Member States.