欧盟区域经济一体化的投资效应研究

区域经济一体化是当今世界经济发展的一个重要特征,一体化发展的程度和范围正日益突破仅以贸易自由化为主的浅度一体化,向包括投资政策等更广泛政策的深度一体化发展。区域经济一体化发展对区域内国际直接投资(FDI)的流入是否产生了预期的促进效应,这种效应的发生又与哪些因素密切相关?从跨国公司的投资动机出发,对欧盟1996-2006年面板数据的分析发现,区域经济一体化发展对FDI流入有显著促进作用,成员国的经济发展水平、服务业发展水平等经济初始禀赋条件对投资效应有显著影响。我国在制定参与区域经济合作的相关措施时可以从中得到一些有益的启示。     

西欧主要政党干部的培养与选拔探析

一个政党能不能不断培养和推出大批优秀的领导人才,在很大程度上影响着该党的政治能力。西欧政党在对干部的物色与发掘、提名与选举、监督与管理、干部的教育与培训等环节都形成了自己的突出特点,其干部培养选拔体现了突出的“选举导向”,干部选拔过程突出了公开性与竞争性原则,干部来源体现了一定的开放性与多元性,干部角色遵循了“非兼职”原则,保持了专业化、职业化。     

欧盟《非合同之债法律适用条例》评析

《非合同之债法律适用条例》实现了欧盟非合同之债法律选择规则的统一,是欧盟国际私法"共同体化"的重要进展。《条例》在法律选择的一般规则中采取结果发生地、意思自治、共同属人法与例外条款相结合的做法,同时规定了具体关系的冲突规范以及法律选择中的其他问题。《条例》为我国非合同之债法律选择立法提供了借鉴。     

Gender differences and equality issues in Europe: critical aspects of gender mainstreaming policies

Gender mainstreaming is the major global strategy for the promotion of gender equality. Clear intergovernmental mandates for gender mainstreaming have been developed for all the major areas of work of the United Nations and the European Commission, including disarmament, poverty reduction, macro-economics, health, education and trade. The evaluation of equal opportunities mainly focuses on qualification measures for unemployed women and improvements in childcare facilities, and on consideration of gender mainstreaming in other policy areas as well as macro-economic effects on employment and unemployment of women. It is evident that the promotion of qualification measures and childcare facilities increases the activity rate of women, although there remain doubts about the quality and sustainability of many measures and the impact on families. In particular this article focuses on the relation between gender mainstreaming and equality issues to examine whether and how the debate on the topic is a real way to improve equality without missing gender differences and women's rights.     

The Tunnel at the End of the Light: the Crisis of Transition in Hungary

The economic, political and social transition processes of the last two decades, far from being in harmony, clearly have a detrimental rather than an enriching influence on each other. These processes will never become harmonised just by themselves in a natural fashion. The worst obstacle of a successful transformation is that the chief actors, such as the government, the market and the representatives of the society. The Prince, the Merchant and the Citizen do not show the necessary commitment, competence and determination to create a new, effective type of partnership. This is a challenge which urgently demands answers on all levels of governance, economic and social life. This must be done in the frames of local communities, and on the regional, the European and the global levels. Nearly twenty years after the political turnabout, Hungary now needs a new social contract and must lay down the ethical, political, institutional and intellectual foundations for its twenty-first century democracy.

Pension reforms in EU11 countries: An evaluation of post‐socialist pension policies

This article evaluates the pension policy pathways of the 11 former state socialist nations that have joined the European Union since 2004. Focusing primarily on the post‐2004 period, the analysis discusses the most important measurable outcomes of these countries’ pension reforms, in terms of poverty alleviation, pension adequacy and fiscal sustainability. Going beyond the quantifiable concepts, we also investigate the quality of the 11 countries’ pension systems in terms of equity as well as efficiency, emphasizing the less conspicuous design errors present in these systems. Although these errors have received little attention to date, they may harm pension schemes along several dimensions, including their fiscal sustainability.     

Bridging Rhetoric and Practice: New Perspectives on Barriers to Gendered Change

ABSTRACT

This article presents a new methodology, Gender Knowledge Contestation Analysis, and uses it to examine the processes under way when transformative gender equality policies, such as gender mainstreaming are implemented. Drawing on data gathered in the European Commission, the findings show the processes linking high-level rhetorical policy statements, strategic policies, and daily working practices. This analysis enables exploration of the mechanisms through which indifference to and nonawareness of gendered policy problems are collectively constituted and methods through which they can be challenged. Findings thus deepen our understanding of barriers to the implementation of gender mainstreaming and the steps required for its effective implementation.     

Seemingly unrelated systems of econometric equations

A generalization of Zellner's SUR model is derived for sets of seemingly unrelated systems of econometric equations. The resulting structural form – worked out for a set of Cowles Commission-type simultaneous equations systems – is general enough to include any SUR-type or panel-type specification of systems of econometric equations with contemporaneously correlated errors. Maximum estimation efficiency is obtained by treating all the individual subsystems at once rather than in a subsystem-by-subsystem fashion.     

The Promethean role of Europe: changing narratives of the political and scholarly left

ABSTRACT

The gradual abandoning of the ‘socialism in one country’ doctrine during the post-war period and the intensive transformation of European social democracy in the 1990s pushed social democratic politicians and intellectuals into the front line of advocates of a unified and powerful Europe. They contributed to the inclusion of social democratic and environmentalist values in the EU’s official narrative. The success of European integration and George W. Bush’s presidency created the narrative of the Promethean role of Europe. Scholars with a social democratic or environmentalist background created this narrative and it was also shaped by authors’ national contexts.