Publikasjoner
Majority Rules and Incentives : International voting affects domestic policies
A "majority rule" defines the number of club-members that must approve a policy proposed to replace the status quo. Since the majority rule thus dictates the extent to which winners must compensate losers, it also determines the incentives to invest in order to become a winner of anticipated projects. If the required majority is large, the members invest too little because of a hold-up problem, if it is small, the members invest too much in order to become a member of the majority coalition. To balance these opposing forces, the majority rule should increase in the level of minority protection (or enforcement capacity) and the project’s value but decrease in the ex post heterogeneity. Strategic delegation turns out to be sincere exclusively under this majority rule. Externalities can be internalized by adjusting the rule. With heterogeneity in size or initial conditions, votes should be appropriately weighted or double majorities required. The analysis provides recommendations for Europe’s future constitution.
Uniform or Different Policies
I analyse the negotiation between two countries, or regions, that are trying to make an agreement in order to internalize externalities. Local preferences are local information, but reluctance to participate in the agreement is signaled by delay. Conditions are derived for when it is efficient to restrict the attention to policies that are uniform across regions - with and without side payments - and when it is optimal to forbid side payments in the negotiations. While policy differentiation and side payments let the policy be tailed to local conditions, they create conflicts between the regions and thus delay. If political centralization implies uniformity, as is frequently assumed in the federalism literature, the results describe when centralization outperforms decentralized cooperation. But the results also provide a foundation for this uniformity assumption and characterize when it is likely to hold.
Tollnedtrapping for industrivarer i WTO - Virkninger for Norge
Notatet diskuterer mulige virkninger av tollreduksjoner gjennom forhandlinger i WTO for eksport av norske industrivarer. Ulike forslag om tollreduksjoner, som bruken av den såkalte Girards formel diskuteres. Det vises at reduksjoner i tråd med Girards formel kan gi økt norsk eksport på i underkant av to prosent for et utvalg av land. Virkningene er ulikt fordelt over handelspartnere og sektorer. For land Norge har preferanseavtaler med gir tollreduksjoner gjennom WTO ingen økning i eksport. For andre land vil tollreduksjoner gi til dels betydelig effekt.
EU Security Policy: Contrasting Rationalism and Social Constructivism
There are two very different stories that can be told about EU security policy during 2003. On the one hand, some argue that the deep division among important EU countries in relation to the Iraq war is a final confirmation of the absence of an EU security policy. On the other hand, some argue that the last year has been a year of considerable intensity in relation to EU security policy – despite the fact that EU cannot yet be characterised as a unitary actor. One of the reasons for these very different stories is that they are based on fundamentally different ideas and theories about the basic mechanisms in international relations. In this paper Pernille Rieker will contrast how two different approaches, namely Rationalistism and Social constructivism would analyse EU security policy. The paper starts with a short presentation of the meta-theoretical foundation of these approaches. The second part discusses how each of them views the conditions for multilateral cooperation and security. In the third part these perspectives on EU security policy will be discussed and some empirical data that support each of them will be presented. Finally, the paper ends on a discussion concerning whether these approaches must be seen as being alternative or complementary approaches.
EFTAs frihandelsavtaler: Betydning for Norge
Norges eksport er de siste ti år blitt «globalisert» ved at en klart lavere andel går til EU, og eksporten øker til en rekke nye markeder. Det handelspolitiske forhold til land utenfor EU blir derfor viktigere. Notatet analyserer hvordan EFTAs nettverk av frihandelsavtaler bør utformes for å sikre norsk markedsadgang i disse nye markedene, der barrierene for vare- og tjenesteeksport i en del tilfeller er høye. Det har de siste år skjedd en rask akselerasjon i utbredelsen av frihandelsavtaler på verdensbasis. EFTA har i dag frihandelsavtaler med 12 land utenfor EU-25, og forhandlinger med ytterligere fem land. EFTAs avtaler og initiativer omfatter en del av de viktigste nye markeder, men også en del land der handelen er svært liten og avtalene sannsynligvis vil ha liten effekt. Flere viktige land mangler på «EFTAs liste». Hensyn til markedsadgang for eksport taler for at EFTA bør vurdere frihandelsavtaler med en del viktige land i Asia (for eksempel Japan, Sør-Korea og Kina) og Øst-Europa (Russland og Ukraina), samt i Amerika (Brasil og USA). For å unngå at frihandelsavtaler underminerer WTO, bør EFTA-landene samtidig arbeide for ikkediskriminerende handelsliberalisering i WTO, særlig ved å fjerne tollen for industrivarer.
The Intangible Globalization : Explaining the Patterns of International Trade in Services
We identify the determinants of service trade and foreign affiliate sales in a gravity model, using recently collected bilateral data for the OECD countries and their trading partners, as well as new indicators for barriers to service imports and foreign affiliate sales. We emphasize the strong links between service FDI and trade, since a large proportion of trade is facilitated through foreign affiliate sales. Trade barriers and corruption in the importing country have a strong negative impact on service trade and foreign affiliate sales. We find a strong home market effect in service trade, and rich countries do not tend to import more, which may indicate that rich countries have a competitive advantage in service trade. Free trade agreements do not contribute to increased service trade. A full liberalization of international trade in services in our model, lifts exports by as much as 50% for some countries, and no less than 30%.
Study of selected Fredskorpset exchange projects
The present study examines nine Fredskorpset exchange projects, in order to assess the degree to which the goals specified have been reached. The basis for the exchanges is the partnerships established between institutions in Norway and counterpart entities in the South. The projects studied encompass a wide variety of such partnerships, illustrating the flexible and innovative attitude that Fredskorpset has shown during its first two years of operation. By basing its work on such partnerships, Fredskorpset has avoided some of the weaknesses of traditional volunteer programs. In terms of achievements, there are variations among the projects. While individual learning of participants was strong in all cases, the degree to which institutional benefits were achieved varied. Well-matched partners with sufficiently strong institutional structures; thorough planning of exchanges; and participants selected in accordance with well-defined needs for professional skills were seen to be important factors for successful projects.
How the Axis of Evil Metaphor Changes Iranian Images of the USA
The respondents feared an American attack, and regarded their membership in «the Axis of Evil» as a stab in the back after Iranian help in Afghanistan. This demonisation was seen overwhelmingly in terms of American geopolitical designs, ignorance and downright irrationality – an expansionist superpower that is dangerously out of control. The WTC attack initially caused a strengthening of Iranian national unity and a more coherent foreign policy, but most of the respondents regard «the Axis of Evil» as killing the nascent dialogue with the USA stone dead and coming as a godsend to the conservatives and the ultras.
Evaluation of Fadcanic's teacher training program in Nicaragua's Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast
Since 1997, FADCANIC has been implementing a training program for unqualified teachers working in primary schools of Nicaragua’s Southern autonomous region of the Atlantic Coast. SAIH, the Norwegian NGO that has been funding this program, has commissioned the present evaluation. It concludes that the program has had a significant impact in terms of improving education in the region through addressing one of the most urgent needs of the educational sector, namely teacher qualifications. However, the evaluation also points out a number of other limitations for the sector, including lack of resources for materials, physical infrastructure and reasonable teacher salaries, as well as general social problems of the region. It recommends that the program is continued, and that even greater emphasis is put upon creating a teacher education appropriate to the multilingual and -cultural reality.