The UK Wimbledon Strategy

Although also labelled a ‘liberal’ market economy, the UK has strongly pursued internationalized statism in stark contrast to the US. It has followed a ‘Wimbledon’ strategy of seeking to attract Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) from all over the world even if they take large stakes in prominent British firms. Both formal and informal instruments have been actively used to welcome SWFs, who have taken significant stakes in leading British firms in strategic sectors and bought nationally symbolic buildings and brands. The UK has followed strong internationalized statism thanks to the dominance of the political executive in policy making that has allowed it to frame SWF investments in terms of economic governance rather than national security and the weakness of the legislature in raising concerns. Despite domestic privatizations, it has welcomed overseas state capital that has reinforced existing strategies of aiding privileged sectors such as finance.

Restrictive or expansive? European Investment Bank's challenge to equipoise climate finance with post-pandemic boost

PurposeUnique among European Union (EU) economic governance entities and multilateral banks, the European Investment Bank (EIB) possesses a dual nature, as an EU body and a bank. The EIB has been ever evolving to adapt to policy and market developments and to reflect the geo-economic landscape. In 2019, in association with the EU's Green Deal, the bank announced its metamorphosis into a “Climate Bank,” ending its fossil fuel lending after 2021. Additionaly, upon the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its attendant health and economy crisis, EU decision-makers have solicited the bank to support both urgent needs for tackling and countering the spread of the disease and the post-pandemic economic recovery. Nevertheless, devastated economic actors in need of assistance fall within many sectors, including some less green ones.Design/methodology/approachThis article is grounded on agency theory for developing a generic stakeholder framework, which is then subsequently applied in investigating the EIB, in interaction with its main stakeholders.FindingsThis article investigates the EIB stakeholders in pursuing these two seemingly contradictory objectives of exclusively restricting its activity to green funding and expanding its action for achieving a broad impact in the real economy. By exploring this tension, the article argues that by prioritizing the post-COVID restart, the EIB risks to deviate from its strict green commitment.Practical implicationsThe analysis of the EIB's divergent stakeholder stances demonstrates some ambivalence in future EIB activity in an effort to equipoise climate finance with a post-pandemic boost. The same ambivalence might equally occur with other major economic governance actors. The stakeholder framework developed and applied in the case of the EIB can be useful for studying also the stakeholder dynamics of other organizations.Social implicationsThe analysis demonstrates a tension between selective climate-related funding for “building back better” and the need for a wide broaching of countercyclical stimulus, with implications for economic and social actors alike.Originality/valueThe approach is novel, as it develops a new analytical framework for understanding stakeholder dynamics and tests it empirically on the EIB. This constitutes the first study of EIB stakeholder management.

ASSESSMENT OF THE PROSPECTS FOR RESTORING THE FINANCIAL SECURITY OF THE STATE

In the modern period of economic governance, the assessment of the financial security of the state takes place in different directions, different groups of indicators, different methods. Mainly in scientific works, there is a desire for bringing the various components of the assessment of financial security to an integral indicator, taking into account the normalized values of individual indicators, which requires an assessment of their weight and always contains certain subjectivity through the involvement of experts in this process. Considering that the financial system of any country is the basis for the functioning of the economy, and Ukraine has a complex of accumulated socio-economic problems that constantly accompany it, this predetermines the high relevance of this area of research in recent decades. Considering approaches to assessing the level of financial and economic security, it is necessary to refer to the Methodological Recommendations for calculating the level of economic security of Ukraine, in which for this purpose the method of reconciling their estimates with individual systems of advantages that are not publicly available was used. Therefore, in this study, when forming this system of preferences, which affects the direction of the formation of the national strategy of financial and economic security, it is proposed to use the existing cause-and-effect relationships between its components. Taking into account these cause-and-effect relationships and according to the introduced symbols, a matrix of paired comparisons was done by expert means, which determines the direct impact of some components of the country’s financial security on others. The analysis which is made in the article it possible to assess the dynamics in all areas of financial security on the basis of group indicators and identify the most problematic indicators. On the other hand, such an assessment does not give an idea of which risk zone certain indicators belong to, since each of them has its own limits of acceptable values, which is indicated in the article. This direction requires further research and will help determine whether the current state of the state’s financial security belongs to a particular risk zone. Keywords: assessment of financial security, financial system, integral indicator, budget security, currency security. JEL Classіfіcatіon G17, E22, E66 Formulas: 2; fig.: 0; tabl.: 3; bibl.: 20.

ASEAN's economic security and regional economic cooperation: Past, present, and future

Since the end of the Cold War, ASEAN has continuously increased its level of integration into the global economy to enhance regional economic prosperity and stability. Given the conceptual fluidity of economic security in international relations, however, ASEAN's firm commitment to promoting positive synergies between economic and security interests warrants further attention. In this vein, this article examines the evolving nature of ASEAN's economic security with a focus on regional economic initiatives, including trade agreements and the ASEAN Economic Community. The article suggests that ASEAN can maximize its potential for economic security when it increases the credibility of its commitment to regional economic cooperation and integration. To do so, ASEAN should more effectively address the issues of weak institutional capabilities and domestic political conflicts over regional economic governance. It should also proactively respond to unexpected challenges from external factors, such as US–China rivalry and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The progressive gendering of the European Union’s economic governance architecture

This study shows the correlation between the European integration process and the progress of gender equality objectives. In particular, it focuses on the effectiveness of economic governance tools to enhance coordination between national policies towards gender equality. The research question pertains to whether the new architecture of economic governance aims to consolidate the market model or correct gender imbalances. This aspect leads us to explore the diverse tools of national monitoring displayed in the recently reinforced governance, particularly the fiscal discipline policy as a conditioning framework, the European Semester as the current significant instrument for coordinating national policies, and the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and its Social Scoreboard annex. The analysis confirms that the potential of governance instruments to enhance gender equality is underused. Meanwhile, these tools set out a policy focused on consolidating the market model of competitiveness and fiscal discipline, rather than tackling gender inequalities