Trade Patterns and International Technology Spillovers: Theory and Evidence from Japanese and European Patent Citations

International diffusion of knowledge is important to both the speed of the world’s technology frontier expansion and income convergence across countries. For example, Eaton and Kortum (1996) estimate innovation and technology diffusion among 19 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to test predictions from a quality ladders model of endogenous growth with patenting.

Vertical Versus Horizontal Foreign Direct Investment and Technology Spillovers

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade are two major channels of international diffusion of technological knowledge (Keller 2004,2010). While a number of empirical studies confirm significant spillover effects of knowledge through imports, the empirical findings on technology spillover effects through FDI are conflicting. In particular, there is relatively little evidence of spillovers of knowledge from inward FDI to the host country’s firms in the same industry. For example, Haskel et al. (2007) examine the situation in the United Kingdom and find significantly positive productivity spillovers from FDI.

Gone Global: The International Diffusion of Hedge Fund Activism

After decades of being primarily a US-based phenomenon, the globalization of hedge fund (HF) activism is increasing at an unprecedented speed. This chapter reviews the empirical research on HF activism by systematically comparing studies conducted in the US and outside the US context. The nascent body of work on HF activism is categorized and discussed within four research sub-streams: the antecedents of HF activism; HF activists’ tactics; the responses of target firms to HF activist campaigns, and the outcomes of the latter for HF activists, target firms, and other stakeholders. Six select cases of interventions by a prominent HF activist illustrate the cross-country differences in hedge fund activist practices outlined in the literature review. The chapter concludes by outlining current research gaps and formulating research questions that could advance our knowledge on hedge fund activism in a global context.

Activists Against Autocrats: TSMO Networks and Democratic Diffusion

Do transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs) promote the international diffusion of democracy? If so, how? Scholars of democratization have studied a plethora of international factors in the spread of democracy, including geographic or regional proximity, colonial history, trade and alliance networks, and joint inter-governmental organization (IGO) memberships. Few have studied the role of TSMO networks in democratic diffusion. We theorize that TSMOs empower and connect civil societies and thus promote democracy from the “bottom up.” Leveraging a new TSMO Dataset and data on the dimensions of democracy from the Varieties of Democracy project over the 1953–2013 period, we find that TSMOs promote democratic diffusion. TSMOs are strongest at diffusing participatory democracy. TSMOs also contribute to the diffusion of electoral democracy but do so by promoting the diffusion of freedom of association and freedom of expression rather than elections.

The elusive promise of universal social protection: the case of the Greek general minimum income (GMI)

PurposeThe need to alleviate poverty and achieve the United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Universal Social Protection (USP) mechanisms is a high priority for governments and international organisations (IOs). This paper focuses on the recent introduction of a general minimum income (GMI) in Greece, in the context of the international diffusion of governing expertise. It examines whether the “universal” scheme being implemented constitutes a paradigm shift likely to offer solutions to the country's previous fragmented and unjust welfare system, and to problems the society has faced since the 2010s depression.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses critical grounded theory, with data gathering through iterative field observations and semi-structured interviews.FindingsResults highlight the elusiveness of USP normative promises: rather than enhancing people's effective freedoms to act as self-determining agents, USP pushes the poor to adapt to current degraded socio-economic conditions. Participation in the shadow economy is a structural feature of USP; it is implicitly tolerated insofar as it is regarded, in the words of the World Bank (WB), an “engine for growth”. This constitutes an institutional and governance challenge for the implementation and expansion of social welfare programmes and could compromise the 2030 SDGs Agenda.Originality/valueWhile research to date has examined the “modernisation” of the Greek welfare system in a national or comparative perspective, it adds to the literature by framing the study in the field of global social policy, shedding light on the discrepancies between internationally designed mechanisms and the normative aims of USP.

The contribution of Welwyn Garden City to the international diffusion of the British garden city idea

The centenary of Welwyn Garden City is a good opportunity to take stock of the international diffusion of the British Garden City Movement and particularly the contribution of wgc as a global influencer, especially in the United States of America. The Movement has been much studied by architects, town planners and urban designers, and by urban and planning historians. Yet beyond professional circles and those that live in the garden cities, the British people remain largely unaware of the global influence of the two most important British garden cities of the twentieth century, namely Letchworth and Welwyn. The Garden City Movement impacted town planning globally, assisted in no small part by the contribution of the leading garden city advocate, Frederic Osborn.

Community Policing in Comparative Perspective

Community (oriented) policing has become one of the most popular models of policing worldwide. After its initial implementation in many Western countries, community policing has also been transferred to transitional societies, which often lack strong democratic traditions. The international diffusion of community policing should not make us forget that community policing comes in all shapes and sizes and is highly varied in its operations. After having defined the concept and analyzed its rise in Anglo-American countries, this diversity is illustrated by scrutinizing its implementation in different national configurations: a continental European country relatively open to Anglo-American influences (the Netherlands), socially homogeneous countries with a high level of trust in the police (the Nordic countries), a centralized country with an administrative Napoleonic tradition (France), and postconflict societies (South Africa and Northern Ireland). These various national trajectories highlight the common drivers and barriers in community policing reforms: political priorities (through emphasizing crime fighting or zero tolerance policing), socioeconomic disparities and ethnic tensions (which may imply a history of mistrust and vicious circles between the police and some segments of the public), professional identities and interests (disqualifying community police officers as “social workers”), and organizational resources (managerial procedures, lack of training and human resources) that may hinder the reform process. These diverse experiences also draw attention to the variety of context-dependent factors that impact the fate of community policing reforms. Political climates, police–government relations, socioeconomic inequalities, and police traditions may differ, which requires further analysis of the various political, historical, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts of specific community policing reforms.

Spreading the sharing economy: Institutional conditions for the international diffusion of Uber, 2010-2017

This study examines the factors that facilitated the international diffusion of Uber, one of the fastest growing global companies in the sharing economy. We particularly focus on the legal and institutional conditions under which this ride-sharing platform could spread to customers online. Using a unique cross-national, longitudinal dataset, we employ event history models to investigate the effect of institutional environment on the diffusion of Uber. The results suggest that the establishment of the rule of law has a positive impact on the spread of Uber, even after controlling for economic and political characteristics. In addition, the overall quality of governmental regulations on markets is positively related to the diffusion of this ride-sharing platform. Our study contributes to the emerging literature on the sharing economy by identifying critical institutional factors that enable the transformation of business models worldwide.