Archive for Almas Heshmati

Migration, Openness and the Global Preconditions of Smart Development

May 2, 2013 Almas Heshmati, Arno Tausch, Scholarly articles, Social Sciences Comments Off

Arno Tausch, Corvinus University, Innsbruck University

Almas Heshmati, Korea University

Boğaziçi Journal Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Vol. 26, no. 2 (2012), pp. 27-89.

Abstract
We present a first empirical reflection on smart development,’ its measurement, possible drivers and bottlenecks.’ We first provide cross-national data on how much ecological footprint is used in the nations of the world system to deliver a given amount of democracy, economic growth, gender equality, human development, research and development, and social cohesion. To this end, we first developed UNDP-type performance indicators on these six main dimensions of development and on their combined performance. We then show the non-linear regression trade-offs between ecological footprints per capita  on these six dimensions of development and their combined performance index. The residuals from these regressions are our new measures of smart development (a country experiences smart development, if it achieves a maximum development with a minimum of ecological footprint). We then look at the cross-national drivers and bottlenecks of this smart development and compare their predictive power using stepwise regression procedures. Apart from important variables and indicators, derived from sociological  dependency and world systems theories, we also test the predictive power of several other predictors as well. Our estimates underline the enormous importance of the transfer of resources from the center to the periphery, brought about by migration, with huge statistical observed positive effects of received worker remittances on smart human development, Happy Life Years, smart gender justice, smart R&D, and both formulations of the smart development index. Read more

Share

En sommes-nous encore à la période de la capitulation tranquille?

April 19, 2013 Almas Heshmati, Arno Tausch, Hichem Karoui, Scholarly articles Comments Off

Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar

Issue 15. Monograph: «Globalization of World System Research». April 2013

 

Author/s: Tausch, Arno; Heshmati, Almas; Jourdon, Philippe; Karoui, Hichem
Title: «En sommes-nous encore à la période de la capitulation tranquille?»
(¿Estamos todavía en el periodo de capitulación tranquila?)
Abstract: Although French sociology debated at length the issue of globalization, it is surprising to find that up to this day, for all purposes, it neglected the most consistent international attempt to quantitatively measure and study the effects of transnational capital penetration on the economic and social development of the host countries, put forward by the Swiss sociologist Volker Bornschier, from the 1980s onwards. Our article analyses IMF estimates of current economic growth in 180 countries (IMF, 2009), and nine other key indicators of current social global development and shows the relevance of this MNC/FMN penetration approach by Bornschier, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 2002, Bornschier/Ballmer-Cao, 1979, Bornschier/Chase-Dunn, 1985, and Bornschier/Chase-Dunn/Rubinson, 1978. Our paper shows the significant effects of MNC/FMN penetration or the increases of MNC/FMN penetration for the gross enrollment rate in higher education, unemployment, economic growth in 2010 (IMF), inequality and social security spending as a percentage of GDP, the rule of law, infant mortality, and survival rates of women at age 65. As correctly predicted Bornschier, MNC/FMN penetration reflects the power that transnational oligopolies wield over local economies, having a negative impact on the social performance of countries hosting the penetration of transnational capital, while positively affecting economic growth in the previous 1990-2005 economic cycle. Today, social polarization and stagnation increase as a consequence of the development model, based on high MNC/FMN penetration.
Keywords: International Relations and International Political Economy, General Economic Development, Technological Change and Growth, General Economic Development
JEL code: F50, O10 Read more
Share

The Effects of Multinational Corporation (MNC) Penetration on the Global Political Economy

April 10, 2012 Almas Heshmati, Arno Tausch Comments Off

A Re-analysis of a Recurrent Sociological Proposition with Contemporary Data

 In an article for the internationally well-known social science journal SOCIOLOGIA – Slovak Sociological Review (website:http://www.sav.sk/index.php?lang=sk&charset=&doc=journal-list&journal_no=36&lang_change=en) Tausch* and Heshmati* reconsider the effects of direct foreign investments on the host countries around the globe. A number of sociological analyses (Bandelji 2009 and Mahutga – Bandelji 2008), already applied such a question to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Is the growing penetration of host countries of multinational investment heralding the promised lands of stable economic growth and social cohesion, or is instead social polarization around the corner? In their re-analysis with contemporary data of one of the most influential essays ever published in international sociology (Bornschier – Chase-Dunn – Rubinson 1978), which predicted that direct foreign investment will increase economic inequality and that it will have a short-term dynamic, but a long-term stagnation effect on the economic growth of the host countries (Bornschier – Chase-Dunn – Rubinson 1978: 651), Tausch and Heshmati re-confirm the main thrust of the multinational corporation (MNC) penetration sceptical hypotheses and show that on the global level and in the 183 countries analysed there is indeed a very strong connection between foreign capital penetration in the mid-1990s on the one hand and rising inequality, deficient life expectancy, rising unemployment, and a deficient under five mortality rate in the first decade of the new Millennium on the other hand. Economic growth in the contemporary period (2010) is also being determined negatively by the long-term effects of multinational corporation penetration in the mid-1990s, while in the period between 1990 and 2005 the effect was positive. They thus confirm that the approach, established by Bandelji 2009 and Mahutga and Bandelji 2008, is a valid one, and can be generalized on a global level.

In this section, the international public is given access to the statistical data used in the article (PDF document and EXCEL document).
 
The article is available from the Journal.*
————————————————
*The Journal Sociología (SK ISSN 0049 – 1225, electronic version ISSN 1336-8613) is published bimonthly by the Institute for Sociology of Slovak Academy of Sciences. The journal is published without interruption since 1969. Since 1997 there are yearly four journal issues in Slovak and two issues in English under the title Sociologia – Slovak Sociological Review.
The journal is indexed in Current Contents: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Thomson ISI) and other databases.
Arno Tausch
Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary; Political Science at Innsbruck University, Innsbruck, Austria
 
Almas Heshmati
TEMEP, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Share

41 Indicators of Development

July 24, 2010 Almas Heshmati, Arno Tausch Comments Off

A public access codebook for the international development research community

Arno TAUSCH

Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Innsbruck University, Austria

E-mail: Arno.Tausch@uibk.ac.at

Box 1: The independent variables

% women in government, all levels is one of the UNDP’s long-term lead indicators of the institutionalization of political feminism. We time-lagged the variable and measured the it by around 1998. It was documented in the NDP HDR 2000. The idea of the indicator is to capture the real advance of women not only at the level of the top political administration of a given country, but at the general level of the central government, i.e. taking the important decision-making ministerial bureaucracies into account as well.

Read more

Share

Documentation: Polarisation sociale à l’ère de la mondialisation

January 31, 2010 Almas Heshmati, Arno Tausch, Hichem Karoui, Statistical data and interpretation 31 comments

Par :

Arno TAUSCH1

Professeur adjoint de sciences politiques à l’université d’Innsbruck, Autriche

E-mail: Arno.Tausch @ uibk.ac.at

Almas HESHMATI

Professeur d’économie

College of Engineering, TEMEP

Seoul National University

San 56-1, Shilim-dong, Kwanak-Gu, Seoul,

151-742 Seoul, South Korea

Email: heshmati@snu.ac.kr

Hichem KAROUI

Docteur en sociologie, Sorbonne, Paris

Email : info@hichemkaroui.com

1 Les opinions exprimées par Dr. Tausch dans cet article le sont exclusivement en sa qualité de professeur adjoint à l’université autrichienne, et ne reflètent pas nécessairement les opinions du gouvernement autrichien.



Bien que la sociologie française a longuement débattu la question de la mondialisation, il est surprenant de constater que jusqu’à ce jour, et à toutes fins utiles, elle a négligé la tentative internationale la plus cohérente pour mesurer quantitativement et étudier les effets de la pénétration du capital transnational sur le développement économique et social des pays d’accueil, proposée par le sociologue suisse Volker Bornschier, dès les années 1980. Notre article analyse les estimations du FMI concernant la croissance économique actuelle dans 180 pays (FMI, 2009), plus neuf autres indicateurs clefs du développement social mondial actuel. Il montre la pertinence de cette approche de Bornschier par la pénétration des sociétés multinationales –MNC-,1 (1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 2002), Bornschier / Ballmer-Cao (1979), Bornschier / Chase-Dunn (1985); Bornschier / Chase-Dunn / Rubinson (1978). Pour de l’espace, les lecteurs peuvent consulter la documentation technique de cet article ci-dessous:

Mots-clés: Relations internationales et économie politique internationale – Développement économique général – Changement technologique et croissance – Développement économique –

1 MNC : Multinational Corporation.

Téléchargez la documentation pour cet article (PDF):Documentation: Polarisation sociale à l’ère de la mondialisation



Share

Asabiyya: Re-Interpreting Value Change in Globalized Societies

September 26, 2009 Almas Heshmati, Arno Tausch One comment

Arno Tausch
Almas Heshmati

This article reflects the renewed interest of economics and the social science discipline in value systems and religion. The World Values Survey provided a data framework of global value change, whose quantitative results led Barro (2004) to analyze the connections between some dimensions of recent sociological religious value research with economic growth. The present essay starts from this methodological position, and links value systems with economic performance in a much wider and macrosociological framework. We further develop the well-known Inglehart and Welzel (2003) map of global values, and develop the idea of “Asabiyya” (“social cohesion”), as a counter-model to both Barro and Inglehart and Welzel approaches. A frequently asked question is whether “modernization” without “spiritual values” in a globalized world economy and world society possible in the long run? Starting from principal component analysis, it is shown that rather two factors are decisive in understanding global value change: a continuum of “traditional versus secular”, and a continuum “cheating versus active society”. Asabiyya in the 21st Century, as a way out from the modernization trap of societies, characterized by large-scale social anomaly, is a high secularism combined with a high active society score, thus avoiding the “modernization trap”. Read more

Share

A Sequential Malmquist-Luenberger Productivity Index

September 20, 2009 Almas Heshmati Comments Off

by Donghyun Oh, Almas Heshmati
(May 2009)

Abstract:
This study proposes an alternative methodology for measuring environmentally sensitive productivity growth. The rationale of this methodology is to consider the features of technology appropriately by excluding a spurious technical regress based on the macroeconomic perspective. In order to consider this condition and to develop an alternative index, a directional distance function and the concept of the successive sequential production possibility set are combined. With this combination, the conventional Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index is modified to give the alternative sequential environmentally sensitive productivity index. This proposed index is employed in measuring productivity growth and its decomposed components of OECD countries for the period 1970-2003. We distinguish two main empirical findings. First, even though the components of the conventional Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index and the proposed index are different, the developments of productivity are similar. Second, unlike in previous studies, the efficiency change is the main contributor to the earlier study period, whereas the effect of technical change has prevailed over time. Read more

Share