SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF REAL ESTATE: DECISION SUPPORT MODEL AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE PERIOD OF CRISIS

The aim of this paper is to propose a decision support model for real estate development and recommendations that could help Lithuania during economic crises. Research, theoretical and practical tasks of sustainable real estate development process were revised, particular examples presented. Different models and methods for analysis of real estate development discussed. Decision support model, encompassing extensive analysis of the global trends, best crisis management practices, assessment of the factual situation and provision of recommendations for different stakeholders under conditions of market instability presented. According to proposed model, the research was performed by studying the expertise of advanced industrial economies and by adapting such to Lithuania while taking into consideration its specific history, development level, needs and traditions. Basing on these findings, accumulated know-how, the results of previous scientific studies and practical insights of the other authors, specific recommendations to avoid crisis and minimize its consequences in macro-, meso- and micro- levels were provided. Recommendations illustrate holistic point of view and assumption that real estate development consists of creativity, research and art.

American Opinion on Trade

American Opinion on Trade: Preferences without Politics explains how American voters form opinions on trade policy and why those preferences can remain at odds with policy choices of political actors and parties who depend on their votes. The book shows that Americans weave together distinct and at times countervailing beliefs about trade’s effect on themselves, their communities, and the country. Initial chapters describe gender, race, and community based sources of protectionist sentiment. Later chapters focus on media and campaign portrayals of trade and their influence on Americans’ continued negative perception of the effect of trade on American jobs even as the United States continues to promote policies sustaining globalization. The final chapter discusses the difficulty faced by politicians and parties navigating these diverse and malleable sources of trade sentiment, particularly when encumbered with voting histories supportive of trade liberalization. It identifies party convergence on trade as a source of the diminished salience in American politics and compares the American experience with that of eight other advanced industrial economies. The book concludes by noting the potential for the reemerging influence of trade policy, particularly in light of the return of trade discourse in the 2016 Presidential campaigns.

The State, Civil Society, and the Canadian Agricultural Biotechnology Industry

There are complex ways in which agricultural production, biotechnology, and the interventions by the state and civil society are interconnected. Advanced capitalism is characterized by a general (albeit temporally and spatially uneven) tendency towards technological change in its various forms. In contemporary times, biotechnology is one such form. As with all forms of technology, its emergence is a contradictory process. As an industrial phenomenon, biotechnology may be seen as an opportunity for individual segments of the capitalist class for accumulation of exchange value as well as a capitalist growth strategy at the sectoral level. Its emergence is indicative of an instantiated counter-struggle on the part of specific capitals against impinging price competition in the agricultural industry and, at a macro-scale, of the intensifying decline in the rate of profit in advanced industrial economies. The emergence and utilization of biotechnology both as a means of production and as a means of increasing (monopolistic) profit is part of a wider process of market-oriented reforms in the agrarian sector occurring at national and international scales. However, interventions on the part of the state which generally tends to play an enabling role, and of civil society whose aim is to at least partly resist the expansion of the market for biotechnology, have not ceased, so the outcomes of market-based restructuring in general and the use and consequences of biotechnology in particular are anything but automatic. The argument is illustrated with empirical evidence from the development, adoption, and production of agricultural biotechnology in Canada.

1. Framing the BRICS

‘Framing the BRICS’ explains that the BRICS can be viewed according to three different frameworks. First, as initially conceived by Goldman Sachs, the BRIC describes a set of big and fast-growing economies. Second, the BRICS has developed into an informal diplomatic club with a dual personality as both an insider and outsider in the global system. Third, the BRICS can be viewed as representing a geostrategic challenge and possible transformative threat to the existing international order dominated by the United States and the advanced industrial economies of the West. Is there potential for the BRICS to act as a rival to the G7 and a destabilizing force in the Western-centred global system?

Some Perspectives on the Migration of Skilled Professionals from Ghana

In the last four decades, transnational movements of both skilled and unskilled labor from developing countries to the advanced industrial economies have witnessed an unprecedented growth. Motivated largely by deteriorating livelihood conditions in the developing world and increasing demand for wealthy and highly skilled professionals in the developed economies, these movements have attracted a great deal of research attention and inspired public policy debates on their implications and results. Like other countries, Ghana has had a long history of movement of her nationals to various parts of the world for various reasons. However, in terms of the goal of enhancing the benefits of such emigration for Ghana, there appears to be a policy void. This article contributes to filling this gap. It discusses the merits and problems associated with the transnational movements of Ghanaian health and educational professionals and proposes ways to enhance the benefits. It also suggests pathways for aiding future migration policy formulation in Ghana.

Why Don't Asians Invest in Asia? The Determinants of Cross-Border Portfolio Holdings

This paper seeks to understand why Asian foreign investment is concentrated in financial markets outside of the region instead of in Asian markets. We analyze empirically the geographical composition of the cross-border portfolio holdings of more than 40 source countries. We compare these benchmark results with those of four subgroups: advanced industrial economies, emerging market economies, European economies, and Asia-Pacific economies. The lack of liquidity in Asian financial markets turns out to be one reason why Asian capital is invested predominantly outside the region, notwithstanding the short distances and large trade flows between Asian economies. Initiatives to improve the liquidity of Asian financial markets, therefore, may be a useful way to stimulate financial integration within the region.

From Employment to Entrepreneurship: Shifting Perspectives in Europe and the US on Knowledge Creation and Labour Market Competition

Technology is making smaller scale, distributed production more economical, raising global competition and forcing change on traditional firms in mature markets. Change was gradual for decades but accelerated during the last ten or fifteen years as new computing and communications (C&C) technologies helped coordinate production flows, making firms break up and distribute their value chains over markets of subcontractors and changing the work environment of individuals. I investigate the consequences for individuals of the faster creative destruction process that is taking place through the turnover of firms rather than internally within firms. I conclude that labour market risks are changing such that entrepreneurial ability, intellectual flexibility and a capacity to learn efficiently from experience will become competitive advantages for individuals. I also conclude that efficient education may offer a way of countering the ongoing polarization of labour markets and I derive a platform theory of cumulative learning from experience that emphasizes the acquisition of basic skills during early school years. A varied and advanced job environment to learn from is probably the most important factor, sustaining the competitive advantage of the advanced industrial economies. A stylized comparison of the educational and labour market systems suggests that the European systems are at a disadvantage compared to that of the US.