Institutional Point Of View Research Articles

The institutional dimension of the inequality–corruption nexus: A varieties of capitalism assessment

AbstractAre unequal societies prone to the abuse of economic power to influence political decisions for private gains? We investigate how changes in inequality affect changes in corruption, controlling for comparative political economy factors. Our varieties of capitalism (VoC) approach explains corruption trends from an institutional viewpoint: liberal market economies (LMEs) exhibit lower corruption despite having high inequality. Coordinated market economies exhibit lower inequality but higher corruption, while state‐led non‐liberal economies have low inequality despite showing a range of degrees of corruption. Resource exporting economies show high corruption as well as inequality, akin to developing countries despite having higher national incomes. The relationship between changes in inequality and corruption diverges between the different VoC: strongly positive in coordinated and state‐led market economies, of an unclear sign in resource‐exporting economies, weak in resource‐poor developing countries, and downright negative in LMEs. Institutions are thus critical mediators of the socioeconomics of corruption.

REDEFINING MEDIA:

This article, based on changing trend of “mediamorphosis”, discusses an institutional viewpoint on media. It elaborates why a new definition to solve the problems of law making, drawing communication and media position in the state and society, and to liberate its users from the notion of single technology dominance in regulations is the need of the hour. It proposes that media may be envisaged as a process institution for transforming information into knowledge for the audience by creation and enlargement of message through instruments of process and delivery.

Structural analysis of reverse mortgages in Taiwan

This study investigated the framework of reverse mortgage (RM) programs in Taiwan, with a particular emphasis on the perspectives of both debtors and creditors. Employing the Lee–Carter model, the research estimated mortality rates in Taiwan while utilizing the theoretical framework to analyze various aspects of RM. House prices were assessed using the house price index as a foundational metric for estimating prices, along with lump-sum loanable amounts and RM considerations. Empirical analysis was conducted on debtors’ loans and incomes and financial institutions’ perspectives. The study delved into parameters such as maximum loanable amounts and income replacement ratios for debtors based on demographic factors such as sex, age, and occupation. Furthermore, the structure of RM programs was scrutinized from the viewpoint of financial institutions, considering factors such as rental income, remaining house value, creditor insurance protection, premium expenses, and creditor profitability. A series of simulations were performed to gauge the effects of different variables on the outcomes. The normal distribution of the house price index (HPI), as verified through the Anderson-Darling (AD) test and Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test, bolstered the theoretical findings. This study’s primary contribution lies in its comprehensive exploration of the structure and advantages of RMs from the dual perspectives of debtors and creditors, a departure from insights from previous research predominantly focused on financial institutions. This research can aid debtors and creditors in evaluating RM programs and making informed decisions regarding asset allocation, thereby facilitating the selection of more suitable programs tailored to debtor characteristics.

FINANCIAL SERVICES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BIGTECH ECOSYSTEM

The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the needs of consumers of goods and services. As a result, there was an increase in the volume of BigTech activity. At the same time, BigTech took into account the expectations of consumers in obtaining complementary services. This led to the growth of BigTech's offerings of financial services to its clients. The purpose of the article is to clarify the place of financial services in the BigTech ecosystem and to identify the priority areas of activation of the provision of financial services by BigTech firms. The article describes the BigTech ecosystem from an institutional point of view. The study presents the composition of participants of the BigTech ecosystem, which are connected by a digital platform and the use of information technologies that contribute to the sale of goods and the provision of services, including financial ones. The technical, economic, legal, and marketing prerequisites for providing BigTech financial services have been identified. This made it possible to substantiate the influence of consumer needs on the formation of the policy of providing BigTech financial services. It has been confirmed that BigTech implements a policy of providing financial services that meet customer expectations. The weaknesses and strengths of BigTech financial services are identified. The threats and opportunities of providing BigTech financial services are substantiated. The conducted research made it possible to formulate geographical, product, and client directions for the development of the provision of BigTech financial services.

Charles Bettelheim and World War II, or The Making of a Planning Doctor

Abstract The French Marxist economist Charles Bettelheim (1913–2006) conducted after the end of World War II important scientific activity on economic planning, together with an international consulting activity in developing countries, as a non-Soviet expert on Soviet planning. He was the Frenchman who whispered the Soviet way of planning in the ears of Nasser in Egypt, Nehru in India, and Che Guevara in Cuba, to mention only three obvious examples. The expression “planning doctors” is proposed in this article to designate this kind of economist who advised governments in the setting up of socialist five-year plans. In order to understand how Bettelheim became a planning doctor, the article reconstructs the formative period of his career and what role World War II played in this making, starting with his studies in political economy in France, his trip to the USSR in 1936, and his works on Soviet statistics. It is shown how World War II affected Bettelheim from an intellectual point of view, with his study of the German economy at war, and from an institutional point of view, as his encounters during the war proved instrumental for the setting of his postwar career as a planning doctor.

Towards Just and Integrated Energy Transition in Taiwan: A Socio-Spatial Perspective

Energy justice remains relatively under-researched outside of the Western context, especially in Asia. This paper addresses that gap by investigating the process of energy transition in Taiwan through the socio-spatial lens and institutional points of view. The paper underscores the urgency of recognizing and addressing the overlooked social injustices across different territories, advocating an integrated planning approach that incorporates a just energy transition perspective to reduce the uneven negative impacts of deploying renewable energies across communities and regional territories. Drawing on a case study of the Changhua region, the paper identifies conflicts arising from the rapid deployment of renewable energy, such as land use changes that displace farming activities and negatively affect rural stakeholders. The findings suggest the need to urgently address the gap between top–down goals in energy transition and bottom–up considerations to raise awareness and prevent injustices that risk deepening the existing socio-economic inequities. This paper also proposes a new framework for both new research and policy for (just) energy transition, incorporating distributional, procedural, and recognitional concerns together with a critical view on the cross-scale and cross-sectoral integration as part of the spatial planning process.

Celje ali Cilli: kultura med nemško okupacijo

This contribution focuses on the cultural life in Celje and its protagonists during World War II. In the attempt to Germanise Slovenia and its inhabitants, the German occupiers started implementing measures for the eradication of the local ethnicity and culture immediately after their arrival, and their primary target was the Slovenian culture. Consequently, from the institutional point of view, the latter was utterly destroyed and its personnel eliminated. Only the cultural monuments created by German artists – or those allegedly proving that the occupied territories, among them Lower Styria, actually constituted the German cultural area – were preserved. Therefore, the occupiers’ cultural policy as an integral and crucial part of the broader propaganda apparatus in the service of Germanisation was largely based on the German tradition or its restoration.

Comparison Of Management Of Nihayatul Amal Islamic Boarding School In Central Karawang Regency With Al-Muhajirin Islamic Boarding School In Purwakarta Regency

This article discusses the comparison of management at the Nihayatul Amal and Al-Muhajirin Islamic boarding schools, with the aim of knowing the similarities, differences, disadvantages and advantages between the two. Then this article is in the form of qualitative research with a critical analysis approach to the two Islamic boarding schools, and the data taken is the result of searching for previous research such as journals, books and so on as well as interviews with the alumni concerned. The result obtained is that these two Islamic boarding schools have their own characteristics, especially in terms of curriculum where the Nihayatul Amal boarding school is more inclined to the classical system but the Al-Muhajirin pesantren uses an integration system between classical and modern, as well as from the organization of the Al-Muhajirin pesantren they recruit service students who have been declared to have passed strata 1 while in the Nihayatul Amal boarding school only service students have participating in PKL activities, and from an institutional point of view, Nihayatul Amal has the status of a pure Islamic boarding school while Al-Muhajirin has the status of a foundation.

Latin American Neostructuralism and Its Differentiation from Latin American Structuralism

Latin American neostructuralism emerged within the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean by 1990. As such, it was aimed at reviewing original Latin American structuralism and updating those contributions to the new phase of global capitalism. Notwithstanding this institutional point of view, this article argues that neostructuralism did not represent an update to Latin American structuralism but rather a differentiation from its critical and original contributions, which relies mainly on the displacement of the center-periphery concept. In the framework of the neoliberal offensive, this change toward capitalism was the result of the greater influence of theories and approaches generated in the center to problematize Latin America’s development, as well as of the requirement to depoliticize the discussion of development. JEL Classification: B2, B5, O1

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ СТРУКТУРИЗАЦІЇ БЮДЖЕТНОЇ СИСТЕМИ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОЇ СПІЛКИ

The formation of economic, customs, currency unions, as well as common budgeting systems by independent states can be considered as a concomitant trend of modern globalization processes. It is globalization, as well as increasing economic interdependence and a greater degree of market openness, that have led to the need for more effective management of regional financial transactions, as well as coordination among decision-making centers. The task of increasing the efficiency in the financial management of these associations can be solved due to the synergistic effect of the integration of the economies of the member states of such unions. The Economic and Monetary Union of European States is a vivid example of the result of integration processes in the field of economics and finance. Its most significant achievement is the implementation of a common monetary policy. However, important theoretical and practical problems arise both in the implementation of the budget policy and in the management of the budget processes of the Union. An unconditional factor in improving the efficiency of budget process management is the use of the resultoriented budgeting mechanism, the establishment of a clear relationship between goals, objectives, implementation tools, and indicators of expenditure effectiveness. This mechanism can be used in the practice of budgeting not only by sovereign states, but also by regional associations. The integration of the result-oriented budgeting mechanism into the budget systems of regional associations is associated with solving the problems of budget planning, coordination of participants in the process of coordinating budget decisions, execution and control. The EU's experience in managing budget processes has developed as a result of constant processes of improvement, adaptation to changing conditions, and the development of the most optimal solutions for the distribution of the Union's resources. Undoubtedly, the experience gained is unique due to the specifics of the EU from the economic, political, and institutional points of view. Nevertheless, the developed mechanisms and principles of management are of interest for a detailed study and assessment of the possibility of applying the established practices to other integration associations. Strengthening regional integration associations is a priority task for Ukraine in the framework of the implementation of the foreign policy concept. One of the main factors contributing to the integration processes is the provision of sustainable coordination mechanisms between members in the adoption and implementation of joint decisions, including within the framework of joint budget management. Consequently, strengthening and increasing the efficiency of the system of managing budget processes can contribute to achieving the task of strengthening the integration of regional associations as a whole. In this regard, the study and analysis of the

Contemporary Matters of Constitutionalization of Legal Norms in the Republic of Armenia

The article examines the issues of constitutionalization of law in RA.The constitutionalization of the right is one of the contemporary problems of modern constitutionalism, which is currently of interest not only to specialists in the field of constitutional law but also to scholars dealing with problematic issues in other branches of law, the article studied the Constitutionalization process, which is of great importance in terms of guaranteeing the supremacy of the Constitution and is meant to ensure the compliance of normative legal acts with the requirements of the Constitution. The process of constitutionalization was studied from an institutional point of view, conventionally classifying it into two main groups. First, it is the units operating in the field of public service which is entitled to subject the drafts of normative legal acts to legal examination. One of the important goals of such examination is to provide law-making bodies and officials with conclusions on the conformity of the legal acts reflected in the drafts of the aforementioned normative legal act with the requirements of the Constitution. Second, as a result of the constitutional reforms of 2015, the role and importance assigned to the Constitutional Court in order to ensure the constitutionalization of the legal fiel was studied. The Constitutional Court, as a constitutional supervisory body, is called to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution, which is carried out within the framework of concrete and discrete control.

University central offices are moving away from doing towards facilitating science communication: A European cross-comparison.

There is increasing interest in studying science communication from an institutional point of view. With much of the empirical research focusing on views of institutional actors on communication and their roles in the organisation, less attention has been paid to practices and dispositions of universities to communicate their research with publics. Universities have professionalised communication structures for external relations, and science communication has been absorbed in this. Yet, the evidence on what those practices represent for the university-at different levels of the organisation-is insufficient to understand the role of science communication within the university landscape. This study investigates science communication at central offices of research universities. Sampling whole populations of universities in four European countries (Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom; 44% response rate), we disentangle practices of communication as a centralised function. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first cross-national study on this topic based on all universities within the surveyed countries. We compare general trends in science communication of universities across countries. The evidence shows that science communication is a secondary function at central offices of universities, strongly medialised, and points to a supporting role for central structures in facilitating science communication at other levels while moving away from doing it themselves. Universities might need to consider their long-term positioning in enhancing national science culture by fostering science communication through models of dialogue and public debate.

Hoist by the Colonizer’s Own Device? Law Reporting in Mandatory Palestine

Abstract This article tells the history of the Palestine Law Reports series (PLR), introduced in 1934 to Mandate-ruled Palestine. It unearths discussions that preceded the PLR’s publications following a campaign for authorized law reporting launched by lawyers in Palestine in the 1920s to 1930s. Canvassing a broad institutional context for the emergence of the PLR, we argue that in launching the campaign local lawyers sought not only to render Palestinian common law more predictable and amenable to professional handling, but also to approximate the role granted in the metropole and the common law tradition to practicing lawyers in propagating binding precedents. Local lawyers wanted to have a slice of the action of creating a local common law and in designing the Palestinian legal landscape. Unsurprisingly, they were met with the opposition of Chief Justice McDonnell, who sought to control the PLR enterprise, resisting non-judicial involvement in its editing and production. Finally, the article argues that, regardless of McDonnell’s motivations, from an institutional point of view, his achievement in laying down a foundational institution for the generation of a local common law is momentous. He therefore emerges from our analysis as one of the chief architects of the common law in Palestine, and—to this day—in Israel.

A Study on the Dispute Settlement System of Regional TradeAgreements as an Alternative to the WTO Dispute Settlement System

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze the structure and characteristics of RTA-DSM, and to analyze the potential of RTA-DSM as an alternative to the WTO-DSM in the crisis of the WTO dispute sttlement system. Design/Methodology/Approach – This paper largely is a literature review. It adopts a method of examining the texts of regional trade agreements based on the WTO RTA database. In addition, this study does not perform legal analysis as much as possible, and analyzes RTA-DSM from an institutional point of view. Findings – RTA-DSM has a similar structure to the WTO-DSM. However, the content of RTA-DSM is insufficient compared to the WTO-DSM, and as a result, there are few cases of dispute resolution. The crisis of the Appellate Body and the rapid evolution of RTA-DSM have increased the importance of RTA-DSM as an alternative to the WTO-DSM. The introduction of dispute settlement systems in regional trade agreements is an irreversible trend, and considering the usefulness, cases of dispute resolution using RTA-DSM will increase rapidly in the future. Research Implications – RTA-DSM cannot completely replace the WTO-DSM. In the long term, WTODSM should be restored, and RTA-DSM should play a supplementary role. The centrality of the WTO, which supports the multilateral trade system, must be maintained through the restoration of the WTO-DSM.

Skilled Migrants and Their Encounters with Care and Employment Regimes: Childcaring among Highly Skilled Female Migrants from Korea in Germany

By analysing the childcaring experiences of female skilled workers from South Korea (hereafter, Korea) in Germany, this paper maintains that the challenges in labour market participation for highly skilled women, and especially those with children, should be understood in the context of their encounters with similar and different care and employment regimes between their home and host countries. On the theoretical level, this research confirms the argument that the migration of highly skilled workers should be contextualized not from a neoclassical perspective in which the maximization of economic profits takes priority, but from an institutional point of view in which social and cultural norms, practices, and policies in both the home and host societies are taken into consideration. Specifically, through a series of in-depth interviews conducted with skilled female migrants from Korea, this paper highlights the significance of taking the function of similar and different caring and employment regimes into account in explaining the challenges faced by highly skilled migrant women in labour market participation. On the empirical level, this paper sheds light on the migration experiences of skilled women from Asia as well as the (dis)integration processes of newcomers from third-national countries in Germany, with a focus on female migrants from Korea.

Harry Stack Sullivan and Stephen Mitchell in Italy – A historical and a personal account

Having introduced readers to the history of the reception of psychoanalysis in Italy, the author reconstructs the history of the Italian reception of the work of Harry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949) and Stephen A. Mitchell (1946–2000). Sullivan’s work played a fundamental role in adding to the “new Italian psychiatry,” founded by Franco Basaglia (1824–1980), the psychodynamic dimension it lacked, creating a new convergence between the social and psychological dimensions of psychiatry. Mitchell’s work played a fundamental role in the development of the Italian tradition of psychoanalytic psychotherapy originally articulated by Gaetano Benedetti (1920–2013) and Pier Francesco Galli, following their reception of Sullivan’s work. This phenomenon coincided, from an institutional point of view, with the emergence of a network of Italian institutes and societies affiliated to the International Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies, which had been originally cofounded by the William Alanson White Institute – the institute founded by Sullivan in 1943, where Mitchell himself trained as a psychoanalyst at the end of the 1970s. Interpersonal and relational psychoanalysis also ended up finding a place in the work of several colleagues of the Italian Psychoanalytic Society, as well as allowing the foundation of several institutes and societies affiliated to the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. The author reconstructs this chapter of Italian psychoanalysis from both a historiographical and a personal point of view.

Tokenization of creativity: user motivation, consensual value and Chinese copyright law

The subjectof this study is the legal-economic analysis of the non-fungible token phenomenon. Due to the a priori accessibility of many tokenized intellectual products, the ability to monetize them by copyright methods turns out to be hard to implement. The paper puts forward a hypothesis that token owners apply innovative monetization methods, which do not stand on the prohibition and restriction of access to the protected results of intellectual activity. Instead of deactivated copyright restrictions, token buyers receive some new, additional, non-trivial economic utility that researchers have not reflected yet. If this utility exists, we should identify, analyze and include it in the equation of relations regarding NFT. The second hypothesis of the study stems from the first one. It states that the results of creative activity in the post-economic society take the place of a new etalon of value, which replaces the materialistic standard of worth based on rarity. The consensual value contained in tokenized works brings additional motivators for token purchasers and compensates for the lost sources of income.Our goal is to put and verify the scientific hypotheses of tokenized works' additional non-obvious value existence. We suppose that this innovative utility substitutes traditional copyright ban-based monetization abilities. The research's purpose is also to theoretically generalize its results and formulate a legal-economic concept that explains the motivation for the purchasers of non-fungible tokens and sets the regulations for the NFT market.Methodology.The study of the non-fungible token phenomenon and the verification of formulated hypotheses conducts from the standpoint of the law, economics, an interdisci-plinary legal-economic – institutional point of view, as well as with the help of the monistic copyright doctrine of the People's Republic of China. The research methodology also includes an analysis of the relevant body of knowledge and various points of view of the scientists on the subject of research.The study's main resultis the novel elaborated concept of the non-fungible token owner's moral right. This concept fills the rising doctrine of utilitarian digital rights with legal-economic essence. We constructed the non-fungible token owner's moral right consisting of two powers: the right to designate one's name as the owner of a token for a specific creative product and to demand such an indication from others; and also, as a duty of NFT platforms to support the function of informing about the name or pseudonym of the token's owner.Analysis of the appropriate accumulated knowledge, development, and verification of formulated hypotheses on tokenized works' consensual value and additional economic utility, allowed us to achieve the goals of this study. We resolve the issue of token purchasers' motivation and legal-economic grounds for their rational behavior by formulating and substantiating the concept of non-fungible tokens' owner moral right.

Ideological polarization, policy continuity: back to the majoritarian principle?

ABSTRACT This introduction to the Italian Politics 2023 special issue gives an overview of the main events characterizing Italian politics during a year of large-scale policy reforms, presidential and parliamentary elections, and the unexpected Russian invasion of Ukraine. The authors pose three questions concerning Italian politics during the year gone by. First, from an institutional viewpoint, they ask whether the revival of majoritarianism as a principle of government formation represents the prelude to a return to enduring party-system bipolarity. Second, from an electoral and public policy perspective, they ask whether the formation of a government led by what many perceive as a radical right party betokens the start of a correspondingly radical shift in Italian public policy. Third, from an international relations perspective, they ask about the extent to which the Meloni government’s attitude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and more generally to Italy’s position on the world stage and in international affairs, is likely to differ from that adopted by Draghi. The chapter elaborates on the three questions by tracing how the events of 2022 generated much more continuity than expected.

CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKET TRANSFORMATION DURING PANDEMIC COVID-19

The pandemic and subsequent changes in various spheres of human activity have also transformed consumer behavior, particularly in the cryptocurrency market. The article is aimed at identifying the priority directions of transformations taking place in the cryptocurrency market in the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic under the influence of certain groups of factors. System and network approaches to understanding the cryptocurrency market have been identified. The cryptocurrency market is considered from a functional and institutional point of view. From a functional point of view, the cryptocurrency market is a set of economic relations in cyberspace regarding cryptocurrency mining, initial coin offering (ICO) and circulation of cryptocurrencies based on the laws of supply and demand. From an institutional point of view, the cryptocurrency market is a set of participants in the virtual currency schemes who carry out cryptocurrency transactions. The following signs of cryptocurrency market segmentation are justified such as those depending on the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency; on the nature of the crypto assets movement; on operations carried out on the market; on the region; on consumers of services. Factors which influence the functioning of the cryptocurrency market are systematized according to the following groups: macroeconomic, price, environmental, geographic, market, behavioral and technological. The influence of gold, oil prices, the daily number of Covid-19 cases and deaths from Covid-19, the MSCI ACWI global stock index, the iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan ETF, the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index on the Bitcoin exchange rate is revealed. The trends in the cryptocurrency market development in the post-war period are justified, namely the growth of investors’ interest in cryptocurrencies against the background of the initial coin offering collapse; growth of payments in cryptocurrencies; strengthening the regulatory landscape on a global and national scale; integration of the cryptocurrency market with traditional finance; attracting non-typical participants to the cryptocurrency business; expansion of participants in the infrastructure of the cryptocurrency market due to the rapid cryptocurrency market development, in particular, due to the production of equipment for its operation.

Incident factors in Andalusian university dropout: A qualitative approach from the perspective of higher education students

University dropout is currently one of the main challenges faced by government bodies and state and regional universities. Both personal and institutional reasons can be identified as root causes of university dropout. On a personal level, students accumulate experiences of academic failure that lead them to reflect on the possibility of continuing their studies, while from an institutional point of view, failure can be attributed to educational deficits, reputation, and quality parameters of the university institution itself. Even though more and more universities have educational policies aimed at reducing dropout rates, the dropout figures continue to rise, which shows that this is a complex problem due to the number of variables involved. The main objective of this study is to analyze the factors that influence university dropout among Andalusian students. The methodology is qualitative through a focus group with the participation of 12 students who dropped out of their academic studies in education science degrees at the University of Malaga (Spain). The study population corresponds to students who formalized their enrollment in the first year of the degree in the 2021/22 academic year. The content analysis followed a deductive category development model. The results reveal that the factors that explain the educational abandonment of the students, who are the object of this research, are identification with studies that did not meet their initial expectations, the use of traditionalist methodologies, the development of work activity, and the economic difficulties in covering the costs derived from university education. The main conclusion include the importance of designing educational policies in line with the reality and needs of the students, the use of innovative methodologies that increase the degree of motivation of the students, as well as studying dropouts from a holistic perspective, considering the multiple variables that influence its origin.