Market Principles Research Articles

State Role And Securities Market Development In Uzbekistan

In the Uzbekistan capital market, the state has a significant role as regulator and principal shareholder. The state actively participates in the capital market through its SOEs and banks that issue, own, manage various securities, and render intermediary services in the financial market. As well as the state sets rules to regulate market relations through authorized bodies that are also responsible for the fairness of dispute resolution. Consequently, a high level of direct and indirect state participation in securities market relations suggests the prevalence of general administrative principles over market principles. In such conditions, one of the main tasks of implementing market principles in the securities market and improve equity financing would be to reduce state share and administrative methods. Thus, it is necessary to hold extensive and comprehensive reforms underpinned by sound theory to get proper understanding and direction. In this regard, this chapter provides an outline of the theoretical bases of state participation in the economy, an overview of the state’s role and the extent of state ownership, an analysis of the main SOE problems, and provides perspectives of future SOE reforms in selected CIS countries.

Corruption in the private economic sector as a threat to the economic security of the state

Commercial law companies with private capital are the basic economic units that affect the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Noticeable corruption practices in the process of obtaining contracts for the performance of works or the delivery of products lead to the conclusion that this sector of economic activity of the state was transferred from the public area to illegal corrupt behaviour. Corruption in the private sector negatively affects the finances of the enterprise for which purchasing procedures are carried out, but it also destroys the principles of the free market and economic competition. The threats resulting from committing corruption offenses affect both natural persons and collective entities. The introduction of an effective anti-corruption system to the organization will allow for limiting the occurrence of behaviours contrary to the law and business ethics. The anti-corruption system ensures the safety of individual employees and representatives of the organization's authorities and protects the organization from criminal and financial liability.

Remaking higher education for the post‐COVID‐19 era: Critical reflections on marketization, internationalization and graduate employment

This Special Issue was conceived and developed following a series of international conferences held in Asia, with a particular focus on critically reflecting upon higher education development in the region from broader social and political economy perspectives. Some of the papers in this Special Issue were selected from presentations in the East Asia Social Policy (EASP) Research Network Conference successfully held in Taiwan in 2018, while others were chosen from international events held at Lingnan University in Hong Kong presenting critical reviews and reflections on internationalization, marketization and graduate employment of higher education in Asia. This introductory article puts the discussions of the selected papers in this issue in context, with critical reflections on the key issues being examined in these papers. The Special Issue is published when the world is still confronting the unprecedented global health crisis resulted from the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic. This article discusses the higher education development trends in Asia through the massification, diversification and internationalisation processes in transforming the higher education system and examines how these development trends are affected by the COVID‐19 crisis.

Can Public Healthcare Afford Marketization? Market Principles, Mechanisms, and Effects in Five Health Systems

Abstract Policymakers now have four decades’ experience using marketization to address cost and quality problems in public‐sector health services. While much is known about the challenges, it is difficult to draw lessons because there remains no agreed‐upon definition of marketization. This article contributes a definition that focuses on the transaction, particularly the effects of funding arrangements on the intensity of competition among providers. Based on prior literature and 106 interviews with practitioners and researchers in five countries, the authors contribute a systematization of 12 concrete market mechanisms enacting three market principles. Furthermore, the authors analyze respondents' perceptions of healthcare marketization's effects on costs and quality. While marketization is a multi‐faceted, sometimes ambiguous phenomenon requiring further research before definite conclusions can be reached, most statements from our respondents about cost and quality effects were negative. Evidence for Practice Examining health systems in five countries, we identify 12 different market mechanisms, i.e. concrete procedural changes that stimulate competition among service providers. While these mechanisms sometimes enable improvements in cost and quality, our respondents identified many more examples of markets driving up costs and compromising quality. A substantial number of respondents also stated that effects were unclear. More research is needed to assess the effects of market mechanisms in healthcare, for which the article's conceptualization and findings can serve as a basis.

Preliminary Examination of an Appropriate Price Calculation Method and Medical Treatment Costs for Foreign Visitors in Japan.

This study proposes a method for calculating the appropriate medical treatment price level for foreign visitors (FVs) in Japan. Hospital management costs and foreign prices were analyzed from a market principles perspective to determine the medical treatment price. The study involved two stages: a preliminary survey and an extended survey, supplemented by an international survey. Relatively frequent diseases were selected, and the costs incurred by hospitals for the treatment of FVs were analyzed though data from three hospitals, covering 24 outpatients and 4 inpatients. Payments made by three insurance companies for overseas medical institution services for Japanese tourists with pharyngitis were analyzed. This study shows that the appropriate medical treatment prices for FVs, considering profits, were 1.22–4.26 times higher compared with prices under Japan’s public health insurance plans. Furthermore, these prices were 1.31–4.26 times higher for outpatients with pharyngitis and external injury and 1.22–3.66 times higher for inpatients with appendicitis and femoral fractures. The price of pharyngitis treatment in 12 countries was USD 20.32–158.75 per patient for Japanese tourists, whereas FVs paid 60.24 dollars (1.13 times higher than Japan’s public healthcare price) in Japan. This study shows it was appropriate to set the ideal price level for FVs higher than that for Japanese patients.

Going Nativist: How Nativism and Economic Ideology Interact to Shape Beliefs about Global Trade

AbstractExisting research explains variation in trade attitudes by pitting explanations rooted in the foreign part of foreign economic policy, like nativism, against economic beliefs like a commitment to free market principles. But what happens when these factors create significant cross-pressures—how do free market-oriented nativists think about trade? We argue that nativism is a higher-order belief that constrains the relationship between lower-order economic attitudes and beliefs about international trade. We test our argument using representative samples from the United States and United Kingdom. First, we analyze observational data and find a significant interaction whereby nativism moderates the relationship between free market attitudes and beliefs that trade provides national and global benefits. Second, we report results from a survey experiment to show that a message about the long-term benefits from free trade increases support for free trade in both samples. Importantly, we also find that nativist values weaken the treatment effect in the US sample. As long as international relations scholars focus on cultural or economic antecedents on their own, we miss much about how elements in belief systems interact.

Institutional Structure of the Market of Material and Technical Resources and Methodological Bases of Resource Efficiency Assessment

The establishment of market relations in agriculture requires the development of the system of material and technical resources on the basis of market principles. Weak financial situation of agricultural enterprises, weakening of economic relations with the manufacturer of equipment, transport costs, transit, high customs duties, devaluation of money, imbalances between prices for agricultural and industrial products and a number of other factors.Due to the above factors, agricultural enterprises are not provided with material and technical resources at the required level. There is still a state monopoly in this area, a healthy competitive environment has not been formed, insufficient attention is paid to the establishment of non-governmental enterprises, investment in the sector is not in demand, which is a major obstacle to the formation of a free market.As a result of the lack of a free market for material and technical resources in the country, farms are not able to buy the required type of resource at any place and at any price. As a result, the lack of one type of resource also has a negative impact on the efficiency of using other types.Also, the leasing system, introduced as an alternative form of meeting the needs of farms in material and technical resources, is developing slowly, there are a number of problems, staffing of the supply system is not in demand, and economic and legal relations between farms and supply structures are the same. there are a number of shortcomings. The mechanism of state support of the logistics system remains ineffective.

Foreign direct investment as a factor of socioeconomic development of the EAEU member-states

The goal of this research lies in assessment of the role of foreign direct investment in socioeconomic development of the EAEU member-states in the current context. The research methodology employs such approaches as scientific abstraction, logical generalization, statistical and factor analysis. Based on examination of the relevant theories of international capital movement, the author outlines positive factors in attracting long-term foreign investment. The article explores the key indicators of economic development of the EAEU member-states at the current stage. Analysis is conducted on the peculiarities of foreign direct investment in the region. It is noted that the Russian Federation is the most active investor within the EAEU. The author determines the common factors that limit the development of investment relations between the partner countries; as well as reveals the dominant disproportions in attraction of foreign investment capital. Consideration is given to the experience of Shenzhen in formation of the global special economic zone in the EAEU countries. The conclusion is formulated that the key factor of socioeconomic development of the EAEU member-states is the attraction of foreign direct investment capital. The following measures in the sphere of foreign investment are proposed: development of direct investment funds; formation of special economic zones; implementation of intergovernmental earmarked programs; creation of specialized centers for the development of small and medium business bases on the market principles.

Потенциал агропромышленных кластеров по внедрению рыночных механизмов управления и финансирования водного хозяйства Узбекистана

In order to implement market principles and mechanisms in the field of management and financing of agriculture and water resources in Uzbekistan, organizational forms, regulations, methods and tools of management in this area are being radically improved. Agro-industrial clusters are a potential source of financing for water management organizations, they have a great potential for providing high-quality water management services and introducing paid water use based on market mechanisms.

Pandemic COVID-19 and measures to limit its spreading in Bulgaria: aftermaths and conclusions

Since the beginning of 2020, the world has suddenly found itself in a unique situation - the spreading of the coronavirus has caused serious consequences in all areas and at all levels of society and required a radical change in peoples lives. The purpose of this article is, after presenting and analyzing the economic and social consequences of the spreading of COVID-19 and the measures taken by the government, to show that they have had an impact on all areas of the social system and that they will have a further reflection over time. The analysis used a sociological approach that interprets society as an integral system of interrelated and interdependent elements.The analysis showed that, especially in spring, instead of looking for options that balance safety and the ability to work, introducing fewer measures, but more carefully thought out, and strictly monitor their compliance, in fact, too many measures were taken. As the result, the control over their observance was weak. It is difficult to deny the lack of a systematic approach and thinking in perspective. The focus was exclusively on the results characterizing the spread of the coronavirus, ignoring the effects in other areas of public life, as well as in relation to diseases other than coronavirus. The epidemic highlighted problems and gaps in the countrys health care system and showed that there is a need to rethink the universality of market principles, whether they are applicable to health care system, and whether cost-effectiveness is the most important indicator for it, or the criteria for it effectiveness are different.

Scientific & research services: problems of elimination of administrative and tax restrictions in the EAEU single market

The subject. The article analyzes the legal rules of the Eurasian Economic Union (hereinafter ‘EAEU’) Member States that may potentially create barriers for access to the single market for services in the field of scientific research through establishing requirements for state registration (accreditation, licensing, etc.) of a scientific research participant. These procedures of registration (accreditation, licensing, etc.) may be relevant for the purposes of receiving the preferential tax treatment. The authors consider possible ways to overcome these obstacles. The aim of this paper is to identify typical obstacles remaining at the level of EAEU Member States’ national legislation and preventing respective participants from an access to the scientific research single market. The authors dare to identify the appropriate means of overcoming these obstacles. The methodology. The authors apply formal logical and comparative legal methods as well as analysis, literal and systematic interpretation of the domestic legal rules of the EAEU Member States and the EAEU legal framework. The main results, scope of application. The results of a comparative legal analysis of the EAEU Member States’ legislation illustrate that certain obstacles to access to the market of research services still remain within the framework of the legal systems of the EAEU Member States. Such obstacles in particular, are related to the requirements for research subjects to undergo the registration or accreditation procedure in order to receive recognition of their activities as scientific ones. Moreover, there are interconnected barriers, which consist, for example, in the requirement to not just incorporate a scientific research subject in the jurisdiction where the services should be provided, but also to register the results of the respective research activities, in particular, for the purpose of exempting these activities from VAT taxation. These barriers impede cross-border research services performance and in some circumstances do not comply with the principles of the EAEU single market of services. Conclusions. The identified barriers to cross-border scientific research can usually be overcome by directly applying the EAEU Treaty, in particular, the provisions defining the rules of the services’ single market (paragraph 38 of Annex 16 to the Treaty). The EAEU Member States’ national legislative provisions require clarification in terms of extending the national regime to scientific research subjects incorporated within other EAEU Member States.

Engaging feminist pedagogies to support equality bargaining in academia

ABSTRACT Despite decades of Equal Opportunity legislation, gender inequality persists in Australian universities. This is largely due to the shaping of universities by new market principles, discourses of individualisation that render the asymmetry of gender relations invisible, and privileging masculine epistemologies. Concurrently, industrial relations have been decentralised, and individual universities negotiate staff pay and working conditions through local Enterprise Bargaining (EB). Whilst EB mitigates the development of a national gender-equity framework for universities, trade unions operating through inequality regimes rarely prioritised gender equity even when they did lead national negotiations. Therefore, within a context of complex inequalities in higher education and trade unions, this paper explores how feminist pedagogies can facilitate equality bargaining and gender equality in academia. It also suggests that equality bargaining is especially important during (current) times of austerity when the removal of gender-equality support structures within trade unions generally occur.

How does hybrid environmental governance work? Examining water rights trading in China (2000–2019)

Intensifying competition for water induces the growth of water markets in several countries for sharing water between rural communities and cities. While there is a growing recognition that adoption of market mechanisms in environmental governance relies on the state and different institutional arrangements, much less is known about how the interconnections among the state, market-tools, and the community work in practice. In China's distinctive political system, the central government has adopted a ‘Two-Hands’ approach (两手发力) to water governance – a combination of strong central regulation and infrastructure development on the one hand, and adoption of market principles on the other to improve water reallocation. A recent study has explored the policy evolution underpinning this transition. However, no studies have systematically examined the implementation of the Two-Hands approach to reveal the underlying institutional hybrid patterns in environmental governance. This study fills this research gap by employing a Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to analyze how the interplay of the central government, market, and local governance shapes water rights trading patterns. A total of 29 water-scarce cities using water rights trading with 385 transactions were investigated for the period between 2000 and 2019 by combining evidence from fsQCA and qualitative case-studies. The implications drawn from interpreting the results are as follows: (1) the central government shapes the development of the market and its transactions but this is expressed in multiple ways through pilot projects and the national water exchange platform; (2) establishing water markets and investing in water infrastructure are mutually reinforcing, rather than mutually exclusive; and (3) local governments employ different property rights arrangements to adapt water markets in China's centralized politically institutional context.

GRANTING STATE AID IN THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR

The economic aid granted in the agricultural environment is the subsystem of State Aid, that represents the economic instrument for the strengthening of competitiveness of agriculture and for creating new jobs in the agricultural sector. State Aid promoting the economic development of the agricultural and forestry sectors and of rural areas is embedded in the broader Common Agricultural Policy. State Aid or subsidies is a legal term for money given from the state budget in direct or indirect form. However, despite a general prohibition of granting State Aid by national authorities in EU member states , State Aid may be necessary to address market failures in order to ensure a well-functioning EU internal market. State Aid can only be justified if it is in line with the principles of the internal market and with the principles of Common Agricultural Policy. This paper aims to provide an overview of the conditions and criteria for granting State Aid in the agriculture sector from the Government. The analysis also includes the conditions for the provision of State Aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper concludes with an analysis of the measures of the Slovak Republic supporting the competitiveness of economic entities operating in the agricultural sector.

Инновационный университет на рынке EdTech

The authors of the article consider the features of the functioning of the educational technologies market. The analysis of the investment attractiveness of projects in the market of digital educational solutions is carried out. The main focus of the article is on the Russian system of higher education, since it is the higher educational institutions that today become not only the drivers of the country's scientific activity, but also the center for the formation of competencies in the field of innovative entrepreneurship among students. This vector of development of Russian higher education leads to the need for constant improvement of the activities of organizations that are forced to restructure their business processes and offer new educational products with the maximum degree of practical orientation. This is the only way higher education institutions can maintain their competitiveness both nationally and internationally. The article evaluates this trend, and also provides the author's approach to understanding the conditions and principles of the domestic EdTech market, which includes the classification of the main market players and the definition of the sector itself, which occupies a unique position at the intersection of science and business.

Leveraging Liminality: The Border Town of Bao'an (Shenzhen) and the Origins of China's Reform and Opening

Located immediately north of Hong Kong, Shenzhen is China's most successful special economic zone (SEZ). Commonly known as the “social laboratory” of reform and opening, Shenzhen was the foremost frontier for the People's Republic of China's adoption of market principles and entrance into the world economy in the late 1970s. This article looks at prototypes of the SEZ in Bao'an County, the precursor to Shenzhen during the Mao era (1949–76). Between 1949 and 1978, Bao'an was a liminal space where state endeavors to establish a socialist economy were challenged by capitalist influences from the adjacent British Crown colony of Hong Kong. To create an enclave of exception to socialism, Communist cadres in Bao'an promoted individualized, duty-free cross-border trade and informal foreign investment schemes as early as 1961. Although beholden to the inward-looking planned economy and stymied by radical leftist campaigns, these local improvisations formed the foundation for the SEZ—the hallmark of Deng Xiaoping's economic statecraft.

The influx of International Baccalaureate (IB) programmes into local education systems in Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea

ABSTRACT This comparative analysis aims to capture the complex roles and positionings of the International Baccalaureate (IB) in conjunction with local education systems in Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea. Our analysis focused on how the IB’s institutional legitimacy is presented in the three societies. We conducted a documentary analysis of texts on the introduction and implementation of IB programmes into local school systems. Our findings suggest that there are commonalities and variations in how the IB is interpreted by key local agents and is positioned into local education systems. Specifically, across the three societies, the IB has expanded continuously. At the same time, its institutionalisation process varies by each society’s socio-historical context and needs: substantive legitimacy as the international curriculum of choice in Hong Kong, a quiet supplement to elite education in Singapore, and instrumental curriculum borrowing for fixing the education system in Korea. We also find that the institutionalisation of the IB is limited at a symbolic level and controlled by the Singaporean government, while the IB is saliently promoted by local education authorities in the context of education reform in Korea. The institutionalisation process of the IB in Hong Kong is primarily swayed by market principles under the existing school choice system.

Exploring the status of diversity in policies and practices of Spanish universities. An asymmetric dual model

Higher education across the world is currently in the throes of assuming a commitment to diversity. However, certain critical positions maintain that such evolution is still guided by market principles. Within such a context, this paper explores what attention is given to diversity in Spanish university policies and practices and how it relates to key productivity indicators. To do so, a study with a descriptive and correlational design was conducted, based on analysing institutional documents and surveying chief diversity officers, techniques which provided evidence about diversity philosophy and practices, respectively. The results revealed at least an average level of institutionalisation of diversity, although it did not demonstrate, in most of the areas, any association with indicators derived from a consolidated ranking by productivity in Spain. The conclusion is that Spanish universities have adopted an asymmetric dual model, in which neo-liberal ideas maintain their hegemony while, although subordinately, certain innovations have been consolidated in parallel in order to protect a number of vulnerable groups under the rhetoric of equity and social justice.

Legal framework for Azerbaijan – EU cooperation in the energy sector

This article is dedicated to the analysis of legal framework of Azerbaijan – EU relations in the energy sector. The relevance of this topic in recent months is substantiated by change in geopolitical realities of the South Caucasus Region, and discussions on unblocking economic and transport communications that intensified after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. The region is an interlink between Asia and Europe; and Azerbaijan, being an exporter of oil and natural gas, is an important energy partner of the European Union. The flip of political situation in the region in the nearest future would change not only the energy relations between the countries of the region, but also EU and EAEU members-states. The subject of this research is the bilateral agreements, memoranda and joint declarations adopted by the parties in 30 years since reestablishment of the independence of Azerbaijan. Special attention is given to the vectors of cooperation of the parties both pertaining to extraction and transit of energy resources from South Caucasus and Central Asia. The author employs general dialectical, logical, historical, descriptive, formal-legal approach methods of research methods to determine the key trends and characteristics of the legal framework of Azerbaijan – EU relations in the energy sector. The scientific novelty of lies in the analysis of normative legal framework of cooperation in the energy sector beyond the context of general political and economic relations, as well as in outlining the peculiarities of legal framework of such cooperation. The conclusion is made that the cooperation between the two parties in the energy sector leans on the framework rather than binding legal agreement, which allows both parties to develop relations in the energy sector as mutually beneficial projects based on the market principles.

European Politics and the Neoliberal Paradigm

This paper looks at the European integration project in its current iteration drawing on Karl Polanyi’s assertion that markets are inseparable from the socio-cultural context. In this regard, all attempts to liberalise the economy (not excluding European integration, which is based on the principle of the single market) have practical and indeed tangible political ramifications. The main hypothesis of the paper lies in the recognition of the fact that the neoliberal agenda is one of the defining features of European integration. It is after all, the project of the single market, with its free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour that underpins European Union integrative practice.Secondly, it is the presupposition of this paper, that there is a certain degree of congruence between the economic elites, operating within the neoliberal framework, and the centre-left political elites. The argument here is that the logic of neoliberalism has been fundamentally accepted across the mainstream of the political spectrum. This consequently means that even left-wing parties have had to reposition themselves both ideologically and practically, which brings the conclusion that the market has lost its role as the basic ideological differentiator between the traditional right and left. The axis of political debate has consequently shifted to moral issues such as the relationship between the state and the church, immigration, and gender.