North-South Flows Research Articles

Revisiting the debate on the Eurozone crisis: causes, clustering periphery and core, and the role of interest rate convergence

ABSTRACT Explaining the Eurozone crisis requires explaining the origins of the external imbalances until then. The paper divides the literature arguments into three ”fundamental causes”, not mutually exclusive: a competitiveness problem, North-South flows, and excess of public and/or private spending. Within each of these causes, we find divergences between authors in the literature and identify a set of variables correlated with the accumulation of external imbalances before the crisis. These variables help to create clusters of Eurozone countries and separate core countries from the periphery. We then develop an original argument, that the convergence of nominal long-term interest rates in the periphery cluster countries, relative to the core cluster countries, between 1996 and 2007, was the trigger for the three ”fundamental causes” mentioned. We find Granger-causality between this convergence and subsequent (after four quarters) annual variations in the quarterly current account balance.

The politics of gifts and reciprocity in South-South Cooperation: The case of India's Covid-19 diplomacy.

Development economists have often argued that South–South flows of capital and aid are devoid of the conditionalities and hierarchies that define North–South flows of the same. Maussians and neo‐Maussians maintain that gifting—which allows for the ethos of reciprocity—leads to the formation of more equal international partnerships. This article focusses on India's development diplomacy. We unpack Indian cultural notions of ‘gifting’, which do not allow for imaginings of reciprocity, and show how ‘the gift’ has been strategically employed by Indian actors as a tool of state‐making to forge relations of hierarchy and dependence globally.

Globalisation in agriculture and food: the role of multinational enterprises

AbstractThis paper reviews the state-of-the-art work on agri-food Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), by discussing the current state-of-play and the tools at our disposal to expand knowledge. After a critical discussion of available data, new data from OECD are used to provide a broad overview of the role of MNEs in the agri-food Global Value Chains (GVCs) and to draw a few stylized facts. Data reveals that in the food, beverages and tobacco industry MNE activity is higher than on average, while in agriculture it is lower; North-South flows are increasing as well as the role of MNE in the agri-food GVCs. The review of theoretical and of empirical literature shows how modern trade theories provide us with a strong theoretical background which, together with improved firm-level and country-level data, may help explaining observed patterns and effectively orientate empirical analyses of agri-food MNEs in several directions.

Spiritual Warfare in Circulation

Without a doubt, an overenthusiastic focus on rupture, as a way of coping with neoliberal trauma, has shaped the conversation about recent religious change in Africa. Yet, rupture remains at the heart of what African charismatics understand themselves to be doing. In this paper, we attempt to nuance this conversation about rupture in religious change in Africa by discussing that various ontologies of spiritual warfare are encountered, made legible, reframed, and redeployed, through direct interactions between Africans and Americans in the context of missionization. We illustrate the patterns of these reciprocal flows through two case studies drawn from our larger research projects. One study illustrates the case of Matthew Durham, a young American missionary who, when accused of sexually assaulting children at an orphanage in Kenya, adopted the spiritual counsel of a Kenyan missionary that the reason he had no memory of the attacks was because of his possession by a demon. Another study discusses the example of a Navajo pastor who applied charismatic techniques of spiritual warfare when under metaphysical threat during a mission trip to Benin, but simultaneously focused on building ontologically protective social networks with Africans. Americans and Africans involved in the flows of global Pentecostalism are equally sympathetic to charismatic renewal. However, the reality of threats presented by malicious spiritual forces are echoed and amplified through concrete missionary networks that belie traditional North–South flows.

Tourists with migrants’ eyes: the mediating role of tourism in international retirement migration

ABSTRACT The main aim of this article is to explore the relationship between tourism experience and international retirement migration. Despite the current trends in international tourism and the marketing efforts of some destinations to attract retired foreigners, contributions in the literature about prospective migrants’ decision process are still rare, particularly regarding long-term migration and beyond the traditional north-south flows from the wealthy countries to warmer and more affordable destinations. Building on migration theories and models, including the recently proposed push-pull plus model, this article includes a qualitative study with 12 Brazilian citizens with varying degrees of intention to migrate to Europe after retirement. Results show that tourism acts as an important facilitator of prospective migrants’ decision process, functioning as a mediating driver of future migration, by enabling to gather information and to experience the living conditions in the destination. Overall, this article demonstrates that the push-pull plus model is particularly interesting to capture prospective migrants’ dynamic decision process. Implications for managers and future research suggestions are also provided.

Time-distance helioseismology of solar Rossby waves

Context. Solar Rossby waves (r modes) have recently been discovered in the near-surface horizontal flow field using the techniques of granulation-tracking and ring-diagram analysis applied to six years of SDO/HMI data. Aims. Here we apply time-distance helioseismology to the combined SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI data sets, which cover 21 years of observations from May 1996 to April 2017. The goal of this study is to provide an independent confirmation over two solar cycles and in deeper layers of the Sun. Methods. We have measured south-north helioseismic travel times along the equator, which are sensitive to subsurface north-south flows. To reduce noise, the travel times were averaged over travel distances from 6° to 30°; the mean distance corresponds to a p-mode lower turning point of 0.91 R⊙. The 21-year time series of travel-time measurements was split into three seven-year subsets and transformed to obtain power spectra in a corotating frame. Results. The power spectra all show peaks near the frequencies of the classical sectoral Rossby waves for azimuthal wavenumbers in the range 3 ≤ m ≤ 15. The mode frequencies and linewidths of the modes with m ≤ 9 are consistent with a previous study whereas modes with m ≥ 10 are shifted toward less negative frequencies by 10–20 nHz. While most of these modes have e-folding lifetimes on the order of a few months, the longest lived mode, m = 3, has an e-folding lifetime of more than one year. For each mode, the rms velocity at the equator is in the range of 1–3 m s−1, with the largest values for m ∼ 10. No evidence for the m = 2 sectoral mode is found in the power spectrum, implying that the rms velocity of this mode is below ∼0.5 m s−1. Conclusions. This work confirms the existence of equatorial global Rossby waves in the solar interior over the past two solar cycles and shows that time-distance helioseismology is a promising technique to study them deep in the convection zone.

Effects of FDI Flows on Institutional Development: Does It Matter Where the Investors are from?

Global FDI flows to and from developing countries have increased significantly since the 1990s. While developing countries saw this as a positive development, many economists and policy makers in developed countries have raised concerns regarding the institutional effects of developing country investments in other developing countries. In this paper we explore the effects of bilateral FDI flows on institutional development gaps between countries and whether such effects are conditional on the direction of flows including South–South, South–North, North–South, and North–North directions. The empirical results using bilateral flows between 134 countries and a variety of institutional development measures during 1990–2009 suggest that the institutional development effects of FDI flows in any direction including the North–South or South–South directions are not significant. In any case we do not find any significant convergence or divergence effect of FDI flows on the institutional distance between host and home countries. We also fail to find any significant effect of aggregate North–South FDI flows on host country institutions. In contrast, we find that aggregate South–South FDI flows have a significantly negative effect on host country institutions. Furthermore, we find some evidence that South–South FDI flows may be harmful to institutional development in natural resource-rich countries while the opposite is true for North–South flows. Overall, the results suggest that there is no strong evidence of any benevolent or malevolent effects of bilateral FDI flows from developed or developing countries to developing countries.

More than medical tourism: lessons from Indonesia and Malaysia on South–South intra-regional medical travel

While scholars increasingly acknowledge that most contemporary international medical travel comprises South–South flows, these have gone curiously unexamined. Rather, policy, scholarly and media attention focuses predominantly on North–South flows of ‘medical tourists’. However, this focus diverts attention from the actual and potential impacts of South–South intra-regional medical travel flows on both their source and receiving contexts. As such, we present findings from a study examining South–South intra-regional medical travellers' motivations, preparations and practices to better understand the social, economic and political situations that condition them and their effects on the destinations that receive them. Our study of Indonesian medical travellers pursuing health care in Malaysia draws on 35 semi-structured interviews with Indonesian patients, their companions, medical staff and agents in both countries. From this, we suggest that South–South medical travellers' diverse socio-economic conditions shape decision-making and spending behaviour relative to treatment, accommodation and transport choices as well as length of stay. We identify ways in which informal economies and social care networks sustain the formal medical travel industry. Finally, we observe how medical travel increasingly serves as a means through which chronic and everyday health needs are met through temporary, visa-free intra-regional movement.

Low-cost airlines in Europe: Network structures after the enlargement of the European Union

The liberalization of the European air opened the strictly regulated European market, and contributed to the appearance and quick spread of the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs). At the beginning of the 21st century the low cost traffic absolutely concentrated on the Western European market but after the enlargement of the European Union (EU) LCCs started their operations in Eastern Europe enlarging and enriching the former evolved network structures. The aim of this paper is to trace the evolution of the route network as a result of EU expansion. During the study we came to the conclusion that in the time period after the EU enlargement the European LCC traffic showed dynamic development, route networks widened and the number of accessible destinations doubled. Comparing the LCCs network structures we defined three main characteristics, which represents the North-South flows, the West-East routes and the mixed network structure.

Learning from the South: common challenges and solutions for small‐scale farming

Small‐scale farmers all over the world face a number of common biophysical and socio‐economic challenges. In this paper we draw on data from a workshop held in the UK in 2005, to assess whether experiences in addressing these challenges, as gained in the global South, may be used to inform solutions to similar challenges in the UK. In doing so, we contribute to a growing body of literature that seeks to challenge predominantly North–South flows of knowledge and resources. We first identify specific common challenges faced by small‐scale farmers in the global North and South. We then compare the different solutions used to address these problems, drawing on the first‐hand experiences of the academics, small‐scale farmers, NGO staff and policymakers who participated in the workshop. Next, we examine the transferability of solutions between locations, elucidating the conditions that support and hinder such transfers. Finally, we evaluate the potential for a workshop approach to act as a ‘learning space’, in which the sharing of experiences can foster learning for participants and lead to new, creative ways of thinking about the process‐based challenges faced by small‐scale farmers

African-American Roots Tourism in Brazil

The novelty of African-American roots tourism to Brazil is that to some extent it defies the secondary position occupied by Brazil in the African diaspora, a context marked by the hegemony of U.S.-centric conceptions of blackness. At the same time, roots tourism entails three kinds of inequalities: the disparity between those who have access to travel and those who do not, the belief of many African-American tourists that they can exchange what they view as their “modernity” for the “traditions” of the local black communities with whom they interact during their travels, and the much greater access of African-Americans to the means by which Africa and the diaspora can be represented. Blacks located in the North and the South of the American continent have unequal access to global currents of power. Thus, at the same time that it offers the possibility of challenging traditional North-South flows of cultural exchange, African-American roots tourism confirms the existing hierarchy within the black Atlantic.

When FDI Flows from Rich to Poor Countries: Does Democracy Matter?

We model the effect of democracy on North-South bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI), and test its impact in a panel of 14 source countries and 24 host countries over 1992-2004. As a benchmark, we adopt a setup that combines variables commonly associated with horizontal FDI (economic dimension of the countries; distance) and variables associated with vertical FDI (per capita income as a proxy for capital endowments). Democracy in the host country has a positive effect of North-South FDI flows, especially when we control for privatization programs. As for the type of democracy, a parliamentary regime could have a positive impact on FDI inflows vis-a-vis a presidential one.

The Role of Geography in Financial and Economic Integration: A Comparative Analysis of Foreign Direct Investment, Trade and Portfolio Investment Flows

The objective of this paper is to examine the role of geography in explaining the patterns of financial and economic integration among both developed and developing countries. Using a gravity model, we compare North-North, North-South and South-North FDI, trade and portfolio investment flows to examine how geographical factors influence these bilateral flows. The results indicate that the impact of geography variables on FDI and portfolio are similar to their effect on trade. Geography variables have a statistically significant effect both on FDI and portfolio investment, but FDI is more sensitive to distance. We interpret the negative effect of distance as the existence of information costs in financial flows. Also bilateral FDI, trade and portfolio investment flows react to macroeconomic fundamentals in the same way, however, with different degrees of sensitivity. There are significant differences between North-North and North-South flows. Our results find support for the argument that most FDI among industrial countries are horizontal, whereas most FDI investment in developing countries is vertical. The fact that the significance of geographical variables on financial flows still remained even after controlling for the macroeconomic fundamentals, is in contrast with the standard capital market model. The results can, however, be reconciled if geographical factors can proxy for information costs, which may in turn explain why country portfolios are still home-biased. The significant effect of distance on financial flows may also explain how idiosyn cratic shocks are spread (i.e. contagion) to other countries in the same region. Ultimately, the geographical location of a country may determine its economic and financial integration into the world economy.

Rocket-borne investigation of auroral patches in the evening sector during substorm recovery

Abstract. On 11 February 1997 at 08:36 UT after a substorm onset the Auroral Turbulence 2 sounding rocket was launched from Poker Flat Research Range, Alaska into a moderately active auroral region. This experiment has allowed us to investigate evening (21:00 MLT) auroral forms at the substorm recovery, which were discrete multiple auroral arcs stretched to, the east and southeast from the breakup region, and bright auroral patches propagating westward along the arcs like a luminosity wave, which is a typical feature of the disturbed arc. The rocket crossed an auroral arc of about 40 km width, stretched along southeast direction. Auroral patches and associated electric fields formed a 200 km long periodical structure, which propagated along the arc westward at a velocity of 3 km/s, whereas the ionospheric plasma velocity inside the arc was 300 m/s westward. The spatial periodicity in the rocket data was found from optical ground-based observations, from electric field in situ measurements, as well as from ground-based magnetic observations. The bright patches were co-located with equatorward plasma flow across the arc of the order of 200 m/s in magnitude, whereas the plasma flow tended to be poleward at the intervals between the patches, where the electric field reached the magnitude of up to 20 mV/m, and these maxima were co-located with the peaks in electron precipitations indicated by the electron counter on board the rocket. Pulsations of a 70-s period were observed on the ground in the eastern component of the magnetic field and this is consistent with the moving auroral patches and the north-south plasma flows associated with them. The enhanced patch-associated electric field and fast westward propagation suggest essential differences between evening auroral patches and those occurring in the morning ionosphere. We propose the wave that propagates along the plasma sheet boundary to be a promising mechanism for the evening auroral patches.Key words. Ionosphere (auroral ionosphere; electric fields and currents)

North‐south flows at 47 AU: A heliospheric vortex street?

A north–south flow pattern with a recurrence period approximately equal to the solar rotation period was observed by Voyager 2 during 1995 at 47 AU, nearly a solar cycle after the north–south flows were first observed near 21 AU during 1986. The north–south flow deflections observed during 1995 were less regular than those observed in 1986. One finds the same qualitative associations between the north–south flows and bulk speed and temperature that were observed in 1986, but the correlations are weaker at the larger distances and higher latitudes. Thus it appears that the flow observed during 1995 is basically the same kind of flow observed in 1986, but it is much less regular owing to evolutionary effects as the flow moves from 21 AU to 47 AU. The observations are consistent with the several predictions of the vortex street model. They fail to support some predictions of both the interaction region model and the vortex street models. It is possible that both a vortex street and interaction regions are significant near solar minimum between 20 and 50 AU. Further development of the models is needed. The interaction models must be extended to include time variations, and the effects of pickup protons should be included in future models of the north–south flows.

Free Trade and Trade-Related Issues in Quebec: The Challenges of Continental Integration

This essay addresses the question of trade policy between a sovereign Quebec and the United States, should independence occur. To provide an answer to this question, a number of issues need to be addressed: What is the nature of the trade patterns between the partners involved? What are the trade patterns within Canada, and how are these affected by the North-South trade flows? What are the effects of Canadian-American free trade on the Quebec economy? Once reasonable answers have been provided to these, and other incidental questions, we will be in a better position to tackle the main issue, which is whether, from a Quebec point of view, it would be feasible to pursue a trade policy similar to, or different from, that pursued by the Canadian authorities. Needless to say, our answer to this question should not be swayed by the fact that, either through conviction or strategic posturing, the Parti Quebecois' approach to this subject holds that the future Quebec state should strive to diminish any controversy or potential disruption in its trade patterns and trade obligations. In fact, our own analysis should provide us with the means to establish the likelihood of a smooth transition in a context where social determinants and preoccupations could ride high on the agenda during the transition period. The paper is divided into two sections: the first will deal with the effects of free trade on the Quebec economy, as well as with other variables and, among them, on job creation; the second, with the effects of trade liberalization on economic integration in Canada and in Quebec. We will conclude by proposing an answer to the question at hand concerning the future of trade relations between Quebec and the United States. The Two Sides of Free Trade For the past seven years, the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) of 1989, later partially superseded and extended into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1994, has provided both Canada and the United States with an overall legal frame-work covering the greater part of trade relations and issues between the two countries. A quick glance at these trade relations will provide an overall picture of the situation prior to consideration of the Quebec position. Over the years, the effects of trade liberalization have been quite significant for both partners, since both countries' levels of exportation of goods and services to GNP have increased from 5.5 percent in the United States and 20 percent in Canada in the sixties, to 8.5 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively, in the seventies and eighties. They have since moved to 10.4 percent between 1990 and 1994 and, subsequently, to 11.1 percent in 1995 in the case of the United States, and up to 28 percent between 1990 and 1994, then to 37.4 percent in 1995, in Canada. (1) Overall, the United States balance of payments shows a persistent deficit in three out of four items: the current account, the exchanges of goods and, more recently, a growing deficit in investment income, while posting a surplus in services which, as is well known, has not averted the trend toward growing overall indebtedness. As far as Canada is concerned, commercial surpluses have been running high but, on the other hand, services and investment income show an important deficit compounded with a negative current account. What both countries seem to share, as far as their balance of international payments can show, when we weight liabilities to GNP, is a deterioration of their international investment balance: foreign United States liabilities have increased from 20.2 percent of GNP in 1981 to 51.6 percent in 1995, and Canadian foreign liabilities, from 58.8 percent in 1983 to 86.6 percent in 1995. At the same time, the percentages of foreign assets to GNP have increased from 32.2 percent to 40.4 percent over the same period in the United States, and from 23.5 percent to 42.9 percent in Canada, a few percentage points higher than in the United States. …

The foreign aid business: economic assistance and development co-operation

Offering an analysis of and development finance, this work examines the key issues and new trends in as well as proposing a series of improvements. Distinguishing clearly between aid and help in development finance, the authors discuss in the context of other North-South flows, such as trade or debt service, and describe its role and evolution during the Cold War. It addresses issues such as food aid, the European Union's Lome co-operation, Japan's emergence as the largest donor and its specific philosophy, the question of South-South aid, and the role of non-governmental organizations. The trends analyzed in the book include political conditionality, the UNDP's proposal to reorient towards human development and the question of diversion to the former communist countries. It concludes by proposing a series of reforms for development and finance. The authors advocate major improvements which include combining emergency and development aid, the financial accountability of donors, international insolvency to stop bailing-out creditors, and the emulation of the Marshall plan's self-monitoring by recipients.

The solar particle enhancement of April 14–17, 1994 observed without flare signature

We present the results of measurements of the solar energetic particle (SEP) flows in the Earth polar caps obtained from KORONAS-I on April 14, 1994. The maximum energy of protons was 12 MeV and the maximum energy of electrons was 1.3 MeV. The asymmetry of the North-South flows was observed several hours after their peak intensity. We determined the propagation characteristics of SEP in the isotropic diffusion model. Although the SEP enhancement has not been related to the solar flaring event, the genetic relationship of this effect with one of the largest-scale dynamical events on the Sun measured from YOHKOH is obvious. The possible sources of particle acceleration are discussed.

Introduction: North American Integration: Paradoxes and Prospects

In the wake of the American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), considerable attention is being paid today to the social, economic, and political landscape of America. With the rapid growth of north-south commerce, information transfers, capital flows, human migrations, and environmental networks, the process of continental integration is accelerating. Associated with this process is increased permeability of national boundaries--what Ivo Duchacek has called perforated sovereignties (1988). Transnational contacts and interactions have called into question the traditional national sovereignty function of borders, stirring controversy about new relationships and forms of association that transcend national frontiers. According to at least one analyst, the territorial state in America may be undergoing a form of unbundling, whereby traditional identities based on nation, state, or province are weakening and giving way to new attachments which reflect emerging forms of information, cultural, and political exchange (Elkins 1995). All of this presents special challenges in the effort to forge a transnational community and strengthen continental cooperation in America. Challenges to traditional scholarly interpretations of global issues across the disciplinary spectrum have also emerged as transborder linkages have accelerated and collective identities developed. Increasingly, observers of transnational phenomena seek to understand the divergent forces of sovereignty and exchange (Shapiro and Alker 1996), grapple with the effects of urban and demographic growth on communal values (Critchfield 1994), and comprehend the significance of movements of labor, information, commodities, and capital (Schiller 1994; Kearney 1995). As this work illustrates, the new realities beyond borders and state-centered politics demand more interdisciplinary methods and models. Dramatic increases in the volume and velocity of the flows of people, goods, and symbols reinforce the urgency for, and utility of, transnational approaches: that is, for informed transnational analysis. The papers in this volume represent one response to this imperative. The genesis of this theme issue was a Trilateral Symposium held at Western Washington University in February 1995. Scholars from Canada, the United States, and Mexico presented papers examining environmental, cultural, political, and economic implications of growing integration and interdependency in America. Much of the focus of the symposium was on borderland areas, because in such places north-south flows are most visible, and cross-cultural relationships are most clearly mediated. Borderlands, marked by complex forces of interdependence and dependence, function as transition zones between (and among) the three countries and, thus, serve as laboratories for broader, continent-wide changes. Once thought of as zones of demarcation or separation between nation states, in the new transnational context borderlands are characterized by their duality--they manifest both separating and integrating qualities. In shaping new American relationships, borderlands assume what Victor Konrad calls added significance as the joints of continental articulation (Randall and Konrad 1995, 182). Although growing transnationalization is in large part driven by economic forces, the emerging linkages among the societies of America cannot be understood or defined in economic terms alone. A major theme of the symposium was that the most crucial changes have to do with the development of new or altered meanings of America or North Americanness. Integration has both material and ideational dimensions. While the material reality of America as a web of public and private economic, social, and political transactions is well advanced, the idea of a redefined American community has not kept pace. We are able to imagine a transcendent American economy which is based in trilateral trade ties, capital flows, and labor mobility. …