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State Financialisation and Economic Growth
Welmers, Sjoerd Sebastiaan ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Lago, Ignacio (referee)
This thesis aims to identity the effect of state-financialisation on economic growth in the member states of the European Union (EU). In doing, so this thesis tackles one of the most empirically contested areas of research in contemporary international and comparative political economy - the process of state financialisation (Amable et al., 2019). To develop an analytically clear and concise framework, the concept of financialisation of the state and its effect on economic growth includes two dimensions: (i) the reliance on the market as a governance mechanism, and (ii) the adoption of a sense-making framework grounded in financial economics and the shareholder value model. This definition is well equipped to analyse the relationship between states and markets, because it allows to make a distinction between financial accumulation and financial logics used by governments (Schwan et al., 2021). To analyse the relationship between economic growth and state financialisation on 26 EU countries between 1995 and 2021 this thesis identifies four indicators of state financialisation which affect economic growth (marketable debt, the share of public dept, funded pensions, use of swaps, financial assets, FDI); and three control variables (the inflation rate, the degree of trade openness and the education level of the...
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Grants as a foreign policy instrument to promote democratic values in Central Europe: The case of EEA and Norway Grants
Harvik-Wright, Eira Cornelia ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Benáček, Vladimír (referee)
This thesis looks at how a nation outside the EU, but inside EFTA, reacts to the illiberal changes and democratic backlashes in Poland and Hungary. To do so, it has looked at how particularly Norway positions itself in response to the said developments. The work undergone in this paper aims at contributing to the very scarcely covered topic of EEA and Norway Grants, which until this day continues to receive very little attention academically. The paper's research question is "How does Norway, through the EEA and Norway Grants, attempt to promote liberal democratic values in Central Europe?" To find evidence of how Norway aims at promoting liberal democratic values abroad, case studies on the EEA and Norway Grants in Poland and Hungary have been conducted. These two were chosen for several reasons but mainly summarised due to being objects of harsh critique both by the EU and by EFTA. Data and information were largely collected through a qualitative literature review of official reports and articles, and through talks with respective advisors. This thesis finds that Norway is attempting to promote liberal democratic values in Central Europe and that negotiations and signed agreements between Norway and Poland and Hungary serve more as an effective foreign policy tool to promote the liberal...
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The Role of Privacy in Forming the European Union's Normative Power through Regulation
Hejtmánek, Matěj ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
The question of privacy has long been an integral part of the debate on human rights and fundamental values, which national governments should ensure. The rapid technological development of last decades brought the topic of privacy protection even more to display mainly because of the rising digital economy and new challenges that are connect with it. This thesis discusses the role of privacy, as a fundamental right, in forming the European Union's role as a global power, specifically, the thesis builds on two theories: The Normative Power Europe and The Brussels Effect. Digital economy of the European Union has been growing exponentially over the last two decades. Given the increased importance of the digital economy since the 1990s the European Union started to gradually implement laws to regulate the flow of the personal data online. These new regulations often had influence on global markets and big tech companies operating on the European single market but residing outside of Europe. Apart from analyzing the development of the European data protection laws, and the role that was played by the European Courts in forming the European global power, the thesis overviews the debate surrounding the incentives to introduce new regulations to protect the right private life of European citizens.
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Euroregions and INTERREG V-a: A comparative analysis of projects at the Czech-Polish border
Outhierová, Leticie ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Kasáková, Zuzana (referee)
Euroregions are a popular type of cooperation between sub-state actors in the Czech-Polish border area. However, their impact on regional development is still a subject of debate among academics. This thesis explores if the Euroregions affect how their members use EU funds. For this purpose, the members' and non-members' projects, realized within the framework of the INTERREG V-a program between 2014 and 2020, are compared. They are compared in terms of price, number, and type of participants, specific themes, and general thematic goals. The thesis is narrowed down to bilateral Euroregions at the Czech-Polish border - specifically to the Euroregions Glacensis, Praděd, Silesia, and Cieszyn Silesia. The research also offers a comparison between the four selected Euroregions. The results indicate that members' projects are significantly more expensive and involve a larger number of participants. Differences were also spotted regarding the themes and thematic objectives. In comparison, the members' projects of selected Euroregions also had different characteristics. This thesis inquires whether the distinction between members' and non-projects exists.
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Attitudes Towards Free Movement of Workers from the Perspective of Welfare Regimes
Janáková, Šárka ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Rovná, Lenka (referee)
This Master's Thesis studies the connection between welfare regime clusters, their institutions and public attitudes towards the free movement of workers in the European Union. It aims to analyse, whether welfare regime clusters can serve as a useful tool for understanding the cross- national differences in public opinion on intra-EU labour migrants. To do so the Thesis uses the institutional theory and looks at three dimensions of welfare state institutions - the universality of the welfare state, economic inequalities and job opportunities. The study is conducted on the case of eight (former and current) EU member states, which are divided into four pairs, each representing one of the welfare regimes - conservative, liberal, social democratic and Southern European. The Thesis concluded that neither clustering into welfare regimes, nor institutional dimensions represent a sufficient tool to explain the variations in attitudes between the chosen countries. Insufficiency of clustering was shown in the case of some countries, that are part of the same welfare clusters but show different levels of support for free movements of workers. Additionally, countries with the positions in the studied institutional dimensions which should lead to the most positive attitudes do not reach the predicted degree of...
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The Role of Scientific Knowledge in International Policymaking: the Case of European Union's Science Diplomacy
Rosenheim, Adam ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Tomalová, Eliška (referee)
Master's Thesis Adam Rosenheim Summer 2021/2022 Abstract Science has long been an integral part of the relations among nations and of foreign policy endeavours of states. However, the term science diplomacy is relatively new, meaning more theoretically anchored research needs to be developed. Additionally, as the current world's challenges increasingly require a broad international response based on sound scientific knowledge, the worlds of science and policymaking become more interconnected. This thesis, therefore, attempts to articulate its understanding of the concept of science diplomacy and then presents an innovative conceptual framework for the study of the term. The research later analyses the role of specific scientific knowledge in international policymaking in the concrete case of two biodiversity protection strategies of the European Union using the proposed conceptual framework. It concludes that the categories of the proposed framework are not definitive in the sense that they could be assigned to a specific piece of expert-based information when it enters the policy process, which would then retain the categorisation permanently. On the contrary, the research has indicated that the proposed categories serve as temporary designations of the specific information, which can change over time....
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Goal Setting in the Climate Policy of the EU
Vinařská, Lucie ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Bauer, Paul (referee)
Master's Thesis Lucie Vinařská SS 2022 Abstract This master's thesis deals with goal setting in the climate policy of the European Union. It examinates in detail the available literature on goal setting in the context of the general global, but more importantly, European governance. The aim of this thesis is to define factors that contribute to successful goal setting, which ensures that the goals can be used as an efficient governance strategy. These factors are (a) nature of the problem, (b) character of the actors, (c) the principal features of the setting and (d) mobilisation of support in specific cases, (e) funding, (f) scientific knowledge, (g) origin of the goal (h) translation of goals. The cases were chosen due to their ability to cover three distinct decades of EU's climate policy development. In each of these three cases, the goal setting process was described according to the criteria using official documents of the EU institutions such as the European Commission's communications or Council of the European Union's conclusions, official websites of the EU institutions or official reports. Based on the research, the goal setting process became much more comprehensive in terms of its length and the quantity of work necessary for a goal to be set. Though fulfilling all the criteria might not...
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Swedish education system and education of immigrants
Vosejpková, Tereza ; Svobodný, Petr (advisor) ; Young, Mitchell (referee)
Due to open immigration policy Sweden is often target destination of non-European immigrants. Because of that Sweden has to force high share number of immigrants in composition of inhabitants and try to make as homogeneous population as possible, which can be noticeably supported by compulsory education. By way of analysis of education system and its documents as well as insight into contemporary situation, this study should help to understand not only the basic ideas of immigrant education, but also consequences, which are brought by dissimilar education of pupils without knowledge of Swedish language, and consider whether all components of that education are of integration or not.
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On the Role of the Manufacturing Industries in Economic Resilience.
Arbesleitner, Roland ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Svoboda, Karel (referee) ; Figueira, Filipa (referee)
Economic resilience has recently enjoyed increased popularity in academic discourse, especially after the 2008 Global Crisis played havoc across the globe, but is as of now still in its infancy: A commonly agreed upon definition is yet to be found, and papers devoted to this concept are still rather scarce. It is commonly known that the manufacturing industries in European economies have generally been in decline for decades, and that they have primarily been replaced by the services sector. It has however been argued in the past that due to relatively high sunk costs, there is increased incentive for investors to keep manufacturing enterprises afloat during difficult times as long as possible, making them less likely to go out of business compared to others, thereby minimizing the initial blow of an economic shock to the respective economy and subsequently foster recovery. These assumptions are being examined in this paper by analysing data from the EU-28 starting at the outbreak of the 2008 crisis until 2015, followed by an investigation of individual economies in greater detail. The results show that more industrialised economies tend to have fared better during the crisis years and also managed to recover sooner.
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Financial Crisis in Economies with External Imbalances: A Comparative Analysis of Ireland and Spain
Semerák, Ondřej ; Váška, Jan (advisor) ; Young, Mitchell (referee)
The financial crisis of 2007-08 has had momentous consequences for most developed countries and triggered recession on the global financial markets. Consequently, economies with pre- existing deficiencies were hit in particular. In the European Union, especially two groups of member states with specific imbalances could be discerned. This thesis is intended to discuss the impacts on economies with external imbalances, where the crisis was not rooted in public finance profligacy. The main protagonists, Ireland and Spain, experienced resembling economic boom prior to the crisis, later accompanied by accumulation of foreign debt and real estate bubbles. Nonetheless, despite the strong similarities in their economic development their paths diverged after the bust, and Ireland has been given as an example for successful austerity. This thesis presents key determinative factors which differentiated Spain from Ireland in the reviving processes to discuss the hypothesis that the Irish recovery was generated solely by the implemented countermeasures and that it can therefore be considered a model for future crisis management. The objective of this thesis is to address this assertion and to evaluate its correctness using a detailed overview of structural specificities of the economies, as well as of the...
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