International economic relations

This thesis analyses the foreign economic policies of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administration toward Venezuela from 1957 to 1963. By examining material from U.S. diplomatic document collections, my research intervenes in the historiography of the Alliance for Progress by demonstrating the failures of U.S. policy in Venezuela during the Latin American Cold War. Although the United States supported the democratic government of Rómulo Betancourt politically, it hamstrung his government economically. The Kennedy administration at first provided loans for economic development to Venezuela, though they quickly eliminated this aid and began prioritizing military assistance as the most efficient way of supporting Betancourt’s government. More importantly, by continually limiting imports of Venezuelan oil into the United States, both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations hurt Venezuela’s economy and caused Betancourt to face a crisis of legitimacy as his capacity to manage the nation’s natural wealth came into question.

This dissertation examined the roles of institutional distance and corporate social
capital in the unique context of foreign acquisitions in the United States. A conceptual
framework was developed which suggests that institutional distance has a dual impact on
international acquisition performance. Institutional distance makes it more difficult for
foreign acquirers to establish legitimacy in the United States, and therefore adversely
affects acquisition success. Institutional distance also has a beneficial effect on
acquisition performance to the extent to which it provides valuable opportunities for
institutional arbitrage. Corporate social capital was discussed as a strategy to aid foreign
MNCs in overcoming the detrimental, and leveraging the beneficial effects of
institutional distance on these cross-border transactions.
Analysis results based on a sample of 247 large-scale acquisitions in the US by
publicly traded foreign acquirers that were made between 2000 and 2005 provided overall support for the hypothesized model. It was found that each of the three
dimensions of institutional distance - regulatory, normative, and cultural distance- was
negatively associated with the local media endorsement of foreign acquirers.
Furthermore, regulatory distance was negatively associated with the investment ratings of
foreign acquirers, and normative distance had a positive impact on the number of local
lawsuits filed against these firms.
Results from this study also showed that the existence of corporate social capital
aided foreign acquirers in overcoming the negative effect of regulatory distance on both
the firms' investment ratings and their local media endorsement. The findings further
revealed that media endorsement of foreign acquirers in the United States was positively
related to acquisition performance as indicated by cumulative abnormal returns.
Moreover, legitimate foreign acquirers with high investment ratings were able to leverage
cultural distance, given that the relationship between investment ratings and acquisition
performance was positive for this group of acquirers.
The results reported in this study therefore emphasize the importance of
organizational legitimacy and corporate social capital for international acquisition
performance, and shed light on the detrimental and beneficial roles of institutional
distance in this context. In so doing, this dissertation strengthens institutional theory and
social capital theory as powerful perspectives in international strategic management.

This thesis examines if characteristics of a foreign nation's economic, social and foreign policy affect U.S. policy makers foreign aid allocation decisions. The three years of 1981, 1985, 1988 were studied. There were several theories that were taken form previous literature that could be grouped generally into humanitarian interests and donor interests that were used to determine the rationale behind the U.S. foreign aid allocation. There were two stages in the study, the first asked: what are the characteristics of nations most likely to receive aid from the U.S.? The second stage asked among nations receiving aid, which attributes--humanitarian interests or donor interests--are associated with greater amount of aid?

This study was conducted to analyze the impact of the budget deficit on key macroeconomic variables in the seven major industrial countries (G-7): Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Four models were developed to test the impact of the budget deficit on the variables of importance within the economies of the countries in question. The first model tested the relationship between the budget deficit and the short-term interest rate. The second explored the impact of the budget deficit on the long-term interest rate. The third model examined the impact of the budget deficit on the trade balance. The fourth and final model was specified to explain the relationship between the budget deficit and economic growth. The data utilized in this study covered the period from 1964 to 1993 and were gathered mainly from the international statistics of the International Monetary Fund. The data were standardized in the form of the percentage of the gross domestic product and the percentage change over the previous year in order to compile similar data across the seven countries. Multiple regression analysis as well as meta analysis were used to analyze the data. The multiple regression results indicated that the budget deficit leads to higher short-term interest rates in Japan and the United States. With respect to the long term-interest rate, the budget deficit led to an increase of this rate in France, Germany, and the United States. The budget deficit, however, appeared to worsen the trade balance in Canada. In Italy and the U.S., the trade balance improved with the budget deficit. With respect to the economic growth, the budget deficit is a significant variable of growth in France, Germany, and Italy. When the data for the seven countries were combined in meta analysis, the results showed that the budget deficit led to higher short-term interest rates in the seven countries. The budget deficit, however, did not manifest any impact on the long-term interest rates. The trade balance was worsened by the budget deficit and the economic growth improved in all the seven major industrial countries.

Policymakers and scholars are deeply divided on the purpose and effectiveness of sanctions, but recent work has given attention to the strategy of using positive sanctions or incentives. This study investigates the conditions under which the U.S. uses a punitive sanctions policy (indicated by all negative sanctions) or an engagement policy (indicated by a mix of positive and negative sanctions). Applying materialist (Schelling, 1960, 1966; Snyder and Diesing, 1977; Axelrod, 1984; Fearon, 1994) and sociological (Schoppa, 1999; Wendt, 2000; Lebow, 2007) bargaining perspectives, this study will consider factors such as the level of target threat, the target's nuclear weapons capability, the extent of international support for sanctions, and the relationship between the U.S. and target. This study analyzes the case studies of the U.S-led sanctions against Iraq (1990-2003), North Korea (1993-present), and Libya (1972-2006).

The informal, underground or shadow economy is a significant, growing force throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, contributing to overall output, yet diminishing productivity, congesting public services, and depriving developing nations of potential fiscal revenues. This paper discusses the various definitions and methods of measurement of the informal sector, with the aim of showing the importance of collecting taxes in informal economies. Informal economy participants engage in tax evasion and avoidance of governmental regulations, therefore the implications of excessive tax burdens and onerous bureaucracy are studied, with a focus on their impact on GDP growth. Informal sector enterprises can greatly contribute to the official, recorded GDP measures if they have significant incentives to joining the formal sector. These incentives are presented and must be considered seriously by policymakers concerned with capturing additional tax revenues and improving economic growth in their nations.