In Imposing Standards**, Martin Hearson shifts the focus of political rhetoric regarding international tax rules from tax havens and the Global North to the damaging impact of this regime on the Global South.** Even when not exploited by tax dodgers, international tax standards place severe limits on the ability of developing countries to tax businesses, denying the Global South access to much-needed revenue. The international rules that allow tax...

The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effe...

In recent years, China and India have become the most important economic partners of Africa and their footprints are growing by leaps and bounds, transforming Africa's international relations in a dramatic way. Although the overall impact of China and India's engagement in Africa has been positive in the short-term, partly as a result of higher returns from commodity exports fuelled by excessive demands from both countries, little research exists on the actual impact of China and India's g...

In a book full of directly applicable lessons for policymakers, Haley J. Swedlund explores why foreign aid is delivered in different ways at different times, and why various approaches prove to be politically unsustainable. She finds that no aid-delivery mechanism has yet resolved commitment problems in the donor-recipient relationship; bargaining compromises break down and have to be renegotiated; frustration grows; new ways of delivering aid gain traction over existing p...

This open access book offers unique in-depth, comprehensive, and comparative analyses of the motivations, context, and outcomes of recent land reforms in Africa. Whereas a considerable number of land reforms have been carried out by African governments since the 1990s, no systematic analysis on their meaning has so far been conducted. In the age of land reform, Africa has seen drastic rural changes. Analysing the relationship between those reforms and change, the chapters in this book reve...

Principles of International Economic Law provides a comprehensive overview of the central topics in international economic law, with an emphasis on the interplay between the different economic and political interests on both the international and domestic levels. Following recent tendencies, the book examines classical topics of international economic law - such as WTO law, investment protection, commercial law, and monetary law - in context with emerging aspects of human rights, ...

This is a critical period for the WTO and for realizing the potential of trade as a driver of growth and poverty reduction. It is time for good intentions to be translated into solid multilateral agreements that promote development, and it is high time that the rich countries tore down their barriers. But trade agreements by themselves cannot guarantee growth and poverty reduction: aid for trade and internal reforms are needed too. On all this, detail matters and trade agreements are compl...

Discussions on the outcome of a potential referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU have been characterised by political grandstanding, at the expense of serious economic analysis. With Brexit now a real possibility in the next Parliament, the IEA today releases a report outlining four different options for the UK in the event of a vote to leave the EU, all of which take into account both economic challenges and possibilities. In Brexit: Directions for Britain Outside the EU, various co...

The Doha Development Agenda held the promise of substantial gains for developing countries. However, the realization of these gains is far from obvious: the interests of various groups of countries differ greatly and technical complexities have hampered further progress since the very start of the negotiations.Against the background of the agenda of the present trade negotiations of the World Trade Organization and its slow progress, this enlightening book outlines the positions of...

The book examines trade agreements in the context of the current world economic crisis and the uncompleted World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round of trade negotiations. With economies shrinking and protectionism on the rise, many fear a protracted global recession. This raises important questions as to what role trade agreements – multilateral, plurilateral, and bilateral – should be playing in the current climate of uncertainty, and how best to plan for a more stable economic future. P...

The main aim of this book is to assess the importance of international rules for foreign direct investment and the major challenges to international harmonization of those rules. Particular attention is paid to the most controversial and contentious issues with the view of appraising the prospects for establishing global rules. The book is divided into three parts; the first part includes papers assessing the role of national and international legislation with further distinction being mad...

Leading trade esperts examine the world trading system today, from the multilateralism of the WTO to explosive bilateralism and the mega-regionals TPP and TTIP.When the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) metamorphosed into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1994, it seemed that the third pillar of the international economic superstructure was finally in place. And yet with the failure of member countries to close the Doha Round of trade negotiations a...