Investment incentives and the global competition for capitalby Kenneth P. Thomas * Investment incentives (subsidies designed to affect the location of investment) are a pervasive feature of global competition for foreign direct investment (FDI). They are used by the vast majority of countries, at multiple levels of government, in a broad range of industries. They take a variety of forms, including tax holidays, grants and free land. Politicians, at least in the United States, may have good electoral incentives to use them. 1 The Philippines has been estimated to spend 1% of GDP on "redundant" investment incentives (the investment would have come without subsidy); Vietnam's incentives were estimated at 0.7% of GDP in 2002; and US state and local governments spend approximately US$ 46.8 billion per year on location subsidies. 2 This is just the tip of the iceberg, as most countries' incentive spending is poorly reported. Like all subsidies, investment incentives tend to be economically inefficient and make income distributions more unequal (by transferring funds from average taxpayers to owners of capital). At times, they subsidize environmentally harmful projects, such as building a shopping center in a wetlands area. 3 Incentives are not always a bad policy, but their use requires taking potential problems into consideration.

No abstract

An experiment involving three neat asphalts and their mixtures with 1.5 wt % of polyphosphoric acid (105%) was conducted to investigate the effect of polyphosphoric acid (PPA) on the long-term aging characteristics of asphalt binders. Analytical techniques including dynamic shear rheometry, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were performed on unaged and aged PPA-modified asphalts. Rheological properties of unaged and aged modified asphalts were measured with a dynamic shear rheometer at various temperatures. The concentration of carbonyl-containing compounds present in the various unmodified and PPA-modified binders was determined by FTIR spectrometry. The thermal properties of the unmodified and PPA-modified binder were obtained by using differential scanning calorimetry. The results indicate that PPA-modified asphalts reduce rutting potential by increasing initial stiffness and reduce fatigue or low temperature cracking, or both by improving the low-temperature flow properties. The correlation between rheological properties and chemical properties of unmodified and PPA-modified asphalts is also presented. The results show a linear relationship between physical properties and chemical properties of asphalt binders with respect to oxidative aging. However, addition of PPA to asphalt alters the linear relationship. NMR results showed no new chemical species formed in the asphalt-PPA mixture.

No abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Wiley-Blackwell andThe International Studies Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to International Studies Quarterly.One of the most critical evaluations of Immanuel Wallerstein's worldsystems perspective comes from Marxists who dislike the dominant role played by trade as opposed to class interaction in his analysis. At the forefront of this critique is Robert Brenner, whose article in New Left Review, "The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism," has elicited far less of a debate than is warranted. In the first part of this article we carefully outline the various parts of this important critique, briefly drawing attention to some of the much more fundamental issues each addresses. In the second part we consider one of the most important of these issues, that of the most appropriate level of analysis for understanding political phenomena. The debate over this point revolves largely around events in Poland in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Thus this rather arcane topic takes center stage in an argument with far broader implications. We conclude that while one should maintain a wider system level of analysis, more attention must be paid to the concrete determinants of power within political units as well.