Article: Tailoring globalisation to national needs and well-being: one size never fits all Journal: Global Business and Economics Review (GBER) 2007 Vol.9 No.2/3 pp.319 - 334 Abstract: This paper argues that political-economic trends referred to under the single heading of globalisation have distinct causes and manifestations in different countries. Institutional variables chosen by governments and their constituents play a dominant role in determining the character of those manifestations, few of which are inevitable. The political Left and Right often base their arguments on the common premise that nations have no choice but to adopt the US model of highly mobile investment capital, market-centred provision of most goods, minimal governmental regulation and minimisation of accounting costs. That countries possess considerable degrees of freedom in establishing rules for international flows of labour, capital and goods is insufficiently appreciated by critics and supporters of trade and labour market liberalisation. Variety in political-economic forms achieves institutional diversification on a global scale, providing a multi-dimensional spectrum of benchmarks that help individual countries measure policy performance and update institutional variables accordingly. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Tailoring globalisation to national needs and well-being: one size never fits all

Authors: Nathan Berg, Shlomo Maital

Addresses: School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences (EPPS), University of Texas-Dallas, Box 830688, GR 31 Richardson, TX 75083, USA. Max Planck Institute for Human Development-Berlin, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition (ABC), Germany ' Technion Institute of Management (TIM), Bldg. 10, Atidim Industrial Park, 61580 Tel Aviv, Israel; S. Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science & Technology, Technion, Haifa, Israel

Abstract: This paper argues that political-economic trends referred to under the single heading of globalisation have distinct causes and manifestations in different countries. Institutional variables chosen by governments and their constituents play a dominant role in determining the character of those manifestations, few of which are inevitable. The political Left and Right often base their arguments on the common premise that nations have no choice but to adopt the US model of highly mobile investment capital, market-centred provision of most goods, minimal governmental regulation and minimisation of accounting costs. That countries possess considerable degrees of freedom in establishing rules for international flows of labour, capital and goods is insufficiently appreciated by critics and supporters of trade and labour market liberalisation. Variety in political-economic forms achieves institutional diversification on a global scale, providing a multi-dimensional spectrum of benchmarks that help individual countries measure policy performance and update institutional variables accordingly.

Keywords: globalisation; institutions; behavioural economics; Kaldor-Hicks; inevitability; national needs; well-being; policy performance; institutional variables.

DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2007.013708

Global Business and Economics Review, 2007 Vol.9 No.2/3, pp.319 - 334

Published online: 22 May 2007 *

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Title: Tailoring globalisation to national needs and well-being: one size never fits all

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