Bernadette Andreosso-O’Callaghan

• University of Limerick

The USA and China issued the Sunny-lands Agreement ahead of the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28), which took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from November 30 until December 12 2023. The world’s top carbon-emitting countries announced a novel economic growth and development stage during the summit. The new and updated agreement seeks to asse...

Financial technologies and digital finance emerge as new elements to support countries in their quest for green transformation and sustainable economic models. The green revolution is a complex process supported by policies and reforms that achieve a well-grounded institutional, financial and economic framework. This paper focuses on analysing Chin...

Central Bank and am organising, 2024 Nollaig na mBan event

Global water scarcity is a growing concern with particular connotations in the Middle East region. The case of Kuwait is explored in this paper with insights from the GCC region. Kuwait is a small oil-exporting economy, with a very poor fresh water rating that makes it one of the most water-stressed states in the world. Oil secures the population's...

Women’s inequality remains a significant global concern with important connotations for the MENA region. Preserving human rights, combating discrimination against women, and enhancing equality of life for women are critical as we work on socio-economic models that are more sustainable and balanced. Women’s rights recognition in all societies has su...

Women’s inequality remains a significant global concern with important connotations for the MENA region. Preserving human rights, combating discrimination against women, and enhancing equality of life for women are critical as we work on socio-economic models that are more sustainable and balanced. Women’s rights recognition in all societies has su...

China’s need for rapid economic growth and its hunger for natural resources significantly challenge its economic and policy vision of sustainability, social stability and economic development. The ‘Beautiful China Initiative’ plans to put China on the path of sustainable development in line with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable D...

The speeches of the United Nations Secretary-General-António Guterres, and the Irish prime minister-Micheál Martin in 2021 are examined in this paper. The study is supported by web content analysis and the implementation of text mining algorithms to identify the core themes that emerged from the Taoiseach's official speeches. The study seeks to ide...

The world's economic and political landscape is changing fast, and the world's developing economies have become sizeable contributors to global economic growth and political instability. The 2008 Global Economic and Financial Crisis is identified as an inflexion point marking the decisive shift towards increasing domestic and worldwide economic imb...

China's ability to secure its energy needs will play a vital role in consolidating its geo-economic and geopolitical rise. In addition, the Asian economy needs to ensure access to other natural resources, ranging from agricultural, metals and minerals, in its quest for "high-quality" growth. Countries that cannot secure their energy supply and ensu...

This chapter has adopted the trade gravity model to investigate the impact of GDP, geographical distance, difference GDP per capita, institutional distance, WTO membership, and landlocking on EU–China agricultural trade flows. This is followed by a trade potential analysis at an EU member country’s level. The study has found that instead of geograp...

Disrupting Thinking Research Event

With the signature of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, China was forced to forfeit many of its territorial and sovereignty rights and to cede a number of territories, in particular the island of Hong Kong, to the British in perpetuity. However, the final treaty, the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, led China to lease the New Terri...

China’s hunger for natural resources is growing as the Chinese authorities try to fuel an economy in need of sustainable economic growth while it adjusts to its “new normal” growth trajectory. There is a need to reactivate an economic model that is not meeting growth level targets and remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels. The country’s energy mo...

Vietnam is considered one of the fastest-growing economies in the Southeast Asian region, but the country’s economic development and socio-economic sustainability are marked by significant gender imbalances. As such, this chapter offers a valuable contribution to this field of study, as it engages with a quantitative analysis of microfinance tools...

The evolution of the world’s international financial centers is an ongoing process of reallocation with a recent marked shift in economic and financial activity towards Asia. The global financial landscape has always been an integral part of the power distribution system worldwide, as financial centers have helped redefine global economic and polit...

With the signature of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, China was forced to forfeit many of its territorial and sovereignty rights and to cede a number of territories, in particular the island of Hong Kong, to the British in perpetuity. However, the final treaty, the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, led China to lease the New Terri...

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The ambition of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is to revive the silk road of Roman times which was used by merchants to carry trade across Eurasia. China’s proclaimed aspiration is to reconnect to the world through its ancient trade corridors, and to emphasize its role as a world trade power. Should the BRI or “new silk road” be understood as e...

Disrupting Thinking Research Event Final Programme

The economic and political influence of China in the Asian region is growing amidst global geopolitical challenges. Economic corridors such as the new Silk Road have been identified as enablers of strategic growth and geo-economic power development in a context of significant political instability. Beijing's strategic approach and the importance of...

The relationship between the US presidential election cycle and the S&P500 index is examined in this paper. We focus our attention on President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump presidential election cycles, as there is a research gap examining these two presidency periods. A comparative study is limited as Obama served two terms in office wh...

Glad to have presented this paper today at the 1st Disrupting Thinking Research Conference at TU Dublin

Inaugural Research Event - DiT (Disrupting Thinking)

The economic shock represented by the Covid19 crisis has been showing the limits of industrial policy choices such as that of the chosen globalisation model, a model characterised in particular by the relocation of “key” manufacturing activities away from EU countries and towards low-cost emerging countries. In relation to the Covid19 crisis, reloc...

Asian Economies

This paper uses trade data from 2001 to 2017 to analyze comparative advantages of both the EU-27 (excluding the UK) and China by employing Balassa's revealed comparative advantage index (BRCA) and the normalized revealed comparative advantage index (NRCA). Two broad types of trade specialization dynamics have been analyzed by using OLS regression a...

Disrupting Thinking research event aims to distinguish from "traditional conferences" format. We seek to develop and nurture a network of researchers that think out of the box. The economic and financial field is in much need of disruptive critical thinking and we endeavour to offer a forum that enables and encourages innovative and disruptive stud...

Global financial markets have entered a state of collective hysteria triggered by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 suggesting that Covid-19 is a financial market "black swan" event. The impact of Covid-19 on the world's leading stock markets is examined with the help of spectral causality and the well-known Grang...

This chapter discusses a study that analyzes the impact of microfinance (MF) on women empowerment in the context of Vietnam. The analysis is based on the examination of primary data obtained from the MF organizations and women's unions (WUs) in the Tra Vinh (TV) province in Vietnam. Most of the feminist organizations focus on underdeveloped and dev...

This article investigates the effects of China’s outward direct investment (ODI) on the institutional quality of the Belt and Road (B&R) countries. Based on a panel data set of 63 B&R countries during the period 2003 to 2016, we find that China’s ODI improves the institutional quality of B&R countries not only in the short run but also in the long...

The impact of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president in the context of stock market reactions and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) within three key zones in ‘the Greater China Region’ (Hong Kong, Taiwan and China Mainland) are examined in this article. The chosen research period is from January 2014 to June 2017, and the...

With the broad aim of strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, the G20 has been contributing to the framing of global economic performance. This paper critically analyzes and assesses the progress in terms of achieving a number of economic objectives centered on the post-2008 global crisis challenge of economic growth revitalization; the...

The study of financial market efficiency has important implications in terms of global macroeconomic stability. The case of six selected East Asian stock markets (China, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea) during the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) and Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is analysed here using a battery of well-known econ...

With the September 2014 ‘Umbrella Revolution’ in Hong Kong, China faced one of the biggest political challenges since the Tiananmen Square events. Beijing’s proposed electoral reform was perceived as a direct attack to democracy, and the ensuing protest triggered concerns amid local and international investors; the financial sector took the hardest...

Over the last two decades, the microfinance sector has expanded significantly in many developing countries, as governments have realised that microfinance can bring opportunities for the underprivileged people to access financial services. Deprived social classes have been able to obtain financial resources to develop businesses, to grow crops, and...

An examination of Brexit and its initial impact on the main stock markets in the Greater China Region (GCR) was conducted using augmented market models that integrate Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) and implied volatility (VIX). The results do not seem to align with research in the field that has suggested that the EPU index helps to identify if...

The core issue under consideration in this study is the implication for the world economies of a prolonged economic Chinese slowdown, as the economy keeps growing at lower levels of growth rates, or at what has been euphemistically coined as the ‘new normal’ growth rate. Using econometric techniques over the period 2013–2015, the research findings...

In the framework of global economic integration, trade and economic relations between the EU and China have become an inescapable issue from both a political and an economic perspective. The EU and China trade in the agricultural sector have not been grown as quick as the general trade in the manufacturing sector as it should be. Therefore, in this...

This research study presents a brief literature review on the conditions of microfinance in Vietnam over the period 2005 to 2015. The main research findings show how Vietnam has benefited from learning experiences on the use of simple microfinance models around the world. The leading areas of interest relate to the role of microfinance on poverty r...

The new economic policies initiated by the 45th US president Donald Trump, and their impact on the economies of the “the Greater China Region” (Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China) are examined in this chapter. The impact is assessed at both the stock exchange and other non-financial markets levels. For the stock markets, the chosen research perio...

In many Asian countries, the questions of limits to growth and the challenges of overcoming such limits are clearly at work today. Japan is facing quickly an ageing and shrinking population, a situation that South Korea is bound to face in the near future too. China is facing the problem of the exhaustion of its export-led growth model based on low...

Over the last decades, microfinance (MF) in Vietnam has grown significantly contributing to government goals in terms of poverty reduction. As per 2013 records for Vietnam, there were 10.09 million MF clients, and over 130 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) with 5800 branches at the commune-level (ADB in Sector assessment: MF development program in V...

Although Asia has been the world engine of economic growth since World War II, growth rates have differed sharply among the countries of the region. Still, all Asian countries have experienced some degree of growth limitation. Japan is facing the crucial issue of a quickly aging and shrinking population, a situation that South Korea is bound to fac...

Purpose This paper argues that financial development, measured by private credit in the economy, affects exports in an inverted U-shaped manner. We use the new trade theory model and empirical data to analyze whether the financial system is the reason of global imbalance. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds a simple production model to...

This research study presents a brief literature review on the conditions of microfinance in Vietnam over the period 2005 to 2015. The main research findings show how Vietnam has benefited from learning experiences on the use of simple microfinance models around the world. The leading areas of interest relate to the role of microfinance on poverty r...

The food price crisis that occurred in the mid-2000s and the global financial crisis that transpired in 2008 had an enduring impact on developing and emerging countries where investment growth rates have declined sharply. Food insecurity has also become an important concern. Using a food security assessment model, an analysis of the medium- to long...

With the rise of China as a new global economic player, several authors have attempted to qualify the evolving Chinese capitalist system. In spite of the different theoretical frameworks used and results obtained, these approaches tend to highlight, in the main, the pivotal role of the Chinese state. China's red, or party-driven, capitalism is high...

Ireland's software industry emerged in the 1970s and 1980s due to significant international developments and, more importantly, the industrial policy approach adopted in Ireland. The attraction of software foreign direct investment during these decades was followed by the emergence of an internationally competitive Irish software sector. A multitud...

Contemporary capitalism in Ireland took off in the late 1950s and affirmed itself as an inward investment-focused model of development. With enterprise development at the core of the policy (as a way of developing the economy and society and ending emigration), all other policy domains – financial, governance, industrial relations, welfare and educ...

Since the 1973 publication of Alain Peyrefitte's prophetic "When China Awakens," developments in East Asia have outstripped even the wildest predictions. China has undergone the fastest industrialization and urbanization process in history, yet tensions there are rising as some realize how far they have been left behind. This volume explores the ap...

In the last two decades, the world economy has been challenged by different economic and financial crisis. These events have captured researchers’ attention, and in particular the analysis of contagion effects derived from stock market shocks have been a focal point of interesting discussions. However, there is little consensus on how contagion sho...

The cross-Strait economic relationship is complex given the uneasy political connections existing between mainland China and Taiwan. Although attempts at fostering economic links between the two countries date back to the late 1970s, it is only after the 1985 Plaza Accord that Taiwanese firms started using China as an economic platform for trade an...

The present introductory chapter discusses what makes economic integration sustainable and what are the prerequisites for sustainable economic integration. A financial safety net is without any doubts an important prerequisite, as it would allow crisis-stricken European Union (EU) countries to rely on financial resources for recovery. Other prerequ...

The cross-Strait economic relationship is complex given the uneasy political connections existing between mainland China and Taiwan. Although attempts at fostering economic links between the two countries date back to the late 1970s, it is only after the 1985 Plaza Accord that Taiwanese firms started using China as an economic platform for trade an...

Chinese capitalism cannot be captured by theoretical frameworks and concepts such as the ‘Varieties of Capitalism’ approach. Despite its integration into the world economy and the financial crises, the country has kept a stable Leninist basis of formal institutions. The case of financial services shows: (i) a resilience of the sector to the ‘Great...

The economic history literature on income convergence between and across countries (particularly in those of the west) acknowledges the existence of two distinct chronological periods after the Second World War (WWII): 1950-1973 is seen as being the golden age in which both income convergence and distributional convergence took place. By contrast,...

This chapter serves as a brief introduction to the volume. It outlines the book’s rationale and provides an overview of the various chapters.

This chapter discusses the evolving trade policy of the EU with Asia from its origin, by placing a dual emphasis on its developments since the implementation of the 2006 Global Europe Strategy, and on the way this strategy may have been affected by the current economic crisis. The issues of market access, giving rise to static bilateral trade benef...

If a preferential trade agreement is a spatially confined form of economic integration between countries aiming at reducing tariffs for certain products and services in their bilateral or multilateral trade, it can affect trade flows and resource allocation. The Korea-EU free trade area agreement is rather comprehensive, since only a few agricultur...

In the framework of the current global economic crisis, a pertinent question is whether the world economies are suffering from contagion or interdependency effects. With its origins in the US sub-prime mortgage market crisis starting at the end of 2007, when a loss of confidence by investors in the value of securitized mortgages resulted in a liqui...

This paper examines theoretically and empirically the extent to which the decision by foreign firms to invest in a group of countries is influenced by economic in contrast to risk factors, specifically, political risk and institutional performance. We consider their importance as drivers of foreign direct investment (FDI) for 32 European countries...

Because of its magnitude and breadth, the first economic crisis of the third millennium - which is primarily a western economic crisis - invites one to analyze whether the crisis is a simple regulatory mechanism of temporarily failing markets or whether it is the symptom of a more severe type of failure, that of 'systemic failure'. Since the curren...

In 2008, world attention focused on the global food crisis and, as a consequence, on global food security. Although food prices had dropped substantially by mid-2009, most remain at or above past trend levels. Of all cereals, rice has a strategic importance, with its production and consumption being concentrated in Asia. Consequently, it is, and ha...