Government and Business

Course overview and objectives
This course explores government policy, globalization, and their impact on business. The course begins with an introduction on policy making in democratic systems, and the role to be played by business. It is focused on the EU-level policy making process, and a comparison is made with the US policy making process. 
Chapter 2 evaluates different national business systems. First, objective is to show major differences in the institutional settings where businesses operate, e.g., Germany vs. US, or France vs. South Korea. Second,there is an evaluation of the impact of different political systems, authoritarian and democratic, on state capitalism in East Asian countries.
Chapter 3 addresses the EU level of policymaking. It provides answers to the following questions: 
• What is the allocation of tasks between EU institutions and member states? 
• What is the Brussels effect and its impact on businesses?
• What is the impact of cohesion funds and state aid on EU businesses and regions? 
Chapter 4 addresses globalization, and its impact on growth, income distribution and economic nationhood in developed market economies. Chapter 5 evaluates the joint impact of information and communications 
technologies and globalization on national democratic choices concerning growth and equity. 
Chapter 6 discuss current challenges to national and EU policy making, resulting from the erosion of a liberal international order, deglobalization and environmental challenges.After attending the course, students should be able to explain:
1. Policy differences among democratic countries in policy areas as competition, training, health insurance, finance or corporate governance.
2. Relationships between democratic and authoritarian political systems and the role of the state in international business.
3. The allocation of power between EU level organizations and member states.
4. The influence of businesses on EU policy making.
5. The impact of EU cohesion funds on businesses and regions.
6. The impact of globalization, deglobalisation and ICT on businesses and workers in developed maket economies.

Course Content
1. Policy making and business
a. What is the public interest in democratic systems?
b. What is the role of businesses in policy making? 
c. The effectiveness of lobbying: EU vs. US.
2. National business systems. 
a. Varieties of capitalism: Germany and US.
b. Welfare states: Germany, Sweden, and US.
c. Developmental states: Japan and South Korea.
d. Authoritarian capitalism, state owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds in East Asia.
3. The European Union. 
a. Institutions, task allocation and fiscal federalism.
b. Improvising during the euro crisis.
c. The EU regulatory state. The Brussels effect. 
d. Cohesion funds as developmental policies: do they have an impact?
e. The politics of state aid to business.
4. Globalization
a. Sources of modern globalization.
b. Offshoring, trade in tasks, employment, and wages. 
c. The decline of the democratic tax state and economic nationhood.
5. Advanced capitalism, ICT and globalization
a. Are capital chasing jobs? 
b. Shrinking complementarities between high-skill and low-skill jobs.
c. The booming metropolis and the decline of provincial cities.
6. Deglobalisation and the return of the interventionist state
a. Challenges to a liberal international order.
b. Are businesses ready to deglobalization?
c. Securing social cohesion. 
d. Environmental challenges.

Grading
a) The final grade is the end term grade, enhanced by class participation. Class participation may increase the endterm grade up to 2 points: e.g. a student with 15 in the endterm may get a final grade up to 17. 
b) For students with a final grade equal to 8 or 9 there will be a final exam. 
c) The final exam will also be available to students missing the endterm. In this case the final grade will be the grade of the final exam, enhanced by class participation.
Note: Class participation will be based on the debate, during a session, of a topic suggested in the previous session. It does not have any negative impact on the final grade. If a student does not participate, the final grade is the end term grade.

Bibliography
Baldwin, R., Wyplosz, 2020, The Economics of European Integration, London, McGraw Hill.
Bowman, J., 2014, Capitalisms Compared. Welfare, Work and Business, Sage-CQ Press.
Bradford, A., 2020, The Brussels Effect. How the European Union Rules the World, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Haggard, S., 2018, Developmental States, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Iversen, T., Soskice, D., 2019, Democracy and Prosperity. Reinventing Capitalism through a Turbulent Century, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Klüver, H., 2013, Lobbying in the European Union. Interest groups, lobbying coalitions and policy change, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Lehne, R., 2013, Government and Business. American Political Economy in Comparative Perspective, Sage-CQ Press.
Thompson, H., 2022, Disorder. Hard Times in the 21st Century, Oxford, Oxford University Press.