Julio Revuelta

The Political Economy of Telecoms and Electricity Internationalization in the Single Market

As a consequence of liberalization policies in the European Union (EU), a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity transformed themselves into some of the worlds leading multinationals. The relationship between liberalization and incumbent internationalization, however, is contested. Three political economy arguments on this relationship are tested. The first claims that incumbents most exposed to domestic liberalization would internationalize most. The second asserts that incumbents operating where liberalization was restricted could exploit monopolistic rents to finance internationalization. The third argument claims that a diversity of paths will be adopted by countries and incumbents vis-à-vis liberalization and internationalization. Using correlation and cluster analysis of EU telecoms and electricity incumbent multinationals, evidence is found in favour of the third hypothesis. Internationalization as a response to liberalization took diverse forms in terms of timing and extent and this is best explained using a country, sector and firm logic.

The race for international markets: Were privatized telecommunications incumbents more successful than their public counterparts?

Selling off formerly state-owned telecommunications incumbents played a major role in governments’ privatization programmes from the 1980s. One major consequence was that, from the late 1990s, a number of incumbents emerged as the world’s largest Multinational Corporations (MNCs). Despite the importance of this transformation, the determinants of telecommunications internationalization have not been fully analysed. We contribute to the emerging literature on this topic by testing the importance of ownership on the extent of telecommunications internationalization through an analysis of the uneven path to privatization and internationalization of the 22 major incumbents in the OECD. Our results demonstrate that privatization was not a significant factor when explaining internationalization patterns. Using cluster analysis, we show how telecommunications incumbents characterized by diverse ownership arrangements (public, private and mixed) were able to transform themselves into world-class operators.

Is Market-Oriented Reform Producing a “Two-Track” Europe? Evidence from Electricity and Telecommunications

The European Commission has formally recognised that adequate provision of basic household services, including energy, communications, water and transport, is key to ensuring equity, social cohesion and solidarity. Yet little research has been done on the impact of the reform of these services in this regard. This article offers an innovative way to explore such questions by analysing and contrasting stated and revealed preferences on citizen satisfaction with and expenditure on two services, electricity and telecommunications, in two large countries, Spain and the United Kingdom. In telecommunications, but to a much lesser extent in electricity, we find evidence that reform has led to a “two-track” Europe, where citizens who are elderly, not working or the less-educated behave differently in the market, with the result that they are less satisfied with these services than their younger, working, better-educated, counterparts.

Explaining Telecoms and Electricity Internationalization in the European Union: A Political Economy Perspective

One consequence of the liberalization of certain services in the European Union was that a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity rapidly transformed themselves into some of the world’s leading Multinationals. However, the precise relationship between liberalization and incumbent internationalization is contested. This article tests three persuasive arguments derived from the political economy literature on this relationship. The first claims that those incumbents most exposed to domestic liberalization would internationalise most. The second asserts the opposite: incumbents operating where liberalization was restricted could exploit monopolistic rents to finance their aggressive internationalisation. The third argument claims that a diversity of paths will be adopted by countries and incumbents vis-a-vis liberalization and internationalization. Using correlation and cluster analysis of the sample of all major EU telecoms and electricity incumbent Multinationals evidence is found in favour of the third hypothesis. Internationalization as a response to liberalization took diverse forms in terms of timing and extent and this is best explained using a country, sector and firm logic.

Fiscal Policy and Inequality in Latin America, 1960–2012

Latin America is a region which has been plagued with persistent problems of social cohesion linked to inequality (Bertola and Ocampo 2012; Fitzgerald et al. 2011; Huber et al. 2006; Milanovic and Munoz de Bustillo 2008; Williamson 2010). Over the long term, the excessive degree of inequality in Latin America was considered an anomaly in international comparisons (Deininger and Squire 1996, 1998). However, over the last two decades, income inequality actually decreased across most countries in the region, though it still remains above the world average (ECLAC 2010; Cornia 2012). With this, Latin America has emerged as a positive anomaly, going against the grain of recent world trends which are heading towards greater inequality (Hvistendahl 2014, Ravallion 2014).

How Policies Shape Foreign Direct Investment from Latin America to the European Union

From the 2000s on, foreign direct investment (FDI) from emerging markets has increased significantly: as a consequence, emerging markets multinational corporations (MNC) have come of age. The rise of emerging markets MNC is but one manifestation of the process referred to by Angus Maddison as ‘shifting wealth’ in the world economy, whereby long-term global imbalances in current and capital accounts have increased the economic muscle and the political stature of a number of emerging countries and regions (OECD, 2010; Quah, 2011).