EFFECTS AND DYNAMICS OF GLOBALIZATION: MODELLING DIFFUSION PROCESSES IN HIGHLY DEVELOPED INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES

Funded by:

Fritz Thyssen Stiftung

Project status/ Period:

2009-2013, in preparation

Research Questions:

1. How and to what degree did globalization effects as diffusion processes evolved in highly deve-loped industrial countries of the OECD world between 1960 and 2005?

2. Which diffusion processes had the greatest impact on domestic policies in the areas of tax policy, social policy and environmental policy?

Research Area, Methods:

Quantitative aggregate data analysis; pooled time-series-cross-section-analysis with spatial lags

Short description:

The effects globalization exerts on domestic policies are widely debated in political discussion and political science research. Despite an extensive and cumulative portfolio of literature we still lack systematic and comprehensive comparative analyses of globalization processes and their political impact. Focusing on policy areas which are to a greater or lesser extent assumed to be affected by internationalization we try to establish if and to what degree globalization effects can be observed in highly developed industrialized democracies by means of aggregate data analysis for the period from 1960 to 2005.

For this purpose globalization is conceptualized as a diffusion process that can take different form and thus allows for the gathering of more nuanced conclusions about the effects of globalization on domestic policies. Apart from the prominently discussed diffusion effects which stem from competition on world markets we also analyze other diffusion processes and their respective impacts (e.g. learning and emulation, transborder contagion, coercion or imposed takeover and erosion of domestic economic assets). These different channels of globalization are conceptualized and operationalized for aggregate data analysis in order to test their effects on policy outputs in realms ranging from tax policy, to social policies and finally to environmental policies.

Project Team:

Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Detlef Jahn

Research Fellows: Sebastian Stephan, Dipl.-Pol.

Student Assistants: Konrad Rux

Publications and Working Papers: