Browsing by Author "Leachman, Lori"

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    The Role of Syrian Refugees in The Sharing Economy and Technology Sector in Germany: A Neoliberal Approach to Integration and Empowerment
    (2016-04-25) Smith, Emma
    From January through December of 2015, Germany accepted nearly one million refugees. Though arriving with diverse skillsets and past experiences, approximately half of these refugees share one thing in common: they are Syrian. As the influx of Syrians in Germany represented a larger trend of what was happening throughout Europe during this time, it seemed fitting to study their case for this thesis. This study sets out to explore innovations that give refugees agency to contribute to their own advancement and integration. Over the course of three months, twelve refugees were interviewed and fifteen were surveyed to produce the results for this work. The work presented here suggests that the existing dependency-creating aid structure must be changed to give agency to refugees. Such changes improve integration of refugees and enable them to contribute in a meaningful way to their host communities. The three chapters in this work will narrow in on this topic. Chapter One will go on to provide further background and context about Syrian refugees, German policies and practices as they relate to integration, and the field of social entrepreneurship. Chapter Two and Three argue respectively that the sharing economy and the technology sector can be used to help Syrian refugees integrate into their communities in Germany. Comprehensively, this research contributes to a growing field of work around how refugees can serve as economic boon instead of burden.
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    What Fosters Innovation? A Cross­Sectional Panel Approach to Assessing the Impact of Cross Border Investment and Globalization on Patenting Across Global Economies
    (2018-04-18) Dessau, Michael; Vega, Nicholas
    This study considers the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on innovation in high income, upper­middle income and lower­middle income countries. Innovation matters because it is a critical factor for economic growth. In a panel setting, this study assesses the degree to which FDI functions as a vehicle for innovation as proxied by scaled local resident patent applications. This study considers research and development (R&D), domestic savings, imports and exports, and quality of governance as factors which could also impact the effectiveness of FDI on innovation. Our results suggest FDI is most effective as inward direct investment in countries outside the technological frontier possessing adequate existing domestic investment capital and R&D spending to convert foreign investment capital and technological spillover into innovation. Nonetheless, FDI was not a consistent indicator for innovation; rather, the most consistent indicators across this study were R&D and domestic savings. Differences amongst income groups are highlighted as well as their varying responses to our array of causal factors.