18. International mergers

International mergers are growing day by day. Globalization and worldwide financial reforms have collectively contributed towards the development of international mergers. International mergers are taking place in different forms, for example horizontal mergers, vertical mergers, conglomerate mergers, congener mergers, reverse mergers, dilutive mergers, accretive mergers and others.

With the help of international mergers , multinational corporations can enjoy a number of advantages:

• International Competition. Mergers can help firms deal with the threat of multinationals and compete on an international scale.

• Mergers may allow greater investment. This is because the new firm will have more profit. This can lead to a better quality of goods for consumers

• Greater Efficiency. Redundancies can be merited if they can be employed more efficiently

Disadvantages of Mergers:

• If a merger leads to a significant increase in market share, the new firm could exercise monopoly power. The legal definition of a monopoly is a firm with more than 25% of the market.

• If there is less competition it could lead to lower quality of products and less investment in new products

• The new firm can pay lower prices to suppliers.

• Mergers can lead to job losses.

• If the firm becomes too big it may suffer from diseconomies of scale.

There are certain impediments to international mergers and acquisitions. Regulations of different countries play an important role. In some countries certain sectors are prohibited from international mergers and acquisitions, while for some other sectors certain conditions need to be fulfilled. In China, for instance, laws regarding international mergers and acquisitions are quite stringent.

19. International development or global development

International development or global development is the development of greater quality of life for humans. It therefore encompasses foreign aid, governance, healthcare, education, poverty reduction, gender equality, infrastructure, economics, human rights and issues associated with these. International development is different from simple development in that it is specifically composed of institutions and policies that arose after the Second World War. These institutions focus on alleviating poverty and improving living conditions in previously colonised countries.

International development, seeks to implement long-term solutions to problems by helping developing countries create the necessary capacity needed to provide such sustainable solutions to their problems. A truly sustainable development project is one which will be able to carry on indefinitely with no further international involvement or support, whether it be financial or otherwise.

International development projects may consist of a single, transformative project to address a specific problem or a series of projects targeted at several aspects of society. Promoted projects are ones which involve problem solving that reflects the unique culture, politics, geography, and economy of a region. More recently, the focus in this field has been projects that aim towards empowering women, building local economies, and caring for the environment.

Or

International development is a concept of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans. Usually it refers to many aspects of our development such as: foreign aid, governance, healthcare, education, poverty reduction, gender equality, disaster preparedness, infrastructure, economics, human rights, environment etc. International development is different from simple development in that it is specifically composed of institutions and policies that arose after the Second World War. These institutions focus on fighting poverty and improving living conditions in Third World decolonized countries.

In a modern sense international development projects may consist of a single, transformative project to address a specific problem or a series of projects targeted at several aspects of society. Promoted projects are ones which involve problem solving that reflects the unique culture, politics, geography, and economy of a region. More recently, the focus in this field has been projects that aim towards empowering women, building local economies, and caring for the environment.

Although international relations and international trade have existed for many hundreds of years, it is only in the past century that international development theory emerged as a separate body of ideas. More specifically, it has been suggested that 'the theory and practice of development is inherently technocratic, and remains rooted in the high modernist period of political thought that existed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War Throughout the 20th century, before the concept of international development became a common word, four aspects were used to describe the idea:

• political and economic liberalism, and the significance of "free markets"

• social evolution in extremely hierarchized environment

• Marxist critiques of class and imperialism

• anti-colonial take on cultural differences and national self-determination