Facilitators: Hirotaka Fujibayashi and Vanessa Villanueva Collao
Join us at this online event as CETI welcomes two distinguished Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellows from the European University Institute in Italy. Eager to engage with the academic community, these Fellows will present their research on International Relations and Law. We invite you to come along and gain valuable insights into their work, as they prepare to observe lecturers and offer some teaching at the University of Westminster in March.
The first talk will be given by Hirotaka Fujibayashi who is a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow in the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. His research lies at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, with a substantive focus on the politics and political economy of international migration and refugees.
Migration, Foreign Aid, and the Rise of Populist Radical Right Parties
At this event, I will present my latest study which examines the interrelation between dyadic migration flows and aid allocation decisions of donor countries amid the rising influence of populist radical right (PRR) parties at home. Recent foreign aid literature suggests that donor aid allocation often responds positively to the level of bilateral migrant inflows from developing countries (aid recipients). The rise of PRR parties in many advanced economies, however, has drawn renewed attention to the supposedly positive linkage between foreign aid and migration and led to another puzzling question: how do PRR parties, who generally demand aid budget cuts but do not dislike targeting aid for migrant deterrence, influence donors’ aid allocation decisions? Using a time-series cross-sectional dataset from 1991-2020, I find that the stronger PRR parties become in donors’ electoral politics, the more targeted foreign aid is for migrant containment purposes. With novel empirical evidence, I argue that PRR parties’ growing leverage intervenes positively in the aid-migration linkage.
The second talk will be given by Vanessa Villanueva Collao who is a Max Weber Fellow in Law at the European University Institute. Vanessa's research explores issues in law and technology, focusing on corporate law. Vanessa will be presenting her latest research:
Decentralized Governance (DeGov)—Models of Governance for Accessible Crypto-Markets.
Through a lab experiment, this project analyzes retail crypto investors' behavior and motivation to exercise voting rights in decentralized autonomous organizations. In decentralized governance within blockchain, large investors often consolidate power through vote buying or acquiring voting rights. Despite blockchain's aim to distribute power, digital platforms introduce a counter mechanism: a temporary divestiture of voting rights for a monetary exchange. Retail investors, perceiving cryptoassets as yield, hesitate to engage in governance due to coordination challenges. However, recent events like the GameStop/Robinhood saga demonstrate the potential for coordination among younger investors. The experiment explores passive investment and coordination costs assumptions, examining how decoupling economic and voting rights can encourage active participation and address the collective action problem in cryptomarkets. This study offers insights into the motivations of younger crypto investors and informs future policies on financial literacy, investment incentives, and governance participation.