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This comment provides a critical analysis of Van Beukering and Bouman’s [World Development 29 (2001) 1717] article on global paper recycling and trade. We first question their notion that developing countries specialize in waste paper utilization and developed countries in recovery activities primarily because of different patterns of waste paper trade. An increased focus on relative waste paper availability, we argue, provides us with a better understanding of global paper recycling. We also criticize some of the implicit assumptions made in their regression analysis of waste paper utilization rates. An alternative regression model is therefore derived and estimated. In contrast to the approach used by Van Beukering and Bouman our analysis (a) is consistent with basic microeconomic theory; (b) distinguishes clearly between short- and long-run impacts; and (c) produces results that support our initial conjecture that waste paper availability is the most important determinant of waste paper use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper explores how the choice of a country’s exchange rate regime may affect exchange rate misalignment for developing and developed countries. A measure of misalignment is obtained by using a panel cointegration vector estimator. This paper finds that for developing countries, an intermediate exchange rate regime (a regime falling somewhere between a pure float and a hard peg) is most effective in preventing exchange rate misalignment. Additionally, the choice of an exchange rate regime as a means to limit misalignment matters for developing countries, but does not seem to matter for developed countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examines how macro factors influence the use of antidumping in developed and developing countries. A panel data analysis of 99 countries over 1980–2000 reinforces the view that the primary jurisdiction for the antidumping law is really more political than economic. Furthermore, it suggests that once the WTO is fully enforced, the use of antidumping will spread among developing countries not only due to greater liberalization pressures but also as many countries would like to create an antidumping ability so as to counter its use against them. This may reverse the trade gains that liberalization may ensure to them. This paper thus calls for the granting of the special and differential treatment to developing countries in this provision. Finally, based on its findings, the paper argues that future negotiations should be directed toward revising safeguard rules and replacing antidumping by this new clause. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary Global FDI flows to and from developing countries have increased significantly since the 1990s. While developing countries saw this as a positive development, many economists and policy makers in developed countries have raised concerns regarding the institutional effects of developing country investments in other developing countries. In this paper we explore the effects of bilateral FDI flows on institutional development gaps between countries and whether such effects are conditional on the direction of flows including South–South, South–North, North–South, and North–North directions. The empirical results using bilateral flows between 134 countries and a variety of institutional development measures during 1990–2009 suggest that the institutional development effects of FDI flows in any direction including the North–South or South–South directions are not significant. In any case we do not find any significant convergence or divergence effect of FDI flows on the institutional distance between host and home countries. We also fail to find any significant effect of aggregate North–South FDI flows on host country institutions. In contrast, we find that aggregate South–South FDI flows have a significantly negative effect on host country institutions. Furthermore, we find some evidence that South–South FDI flows may be harmful to institutional development in natural resource-rich countries while the opposite is true for North–South flows. Overall, the results suggest that there is no strong evidence of any benevolent or malevolent effects of bilateral FDI flows from developed or developing countries to developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper examines how dissimilarity of partner country characteristics affects the change in trade flows under a preferential trade agreement (PTA). Our results show that the more similar the partner countries are, the larger the increase in intra-bloc trade is under a PTA. Particularly, there is a substantial “development neighborhood premium”: the gain for developing countries from a PTA among themselves is about two and a half times that from partnering with industrial countries. Our findings challenge the perception that by becoming more integrated with industrial countries, developing countries could automatically gain access to a much larger and lucrative export market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The concept of financial well-being serves as a useful indicator for monitoring progress towards SDGs 1, 3, 10, and 16. • Representative data on 11 emerging and developed countries is used to measure financial well-being and analyze predictors. • The average sample respondent is deficient in over three out of ten metrics considered vital for financial well-being. • Sizeable heterogeneity is found in structural and institutional features of financial sectors at country subregion levels. • These features are highly predictive of financial well-being, even controlling for individual and subregional covariates. This paper draws on nationally representative survey data from 11 emerging and developed economies to measure consumer financial well-being and provide a systematic analysis of its predictors. Whereas the extant literature has been dominated by studies emphasizing the role of individuals' levels of financial literacy and formal financial inclusion, the paper shifts focus towards contextual-level predictors by exploiting subregional variation in structural and institutional features of financial sectors, both within and across countries. It develops a conceptual framework that categorizes such features into 1) those that enhance or inhibit decision-making when selecting or using formal products and 2) those that provide viable substitutes or complements to formal products. It then provides empirical evidence on several examples. Specifically, it highlights the relative importance of having greater prevalence of independent information resources concerning financial products and services, additional provider choice, and some forms of semi-formal and informal finance. The main policy implications are that current efforts to improve broader welfare outcomes through financial literacy and inclusion interventions may still be too narrowly framed. Structural and institutional features related to financial sectors may hinder or enhance financial well-being, even if individuals have adequate financial literacy or be included in formal financial markets. The financial well-being concept may also serve as a useful indicator for monitoring progress towards SDGs 1, 3, 10, and 16. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: International technological collaborations (ITCs) and face-to-face interactions are an important vehicle of knowledge diffusion. This paper analyzes ITCs among USPTO patents’ inventors in eleven emerging economies and seven advanced countries (1990–2004) and a novel database on companies’ country of origin. Technological proximity and sharing a common language are key drivers of ITCs. When the applicant’s ownership is in the emerging country ITCs depend positively upon transport and communication costs (geographical distance and longitude) and negatively upon the strength of intellectual property rights (IPRs). Stronger IPRs positively affect ITCs from subsidiaries of multinational firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper studies the cyclical behavior of public spending on health and education in 145 countries during 1987–2007. It finds that spending on education and health is procyclical in developing countries and acyclical in developed countries. In addition, education and health expenditures follow an asymmetric pattern in developing countries; they are procyclical during periods of positive output gap and acyclical during periods of negative output gap. Furthermore, the degree of cyclicality is higher the lower the level of economic development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper analyzes the unit prices of imports into the EU, Japan, and the US during 1989–2006 of manufactured products in which China specializes. It finds that imports from middle income countries are in close price competition with those from China and that there has been price competition between China and high-income countries in low-technology products. By contrast, the impact of China’s exports on low-income countries is not through price competition but through market expansion. China’s WTO entry had a once-for-all shock on the export prices of the high-income countries. The price competition effect of China’s exports weakened over the time period of 1989–2006, suggesting a gradual change in competition from price to nonprice factors such as quality and variety. If sustained, this trajectory poses an increasing competitive threat to high-income economies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper develops a framework for analyzing international standardization strategies of latecomers based on the level of technological capabilities and social-institutional-economic opportunities. Three Korean cases of TPEG, T-DMB, and Binary CDMA technologies and standards were studied, and from the results it is argued that latecomer standardization strategies converge to those of advanced countries as the latecomers reach the cutting edge of technology. Latecomer countries’ strategies may initially be limited to an “adoption” strategy. However, latecomer countries may consider participatory standards and compatible variations while their capabilities are developing, and ultimately new independent standards are possible once latecomers join the league of advanced countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper addresses the public concern of hollowing-out effects of FDI by analyzing firm-specific data on Taiwanese manufacturing multinationals. We estimate ordered probit models with the firms’ own assessment of domestic production and employment effects as dependent variables to investigate whether such effects depend on the size, location, and type of FDI. We find that the probability of negative effects increases slightly with the size of FDI. Furthermore, the effects of locating in China differ from those of locating in advanced countries. In contrast to vertical and export-platform FDI, employment effects of horizontal FDI tend to be positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines whether political institutional improvement promotes financial development, using a panel dataset of 90 developed and developing countries over 1960–99. The empirical evidence reveals a positive effect of institutional improvement on financial development at least in the short-run, particularly for lower income countries. The preliminary evidence by a before–after event study indicates that a democratic transformation is typically followed by an increase in financial development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper evaluates whether inward foreign direct investment stimulates technological upgrading, and if its impact depends on an economy’s level of social capability. FDI inflows exert a positive influence on technological upgrading over a lengthy time period for a large and diverse sample of countries. This effect is conditioned by an economy’s level of social capability, as well as its income. Among poor countries the effect of FDI on upgrading is bolstered for those endowed with higher levels of social capability. The effect of FDI on upgrading in rich countries remains positive but is weaker, and social capability exerts little disparate influence among these similarly socially capable economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper investigates whether and how foreign aid facilitates foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into less developed countries. We employ a large data set of source-recipient country pairs and conduct gravity equation-type estimation. Our empirical methodology enables us to examine an effect through which aid from a donor country promotes FDI from the same donor in particular, which we call a “vanguard effect.” We find that foreign aid in general does not have any significant effect on FDI. However, when we allow for differences in the size of aid effects across donor countries, we find robust evidence that foreign aid from Japan in particular has a vanguard effect, i.e., Japanese aid promotes FDI from Japan but does not attract FDI from other countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: In this paper we empirically discuss whether or not debt relief has been economically rational in the past 15 years. From analyzing the determinants of debt relief, our results suggest that governance quality did not play a role in the decision of creditor countries to forgive debt in the 1990s. Furthermore, even the actual debt burden of highly indebted poor countries was not crucial in deciding whether or not debt forgiveness was granted. Rather, debt relief followed a strong path dependence: those countries whose debt had been forgiven in the first half of the 1990s were also granted debt forgiveness in the second half of the decade. However, this allocation pattern changed at the beginning of the 21st century, when path dependence diminished and some dimensions of governance quality were taken into account by donor countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates whether foreign direct investment (FDI) affects economic growth based on a panel of data for 84 countries over the period 1970-99. Both single equation and simultaneous equation system techniques are applied to examine this relationship. A significant endogenous relationship between FDI and economic growth is identified from the mid-1980s onwards. FDI not only directly promotes economic growth by itself but also indirectly does so via its interaction terms. The interaction of FDI with human capital exerts a strong positive effect on economic growth in developing countries, while that of FDI with the technology gap has a significant negative impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper devises a new indicator (ArCo) of technological capabilities that aims at accounting for developed and developing countries. Building on similar attempts as those devised by UN Agencies, including the UNDP Human Development Report''s Technology Achievement Index (TAI) and UNIDO''s Industrial Performance Scoreboard, this index takes into account a number of other variables associated with technological change. Three main components are considered: the creation of technology, the technological infrastructures and the development of human skills. Eight subcategories have also been included. ArCo also allows for comparisons between countries over time. A preliminary attempt to correlate ArCo to GDP is also presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Since about 2000, there has been an unexpected stagnation and regress in many dimensions of gender inequality in many parts of the world. • Gender gaps in labor markets are particularly persistent. • There is evidence of backlash against progress made by women. • The backlash is also related to the poor economic performance of most men in many countries. This survey argues that after decades of seemingly continuous progress in reducing gender inequality in developing and developed countries, since about 2000, there has been an unexpected stagnation and regress in many dimensions of gender inequality in many parts of the world. This is most visible in labor markets, but also visible across a range of dimensions of gender inequality. After documenting these developments, the paper suggests causes for this change before suggesting policies that might tackle remaining gender inequalities more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]