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This Special Issue brings together 13 papers that examine a variety of central topics in the field of international economics and finance. These papers were presented at the 23rd Conference on International Economics held in Málaga (Spain) on 16th–17th June 2022. The conference was organised by the Spanish Association of International Economics and Finance (AEEFI) and the University of Málaga. The selected papers make up an interesting and revealing set of information to study the new challenges of the international economics and finance in a context especially marked by the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the climate change, the challenge posed by the COVID‐19 crisis and the instability unleashed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. From different perspectives, the papers analyse how events that have particularly affected the evolution of the world economy have substantially altered the rules of international trade, foreign direct investment, as well as monetary, fiscal or sectoral policy. The conference included two keynote lectures by Per Krusell (Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University) and Fabio Canova (Norwegian Business School and Budapest School for Central Banking Studies), as well as 97 selected contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifts in thinking and practice concerning aid have posed serious challenges in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for both donors and recipients, but progress in reform remains slow. An important first step in any initiative involving M&E capacity development is the diagnosis of the systems' current status. This article presents a diagnostic checklist that captures issues of M&E policy: indicators, data collection and methodology; organisation; capacity-building; participation of nongovernmental actors; and use. It applies it to a review of the PRSP M&E arrangements of 20 aid-dependent countries in sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate comparative strengths and weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Labour government's new White Paper promises great changes in the British aid programme: re-focusing aid on poverty reduction, partnerships replacing one-sided conditionalities, and policy coherence so that the broad gamut of British policies in areas as diverse as agriculture, trade and investment are in line with the needs of international development. However, the Paper is stronger on broad policy statements than detail as to how to implement these strategies. Moreover, an examination of the history of British aid shows continuity to have been greater than change. Both Labour and Conservative governments have presided over cuts in UK aid, and so instead pointed to the high quality of British aid. But efforts to improve aid quality have been impeded by the use of aid to achieve political and commercial objectives. Whether the White Paper represents a break with the past cannot be determined by the Paper's brave rhetoric, but only by the future actions of the Department for International Development. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue gathers together twelve papers that revisit a range of core topics in the field of international economics. These papers were presented at the XIX Conference on International Economics (CIE) held in Vila‐Real (Spain) on 28th–29th June 2018. The Conference was co‐organized by researchers from the Spanish Association of International Economics and Finance (AEEFI) and the Institute of International Economics (IEI). The selected papers are stimulating pieces that shed new light on recent trends in globalization as well as some of the main challenges that need to be faced in the presence of the multiple yield curves that emerged after the credit crunch. The CIE also included two keynote lectures by Laura Alfaro (Harvard Business School) and Gabriel Quirós (IMF) as well as 64 selected contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What determines the net foreign asset position of the residents of a particular country is an important question in international economics. Rene Stulz's paper seeks to answer it in a framework where two countries differ in their technology and asset preferences, but where they produce the same good. In the Ricardo example, Portugal and England trade in wine (or cloth) alone. This eliminates the role of the relative price of national outputs, the exchange rate and thus allows for the existence of an international riskless asset. It also severely reduces the international flavor of the model and is not convincingly justified. Note that complexity is hardly a reason since the author and others have successfully constructed related models with more than one good. Several other simplifications, convincingly justified in the paper, need no further elaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a widespread perception among academic researchers and aid practitioners alike that empirical cross-country analysis fails to find any significant link between aid flows and growth, and that aid is successful only when associated with good policies in the recipient countries. These positions do not stand up to careful scrutiny of existing studies. In this paper, we offer a re-examination of the literature on the aid–savings, aid–investment, and aid–growth relationships, and a comparative appraisal of more recent research contributions. Using an analytic framework for evaluating the empirical work, a coherent and positive picture of the aid–growth link emerges. There is a robust aid–growth link even in countries hampered by an unfavourable policy environment. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simple model of net foreign investment. It is shown that an increase in the expected return of investments in the foreign technology decreases net foreign investment in the domestic country, whereas an increase in the variance of the return of investments in the foreign technology increases net foreign investment in the domestic country. An increase in foreign wealth accompanied by an equivalent decrease in domestic wealth is shown to increase net foreign investment in the domestic country. Finally, it is shown that an increase in the risk tolerance coefficient of the domestic investor has, to a first approximation, no effect on net foreign investment in the domestic country. A closed-form solution is given for the case in which all investors have a logarithmic utility function and is used to derive the dynamics of net foreign investment. One direction in which the present model could be extended consists in taking into account the fact that it is harder for domestic investors to enforce property rights abroad than at home. If property rights cannot be enforced abroad by domestic investors and at home by foreign investors, net foreign investment is always equal to zero, even though gross foreign investment differs from zero. Whereas the differential cost of enforcing property rights at home and abroad for domestic investors creates incentives for foreign investors to take actions which reduce the value of the net investment abroad by domestic investors, domestic investors can impose substantial penalties on foreign investors if they engage in confiscatory actions. The suggested extension of the analysis involves the development of a concept of equilibrium that accounts for the dependence of the actions of domestic investors on what they believe foreign investors will do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of German cooperation as a key force behind the worldwide dissemination of dual training is well‐established within the specialized literature. The multilayered and fragmented nature of the German cooperation landscape suggests that German efforts in this area follow a complex and evolving interplay of motivations—yet the rationales behind Germany's bilateral work in the area of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) have rarely been examined in a systematic way. Additionally, existing approaches to the question of aid motivations as provided by economics and international relations scholarship appear to be ill‐suited to understanding the rationales behind Germany's TVET cooperation efforts. Drawing on a combination of document analysis and interviews with key stakeholders, this paper investigates the heterogeneity of drivers and motivations behind German cooperation efforts in the promotion and export of the dual training model and examines the coordination challenges posed by this diversity. The paper finds that German efforts in the international promotion of dual training are driven by at least three analytically distinct rationales that correspond roughly to three differentiated poles within the German policy space—namely, the economic, development and education arenas. The paper also finds that this diversity of motivations poses important coordination challenges—and that, while recent coordination efforts have succeeded in securing some degree of rhetorical consistency, only limited progress has been made in terms of operational coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Import demand has been a major research topic in international economics for the past 80 years because of its importance for analyzing trade and evaluating trade policies. The goal of this paper is to survey the literature and conduct a meta‐analysis of empirical studies on import demand with the intention of clarifying the effect of economic development on income elasticity. In particular, we test the hypothesis that higher income levels are associated with a more elastic import demand. We apply a combination of parametric and non‐parametric methods on estimates from a sample of 152 papers published over the period 1975–2014 and find that this relationship is significant and robust. Specifically, kernel densities of income elasticity estimates for high‐income countries in North America and Europe are shown to exceed those for poorer parts of the world. The results from quantile regressions confirm this pattern and establish its robustness when controlling for the effect of model specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the dynamics of trade induced income convergence depend on the nature of bilateral trade between nations. To justify this argument, the paper presents a comprehensive approach that explicitly accounts for trade among OECD countries (north–north trade), trade between OECD and SSA countries (north–south trade) and trade among SSA countries (south–south trade). The approach also allows for the identification of the direct and indirect effects of bilateral trade on income convergence. The results show that bilateral trade among OECD countries accelerates income convergence both directly and indirectly. This result appears to be consistent with the new trade theories by Krugman, Journal of International Economics, 1979, 9, 469–479; Krugman, American Economic Review, 1980, 70, 950–959. and the intuitions of Heckscher, The effect of foreign trade on the distribution of income 1919, 1950, 1–32 and Ohlin, Interregional and international trade, 1933. The trade‐convergence relationship for OECD to SSA trade is the strongest both directly and indirectly. This is the empirical evidence that the nature of this bilateral trade, promotes one directional knowledge spillover from developed to developing countries, which enables developing countries to adopt new technologies and grow faster than their rich counterparts. However, bilateral trade among SSA countries does not have any significant effect on income convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys Negishi's significant contributions to economics and the research programs they have generated. In a series of papers and books, Negishi developed a number of models and methods of analysis that changed the course of modern economics and catalyzed research in areas that range from welfare and theoretical to applied and computable general equilibrium analysis, and the extension of imperfect competition to general equilibrium. trade theory and international economics. This paper shows that the Negishian research programs that emanated from his works are progressive, and still have an ongoing impact on mainstream economic analysis decades after their publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the prospects for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It argues that these goals will not be achieved by the target date of 2015 unless new action is taken by both rich and poor countries. It shows that current trends sharply contrast countries on their way to meeting the goals and those in a poverty trap. Crisis proportions have been reached in deterioration of life expectancy and falling incomes, but also in a wide range of other indicators in countries such as Zambia as well as Nepal. The origins of this crisis are not just poor governance or poor macroeconomic policies, but rather the difficulties of competing in global markets. A priority for these countries is to invest in basic education and health, infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing. Rich countries have fallen seriously behind in living up to their promises to increase aid, debt relief and access to their markets for exports from developing countries—with the welcome but still inadequate increase in aid to reach the 0.7 per cent GDP target, with the collapse of trade talks at Cancun, slow implementation of HIPC, and slow progress in implementation of TRIPS provision for access to technology. Business as usual will not be enough to meet the goals and new action is urgently needed to achieve the goals. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent economic relations including foreign assistance scenario in Africa show expansion of China and India as emerging bilateral partners, competing with traditional countries in Europe and North America. The results of this paper found that the relationship of China and India with Zimbabwe has resulted in several challenges including increasing resource‐backed debt burden, exploitation of the natural resources, and flouting of constitutional, environmental, and labor provisions. The paper recommends that the Zimbabwean government must demand loans and investments that are contracted under clear terms and conditions, with parliamentary oversight and public scrutiny to avoid abuse by the elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reflects on the career contributions of Professor Chris Milner to the literature on international trade and economic development. As such, it not only provides an overview of a life's work, but also sets the context for the nine papers which follow. All of these were specially written for this Special Issue of The World Economy, and all relate to different areas that Professor Milner worked in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds an observable delay game in endogenous timing to study the possible occurrence of trade wars in a vertical, bilateral trade model. It examines the effects of production cost differences and order of moves on optimal tariffs, market equilibria, dumping margin and social welfare in both fixed timing and endogenous timing games. In a fixed timing game, it shows that price dumping in the intermediate good market arises from differences in country‐specific final good production costs. Different from Bernhofen (1995; Journal of International Economics), trade costs resulting from reciprocal tariffs in upstream markets can reverse the price dumping under certain conditions. In an endogenous timing game, this paper finds that the magnitude of cost differences significantly influences countries' decisions on the order of moves in a strategic tariff‐making game. Both countries want to be the first movers under a small cost difference and consequently reach a simultaneous equilibrium result. This demonstrates that the second‐best equilibrium proceeds under certain conditions. Under a large cost difference, sequential policy‐making is the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. If the cost difference is sufficiently large, both countries have an incentive to launch a trade war as a multiple equilibrium game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Alan Shapiro's paper entitled "Currency Risk and Country Risk in International Banking" is a timely one in a subject area whose popularity is growing. These comments are written in suggestion form, and their purpose is to suggest areas in which the paper might be strengthened. The comments will be directed in three areas of the paper. 1. The nature of the equilibrium referred to in the section on currency risk and firm borrowing. 2. The direction of causation between exchange rates and prices. 3. Foreign currency risk and country risk in country borrowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of globalization in the commodity trade aspects of agriculture in the U.S. Three papers that tackle the subject of agricultural globalization are examined. One study summarizes a large body of work intended to inform directly on the deliberations of the global trade talks in Doha, Qatar. Another research suggests that the world would be better served by greater access to agriculture markets, particularly for rice, sugar and meats. In addition, another study reports empirical estimates of the local and rest-of-world consequences of removing domestic subsidies in the corn sector in the U.S.

Surveys the history of 'Metroeconomica' periodical on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Founding in 1949 by Eraldo Fossati; Original inception as an international forum on economic theory; Profile of the journal during its first decade; Shift in publisher to Blackwell Publishers; Editors; Editorial policy; Contributions; Standards.

This paper explores the empirical relevance of banking market structure on growth. There is substantial evidence of a positive relationship between the level of development of the banking sector of an economy and its long-run output growth. Little is known, however, about the role played by the market structure of the banking sector on the dynamics of capital accumulation. This paper provides evidence that bank concentration promotes the growth of those industrial sectors that are more in need of external finance by facilitating credit access to younger firms. However, we also find evidence of a general depressing effect on growth associated with a concentrated banking industry, which impacts all sectors and all firms indiscriminately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a distinguished career spanning more than four decades, Jagdish Bhagwati has made numerous contributions to both trade theory and trade policy analysis. The current paper focuses on Bhagwati's major contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the influence of trade liberalisation upon economic development and its potential to alleviate poverty in the world's poorest economies. In order to highlight Bhagwati's contributions in these fields we focus on the arguments developed in two of his numerous landmark publications; first his seminal 1964 paper on the Pure Theory of International Trade and, second, his 2004 book entitled In Defense of Globalization. Although separated in time by some four decades we argue that these two publications, despite their very different characters, each demonstrate beyond doubt the significance of Bhagwati's work in improving our understanding of the true nature of international trade and its potential to address questions of global poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 2012, with tensions over Huangyan Island taking an increasingly sour turn, China released a document to strengthen inspection and quarantine of fruits imported from the Philippines. To many, this retaliation implied that the former launched economic sanctions against the latter over the growing conflict. As such, this paper takes that tension as a quasi‐natural experiment to examine the impact of deteriorating political relations on trade. We employ difference‐in‐difference to conduct an empirical investigation by using the monthly data of the Philippines' fruit export. The estimation results show that after the implementation of the document, in comparison with other export destination countries, Philippine banana and pineapple exports to China decreased by 42% and 88%, respectively. However, the sanction effects weakened over time. Extended analyses also find that the Philippines evaded the sanctions to some extent by trans‐shipping through third countries, transferring exports to other countries, and deeply processing fruits. In conclusion, the sanctions were not as effective as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backshoring as a way of undoing the offshoring strategy has become quite common in many industries and countries. This paper analyses the reasons that may justify this strategy based on International Economics and Transaction Cost Economics. Specifically, we point that the framework to analyse offshoring can be valid, but that the knowledge, experience, etc. of the country that once hosted those activities reduce the costs in the second degree relocation. We present the results of a survey administered to firms in the Spanish footwear industry to evaluate such proposals. The results reveal that backshoring can be explained in the same theoretical framework as the offshoring decision and therefore this strategy simply constitutes a response to the characteristics of the environment of these firms since their offshoring strategy differed in terms of the destination country, business model, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on several policy papers which describes the divergence of agricultural policies in Canada and the U.S. Emphasis of 'The Divergence in U.S.-Canada Grain and Oilseed Policies,' by Andrew Schmitz and Richard Gray; Dairy policy differences in the two countries; Reason policies diverge between Canada and the U.S.

The article discusses international capital movements during the postwar period in a context of broad trends in world payments. Data on balance of payments statistics was collected by the International Monetary Fund in addition to the data available by official grants and capital movements for this research. However, there is a lack of data on private capital and short term capital as it is not consistent from country to country and so contributes to some errors in research. Also, the quantitative statements provided are merely indications of orders of magnitude rather than specific estimates due to the lack of data.

Structural quantitative work in international economics typically models trade costs as a log‐linear function of exogenous trade‐policy variables. We propose a structural approach that allows for a nonparametric relationship and for treating tariff and nontariff trade‐policy variables as potentially endogenous. The data reject the assumption of log‐linearity of trade costs in both tariff‐ and nontariff‐policy variables. We assess the effects of a unilateral increase of US tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points and document that the estimated effects on real bilateral trade‐flow changes would be substantially underestimated by standard approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world economy needs a growth-lifting strategy, and infrastructure financing appears to hold the key. Two new development banks have been established: the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank (AIIB). However, what conceptual framework will they formulate? This paper addresses infrastructural financing issues from the angle of structural transformation as a strategy for global development. Based on the new structural economics (Lin, , ) we stress the 'real' side of transforming natural resources to productive assets using the resource financed infrastructure. As one of the innovative instruments, this approach could, first, combine two otherwise isolated supply chains, resource extraction and infrastructure building, and, thereby, bring developmental results many years ahead of what other conventional approaches could. Second, this could serve as one of the 'least-cost' options for developing countries, and benefit borrowers disproportionately due to its feature of 'non-recourse' loans. Finally, in a low-yield environment, the rate of return from investing in bottleneck-releasing infrastructure could be attractive to many investors. Future prospects of development financing, including the 'one belt one road' initiative are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between foreign aid and economic growth has been the subject of much controversy. A recent theme suggesting that aid promotes growth, but only in a good policy environment has ratchet up that debate. In this paper, we assess the importance of policy and aid in generating growth when the aid, policy, and growth relationship is nonlinear. This allows us to examine the varying effects of aid and policy in different data segments, which we do without imposing any particular structure on the underlying relationship. We find that policy is an important determinant of growth. We also find partial corroboration of the view that aid is growth enhancing in a good policy environment, and some evidence of diminishing returns to aid. These findings suggest that nonlinearities if not appropriately addressed fail to capture the detailed underlying dynamics and thereby mask some key features of the aid-policy-growth relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of economic integration on the product-level consumption patterns across the OECD in the past decade. Estimation results find evidence of strong convergence in cross-country consumption patterns with substantial heterogeneity across products and countries. The results are robust to either the benchmark choice, data selection, or the choice of model specification. In addition to documenting convergence, the paper relates the volume of international trade to cross-country consumption patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) give aid to Africa a new emphasis. Yet aid flows to Africa have trended downward over the last decade, and as a consequence more Africans now live in poverty. This is especially true of Sub-Saharan Africa. Any progress towards the main MDG target of halving the number of people living in poverty clearly requires more aid. It also requires a better understanding of what drives aid volumes to Africa and precisely how these flows impact on African economies. This paper examines trends in official aid to Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, over the period 1960 to 2002, highlighting falls in aid since the early 1990s. It concludes with consideration of future challenges for aid to Africa. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post Cold War era, issues of poverty, inequality and social exclusion have become central to many of the key discussions of international relations and development aid. In this context, this article sets out to analyse the nature and specificity of the development strategy of the New Labour government in Britain, as it has evolved since 1997. In the setting of the literatures on postcolonialism, aid and development, the authors examine the specific concepts and approaches that help to frame such a strategy, giving particular attention to the commonalities and divergences between the British Government's 1997 and 2000 White Papers. The perspective used connects ideas and issues from domains of knowledge which tend to remain independent of each other, namely aid and development studies and post-colonial theory. Situated on the terrain of aid and development, the guiding objective of the article is to raise certain questions concerning power, knowledge and geopolitics, so that a wider conceptual and policy-oriented debate might be engendered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: As the formal process of Brexit has already started, there is much uncertainty about Brexit's impacts on Britain's social, political and economic future. This paper examines the economic impact. After briefly discussing some significant EU treaties that serve as the background materials, it presents the key arguments advocated by the leave and remain camps. The economic impact depends critically on the negotiation outcomes. Aside from the debate on the divorce costs, there are numerous issues that must be negotiated, such as immigration, trade in goods, services, agriculture, fisheries and financial regulations. We discuss various scenarios of possible new trade regimes, resulting in different impacts on the UK economy. With each side having its bargaining chips to play, the trade‐offs between “give and take” in the negotiation game are analysed. Considering various strategic options, this paper urges rationality and cooperation, especially weighing both sides’ entwined economic interests, in addition to their mutual security, defence, environmental and world concerns. The potential gains and losses in the event where the UK contemplates new trade arrangements with the non‐EU countries are analysed in the Appendix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The link between exchange rate and trade has been studied for a long time, but there is no consensus about their relation. This paper tests the old argument, whether depreciation of real effective exchange rates (REERs) raises exports. We differentiate the test with earlier studies by employing a new measurement of REER and incorporating the effect of GVCs. We measured REER at industry level with value‐added trade weights. We analysed the topic with LSDV and system GMM for China, Japan and Korea since these counties are known to participate actively in GVCs. Our main finding is that exchange rate has significant impact on trade for three countries. However, the movement of elasticity of export to REER varies by country. While the elasticity in China decreased over time, Korea and Japan experienced increasing patterns between mid‐1990s and mid‐2000s and decreasing trends afterwards. This study also tests whether the level of incorporation in GVCs causes a change in elasticity. The results show that growing participation in GVCs lowers the elasticity of export to REER in absolute value. However, this result is only statistically significant in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the Western paradigm of foreign aid promoted by the Development Assistance Committee is rapidly losing relevance in development studies and its related academic teaching programmes. The longstanding Southern‐led approaches to aid and development are now coming to the fore. China's Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (finalised at Bandung in 1955) and the Eight Principles for Economic Aid and Technical Assistance to Other Countries (1964) are increasingly emphasised as points of difference to Western aid. It is the rise of the South that has challenged the dominant development paradigm(s) over the past 50 years. The discipline of development studies has been slow to address these challenges in how it trains future development practitioners. I will argue that development studies programmes in Australian universities have a focus on Western foreign aid: either questioning its hegemonic nature as a tool for neo‐liberal or neo‐colonial development on the one hand; or questioning aid effectiveness and how well it addresses contemporary challenges. This paper explores the challenges in examining South–South cooperation and a different development paradigm in producing relevant development studies curricula and pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how China's bilateral trade with the U.S. responds to exchange rate changes of the real Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar using annual data covering the period 1985 to 2014. The short‐run dynamics of the China‐U.S. trade balance vs. the yuan's depreciation is examined through the S‐curve and J‐curve effects, and the long‐run relationship is established using the autoregressive distributed lag model. The paper found evidence of the S‐curve but not of the J‐curve in the short‐run although the J‐curve effect is found to be present in the long‐run. China's bilateral ratio of exports to imports with the U.S. is found to have an inelastic response to the yuan's exchange rate change against the U.S. dollar in the short‐run, but in the long‐run, it has the expected elastic response. Compared with the influence of the Yuan‐U.S. dollar exchange rate change and China's real income, U.S. real GDP has the largest impact on China‐U.S. bilateral trade relations in the long‐run. Additionally, the structural break in the data series in 2008 from the Great Recession had a small but significant short‐term effect on the bilateral trade between the two nations. Following an exchange rate shock, the deviation of China's trade ratio from its long‐run level takes less than 2 years to converge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biocluster initiatives have become an important tool for governments to establish, promote, and strengthen economic collaboration, learning, innovation, and employment within particular regions. However, in addition to issues like competitiveness and employment, bioclusters operate with the additional goal of fostering the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. The profound changes that are required for a successful shift from a fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy are called transitions and the relatively new scientific field of transition theory has emerged to study them. The aim of this paper is to show the contribution that transition theory can make to the study of bioclusters. In this paper I will review frameworks from the study of sustainability transitions (multi-level perspective and technical innovation systems) and frameworks from theories of evolutionary economic geography and cluster studies (regional and sectoral innovation systems). The review shows how the choice of a particular framework will shape the analysis of the biocluster through the particular focus and delineation associated with each framework. The review shows the advantages and disadvantages these frameworks have for incorporating the various issues related to the shift towards a bioeconomy that are currently neglected in the literature on bioclusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Colombo Plan and Point Four program were programs that provided technical and economic assistance to the newly independent countries of Southeast Asia. They represented Commonwealth and American attempts to promote economic development in the region. This paper will investigate how these policies, which were framed by US policy‐makers and academics, were adopted in Australia. In so doing, it will demonstrate the ways that development was perceived as an important consideration in the foreign policies of both Australia and the United States. It will also examine the place of these programs in the Cold War and postcolonial world of the 1950s. As this paper will show, the interaction of these factors would affect Australian foreign policy for decades to come, revealing much about the complex nature of the Australian‐American relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits canonical thinking on international financial centres ( IFCs) that understands them as being primarily sustained through market liquidity, economies of competition and cooperation between financial and related professional services, and acting as interpretative nodes within global finance. In contrast, I explore the implications of foregrounding questions of power and politics in the (re)production of IFCs. Drawing on the case of the development of offshore renminbi markets in London's financial district, I argue the state plays a vital, yet comparatively neglected, role in shaping the development and changing nature of IFCs. In so doing, the paper calls for work in economic geography and cognate social sciences to understand finance as a political as well as an economic, social and cultural relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a significant rise in the empirical work distinguishing between episodes of sharp slowdowns and surges in capital inflows. Much of this analysis has centred on gaining a better understanding of the cyclical behaviour of capital flows. This paper continues in this vein by identifying capital flow episodes for South Africa and analyses the nature and main drivers of cross-border flows during these episodes. This paper makes two major contributions to the empirical work on South African capital flows. First, specific attention is given to some pertinent measurement issues in the identification of capital flow episodes for South Africa. The post capital account liberalisation period (post-1995-period) is delineated into a 'normal' period (when capital inflows were close to historical averages) and an 'abnormal' period (when capital inflows deviated significantly from the historical average). Second, the paper identifies some defining characteristics during these two periods. In this regard, the behaviour of domestic and foreign agents as drivers of capital flows and the probability of capital flow reversals across asset classes are given particular attention. Although these issues have significant policy implications, they have, to date, been given limited attention in the empirical work on South African capital flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between a firm's knowledge sourcing strategy and green innovation. The data are taken from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development REGPAT database, February 2016, relative to the European Patent Office firms' patent applications published up to December 2015. The study contributes to the literature by focusing on the moderating role of integration between different activities related to environmental performance on the relationship between knowledge sources and green innovations. The results from 240 firms indicate a shift in the focus from internal knowledge to external knowledge when developing environmental innovations. Government policies promoting more knowledge complementarity and coordination between environmental fields will help to promote more knowledge transfer, allowing more sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented for the February 2009 issue of the "Journal of Money, Credit and Banking," which features papers presented during the conference titled "Domestic Prices in an Integrated World Economy."