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Japan is known to have an exceptionally low level of inward foreign direct investment (FDI). The promotion of inward FDI is one of the policy goals of Abenomics structural reforms. This present paper studies the accumulation of Japan's inward FDI stock during the first 3 years of Abenomics (2012-2015), and finds no evidence that Japan's inward FDI stock increased more than the trend before Abenomics started would have predicted. A comparison of the main policies for promoting inward FDI that have been implemented to the real and perceived impediments to inward FDI reveals that it may be advisable to shift the emphasis of the policy to address more regulatory and administrative issues and to reduce the cost of doing business in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a North- South model of heterogeneous firms, the paper investigates the effects of the financial development of the South on the choice of international entry mode (export vs foreign direct investment [ FDI]) of Northern firms. Such development facilitates the entry of local firms and thus intensifies product market competition. As a result, the intensive margins, extensive margins and total sales from export or FDI of Northern firms are all reduced. The paper provides conditions that determine whether export or FDI is affected more significantly. The results generate empirically testable hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the factors driving manufacturing growth accelerations in a sample of 134 developing countries over the period 1970 to 2014. We first identify growth acceleration episodes of manufacturing value added (MVA) by their year of initiation and according to a country's income classification. We then estimate a probit model to explain what factors predict these MVA growth accelerations. Our results show that human capital and institutions represent contextual factors that favor the growth of manufacturing, together with macroeconomic policies related to investment, and openness to foreign trade and capital. We also find that most of these factors not only foster episodic accelerations of industry, but they contribute as well to a sustained process of industrialization that characterized the process of economic growth of a few successful countries over the period 1970 to 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effectiveness of the implementation of trade facilitation measures in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). We evaluate trade facilitation performance and indicate trade facilitation needs and priorities that vary between ASEAN members. In particular, we examine logistics-related costs in ASEAN and whether the current level of logistics-related costs could be a burden or an advantage for ASEAN countries. We also identify critical barriers that have impacts on logistics services related to foreign investment and customs across ASEAN. Finally, we propose recommendations for the harmonisation of logistics policies in ASEAN countries aimed at the development of the ASEAN Economic Community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies on international trade highlight the role of innovation on international exchange but do not capture the effect of technological innovation when unobservable common factors (UCFs) are considered. This paper examines the long‐run relationship between technological innovation and international exchange using panel data for eight African countries over the period 1981–2013. The non‐stationarity and cointegration between technological innovation, international exchange, public investment, real gross domestic income and foreign direct investment were examined, controlling for cross‐sectional dependence and heterogeneity between countries. The results suggest that technological innovation in Africa remains low after controlling for UCFs, while public investment, real gross domestic product and foreign direct investment have significant impact on international exchange. Moreover, the results from the homogeneous and heterogeneous estimates, with and without UCFs, show that ignoring UCFs is likely to bias the coefficients. These findings reveal that African countries should invest more in public infrastructures and research and development to upgrade their capability To play an active role in the international market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, China and North Korea have been described as 'blood brothers' because of their common socialist ideological ground. Since 2000 the basis of their relationship has shifted from one-sided economic support by China into strategic and mutual cooperation. In this paper, we analyse changes in their relationship by examining two specific points: first, China's growing investment and trade in North Korea, and second, close linkages of regional development strategies between the two countries. While the prevalent discussions around North Korea and its relations with China concentrate on geopolitical issues, this research shed more light on geoeconomic engagement between China and North Korea. This paper argues that it is crucial to grasp how China and North Korea perform geoeconomic calculations toward each other and how this affects geopolitical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the main causes of bilateral trade flows in OECD countries. The specific features of the study include the explicit introduction of R&D and FDI as the two important explanatory variables, conduct of unit root tests in the panel data framework and careful consideration of endogeneity. The main findings are that the levels and similarities of market size, domestic R&D stock and inward FDI stock are positively related to bilateral trade, while the distance, measured by both geographical distance and relative factor endowment, between trade partner countries has a negative impact. These findings lend support to new trade, FDI and new growth theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the growth of production and employment in China during the period 1978 to the early 1990s. It argues that the Chinese experience with export-led growth provides an excellent case study of the phenomenon of a vent for surplus resources provided by exports, identified by Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations and elaborated by Hla Myint. The paper extends the Smith-Myint model of‘vent-for-surplus’ productive capacity to‘vent-for-surplus’ resources by allowing for foreign investment flows. The‘vent-for-surplus’ effect of exports on employment and growth is examined in a dynamic labour demand framework for a panel of township and village enterprises (TVEs) in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how links between the economies of Southeast Asia and the world economy have changed over the twentieth century, paying particular attention to growth in commodity exports, investment flows and international migration. Most parts of Southeast Asia expanded their links with the global economy in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but the years from 1940 to 1965 saw a decline in Southeast Asia's share of tropical exports, and of direct foreign investment. Migration flows also slowed. Over the last four decades of the twentieth century, international links expanded again, but there have been marked variations between countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pacific Asia has looked to direct foreign investment (DFI) to achieve economic growth and technological catch-up, and Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) have responded massively. This paper evaluates Japanese MNCs as a source of industrial learning and technological transfer in the region, drawing from a large research literature and from the authors’ own surveys of Japanese DFI in the electronics sector. Japan's historic learning-based approach to industrialisation is captured by the flying geese metaphor of structural transformation. As an explanation of the transfer of technological know-how from Japan to Pacific Asia, however, the flying geese model is problematical. This paper reflects on the effectiveness, problems and dilemmas of Japanese MNCs in transferring such know-how to the region from a political economy perspective summarised as a ‘reverse product cycle model’. This model portrays DFI as a ‘bargain’ between Japanese MNCs and host countries, and which becomes more difficult to negotiate as DFI moves from low-skilled manufacturing to more innovative activities. The bases for this hypothesis relate to the increased complexity of industrial know-how and the conflicting motivations between MNCs and host countries in early stages of the product life cycle. In practice, however, this ‘bargain’ has developed differently among Asian countries, and we illustrate these differences by comparing the experiences of South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is now a substantial empirical literature examining the determinants of aid effectiveness. A large part of this makes inferences based on a regression incorporating aid (as a share of recipient GDP) interacted with some institutional or policy variable. Recently, some authors have questioned the statistical robustness of such regressions, pointing out that results vary according to the way aid is measured and the estimator applied to the data. Moreover, the regression equations used to test hypotheses about the determinants of aid effectiveness are often introduced without any corresponding formal theory. We explore aid-policy interaction terms in the context of a simple theoretical model, showing how different nonlinearities may be conflated. The resulting difficulties in the interpretation of aid-growth regressions are illustrated in the context of a seminal paper in the conditional aid effectiveness literature. One simple change in the way that aid is measured - in per capita terms rather than as a fraction of GDP - completely changes the regression results. This indicates that adding interaction terms to otherwise linear regression equations is an inadequate way of capturing the nonlinearities in the growth process. Our aim is to re-emphasise the importance of grounding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates empirically the relationship between two channels of external openness: international trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and the rate of economic growth implied by the leader-follower model. The predictions of the theory are tested for the group of 97 developing countries in the period of 1974-2006 using static and dynamic panel data estimation methods. The estimation results show that both international trade and FDI positively contribute to growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia has been one of the most dynamic regions of economic growth and development. The past two decades have seen tremendous economic and technological catching up in the region. Using South Korea as a case to illustrate the process of technology catching up, we find that the process of graduating from imitation to innovation is a nonlinear one, and requires conscious efforts to invest in research and development and other technological capability-enhancing activities. Successful technology upgrading also calls for policies and institutions that are relevant to technological innovation to evolve and adapt as an economy goes through the different stages of economic and technological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that while the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has been successful in fostering trade between the parties and in serving as a model for subsequent free trade agreements, it has not realised its potential. This results from the free trade format itself as well as the unwillingness of the parties to go beyond the free trade format and their refusal to deal with new trade and security issues within NAFTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the implementation statuses of a total of 5,919 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects approved by the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment since 1988, and compiled a database of actually disbursed FDI in Vietnam. The database covers FDI flows into Vietnam from 23 countries from 1990 to 2004. Using the data, we analyzed the impact of FDI on the exports of Vietnam with gravity equations. The empirical results demonstrate that FDI is one of the major factors driving the rapid export growth of Vietnam. It has significantly facilitated the expansion of Vietnam's exports to FDI source countries. In particular, the empirical analysis shows that a 1 percent increase in FDI inflows will be expected to give rise to a 0.13 percent increase in Vietnam's exports to these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade in a bilateral context, that is, home country's exports and FDI to a host country are analyzed using a gravity-model approach. The home country's primary concern in this study is on the possible loss of employment due to more FDI than trade. There have been concerns on knowledge spillovers and the erosion of technological leadership due to capital outflows. For a host country, the focus is on the effects of FDI on economic growth and development and technology trasfer. In this study, it is being hypothesized that institutional requirements are likely to be different for trade and FDI transactions. While geography and poverty may discourage trade, good institutions can help in other forms of economic integration with the rest of the world.

The article presents a review of developments that take place in Australia in 1990, specially those developments involving the size and efficiency of its government and the government's intervention in the marketplace. As to the size and efficiency of government, the author claims that the reduction in size or restraint in government expenditure during the 1980s has not resulted in the sort of economic slow-down; instead the process has enhanced the country' national savings rate in the last few years. On the other hand, as to the government's intervention in the marketplace, the author also claims that the country has been one of those progressive countries that reduces barriers in foreign investment.

The North Korean government has tried to promote export and attract foreign direct investment (FDI) since the 1990s. Sino‐North Korea trade values jumped during the 2000s, and China became North Korea's largest trade partner. China's FDI in North Korea began to increase abruptly since the late 2000s. The mining sector led China's investment in and import from North Korea. Although China has dominated any other country in FDI inflows and international trade with North Korea, the former's contribution to the economic development of the latter has not been so substantial in the light of the composition of international trade and FDI inflows. To materialise the potential of Sino‐North Korea trade and Chinese firms' investment in North Korea further, it is essential to improve North Korea's diplomatic relationship with China. In addition, the North Korean government needs to pay attention to upgrading the structure and composition of bilateral trade and FDI inflows from China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents documentation of several books and papers related to the regional growth of Europe. "European Yearbook," A record of European organization and integration compiled under the auspices of the Council of Europe. Regional Development, Economic Growth And Employment in France. A discussion of the excessive concentration of industry around the cities, particularly Paris, of the effects this concentration is having on the nation's economy, and of what may be done to change the trend. "Continental France," Facts and figures on the political and economic state of France with some information on foreign trade and special inducements for foreign investors.

In this study, we assess the importance of exports and global value chain (GVC) participation for economic growth. Using novel methods and an extensive data set, we decompose GDP growth in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) to show that in a large part of the period of transition and integration with the EU, exports have played a predominant role in shaping economic growth. We also show that exports have been the major factor driving the convergence of the CEECs with their advanced counterparts. We employ panel methods to analyse the determinants of growth of exported value added and show that the major growth drivers in the analysed period of 1995–2014 are GVC participation, imports of technology and capital deepening.Jel classificationC23, F21, O33 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the effects of local preferences and internal boundaries. It notes that individuals from different cultural backgrounds might have more difficulty in realizing mutually beneficial exchanges due to barriers in language, customs, beliefs or other related reasons. It adds that language differences between trading partners can give rise to barriers to communication.

We re-examine the law-finance theory relying on 33 countries in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2004-2011. Our evidence suggests that legal origin significantly explains cross-country differences in financial development and economic volatility. More importantly, relative to civil law, English common law countries and those in Southern Africa have higher financial sector development both in terms of financial activity and banking efficiency on the back of lower volatility. While private credit bureau positively (negatively) affects financial development (economic volatility) with economically large impact for English legal legacy countries, the latter effect is contingent on the form of legal origin suggesting that, the establishment of information sharing offices per se may be insufficient in taming growth vagaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, developing economies are becoming the preferred destination of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow. We draw insights from Dunning's eclectic paradigm to explore how FDI inflow is influenced by the quality of the physical infrastructure and human resources of the host country. We investigate various India-specific infrastructural factors affecting FDI inflow between 1991 and 2010. Our empirical findings indicate that factors like railway transportation and road network as well as the quality of human resources played a crucial role in attracting FDI. However, air transportation or communication infrastructure is yet to play a significant role. Our study makes a modest attempt to identify areas of concern and scope for the further improvement of India's infrastructure facilities to attract foreign investment in the future. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to discuss the various issues regarding de-industrialisation and to systematically analyse the causes of this phenomenon. In addition, the effect of the recent increase in foreign direct investment on de-industrialisation will be analysed. Unlike extant studies, this study employs a more reliable method of estimation, known as the generalised method of moments system, for establishing the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) with regard to de-industrialisation. For a general assessment of the different factors of de-industrialisation, including FDI, this study classifies the causes of de-industrialisation in OECD countries into external and internal factors. As a result, the analysis has proved that not only internal and external factors are major factors of de-industrialisation, FDI inflow and outflow are also major factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much ownership is enough to exert strategic control over partners in the global marketplace? Top management frequently will attempt to have strategic influence over partners when it comes to the strategic direction of the organization. The question becomes, 'what gives one partner control over another, and where does that power come from in the relationship?' This research examines the issue of strategic control in organizations in Australia and the United States to determine how to control global relationships. The research found that: (1) ownership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; (2) directness of ownership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; (3) dispersion is negatively related to the degree of strategic control; (4) board membership is positively related to the degree of strategic control; and (5) strategic control between U.S. and Australian organizations/relationships is different. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial competitiveness (IC), reflecting a country's ability to produce and export manufactures competitively, is closely associated with economic growth. How does globalization affect IC? While the topic is of great importance, empirical studies on the issue in the literature have been limited. This article attempts to close the gap by estimating the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade with cross-country data in 1985 and 1998. Taking advantage of a recently constructed IC index, we estimate several regression models of effects of FDI and trade on industrial performance. Results suggest that FDI and trade have a positive impact on IC, and increasing integration with the world economy through FDI and trade contributes to better industrial performance. ( JEL F02, F10, F21, L60) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1250) Eric Hazard, Lotje De Vries, Mamadou Alimou Barry and Alexis Aka Anouan, with Nicolas Pinaud African countries have deepened their commercial and diplomatic relationships with China and India, and Senegal has been no exception. The historical context of the relationships, however, has differed. While Senegal already enjoyed a long-lasting and stable relationship with India, relations with China have been more erratic, in particular on account of Dakar’s recognition of the Republic of China. We analyse trade and investment patterns with the Asian Drivers and how Senegal can form a relationship with these two superpowers that can contribute to its national development objectives. Contrary to other countries in Africa, Senegal is not a large producer of natural resources other than phosphates and fisheries and its consumer market is also rather limited. We find scarce evidence of large-scale FDI flows and the amount of official development assistance is similarly anecdotic. For China and India, Senegal is of some interest as a logistical and commercial centre, rather than a production base for regional or foreign markets. Over the longer run, as these two countries are likely to become more important for Senegal simply on account of their increasing relevance on the world stage, we argue that it is essential that the authorities take these factors into account in developing policies that cater for economic development and social priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade, foreign direct investment, and inter-regional R&D spillovers facilitate competition, the spread of knowledge, and the adoption of more advanced technologies, which in turn hastens total factor productivity (TFP) growth. The spread of these efficiency gains from internationalization requires a sufficient local knowledge to enable them to be adapted to the domestic productive environment. Thus, higher local knowledge and internationalization will lead to TFP growth, and the greater the complementarity between variables the higher the TFP growth. We test the complementarity hypothesis using Spanish regional data over the period 1980–1995 in which both regional local knowledge and internationalization experienced a notable increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International institutions like the IMF and IBRD were created to oversee stability in international financial affairs, facilitate the expansion and balance of growth of international trade and reduce poverty in the poorest countries at risk of being left behind in economic development. The main aims of these two institutions were designed to avoid a repetition of the disastrous economic policies that contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930's. In the mid 1980's, the Fund's lending operations increased dramatically. The exigency of the debt crisis caused the Fund to devise programs for adjustment over longer periods. These are known as extended arrangements and with other medium term programs, can be arranged through the Structural Adjustment Facility or the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility. Among steps required by the IMF and IBRD to improve the health of the economy and foreign direct investment climate are an improved trade environment, economic reforms, private-sector encouragement and a better regulatory framework. The full implementation of these policies initially proved costly for some African countries and hence resulted in either partial implementation or total abandonment of the reform program.

This article analyzes the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade in promoting economic growth across selected developing countries and examines the interaction among FDI, trade, and economic growth. Data from 66 developing countries are examined. Results of the study suggest that FDI, trade, human capital, and domestic investment are important sources of economic growth for developing countries. It is discovered that there is a strong positive interaction between FDI and trade in advancing economic growth. Results also show that FDI stimulates domestic investment. The contribution of FDI to economic growth is enhanced by its positive interaction with human capital and sound macroeconomic policies and institutional stability. With the results, there is an implication that lowering the inflation rate, tax burden, and government consumption would advance economic growth in developing countries.

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