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This study investigates the implications of cross-country differences in banking regulation and supervision for the international subsidiary locations and risk of U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs). We find that BHCs are more likely to operate subsidiaries in countries with weaker regulation and supervision and that such location decisions are associated with elevated BHC risk and higher contribution to systemic risk. The quality of BHCs' internal controls and risk management plays an important role in these location choices and risk outcomes. Overall, our study suggests that U.S. banking organizations engage in cross-country regulatory arbitrage, with potentially adverse consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the effectiveness of the Sullivan Principles advanced by civil rights leader Leon Sullivan in eliminating apartheid in South Africa and its impact on corporate globalization and human rights. Topics include the components of the principles like pay equality, education, and workplace discrimination prevention, the principles' use to govern U.S. businesses and investments in South Africa, the history of corporate social responsibility in Africa, and comments from several personalities on the principle, like Christopher McCrudden.

Objectives. To assess whether increasing health aid investments affected public opinion of the United States in recipient populations. Methods. We linked health aid data from the United States to nationally representative opinion poll surveys from 45 countries conducted between 2002 and 2016. We exploited the abrupt and substantial increase in health aid when the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) were launched to assess unique changes in opinions of the United States following program onset. We also ascertained increased exposure to health aid from the United States by systematically searching for mentions of US health aid programs in popular press. Results. Favorability ratings of the United States increased within countries in proportion to health aid and were significantly higher after implementation of PEPFAR and PMI. Higher US health aid was associated with more references to that aid in the popular press. Conclusions. Our study was the first, to our knowledge, to show that US investments in health aid improved the United States' image abroad. Public Health Implications. Sustained global health investments may offer important returns to the United States as well as to the recipient populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested a causal relationship between international public relations (PR) expenditure and its economic outcome at the country level by using a time-series analysis. International PR expenditures of four client countries (Japan, Colombia, Belgium, and the Philippines) were collected from the semi-annual reports of the Foreign Agency Registration Act (FARA) from 1996 to 2009. Economic outcome was measured by U.S. imports from the client countries and U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) toward them. This study found that the past PR expenditure holds power in forecasting future economic outcomes for Japan, Belgium, and the Philippines except Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that foreign firms operating in a host country generate information spillovers that have potential value for later foreign direct investment. We test two predictions. First, we expect foreign direct investments by firms with experience in a host country to be more likely to survive than investments made by first-time entrants. Second, foreign direct investments will be more likely to survive the greater the foreign presence in the target industry at the time of investment, subject to two contingencies. The first contingency is that the relationship will be weak or nonexistent among firms with no experience in the host country, because these firms have difficulty evaluating and taking advantage of the information spillovers. The second contingency is that the presence of other foreign firms will not affect investment survival among firms that already have a presence in the target industry and undertake expansion. These firms already possess general information about the target industries and are unlikely to gain additional benefit from information spillovers. We find supportive evidence based on the survival to 1992 among 354 U.S. investments undertaken by foreign firms in manufacturing industries during 1987. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the ability of the American option pricing model proposed by Parkinson [18] or Mason [14] to explain the pricing of the foreign currency options traded on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange from February 28, 1983 to March 26, 1985. We find that the model underprices out-of-the-money options relative to at-the-money and in-the-money options. This relative underpricing is driven by an underpricing of out-of-the-money call options of short maturity. In addition, the degree of relative mispricing for most categories of options is shown to be a decreasing function of the time to maturity of the options. Longer maturity options appear to trade at similar levels of implied volatility whether they are in, at, or out of the money. Most of these biases appear consistent with the fact that the underlying spot currency rate follows a mixed jump diffusion process as described in [17]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper derives and tests a new linear programming (LP) approach to bond portfolio management. The model elicits possible tax-clientele effects in the pricing of U.S. Government coupon bonds and simultaneously derives the optimal tax-specific bond portfolio. Analytically, the model derives these results by exploiting, for a given tax bracket, the price differential of an after-tax stream of cash flows. It accomplishes this objective by purchasing at the ask price "underpriced" bonds (for the specific tax bracket), while simultaneously selling at the bid price "overpriced" bonds. The model requires that the net cash flow, inclusive of purchased and sold bonds, be nonnegative at all future dates; the problem's formulation standardizes the position taken in each bond to a maximum of one unit. One of the model's appealing features is the parsimonious number of required calculations: only one LP program need be run per tax bracket. In addition to obtaining an "optimally" chosen tax-specific bond portfolio, the model also measures the after-tax term structure of spot U.S. Government interest rates for both tax-exempt and taxable investors. Finally, the superior monthly holding-period rates of return on the optimal tax-specific bond portfolio demonstrate an important property of the model's output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on American corporations' recent experience and future plans for conducting business in the former Soviet Union. A brief historical overview of American businesses' experiences in the former Soviet Union is presented. Recent economic reforms in the former Soviet Union under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of Perestroika are discussed. The results of a general assessment of business in the former Soviet Union and the inherent riskiness of American corporations conducting business operations in the former Soviet Union are presented.

The article looks at U.S. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Japan. Although increased FDI in Japan would allow U.S. companies to sell their products there more successfully and allow them to closely monitor their Japanese competitors, the level of U.S. investment in Japan remains minimal. The author compares the FDI stocks in Japan by the U.S. to those of other countries such as Germany and France. The top 25 foreign-affiliated companies in Japan are listed. The author discusses impediments keeping the U.S. from placing greater direct investments in Japan, noting several host country factors. The main Japanese preventative measure against greater FDI inflow comes from the private sector rather than the public sector. Toys 'R' Us and Merck & Company are given as examples of FDI.

Energy, the most vulnerable area in U.S. natural resources, is a subject of intense controversy today. Petroleum is the main source of energy for today's technological world, and the major reserves of this resource are in the Middle East. Consequently, American petroleum companies have made substantial investments in Middle Eastern countries. This investment has been faced with many uncertainties, but it has averaged a return of 65.6 percent. U.S. investment in the Middle East averaged only 2.5 percent of worldwide investments, but it has generated 19.7 percent of income during the period under study. Given these facts, it is no small wonder that the Middle East countries have demanded additional compensation for having their petroleum reserves exploited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an exploration into the domestic economic impact of capital exports. The particular example of direct investment by the United States into Canada is described in detail. Questions of the value of capital exports in times of economic instability are raised. An overview of the existing U.S. subsidies and economic expansions into Canada is provided along with instances of pure cooperative investment. Discussion is also presented regarding the balance between federal policy encouraging or restricting such international finance, or whether social consensus ought to decide the optimal practices.

After a period of hesitation due mainly to French internal problems and difficulties with the multinational structure of corporations operating from abroad, France welcomed foreign investors who have contributed to the improvement of the French Balance of Payments situation and the development of industrialization. By adopting a liberal policy concerning foreign investment, France contributes to the development of an integrated world economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an examination of how markets in Taiwan present new opportunities for American businesses. The author discusses the efforts made by the U.S. to increase their number of trading partners in Europe and the Far East. The author examines the investment climate of Taiwan, discussing the advantages and disadvantages that the country presents when compared to other underdeveloped countries. He examines the country's economic growth, industrial development and overall political climate. He discusses Taiwan's government policy for foreign investment and various import and export restrictions.

The article focuses on investment overseas by American companies and the outlook for expansion in international trade. The increase in direct foreign investment by corporations in the United States is attributed to technological advances in transportation and communications, commercial and monetary policies, higher estimated growth rates and investment opportunities in Europe, and the increasing number of multinational and international firms. Market power, capital flow, brain drain, problems in the U.S. economy related to direct foreign investments, and the Voluntary Credit Restraint Program are mentioned, as well as statistics for American exports and U.S. direct investments. Concerns in Canada relate to the loss of economic independence and extra-territoriality as more foreign subsidiaries come into the country.

The modern investor-state arbitration regime was explicitly designed to replace commercial diplomacy as a mechanism for protecting foreign investment. I argue, however, that diplomacy continues to play an important role in managing political risk, particularly in countries with weak rule of law. Yet, since commercial diplomacy occurs primarily behind closed doors, it is difficult to observe, let alone test for its effects. To overcome this obstacle, I exploit variation in vacancies among US ambassadors to foreign countries--conditions overwhelmingly driven by US domestic political factors--which provides for a quasi-natural experiment for testing the effects of commercial diplomacy. I show that American firms operating abroad are significantly more likely to initiate investor-state arbitration disputes during temporary vacancies in US ambassadorships. The effects of these vacancies prove particularly strong in countries with weak rule of law. The results suggest American investors frequently seek assistance from the US government in informally resolving incipient investment disputes; if diplomatic channels are unsuccessful or unavailable, investors then file formal arbitration cases. These findings underline that, even in highly legalized issue areas in world politics, such as investment protection, informal diplomacy continues to influence important political economy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of services in international trade and in the support of global production activities, studies of the political economy of trade liberalization tend to focus on goods trade and the preferences of manufacturing firms and their employees. This article advocates greater consideration of service firms and services trade in political economy models of trade policy. I build my argument around a number of stylized facts about US trade in services. The data suggest that the United States maintains a comparative advantage in services trade, which for standard accounts of trade politics would suggest more homogenous support for trade liberalization within the services sector compared with manufacturing. However, the politics of services liberalization are complicated by the distinct and complex features of international trade in services. Tradable services are delivered internationally through cross-border trade (often electronically), but also through temporary travel and-most importantly for US firms-by a commercial presence, that is, foreign direct investment. These features of services trade imply that governments have an array of policy tools at their disposal with which to protect domestic firms from foreign competition. This article documents the relative importance of various modes of US trade in services, assesses the relationship between policy restrictions and services trade, and discusses how growth in services trade may impact firms' trade policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an event-study framework, we examine the stock market reaction to the announcement of firm withdrawal from countries designated as 'State Sponsors of Terrorism' by the U.S. Department of State. We find that such announcements are, on average, linked to a statistically significant increase in firm value-an effect which already kicks in a few days before the announcement date. The observed abnormal returns are positively associated with the U.S. domicile, the intensity of a firm's hitherto existing engagement in a designated country, the number of countries that it withdraws from, as well as with a withdrawal from Iran compared to a withdrawal from other countries. Evidence suggests an increase in demand for stocks of withdrawing firms as a plausible cause of the positive stock price reaction. Pension and endowment funds are significantly less likely to own strategic stakes in firms with intensive involvements in countries designated as 'State Sponsors of Terrorism.' We find some statistical evidence that firms remaining active in such countries have abnormally positive returns in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented which addresses the authors' views about the relationship between public health and politics, and it mentions the science of population health and another article in the same issue of the journal which deals with U.S. health aid investments. Public health education and practices are examined, along with political action. The concept of a public health of consequence is assessed.

The article discusses anthropology of economic regeneration. Topics discussed include exceeding partisanship through campaign slogan invoked of American president Donald Trump; talks about conservatism of residents for developing real employment; and mention about developmental initiatives of infrastructure investments for industrialization to facilitate urban neighborhoods.