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This study examines the influences of institutions, the Internet and mobile usage on the trade balance of African countries between 2003 and 2017. Our empirical results have been estimated with a panel‐corrected standard error method (PSCE) and they have been confirmed by several alternative techniques. First, the increase of internet usage and mobile usage has a significant negative effect on total and inter‐continental trade balances while these factors improve the intra‐African trade balances. Second, better institutions appear to have a negative impact on the total‐, inter‐, and intra‐African trade balances – in other words, better institutions appear to stimulate imports rather than exports. This observation explains the decreasing trends in the current account balances of African countries. Third, the combined effect of the three factors (institutions, internet, and mobile use together) has a significant positive impact on all trade balances: total‐, inter‐, and intra‐continental. Our study shows that an improvement in institutional quality acts as a mitigating factor for any negative impact internet\mobile development might cause on the trade balances of African countries. Further, our analysis examines the influence of institutions, internet usage, and mobile usage on the two parts of the trade: exports and imports. We observe that internet and mobile can influence negatively and differently impact the two wings of the balance trade. However, all improvements in institutions and their associations with internet usage and mobile usage have a significant positive impact on the trade balance especially on exporting activities of African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI inflows in tourism with an emphasis on the cultural determinants for a global sample of countries. More specifically, we examine the role of the presence of UNESCO heritage sites as a factor of tourism FDI. The results show that the recognition of UNESCO heritage sites, along with domestic tourism demand are leading factors of tourism FDI. In addition, we document some interesting findings regarding the traditional determinants of tourism FDI. Economic growth, trade openness, and depreciation of the domestic currency are found to have a positive impact, while labor force participation rate, and agricultural share in total output have a negative impact. The study also documents detailed effects of various aspects of institutional quality on tourism FDI. We find a rich set of results, including a positive impact by better government stability, voice, and accountability, and low risk of external conflict, and mixed effects by the other aspects of institutional quality. The results imply that FDI inflows in tourism reflect both common FDI features and tourism-specific FDI motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study to estimate the effects of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) with its two modes of exit, outward greenfield FDI flows (GFDI) and cross-border mergers and acquisitions purchases (M&A), on four ecological footprints (EFs) of source (home) countries of FDI. We examine a global sample of 111 countries with the help of a dynamic panel estimator. We find that outward GFDI reduces the Consumption EF and Production EF of home countries irrespective of their level of development, confirming the reverse FDI ecological haven hypothesis, while M&A produces mixed results in developing countries. Additionally, the effects of both outward FDI types on Imports EF and Exports EF in developed countries are mostly positive, raising questions related to the management of the international production value chains and international cooperation for global protection of ecosystems. A stable planetary ecological system is critical for continuous human development. With the growing internationalization of production, the distribution of the ecological burden across countries is of enormous importance. Our study has implications for the protection of global ecosystems' services, calling for a multinational agreement for preserving planetary ecological stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]