Download or read book Trade Reform Design as a Signal for Foreign Investors written by Eric Bond and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The design of trade policy reform can encourage or discourage foreign direct investment by revealing the government's commitment to protect the interests of foreign investors. The optimal policy is analyzed under four scenarios. These involve whether th2e investment is reversible or not, and whether government preferences are or are not initially known by foreign investors. A few years ago, many Western companies were eager to consider investing in Eastern Europe and, more recently, in South Asia, where ongoing reform, large domestic markets, and cheap but qualified labor are transforming the region into a potentially fierce competitor for foreign direct investment (FDI). Although this growing interest was reflected in large commitments by foreign investors in countries announcing major FDI reforms, actual disbursements have been modest. This reflects the investors' concern about the credibility of governments' long-term commitment to change. The credibility of policy announcements is important to investors because the returns from the sunk investment can be affected by later changes in policy. To reduce investors' concern, governments can send clear signals to show their commitment to change. The achievements of trade reform can be an effective indicator of a government's commitment to change as indicated by the strong correlation between increases in trade flows and increases in FDI disbursements. Bond, Chiu, and Estache examine how countries can design trade reform to speed up increases in trade. Countries can tailor their commitment to reform to foreign investors by targeting the design of these instruments to the source of their credibility problem. Governments face two credibility problems: (1) investors know the current government's policy preferences (whether they are protectionist or free trade-oriented) but ignore those preferences if the government will later have an incentive to change its position, and (2) investors are uncertain about actual government preferences and have reason to doubt the government's commitment to a reform program. The model presented in the paper shows that the recommendations in favor of free trade prevail when investors know the government's preferences and the government is able to lock itself into its commitment to change. But in the most realistic scenario in which investors do not know the government's preferences and the policymakers cannot otherwise demonstrate their commitment to reform, a government actually committed to change may want to signal this commitment by subsidizing investments or imports if it wants to be competitive in the market for FDI. In this model, the quickest way to attract FDI is through an investment subsidy, but it is also the most costly.

Download or read book Trade Reform Design as a Signal to Foreign Investors written by Antonio Estache and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The design of trade polic ...

Download or read book Designing Trade Reform as a Signal to Foreign Investors written by Eric Bond and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Regional Trade Agreements and Foreign Direct Investment written by Brian Hicks and published by VDM Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do variations in institutional design influence the inward flows of foreign direct investment (FDI)? The application of distinctions in the creation of organizations to FDI has been limited. Variations in RTA economic scope and independence gives foreign investors comparable signals as to the extent to which developing governments will apply liberal economic reforms as well as the ability of external agencies to enforce these reforms and protect investments. Conversely, stringent and strongly independent RTAs may actually prove to be inhibiting to foreign investment in developed countries by restricting the previously successful economic actions. I apply a data set of FDI inflows for both developing and developed nations from 1970 to 2003. Controlling for alternative explanations and concerns of endogeneity, I find that elevated levels of both RTA economic scope and independence produce superior inflows of FDI into developing nations, while more independent RTAs actually reduce inward FDI movement into developed nations. This book is addressed to professionals in political science and toward research in the sub-fields of international organization.

Download or read book Trade policies Macroecononomic Adjustment and Manufacrured Exports written by Sarath Rajapatirana and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Agricultural Trade Liberalization in the Uruguay Round written by Merlinda D. Ingco and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Comparative Corporate Governance written by Afra Afsharipour and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2021-06-25 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research handbook provides a state-of-the-art perspective on how corporate governance differs between countries around the world. It covers highly topical issues including corporate purpose, corporate social responsibility and shareholder activism.

Download or read book Arc Partner country Statistics Useful for Estimating Missing Trade Data written by J. Alexander Yeats and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Because many developing countries fail to report trade statistics to the United Nations, there has been an interest in using partner-country data to fill these information gaps. The author used partner-country statistics for 30 developing countries to estimate actual (concealed) trade data and analyzed the magnitude of the resulting errors. The results indicate that partner-country data are unreliable even for estimating trade in broad aggregate product groups such as foodstuffs, fuels, or manufactures. Moreover, tests show that the reliability of partner-country statistics degenerates sharply as one moves to more finely distinguished trade categories (lower-level SITCs). Equally disturbing, about one-quarter of the partner-country comparisons take the wrong sign. That is, one country's reported free-on-board (f.o.b.) exports exceed the reported cost-insurance-freight (c.i.f.) value of partners' imports. Aside from product composition, tests show that partner-country data are equally inaccurate for estimating the direction of trade. Why are partner-country data so unreliable for approximating missing data? Evidence shows: 1) problems in reporting or processing COMTRADE data; 2) valuation differences (f.o.b. versus c.i.f.) for imports and exports; 3) problems relating to entrepot trade, or exports originating in export processing zones; 4) problems associated with exchange-rate changes; 5) intentional or unintentional misclassification of products; 6) efforts to conceal trade data for proprietary reasons; and 7) financial incentives to purposely falsify trade data. The author concludes that efforts to improve the general quality, or availability, of trade statistics using partner-country data holds little or no promise, although this information may be useful in specific cases where the trade statistics of a certain country are known to incorporate major errors. Significant progress in ugrading the accuracy, and coverage, of trade statistics can be achieved only by improving each country's procedures for data collection.

Download or read book Reviving Project Appraisal at the World Bank written by Shantayanan Devarajan and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Dynamics of Poverty written by Ravi Kanbur and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: August 1995 - In urban areas of Côte d'Ivoire, human capital is the endowment that best explains welfare changes over time. In rural areas, physical capital - especially the amount of land and farm equipment owned - matters most. Empirical investigations of poverty in developing countries tend to focus on the incidence of poverty at a particular point in time. If the incidence of poverty increases, however, there is no information about how many new poor have joined the existing poor and how many people have escaped poverty. Yet this distinction is of crucial policy importance. The chronically poor may need programs to enhance their human and physical capital endowments. Invalids and the very old may need permanent (targeted) transfers. The temporarily poor, on the other hand, may best be helped with programs that complement their own resources and help them bridge a difficult period. Results from analyses of panel surveys show significant mobility into and out of poverty and reveal a dynamism of the poor that policy should stimulate. Understanding what separates chronic from temporary poverty requires knowing which characteristics differentiate those who escape poverty from those who don't. In earlier work, Grootaert, Kanbur, and Oh found that region of residence and socioeconomic status were important factors. In this paper they investigate the role of other household characteristics, especially such asset endowments as human and physical capital, in the case of Côte d'Ivoire. In urban areas of Côte d'Ivoire, human capital is the most important endowment explaining welfare changes over time. Households with well-educated members suffered less loss of welfare than other households. What seems to have mattered, though, is the skills learned through education, not the diplomas obtained. Diplomas may even have worked against some households in having oriented workers too much toward a formal labor market in a time when employment growth came almost entirely from small enterprises. In rural areas, physical capital - especially the amount of land and farm equipment owned - mattered most. Smallholders were more likely to suffer welfare declines. Households with diversified sources of income managed better, especially if they had an important source of nonfarm income. In both rural and urban areas, larger households suffered greater declines in welfare and households that got larger were unable to increase income enough to maintain their former welfare level. Households whose heads worked in the public sector maintained welfare better than other households, a finding that confirms earlier observations. The results also suggest that government policies toward certain regions or types of household can outweigh the effects of household endownments. Surprisingly, migrant non-Ivorian households tended to be better at preventing welfare losses than Ivorian households, while households headed by women did better than those headed by men (after controlling for differences in or changes in endowment). The implications for policymakers? First, education is associated with higher welfare levels and helps people cope better with economic decline. Second, targeting the social safety net to larger households - possibly through the schools, to reach children - is justified in periods of decline. Third, smallholders might be targeted in rural areas, and ways found to encourage diversification of income there. This paper - a joint product of the Social Policy and Resettlement Division, Environment Department, and the Africa Regional Office, Office of the Chief Economist - is the result of a research project on The Dynamics of Poverty: Why Some People Escape Poverty and Others Don't, A Panel Analysis for Côte d'Ivoire (RPO 678-70).

Download or read book Integration and Transition in Europe written by Grzegorz Gorzelak and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International line up of contributors Tackles the big issues facing Europe eg. north - south and east - west divides Chapters incorporate specific case studies with broader European analysis

Download or read book Active Labour Market Policies in the Oecd and in Selected Transition Economies written by Hartmut Lehmann and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Effectiveness of Tax Incentives in Attracting Foreign Direct Investment in Uganda written by David Lameck Kibikyo and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Decentralized Rural Development and Enhanced Community Participation written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Migration and the Skill Composition of the Labor Force written by Ramon Eugenio Lopez and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Adjustment and Poverty in Mexican Agriculture written by Ramon Lopez and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: August 1995 - By and large, it appears that the goals of agricultural reform are being met in Mexico. But measures such as decoupling income supports and price supports or reorienting research and extension could help farmers who cannot afford access to machinery and purchased inputs and services. López, Nash, and Stanton report the results of a study of Mexican farm households using 1991 survey data and a smaller resurvey of some of the same households in 1993. One study goal was to empirically examine the relationship between assets and the output supply function. Using a production model focusing on capital as a productive input, they found that both the supply level and the responsiveness (elasticities) to changing input and output prices tend to depend on the farmer's net assets and on how productive assets are used. Regression analysis using data from the surveys shows that farmers who use productive assets such as machinery tend to be positively responsive to price changes, while those with no access to such assets are not. Another study goal was to monitor the condition of Mexican farmers in a rapidly changing policy environment. The 1991 survey data suggest that farmers with more limited use of capital inputs (the low-CI group) were more likely to grow principally corn and to grow fewer crops, on average, than the others. They also had more problems getting credit and were less likely to use purchased inputs, such as seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides, or to use a tractor to prepare the soil. They tended to be less well-educated, and their land tended to be of lower quality. Results from the panel data showed conditions generally improving for the average farmer in the sample area between 1991 and 1993, during a period when agricultural reforms were implemented. Cropping patterns were more diversified, the average size of landholdings increased, the average farmer received more credit (in real terms), more farm households earned income from off-farm work, and more farmers used purchased inputs. Asset ownership and educational attainment also improved modestly. The very small low-CI group in this sample fared as well as, or better than, the other groups. True, their level of educational achievement fell, and fewer of them had off-farm income than in 1991. But their use of credit, irrigation, machinery, and purchased inputs increased more than for other groups. The limited data are not proof of a causal link, but the fact that the goals are being met should at least ensure that adverse conditions are not undermining reform. Farmers that lacked access to productive assets did not respond as well to incentives or take advantage of the opportunities presented by reform and may need assistance, particularly to get access to credit markets. There may be a good argument for decoupling income supports from price supports for farmers, since income payments that are independent of the vagaries of production could provide a more stable signal of creditworthiness than price supports do. Possibly reorienting research and extension services more to the needs of low-CI producers could also improve the efficiency with which the sector adjusts to new incentives. Hypotheses and tentative conclusions from this study will be explored further when more data are collected in 1995. This paper - a product of the International Trade Division, International Economics Department--is part of a larger effort in the department to investigate the effects of international trade policy on individual producers. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Rural Poverty and Agriculture in Mexico: An Analysis of Farm Decisions and Supply Responsiveness (RPO 678-23).

Download or read book Public Choices Between Lifesaving Programs how Important are Lives Saved written by Uma Subramanian and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1995 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: August 1995 - Do funding priorities for health and safety policies reflect irrational fears? the disaster of the month - rather than address more fundamental problems? A thousand people were surveyed to gauge popular feelings about funding choices between environmental and public health programs. In developing and industrial countries alike, there is concern that health and safety policy may respond to irrational fears - to the disaster of the month - rather than address more fundamental problems. In the United States, for example, some policymakers say the public worries about trivial risks while ignoring larger ones and that funding priorities reflect this view. Many public health programs with a low cost per life saved are underfunded, for example, while many environmental regulations with a high cost per life saved are issued each year. Does the existing allocation of resources reflect people's preoccupation with the qualitative aspects of risks, to the exclusion of quantitative factors (lives saved)? Or can observed differences in the cost per life saved of environmental and public health programs be explained by the way the two sets of programs are funded? Cropper and Subramanian examine the preferences of U.S. citizens for health and safety programs. They confronted a random sample of 1,000 U.S. adults with choices between environmental health and public health programs, to see which they would choose. The authors then examined what factors (qualitative and quantitative) seem to influence these choices. Respondents were asked about pairs of programs, among them: smoking education or industrial pollution control programs, industrial pollution control or pneumonia vaccine programs, radon eradication or a program to ban smoking in the workplace, and radon eradication or programs to ban pesticides. The survey results, they feel, have implications beyond the United States. They find that, while qualitative aspects of the life-saving programs are statistically significant in explaining people's choices among them, lives saved matter, too. Indeed, for the median respondent in the survey, the rate of substitution between most qualitative risk characteristics and lives saved is inelastic. But for a sizable minority of respondents, choice among programs appears to be insensitive to lives saved. The interesting question for public policy is what role the latter group plays in the regulatory process. This paper - a joint product of the Environment, Infrastructure, and Agriculture Division, Policy Research Department, and the Environment and Natural Resources Division, Asia Technical Department - is part of a larger effort in the Bank to see what can be learned about efficient environmental policy by examining the U.S. experience with environmental regulation. The authors may be contacted at mcropper@@worldbank.org or usubramanian@@worldbank.org.