The determinants of foreign direct investment in transforming economies: A comment

Conclusion We are deeply convinced that econometric and other statistical methods are essential tools of empirical economic analysis. However, they are useful only if applied properly. There is an overwhelming evidence that Zhen Quan Wang and Nigel J. Swain failed to do so in their referred article. All these problems of the empirical analysis suggest that the claims made by the paper are not supported by the data and the estimated models and can (and should) be considered as the results of pure speculation.     

Willful default by developing countries in the 1980s: A cross-country analysis of major determinants

Zusammenfassung Willkürliche Zahlungseinstellung von Entwicklungsl?ndern in den achtziger Jahren: Eine Querschnittsanalyse wichtiger Determinanten. — Sollen Souver?nit?tsrisiken im internationalen Kreditgesch?ft abgebaut werden, müssen zun?chst die Determinanten willkürlicher Zahlungseinstellung identifiziert werden. Dies geschieht in dem vorliegenden Artikel, indem verschiedene Variablen, die den Nutzen und die Kosten willkürlicher Zahlungseinstellung widerspiegeln, einer Logit-Analyse unterzogen werden. Es zeigt sich, da\ die Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Zahlungseinstellung sinkt, wenn die Gl?ubiger ein solches Verhalten mit wirksamen Sanktionen belegen k?nnen. Die Aussagekraft der Sch?tzungen reicht jedoch nicht aus, um Zahlungseinstellungen zuverl?ssig vorhersagen zu k?nnen. Entscheidungen über Zahlungseinstellungen werden nicht ausschlie\lich von gesamtwirtschaftlichen Wohlfahrtsüberlegungen bestimmt; offensichtlich h?ngen sie auch von den Eigeninteressen der Regierungen und einflu\reichen Gruppen in den Schuldnerl?ndern ab.

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Résumé Suspension de paiements intentionnelle des pays en voie de développement dans les années 80: une analyse transversale des déterminants importants. — Si les risques de souveraineté aux operations de crédit international doivent être diminués, il faut d’abord identifier les déterminants des suspensions de paiements intentionnelles. Cela arrive dans cette étude d’une analyse logit des variables différentes qui indiquent les avantages et les désavantages d’une suspension de paiements intentionnelle. Les résultats montrent que la probabilité d’une suspension de paiements se réduit si les débiteurs peuvent répondre à un tel comportement avec des sanctions effectives. Mais la qualité des estimations ne suffit pas pour prévoir avec s?reté les suspensions de paiemants. Les décisions concernant les suspensions de paiements ne sont pas seulement déterminées par des considérations macro-économiques du bien-être. De toute évidence elles dépendent aussi des intérêts propres du gouvernement et des groupes d’intérêts puissants dans les pays débiteurs.

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Resumen Moratorias arbitrarias de países en desarrollo en los a?os ochenta: un análisis de déterminantes importantes. — Para poder controlar los riesgos de soberanía en el mercado crediticio internacional hay que primeramente identificar las déterminantes de moratorias arbitrarias. Esto se realiza en este trabajo en el marco de un análisis Logit de diferentes variables que reflejan los costos y beneficios de moratorias arbitrarias. Se muestra que la probabilidad de una moratoria disminuye si el acreedor logra establecer sanciones efectivas. Las estimaciones, empero, no permiten pronosticar moratorias con certeza. La toma de decisiones sobre moratorias no esta determinada solamente por el bienestar de un pais, sino también por los intereses propios de los gobiernos y de grupos de presión importantes de los países deudores.

     

The determinants of foreign direct investment in transforming economies: Empirical evidence from Hungary and China

The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Transforming Economies: Empirical Evidence from Hungary and China. — This paper analyzes what factors best explain foreign capital inflows into Hungary and China during the period 1978–92. The size of the host-country markets is found to play a positive role, while the cost-of-capital variables and political instability are negatively correlated with investment inflows. It supports the hypothesis that low-cost labour and currency depreciation is an important factor in explaining how much foreign capital flows into a particular country. There is little evidence to support classical hypotheses concerning tariff barriers and import variables. The OECD growth rates show significant positive correlation with FDI in Hungary.     

The determinants of export performance: A firm-level study of Italian manufacturing

The Determinants of Export Performance: A Firm-Level Study of Italian Manufacturing. — This paper analyzes some determinants of a firm’s probability of exporting and export intensity and presents the findings of an empirical study carried out on a large sample of Italian firms. On the basis of Probit and Tobit estimates, it emerges that these determinants change according to the size of firms. In particular, only for small firms is the relationship between size and export performance positive. The export activity of small and medium-sized firms decreases with the share of sales due to subcontracting. Larger firms, instead, benefit more from being affiliated with business groups and performing innovative activities of a different nature.     

The reverse home-market effect in exports: a cross-country study of the extensive margin of exports

Do small countries have higher proportions of firms that export in manufacturing industries than large ones? As small countries are well known to be more open than large ones, it may appear uncontroversial to claim that the answer is yes. Nevertheless, this contradicts predictions from many standard trade models positing a home-market effect in the number of manufacturing firms and exporters. In this article, I present a theoretical model where a home-market effect in the number of firms coexists with a reverse home-market effect in the number of exporters: as in standard models, the number of firms in a small country relative to that in a large one is lower than relative income, but, in contrast to standard models, the relative number of exporters is larger. As a consequence, small countries will have higher proportions firms that export in manufacturing industries—a claim I support empirically.     

Determinants of intra-industry trade: A longitudinal,cross-country analysis

Determinants of Intra-Industry Trade: A Longitudinal, Cross-Country Analysis. — This study examines the determinants of intra-industry trade (IIT using longitudinal data for 68 countries for 1970–1987. The analysis distinguishes between manufacturing and nonmanufacturing countries and compares traditional static estimates with dynamic ones. This approach permits distinctions between equilibrium and disequilibrium structures and, similarly, between historical and current sources of IIT. The results are generally supportive of IIT hypotheses, but there are important differences between manufacturing and nonmanufacturing countries and between the static and dynamic structures. Moreover, the extent of IIT appears to be dominated more by preference than by scale differentials, at least among manufacturing countries.     

Portfolio adjustment in open economies: A comparison of alternative specifications

Zusammenfassung Portfolio-Anpassung in einer offenen Volkswirtschaft. Ein Vergleich alternativer Spezifizierungen. — Dieser Aufsatz vergleicht zwei Spezifikationen eines Modells einer kleinen offenen Volkswirtschaft: Erstens eine Bestandsgr?Βen-Version, in der die Haushalte die gewünschten Verm?genswerte sofort nachfragen und zweitens eine Stromgr?Βen-Version, in der die Nachfrage eine allm?hliche Anpassung an den langfristig gewünschten Bestand an Verm?genswerten bewirkt. Die beiden Varianten werden bei festen und flexiblen Wechselkursen verglichen, beide jeweils unter der Annahme vollst?ndiger oder fehlender Kapitalmobilit?t. Sie zeigen unterschiedliche Anpassungsverl?ufe bei festen Wechselkursen, wenn das heimische Geldangebot endogen ist, und besonders, wenn es keine Kapitalmobilit?t gibt (wenn das heimische Angebot an Wertpapieren nicht endogen ist).

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Résumé L’ajustement de portefeuille dans des économies ouvertes: une comparaison de spécifications alternatives. — Cet article compare deux spécifications d’un modèle d’une petite économie ouverte: (1) une version de stock, dans laquelle les ménages entrent dans les marchés d’actif avec des demandes de stock immédiates d’actif et (2) une version de flux, dans laquelle ils entrent dans les marchés d’actif avec des demandes de flux reflétant un ajustement vers des demandes de stock à long terme d’actif. Les deux versions sont comparées sous des taux de change fixes et fléxibles chacune couplée avec une mobilité de capital parfaite ou pas une mobilité. Elles se conduisent d’une manière différente sous des taux de change fixes (si l’offre d’argent locale est endogène) et sont très per?antes s’il n’y a pas une mobilité de capital (si l’offre locale d’emprunts n’est pas endogène).

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Resumen Ajustes de portafolio en economías abiertas. Una comparaci?n de especificaciones alternativas. — Este artículo compara dos especificaciones de un modelo de una economía abierta pequena: (1) una version de stock, en la cual los presupuestos familiares entran en el mercado de activos con una demanda inmediata por activos y (2) una version de flujo, en la cual ellos entran al mercado de activos con demandas de flujo que reflejan un ajuste gradual a las demandas de stock por activos de largo plazo. Las dos versiones se comparan bajo tasas de cambio fijas y flexibles, cada una con movilidad perfecta de capital o no. Ellas se comportan en forma diferente bajo tasas de cambio fijas (cuando la oferta de dinero local es endógena) y son muy penetrantes cuando no hay movilidad de capital (cuando la oferta local de bonos no es endógena).

     

Trade preferences and exports of manufactures: A case study of Bolivia and Brazil

Trade Preferences and Exports of Manufactures: A Case Study of Bolivia and Brazil. — This paper analyzes the impact of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) on the exports of Bolivia and Brazil, whose levels of economic development differ substantially. While Brazil’s exports under GSP were larger than Bolivia’s, the preferences had a significant impact only on Bolivian exports. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that certain low-income countries have benefitted from trade preferences. Since the GSP is not costly to the U.S. economy, continuation of the program with some modifications to benefit the least developed countries is recommended.     

A cross-country comparison of the demand for labour in Europe

A Cross-Country Comparison of the Demand for Labour in Europe.-This paper investigates structural differences in the demand for labour in France, Germany, and the UK. It finds substantial differences in the sensitivity of the demand for labour to international product demand and factor prices in all three countries. In particular, it reacts to domestic factor prices in Germany but international cost competitiveness in France and the UK; it depends upon European-wide product demand in France and Germany and a wider measure of product demand in the UK. The authors attribute these differences to product market conditions and institutional factors rather than to differences in the production technology.     

Impact of nontraditional activities on scale and scope economies: A case study of Japanese regional banks

The recent financial deregulation in Japanese banking has enabled regional banks to engage in trust businesses. This paper examines the impact of such nontraditional banking activities on cost structure by measuring economies of scale and scope. A generalized translog cost function, which can take zero outputs into consideration, is employed to simultaneously investigate entrants and non-entrants. While ray scale economies are observed for trust businesses, product-specific scale economies are not. Further, cost complementarities are not observed in almost all the pairwise combinations of the products. Thus, entering into the trust business yields no cost reduction for Japanese regional banks.     

Monetary autonomy in selected Asian economies: The role of international reserves

With the increased financial integration of Asian countries, monetary policy takes on the additional role of maintaining the stability of the financial system along with the traditional objectives of promoting growth and employment with price stability. Given the importance and relevance of monetary policy in Asian countries, we examine monetary autonomy and its interaction with financial integration, currency regimes and international reserves for the past two decades in the following Asian countries: Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India. The empirical analysis reveals two significant and interesting findings that have policy implications. First, Thailand, Korea and Indonesia, countries that have moved towards a floating currency regime, experienced simultaneous declines in the sensitivity of their interest rates (thereby increasing monetary autonomy), while India continues to increase the sensitivity of its interest rates with a pegged exchange rate and increased financial integration. Second, in all of the studied economies, the accumulation of international reserves has contributed, to some extent, to the retention of monetary autonomy in terms of preventing the sensitivity of the interest rates from rising. We speculate that the accumulation of reserves plays the role of an anchor for monetary autonomy in emerging market economies facing a “fear of floating”.     

A programme for agriculture in island plantation economies

Small-island plantation economies have some structural characteristics, related to their size, which differentiate them from large continental plantation economies. Namely, they are more specialized, more dependent and less flexible than the latter.Those economic characteristics generate a particular political structure in which the plantation interest is predominant. This makes their adjustment to the present decline of some of the main traditional plantation crops difficult and painful, since most of their economic policy measures are not long-run policies to insure competitiveness, but are short-run expedients to save uncompetitive crops.The Caribbean islands, where one finds some of the oldest plantation economies, are a case in point. While the traditional export crops of the area, i.e. bananas, cane and pineapple, have been declining over the last 15 yr or so, the policies adopted by government towards the agricultural sector have proved inoperative.In this article, we analyze the weaknesses of these policies and we outline a programme for the agricultural sector.     

Local economies and business networks re-visited. A case study of business and professional services in London

This article describes networks among business and professional services (BPS) firms in London, and deals with the relationship between the businesses interviewed and their locality. The article is based on empirical material derived from a large number of interviews with BPS firms in central London. It is noted that lateral links between firms are poor, relationships are better characterised as competitive rather than co-operative, and businesses tend to take little interest in the various support agencies. Although all the businesses interviewed placed great emphasis on the development of close, co-operative relationships with clients, markets are geographically diffuse. However, despite the weakness of localised, inter-firm links, businesses were able to identify a number of valuable and distinctive assets attached to their current location, which implies that the “local economy” continues to be important. The article finishes briefly with some implications for local economies and appropriate methods of business support.