The endogenous skill bias of technical change and wage inequality in developing countries

This paper draws on existing empirical literature and an original theoretical model to argue that technical change does not have to be skill-biased in developing countries. Instead, the extent to which technology adoption in developing countries favors skilled workers depends on a number of factors. Free trade induces technology that favors skilled workers in skill-abundant developing countries and that favors unskilled workers in skill-scarce developing countries, and therefore amplifies the predicted wage effects of trade liberalization. Developing countries experience technical change that is skill-biased when imported skill-biased technologies become relatively cheaper. Increased skill supply further biases technical change in favor of skilled labor. These features aid our understanding of the observed rises in inequality within developing countries, the absence of a significant downward effect of expanded educational attainment on skill premia, and the differential effects of trade liberalization on inequality.     

Industrial Policy: Past, Diversity, Future; Introduction to the Special Issue on the Future of Industrial Policy

Industrial policy is one of the most controversial policy fields. Its scope, instruments and rational vary across countries, changing over time; intentions and outcomes often differ. This volume brings together reports on countries, highlighting specific problems and concepts. Most papers explicitly state that there has recently been renewed interest in industrial policy, be it the new “matrix” approach in the EU, or other strategies in Japan, the US and France. Problems and solutions differ between frontier countries like Finland and the catching-up economies of the new EU member countries, or the policy strategies in developing countries designed to foster economic growth or complement globalisation. The upcoming new approach to industrial policy all hints at a more systemic industrial policy, forward looking and emphasizing the synergies with other policy areas, but also fine-tuning to specific needs, comparative advantages and future technologies.     

Globalisation and Corruption,Revisited

This paper presents new empirical evidence on the determinants of corruption, focussing on the role of globalisation and inequality. The estimates for a panel of 102 countries over the period 1995–2005 point to three main results: (i) Detection technologies, reflected in a high level of development, human capital and political rights reduce corruption, whereas natural resource rents increase corruption; (ii) Globalisation (in terms of both trade and financial openness) has a negative effect on corruption, which is more pronounced in developing countries; (iii) Inequality increases corruption, and once the role of inequality is accounted for, the impact of globalisation on corruption is halved. In line with recent theory, this suggests that globalisation – besides reducing corruption through enhanced competition – affects corruption also by reducing inequality.     

通胀目标法:理论分析与效用实践

通胀目标法是西方国家近年来出现的一种新兴的货币政策目标法,它对提高货币政策透明度、改善通货膨胀状况具有极大的效用.目前有部分发展中国家采用这一货币政策方法,但发展中国家在总体上能否实行还有待于各种外部政策措施的进一步完善.     

新一代信息技术驱动下的全球价值链调整及其应对策略

在新一轮科技革命和产业变革背景下,新一代信息技术与制造业深度融合促使制造环节的创新功能凸显、增值能力增强和要素投入升级,进而提高了制造环节在全球价值链中的相对地位。新型制造技术的使用正在重构发达国家制造业的竞争优势,伴随着制造业回流,发达国家对全球价值链制造环节的参与程度有所提高。全球价值链调整导致中国制造业面临更加不确定的外部环境,同时又为制造业向价值链中高端攀升提供了机会窗口。中国应谨防过早“去工业化”,通过推动高水平对外开放、提高新一代信息技术与制造业融合创新能力、深入挖掘内需潜力、大力发展生产性服务业、深度参与全球经济治理等策略应对全球价值链调整。     

Determinants of new product outcome in a developing country: A longitudinal analysis

While new product success and failure in technologically advanced countries has been widely studied, little work has been done on examining this issue in developing countries. In this paper, the introduction of 279 new products in a developing country, Korea, is examined to identify the ingredients of new product success. A categorization scheme is developed to distinguish the industrial market environments of developing countries according to their development stages, and proves useful in identifying significant determinants of new product outcome for the two different situations in the industrial market. The two industrial market situations are LDC stage and NIC stage, which represent the early and the later stage of industrialization and economic development in developing countries respectively. In the LDC stage, proficiency of technical effort and indigenous capabilities to make technologically superior products are found to be important factors in determining new product outcome, whereas the critical role of market orientation together with technological capability appears important in deciding new product outcome in the NIC stage.     

Financial vulnerability and export dynamics

This paper examines the implication of financial shocks on firms’ export dynamics in developing economies. To address this question, we use the Exporter Dynamics Dataset, which contains new data on the microstructure of exports for 34 developing countries between 1997 and 2011, and investigate how exporter behaviour is affected by financial crises. We find that financial crises in both the origin and destination countries have a large negative effect on firm, product and destination dynamics, particularly in industries dependent on external finance. Financial crises make the costs of exporting more difficult to meet and in turn reduce firms’ ability to start exporting, introduce new products and sell to new destinations. We also find that the impact of financial crises is less pronounced in exporting countries with relatively more open capital accounts, suggesting that portfolio inflows may be a good substitute for underdeveloped domestic financial markets.     

Introduction and Overview

As one of globalisation's most visible dimensions, foreign direct investment (FDI) is central to the prospects for developing countries in the world economy. Key issues include the direction of causation between FDI and growth, the potential role of the new information and communication technologies in attracting FDI flows (as well as the role of FDI in building such infrastructure), the process of skill acquisition associated with FDI, and the specific problems that Africa faces in attracting more FDI. Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals requires very fast growth in output and employment if global poverty is to be halved, and FDI could play a very positive role if its development benefits are maximised.     

Cooperation as a Mediator between ICT and Export Success

The use of new information and communication technologies has been reshaping the export paradigm for more than a decade and exponentially increasing the possibilities of the exporting companies in international markets. The Internet improves establishing contact with partners in other countries for trade, optimizes daily communication with them, and makes companies more efficient in finding information on the markets they are reaching. According to these implications, to what extent do new technologies have a positive impact on the success of companies abroad? Does the use of these technologies facilitate cooperation between exporters and trading partners in the export destination country? The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of Internet technology upon export success when companies use this technology to find relevant information on foreign markets, improve communication in the business process, and enhance contacts with customers and distributors in distant countries. This study reveals that cooperative relationships between export companies and their foreign customers/distributors have a mediating effect between ICT and export success. Moreover, a surprisingly low significance of using ICT to support sales activities and develop lasting business relationships on export success has been found.     

Geography and International Inequalities: The Impact of New Technologies*

Some writers have predicted that new technologies mean the death of distance, allowing suitably skilled economies to converge with high income countries. This paper evaluates this claim. It argues that geography matters for international income inequalities, and that new technologies will change, but not abolish this dependence. Some activities may become more entrenched in high income countries than they are at present. Others—where information can be readily codified and digitized—will relocate, but typically only to a subset of lower income countries. These countries will benefit, but other countries will continue to experience the costs of remoteness.     

The impact of international trade on emigration in developing countries

This paper studies how international trade affects emigration in developing countries. This is a new aspect as previous studies investigated the impact of immigration on trade from host countries perspective. However, there are also reasons to believe that trade may affect the propensity to emigrate in the home countries, leading to potential brain drain in developing countries, especially given the theoretical hypothesis in Stolper–Samuelson (S–S) theorem within Heckscher–Ohlin (H–O) factor-proportion model that more educated workers are more likely to emigrate due to an increase in international trade. When low-skill abundant developing countries liberalize trade, the reward of the scarce factor (skilled labor) is reduced in these countries, but it increases in the high-skill abundant developed countries. Therefore, skilled workers in the developing countries see a strong incentive to migrate to developed countries. To test this hypothesis, this paper utilizes a panel of 133 developing countries for the period of 1980–2010 and finds that high-skilled workers are more likely to emigrate with trade while there appears to be no effect of trade on low-skilled workers.     

The Political Economy of Basle II: The Costs for Poor Countries

The financial crises of the 1990s triggered many changes to the design of the international financial system. We use the formulation of the new Basle capital accord for banks (B‐II) to illustrate that, while much affected, developing countries have had very little influence on this so‐called new international financial architecture. We argue that B‐II has been formulated largely to serve the interests of powerful market players, with developing countries being left out. At the same time, we demonstrate that B‐II is likely to raise the costs and reduce the supply of external financing for developing countries in particular. Furthermore, and importantly, B‐II may well increase the pro‐cyclicality of external financing, an unfortunate outcome given that developing countries already face much volatility in terms of capital flows. Overall, while B‐II may indeed compensate for a range of weaknesses of Basle I, the exclusionary policy process and costs which B‐II imposes on developing countries require a re‐think of the way in which crucial elements of financial governance, such as the Basle capital accords, are developed and implemented.     

International trade policies,industrialization, and economic development

During the 1950s and 1960s, most developing nations, particularly the larger ones, strongly opted for a policy of import substitution industrialization (ISI). This was based on heavy protection and generally led to very inefficient industries. Since the early 1970s, an increasing number of developing countries deregulated their economies and liberalized trade, and this stimulated efficiency and growth. Some developing nations also tried strategic trade policies and to endogenize growth (as postulated by endogenous growth theory), but with only limited success. It seems impossible and inconsistent under the new international trade rules, however, for other developing countries to duplicate the East Asia “miracle,” which was based on strong government support for domestic industry while stimulating competition and efficiency among domestic firms. The successful completion of the Uruguay Round is expected to greatly benefit developing countries through continued deregulation and increased access to developed-country markets.     

外军数据链与武器平台一体化设计的进展与发展经验

<正>加入WTO强化了"以外促内"、"以开放促改革"的作用,不仅使中国获得了两个市场、两种资源,更广泛地融入全球产业分工,更重要的是为我们借鉴国际成功经验,选择适合国情的发展模式创造了条件。中国企业应在深化对外开放中壮大自己。     

国际税收竞争与我国税收政策的选择

近年来,发达国家兴起了新一轮减税浪潮,发展中国家则加大了涉外税收优惠的力度,国际税收竞争成为备受关注的问题.本文通过分析国际税收竞争产生的经济根源,探讨了不同类型国家在国际税收竞争中的立场和政策选择.在此基础上分析了我国作为典型的发展中大国,在目前形势下对国际税收竞争应采取的策略及作出的税收政策调整.     

Economic informality and the venture funding impact of migrant remittances to developing countries

In developing countries, weak institutional capacity to observe and regulate the economy discourages foreign capital inflows vital to venture investment. This informality effect may differ for migrant remittances, inflows less reliant on formal arrangements. We use institutional and transaction cost theories to propose that informality shifts migrant remittances toward venture funding. Analyses in 48 developing countries observed from 2001 to 2009 support our proposition. When the informal sector exceeds approximately 46% of GDP, remittances increase venture funding availability. Migrants and their remittances are vital to funding new businesses and entrepreneurially-led economic growth in developing countries where substantial informality deters other foreign investors.     

国际农业植物新品种保护格局探析及启示——基于WTO-TRIPS/UPOV模式的分析

全面分析WTO《与贸易有关的知识产权协议》下农业植物新品种保护模式:发达国家借TRIPS协议极力推行主要强化商业育种者利益的TRIPS协定下的UPOV保护模式,一些发展中国家则正在寻求一个更适合于本国农业和社会经济环境的植物新品种保护模式,典型的如印度、非洲统一组织以及粮农组织的保护模式。并对由此形成的国际农业植物新品种保护格局进行相关博弈分析,从而提出我国农业植物新品种保护制度发展的相关政策建议。     

Impact of international entry choices on the nature and type of innovation: Evidence from emerging economy firms from the Indian bio-pharmaceutical industry

As emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) enter foreign countries in search of new markets, seeking to expand their knowledge bases, research on the type and nature of innovation activity is needed to address the impact of EMNEs’ choices related to international expansion. Building on prior literature on entry mode and location choices, as well as on organizational learning, we argue that how and where an EMNE expands internationally will impact the nature of its innovation. We carry out empirical analysis on a sample of 167 Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms for the period from 1997–2017. Our findings suggest that greenfield ventures foster innovation in core technologies, while cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) foster innovation in non-core technologies. In addition, locating subsidiaries in high income countries encourages product innovations, while locating in low income countries encourages process innovations. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on differences in learning outcomes of EMNE internationalization.     

The Determinants of the Location of Foreign Direct Investment by Japanese Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Japanese manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have actively undertaken Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Asia since the mid-1980s. FDI contributes to economic growth of the FDI recipient countries, as it brings in not only financial resources for investment but also technologies and managerial know-how, which are important factors for promoting economic growth. Recognizing these benefits of receiving FDI, policy makers in developing countries have formulated various strategies to attract FDI. This paper examines the factors in the host countries that would attract FDI by Japanese SMEs. Our results show the importance of both supply-side and demand-side factors in the recipient countries for attracting FDI by Japanese SMEs. Supply-side factors include abundance of low-wage labor, availability of well-developed infrastructure, and good governance of the host government, while an important demand-side factor is the presence of sizable local market. In addition, Japanese SMEs regard industrial agglomeration, which has a element of both supply and demand factors, as an important factors making FDI decision. Supply-side factors are found to be important for attracting Japanese FDI in developing countries, while demand-factors play a role in attracting Japanese FDI in developed countries. A comparison of the results for SMEs to those for large firms reveals that SMEs are more sensitive to the conditions in the host countries in making their FDI decision. In particular, SMEs regard the availability of low-wage labor, well-developed infrastructure, and industrial agglomeration as important elements much more than large firms. High sensitivity of SMEs to local economic conditions in their decision on FDI location may be explained by their limited availability of financial and human resources and high dependence on overseas production in their business. In light of these findings, we conclude that countries interested in hosting FDI have to provide a very attractive business environment.