Determinants of Sales Destinations of U.S. Multinational Firms' Affiliates in Developing Countries

This study examines the determinants of the sales of .U.S. multinational firms' affiliates to alternative destinations, including sales to other affiliate firms in a host country and a source country markets as well as sales to other non-affiliate persons in each market. Sample host countries are drawn from developing economies where U.S. multinational firms had affiliate firms during the period 1983–1998. The results of the study reveal that affiliates of multinational firms manipulate sales to minimize international taxation. This is supported by the finding that foreign corporate income taxes: affect sales between affiliate firms favorably, unlike its impacts on sales of affiliates to non-affiliate persons in both a host country and source country markets. Considering all markets together, economic volatility and political instability have minimal impacts on sales of affiliates to other affiliate firms compared to their impacts on sales to non-affiliate persons. The results also confirm that host countries' economic policy reforms and membership in multinational investment guarantee agencies facilitate sales of affiliates to other affiliate firms.     

Transport Modal Choice by Multinational Firms: Firm-level Evidence from Southeast Asia

The impacts of trade liberalization on poverty status of farm households in Africa often come through its effects on prices, government revenues, and employment, among other things. For the case of Ethiopia, the main channel through which trade liberalization affects farm households is changes in the prices of inputs and outputs. The aim of this study is to empirically examine the impacts of trade reform on poverty status in rural Ethiopia. The results show that, although households’ resource endowment had consistent and significant improvement impacts, trade liberalization had mixed effects on change in poverty status. As a result of trade liberalization, contrary to expectation, changes in the prices of cash crops (i.e. chat and coffee) had increased the probability of remaining poor and falling into poverty. On the other hand, changes in the relative prices of staple food crops (i.e. teff and wheat), together with access to credit and schools, had increased the probability of escaping poverty and remaining above the poverty line.     

Factors affecting entry and intensity in informal rental land markets in Southern Ethiopian highlands

Informal land transactions, particularly rental land markets, are emerging in rural Ethiopia in response to the inadequacies of the administratively based land distribution system to meet the growing demand for land and correct imbalances in factor proportions at the farm level. These informal land markets provide a vehicle to equalise factor proportions at the farm level and to improve productivity and hence households' welfare. Among the farmers who lease out land, those who live in the highland‐areas, where land is scarce and unequal, are more likely to engage in these markets. Increases in the size of land holdings relative to labour and livestock ownership, the number of non‐working household members and pressure for subsistence increase the likelihood of leasing out land. On the other hand, increases in the number of working adults, improved nutritional status and greater wealth affect negatively the supply of land into these markets. The potential exists for these markets to improve factor equalisation, reduce inequality in land holdings, and shift the income position of participating households. However, success depends on whether other factor markets are functioning to thwart forced disposal of land to meet subsistence. Public policy has pivotal role in fostering the growth of these markets and their land transfer and factor equalisation functions by ensuring their legally enforceable status, and removing legal restrictions that constrain choices of contracts and trading over greater distances. In addition, both long and short‐term policy measures are needed to reduce the extent to which poor farmers engage in distress transactions.