Defining And Measuring Green FDI: An Exploratory Review Of Existing Work And Evidence

This paper was developed at the request of the OECD Working Party of the Investment Committee to document efforts to date to define and measure green FDI and to investigate the practicability of various possible definitions, as well as to identify investment policy restrictions to green FDI. It does so by reviewing the literature and existing work on the contributions of FDI to the environment; by providing a two-part definition of green FDI; and by discussing various assumptions necessary to estimate the magnitude of \u27green\u27 FDI

Female-owned firms in Latin America : characteristics, performance, and obstacles to growth

This paper examines the characteristics and performance of female-owned firms in Latin America. Data from firm surveys show that female-owned firms tend to be smaller than male-owned firms in terms of employees, sales, costs, and physical capital. Female-owned firms also have lower profits than male-owned firms, but for larger firms this difference disappears after controlling for labor and capital inputs. Medium-size and large female-owned firms are as productive as male-owned firms of the same size, although micro and small female-owned firms are less productive than male-owned firms. There is no evidence that the differences between female and male-owned firms are due to differences in access to finance or regulatory burdens. However, this paper finds a negative correlation between child care and household obligations and female-owned firm size and performance.

01-07 "Dirt is in the Eye of the Beholder: The World Bank Air Pollution Intensities for Mexico"

This paper identifies a number of errors and inconsistencies in a series of air pollution intensities for Mexico that were recently created by the World Bank. Because these data are being used to conduct public policy analysis and advice for Mexico and countries at similar levels of development, knowledge of the limits of these data is of utmost importance. In addition to identifying the problems with these data, this paper makes a series of adjustments to offer a corrected dataset. These newly corrected data are available on the World Bank's New Ideas in Pollution Regulation (NIPR) web page.

Factors Affecting U.S. Trade and Shipments of Information Technology Products: Computer Equipment, Telecommunications Equipment, and Semiconductors

Despite a recent downturn, the information technology (IT) products sector experienced a tremendous expansion in trade and shipments during the last decade and became an increasingly important component of the U.S. economy. This expansion was driven by a variety of factors such as the globalization of IT production, constant technological innovation, rapid growth in worldwide consumption, and global trade liberalization. This working paper will examine these factors, providing particular attention to the computer equipment, telecommunications equipment, and semiconductor industries.International Development,

The future of North American trade policy: lessons from NAFTA

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Center Task Force Reports, a publication series that began publishing in 2009 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.This Task Force Report written by an international group of trade policy experts calls for significant reforms to address adverse economic, environmental, labor and societal impacts created by the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The report is intended to contribute to the discussion and decisions stemming from ongoing reviews of proposed reforms to NAFTA as well as to help shape future trade agreements. It offers detailed proposals on topics including services, manufacturing, agriculture, investment, intellectual property, labor, environment, and migration. Fifteen years after NAFTA was enacted, there is widespread agreement that the trade treaty among the United States, Canada and Mexico has fallen short of its stated goals. While proponents credit the agreement with stimulating the flow of goods, services, and investment among the North American countries, critics in all three countries argue that this has not brought improvements in the standards of living of most people. Rather than triggering a convergence across the three nations, NAFTA has accentuated the economic and regulatory asymmetries that had existed among the three countries. [TRUNCATED

Trade and Private R&D in Mexico

Using the National Survey on Employment, Wages, Technology and Training (Enestyc), this paper tries to find the relationship between increasing trade and the proportion of total income Mexican manufacturing firms invest on R&D. Based on two cross-sectional and a panel estimation procedures, the results confirm the idea that increasing the exposure to foreign markets affect the innovative efforts of Mexican firms. We also find that the firms engaging in some kind of R&D do not conform a random sample. More specifically, our results show that, in 1992, the probability of finding a firm engaging resources in some kind of R&D increased with size, a market diversification measure, and a measure of industrial market power at a 2-digit level, while the intensity of the R&D effort depended, on market power and an industry concentration measure. For the 1999 estimation our results show that the probability of R&D investment at a firm level increased with size, a market diversification measure, and exposure to foreign competition, while the magnitude of the R&D effort of a firm was determined by the decrease in average import tariffs at the industry level and by the exporting efforts of the firm. We find strong complementarities between public and private innovation efforts in both years, but find that younger firms are doing stronger R&D efforts in 1999. The 1992- 99 balanced panel results show that exporting firms invest more in R&D while import competing firms invest less, once size, market power and other control variables are taken into account. Our estimation indicates that exporting give firms a great incentive to innovate, and that not only large, but also small firms contribute to the R&D efforts of a nation.R&D, trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, exposure to foreing markets

Wages and productivity in Mexican manufacturing

The author identifies the determinants of wages and productivity in Mexico over time using national representative linked employer-employee databases from the manufacturing sector. She shows that both employers and employees are benefiting from investments in education, training, work experience, foreign research and development, and openness after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Additional years of schooling have a higher impact on wages and productivity after NAFTA than before. Endogenous training effects are larger for productivity than for wages, suggesting that the employers share the costs and returns to training. The author also finds that investment in human capital magnifies technology-driven productivity gains. By comparing four regions of Mexico-north, center, south, and Mexico City-regional wage and productivity gaps are found to have increased over time.Poverty Impact Evaluation,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Municipal Financial Management

Economic structure, productivity, and infrastructure quality in southern Mexico

There are large and sustained differences in the economic performance of sub-national regions in most countries. The authors examine the economic structure and productivity in Southern Mexico and compare it with the rest of the country. The authors use firm level data from Mexican manufacturing to test the relative importance of firm level characteristics (such as human capital and technology adoption) compared with external characteristics (such as infrastructure quality and regulatory environment) in explaining productivity differentials. The authors find that the economic structure of Southern Mexico is considerably different from the rest of the country, with the economic landscape dominated by micro enterprises and a relative specialization in low productivity activities. This, coupled with low skill levels and fewer skill upgrading opportunities, reduces the performance of Southern firms. Productivity differentials between Southern firms and others, however, only exist for micro enterprises. The econometric analysis shows that while employee training and technology adoption enhance productivity, access to markets by improving transport infrastructure that link urban areas also have important productivity effects.Labor Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Municipal Financial Management,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Microfinance