A composite measure to determine a host country's attractiveness for foreign direct investment

We contribute to the question of why some countries are more attractive for foreign direct investment (FDI) than others by constructing a composite measure that describes a host country's attractiveness for receiving FDI. This index considers all identified major, measurable and, for our scope, comparable aspects that affect FDI decisions. As a result, we can rank 127 countries with respect to their FDI attraction. The index provides the possibility of conducting detailed strength and weakness analyses for all of our sample countries and regions. These analyses provide support to policy-makers to improve their country's attractiveness for receiving inward FDI. They also enhance the discussion of why FDI flows still remain concentrated in advanced economies and, additionally, in which areas emerging and developing economies have to improve in order to narrow the existing gap. We provide correlation and sensitivity analyses to test the quality of our composite measure. Additionally, we benchmark our index with several alternative indices. Thereby, we show that no other index tracks actual FDI activity more closely.Country Comparison; Composite Measure; Index; FDI;

Not Everything that Counts Can be Counted: A Critical Look at Risk Ratings and Governance Indicators

Accurately evaluating country risk and assessing the quality of governance in emerging market economies has become a priority of international corporations, investment banks and multilateral financial institutions. The rating system of the Political Risk Services (PRS) Group, the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG), constitutes one of the most influential time-series databases of country risk analysis. This study assesses the accuracy and predictive powers of the ICRG model, evaluating its ability to discern trends and highlight structural vulnerabilities, and thus to warn of impending crises. Three major crises are examined: the Brazilian financial crisis of 1999, the Argentine economic meltdown in December 2001 and the Peruvian political crisis of 2000. The study finds mixed results, which have important implications for research and policy.

Evaluation of ICT Investments toward an Increased Competitiveness

This paper focus on the analysis of the impact of investments in IT industry in the general frame of globalization and the drafting of a model for evaluation so that to address the subject of the theoretization of possible measures and efforts in strategic resource consumption for growing of IT competitiveness. To reap the gains from globalization it is necessary to undergo a process of adjustment as factors of production – such as investment capital – towards the ITC applications. The extent by which e-Government will make a difference and add value is seen as dependent on three factors: strong leadership, management of the ‘digital divide’, and well managed innovation.ITC; e-government; investments; digital divide; Internet.

Internet-based 'social sharing' as a new form of global production: The case of SETI@home

Benkler ('Sharing Nicely', Yale Law Journal, 2004, Vol. 114, pp. 273-358) has argued that 'social sharing' via Internet-based distributed computing is a new, so far under-appreciated modality of economic production. This paper presents results from an empirical study of SETI@home (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), which is the classic example of such a computing project. The aim is to explain SETI@home participation and its intensity in a cross-country setting. The data are for a sample of 172 developed and developing countries for the years 2002-2004. The results indicate that SETI@home participation and its intensity can be explained largely by the degree of ICT access (proxied by the International Telecommunication Union's 'Digital Access Index'), as well as GDP per capita and dummy variables for major country groups. Some other variables, such as the Human Development Index, perform less well. Although SETI@home is a global phenomenon, it is never-the-less mostly concentrated in rich countries. However, there are indications of a slowly narrowing global SETI@home digital divide

Measuring the agribusiness decision environment: Constructing an agribusiness confidence index for South Africa

South African agribusinesses are experiencing far reaching changes. Economists have developed indicators, generally known as indexes, to measure relative change in the industry. In this article the methodology to construct a business confidence index for agribusiness in South Africa is discussed. The objective of such an index is to determine the business confidence of agribusinesses as accurately as possible. Some 80 agribusinesses in South Africa are at present participating in the AGRIBUSINESS CONFIDENCE INDEX. For the first quarter of 2002 the index points to a 20% improvement in the business confidence of South African agribusinesses compared to the same period the year before, while in the second quarter the index was up 14% on the previous year. This increase in confidence goes hand in hand with some other positive trends in the agricultural sector of South Africa regarding competitiveness and investment.Agribusiness,

Occupational Learning, Financial Knowledge, and the Accumulation of Retirement Wealth

This study explores the relationship between general human capital investment, financial knowledge, occupational spillovers, and the accumulation of wealth in a primarily descriptive manner. Drawing upon human capital theory and following previous related work by Delavande, Rohwedder and Willis (2008), we hypothesized that individuals with daily exposure to financial knowledge through their occupation would benefit by having greater financial knowledge that would translate into greater wealth accumulation than individuals who do not enjoy such spillovers from their occupation. Using data from the Cognitive Economics Study and the Health and Retirement Study, we find strong evidence that individuals in financial occupations tend to have greater financial knowledge and moderate evidence that they also have greater wealth accumulation.

Does Governance Matter? Yes, No or Maybe - Some Evidence from Developing Asia

This paper seeks to explore the relationship between economic growth and governance performance in Asian developing economies. This exploration yields some interesting conclusions. First, notwithstanding its tremendous economic achievements, the state of governance in Asia is not stellar by international comparison. Indeed, a majority of these countries seem to suffer from a governance deficit. Second, contrary to our expectation, data do not suggest any strong positive link between governance and growth: paradoxically, countries that exhibit surpluses in governance on average grew much slower than those with deficits. The paper ends with some conjecture about this apparent paradox.Governance, Institutions, Growth and Asia

Innovation Indicators: for a critical reflection on their use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)

It has been widely recognized that innovation is an important driver of economic growth. Many Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) have adopted innovation indicators to monitor innovation performance and to evaluate the impact of innovation policies. This paper argues that innovation indicators should be customized to the different socio-economic structures of LMICs. For this, the definition of innovation needs to be relevant to the multitude of innovation actors and processes in LMICs. LMICs also need to build competences not only in the construction of innovation indicators within their statistical systems, but also in the use of these indicators by among others policy makers. Especially as the fourth edition of the Oslo Manual (OM 2018) has broadened the scope of “innovation”, opening up policy space for LMICs to accommodate the diversity in their national systems of innovation and to develop accompanying innovation indicators.JEL Classification Codes: O38, O32, O29, P47http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/iizuka-michiko