Multilateral Trade Liberalisation and FDI: An Analytical Framework for the Implications for Trading Blocs

The proliferation of regional integration agreements (RIAs) over the past several years has led to significant changes in the global configuration of trade and investment activity. Multinational enterprises now face the prospect of multilateral trade liberalisation that could significantly affect the foreign direct investment (FDI) incentive structures that were established within the range of current RIAs. RIAs that provide preferential market access to member countries modify firms’ incentives to undertake FDI activities and can lead to various permutations of trade and investment creation and diversion. This article provides an analytical framework for understanding the implications of multilateral trade liberalisation for the incentive structures of firms to conduct FDI and discusses how multilateral liberalisation could undo many of the FDI activities that were initiated in response to previous RIAs.foreign direct investment, incentives, multilateral trade liberalisation, regional integration agreements, Demand and Price Analysis, Financial Economics, International Relations/Trade, Political Economy,

The effects of the TRIPS Agreement on international protection of intellectual property rights

Draft version ‐ final version forthcoming in International Trade JournalInternational Relations/Trade,

On the relationship between regional trade agreements and agricultural technology and productivity

The implementation of a Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) is normally accompanied with a rise in market competition levels, in domestic agricultural markets through increases in imports and in foreign agricultural markets through increases in exports. These effects are expected to induce adjustments in agricultural technology and productivity in the importing and exporting countries. This paper analyzes the implications of these adjustments in the context of Viner's (The Customs Union Issue. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: New York, NY, 1950) conventional partial equilibrium framework with perfectly elastic foreign supply schedules faced by the importing member country. It also examines these implications in the context of Pomfret's (Review of World Economics, 122(3): 439-465, 1986) extended partial equilibrium framework depicting upward-sloping foreign supply schedules for the importing member country. The analysis underscores important changes and redistributions through the RTA's initial benefits and losses, following the RTA-induced adjustments in agricultural technology and productivity. Some analytical considerations are also discussed in the context of vertical agricultural markets. Finally, an empirical investigation is carried out, revealing different implications of membership in the European Union (EU) and its predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC), for productivity in the agricultural sector

Best Management Practices to Enhance Water Quality: Who is Adopting Them?

This study investigates the determinants affecting producers’ adoption of some Best Management Practices (BMPs). Priors about the signs of certain variables are explicitly accounted for by testing for inequality restrictions through importance sampling. Education, gender, age, and on-farm residence are found to have significant effects on the adoption of some BMPs. Farms with larger animal production are more apt to implement manure management practices, crop rotation, and riparian buffer strips. Also, farms with larger cultivated acres are more inclined to implement herbicide control practices, crop rotation, and riparian buffer strips. Belonging to an agro-environment club has a positive impact for most BMPs.adoption, Bayesian analysis, best management practices, priors, runoff, water quality, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Land Economics/Use, Livestock Production/Industries, Q12, Q25, C11,

A Gravity approach to evaluate the significance of trade liberalization in vertically-related goods in the presence of non-tariff barriers

A gravity-based model is developed to explain bilateral trade flows in primary and processed agri-food commodities. It innovates by explicitly accounting for the vertical production linkages between primary and processed agri-food products, tariffs, and subsidies and by estimating the restrictiveness of non-tariff barriers in the upstream sector. Our application focuses on cattle/beef trade flows between forty-two countries. The structural parameters of the model are used to simulate trade flows under various scenarios of import tariffs and domestic and export subsidies reductions. The United States and Australia emerge as the exporting countries that stand to benefit the most from cuts in tariffs and subsidies as bovine meat imports in the European Union and Japan significantly increase. A bootstrap procedure is used to generate confidence intervals around predicted trade liberalization outcomes.Gravity model; cattle/beef trade

Female labour force participation in MENA's manufacturing sector: The implications of firm-related and national factors

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region falls behind several other geo-economic regions in terms of women's participation rates in the labour market. This paper examines the implications of firm-related and national factors for Female Labour Force Participation (FLFP) rates in manufacturing firms located in the MENA region. The empirical investigation uses data derived from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys database and applies fractional logit models to carry out the estimations. The results reveal positive implications of many firm-related factors, mainly private foreign ownership and exporting activities, for FLFP rates. National factors, such as economic development and gender equality, are also found to promote FLFP rates. These effects are generally found to be more important for women's overall labour participation rates than for women's non-production labour participation rates

What Factors Influence Firm Perceptions of Labour Market Constraints to Growth in the MENA Region?

Labour market constraints constitute prominent obstacles to firm development and economic growth of countries located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This paper aims at examining the implications of firm characteristics, national locations, and sectoral associations for the perceptions of firms concerning two basic labour market constraints: labour regulations and labour skill shortages. The empirical analysis is carried out using firm-level dataset sourced from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys database. A bivariate probit estimator is used to account for potential correlations between the errors in the two labour market constraints' equations. We implement overall estimations and comparative cross-country and cross-sector analyses, and use alternative estimation models. The empirical results reveal some important implications of firm characteristics (e.g., firm size, labour compositions) for firm perceptions of labour regulations and labour skill shortages. They also delineate important cross-country and cross-sector variations. We also find significant heterogeneity in the factors' implications for the perceptions of firms belonging to different sectors and located in different MENA countries. This paper provides policy-makers with information needed in the design of labour policies that attenuate the impacts of labour market constraints and enhance the performance of firms and the long-run economic growth

Why some firms export? An empirical analysis for manufacturing firms in the MENA region

This paper analyzes the exporting behaviour of manufacturing firms located in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region using data from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys Database. It specifically examines the factors that determine the probability of exporting and the export intensity of these firms. The empirical specification is represented through a country-specific effect model and through a model with country variables. The empirical results reveal significant positive effects of private foreign ownership, information and communication technology, and firm size on the probability of exporting and on export intensity of MENA manufacturing firms. Government ownership and the relative labour compositions of firms in terms of skilled production workers and in terms of non-production workers tend to exert negative effects on firms' propensity to export. The empirical results from the model with country variables underscore the enhancing effects of national economic development factors on the probability of exporting and on export intensity. Also, they indicate that the propensity to export of these firms decreases with larger domestic market size. The empirical analysis reveals considerable variations in the effects of the determining factors when carrying out the estimation for individual countries

Zero Waste Campus Dining

Cal Poly Campus Dining has a goal of becoming a zero waste entity by providing their customers with alternative methods of disposing their trash. Their current operations produce waste, specifically their methods of packaging the food. Campus dining plans to be more sustainable by providing their customers with reusable containers. The objective of this implementation is to reduce waste produced from one-time use, disposable food containers. The success criteria for the desired system is based around the ability to track and measure the reusable containers to prevent further waste, while providing the user an accommodating environment to ensure they will choose the sustainable option. Our experiment was designed using three objectives: usability, readability, and durability. In order to best accommodate the Cal Poly community, one of the supporting teams calculated the number, and approximate locations, of the return bins that will be collecting the reusable containers. Another supporting team worked on modifying the trash bins currently used at their operations to collect the reusable containers, in order to provide a seamless transition for the customers. Based on the client’s suggestions, we tested two methods of tagging in order to track and measure the reusable containers. The methods tested were barcode and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. Tests were performed on the containers while containing both tags to measure readability. The tags were read using a direct scanner and an indirect scanner. The ultimate goal was to utilize an indirect scanner in order to avoid an additional task for the current Campus Dining employees. The containers were also tested under different conditions, such as placing food inside the container, to test the readability of the tags. The results of the RFID tags ranked far superior when compared to the barcode tags. The measured readability with an indirect scanner of RFID and barcode tags was 100% and 4.16%, respectively. The tags were then tested for durability. The reusable containers would need to be washed after each use through Cal Poly Campus Dining’s dishwasher, the Stereo Commercial Dishwasher model STPCW-ER. A sample of eleven RFID tagged containers was processed through fifty wash cycles. A quality check was performed to find ten of the eleven containers had no water infiltration on the RFID tag, providing a durability success rate of 91%. The tagged containers were tested again for readability after the fifty wash cycles and all of the tags were read, including the tag that was exposed to water.In conclusion, it is our recommendation to move forward with the zero waste initiative in replacing the current dining disposable containers with RFID tagged reusable containers. The tags will be able to withstand the current cleaning methods, while providing accurate readings when returned into the designated bins. Campus dining will be able to avoid further waste by removing the need to purchase 177,200 disposable containers annually. A ten-year cost analysis calculated the cost of the implementation to be approximately $120,000, the utility costs to be$55,500, and a depreciated asset cost of $280,000. The total cost of the proposed implementation will result to approximately$450,000 by the end of ten years. In contrast, the current system, using the disposable containers, will result in a cumulative cost of $500,000. The savings after ten years of the proposed system is approximately$50,00

Processed Food Trade of Greece with EU and Non-EU Countries: An Empirical Analysis

This paper examines the implications of the European Union (EU) regional trade preferences for processed food trade between Greece and its EU partners, and between Greece and non-EU countries. The empirical analysis relies on the gravity model, and uses different estimation techniques. The results show that the EU regional trade preferences led to substantial increases in processed food trade between Greece and its EU partners, emphasizing trade creation effects. The magnitudes of these increases are higher than the intra-EU average, and are more pronounced for Greece’s imports than for Greece’s exports. The results also indicate that the EU regional trade preferences brought about decreases in processed food trade between Greece and non-EU countries, implying trade diversion effects. The findings in this paper suggest that the Greek food processing industry would benefit from enhanced production, innovation, and market strategies to expand exports to the EU market and to counter import competition in the domestic market