Effectiveness of export promotion programmes

Export promotion policies and programmes (EPP) are increasingly popular to enhance export performance, but the evidence from their reported estimates appear puzzling and yet vary widely. We examine 1869 estimated parameters dealing with EPP and firm-level export performance from 37 studies published up to including 2020. Our main findings are threefold. First, constructing 26 moderator variables reflecting the context in which researchers obtain their estimated parameters, we uncovered that differences across the primary studies are mainly driven by the characteristics of the data, the types of firms targeted, the set of variables controlled in the underlying estimation techniques, the adopted a four-dimensional view of export performance, and the publication characteristics. Second, controlling for publication selection bias and reducing potential endogeneity issues, the implied gains from trade-promotion polices is about 0.069, suggesting a small practical impact by the existing guidelines. Third, unlike the econometric evaluation technique, we find robust evidence that the firm-extensive and destination-extensive margins appeared to be associated with mediating factors of publication bias

FDI and productivity gains in developing countries: How to make sense of an inconclusive debate?

Policymakers seeFDI as amajor source for potential productivity gains, but the academic debateon its impact on developing countries is full of contradictions. This short noteinvestigates the impact of FDI on productivity using a meta-analysis of 74 of primary empirical studies published over 1983 –2013and dealing with 31 developing countries. We find a positive and economically important productivity spilloverfrom FDI

FDI and productivity gains in developing countries: How to make sense of an inconclusive debate?

Policymakers seeFDI as amajor source for potential productivity gains, but the academic debateon its impact on developing countries is full of contradictions. This short noteinvestigates the impact of FDI on productivity using a meta-analysis of 74 of primary empirical studies published over 1983 –2013and dealing with 31 developing countries. We find a positive and economically important productivity spilloverfrom FDI

Observing FDI spillover transmission channels: evidence from firms in Uganda

We observe and analyse three intra-industry foreign direct investment (FDI) spillover transmission channels using unique firm-level data collected from on-site interviews and observations regarding domestic and foreign firms operating in Uganda in 2015. Our main results are: (1) the spillover effects mainly depend on the channel(s) by which they occur (the competition channel is most important while spillover benefits through the worker mobility and the imitation channels are less prevalent) and (2) both positive and negative spillover effects occur within the same channel and, moreover, effects differ by channel for the same case. These are novel and challenging findings that have not yet been recognised in theoretical and empirical research on FDI spillovers. Our results suggest that long-term pecuniary spillover effects are predominantly stimulated via the competition channel and show that only limited short-term and long-term technological spillover effects occur through the imitation and the movement of workers channels. These channels are not only less prevalent, but also appear to be constrained by competition-determined spillovers. We are confident that these directions for future research will have a high pay-off because, as shown by this exploratory fieldwork, a more complete picture of the spillover effects is reached when the channels are considered simultaneousl

A Meta-Analysis of FDI and Productivity Spillovers in Developing Countries

This meta-analysis reviews the intrasector heterogeneity of productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in 31 developing countries through a larger more comprehensive data set. We investigate how the inconsistencies in the reported spillover findings are affected by publication bias, characteristics of the data, estimation techniques, and empirical specification, analyzing 1450 spillover estimates from 69 empirical studies published in 1986–2013. Our findings suggest that reported FDI spillover estimates are affected by publication bias. In combination with model misspecification of the primary studies, the bias overstates the genuine underlying meta-effect, but the meta-effect remains economically and statistically significant. Our results emphasize that spillovers and their sign largely depend systematically on specification characteristics of the primary studies and publication bias. Publication bias is not caused by “best practice” choices. Future research needs to cover more developing countries and to investigate not only whether spillovers occur, but also to explore inside the black box of how spillovers actually emerge

The effect of FDI on environmental emissions

One important and frequently-raised issue about foreign direct investment (FDI) is the potentially negative consequences for the environment. The potential environmental cost due to increased emissions may undermine the economic gains associated with increases in FDI inflow. Although the literature is dominated with this adverse view of FDI on the environment, there is also a possibility that FDI can contribute to a cleaner environment, especially, if FDI comes with green technologies and this creates spillovers for domestic industries. Theoretically, the effect of FDI on the environment can be negative or positive. To deal with the theoretical ambiguity about the FDI-environment nexus, many empirical studies have been conducted but their results only reinforce the controversy as they produce contrasting results. We conduct a meta-analysis of the effect of FDI on environmental emissions using 65 primary studies that produce 1006 elasticities. Our results show that the underlying effect of FDI on environmental emissions is close to zero, however, after accounting for heterogeneity in the studies, we find that FDI significantly reduces environmental emissions. Results remain robust after disaggregating the effect for countries at different levels of development as well as for different pollutants

The effect of FDI on environmental emissions : Evidence from a meta-analysis

One important and frequently-raised issue about foreign direct investment (FDI) is the potentially negative consequences for the environment. The potential environmental cost due to increased emissions may undermine the economic gains associated with increases in FDI inflow. Although the literature is dominated with this adverse view of FDI on the environment, there is also a possibility that FDI can contribute to a cleaner environment, especially, if FDI comes with green technologies and this creates spillovers for domestic industries. Theoretically, the effect of FDI on the environment can be negative or positive. To deal with the theoretical ambiguity about the FDI environment nexus, many empirical studies have been conducted but their results only reinforce the controversy as they produce contrasting results. We conduct a meta-analysis of the effect of FDI on environmental emissions using 65 primary studies that produce 1006 elasticities. Our results show that the underlying effect of FDI on environmental emissions is close to zero, however, after accounting for heterogeneity in the studies, we find that FDI significantly reduces environmental emissions. Results remain robust after disaggregating the effect for countries at different levels of development as well as for different pollutants

Shedding light on the shadows of informality

Governments and policy-makers promote formalization through various interventions ranging from simplifying registration procedures to increasing enforcement of the law. But despite various efforts, not much is known about the effects of interventions aiming at formalizing informal firms. This meta-analysis examines the empirical literature on the impact of such formalization interventions. We systematically assessed the literatur

A Systematic Review of Mobile Phone Interventions (SMS/IVR/Calls) to Improve Adherence and Retention to Antiretroviral Treatment in Low-and Mid

The use of mobile health technologies (mHealth) to ameliorate HIV care has considerably risen in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) since 2010. Yet, the discrepancies in the results of accompanying studies warrant an updated and systematic consolidation of all available evidence. We report a systematic review of studies testing whether text/image messages, interactive voice response reminders, or calls promote adherence and retention to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in LMICs. We systematically compiled studies published in English until June 2018 from PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, WHO database, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and manual search. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2009 and used frequency analysis to assess reported findings. In total, we compiled 35 published articles: 27 completed studies and 8 protocols. Among the main 27 studies, 17 examine adherence, 5 retention, and 5 both measures. Results indicate that 56% report positive and statistically significantly impacts of mHealth on primary outcomes, the remaining 44% report insignificant results. While 41% of studies found a positive and significant effect for adherence, only 12% improved retention. The evidence shows ambiguous results (with high variability) about the effectiveness of mobile phone-assisted mHealth interventions to boost adherence and retention to ART. The literature also points to short follow-up periods, small samples, and limited geographical coverage. Hence, future research should focus on evaluating longer interventions with more patients spread across wider areas to address whether mHealth can be effectively used in LMICs

Does COVID-19 threaten globalization?

We analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the world economic system through the three components of globalization: economic, social and political globalization, respectively. The pandemic and the economic policy response have hit these aspects to different degrees. • Economically, the quick recovery of world merchandise trade stands out. • Socially, the reduction in tourism is the largest shock but here a sharp recovery is possible. • Politically, the end of US membership of the WHO and the difficulty of global economic coordination in the G20 are key drivers for 2020. The election of a new US President allows for a quick reversal