Narrow Results

This study examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and innovation on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) export likelihood using a two-stage instrumental variable logistic estimator in 6,844 ASEAN SMEs. Adopting ICT technologies allows SMEs to overcome the constraints faced when exporting, while innovation allows SMEs to gain a competitive advantage. Meanwhile, the ASEAN economies are committed toward regional integration and have implemented policies to develop the SME and ICT sector. Results indicate that both ICT technologies and innovation contribute positively to export likelihood, albeit the magnitude of ICT technologies on export likelihood is greater. Furthermore, the results show that ICT technologies can overcome the constraints faced by marginalized businesses in terms of exporting, and can also enhance export likelihood in the manufacturing industry. Policy implications are discussed.

The failure of newly independent Central Asian countries to diversify exports after the Soviet Union’s collapse is attributed to high trade costs, either because these countries are landlocked or due to border delays and regulatory obstacles. This paper estimates the impact of the high costs of exporting in Central Asia using a structural gravity model with trade cost variables from the trade facilitation indicators of the Corridor Performance Measurement and Monitoring dataset. The results demonstrate that uncertainty in the time to export has a strong negative impact on exports of goods in five Central Asian countries. Moreover, time-sensitive, perishable agricultural products are confirmed to be strongly impacted by uncertainty in export time, while textile and apparel commodities are highly sensitive, relative to other commodities, to high costs to export. The findings suggest that policies aimed not only at reducing time and costs but also at creating an enabling and predictable trading environment could significantly boost cross-border trade, promote export diversification, and foster economic growth in the region.

The main objective of this paper is to examine the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in promoting the growth of the economy via export promotion by using the annual data from 1979–80 to 2000–01. This study uses the Johansen co-integration test and the results demonstrate that there is a long run relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP), FDI and Export (EX). The same relationship is also established when the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) replaces GDP. However, the positive elasticity coefficients between FDI, GDP and FDI, IIP are less than the positive elasticity coefficient between EX, GDP and EX, IIP. It implies that EX plays a comparatively better role in the growth of the Indian economy than FDI. Thus, on the eve of India's plan for further opening up of the economy, it is advisable to open up the export-oriented sectors so that a higher growth of the economy can be achieved through the growth of these sectors.

This paper analyzes exports of multinational corporations (MNCs) in Vietnamese manufacturing, highlighting the disproportionately large contribution of heavily-foreign MNCs with foreign ownership shares of 90% or more. The exports of heavily-foreign manufacturing MNCs are substantial and concentrated in apparel, footwear, and electric machinery-related industries. Export propensities also tend to be markedly higher in heavily-foreign MNCs than in other MNCs, and these differences generally persist after controlling for the effects industry affiliation, firm size, vintage, and capital intensity. There is a large variation in the relationship between ownership shares and export propensities among industries and years, however.

This study empirically investigates the dynamic effects of Japan’s quantitative easing (QE) policy on industry-specific business activity using a time-varying parameter model and monthly data spanning 2001–2006. This model yields more reliable and precise results than earlier fixed effects models using quarterly data. The first major finding is that the effect of QE on yen–dollar exchange rates varied during the sampled period and is most evident in the final phases, whereas its effect on stock prices persisted almost continuously. Second, QE’s effect on Japan’s real economy — i.e., on industrial production — varies by industry and over time. Most notably, QE raised production via yen–dollar depreciation in the machinery sector (e.g., general and transport machinery) and the sector including chemicals, non-ferrous metals and iron and steel during its latter phases. This study is the first to investigate how unconventional monetary policy influences Japan’s real economy by analyzing the real exchange rate during the second half of QE implementation in Japan.

This paper investigates the effect of export on firm inventory using Chinese firm data. We find that exporting increases firms’ inventory stocks. Also, exporting to more distant destinations is associated with less frequent and more concentrated export transactions.

This paper investigates (for the first time) the impact of the economic policy uncertainties of Singapore and its major trading partners on Singapore’s industrial production and exports. The study uses monthly data from January 2003 to August 2019, correlation analysis, spillover index analysis and a structural vector autoregression model to perform the investigation. Using the newly invented Singaporean economic policy uncertainty index, the research finds that it is a good predictor of industrial production. It is found that, in general, uncertainty depresses Singapore’s industrial production and exports. The paper suggests that policymakers promote new entrepreneurship and build a skilled labor force to minimize the impact of uncertainty on the economy of Singapore.

This study examines the effect of trade openness on financial development in eight representative ASEAN countries, including Singapore. Low levels of exports and imports positively influence the depth, accessibility, and efficiency of financial development. Beyond a certain threshold, the benefits of trade openness for financial development begin to diminish. This threshold is lower than the mean value of trade openness, indicating that the ASEAN market possesses high trade flows but its financial sector remains of low quality. In the ASEAN region, the current financial development index is suboptimal compared to trade openness. Prioritizing improvements in financial development quality is thus crucial for mitigating the potential risks associated with excessive trade openness.

This paper examines the major determinants of a firm's derivatives use for companies listed in Taiwan Stock Exchange in the period from 1997 to 1999. The study finds that the proportion of derivatives use in Taiwan, ranging from 31% to 37%, is comparable to that of the US (35%), but less than that of New Zealand (53%). Firms' derivatives use in Taiwan asymmetrically focuses on currency/forwards derivatives. Industry breakdown illustrates that the electronic industry stands for the heavy user both in terms of number and amount. We show that the vital determinants of a firm's derivatives use are size, the ratio of long-term debt to total debt, the electronic industry dummy, and the export ratio. The fact that firms' derivatives use positively correlated with size and the long-term-debt-to-total-debt ratio implies the capability-willingness hypothesis: only large firms are affordable to engage in derivatives use due to the concern of economies of scale in establishing and maintaining expertise, and these firms demand more derivatives use when they face with high financial risk in debt structure.

This study examines the relationship between international trade and exchange rate uncertainty in Eswatini. The specific objectives were to establish the nature of relationship between import and exchange rate uncertainty, relationship between export trade and exchange rate uncertainty, and the causal relationship between import, export and exchange rate uncertainty. Annual data ranging from 1972 to 2018 were collected and analyzed using Engle–Granger cointegration and Granger causality techniques. Exchange rate uncertainty is measured using symmetric GARCH (1,1) model of the nominal exchange rate. Estimates from the augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) unit root test indicate that all the data were stationary at first difference. The cointegration results show evidence of long-run relationship between import and exchange rate uncertainty. The results also show that export is significantly related to exchange rate uncertainty in the long-run. Granger causality results evince the existence of a unidirectional causality from export to exchange rate uncertainty, and a bidirectional causal relationship between import and exchange rate uncertainty. The magnitude of influence of exchange rate uncertainty, however, is greater than that of import. The study recommends amongst others that monetary authorities should develop strategies that will stimulate demand for local goods so as to boost the influence of import on exchange rate uncertainty.

The success of Chile's economy in the past decades is relevant to the efforts of other emerging countries to achieve rapid economic growth. One of Chile's main accomplishments has been a steady increase in exports. The increase was in physical volume of exports, not in unit value. This increase was the result of a correct strategy of opening the economy, which permitted the more competitive Chilean businesses to access external markets. This strategy may be reaching a point of diminishing returns, so the dilemma that Chile now faces is relevant to other emerging countries as they try to grow their economies rapidly. To achieve significant further growth in the long run, Chile needs to move into new kinds of business opportunities, in categories and areas where it has not established a foothold. To break into these new areas, Chile has to develop new capabilities and new strategies. The old way of growing the economy is running into constraints.

The data is about Chile's wood products export industry, which is the country's most successful in terms of adding value as measured by macro metrics. That export industry is not as well known as Chile's wine and fresh fruit export industries but has a more impressive record. The firms in Chile's wood export industry, despite being successful in increasing the dollar value of products exported, have not been able to make themselves competitive in stages of wood production beyond basic and repetitive processes. Other emerging countries are facing the same challenge.

Chilean wood products exporting firms in Chile have been slow to respond to signals from the market. They have not been able to achieve high standards of quality or precision, and they have worked only with local raw materials. These firms have attempted to export manufactured products, but these attempts have failed. For those reasons many observers argue that the advantage in the market that these firms enjoy is due to superior endowments of natural resources rather than to corporate strategies.

High raw material prices have not triggered a new chapter in this history. On the contrary, this comfortable situation has lulled the country into complacency. Other countries were in the same comfortable situation and now the financial crisis has intervened. Chile's present slow growth is discouraging but might prod the country to achieve greater sophistication in exporting goods and services.

This study uses newly available representative data from German business services firms and a continuous treatment approach based on the generalised propensity score to test for a causal effect of R&D activities (measured by the share of engineers and natural scientists in all employees) on the share of exports in total sales. We find evidence for a positive and statistically significant but small causal effect. This result is in line with the (non-causal) results reported in Vogel and Wagner (2014) based on regression models with and without control for unobserved time-invariant firm characteristics. The bottom line, then, is that R&D activity does matter for success of German business services firms on export markets — but not much.

The development of the export potential of the Southern Federal District of the Russian Federation is associated with the justified need to increase the capacity of transport and logistics infrastructure of the studied region and make more rational use of its geopolitical potential. Using geopolitical potential, regions of the Russian Federation seek to optimize the development of competitive industries in areas of economic activity, expanding export potential and pursuing the objectives of government policy to increase the region’s non-resource and non-energy exports, including from the perspective of the region’s transit potential. In essence, the concepts of export potential and transit potential are interrelated and interdependent; In practice, the formation and development of one provoke the growth of the other. Transit and export potential are concepts based on export-oriented production and on the capacity of transport and logistics infrastructure. Investments in the construction of regional distribution centers, which are embedded in the distribution chains of industries operating in the region, have the greatest importance in developing the transit and export potential of the logistics system. The chapter identifies the need to transition logistics services provided in the Russian Federation to a new integrated level of service. The reason for this situation is the increasing demand for quality and accelerated time performance of services every year, as evidenced by the expansion of the very concept of fulfillment. The authors applied statistical analysis and comparison methods, sampling, correlation and regression, and horizontal and vertical analysis. Investments in the construction of logistics centers are objectively local in practice, i.e., they have a local character. The investor receives the necessary information via the relevant ministries and departments, and the possible benefits and threats in terms of production location and preferences are considered in the investment decision-making process. In this process, the agencies must be fully involved in preparing a package of information on the available transport and logistics options for the transport and marketing of products. Implementing an investment project is a lengthy process. By understanding the investor’s needs, it is possible to offer solutions that are as attractive as possible for the investment. Since the necessary transport and logistics system will be developed by local businesses and logistics operators, the regional economy receives significant benefits realized in the creation of new jobs and increased revenues for the regional budget.