Global Economy Journal

The present paper, restricting its attention to the empirical economics literature, attempts to gauge current thinking on the question of whether FDI causes economic growth. Since technological spillovers are a key determinant of long run economic growth, the survey begins with the firm level evidence on technological spillovers of FDI on domestic firms. The macro FDI and growth literature is covered next. Finally, we examine the effect of FDI on income inequality and/or employment, skills, or jobs. In many contexts policies that exacerbate income inequality come under special scrutiny even if they are welfare enhancing. Our major finding is that FDI is generally associated with positive technological spillovers, economic growth, and increasing income inequality. For all three of these results, however, there are significant counter examples in the literature which must be respected.

World Trade Organization (WTO) members have long expressed a norm concerning the trade “remedies” of countervailing (anti-subsidy) duties and antidumping duties: that these measures offset the behavior that gives rise to them, restoring trade to a “level playing field.” The WTO agreements provide that the duties imposed should be calculated accordingly, that countervailing duties are measured against subsidies and anti-dumping duties are measured against the excess of a benchmark “normal” value over export price. This paper makes two principle contributions in light of this norm. First, it develops formal models of antidumping and countervailing duty actions conforming to the offsetting duty norm. Economists have often shown little patience with the rationale for these duties, leading to a dearth of formal analysis that takes into account the social welfare function—the offsetting duty norm—incorporated in the WTO agreements; the formal models here provide that analysis. Second, the paper extends this analysis to the simultaneous prosecution of countervailing and antidumping cases. Once rare, simultaneous countervailing and antidumping duty proceedings have become perhaps the most prominent expression of trade protection permitted under WTO rules. The analysis establishes the conditions to identify any overlap in the application of countervailing and antidumping measures and demonstrates that recent practice of WTO members has created excessive application of duties. The analysis also provides the methods for preventing this double-count in simultaneous cases. These results have direct application to current policy debates.

This study analyzes the effects of government policies on the short-run and long-run movement of locally owned firms from a developed country to a less-developed country and on the output and growth rate of each country in the presence of home bias, a preference of firms and investors to operate in their home countries. The analysis uses a model which was developed for this purpose, in which growth is stemming from the increase in the number of firms. The study finds that for the less-developed country, harsh policy towards entering firms, such as taxing them in the form of requiring firms to grant partial ownership to local agents, results in better long-run economic performance, compared to free entry or subsidizing these firms, in addition to the harsh policy being less costly.

In this study, we revisit a recent study that examined the role of GATT/WTO membership on trade flows. With this aim, we re-examine Rose (2004a)’s study and extend the data until 2007. Furthermore, we alternatively estimate the role of the organization, GATT/WTO, on trade by including more control variables that are believed to influence bilateral trade such as a defense pact (military alliance), military disputes, joint democracy and policy similarity. Empirical results clearly demonstrate that GATT/WTO membership does have a significant positive effect on trade.

The literature on the financial crisis is very large and diverse. The intent of this article is to summarize these and other mainstream articles through the lens of two key questions: (1) what caused the crisis? and (2) why have the spillover effects been so devastating in so many industrial countries?

In Section II of this review, we address the demand side for liquidity. Section III presents the supply side of liquidity. Section IV tackles the second question: namely, the contagion effect. Section V introduces the other articles in this special section of the journal.

The global financial crisis of 2008-09 has stimulated a number of re-assessments of global development. But after two years, not much progress has been made in dealing with the deep causes of the crisis. While it is better understood now why the crisis occurred, more progress is needed in terms of financial reform on the global level in order to prevent future financial crises. A remaining challenge is to strengthen the global financial architecture (GFA). This paper focuses on the GFA and its relationship to the global financial crisis. Recent reform initiatives are discussed. Strong resistance against re-regulation of the financial sector is noted, reflecting the general opposition of vested interests to GFA reform.

This paper explores the role of employment protection when powerful external crises reduce demand for products. We first present a theoretical framework that shows that employment protection has a U-shaped effect on abnormal unemployment during a negative exogenous shock to an economy. Using data from the 33 OECD countries, we analyze how the level of employment protection affected the stability of unemployment rates during the recent global economic crisis. The results suggest that countries with an intermediate level of employment protection will have more stable unemployment rates during a world crisis. The policy implication of our paper is that countries should seek a medium level of employment protection that may act as an automatic stabilizer of the economy on the macro level.

This paper highlights the need for the emerging market firms to take a strategic approach to build capabilities for resiliency in the face of frequent macro economic crises, even if each crisis is anticipated to be temporary and short-term in nature. A knowledge-based model is developed to highlight the dynamics of interaction between the emerging market vendors and the industrial market clients, as the latter restructure their offshoring contracts in the face of a financial crisis. The model shows the strategic solutions that the emerging market vendors have to transform the situation of crisis into a window of opportunity. In addition, the model provides insights into how the industrial market firms may also moderate the effects of an economic crisis by adopting a strategic knowledge exchange approach (i.e., appropriate capability development), instead of the common reliance on a strategic compensation approach (i.e., lower prices or profits).