Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy

This paper investigates the relationship between the diversification of export products in least developed countries (LDCs) and their services production and exports. It uses a dataset comprising 30 LDCs over the period 1995–2010. The empirical results suggest strong evidence that export product diversification in LDCs is a catalyzer for their commercial services exports, alongside factors such as per capita income, foreign direct investment (FDI), and regulatory quality policies. However, export products diversification does not appear to exert a significant effect on LDC services production. These findings have important implications for both the international trade community and LDC governments.

This paper presents case studies of macroprudential policy in five jurisdictions (Hong Kong SAR, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, and Sweden). The case studies describe the institutional framework, its evolution, the use of macroprudential tools, and the circumstances under which the tools have been used. The paper shows how macroprudential policy is conducted under a heterogeneous set of institutional frameworks. In all cases, macroprudential tools have been used to address risks in the housing market. In addition, some of them have moved to enhance the resilience of their banks to more general cyclical and structural risks.

Developing economies are aiming to upgrade the sophistication of their exports. Previous studies have explored the drivers of export sophistication. However, the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection has attracted little attention. This paper studies how IPR protection affects export sophistication. The empirical results show that in developing countries, foreign direct investment (FDI) and imports play a mediating role in the relationship between IPR protection and export sophistication; while for developed countries, the corresponding mediating effects rely on research and development (R&D) and FDI. In addition, when making a more accurate classification of developing countries' imports and inward FDI origin, we find that the mediating effect depends on South–South imports and North–South FDI.

Global manufacturing and international supply chains have changed the way trade and economic growth are understood today. Recent statistical advances suggest new ways of looking at growth accounting when global value chains (GVCs) — articulating supply and demand chains from an international perspective — are taken into consideration. The method is applied to the G-20 countries, a group of leading developed and developing economies that took a prominent role in fostering and managing global economic governance. The demand dynamics is first analyzed through a growth-accounting decomposition, then through the long term determinants of income elasticity of imports and the household marginal propensity to consume imported products.

This paper has been retracted. Please contact jicep@wspc.com

This paper briefly summarizes the development experiences of special economic zones (SEZs) in China and Africa (especially the Sub-Saharan Africa), the lessons that Africa can learn from China, and the preliminary results of the Chinese investments in SEZs in Africa. The study makes recommendations on how to unleash the power of SEZs and industrial parks in Africa through strategically leveraging the Chinese experiences. While the Chinese experiences with SEZs and industrial parks are generally successful, Africa's experience has been relatively poor. Moving forward, they can greatly benefit from the Chinese experiences, especially the Chinese zones in Africa.