Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy

Living standards in China have greatly improved over the past few decades. Both sustained economic growth and an expansion of the social security system have contributed to a sharp reduction in the number of people in poverty. However, urban–rural inequalities remain large, and some of the poorest households are being left behind. Further reforms are needed to ensure that the benefits of future growth are shared and that marginalized groups have the opportunity to actively participate in the economy. In particular, policy settings should be adjusted to increase access to good quality education and healthcare for rural and migrant workers and to improve the portability of social security benefits. Changes to the social assistance system that raise work incentives and protect low-income households in poorer locations are also a priority. New spending measures can be funded by adjustments to the tax system which will, in themselves, benefit inclusiveness.

This paper adds to the existing literature on the macroeconomic determinants of Aid for Trade (AfT). It investigates the impact of both multilateral trade policy liberalization and the export share of AfT-recipient countries in global trade market on the AfT amounts that accrue to these countries. Using a panel dataset comprising 133 AfT-recipient-countries, over the period 1995–2015, the empirical analysis shows that both the impact of multilateral trade policy liberalization and of the recipient countries’ export share in the world trade market on AfT depend on recipient-countries’ level of development as well as on their domestic trade policy. Additionally, in the context of multilateral trade liberalization, donors tend to reward recipient-countries’ effort to secure a higher export share in the international trade market.

With persisting slower growth worldwide and in China, over-capacity in some heavy industry sectors, declining profitability, and intensifying competition from other, lower-cost emerging economies, corporate behavior in China needs to change and focus more on efficiency and sustainability. A larger proportion of firms, including state-owned enterprises, should improve corporate governance practices. To this end, fraudulent corporate practices must be halted and State assets need to be better managed. Reforms are under way or envisaged that will help improve corporate performance and, more broadly, deliver more resilient and environmentally sustainable growth and continuing progress in living standards.

The current paper investigates the impact of sovereign ratings on sudden stops of capital in the context of the Eurozone. Our analysis focuses on the qualitative aspect of ratings on the hypothesis that such aspect has a concrete impact on capital movements. A panel probit model is utilized for our purposes. We distinguish between net and gross capital inflows, while we also draw a distinction between long-term and short-term oriented capital. Our results confirm the influence of sovereign ratings for the majority of our model specifications. They also appear to be most significant in the case of short-term flows.

Making the most of international capital flows by allowing countries to reap their benefits while reducing associated risks has always been a challenge and has led to considerable economic research over the past 30 years. This challenge became even more acute following the Global Financial Crisis, as new concerns emerged related to the complexity of global financial relations, their role in shock transmission as well as how to protect countries from financial instability. Against this background, recent research has focussed on understanding better the implications of financial globalization for economic stability and the design of policies. This literature review takes stock of these recent developments including the discussion on the risks associated with corporate foreign indebtedness, the role of the global financial cycle in driving financial instability, new findings on the real impact of international capital flows and ongoing debates on the role of capital controls.