H.A. Ebbers

The determinants of foreign direct investment in the Middle East North Africa region

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) into countries of the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on an econometric model that includes factors that potentially drive FDI flows into countries in the MENA region.Findings – Energy endowments have a negative impact on FDI flows into a country. GDP per capita, openness to trade and oil prices have a positive impact on FDI inflows, while aggregate measures of environmental risk are not a differentiating factor among countries in the region.Originality/value – This paper demonstrates that the “Dutch disease” concept applies to FDI in resource rich countries in the MENA region. Countries with large amounts of oil and gas have are more likely to have policies and institutions that inhibit FDI. Countries that value the spillover effects from FDI need to reconsider legislative and institutional hurdles that remain.

Flows of Tourists, Commodities and Investment: The Case of China

Globalization’s impact on the world economy has made it one of the most popular points of discussion in the past two decades. It not only causes drastic changes in trade relations, capital flows and tourist flows across the world but also creates a web of connections between national economies. No country can escape from this influence, and no country intends to exclude itself from the process of globalization. Even countries that once maintained an inward orientated strategy are making commitments to connect their economies with the world network by liberalizing the movement of good, services, labor and capital across borders. This trend greatly changes these countries’ pace of development. This study aims to use macro data to reveal the relationships between three cross-border flows: people, goods and capital.

WHAT DETERMINES TRADE BETWEEN CHINA AND INDIA DURING THE RECESSION OF 2008-2012?: WHAT DETERMINES TRADE BETWEEN CHINA AND INDIA?

Despite the international status of China and India rising dramatically in the previous decades, trade between the two countries did not grow accordingly. This paper investigates the determinants of the bilateral trade performance during the period of 2008–2012 from two perspectives: comparative advantage and trade protection. Two cases, Chinese exports to India, and Indian exports to China, are analyzed by using product‐level data. The results suggest that (1) the law of comparative advantage and trade protection explain the pattern of China–India trade, while (2) in a time of crisis, the adverse forces become prominent which explains the declining trend of the bilateral trade. (JEL F13, F14)

Dynamics of the global competitiveness of Chinese industries

Using a two-dimensional multi-variable approach, this article investigates the competitiveness and dynamics of Chinese industries from the perspective of the international marketplace. The study reveals the step-by-step transformation of the degree of global competitiveness across 97 Chinese industries during the last decade. A new metric is applied to map the competitiveness of this sample of industries in 1996 and 2008. Comparison of the two metrics reveals the evolution of industries in terms of their degree of global competitiveness. Additionally, a number of representative industries are, by way of case studies, analysed in greater detail. From these cases we learn how the degree of global competitiveness of these industries changed over a 13-year period.