Commerce international et finance
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Research Papers
UNCTAD Research Papers provide authoritative data and analysis on trade investment finance and technology offering solutions to the major challenges facing developing countries particularly the poorest and most vulnerable nations. Beyond tailored analysis and policy recommendations our research has also generated global standards that govern responsible sovereign lending and borrowing investment entrepreneurship competition and consumer protection and trade rules towards achievement of the 2030 Agenda.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Policy Briefs
UNCTAD Policy Briefs provide authoritative data and analysis on trade investment finance and technology offering solutions to the major challenges facing developing countries particularly the poorest and most vulnerable nations. Beyond tailored analysis and policy recommendations our research has also generated global standards that govern responsible sovereign lending and borrowing investment entrepreneurship competition and consumer protection and trade rules towards achievement of the 2030 Agenda.
Challenges in implementing decentralization of foreign direct investment management in Viet Nam — case study of the Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel project in Ha Tinh province
Over the past decades an increasing number of developing countries in Asia have experimented with decentralization in varying degrees to achieve good governance and promote democracy. In Viet Nam even though decentralization has been limited to de-concentration (or administrative decentralization) foreign direct investment (FDI) management is vigorously decentralized at the provincial level and has proven to be problematic. In one instance it led to an environmental disaster in 2016. The objective of the present paper is to explore the factors resulting in ineffective decentralization of FDI management in Viet Nam focusing on the challenges that the local government has been dealing with under the decentralization set-up in particular with respect to environmental protection. Drawing on the case study of the Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel project in Ha Tinh province it is argued that Viet Nam continues to lack the essential prerequisites for effective decentralization. It is the time for Viet Nam to reconsider the policy of decentralization in the area of FDI management. Bearing in mind that economic development is vital it should go hand in hand with environment protection in order to ensure the country’s sustainable development.
Women’s empowerment among married women aged 15 to 49 in Myanmar
The present study entails an investigation of the empowerment of married women aged 15 to 49 in Myanmar from socioeconomic and demographic perspectives based on data from the Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey 2015-16. The dimensions of women’s empowerment are categorized into two parts: women’s control over their earnings and women’s participation in household decision-making (decisions on major household purchases visits to family or relatives their health care; and the well-being of their children). These two dimensions are combined to create an index of women’s empowerment. A binary logistic regression is used by means of odds ratios to assess the relationship between women’s level of empowerment and their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Overall the findings of the study show that a higher empowerment level is associated with women’s employment increased age urban residence a higher educational attainment a higher wealth quintile and a lower level of husband’s education. In addition women that have one child or up to four children are more likely to have a higher level of empowerment than women with no children. About three fourths of the women in the sample live in rural areas. Among those women the ones with a higher level of empowerment are more educated employed and have higher household income. Generating employment opportunities for women and educating women are important factors that can lead to an increase in women’s income and accordingly help raise the levels of women’s empowerment.
Contributory factors towards sustainability of bank-linked self-help groups in India
The present study focuses on the Indian flagship financial inclusion scheme – the Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme which successfully leverages the social collateral concept and the vast network of bank branches in India to deliver financial services to small cohesive and participatory women’s self-help groups. To develop a deeper understanding of the topic of sustainability of self-help groups we propose a framework that conceptualizes sustainability by integrating the financial and organizational aspects of functioning of self-help groups. Sustainability is assessed in the light of the group’s performance (on set of indicators) with respect to the primary objective of the Self Help Group-Bank Linkage Programme which is financial intermediation. Subsequently we ascertain the effect of plausible contributory factors related to group management practices on the sustainability of self-help groups. The results of regression analysis on primary data captured from a survey of 170 self-help groups show that such factors as equitable access to credit group savings growth in savings loan utilization in income generation activities members depositing a savings contribution or loan installment on each other’s behalf and distance from bank contribute significantly to group sustainability. Accordingly designing suitable measures to monitor and improve group governance and management practices would be a critical policy intervention.
Deaths at sea in the Pacific Islands: Challenges and opportunities for civil registration and vital statistics systems
Accurate and reliable death statistics produced by civil registration and vital statistics systems are essential for health planning and programme evaluation. The quality of death registration data in Pacific island countries and territories remains suboptimal. Data on deaths occurring at sea are especially limited. While coastal and oceanic activities are the norm and essential to the livelihoods of Pacific island populations such activities pose risks for accidents at sea especially those involving small-scale vessels. In this paper the scale of deaths at sea associated with small vessels in three Pacific island countries or territories over the period 2008-2017 is investigated using data from the health civil registry and police and fisheries departments and reports produced by national statistics offices ministries of health the Pacific Community the World Health Organization and media sources. Data on deaths at sea were found to be fragmented among multiple sources and missing key information on age sex and cause. Standardized procedures for reporting deaths and accidents at sea and harmonized data sharing between local communities and government agencies are urgently needed to improve civil registration and vital statistics systems and sea safety in the Pacific island subregion.
Cheating the government: Does taxpayer perception matter?
Do people cheat because they can get away with it or because they feel that the rules are unfair? This paper addresses this question in the context of tax evasion. Specifically taxpayer perception is incorporated into a widely used consumption-based method for estimating income tax evasion. Compared to the standard method which distinguishes taxpayers only by their occupational or income type as a way of measuring their “ability” to misreport income the refined method introduces taxpayers who may be “able but unwilling” to cheat because they feel fairly treated with respect to public services and as compared to other taxpayers. Applied to a longitudinal data for the Republic of Korea (2007–2015) the standard method yields a uniform tax evasion rate of 13 per cent but the refined method provides a range of 7 to 25 per cent based on taxpayer perception. This implies that strategies for improving tax compliance must be tailored to different motivations for tax evasion.
EU enlargement and foreign direct investment into transition economies revisited
An institutional perspective on the social responsibility of TNCs
Responsible agricultural investment: Drawing upon best practices in existing initiatives
Corporate sustainability assessments: MNE engagement with sustainable development and the SDGs
The recent introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for an understanding of how multinational enterprises (MNEs) engage with sustainable business practices and how the SDGs may be better implemented by the private sector. Through an examination of 112 MNEs operating in the region of the Association of South-East Asian Nations this study focuses on evaluating sustainable business practices through the lens of a corporate sustainability assessment framework. The results show that headquarters commitments of MNEs to international sustainability standards and guidelines had a key influence on their sustainability practices. These commitments included the use of tools such as the materiality analysis to identify and prioritize sustainability issues of importance to the MNE and its stakeholders and reflects a focus at the local level of the subsidiary that was in alignment with the corporate strategies of company headquarters. The results of this exploratory study suggest that it is through the use of these international sustainability standards and guidelines (such as the Global Reporting Initiative standards) that a greater consideration and incorporation of SDGs within MNE practices can be achieved. These standards and guidelines are both well accepted and already adopted by MNEs and have an important influence on what sustainability issues and goals they consider within their operations.
Microfinance for poverty alleviation: Do transnational initiatives overlook fundamental questions of competition and intermediation?
Numerous microfinance initiatives around the world aim to alleviate poverty in developing countries. However debate persists about their effectiveness and sustainability – a concern for transnational corporations and the international business community which contribute about $9.4 billion to microfinance funding. In this policy-oriented article we aggregate findings from two studies in Indonesia that help explain why moneylending can still thrive when low-interest microfinance is widely available and why the poorest borrowers benefit less than the less-poor. To avoid methodological debates about validity we interview market participants and triangulate the perspectives of borrowers with those of formal and informal lenders. Importantly our research includes current and past borrowing from formal and informal sources prompting participants to draw comparisons. We find that the importance to borrowers of key characteristics of informal lending is insufficiently recognized and that inappropriate human resource management and informal intermediation are significant problems. The latter can be an unintended consequence of formal microfinance: The availability of formal low-interest microfinance creates informal intermediation opportunities for entrepreneurs often developing from casual intermediation into systematic deception. We discuss implications for microfinance policy with reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and offer suggestions for further research.
Exploring the interface of CSR and the Sustainable Development Goals
Transnational corporations (TNCs) today are facing rising expectations that they will engage with societal stakeholders and get involved with sustainable development even in light of an increasingly uncertain international business environment. This article explores how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global agenda may serve as a reference framework that can support TNCs in improving their corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement in a way that contributes to sustainable development. The authors specifically consider the role of systematically measuring and managing corporate impacts on sustainable development as a prerequisite for demonstrating a net contribution to the SDGs. In order to capture these impacts existing corporate measurement and evaluation systems need to be adapted and new management instruments have to be developed. We conclude by proposing a research agenda for this purpose.
China’s international investment strategy by Julien Chaisse (editor)
Chinas international investment law and policy have been the subject of detailed study since the liberation endeavour of the late 1970s which was a landmark change in the countrys development path and integration into the global economy. The countrys active participation in the global economy is mirrored by its evolving profile of cross border capital flows with China both a prominent source of and destination for foreign investment. Indeed Chinas rise as a global investor has made its approach to international investment an important issue on which a considerable amount of literature has already been published. The recent past has nevertheless seen several important events within China as well as bilateral regional and global events influencing Chinas approach towards international investment and adding new perspectives thereto.
Looking through conduit FDI in search of ultimate investors – a probabilistic approach
This paper presents a novel computational method to determine the distribution of ultimate investors in bilateral FDI stock. The approach employs results from the probabilistic theory of absorbing Markov chains. The method allows for the estimation of a bilateral matrix that provides inward positions by ultimate counterparts for over 100 recipient countries covering 95% of total FDI stock and including many developing countries. Reconstructing the global FDI network by ultimate investors enables a more accurate and complete snapshot of international production than do standalone bilateral FDI statistics. This has considerable implications for policymaking. It also provides more nuanced context to some contemporary developments such as the trade tensions between the United States China and others as well as Brexit.
Raising corporate debt in India: Has foreign ownership been an asset or a liability?
The impact of international R&D on home-country R&D for Indian multinationals.
Extant research on internationalization of research and development (R&D) has not examined what the impact of foreign R&D investments is for the investing corporate parent firms in particular on domestic R&D investments. The aim of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of international knowledge sourcing through foreign R&D in an empirical analysis of the effects of foreign R&D investments on domestic R&D intensity for a panel of Indian firms. The paper specifically investigates the importance and impact of the role and the location of foreign R&D centres on parent-company R&D by analysing differences between foreign-technology-seeking and foreign-technology-exploiting R&D and between centres in advanced countries and in developing countries. The analysis finds contrasting results between advanced and developing countries and between technology-exploring and technology-exploiting investments.
The multinational and the legitimation of sustainable development
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently promulgated by the United Nations General Assembly provide an opportunity to assess the potential contributions of multinational enterprises to sustainability initiatives. This article seeks to promote understanding of the context within which multinationals will or can decide to participate in such initiatives by adopting a legitimacy perspective. When viewed from the perspective of organizational legitimacy the extent to which a multinational adopts a sustainability agenda is likely to depend on its stakeholder network and the balance of the network’s variety of interests and beliefs. The article discusses current and prospective multinational activities that support the SDGs while also bolstering organizational legitimacy and concludes with questions for future research.
Home-country measures to support outward foreign direct investment: variation and consequences
The state especially in emerging economies plays a key role in influencing firm behaviour including outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Often literature on the state’s influence on OFDI stresses direct state ownership. However the state can influence OFDI in several ways including policy support and subsidies; the literature has largely overlooked these effects. We build on key insights from the comparative capitalisms literature to put forward a series of propositions on how home-country measures – in both emerging and developed economies – to boost OFDI will influence inter alia the volume location and mode of firms’ investments abroad. We thus contribute to the literature by showing how government policies across a wide range of countries influence an important aspect of firm behaviour that has economic social and environmental implications.