{"title":"Market Integration through Smuggling: China's Sanction on Norwegian Salmon","authors":"Roberto J. Garcia, Thi Kim Ngan Nguyen","doi":"10.11130/jei.2023.38.1.93","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2023.38.1.93","url":null,"abstract":"Popular press accounts and the political-economics literature link awarding the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident to China's trade sanction on Norway's whole, fresh/chilled salmon exports. Norway lost its dominant supplier share of the Chinese market as its total salmon exports to China decreased. Then, in 2011, Vietnam dramatically increased its imports of Norwegian salmon. A structural break divides the data series into two sub-periods: July 1997 to February 2011, and March 2011 to December 2018 (the sanction period). This provides statistical evidence of China imposing an unannounced trade sanction. During the sanction period, Vietnam's current monthly imports are negatively affected by China's lagged monthly imports. A decrease in China's previous monthly salmon imports from Norway \"Granger causes\" an increase in Vietnam's current imports. No such relationship existed before the sanction, implying that China and Vietnam's salmon markets became integrated through smuggling.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48278074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In the Dark or Out of the Shadows? Trade Liberalization and Underground Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"G. Nkemgha","doi":"10.11130/jei.2023.38.1.147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2023.38.1.147","url":null,"abstract":"This article contributes to the understanding of other understudied effects of international trade by analyzing its impact on the informal economy in 24 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the period 2000-2020. This article employs various estimation methods, including ordinary least squares, fixed effects, instrumental variables, and the system generalized method of moments. The results indicate that international trade significantly reduces the size of the SSA's informal economy across various parameters. In addition, the results demonstrate that governance is a mechanism by which international trade reduces the size of the informal economy. Therefore, SSA countries undertake more economic reforms in favor of free trade so that they can not only reap the benefits of globalization but also alleviate their thorny problem of informality.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43111631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Empirical Study on the Impact of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Indian Corporate Sectors","authors":"Santanu Das, Manas Pandey","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.790","url":null,"abstract":"India, has traditionally been involved in various corporate socially responsible (CSR) activities. This paper presents an empirical analysis of CSR activities of some selected public and private organization in India. The key objective of this analysis is to review the companies' CSR investment in sustainability, disclosure, governance, and CSR stakeholders. The Hypotheses development explains the positive significant relationship between CSR and firm performance. Then the methodology section explains sample selection and data source. Using these data, the CSR practices in selected public and private companies are evaluated based on the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, and a comparative study of the impact of CSR practices on companies' profitability is conducted. The study also focuses on how CSR influences these companies' gross margins, as well as the correlation between environmental concerns and return on investment. The result of this study are appropriate for India's present scenario demonstrating that all companies are conducting CSR operations, but there is a substantial difference in the CSR disclosure practices of the selected firms. The private companies in India invests more in CSR but spend less on the environmental aspects whereas the public companies invest less in CSR but almost spend their entire CSR expenditure on the social and environmental aspects.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47923987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Time to Preference: Early Preference Uptake under the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement","authors":"Lars Y. Nilsson","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.589","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.589","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the uptake of trade preferences under the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement during their respective first 21 months of application. The research analyzes the impact of time on the preference utilization rate of EU imports from Canada and Korea and EU exports to the two countries. The findings shed light on how EU member states perform vis-à-vis each trade partner and whether certain product groups appear more successful than others in terms of using trade preferences. The study further analyzes the potential effects of learning how to use preferences over time. Finally, the study argues that firm-pair transaction level data is necessary for discerning more conclusive answers regarding why trade preferences are (not) used.The results point to that lack of knowledge and awareness is the most plausible reason to a low use of trade preferences in the early days of an agreement. To increase preference utilization rates in the beginning as well as later during agreement implementation, continuous information campaigns appear to be essential, not least since importing and exporting firms change over time.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41929817","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Akintola, H. Boughanmi, A. Antimiani, L. Zaibet, H. Kotagama
{"title":"Deeper Integration or Open Regionalism in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA): A CGE Approach","authors":"A. Akintola, H. Boughanmi, A. Antimiani, L. Zaibet, H. Kotagama","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.705","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.705","url":null,"abstract":"The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) is a regional association based on the principle of open regionalism to promote liberalization through trade and investment facilitation. This study compares two main scenarios with the ingredients of a deeper regional integration compared to the IORA's present open regionalism status. Scenario I evaluates the effects of gradual tariff cuts on IORA, while Scenario II combines the impact of tariff cuts, non-tariff measures (NTM) reduction, and trade facilitation. A recent recursive dynamic model, called Global Trade Analysis Project recursive dynamic model (GTAP-RD), was used to understand the adjustment path. The result shows welfare gain for all IORA countries when a trade liberalization involving tariff cuts is complemented with NTM reduction and trade facilitation. In addition, the \"NTM spillover\" effect on some non-IORA members (the rest of Gulf Cooperation Council, the rest of Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement, and the United Kingdom) was observed. The results suggest that IORA has more to gain if it involves a deeper regional integration than the present form of open regionalism.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45447047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Bilateral Labor Agreements on Trade","authors":"A. Maximova, M. Paraschiv","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.649","url":null,"abstract":"The period following the end of World War II is marked by increased international cooperation aimed, among other things, at promoting economic integration. As part of these efforts, national governments adopted policies to remove/reduce barriers to the exchange of goods and services as well as the movement of capital and labor. Although the impact of international trade and investment treaties on trade has been extensively documented, little to no attention has been paid to the potential impact of bilateral labor agreements (BLAs) on commerce flows. This study uses a novel dataset of BLAs within a gravity framework and finds that, over 5 years following signature, BLAs have a positive and significant effect on aggregate exports and exports of differentiated goods (i.e., chemicals and miscellaneous manufactured goods).","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47221166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fiscal Stimulus in the European Union to Stabilize the COVID Shock","authors":"S. Menguy","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.559","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.559","url":null,"abstract":"We document fiscal policies adopted in 2020 in five major European Union (EU) countries to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, we show the correlations between fiscal indicators and GDP growth. Economic stabilization was easier in countries where the budget deficit and the public debt were relatively small, with more room for maneuvers to conduct a counter-cyclical fiscal policy. Besides, the increase in public expenditure (cash transfers) did not always correlate with economic growth, whereas preserving government revenue was important in the case of tax cuts. More precisely, regarding the fiscal revenues of the EU member countries in 2020, reducing the weight on corporate income taxation, to sustain production supply and wealth creation by firms, was correlated with higher economic growth. Stylized facts show that the recession was weaker in countries where the relative weight of indirect taxation on household consumption increased, as in the Nordic countries.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43925308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trade Liberalization Schedules and Members' Development Characteristics: How are They Connected and Why do They Matter to Trade Agreements?","authors":"Khac Lich Hoang, D. Nguyen","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.4.734","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines whether the length of the implementation periods of regional trade agreement (RTA) in relation to trade liberalization schedules and the level of development of member countries affect members' trade. The analysis finds that RTAs formed by partner countries with a similar level of economic development lead to increased trade among members than among North-South RTAs during a shorter transition period of trade and tariff liberalization, regardless of the degree of integration being shallow or deep. The average long-term effects of RTAs formed by developing countries on members' trade diminish 15 years after their implementation. In distinguishing trade direction from developed to developing countries and vice versa, we noted that direction-specific South-North RTAs appear to take less time to see larger increases in Southern exports to the Northern members than direction-specific North-South RTAs do.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43170773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dimitri Sanga, E. W. V. Ahouakan, N'goran Assigno Frejus Adje
{"title":"Institutional Quality and Labour Productivity: Evidence from the Economic Community of West African States Countries","authors":"Dimitri Sanga, E. W. V. Ahouakan, N'goran Assigno Frejus Adje","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.3.540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.3.540","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates how institutional quality influences labor productivity in West Africa. Thus, a panel of 15 Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member states over the period 2005-2017 was considered. The panel was analyzed for the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. For the empirical analysis, a panel fixed effect regression was conducted based on a neoclassical framework. Results show that institutional quality improvement is overall associated with higher levels of productivity, regardless of the sector. Some specificities were also observed at the sectoral levels. Furthermore, the econometric analysis reconfirms a positive effect of investment and human capital on productivity. Therefore, improving institutional quality would be helpful for productivity growth in this sub-region. This event could enable ECOWAS member states to reap greater benefits from the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45352648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Building Scenarios on the Regional Integration in Eurasia along the New Silk Road","authors":"Hannes Thees, Greta Erschbamer","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.3.423","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.3.423","url":null,"abstract":"Regions are gaining importance as globalization struggles with local sustainable implementation. Thus, regional integration assumes economic development based on transnational cooperation, including regionalization and regionalism. The New Silk Road (NSR) offers a set of policies (including the Belt and Road Initiative) for regional integration that faces challenges in geopolitics and geoeconomics with problems at the local and regional scale, especially along its core corridor, namely, the Eurasian Land Bridge. Therefore, we focus on the NSR implementation by examining the scenarios for future regional integration along the NSR in Eurasia. Using a stepwise scenario building method, including a literature review and qualitative interviews, four scenarios are outlined to explore regional cooperation and the impacts: from (1) withdrawal/reduction of the NSR towards (2) solo efforts by Chinese shareholders, (3) corridorintegration and finally, (4) deep regional integration. This study examines the interface between economic geography and international relations.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46133043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}