{"title":"Do Japan’s Free Trade Agreements Increase Its International Trade?","authors":"M. Ando, S. Urata, Kenta Yamanouchi","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.1","url":null,"abstract":"This study analyzes the impacts of free trade agreements (FTAs) on bilateral trade, focusing on Japan’s FTAs. In particular, we examined both static and dynamic effects at the aggregated and disaggregated levels, using two datasets between 1995 and 2016 for Japanese trade only and world trade. For the static analysis, we investigated the overall impacts and the effect of individual FTAs. Regarding dynamic analysis, we considered the time since their enactment. Our results indicate that the impacts are heterogeneous among Japan’s FTAs and products, with a trade creation effect for some FTA partners. Moreover, our findings reveal that the trade creation effect is probably overestimated when trade between the third countries is not considered. We also found a positive dynamic effect for some products. Such a dynamic effect may emerge due to a longer time for firms to understand FTAs and learn their use and the gradual tariff reduction for some products.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47043263","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":"A Comparative Analysis of the Effects of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement on the Economic Impacts of COVID-19 in North and Southern Africa","authors":"Pousseni Bakouan, Issaka Dialga, P. Zidouemba","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.121","url":null,"abstract":"COVID-19 has forced many governments to take emergency health measures which are undermining productive capacities and disrupting global supply chains. Southern and Northern Africa have been heavily impacted by such measures. According to UNCTAD statistics (2021), the average annual growth rate of exports in Northern and Southern Africa fell by 27.61% and 6.96%, respectively in 2020. Yet, the effective operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) could have limited some of the pandemic’s economic impacts. Using a computable general equilibrium model, this paper first analyzes the pandemic’s economic impact and then assesses the ability of the AfCFTA to mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19. The simulation results show that the AfCFTA would mitigate the economic impact in Southern and Northern Africa. It reduces the decline in intra-regional exports by 7.87 percentage points in 2021. The study emphasizes the need to remove non-tariff barriers to amplify potential positive effects.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46937027","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}
Masudul Hasan Adil, N. Hatekar, Sana Fatima, Ibrahim Nurudeen, Shanga Mohammad
{"title":"Money Demand Function: A Not-So-Fond Farewell in the Light of Financial Development","authors":"Masudul Hasan Adil, N. Hatekar, Sana Fatima, Ibrahim Nurudeen, Shanga Mohammad","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.93","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.93","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the stability issues of real money balances considering financial development. We estimate real narrow (M1) and broad (M3) money demand in India during the post-financial reform, from 1996:Q2 to 2016:Q3. To check the short- and long-run relationships, this study uses the autoregressive distributed lag model of cointegration and other various time series techniques. After incorporating financial development into money demand, we determined short- and long-run relationships and a well-defined open-economy stable money demand specification (M1 and M3) in India. Having established money demand function, the policymaker and central bankers can use monetary aggregates as an indicator or information variable to predict output gaps and inflationary expectations under the inflation-targeting framework.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49634686","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}
S. Angioloni, Maria Berrittella, Ziping Wu, Angel H. Aguiar
{"title":"Liberalizing Immigration Policies for the UK Agricultural Sector in the Post-Brexit Era","authors":"S. Angioloni, Maria Berrittella, Ziping Wu, Angel H. Aguiar","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.158","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate the effects of immigration policies on the UK agricultural sector under the new post-Brexit deal through a computable general equilibrium framework. We consider bilateral flows of migrants and frictions as part of capital and labor mobility to compare the point-based immigration system to open immigration policies in terms of their impacts on agriculture. We also integrate the GTAP-GMig2 immigration model with the GTAP-AGR agriculture model. Our findings show that liberal immigration policies have positive effects on production, farmers’ income, and overall welfare. The benefits increase if these policies are combined with reduced bureaucracy and lower behind-the-border costs in trade relationships.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43417354","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":"Investment in ESG Projects and Corporate Performance of Multinational Companies","authors":"V. Cherkasova, Irina Nenuzhenko","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.54","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.54","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates whether investing in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) projects boosts corporate financial performance. It also examines whether these projects trigger the company’s default due to the high costs of such projects, depending on whether the firm is multinational and its headquarter region. To obtain robust results, we conduct the examination separately for seven regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, emerging Asia, and Developed Asia. We examine firm-level indicators of 1,249 companies and are headquartered in different regions for 2011-2019. We find that the company’s headquarter region influences the interrelationship between financial performance and ESG activities. The most successful companies in ESG development are international companies and those headquartered in developing or Developed Asia or North America. Meanwhile, Latin American firms, both local and multinational, experience significant challenges during the implementation of ESG initiatives.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44467034","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":"Monetary Agreements Reform and Issue of the Key Fiscal Convergence Criterion in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)","authors":"L. Kebalo, Stéphane Zouri","doi":"10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2022.37.1.30","url":null,"abstract":"This paper estimates a fiscal deficit threshold that maximizes economic growth and is favorable to business cycles synchronization given the compliance of countries. The analysis covers the eight countries that form the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) across 1990-2018. Our results show that 11.42% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the fiscal deficit threshold which should not to be exceeded and that fulfills the aforementioned conditions. Since the debt relief program in 2006, however, this threshold has been reduced from 11% to 3.97%. Therefore, compliance with the key fiscal convergence criterion limiting the fiscal deficit to 3% of the GDP and in force in the Union is pro-growth and favorable to business cycles synchronization. However, even if this convergence criterion seems rigorous for fiscal discipline and can be maintained, it could be adjusted to 4%. The paper discusses the advantages of this proposed adjustment.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47071039","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":"Symmetric and Asymmetric Causal Relationship between Oil Prices and G7 Stock Markets: A Bootstrap Rolling-Window Granger Causality Test","authors":"Khaled Mokni, Mohamed Sahbi Nakhli, Othman Mnari, Khemaies Bougatef","doi":"10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.718","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the causal relationships between oil prices and the MSCI stock index of G7 countries between September 2004 and October 2020. This study is novel in implementing symmetric and asymmetric time-varying causality tests based on the bootstrap rolling-window approach. The results reveal that the causal link between oil prices and G7 stock markets is time-dependent. The periods of bidirectional causality roughly coincide with the global financial crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. When asymmetry is accounted for, the results suggest an asymmetric causality between the two markets expressed by different patterns regarding positive and negative oil shocks. The results also indicate symmetric causality during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings have implications for portfolio design and hedging strategies that are important to both policymakers and investors.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49175764","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}
Dhimitri Qirjo, Razvan Pascalau, Robert Christopherson
{"title":"Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and Environmental Consequences","authors":"Dhimitri Qirjo, Razvan Pascalau, Robert Christopherson","doi":"10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.549","url":null,"abstract":"We empirically investigate the effect of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on the per capita emissions of eight air pollutants and municipal waste. By introducing the same explanatory variables and applying the same empirical strategy and methodologies as in Qirjo and Pascalau (2019), we provide robust evidence suggesting that the implementation of the partnership could be beneficial to the environment because it may reduce per capita emissions of CH4, hydrofluorocarbons/ perfluorinated chemicals/ SF6, N2O, NH3, and SF6 for a typical partnership member. This result is based on statistically significant evidence showing that, on average, the pollution haven motive based on national per capita income variations is dominated by the factor endowment argument based on the Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory and the pollution haven motive originating from an inverse measurement of national population density differences. However, we also report statistically significant evidence that the implementation of the partnership could denigrate the environment by increasing per capita emissions of SO2 and municipal waste.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46987035","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":"Economic Globalization, Entrepreneurship, and Inclusive Growth in Africa","authors":"F. Ajide, T. Osinubi, J. Dada","doi":"10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.689","url":null,"abstract":"An increasing number of studies are examining the relationship between entrepreneurship and growth. This relationship is controversial, especially for developing countries. Recent improvements in economic growth have led to a focus on growth inclusiveness, which spreads economic opportunities throughout a society. However, studies that focus on the role of entrepreneurship in inclusive growth remain scarce. To fill that gap, this study investigates the dynamic relationship between economic globalization, entrepreneurship, and inclusive growth in 21 African countries using panel econometrics to examine data covering 2006 to 2018. The results reveal that the impact of economic globalization and entrepreneurship on inclusive growth is positive and significant. We find that economic globalization enhances entrepreneurial development, and causality tests show that economic globalization drives inclusive growth. We also find a unidirectional causality from entrepreneurship to inclusive growth. Finally, we observe no direction of causality between economic globalization and entrepreneurship but observe a bidirectional causality between governance and entrepreneurship. We discuss the implications of these results.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43096572","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":"Export Restrictions and COVID-19","authors":"Mamadou Thiam, Jean-Claude Kouakou Brou, Benur Andrade Varela","doi":"10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2021.36.4.519","url":null,"abstract":"As a result of COVID-19, the export of medical goods has been subject to various global restrictions. Consequently, several countries have increased the supply of medical goods to alleviate the effects of this health crisis. This study entails a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of such remedial measures. To this end, we have utilized a consistent conjectural variation in a three-country model entailing firms competing in two reciprocal markets in Cournot. When the restrictions are unilateral, the number of medical goods available in the exporting country tends to increase, culminating in better management of the pandemic. In contrast, bilateral restrictions typically reduce the total output of medical goods; therefore, they are inappropriate in a pandemic situation.","PeriodicalId":45678,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Integration","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42846157","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}