linking agricultural policies with obesity and noncommunicable diseases a new perspective for a globalising world abstract in light of the shift in policy paradigm in agriculture from state intervention to market liberalisation and globalisation this paper develops a series of hypotheses on the relationship between agricultural policies and consumer diets the first hypothesis is that the paradigm shift has led to greater specialisation of production so changing the ability and incentive for producers to supply certain foods relative to others second the shift has affected farmgate prices both up and down so creating opportunities for the industries which purchase farm commodities the food consuming industries fcis to substitute lower priced ingredients thereby influencing the nutritional quality and content of foods available in the marketplace third it has increased the ability of the fcis to add value through product innovation and marketing creating a market characterised by highly differentiated products targeted to individualised preferences thus increasing the acceptability of a wider variety and quantity of food products the changing agricultural policy paradigm has therefore altered the environment in which consumers make their food choices in the form of food availability affordability and acceptability nevertheless the paper finds no clear pattern when it comes to health the changes have affected both unhealthy and healthy foods and ingredients the key process of importance for health then is not whether the ingredients produced by agriculture are healthy or not but how they are substituted transformed distributed and marketed through the supply chain e g vegetable oils into transfats this leads to an important implication that policies to intervene directly in agricultural production to promote healthy eating are unlikely to be effective or efficient if they do not take into account how foods are processed distributed and marketed through the supply chain in practice this means that the potential for policy interventions in agriculture to improve diets is limited but nevertheless potentially important where it exists given the upstream nature of the change incentives could be created for the fcis to substitute healthier ingredients in their products and or to sell more of them in instances where these changes can be passed all the way to the consumer greater investment could also be made in fruit and vegetable production for local markets along with testing the hypotheses established in this paper the research priority should to identify the incentives that influence the products produced by the fcis with the objective of finding those most amenable to leveraging the supply chain towards healthier eating

fiscal paradise foreign tax havens and american business the tax haven affiliates of american corporations account for more than 20 percent of u s foreign direct investment and nearly a third of the foreign profits of u s firms american companies report extraordinarily high profit rates on their tax haven investments in 1982 this behavior implies that the revenue maximizing tax rate for a typical haven is around 5 8 percent american and foreign investment in tax havens has an uncertain effect on u s tax revenue but since low tax rates encourage american companies to shift profits out of high tax foreign countries it is possible that low foreign tax rates ultimately enhance u s tax collections

some macro data on the regionalisation globalisation debate a comment on the rugman verbeke analysis this paper critiques an earlier contribution by rugman and verbeke 2004 and it does so by considering the global distribution of foreign direct investment fdi it also adds several new dimensions to the regionalisation globalisation debate noticeably by i the incorporation of inward multinational enterprise mne activity ii evaluating changes in the geography of fdi between 1990 and 2003 and iii the introduction of the concept of revealed investment comparative advantage rica of countries and regions while broadly supporting the findings of rugman and verbeke our paper shows that much of the explanation for the regional concentration of fdi and mne activity reflects that of the gross domestic product gdp and trade of the countries concerned rather than any distinctive strategy on the part of investing firms

farm policies and added sugars in us diets abstract we examine how us farm policies for sweetener crops have affected the consumption and composition of sweeteners in the us diet r d expenditures have lowered the unit cost of commodities used in sweeteners but have generated more technical progress in corn than in sugar crops increasing use of corn in food production ceteris paribus commodity programs have raised the price of sugar and decreased the price of corn thus high fructose corn syrup hfcs became an inexpensive substitute for sugar in food from 1970 on however the effect of policy on ingredient prices has become less important over time today the farm value share in sweetened food is below 5 and hfcs is a specialized input in many food items with limited substitution possibilities the current link between us sweetener consumption and farm policy is weak recent evidence from other high income countries shows little relationship between sweetener consumption and sugar policies

why and how fdi stocks are a biased measure of mne affiliate activity many international business ib studies have used foreign direct investment fdi stocks to measure the aggregate value adding activity of multinational enterprises mne affiliates in host countries we argue that fdi stocks are a biased measure of that activity because the degree to which they overestimate or underestimate affiliate activity varies systematically with host country characteristics first most fdi into countries that serve as tax havens generate no actual productive activity thus fdi stocks in such countries overestimate affiliate activity second fdi stocks do not include locally raised external funds funds widely used in countries with well developed financial markets or volatile exchange rates resulting in an underestimation of affiliate activity in such countries finally the extent to which fdi translates into affiliate activity increases with affiliate labor productivity so in countries where labor is more productive fdi stocks also result in an underestimation of affiliate activity we test these hypotheses by first regressing affiliate value added and affiliate sales on fdi stocks to calculate a country specific mismatch and then by regressing this mismatch on a host country s tax haven status level of financial market development exchange rate volatility and affiliate labor productivity all hypotheses are supported implying that fdi stocks are a biased measure of mne affiliate activity and hence that the results of fdi data based studies of such activity need to be reconsidered

farm subsidies and obesity in the united states national evidence and international comparisons abstract many commentators have claimed that farm subsidies have contributed significantly to the obesity epidemic by making fattening foods relatively cheap and abundant but u s farm policies have generally small and mixed effects on farm commodity prices which in turn have even smaller and still mixed effects on the relative prices of more and less fattening foods other factors have had much more influence on reducing the farm prices of food commodities and the consumer prices of food such that any effects of u s farm policies on u s obesity patterns must have been negligible moreover while many arguments can be made for changing u s farm subsidies even entirely eliminating the current programs could not be expected to have a significant influence on obesity rates international evidence reinforces this finding the countries that support their farmers most strongly tend to have relatively low obesity rates in these countries the main support for farmers comes through trade barriers and higher consumer prices which like u s policies for sugar dairy orange juice and beef discourage consumption and reduce obesity in contrast with agricultural subsidies agricultural r d has had a significant effect in the past on the relative price of food commodities and food and has the potential to influence obesity patterns in the future but r d policy is a very blunt instrument for pursuing public health policy objectives

how trade and investment agreements affect bilateral foreign direct investment results from a structural gravity model the paper develops a new stand alone structural gravity model for explaining bilateral fdi patterns we employ the model to analyse the impact of preferential trade agreements ptas bilateral investment treaties bits and other policies on bilateral foreign direct investment fdi we use the unctad global database on bilateral fdi stocks and flows to control for the heterogeneous nature of ptas we employ two different indicators of pta depth we find that on average signing a pta increases bilateral fdi stocks by around 30 nevertheless we also find that deeper or comprehensive ptas e g including provisions on investment public procurement and intellectual property rights provisions do not have a significantly different impact than signing regular ptas belonging to the eu single market on the other hand has a strong impact and increases bilateral fdi by around 135 and signing a bit has an effect that is comparable to signing a pta

a perspective on regional and global strategies of multinational enterprises multinational enterprises mnes are the key drivers of globalization as they foster increased economic interdependence among national markets the ultimate test to assess whether these mnes are global themselves is their actual penetration level of markets across the globe especially in the broad triad markets of nafta the european union and asia yet data on the activities of the 500 largest mnes reveal that very few are successful globally for 320 of the 380 firms for which geographic sales data are available an average of 80 3 of total sales are in their home region of the triad this means that many of the world s largest firms are not global but regionally based in terms of breadth and depth of market coverage globalization in terms of a balanced geographic distribution of sales across the triad thus reflects a special and rather unusual outcome of doing international business ib the regional concentration of sales has important implications for various strands of mainstream ib research as well as for the broader managerial debate on the design of optimal strategies and governance structures for mnes journal of international business studies 2004 35 3 18 doi 10 1057 palgrave jibs 8400073

foreign direct investment and economic growth an increasingly endogenous relationship summary this paper investigates whether foreign direct investment fdi affects economic growth based on a panel of data for 84 countries over the period 1970 99 both single equation and simultaneous equation system techniques are applied to examine this relationship a significant endogenous relationship between fdi and economic growth is identified from the mid 1980s onwards fdi not only directly promotes economic growth by itself but also indirectly does so via its interaction terms the interaction of fdi with human capital exerts a strong positive effect on economic growth in developing countries while that of fdi with the technology gap has a significant negative impact

relative food prices under structural adjustment preliminary findings from latin america abstract this article examines the effects of changes in policies concerning exchange rates and consumer subsidies on relative prices of staple foods in selected latin american countries in countries where previously high subsidies on imported foods were reduced sharply or eliminated during the 1980s prices of imported tradables have risen relative to prices of domestically produced foods elsewhere the impact of structural adjustment programmes has not been very clear and more in depth research is needed

firm specific assets and the link between exchange rates and foreign direct investment foreign direct investment fdi theory and empirical studies have generated mixed support for a link between exchange rates and fdi this paper argues that exchange rate movements may affect acquisition fdi because acquisitions involve firm specific assets which can generate returns in currencies other than that used for purchase using data on japanese acquisitions in the united states across three digit sic industries from 1975 to 1992 maximum likelihood estimates from discrete dependent variable models support the hypothesis that real dollar depreciations make japanese acquisitions more likely in u s industries particularly those which more likely have firm specific assets copyright 1997 by american economic association

foreign direct investment in the united states an analysis by country of origin given the large size and rapid growth of foreign direct investment in the united states this subject is a central concern of u s firms and u s government policymakers this study explores the factors that contribute to the explanation of fdi in the united states by country of origin of investment evidence from the past twelve years shows that the main significant positive influences are home country s exports to the united states and home country market size significant negative influences include the home country s imports from the united states the cultural and geographic distances of the home country from the united states and the exchange rate fx

entry by foreign firms in the united states under exchange rate uncertainty this paper tests the effects that real exchange rate fluctuations had on foreign direct investment into the united states during the 1980s using a sample of foreign investments in sixty one four digit sic u s wholesale industries this paper finds exchange rate volatility to be negatively correlated with the number of foreign investments that occur in these industries this negative effect is most pronounced for industries where sunk investments in physical and intangible assets are relatively high although exchange rate volatility deters investment from all countries its effect was most significant for investments by japanese companies copyright 1993 by mit press

trends in foreign direct investment flows a theoretical and empirical analysis this paper seeks to provide a rationale for changing trends in the flow and determinants of foreign direct investment fdi as a result of macro economic and firm strategy considerations we identify several factors that impact on such trends and develop propositions that could explain the phenomenon generically the study then provides preliminary empirical support for the propositions presented and outlines the path for further research needed to investigate more causal links the statistical analysis of investments by us multinational enterprises mnes reveals significant changes in the regional distribution of fdi and a change in some of its traditional determinants results show that us mnes are now making increasing investments into asia to exploit low wage levels and to secure entry into new markets

talk softly but carry a big stick transfer pricing penalties and the market valuation of japanese multinationals in the united states corporate income tax law in oecd countries requires multinational enterprises mnes to set their transfer prices according to the arm s length standard in 1990 the united states us government introduced a transfer pricing penalty for cases where mnes deviated substantially from this standard more than two dozen other governments have followed suit our paper uses event study methodology to assess the impact of the us transfer pricing penalty on the stock market valuation of japanese mnes with us subsidiaries in the 1990s we find that the penalty caused a drop in their cumulative market value of 56 1 billion representing 12 6 of their 1997 market value

research on international business problems and prospects this paper reflects on the general problems and specific opportunities faced by contemporary research on multinational enterprise the general problems include controlling properly for the firm s opportunities when testing the effectiveness of its policy choices avoiding biases that result from studying surviving business units and ignoring those that disappeared and mobilizing longitudinal data and exploiting the many census based data sets now coming available

the liberalization of retail services in india summary despite the recent controversy about opening up the distribution sector to foreign retailers there is political will that remains in favor of pushing through reforms in india in this paper we quantify the economic impact of the removal of barriers to foreign investment in multi brand retailing on different stakeholders using a newly developed general equilibrium model the model accounts explicitly for both foreign direct investment and the activities of foreign affiliates using heterogeneous production technologies we find that the unilateral reduction of barriers to fdi in distribution services in india benefits the economy as a whole consumers and foreign producers but hurts domestic distributors nevertheless when we consider the associated productivity improvements documented in the literature to downstream and upstream industries we find that domestic producers are expected to benefit from the liberalization of the distribution sector as well

the impact of institutional hazards on foreign multinational activity a contingency perspective prior studies have shown that institutional hazards in the form of formal governance deficiencies and informal cultural distance are both negatively related to the amount of foreign multinational activity in countries we argue that the strength of these negative relationships varies systematically with the type of foreign activity horizontal or vertical and the type of institutional hazard governance or cultural because institutional hazards striking vertical affiliates generally also have negative consequences for other parts of a multinational enterprise mne while those striking horizontal affiliates do not we hypothesize that institutional hazards are more negatively related to vertical foreign activity than to horizontal foreign activity since cultural hazards can generally be reduced or resolved once they materialize while governance hazards cannot we also hypothesize that the impact of governance hazards on each type of foreign activity is more negative than the impact of cultural hazards on that type of activity a panel data analysis of sales by us foreign affiliates to affiliated and local unaffiliated customers over the period 1996 2004 lends support to these hypotheses our findings thus show that the impact of institutional hazards on foreign mne activity is more complex than previously assumed

stability vs flexibility the effect of regulatory institutions on opportunity type how entrepreneurial opportunities are formed and exploited depends upon the institutional environment in which they are embedded the varying amounts of risk and uncertainty across and within heterogeneous institutional environments have important implications for the types of opportunity developed while the international business and entrepreneurship literatures consider the effect of environmental risk and uncertainty on firms risk and uncertainty are often treated as interchangeable or synonymous and rarely are both considered to be present together to address this we develop a new theoretical model based on institutional economics describing how institutional arrangements promoting stability thus supporting an entrepreneur s ability to assess risk will lead to more imitative opportunities while institutions promoting flexibility thus supporting an entrepreneur s ability to respond to uncertainty by iterating will foster more innovative opportunities we test this framework using cross national data across 40 countries from the gem survey finding that institutional arrangements that promote stability do lead to more imitation while institutions that promote flexibility foster more innovation by treating risk and uncertainty as distinct constructs our study makes theoretical contributions to research on institutional environments and opportunity types with implications for future research on subsidiary initiatives the evolution of mnes and born global firms

do multinationals operate flexibly theory and evidence do multinational enterprises operate flexibly i e do they shift production in response to currency changes three theoretical perspectives are developed flexibility optimism premised on information and sunk cost advantages takes a macro efficiency perspective and predicts sizable responses flexibility pessimism premised on inertia and internal opportunism takes an organizational perspective and predicts sticky responses flexibility realism premised on the view that to be flexible in the current period multinational enterprises need to have planned and invested accordingly in previous periods predicts positive but relatively modest responses empirical analysis spanning the period 1977 1993 finds that multinational enterprises systematically exploit currency shifts but even in the face of large exchange rate changes their operational responses are relatively modest the results appear most consistent with flexibility realism and this hypothesis is selected over the alternatives considered

integrating climate change and health into food policy an analysis of how climate change can affect food prices and population health abstract the inter related nature of food health and climate change requires a better understanding of the linkages and a greater alignment of policy across these issues to be able to adequately meet the pressing social and health challenges arising from climate change food price is one way through which climate change may affect health the aim of this study of the global and australian food systems is to provide a whole of system analysis of food price vulnerabilities highlighting the key pressure points across the food system through which climate change could potentially have the greatest impact on consumer food prices and the implications for population health we outline areas where there are particular vulnerabilities for food systems and food prices arising from climate change particularly global commodity prices agricultural productivity short term supply shocks and less direct factors such as input costs and government policies we use australia as a high income country case study to consider these issues in more detail the complex and dynamic nature of pricing mechanisms makes it difficult to predict precisely how prices will be impacted should prices rise disproportionately among healthy foodstuffs compared to less healthy foods there may be adverse health outcomes if less expensive and less healthy foods are substituted higher prices will also have equity implications with lower socio economic groups most impacted given these households currently spend proportionately more of their weekly income on food the ultimate objective of this research is to identify the pathways through the food system via which climate change may affect food prices and ultimately population health thereby providing evidence for food policy which takes into account environmental and health considerations

the mnc as an agent of change for host country institutions fdi and corruption most empirical research examines how the institutional environment of corruption shapes the behavior of multinational corporations mncs in this study we would like to highlight the other side of the picture how the presence of mncs may shape the institutional environment of corruption over time we propose three avenues through which the mncs may have an impact on its host institutions regulatory pressure effect demonstration effect and professionalization effect based on extensive data on foreign direct investment and corruption for a large sample of countries over the last 30 years the empirical results are generally consistent with our hypothesis such findings provide a glimmer of hope for the future of the host country where corruption is prevalent

how much priority is given to nutrition and health in the eu common agricultural policy agriculture in the european union eu is strongly influenced by the common agricultural policy cap there have been repeated calls for cap to address nutrition related health particularly obesity and non communicable disease ncd in the eu however aligning agricultural policy such as cap with nutrition is complex not least because the aims of agricultural policy are predominantly economic presenting a challenge for developing coherence between agricultural trade and health policy this research examined the political priority given to nutrition related health concerns within cap to date and the solutions suggested by agricultural trade and health policy makers and public health nutrition advocates via interviews of 20 high level participants from respective sectors the participants provided diverse perspectives often varying by sector and institution on the connections between agricultural policy and nutrition related health the extent to which nutrition concerns have been addressed via cap and whether cap is an appropriate and effective policy approach to improve nutrition related health in the eu in the future the key findings suggest the need for communication and agreement of clear high level nutrition guidelines clarity on the eu mandate to address nutrition related health concerns via policy and stronger engagement of civil society in the issues if cap is to address nutrition more than it is doing currently the difference in worldviews between agricultural trade representatives and those from public health also needs to be addressed

assessing food value chain pathways linkages and impacts for better nutrition of vulnerable groups abstract this article offers insights into assessing the effectiveness of post farm gate agri food value chains at improving the nutrition intake of vulnerable groups it develops a conceptual framework integrating the value chain concepts with agriculture and nutrition and identifies key outcomes and requirements for value chains to be successful at delivering substantive and sustained consumption of nutrient dense foods by poor households other frameworks linking value chains with nutrition have been published but this article provides the analytical lens to assess post farm gate value chains to achieve improvements in the intake of nutritious foods by the target populations food must be safe to eat on a sustained basis nutrient dense at the point of consumption and consumed in adequate amounts on a sustained basis this shifts the focus to the role of public actions and policy in terms of shaping the functioning of food value chains by assessing the limits of what business can and cannot contribute in a given market context policy makers and other relevant stakeholders will be more capable of creating an appropriate institutional environment that shapes how value chains operate for the benefit of vulnerable target groups designing and implementing effective policies and strategies with respect to the role and use of market based interventions

governance infrastructure and us foreign direct investment this paper examines the statistical importance of governance infrastructure as a determinant of us foreign direct investment fdi in broad terms governance infrastructure represents attributes of legislation regulation and legal systems that condition freedom of transacting security of property rights and transparency of government and legal processes our econometric analysis uses a two stage estimation procedure in the first stage the probability that a country is an fdi recipient is estimated the results indicate that countries that fail to achieve a minimum threshold of effective governance are unlikely to receive any us fdi countries that receive no us fdi are typically countries that do not promote free and transparent markets that have ineffective governments and that often have legal systems that are not rooted in english common law in the second stage the analysis is restricted to those countries that did receive fdi flows the estimated equations focus on the determinants of the amount of fdi received given that a country is a recipient of us fdi governance infrastructure including the nature of the legal system is an important determinant of the amount received

foreign firms and chinese employment this paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment fdi on employment in the chinese manufacturing sector as one of the world s largest recipients of fdi china has arguably benefited from foreign multinational enterprises in various respects however one of the main challenges for china and other developing countries is job creation and the effect of fdi on employment is uncertain the effect depends on the amount of jobs created within foreign firms as well as the effect of fdi on employment in domestic firms we analyse fdi and employment in china using a large sample of manufacturing firms for the period 1998 2004 our results show that fdi has positive effects on employment growth the relatively high employment growth in foreign firms is associated with their firm characteristics and their high survival rate employment growth is also relatively high in private domestic chinese firms there also seems to be a positive indirect effect of fdi on employment in private domestically owned firms presumably caused by spillovers

policy and non policy determinants of u s equity foreign direct investment this study examined the effects of policy and non policy variables on the location of new u s direct investment abroad as distinct from reinvested earnings of existing affiliates using 1977 and 1982 benchmark data the data revealed statistically significant effects for investment incentives positive performance requirements negative and host country effective tax rates negative with interesting differences between the two time periods and between developed versus developing countries significance was also found for non policy variables such as political stability cultural distance gdp per capita and infrastructure

agricultural taxation in developing countries a survey of issues and policy this study surveys the experience of agricultural taxation in developing countries in the context of the ongoing policy debate about the tax structure and administration affecting agricultural producers using the examples of a number of countries it analyzes the conceptual and practical problems associated with different tax regimes governments in most countries have reduced indirect export taxes on agricultural producers however the revenue from direct taxes on farmers has not increased a major problem in most countries has been the measurement of actual agricultural income different measures for presumed income have been used with varying success they seem to have the most potential for increased revenue in many countries but their effective implementation is constrained by the political and administrative considerations

food product composition consumer health and public policy introduction and overview of special section as efforts to improve diets in high income countries intensify attention has turned to how policies may influence diet composition the case studies in this special issue contribute to our understanding of how two main types of policies have influenced food product composition and dietary outcomes 1 policies affecting food manufacturers input costs and 2 information policy affecting competition research on the first type of policy is relatively new but suggests that us commodity policies would not be good policy instruments to influence diets except through the long run impacts of agricultural research research on the impacts of information policy continues to demonstrate that it can spur food industry competition to introduce healthier products but may not result in healthier diets international comparisons show where the us experience may have relevance for other high income countries

multinational enterprises and wage costs vertical fdi revisited abstract this study explores how wage costs for high skilled and less skilled labor in host countries affect the level of affiliate activities conducted by foreign mnes we find support for vertical fdi in the sense that more fdi is conducted in countries where less skilled labor is relatively cheap in addition we find that skilled wage cost premia also affect fdi activities previously associated with horizontal fdi i e local affiliate sales consequently the potential effects of relative wage costs on mne activities are large rough calculations suggest that more than 20 percent of us affiliate sales in 1998 can be attributed to skilled wage cost premia

cheap food policy fact or rhetoric abstract the term cheap food policy has frequently been used as a descriptor for us commodity programs by those who contend payments to farmers ultimately result in lower food costs for consumers more recently farm policy has been criticized for contributing to the obesity problem in the us by making large quantities of fattening foods widely available and relatively inexpensive this paper econometrically evaluates the impact of direct government payments on the affordability of food in the us in the aggregate and across specific food groups the models find direct payments do not significantly affect the affordability of food either in the aggregate or across specific food groups