Review of World Economics最新文献

Over the last decade, online video consumption has become one of the primary uses of the internet, with streaming services accounting for more than 65% of global internet traffic. In this paper, we use a novel data set on Netflix, the largest streaming platform worldwide, to estimate the patterns of catalogue availability (extensive margin) and the number of clicks per title (intensive margin) across twenty countries. This data set also gives us a unique opportunity to estimate the importance of quality in viewing patterns. Our results show evidence of the gravity framework explaining both margins of Netflix watching. In addition, we find that viewers have a preference for domestic content, better-rated titles, and Netflix Original foreign productions. These insights suggest that as Netflix continues to expand its content library, it will further leverage its streaming dominance in reaching viewers and promoting specific content.

Using detailed global trade and novel Multi-Region Input–Output data, this paper examines the East African Community’s (EAC) global and regional integration through trade, global, and regional value chains (GVCs and RVCs). With surgical attention to detail, the first part of the paper dissects key patterns and trends of EAC members’ participation in global and regional trade and production networks at the aggregate, bilateral, sectoral, and bilateral-sectoral levels. The second part then provides causal reduced-form evidence for the economic benefits of EAC integration through trade, GVCs, and RVCs at the sector level. Findings imply that the region is moderately integrated into GVCs and RCVs but shows no overall trend towards greater integration. Regional integration is advancing in agriculture and food processing, and Kenya is becoming a more dominant regional supplier of manufactures. Integration through trade and GVCs positively affects economic development in the region, particularly deeper forward GVC linkages in manufacturing. Deepening regional trade and forward linkages yields additional economic benefits vis-a-vis global linkages.

This paper examines the evolution of manufacturing comparative advantage within the context of Global Value Chains (GVCs) and explores the amplifying role of logistics performance in this evolution. We employ a framework that transitions from the Product Space at the product level to the Industry Space at the industry level, utilising value-added exports instead of gross exports. Through empirical analysis, we confirm the inter-industry network effect (measured by industry density) on manufacturing comparative advantage along GVCs. Additionally, we investigate the logistics performance index (LPI) as a moderator, shedding light on its crucial role in the evolution mechanism. Furthermore, we identify heterogeneity among different economies in terms of the amplifying effect of LPI on the evolution pattern of manufacturing comparative advantage, which can be attributed to significant differences in industry structure between developed and developing economies operating within GVCs.

Using rich administrative microdata on Ugandan firms, we investigate the response of productivity to trade participation for firms in all sectors of the economy, and the moderating role of services input intensity. We find that companies that participate in trade, especially through importing, display a productivity premium. Firms that export are more productive only for a sub-sample spanning the manufacturing sector. We do not find evidence that using service inputs more intensively enhances the relationship between trade participation and firm productivity. Rather, we find some evidence that a higher share of spending on services inputs attenuates the positive relationship between trade status and productivity. This suggests that the quality of available services may not be up to the standard required to be internationally competitive.

There is extensive evidence in the literature that countries confronted with higher exposure to natural disasters are faced with higher sovereign borrowing costs, as investors request a risk premium to offset disaster risk. On the other hand, market participants may salute efforts by governments to reduce their financial exposure to natural disaster events. This paper makes several contributions to the existing literature. It is the first to investigate whether investors view disaster-prone countries more favorably when they issue sovereign catastrophe (CAT) bonds as a means to mitigate the risks associated with natural catastrophes. Through the use of a feasible generalized least squares model and data from 26 countries spanning from 2000 to 2022, I find that the issuance of sovereign CAT bonds leads to a reduction in long-term sovereign bond yields ranging from 0.79 to 1.88 percentage points on average depending on the model specification used. Furthermore, partitioning the sample into OECD and non-OECD members reveals that the magnitude of this impact is more pronounced in the former group. Additionally, issuing CAT bonds is shown to compress the spread between yields on 10-year sovereign bonds and 3-month Treasury bills by an average of 1.98 percentage points. Other important findings are that the effects of CAT bond issuance are heightened in countries with more developed financial markets and higher levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

This paper examines the impact of severe natural disasters on the US corporate credit market, highlighting the different responses to short-term versus long-term disasters. Using Jordá local projections, our analysis shows that short-term disasters, such as severe storms and tropical cyclones, increase the probability of corporate defaults without causing significant financial tightening by institutional investors. In contrast, long-term disasters, such as droughts and wildfires, lead to increased corporate default risks and financial tightening. This difference in investor reactions can be attributed to the greater uncertainty about the financial health of firms caused by long-term disasters compared to short-term disasters. The damage from long-term disasters is spread over time and can last for years, making them less adequately covered by insurance and less likely to receive timely government aid than short-term hazards. These findings underscore the need for comprehensive insurance products for long-term catastrophes and increased government support for long-term recovery efforts.

This paper examines whether there are wage spillovers from workers with experience in foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) to incumbent workers in domestic firms. Using administrative panel data from Ireland, I examine possible heterogeneity for such spillovers across the wage distribution using quantile regressions. I begin by using existing methodology and find that, once industry-year and region-year dummies are added as control variables, the average wage spillover effect on incumbents from former foreign MNE workers moving to domestic firms disappears. Quantile regression results suggest that there are positive spillovers for incumbent workers in the top 50% of the wage distribution only. This indicates that foreign MNEs increase inequality through spillovers to domestic firms via labour mobility.

Agricultural exports are especially important because of their great potential for poverty reduction among smallholder farmers. However, many African countries, such as Ghana, fail to realize their full export potential due to institutional and technical constraints. This paper examines the importance of port efficiency and service quality in complying with food trade standards in Ghana. We provide a stylized theoretical model in which exporting firms are willing to pay for improved port service quality as long as the marginal revenue derived from a reduced likelihood of (border) rejection exceeds the marginal costs for improved service quality. We test the model’s predictions using primary data from 120 agri-food exporters in Ghana. Our results show that about two-thirds of exporting firms have a positive willingness-to-pay for a reduction in the handling time at the port and the risk of spoilage due to inadequate handling. These findings emphasize the importance of trade facilitation measures in improving port efficiency and service quality to accelerate agricultural exports.

This paper investigates the nexus between deep trade agreements, institutional quality, and global value chains (GVCs) in Egypt. Indeed, the enforcement of deep trade agreements requires good institutions to boost GVCs. Applying a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator to control for heteroscedasticity and zero trade flows, we use bilateral and sectoral data on Egypt’s exported Foreign Value-Added (FVA) from the Eora dataset and merge it with the Deep Trade Agreement Dataset (World Bank). The findings of the paper support the positive relationship between the depth of trade agreements and GVCs at the aggregate level. In addition, differences in the quality of institutions reduce this positive effect. However, the sectoral analysis revealed a lot of heterogeneity across different sectors. Comparing the coefficients of trade agreements for different periods, one can conclude that GVC linkages in human-capital and technology intensive products have started to respond to deep trade agreements, pointing out the agreement depth matters for exports upgrading. The results remain robust after we control for the endogeneity between GVC and the depth of trade agreements and after we use alternative measures for institutions and for the agreement depth. From a policy perspective, this paper highlights the importance of deepening agreements and improving the quality of institutions to increase the participation of African countries, including Egypt in GVCs.

This paper examines the dynamic nature of pro-environmental preferences through an analysis of sector valuations in global equity markets from 2018 to 2023. We classify companies into three groups based on their business activities: green (e.g., renewables), neutral, and brown (e.g., fossil energy). We then run panel regressions to test whether being in the green or brown sectoral category affects stock valuations. We find that investors value sector affiliation, positively for green and negatively for brown, even after controlling for other firm-level financial and extra-financial characteristics. The effect is sizeable, as we report a 24% overvaluation of companies in green sectors and a 12% undervaluation of companies in brown sectors on average compared to the rest of the market. In addition, companies in green sectors have come under increased investor scrutiny since 2018 and appear increasingly overvalued relative to the rest of the market, suggesting that pro-environmental preferences have become more prevalent among investors.