Number of results to display per page
Search Results
10602. Thai-U.S. Bilateral Relations: Benefits and Challenges
- Author:
- Arunrat Chumroentaweesup
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Arunrat Chumroentaweesup, Consulting Manager at Tractus Asia, explains that “American firms enjoy two significant benefits. First, US entities are permitted to maintain a majority shareholding or to wholly own a company, branch office or representative office located in Thailand. Second, US companies are permitted to engage in business on almost the same footing as Thai firms and are exempted from most of the foreign investment restrictions imposed by the Foreign Business Act.”
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, Bilateral Relations, and Business
- Political Geography:
- North America, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and United States of America
10603. U.S.-Thai Economic Prospects–Turning A New Page
- Author:
- Judy A. Benn
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Judy A. Benn, Former Executive Director American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, explains that “for Thailand to take full advantage of post-pandemic opportunities and reignite its economy to make-up for the last 18 months, the nation will need to capitalize on its centralized geographic location and position as one of Southeast Asia’s strongest manufacturing bases.”
- Topic:
- International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, Bilateral Relations, Regulation, and Economy
- Political Geography:
- North America, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and United States of America
10604. Old Ally, New Direction: Cobra Gold and Beyond
- Author:
- Kitti Prasirtsuk
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Kitti Prasirtsuk, Ph.D., a Professor of International Relations at Thammasat University, explains that despite strained U.S.-Thai relations over the past decade, the Cobra Gold (CG) military exercise “equates to a win for both sides” and “is the cornerstone of the US-Thailand alliance, representing a major bond between the two nations in their post-Vietnam War relations.” As President Biden is strengthening alliance cooperation, the administration will likely revisit the U.S.-Thailand alliance. However, it is important to consider how the context for the alliance has changed.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Bilateral Relations, Military Affairs, and Alliance
- Political Geography:
- North America, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and United States of America
10605. Learning from Tumultuous Times: An Analysis of Vulnerable Sectors in International Trade in the Context of the Corona Health Crisis
- Author:
- Oliver Reiter and Robert Stehrer
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic marks an unprecedented shock to global growth and trade and brought international dependencies into the spotlight. This triggered discussions on resilience and robustness of global value chains. In this paper we assess which products can be considered as vulnerable to trade shocks at the global level – referred to as ‘risky’ products – by constructing a ‘product riskiness indicator’ for 4700 globally traded products based on components such as market concentration, clustering tendencies, network centrality of players, or international substitutability. In a second step the bilateral imports of risky products are matched to multi-country input-output tables enabling the analysis of the importance of internationally sourced risky products by country and using industries. Higher-tech industries are more prone to supply-chain vulnerability given the large share of risky products in high-tech product categories. Third, we apply a ‘partial global extraction method’ to assess the GDP impact of reshoring. Assuming that imports of risky products are re-shored from non-EU27 to EU27 countries suggests an increase in the EU27 GDP of up to 0.5%. The non-EU27 countries lose from such re-shoring activities accordingly. This suggests that it is also in the interest of the supplier countries and industries to assure robust or at least resilient supply chains. Finally, selected policy aspects in the context of the envisaged EU Open Strategic Autonomy are debated.
- Topic:
- International Trade and Finance, European Union, Economic Growth, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Europe
10606. To Grow or Not to Grow: Belarus and Lithuania
- Author:
- Thorvaldur Gylfason and Eduard Hochreiter
- Publication Date:
- 09-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
- Abstract:
- We compare the economic growth performance of Belarus and Lithuania since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Our interest in this country pair is driven by the two countries´ interwoven histories as well as by the fact that Belarus remains autocratic and strongly tied to Russia, while Lithuania has reinvented itself as a democratic market economy fully integrated into the EU. Our aim is to better understand the extent to which the growth differential between the two countries can be traced to increased efficiency, i.e., total factor productivity, in the use of capital and other resources via, inter alia, better institutions (intensive growth) as opposed to sheer accumulation of capital (extensive growth), the hallmark of Soviet economic growth. To this end, we compare the development of some key determinants of growth in the two countries since the 1990s. A simple growth accounting model suggests that advances in education at all levels, good governance, and institutional reforms have played a more significant role in raising economic output and efficiency in Lithuania than in Belarus, which remains marred by problems related to weak governance as well as autocratic rule. Further, as in Estonia and Latvia, the EU perspective has made a significant contribution to growth in Lithuania. The Russian connection has done less for Belarus. Finally, we touch upon the impact of the corona virus on the economies of the two countries.
- Topic:
- European Union, Economy, Economic Growth, Post-Soviet Space, and Autocracy
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Lithuania, and Belarus
10607. Production and Trade of ICT from an EU Perspective
- Author:
- Amat Adarov, Dimitrios Exadaktylos, Mahdi Ghodsi, Robert Stehrer, and Roman Stöllinger
- Publication Date:
- 10-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
- Abstract:
- The competitiveness of industries and countries is shaped more and more by technological advancement in the production and use of information and communications technology (ICT). This report considers the supply side of ICT goods and services. It studies the drivers of ICT production location and trade across countries with a focus on the relative position of the EU. The analyses clearly indicate that the EU must step up its efforts to accelerate the shift towards digital production and strengthening the ICT sector that produces the required technologies and services. In addition, from a trade policy perspective, a harmonised set of standards and regulatory framework is to be aimed at to minimise mismatches in technical specifications and requirements. This will lead to the diffusion of positive externalities and should allow for a smooth operation of the global value chains in these products.
- Topic:
- Communications, European Union, Trade, Information Technology, Digitalization, and Production
- Political Geography:
- Europe
10608. EU Employment Dynamics: The Pandemic Years and Beyond
- Author:
- Stefan Jestl and Robert Stehrer
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
- Abstract:
- The economic shock induced by the pandemic has plunged European economies into a recession. Lockdowns and social distancing measures have affected economic life in a substantial way, with industries and population groups facing varying difficulties. This study explores potential future employment dynamics across European industries and employment groups for the period up to 2026 by drawing on past sectoral trends and the latest macroeconomic forecast results from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission. A scenario analysis is also carried out, taking into account the great uncertainty and risks that are related to the baseline forecasts.
- Topic:
- Labor Issues, European Union, Employment, COVID-19, and Economic Recovery
- Political Geography:
- Europe
10609. Economic Sentiment Indicators and Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Evidence from European Union Countries
- Author:
- Andrzej Cieślik and Mahdi Ghodsi
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
- Abstract:
- This paper studies the role of business sentiment in the decisions of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to undertake foreign direct investment (FDI) across European Union (EU) member states. Based on the knowledge-capital model, the study employs the Pseudo Poisson Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator and panel data to examine empirically the determinants of FDI across EU member states during the period 2003-2017. The empirical evidence suggests that better economic sentiment in an EU Member State induces MNEs to undertake FDI in that country, while worse economic sentiment in an EU member state motivates an MNE in that country to invest abroad.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, Foreign Direct Investment, European Union, Business, and Multinational Corporations
- Political Geography:
- Europe
10610. Interactions Between Global Value Chains and Foreign Direct Investment: A Network Approach
- Author:
- Amat Adarov
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
- Abstract:
- The world economy is increasingly shaped by cross-border production and investment activity. The paper uses complex network analysis along with panel data econometric techniques to study the structure and interactions between the networks of global value chains (GVC) and foreign direct investment (FDI). The analysis reveals that both FDI and GVC networks have a distinct core-periphery structure dominated by a relatively small number of countries with the USA constituting the global hub interlinked with regional European and Asian clusters, which, in turn, are centered around regional hub countries like China and Germany. Simultaneous equation model regressions using three-stage least squares suggest that FDI centrality facilitates GVC centrality of countries. However, FDI centrality is driven to a large extent by the FDI statutory restrictions and tax offshore regulations, rather than GVC connectivity.
- Topic:
- International Trade and Finance, Foreign Direct Investment, Borders, Networks, Macroeconomics, and Global Value Chains
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus