The COVID-19 crisis has hit everywhere at once. Lower-income countries should not expect large inflows of aid; they will be left largely to their own resources. Those resources are limited, so lower-income countries need to find leverage wherever they can.
Although global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) have not recovered since the 2008 financial crisis, flows to developing countries have continued to register a very modest growth. But what is the impact of these FDI inflows on the recipient developing economies?
This working paper, by Alfaro-Ureña, Manelici and Vasquez (2019), investigates the effects of becoming a supplier to multinational corporations (MNCs) using administrative data tracking all firm-to-firm transactions in Costa Rica.
Many reports have described Chinese engagement in Africa as “neo-imperialism” and “authoritarian capitalism”, exploiting resources and local labour while undermining democracy.
This project provides new evidence on the effects of trade liberalization on buyer-seller relations at both the extensive and intensive margin using a novel dataset on Pakistani firms.
Industrial policy is back on the African policy agenda, with a number of countries following new strategies for rapid industrialization. None have done so more eagerly than Ethiopia.
By exploring the patterns and trends of Kenya’s exports overtime, this project shows the important role of multi-product and multi-destination exporters in the expansion of exports for low income countries.
