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The research delves into the determinants of inward FDI to Colombia in the context of economic integration promoted by recent governments. Colombia's trade liberalisation, in addition to seeking to boost its trade flow, has focused on making the country more attractive to foreign direct investment (FDI), in a framework of fiscal discipline and a stable economic environment for economic growth, albeit characterised by complex institutional conditions. Government reforms have revitalized FDI inflows to Colombia, with the oil and mining sectors receiving the largest influx of new capital investments. Accordingly, this paper contributes to the literature with an analysis of the characteristics of FDI inflows to Colombia between 2007 and 2020 using an augmented gravity model approach. We find that stable government policies and the rule of law are key components in increasing FDI in Colombia and, more importantly, a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) significantly drives FDI into the country.

Community currency systems are now turning to digital methods to increase the social outreach of member households in remote areas, mitigate detrimental effects in times of crises, and promote community social cohesion. The resilience of digital community currency systems depends on a set of decisive factors including stability, sustainability, and technical functionality. OurVillage in Cameroon is a socio-economic project that aims to increase and promote economic activity through the introduction of a blockchain-based local community currency system. This paper explores the potential of electronic complimentary payment systems by examining the underlying motivations for consumer use based on their socio-economics characteristics. We develop a demand estimate for the community currency, concentrating on the underlying environmental conditions of the target population. A demand study is helpful in order to observe the optimal conditions for goods' consumption, in this case the community currency system. The resulting estimation provides fundamental insights into the quality of the project and the determinants for successful implementation. Our findings have important policy implications, particularly for communities intending to introduce their own digital community currency systems.

This paper discusses first the role of mobile money accounts to enhance financial inclusion towards vulnerable groups in developing countries in the light of recent empirical evidence. Second, we explore the role of regulation to address risks to consumers and the financial system arising from the use of mobile money accounts, a question which has not been thoroughly addressed in the literature. Although financial inclusion via mobile money accounts is increasing, the outreach to particular disadvantaged and poor groups is still limited. However, remittances and G2P payments might develop into game changers for financial inclusion of poor and vulnerable households. Many countries from Sub-Saharan Africa are outperformers in terms of use of mobile money accounts in comparison to developing countries in other regions. Strikingly, the empirical evidence suggests that the regulatory landscape was of strategic importance to unleash the developmental potential of mobile money networks and the crowding-in of formerly unbanked households. Regulation on consumer protection particularly is of strategic relevance for the lasting acceptance and smooth operation of mobile money services and sharing the benefits with disadvantaged and poor households. A lack of effective and convincing consumer safeguards in place could diminish the trust in mobile money services and subsequently their acceptance and use. As mobile money services involve similar risks as traditional banking services, similar rules should apply. In addition, there are risks arising from the particular technology for mobile money account holders and institutions of the financial sector, including DFS providers. To these risks belong hysteresis effects to the disadvantage of poor households due to the use of alternative data and biased algorithms as well as displacement effects in local traditional and digital financial services due to BigTech.

This paper explores the impact of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement on food security by using a gravity model to examine the regional changes in trade in agricultural products. This is followed by a discussion of how this might affect the four dimensions of food security, availability, access, stability and utility. While coordination between SAFTA members has provided some positive food security attainment, institutional uncertainty and conflicts have prevented the full potential benefits from being reached.

This paper first explores the role of digital financial services, e.g. mobile money systems and cryptocurrency-based systems, and their impact on the choice of migrants to send remittances. Secondly we discuss whether alternative remittances sending channels increase access to financial services for remittance-sending and remittance-receiving households. Africa, and in particularly Kenya, are pioneers in alternative money transfer systems and of tailor-made regulatory initiatives to address digital financial services. Thus, our paper focuses on the technologies of the Kenyan mobile money system, M-Pesa, and the major cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and based on that takes into account selected experiences of other Sub-Saharan African countries. We find that in comparison to traditional remittances sending channels, mobile money transfer channels are often superior in terms of service-related features as costs of transfers for sending and receiving households, speed of delivery, availability and access to the remittances by receiving households or security of transactions. More importantly, mobile cash systems can fulfil the SDG goal of the 3 per cent fee more than 10 years earlier than envisaged in 2030. On the other side, the choice to use a specific transfer channel might be restricted by the lack of physical and technological availability of providers and means, and technological illiteracy. In addition, sending and receiving households might be cautious to use mobile cash systems due to a lack of trust in the system, the providers or regulatory authorities. Accordingly, financial inclusion beyond e-payments and outreach to the poor is not an automatism. In contrast, the use of Bitcoin-based transfer systems is more ambivalent; these systems are technically more challenging both in terms of infrastructure and literacy and more vulnerable to fraud. Some findings also indicate that Bitcoin is an incomplete and inferior substitute to which migrants refer to if their first option is not available or suffers from severe deficiencies. Future research also needs to differentiate sending and receiving households stronger according to personal features in order to deepen our understanding about the choices of and restrictions of vulnerable groups who would benefit the most from using mobile cash systems.

This short paper introduces a new database combining data on international trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and regional trade agreements. The bilateral data covers 1980-2010 and includes gravity model variables and is appropriate for empirical analysis in a wide variety of contexts.

This paper studies the actions of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) during the financial crisis from 2007-2012 rating the performance of the Federal Reserve during the crisis. The chosen scoring model approach shows that the average performance of five specific measures taken by the FRB only ranks between fair and good. Comparing Stiglitz (2010) viewpoints with those of the FRB, this paper analyses several policies and events and argues that the resulting decisions were well intentioned but that the outcome was different from expectations because of missing regulations and restrictions. Furthermore, the structure of the FRB is examined and criticized.

Studies routinely document that the nature of immigrant employment is largely specific: it often concentrates in non-traded goods sectors and many immigrants often have low inter-sectoral mobility. We consider these observed characteristics of immigrant employment for the question of how immigration affects a nation's pattern of production and trade. We model an economy producing three goods; one is non-traded. Domestic labor and capital are domestically mobile but internationally immobile. Any new wave of immigration is assumed to comprise some workers who will become specific to the nontraded goods sector. The model indicates that the output and trade effects of immigration depend importantly on the sectoral pattern of employment of existing and new immigrants. Empirical investigation in a panel dataset of OECD countries supports the models prediction that immigration raises the output of non-traded goods. Consistent with the model, we also find that immigration and trade are complements. The implications of the model and empirical findings for immigration policy are then discussed. Diverse Studien belegen, dass die Beschäftigung von Immigranten sehr spezifisch ist: Sie beschränkt sich häufig auf Anstellungen in der Produktion nicht gehandelter Waren. Der Großteil der Immigranten zeigt dabei nur eine geringe Mobilität zwischen den Sektoren. Unter Berücksichtigung dieser beobachteten Besonderheiten bei der Beschäftigung von Immigranten untersuchen wir die Auswirkungen von Immigration auf die Handels- und Produktionsstrukturen eines Staates. Unser Modell umfasst eine Volkswirtschaft, die drei Güter produziert; eines davon wird nicht gehandelt. Heimische Arbeitskräfte sind innerstaatlich mobil, aber immobil auf internationaler Ebene. Es wird angenommen, dass jede neue Immigrationswelle Arbeiter mit sich bringt, welche in Wirtschaftszweigen nicht gehandelter Güter beschäftigt werden. Das Modell zeigt, dass die durch Immigration verursachten Auswirkungen auf Produktion und Handel stark von branchenspezifischen Beschäftigungsmustern vorhandener und neuer Immigranten abhängig sind. Die empirische Untersuchung des prognostizierten Zusammenhangs von Immigration und Handelsströmen basiert auf einem Datensatz von OECD Ländern und bekräftigt die Vorhersage, dass Handel und Immigration Komplemente sind. Abschließend wird die Bedeutung des Modells und der empirischen Ergebnisse für die Gestaltung von Immigrationspolitik diskutiert.

This paper examines whether economic integration favors countries' convergence into a common cone of diversification. We analyze the manufacturing specialization patterns for a sample of 19 current and potential European Union countries over the period 1963-1998, and assess the impact of integration on their evolution. We perform year-by-year threshold estimations of Rybczynski relationships to identify the diversification cones and then estimate discrete choice models to investigate whether membership in the European Union is associated with a higher probability of being in a same cone. Economic integration in Europe is found to have promoted convergence from lower to higher diversification cones.

124 Regional Trade Agreements were notified to the GATT during the period 1948-1994. Since 1995, over 130 agreements have been notified to the WTO. Using empirical evidence, this paper proposes a way of measuring levels of regional integration and examines several potential explanations for the existence of different levels of regional economic integration. Using a database of regional integration where levels of integration are ranked across countries, a probit analysis in a discrete choice framework is applied. Common traits influencing regional integration decision-making were examined to determine those most influential. It is concluded that democracy and economic freedom, are significant contributors to the chosen level of regional integration. The role of political and economic uncertainty is examined and it is found that trade uncertainty is also a significant contributing factor.