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GW-CIBER Funded Research: 2007-2008
Other Funding Years:
To view Funded Research for 2008-2009: click here
To view Funded Research for 2006-2007: click here
The following research was supported by GW-CIBER during the 2007-2008 grant year:
 Role of Institutions and the Business Environment in Determining Industry Life Cycles
PI: Meghana Ayyagari, Assistant Professor, Department of International Business
Brief Description:
Using new panel data on 30 industries across 100 countries, this study examines the impact of institutions on industry life cycles. The PI discusses factors such as industry and country characteristics, as well as the interaction between the two, to analyze the changes in number of producers within an industry and thus predict its life-cycle stage. Additionally, the impact of stock market liberalizations on industry life cycles is analyzed, and a new algorithm is also used in order to identify and map out structural breaks in both industry life cycles and in growth rates of countries. The research consists of three components – research, dissemination, and teaching.
Economic Determinants of the Preferential Trade Agreement Network
PI: Maggie Xiaoyang Chen, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics
Brief Description:
Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) have become an increasingly favored approach for countries who are seeking free trade. However, although economists have extensively studied the effect of these agreements, little attention has been devoted to analyzing their determinants. This project aims to identify the economic and strategic factors that play a significant role in countries’ decision to form a PTA and their choice of preferential trading partners. Research for the project includes inquiry into current PTAs that have been adopted by nearly all WTO member nations.
Working Papers: Maggie Xiaoyang Chen. Third-Country Effects in the Formation of Free Trade Agreements
The proliferation of regional economic integration has resulted in a complex
and continually expanding network of free trade agreements (FTAs). In ex-
plaining the formation of these agreements, the literature has generally focused
on the e¤ect of country-pair characteristics and ignored the role of existing FTA
network. In this paper we investigate, both theoretically and empirically, how
third countries a¤ect nations' incentives to form new FTAs in various types of
network. We a…nd the expect varies signi…cantly with the network architecture.
Compared to an empty network where there is no FTA between countries, hav-
ing an exclusive FTA with a third country raises a country's incentives to form
new FTAs but weakens the incentives of others to reciprocate. A new FTA
will therefore only be jointly supported when the country with exclusive FTA
partners has a su¢ ciently large market size and high marginal cost of produc-
tion. In a hub-and-spoke network, however, where two countries are mutually
linked to a third country, the existence of the mutual FTA partner raises both
nations' incentives to form an agreement leading to an unambiguous increase
in the probability of jointly supported FTAs.
Teaching Materials:
Economic Determinants of the Preferential Trade Agreement Network
Trade Openness, Property Rights and Private Investment
PI: Shahe Emran, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics
Brief Description:
This project seeks to understand the link between trade-growth and institutions-growth by looking at the effects of trade openness and quality of property rights institutions on private investment across a sample of developed and developing countries. According to the PI, this is an important analysis since capital accumulation is found to be the most robust determinant of growth, and trade liberalization that is conditioned by higher quality institutions (especially such as those that protect property rights) encourages private investment and entrepreneurship. The project involves econometric analysis using cross panel data for the period 1960-2003 to investigate the above conjectures and interactions.
Domestic Institutions and State-Private Actor Relations in Electronic Information Governance
PI: Henry Farrell, Assistant Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs
Brief Description:
This project seeks to understand how states’ domestic institutions shape new forms of global governance. The specific objectives of the study are: (i) to map the relationship between domestic institutions, private actors, and global governance arrangements in key fields of e-commerce and information policy; and (ii) using cases from the field of e-commerce, to examine the circumstances under which states can or cannot use these domestic institutions to press private actors into service as proxy regulators, and thus to shape effective international regulatory outcomes.
Diaspora Homeland Investment
PI: Tjai Nielsen, Assistant Professor, School of Business, Department of Management
Liesl Riddle, Associate Professor, School of Business, Department of International Business
Brief Description:
This project seeks to contribute to the literature on the role of diasporas in homeland foreign direct investment by: (i) empirically testing a multi-level model of diaspora homeland investment; (ii) exploring the process of interested diaspora homeland investors becoming actual investors; (iii) investigating how diaspora business incubators might play a vital role in encouraging diaspora homeland investment; and (iv) bringing together leading scholars to discuss the relationship between participation in transnational cultures and managerial attitudes, values, and performance.
Transnational Washington: Leveraging Diasporic Entrepreneurship in a Global City
PI: Marie Price, Associate Professor, Columbian College, Department of Geography
Brief Description:
This study investigates the Washington metropolitan area’s diasporic communities as a base of the economic pyramid approach to understand how diasporic entrepreneurs interact with each other, as well as with other immigrant and native-born groups, in making the area more transnational and competitive. The research compares a range of diasporic groups and asks: (i) where and how they build local and global entrepreneurship; (ii) what sectors of the economy they are most active in; (iii) what the role of ethnic and social capital in creating entrepreneurship is; and (iv) how this capital is most effectively integrated with the economies of global cities. By shifting analysis from the scale of the nation-state to that of the metropolitan area, this research highlights the often invisible local contexts, institutions, and networks facilitating (or impeding) entrepreneurship among a range of diasporic groups.
Business Responses to the Protective Public Policy Process
PI: Jorge Rivera, Associate Professor, School of Business, Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy
Brief Description:
Building on a previously-funded GW-CIBER project, this study explores the business responses to the enactment and implementation of public policies requiring enhanced social labor standards, worker health and safety, consumer protection, and environmental protection. The current study aims at developing a more robust theoretical model of the protective policy process-business response relationship.
The Role of Targeted Promotion of FDI in Industrialization Strategy: An Analysis of Institutions Promoting or Curtailing FDI into Developing Countries in Light of Recent Research
PI: Stephen Smith, Professor, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Economics
Brief Description:
This project examines incentives designed to promote (or sometimes channel or curtail) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into developing countries by multilateral, bilateral, and domestic developing country agencies. The project focuses on theory and (conjecture) practice of targeted promotion of particular types of FDI as part of an industrialization strategy (and more broadly of national economic development policies). In particular, the study will examine the relationship between strategic export promotion and strategic FDI promotion. Related economic development policy issues to be considered in the context of FDI promotion are human capital policy and infrastructure planning.
Resource Nationalism Meets the Market: Competition between Private and State-Owned Enterprise in Oil
PI: Robert Weiner, Professor, School of Business, Department of International Business
Brief Description:
This project examines the impact of resource nationalism in oil industry (where state-owned enterprises remain dominant) on the competitiveness of multinational enterprises (MNEs). More specifically, it investigates if the state role in the industry provides an unfair competitive advantage to national oil companies (NOCs) over MNEs. The assessment of NOC-MNE competition involves the identification of the market with (i) relevance to resource nationalism; (ii) head-to-head competition between the two groups; (iii) many transactions (to permit statistical analysis); and (iv) detailed information about each transaction and its counterparties, including their ownership. |
