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The paper aims to investigate the effects of several determinants of firm import intensity in US foreign trade zones (FTZs). Even though the major objective for the establishment of US FTZs is to encourage exports by facilitating the duty-free entry of imports, US firms have used it as a gateway to import goods into the US market. Currently, over 90 per cent of US FTZ output is consumed in the USA. The author examines the major determinants for such import intensity in US FTZs.

The study is based on a survey that was conducted to explore the factors that influence import intensity of firms operating in US FTZs.

The findings reveal that besides export orientation of firms, the most promising predictors of import intensity of firms operating in USA FTZs are the policy environment in the form of inverted tariff benefits and firm business strategy.

The findings are important for managers presently operating in US FTZs or intend to do so in future.

Even though there are numerous studies on free trade zones and exports, this is the first study to examine the import intensity of US FTZs and their determinants.

Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every person in a free society to control his/her own labor and property without government intervention beyond what is necessary to protect and maintain freedom itself. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between economic freedom, inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade flows.

The authors test a moderated mediation model of the effects of economic freedom on trade flows with the objective of exploring the mediation effects of FDI and the moderating effects of government stability.

Based on a sample of 155 countries from different geographical areas, the study shows that economic freedom is associated with inward FDI, which, in turn, predicted trade flows. Furthermore, government stability moderated the relationship between economic freedom and FDI.

This study goes beyond the traditional focus on the macro determinants of trade flows and explores the link between economic freedom and trade flows, and the roles of inward FDI and political stability in the context of this relationship. It also provides a novel methodological approach to examine this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to examine the relationship between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions and to test the moderating roles of entrepreneurial education and physical proximity to the office of the US Small Business Administration.

The study adopts a quantitative methodological approach. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 1,245 respondents who intend to start a business in the state of Florida. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to identify the relationship between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions.

The hypotheses are supported by the results. The study found a positive and significant relation between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions. It also establishes the moderating effects of entrepreneurial education and proximity to office of the US Small Business Administration on the relationship between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions, i.e. our results show not only that higher levels of social support are associated with higher entrepreneurial intentions but that this association becomes stronger with entrepreneurial education and proximity to the office of the US Small Business Administration.

This is the first empirical study that highlights the role of entrepreneurial education and physical proximity to the US Small Business Administration in moderating the relations between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions. The study contributes to the understanding of factors that influence social entrepreneurial intentions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of state fragility on select indicators of human development and identify aspects of state fragility that have the greatest impact on poverty reduction and sustainable development. The paper also explores the impact of social cohesion on human development as well as the mediating role of state legitimacy in mediating the relationship between social cohesion and human development.

The study is based on data from 180 countries and uses ordinary least squares regression and mediation analysis to explore the effects of social cohesion on human development.

The findings show a significant relationship between state fragility and human development. It suggests that policies and efforts aimed at enhancing social cohesion would have the most significant impact on human development. The findings also show that social cohesion not only has a direct effect on human development but it also has an indirect effect on human development through state legitimacy (mediator).

Even though state fragility has been largely associated with low income countries, different facets of fragility are manifested in various countries regardless of levels of economic development.

The study is timely in view of the evidence of increasing state fragility in many countries. Furthermore, this is the first scholarly work linking lack of social cohesion, state fragility and human development.

This study tests for the relation between corporate transparency and foreign direct investment (FDI) using a sample of 118 countries. The study also develops a set of indicators to measure corporate transparency. The findings indicate support for the hypotheses that a) greater levels of corporate transparency are associated with higher levels of inward FDI flows, and b) corporate transparency has a greater impact on inward FDI in developing countries than developed countries.

Exports help developing countries to expand their production, promote industrialization and accelerate their economic growth. They played an important part in the economic transformation of Southeast Asian countries. The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) is one of the ways in which developing countries can increase their exports to the markets of developed nations. The GSP, a unilateral, non‐reciprocal program agreed under the United Nations provides preferential duty entry to numerous products imported into developed countries by eligible developing countries. The objective of this study is to examine the role of GSP in stimulating exports of developing countries. It also provides a comparative appraisal of the GSP schemes of the United States and Japan. The paper also makes certain recommendations to make GSP schemes more efficient and applicable to particular situations.

In 2008, a bill was introduced in the 110th Congress (HR6415) to address the “unintended consequences” of US free trade agreements (US FTA) on manufacturers operating in US foreign trade zones (FTZs). Presently, US manufacturers operating in FTZs that use imported components pay a tariff (on finished goods entering the US market), which is not paid by their competitors in countries that have free trade agreements (FTAs) with the USA. The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of a legislative proposal to address this issue (the bill is still under consideration and not yet been passed by Congress) for domestic firms and the overall economy.

The paper is largely based on the analysis of the legislative proposal (HR6415), and US trade data obtained from the United Nations.

The paper shows that the trade agreement parity (TAP) proposal may have the undesirable effect of encouraging local firms (in US FTZs) to use foreign components and increasing the trade deficit. It also shows that the proposal, by facilitating the entry of more foreign imports undermines the original purpose for which FTZs were designed.

There are no papers examining the implications of this Congressional bill on domestic competition and the overall US economy. This paper and its recommendations will help US policymakers to re‐evaluate the existing proposal and also revisit the role of FTZs in the US economy.

The purpose of this study is to assess the implications of US trade preferences under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and its impact on beneficiary country exports.

The approach is to use Wilcoxon signed rank test and time series regression analysis using ARIMA.

The results largely indicate that AGOA has a positive but not significant effect on beneficiary exports to the USA for all country groups. Its effect is also quite marginal on sectoral exports except for textiles and apparel. Similarly, AGOA's effect is positive but not significant for all major exporters except Lesotho.

A proper understanding of this relationship will help donors and recipients devise appropriate policies to help encourage the growth and diversification of exports that is so vital for developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competitiveness of selected services: business, financial, transport and travel services in developing countries in relation to that of the rest of the world based on three indices of revealed comparative advantage.

The study uses revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indices to measure developing countries' comparative advantages in selected services for the period 1998‐2003.

Strong comparative advantages exist for many developing countries in transport, and travel services. There is substantial room for improvement in financial and business services. Trade liberalization and lack of adequate preparation appears to have resulted in a weakening of their comparative advantages over the years. However, their revealed comparative advantages remain, by and large, stable and do not show a fundamental shift in the structure of their comparative advantages.

There are no studies examining developing countries' comparative advantages in services. The findings and policy recommendations can be used by developing countries to improve the competitiveness of their service sectors.

This paper aims to examine the role of public and private transparency in attracting inward foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developing countries.

The study tests the hypothesis that developing countries with low levels of public and private sector transparency attract lower levels of FDI inflows. It also tests the hypotheses that private sector transparency in developing countries has a greater impact on inward FDI than public sector transparency. A cross‐sectional model was tested for 58 developing countries (using regression analysis) over the 2003‐2006 period.

The empirical analysis shows that: private sector transparency has a significant and positive effect on inward FDI flows to developing countries; public sector transparency has a positive and significant effect on FDI inflows; and private sector transparency has a greater influence on FDI inflows to developing countries than public sector transparency.

This is the first study to examine the impact of different forms of transparency on FDI. Existing studies tend to examine the subject in a separate fashion without considering their joint effect on foreign investment inflows.